Rush Limbaugh Taken To Hospital With Chest Pains

During the recent Senate debate on health care, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), called on the American people to pray that a Democratic Senator would be unable to vote on the health care bill, in order to force Democrats to work with Republicans on the issue.

Well it looks like God’s viewpoint is much different than Tom Coburn’s and has sent a message, a sign as it were, to show the Republicans that God is for caring and kindness for mankind.

It appears that God struck down conservative radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, as a message that this blowhard needed to be stopped as he was taken to a Honolulu hospital with chest pains on Wednesday.

Paramedics responded to a call at 2:41 p.m. from the Kahala Hotel and Resort where Limbaugh is vacationing, KITV reported. The station, citing unnamed sources, said the 58-year-old Limbaugh was taken to The Queens Medical Center in serious condition.

Now many will remember well in 2001, Limbaugh reported he had lost most of his hearing due to an autoimmune inner-ear disease. He had surgery to have an electronic device placed in his skull to restore his hearing. Of course this was all just a lie because two years later Limbaugh acknowledged he was just another drug addict that was addicted to the pain medicine OxyContin or better known by its street name, “Hillbilly Heron.” His hearing loss was one of the side effects of long term OxyContin abuse.

Maybe it could be said to the fanatical religious right wing nut bags that Rush Limbaugh does not speak for God and has worked in his way to demonstrate that fact.

The Holy Oak Tree Religion

(The Holy Oak Tree can be found on Engineer Of Knowledge’s farm)

The oak tree was sacred to Zeus, especially the tree at the sanctuary of Zeus in Dodona which also served as an oracle; it would seem the rustling of the leaves was regarded as the voice of Zeus and the sounds interpreted by priestesses. The oak was also sacred to Pan and we know what an impish scamp he was.

The pre-Christian world was the world of Celts, who worshiped nature. To the Celtic outlook, the land was the main goddess, the rivers were her helpers and they enriched the earth. Celts used to live in forests, where they were close to the nature and could learn the language of trees and wisdom of animals. With the appearance of Christianity ancient Celts didn’t disturb their close ties with nature; they connected their love to nature with the main principles of Christianity. Celtic monks lived in deep forests and wrote their religious works for the gifts of nature. The most important thing was to understand the divine origin of all things and god’s existence in nature. Celts saw life as a constantly changing circulation of life and death. Everything moved in a spiral and nature’s observation gave a possibility to find mechanism of development of the world.

Nowadays we have practically completely lost the awareness of spiral development and it’s difficult to gain an understanding of the world as a whole. One may easily note the decline of the current form of Judaism and Christianity religions in the United States as a cause and effect of their own decline.

According to the Roman authors Lucan and Pomponius Mela, the Celts of Gaul worshipped in groves of trees, a practice which Tacitus and Dio Cassius say was also found among the Celts in Britain. The Romans used the Celtic word, “Nemeton” for these sacred groves. A sacred oak grove in Galatia (Asia Minor), for example, was called Drunemeton. The word was also incorporated into many of the names of towns and forts, such as Vernemeton near Leicester in England.

The names of certain Celtic tribes in Gaul reflect the veneration of trees, such as Euburones (the Yew tribe), and the Lemovices (the people of the elm). A tree trunk or a whole tree was frequently included among the votive offerings placed in ritual pits or shafts dug into the ground. Others shafts had a wooden pole placed at the bottom. The Celts believed trees to be sources of sacred wisdom, and the hazel in particular was associated with wisdom by the Druids. The Druids performed rituals and ceremonies in groves of sacred oak trees, and believed that the interior of the oak was the abode of the dead.

“Druid,” derives from a Celtic oak word. Druids were teacher-priests of an ancient Celtic religion that worshipped oak trees in Gaul, Britain and Ireland. Their name was first borrowed into Latin and Greek from an Old Celtic or Gaulish form like “Druides. “

Compare modern Irish and Gaelic forms like draoi (draoidh, druidh, gen. druadh) meaning ‘magician’ and Welsh dryw ‘sorcerer.’

The Gaelic, “Druidh” is the compound of *dru + *uid = oak-knower. In the ancient Celtic society Druid was a name bestowed on a seer or visionary who possessed ‘oak knowledge.’

Even the ancient Romans learned some Druid lore. The Roman encyclopedist Pliny the Elder knew about Druids’ holding sacred both mistletoe and oak groves. The Druids hold nothing more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows provided it is an oak. They choose the oak to form groves, and they do not perform any religious rites without its foliage. Pliny also tells of Druid priests using a golden scythe or sickle to gather the mistletoe in the light of the moon.

Celtic Oak Proverbs:
1. An oak is not felled at one stroke. (In other words, be patient.)
2. Every oak has been an acorn.
3. Great oaks from little acorns grow.
4. Oaks may fall when reeds stand the storm.
5. The willow will buy a horse before the oak will pay for a saddle. (Willows grow fast, oaks more slowly.)

Perhaps not surprisingly, trees appear at the foundations of many of the world's religions. Because of their relative rarity in the Near East, trees are regarded in the Bible as something almost sacred and are used to symbolize longevity, strength, and pride. Elements of pagan tree cults and worship have survived into Judeo-Christian theology. In Genesis, two trees, “The Tree of Life and The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil,” grow at the centre of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). Scriptural and apocryphal traditions regarding the Tree of Life later merge in Christianity with the cult of the cross to produce the Tree of the Cross.

The fantastic Story of the True Cross identifies the wood used for the cross in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as being ultimately from the, “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” in the Garden of Eden. Other stories claim that Adam was buried at Jerusalem and three trees grew out of his mouth to mark the centre of the earth.

In the Old Testament, trees are also associated with the ancient Canaanite religion (the religion that Judaism and Christianity’s God came from) devoted to the mother goddess Asherah (God’s wife) which the Israelites, intent on establishing their monotheistic cult of Yahweh (the name for God), sought to suppress and replace. The cult Asherah and her consort Baal was evidently celebrated in high places, on the tops of hills and mountains, where altars dedicated to Baal and carved wooden poles or statues of Asherah (or the Asherahs; in the past Asherah has also been translated as grove, or wood, or tree) were evidently located.

Celtic spirituality is not just a form of ancient religion; even now it has a lot of followers and is very popular. The number of sources, which refer to Celtic civilization, is great and you can find practically everything you want to know. The rebirth of “The Holy Oak Tree,” which may be found on Engineer Of Knowledge’s farm, is growing stronger everyday as the true religion of the Earth and Universe. (I should also give honorable mention to Microdot’s “Big Holy Rock” which complements this religion.)

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

THE EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION
By Richard Dawkins


Being a man of science myself, this week as we celebrate and recognize Charles Darwin’s published science facts, I decided to complement this evolutionary science with a posting of Richard Dawkins.

The bible thumping, delusional, science fact deigning, folks whom funded and visit the Creation Museums popping across the country, are accomplishing nothing but dragging their children into a pit of regressive education.

Since its conception, one of the strengths of this country’s economical edge was our science lead within the world. Putting this country’s science edge into the hands of the Fanatical Religious Right, as stated in the video clip, has just placed our standing well below the competitiveness of other countries we have to economically compete with.

One of the most important issues in this country today is not Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, it is the oppressive agenda from within of those whom would insist that science facts be ignored and be replaced with their religious fundamental viewpoints.

Call It Freedom Of Speech OR Freedom To Be Stupid

In keeping with my friend, "Man with a Muckrake" blog site, I thought that I would also keep up with the "FREEDOM" theme. I think that it is very unfortunate, or very telling, that prominent conservatives have been silent thus far exposing that it is serving their purpose quite well even if it was not by design. Below is a very disturbing story. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!



In Wheat Ridge, Colorado, a billboard recently erected compares President Barack Obama to a terrorist and questions his U.S. citizenship.

The billboard shows two cartoonish images of Obama wearing a Muslim turban and reads "PRESIDENT or JIHAD?"

It also says "BIRTH CERTIFICATE - PROVE IT!" alluding to the conspiracy theory which claims Barack Obama was born in Kenya rather than Hawaii, which would disqualify him for the office of President.

The words "WAKE UP AMERICA! REMEMBER FT. HOOD!" appears on the bottom of the billboard.

The sign belongs to a car dealership owned by Phil Wolf. "Since Fort Hood, I've had it," said Mr. Wolf, "You can't suggest things. You can't profile. You gotta call a spade a spade." "Everything I have read about Mr. Obama points right to the fact that he is a Muslim. And that is the agenda of what Muslim is all about. It's about anti-American, it's about anti-Christianity," Wolf said.

The Anti-Defamation League condemned the sign, as did AM760 radio host David Sirota, who discussed the sign and interviewed Wolf on his program Friday morning. "It's out of control," Sirota said. "This conservative hatred of Barack Obama is out of control, and this brings together all those strands of it: the racism, the anti-Muslim fervor. It's one thing to criticize the president on health care, or Wall Street reform, or immigration. But this is outrageous. And I think it's a fair question to ask why these questions about religion and ancestry are being directed so viciously at the first African-American President of the United States."

While the ADL issued a statement calling the billboard an exploitation of the Ft. Hood shootings that is "divisive and offensive, and perpetuates hateful and harmful stereotypes about Muslims."

"That could suggest that conservative leaders are afraid to confront the extreme fringe of their base," Sirota said. "Or it suggests they actually condone this message. Either way, it's disturbing."

Sirota is an unabashed liberal, but not all self-identified conservatives who drove past the sign Friday disagree with him.

"I'm not concerned with that at all," said Linda Alexander, of Golden, in regard to the dispute over President Osama’s American citizenship. "He was elected; he's the president -- that's it, as far as I'm concerned. Some people just can't accept that, obviously."

But Keith Walters, another passing driver, saw nothing wrong with the billboard. "I can't honestly say he's a Jihadist, but there's a lot of things that are questionable," Walters said. "The whole birth certificate controversy. From what I've read, there's no proof Obama isn't a Muslim. And I don't believe there's any racism in the billboard. I think that should be a question asked to any president who -- they have some questionable backgrounds."

Supporters of the birth certificate theory, known as 'Birthers,' believe the Certification of Live Birth produced by the state of Hawaii is a forgery.

Thanksgiving on the Chesapeake Bay

I thought that I would take a page from my good friend Microdot’s site and post a recipe that is somewhat of a tradition here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. My Grandfather was a local waterman and those whom made there living from the water had recipes that are served as a tradition for Thanksgiving. I would also ask all to reply to this posting with their favorite recipes that has a special meaning for them at Thanksgiving.



I can still remember him performing his balancing dance just standing on the 8” wide washboard of his 40’ workboat, handling the 30’ oyster tongs, lowering them into the water, blindly gathering into a pile the oyster shells from the oyster beds, then hand over hand pulling the tongs back up and opening the rakes dumping the oysters onto the deck, and then repeating the process over and over again. To impress how hard this type of work is, think of it as vertically lifting 30 to 50 pounds of rocks 30’ over and over all day. Now oysters can only be harvested in the months with an "R" in it so should you loose your balance, you are falling into icy cold water and many passed away from hypothermia. When he had a good size pile of oysters, he would go through the pile throwing the oysters that were too small, dead, empty shells, etc. When back onto shore you would then take the baskets of oysters to the shucking house or shuck them yourself and put the oysters into mason jars to sell.

This oyster dressing is one of my favorite to serve at Thanksgiving. Growing up between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, this oyster dressing was a tradition in every waterman’s Thanksgiving feast. The haunting smell of this dressing as it comes out of the oven still brings back warm memories of the days when the main employment for the men of this area was to work on the water for their lively hood. “The skipjacks were made of wood and the men were made of steel.”

Baked Oyster Dressing



Ingredients:
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 pint shucked oysters and their liquor
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped celery
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 bay leaves
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup half-and-half cream
1/4 cup chopped green onions
4 cups homemade-style white bread torn into 1-inch size pieces
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Cooking Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375° F. Butter a 9 by 11-inch baking pan with the butter and set aside.
Drain the oysters, reserving the oyster liquor. Set aside.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the celery, salt, pepper and sauté for 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the bay leaves, parsley, and sauté for 1 minute. Gradually add cream; slowly stir in flour until smooth and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the green onions, oyster liquor stirring to mix well, and remove from the heat.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the bread and vegetable mixture with the oysters and Parmesan cheese. Stir to mix thoroughly. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan and top with more Parmesan. Bake for about 1 hour, or until bubbly and golden brown.
Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Memories of Mr. Bojangles

I was feeling a little melancholy this morning when I remembered the song, "Mr. Bojangles" written and recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker in 1968 and covered by many artists but most noticeable by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1971.

In Jerry Jeff Walker’s autobiography,” Gypsy Songman,” Walker said that he had been arrested earlier on the 4th of July weekend in 1965 for public drunkenness in New Orleans’s First Precinct Jail. According to Walker, the song was inspired by an encounter with a street performer whom he shared the cell with. Walker mentions that all the men in the cell had nicknames to prevent easy identification by the police and this one particular street dancer's nickname was, “Mr. Bojangles.”

On that day that Walker was in jail, a murder in New Orleans precipitated the arrest of all the street people in the area and in the crowded cell this disheveled, homeless, old man street dance performer, began to talk to Walker. Walker said that the man told various stories of his life, but the tone darkened when Mr. Bojangles recalled he had a dog that had been run over. Someone then asked for something to lighten the mood, and the man obliged with a tap dance.

In his autobiography, Walker dispelled the urban legend that the song did not refer to the famous stage and movie dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson




nor the New Orleans blues musician Babe Stovall.











Walker made it clear that the man he met was white and in a later interview with BBC Radio 4 in August 2008, Walker pointed out that at the time in 1965, the jail cells in New Orleans were segregated by color.

With this history of the song, I decided to attach the song performed by the man who was originally inspired to write the song. Enjoy.

Faith Friendly Boobs?!?

Miss California, Carrie Prejean, appeared on CNN's Larry King Live to promote her new book, "Still Standing." Carrie Prejean's Larry King interview started well enough, stating that Sarah Palin was a personal hero. The dethroned pageant queen said that she nearly walked off the Larry King Live Wednesday night when he made the comment that it has been revealed the pageant had paid for her breast implants. Ms. Prejean’s replied that her fake boobs were just fine with her devout Christian faith: “I don't think there's anything wrong with getting breast implants as a Christian . . . I don't see anywhere in the Bible where it says you shouldn't get breast implants.”

She was eventually dismissed from her contract amid allegations she failed to make scheduled public appearances. Ms. Prejean sued the pageant for religious discrimination, among other things, and rumors suggest she dropped that lawsuit after pageant lawyers played a pornographic movie starring the beauty queen during arbitration talks. It has continued to come to light that there are as many as 15 to 20 movie clips of her pleasuring herself and performing sex with many different male partners. Carrie Prejean asked a former boyfriend to testify falsely that she was only 17 years old making her a minor when the movies were made. Her hopes of professing this lie were so that the movie clips then could not be made public. The boyfriend’s reply to Ms. Prejean was that he would not commit perjury under oath in court for her. He went on to say that his association with Carrie Prejean is that he had met and spent 4 days in a San Diego hotel together on their first date.

Recently the ever professing “Christian Faith” Prejean bailed on a Republicans-only speaking engagement at the Washington DC Capital Hill Club just minutes before her speech was due to begin on Thursday. Carrie Prejean’s sudden decision to cancel her speaking engagement came about after the ex-boyfriend told TMZ.com she had asked him to lie about her sex tape and say it was made when she was underage so that she could sue to stop it being released. The truth is that Carrie Prejean was 20 at the time she made her now famous porno movie clips.

Now for those who are still interested, the anti-gay bashing, Christian Faith professing, Carrie Prejean's book, "Still Standing", can be found at all good bookstore bargain bins.