Savannah Blaze Lee

Day 29 of Pray-In

2012-02-03T09:42:00.000-08:00

As we near the end of our 30 Day Pray-In, there are numerous issues I've neglected. They become overshadowed by the ever more outrageous occurring in our Country. When I ponder the new sound byte that we have been transmuted from Have-Nots into Soon-to-Haves, the only static truth to which we can cling is that politicians are still 100% out of touch with those they represent. And I can only presume that this epithet will be as successful as a chicken in every pot, the Great American Dream, universal health care, freedom of speech, and the Rapture.

Oddly, this ties into the latest book I hope to have on Kindle today, for print maybe tomorrow, Twisted Tales. It concerns fairy tales retold, because they contain some of the worst damage we do our children, and I include as impetus the Biblical story of Lazarus and Dives (to lengthy to enter here). The solution to why the concept of Heaven would never work.

This happens to be the last day of my 64th year on Earth, and the only thing of which I'm certain is that I have yet to behold an abatement in the hubris of snake-oil salesmen. On the next to last day of these prayers, I still stand in awe and thank them for my new category. It answers the question, "How dumb do they think we are?"

DEAR GOD: Thank you for changing me from a Have-Not into a Soon-to Have. Can we expect the benefits before or after Heaven?

Day 28 of Pray-In

2012-02-02T10:41:00.000-08:00

VA State Senator Janet Howell should be lauded for giving the Old White Guys Club a taste of their own medicine. They're trying to pass their own version of the TX law that requires a woman to have an ultrasound before terminating a pregnancy. Senator Howell added an amendment requiring men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication. Kudos for the solidarity and creativity.

Now for the FL primaries, to decide which idiot has the better hair stylist: you're both still boring as hell, but at least Newt (lizard proclaimer of building his 6th house on the Moon and destroyer of all those laws against religion) had the good sense to find the only black, Rep. female and place her in the crowd behind him. I really wish he'd elaborated on those anti-religion laws, though, not being able to remember anything not going the Xian way.

DEAR GOD: Please issue a statement of finality, that a vagina belongs to no one but the person surrounding it and include all colors of women, everywhere.

Day 27 of Pray-In

2012-02-01T09:33:00.000-08:00

As we enter the celebration of Black History Month, it is with great shame in my fellow Country-persons that I approach this subject. The Tea Partiers (who resemble the Mad Hatter for which they are named, understanding no issues of the original white men who pretended to be Indians) want to erase their history by rewriting textbooks to de-emphasize slavery and take the racial tones from it. WTF?! So, not only do we give them the shortest month, acknowledge that they don't belong in OUR white history, but now we eliminate even the pretense of the designation and their massive contributions to this Country - unwilling as it may have been. From serving valiantly in our wars - with no thanks, to astounding inventions and artistic endeavors - wipe it all away. My apologies to every African-American that ever existed.

DEAR GOD: Please help the Black Community understand that we are not all self- aggrandizing assholes who wish to pretend we didn't enslave them. And a pox on the Tea Party.

Day 26 of Pray-In

2012-01-31T09:14:00.000-08:00

We're having a special ballot for school levies, on which I have voted 'no'. It would make sense to me if our schools we're actually educational facilities and not instructors of how to pass arbitrary tests (which ours did with a whopping 13% of the bottom), or if legislators weren't hell-bent on destroying teachers' unions, or if every time the State needed something it didn't tax the homeowners. I can only assume that renters' kids don't use the same schools. And it may seem like small change to those not on a fixed income, but it is nickel and dime-ing us to death.

There are teachers who love to teach; they leave because we pay them half what the garbage collector makes. There are children dying to learn; here they opt for military service, not being able to go to a college that will also fail them. There are homeowners who would gladly contribute to real education, but they're too busy filling out the papers for energy assistance. We must say 'No'.

DEAR GOD: Please direct some of that Intelligent Design into real education, and let those who only own one, small home sell it, so we can become renters, too, and not pay RE taxes.

Day 24 & 25 of Pray-In

2012-01-30T10:07:00.000-08:00

I missed another day, through slacking and having nothing to say, so here's a two-fer. We're into our rainy season - like when isn't it in the Puget Sound? My creek is making lovely babbling noises and I comfort myself in the gray dawn by knowing that our aquifers are being refreshed. I have the best tasting water on Earth; it's one of the things I will hate to leave should I ever sell the house. A few years ago, the numb nuts that rule here sent a petition to connect us all to city water lines - a far city that already steals our water. Why would I do that when my supply is free, save for the electricity to pump it, and it tastes like heaven? It made no sense and was fortunately defeated by those of like mind.

DEAR GAEIA: Please grant all your people daily access to fresh water, except those who are hoarding it for their own profit.

Day 23 of Pray-In

2012-01-28T10:17:00.000-08:00

This was e-mailed by an ex-husband, life-long Air Force buff, who thought I might enjoy it because it shows women's progress towards equality. And with that you should be able to figure out why he's an Ex; didn't know me then; doesn't understand me now. Apart from the obvious religious and racial slur, most feminists do not consider learning how to kill anonymously like men is a bonus point on the equality scale. One would hope that a matriarchal society would abhor war and frown upon their children dying for trumped up, political rhetoric and usurped resources gained.

Not that I'm claiming females are less vicious than males. I have known some righteously pathological Donna Reeds. But again with the fairy tales. I'm sure all women who fought their way into being pilots (and at least we applaud their stamina) are THAT good looking. Yeah . . . We all have our fantasies.

DEAR GOD: For once, I'm so stunned by the ignorance that I'm at a total loss for words. Can't Tweet this anyway, since today my fellow nerds are calling for a Twitter black-out. That company is considering censoring submissions - and just when we successfully demonstrated how SOPA could go to hell. Ya never learn, Thought Police! And God? You've got 7 days to do something that doesn't smack of the same 'awful', before we kick you to the curb for good.

Day 22 of Pray-In

2012-01-27T09:28:00.000-08:00

I've switched today's image to our local backhoe, Mary Anne, because I couldn't think of anything bigger to load the pile of crap that is composed of the US Supreme Court Justices (and I use the last word ironically). And these jerkwads serve FOR LIFE, even if they're crazier than a quarterback on steroids, which they are. First they ruled that corporations are people (so they must have souls, right?). Can we waterboard one? Now, they've seen fit to avow that churches don't have to obey our laws. Only Xian ones, mind you, not mosques or synagogues.

By a 9-0 vote, not even a disclaimer, they've declared that Lutherans can ignore the Americans With Disabilities Act and fire anyone they please - with no recourse. These Witch-finder Generals of Cross-dressing have finally lost their own souls. The particular Constitutional Law they've recently shredded, that is now as defunct as habeus corpus, was not meant to exempt the church from IT, but to keep churches OUT of politics. Since it has utterly failed, I guess we won't miss it. At least we know where we stand, knee deep in judicial feces with a future supply of Constitutional toilet paper.

DEAR GOD: Please make words mean something again and supply us all with the same dictionary. Ruth and Sonia? You were supposed to make a difference. Shame on you all.

Day 21 of Pray-In

2012-01-26T09:23:00.000-08:00

Dear President: It's not that you're such a dismal failure that distresses us. We have become inured to those we elect being such. It's that your olive branch was based upon Hope. Our hearts grew lighter within the aspect of its coming to fruition, which made every arrow sting that much worse. Celebrating the death of a foe and threatening another country with war do not endear you to us further. We still have no health care; our schools are failing the next generation as they have the previous ones; and there is no end in sight of this depression and bankrupt economy. And you offer us more military spending and tax cuts for those who don't need them.

DEAR GOD: Your chosen President's speech simply demonstrated how much of a mess the State of our Union is. Please locate an honest, electable man. Tall order, we know.

Day 20 of Pray-In

2012-01-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

Since we've been dealing in superstition here, I thought it might help to take our image to the Right side, since God is still not listening to the Left, whatever those fungible terms mean on any given day. It is interesting to learn that the Romneys earn, each day in interest, more than the average person does in a year - and pay less than 15% taxes on the largess. And no, it's not disliking him just 'cause he's rich; it's the subterfuge of the posturing. Oh yeah, he's the common man alright. But it is one of the few days we haven't heard mention of Newt's 5 houses. They're all horrible, and they're all rich. Campaigns can't be run by the poor any more.

DEAR GOD: Please give us all the Romney tax rate, and let money fall out of our asses for being one. We're not asking for the greed, just a level playing ground.

Day 19 of Pray-In

2012-01-24T12:18:00.000-08:00

Newt? Really, SC? That's who you're backing? Rather than a comedian who will openly admit he has no values at all (he is, after all, an actor), you would support a man who claims sainthood and skewers an interviewer for asking a question ABOUT that obvious lie. While I'm sure the PTB (Powers That Be) would like us to believe Southerners are this gullible, I have a more optimistic answer. Having worked directly for the election mongers, one of the items they'd like us to ignore is the fact that there are only two, authorized voting machine purveyors in the Nation - both of which are run by relatives of those in the PTB offices.

Yes, Precious Readers, I would prefer to consider that all our elections are usurped through the usual subterfuge than to think those genteel people of the South are this disillusion. And without a doubt, I would rather have voted for the entertainer than ANYONE ELSE running on the sullied GOP ticket. Colbert is dangerously funny. They're just dangerous.

DEAR GOD: If you're making a joke or demonstrating how stupid we've become with the recent election outcomes, the laughter you hear is because we're scared shitless.

Days 17 & 18 of Pray-In

2012-01-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I had to take a day off to recuperate from living a life where god answers none of my personal prayers. But this is a joyous day, for a couple of reasons. First, the Chinese Lunar Year of the Black Water Dragon begins today. Not that it's any more important than the Roman calendar, but they've been doing it for app. 4500 years and, if not more accurate, at least their predictions are more entertaining. So 新年快乐, Asian friends.

Second, it seems we have a reprieve from SOPA and PIPA. Oh, it's far from over. Rest assured that the douches will bring it back, hidden under the guise of something like insulin for returning, diabetic soldiers, or lunch vouchers for inner city kids, to make us think they're humanitarian. The only humanity they care about is themselves and their re-elections to positions that benefit the 1%. But it does finally demonstrate our own power. We joined in one, loud voice to inform them how unacceptable their cheating has become - and we succeeded in making them back down.

DEAR GOD: Thanks for the SOPA reprieve, now when anyone says 'job creators', we'd like you to employ the power of Babel and let the world hear 'lying, greedy bastards'.

Day 16 of Pray-In

2012-01-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

A small diversion from politics, as I watched "The Debt" last night, mainly for Helen Mirren. If wishes were granted I would hope to age as gracefully and talented as that woman. Much of the content bored me, not solely because it concerned the much overworked topic of Nazi henchmen who got away with it, but for the weakening of her character with incomprehensible decisions and the ubiquitous drama of a love triangle. It takes little intelligence (spoiler alert) to realize that running away from very old people would be an easy defense. That being said, it bolsters the argument that the PKM God does not exist or he's incompetent or malevolent. No better example of evil allowed loose in the world is present than the Jewish saga, and the fact that the Holy See abetted it is monstrous. Plus the troubling dichotomy of killing; you can't have it one way in the scriptures and another in real life.

But, I think the most disturbing element of the dialogue was the Nazi's argument that all Jews lacked spine, his example thus: "Why else did it take only four guards to lead thousands to the gas ovens?" I have always wondered that, but (before you flame me) having not been in their position, as demoralized and debilitated as they were, I am no more a proper judge than the weekend quarterback. We cannot conceive those horrors. Thank heavens. As for our own, current battles against a jack-booted government, and make no mistake, we are living in a military country, there are more than four of us. We must fight wherever we can.

DEAR GOD: Free Will is not an adequate argument for the monstrous evils we witness. Either think up a better one or kindly dispense with the sources of the problems.

Day 15 of Pray-In

2012-01-20T09:54:00.000-08:00

Well, we're halfway there and now have 3 choices: either there is no god; he's not as omnipotent as you think; or he doesn't give a squat about the disenfranchised majority. Since he's obviously not listening, let's stick with the Web issues, in the foremath of douchebags passing SOPA and limiting my speech. Oh you know they will; they don't listen either. HEY! Douchebags! Your vote for this is our voting you out. Hear me now?

Anyway, on the wrath front, there are peeps vehemently opposed to Nancy Pearl joining Amazon and the eBook rage. For those of you outside the region, she became the most famous librarian through sales of thousands of her action figures (waving a shushing finger) at Archie McPhee. She instigated a Book Lust Rediscovery series, about her favorite, out-of-print books and Amazon is taking up the gauntlet of publishing app. 6 of them a year. The outrage seems to stem around the fact that these issues will contain eBooks, as well. People, get a library catalog grip! Does the fact that, without her creation and endorsement no one would see them at all escape you? Sometimes I fear that the only thing people who speak on these issues have ever read is Glenn Beck.

DEAR GOD: Please introduce everyone to the joys of computers and let them know these are not magic boxes only wizards can maintain for you to play solitaire at work.

Day 14 of Pray-In

2012-01-19T09:17:00.000-08:00

I've changed the graphic this morning, because this is how we're beginning to feel in what used to be the comfort of our own homes. Those moguls and nabobs who will not be satisfied in their greed, until they wrench the last penny from our pockets and control everything we formerly called freedom of expression. Their avarice is astounding and to those entities on the Web courageous enough to fight back, I offer a hearty thank you. Yes, I missed you yesterday, Wikipedia; no I don't think it will do any good against The Machine; but we appreciate your support. To the pols who back this stupid initiative, who can't even speak in coherent sentences re: its content or using the Internet, shame on all of you.

I am personally not a pirate, although I suppose I have appropriated material in my pursuit of my arts. However, it's about more than that. I'm appalled that the last freedom I have left, the freedom of speech, is being eroded for monetary gain the 1% think they're missing.

DEAR GOD: Please temporarily black out anyone supporting SOPA & PIPA, make them write their speeches on a typewriter and use a dictionary for spellcheck - by candle light.

Day 13 of Pray-In

2012-01-18T09:57:00.000-08:00

We finally received one of our few, yearly blizzards, and I would take a picture but white on white doesn't register. Here's my favorite shot from Spring. My first thought is always to bemoan the fact that I can't make it over icy, mountain roads to town and the milk supply is low. On the heels of that comes the admonition that at least I'm not still stuck in WI with its nose-hair freezing and 8 mos. of Winter gray. But as I sat in the dawn opalescence of it on the back porch, an absolute elation hit me listening to the coyotes in the sheer silence of it, the crispness of mountain air. No semis down-shifting with air brakes, no chainsaws, no hot rodding. Just the utter bliss of snow plopping from overloaded pine branches. Paradise does emerge here, if you can survive in between. And I'm patting myself on the back for not risking life and limb to redeem those coupons. When you're a writer, being shut-in isn't a bad thing. Now about those trees.

DEAR GAEA: Thank you for stopping clear-cutting and shipping logs to China for awhile and please remind us that there's a connection between breathing and trees.

Day 12 of Pray-In

2012-01-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

It is with some trepidation that I bring up this subject, knowing that some will think me heartless, but it does concern the 1% and I must. While I realize there are families grieving for the loss of life in the recent cruise ship disaster in the Mediterranean, these monsters are germ-laden mega-hotels and the worst form of decadence. In connecting the mishap to our locality, as our pundits feel they must with any news item, one woman interviewed said the 4200 passengers had just commenced a candlelit dinner, where she was enjoying her vichyssoise and awaiting the lamb shanks with polenta, when a single fork fell from the second story of the dining hall. The comparison to the Titanic, however, was ludicrous.

Forgive me, but I have a hard time sympathizing, as I think about the young African girl about to sell her body for a mud sandwich. I'll try to steer away from the gut-clenching I feel when I see one of them departing our Port, leaving a visible trail of what can only be something bad for the life it sails over - not to mention the fossil fuel capacities needed for the engines, the waste of food. We hope the missing are found alive, are appalled at the cowardice of a captain who would disembark before seeing to the safety of all his charges, but enabling these ships is evil in its most gluttonous form. If y'all have so much money you can't grok anything better to do with it . . . well, I feel sorriest of all for you.

DEAR GOD: We are sorry for the loss of life, but if stupid people can't figure out a better way to live than take a cruise, we have a food bank in town that could use some help.

Day11 of Pray-In

2012-01-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

Shameful sign outside our town.

On this day, when our Country pretends to celebrate its strides in tolerance and diversity, in the image of one courageous man who dreamed that people would learn to acknowledge character rather than color, let us pray that he did not die in vain.

DEAR GOD: Please let our world become so integrated that the issue of race is a question never asked again.

Day 10 of Pray-In

2012-01-15T13:16:00.000-08:00

Jerome Rubin died at 86, of a stroke, and the name may not mean a lot to many. He was the co-founder of E Ink, the display technology behind Kindle and other e-readers, and helped bring LexisNexis (commercial online research database) to the Web. There are so many relatively unknowns behind these real pieces of New Age magic we take for granted every day. And, although the next generation keeps coming forward with innovations, several have come from those they would consider 'over-the-hill'. I hope that I can maintain that kind of creativity on the downhill side. Thanks J.R.

DEAR GOD: Please help us pause to appreciate the people who make it possible for us to do whatever we are doing throughout the day. Let us live outside the box.

Day 9 of Pray-In

2012-01-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

Last week I got into the used car I was forced to buy a little over a year ago, when the former developed too many problems to consider fixing. The battery was totally dead, and it ticked me off that I'd had no warning. You'd think with all the idiot lights on the dash, there would have been something! And paranoia kicked in, because I'd just received a 25% coupon notice from the dealer on batteries and winterizing. I mean, it's not that far-fetched; computerization means we can be hacked from anywhere.

Be that as it may, it is disconcerting to hear pundits complain that people aren't buying electric or greener vehicles to save the planet. And no matter how anyone feels about the veracity of climate change, many of us would like to diminish our carbon footprint. We have no money, which is why we keep buying beaters, to replace the beaters that die. There is a disconnect when you tell people who have money that you're broke. They might come back with how hard it's been not to take that second vacation with the family this year. I haven't had a vacation anywhere in over a decade.

DEAR GOD: Please give green cars to those who don't believe in sucking fossil fuels from countries we must take to war to get them and who can no longer afford the price of gas, anyway. Could you make mine purple?

Day 8 of Pray-In

2012-01-13T09:52:00.000-08:00

Well, so far either God has not been listening or the Xians are mistaken that theirs is the most powerful deity. I know, it's hard to believe, for they (specially the Born-Agains) are so certain in all their proclamations. I think I'll try branching out to other isms, just to hedge our bets. Hinduism has too many forms for me to make a wise choice as to which to contact, but some of them are collectively called Devas. Worth a shot.

DEAR DEVAS: Please help us remember all things are connected and help us stop killing everything that doesn't look and believe the same way we do.

Day 7 of Pray-In

2012-01-12T09:04:00.000-08:00

The Rev thought I had finally lost my cookies as he read all the 'god tweets', knowing that writing Anti-Christians had tipped me over that edge into full-blown Atheism. It wasn't until he backtracked to the orginal blog that he grokked that what appears to be insanity may to the artist be an inspiring color theme. I love how he 'gets me' like nobody else.

But there are little quirks that disturb me, scare me that I may succumb to my Mother's dreaded disease. But who knows, it could make the writing better? At least I wouldn't be aware that it didn't!

DEAR GOD: If Alzheimer's is your gift to help oldies cope in an insane world, wouldn't it have been more loving to just change the World?

Day 6 of Pray-In

2012-01-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

I adore Bill Moyers and delighted he has another show, not the least of reasons are quotes like this: "A Texan friend of mine says he'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one of them." And that brings us to politicians who back-pedal so fast on words they said on tape that they channel Bill Clinton defining what 'is' is. Some of us (authors and avid readers, mostly) still value etymology and just want to slap you all. Repeatedly and with potency.

DEAR GOD: If you're allowing Free Will on semantics, please let my name mean 'she who gets all the money'. I will take care of those Meek for you.

Day 5 of Pray-In

2012-01-10T09:34:00.000-08:00

Seems Santorum has declared that even kids with abandoning dads in prison are better off than those with lesbian moms. Colbert parodied that meant Manson's kids were better adjusted than Rosie O'Donnell's. Um . . . yeah. Can voters not see the crazy in these pols before it's pointed out? And hey Rick, would it blow your mind to know that many of those lifers are now IN same sex relationships?

DEAR GOD: Please protect us from zealots whose delusions perceive felons to be more stable than same sex couples in committed relationships.

Day 4 of Pray-In

2012-01-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

I've pretty much stopped using coupons, especially from the Sun. paper flyers, since watching "King Corn". I don't know why I torture myself with food documentaries, other than a morbid desire to know why no diet works, and this one will surely tell you. I mean, it's led to things like not being able to buy hamburger from knowing the fact that it may contain parts from a 100 different cows (and their feces), or chicken nuggets after seeing the ground up slurry from which it's made. But the major problem with coupons, with the exception of necessities like toilet paper, is that they fund the corn subsidy market set up and maintained by those politicians with a stake in the byproducts.

When those same pundits blame us po' folk for being obese, let's keep in mind that things you don't even consider fattening are probably made with a portion of high fructose corn syrup. It's clogging our arteries, making us the fattest nation on Earth, and enabling the AMA to keep pushing expensive cures (which have more side effects than a Spielberg movie) like high cholesterol meds. Face it; you will never see a coupon for a head of lettuce or basket of berries.

DEAR GOD: Please make fresh fruits and vegetables the same price as a box of generic mac 'n cheese, and return them to tasting like what they're supposed to be.

Day 3 of Pray-In

2012-01-08T13:02:00.000-08:00

DEAR SHIVA: We know it must be time-consuming to be in charge of death, rebirth AND immortality, but could we please have a hug?