Here in Denver we are experiencing something like the eighth storm in seven weeks with 43 consecutive days with measurable snow cover according the the weather service. That is the fourth longest in Denver history with only five days left before it hits #3.

I love the weather. Really. I also like variety and the last storm finally broke my patience; however, instead of taking my frustrations out on the wall with my fist, I have made a musical rant against the snow and the cold to share especially with my fellow Denverites.

Listening to: Winter Kills - Yaz

UPDATE 2: I kid you not. When I hit ‘Shuffle Songs’ on Eduardo after I got to work, he started to play — you are going to howl — “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” by Vaughn Monroe

It’s beginning to act a lot like Christmas everywhere you go including Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Hubs over at Artifacting found a news story about a woman who has stirred up ‘controversy’ due to a Christmas wreath that just happens to be in the shape of a 60’s peace sign. Thus far the ‘offensive’ wreath is still up and the arguments being used to remove the wreath are becoming more asinine as the battle gets more over-the-top.

Lisa Jensen is the cause of all this wasted energy. She put the wreath up on her home in a subdivision of around 200 homes in the spirit of peace and says she had no ulterior motives and that the symbol is simply about peace as it pertains to spirituality. There was no other reason she said she had; however, people in the community have projected their own meaning onto her decoration.

The current president of the Home Owners Association, Bob Kearns, who will from now on be known as Baby Scrooge (or BS), said, "We have had three or four complaints." Three or four complaints? There are 200 homes in the subdivision. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and say only two people live in each house. That’s at least 400 people living in the subdivision. Doing the math…. carry the decimal… that’s 1% of the population of the subdivision — at the most. Obviously this is hardly the majority or even enough to back any action in my opinion.

BS then gave this as a reason, "Some people have kids in Iraq and they are sensitive." Again, this is projection. Why would these people’s minds automatically jump to the conclusion that Jensen put the wreath up as a protest to the Iraq war? I guess they are sensitive, which I will not mock them for here; however, I will say this: Do you love your kids? Do you not want to see them back? Peace would certainly make sure that they would no longer be in danger of dying in a war. I would think you would embrace an end to the aggression and killing. Guess what? That’s called peace, people. Anyone who wants peace also wants your kids to come home safely. That’s the point of being in support of peace.

He also claims that some believe the symbol to be a sign of Satan. It is not. The biggest problem with meddlers — if I can borrow that from Hot Doctor Wife — is that they only use history when it gets them what they want. Meddlers never compare their current ‘righteous’ actions with those of the past otherwise they would see that they are making a mistake. Again. Symbols are indeed powerful; however, they take on different meanings during different periods of time. The inverted crucifix was used by Romans nearly 2,000 years ago and, yes, satanists used it in their rituals 500 years after the Romans (see? full disclosure here); however, (and with only two minutes of my life used to look it up) the peace symbol that we know today was made to mean ‘nuclear disarmament’.
☮ = +
It’s a combination of the letters ‘N’ and ‘D’ in semaphore and was developed in early 1958 by Gerald Holtom thus giving the inverted crucifix a new meaning. Like people, symbols can be worked to have their direction changed, but the symbol doesn’t care that it’s being manipulated. It is, after all, only a symbol. It’s people that give it meaning be it for good, bad or some shade of grey.

And now for my favorite part of our story:

The subdivision’s convenants [SIC] say no signs, billboards or advertising are permitted without the consent of the architectural control committee. When Kearns ordered the association’s architectural control committee to require Jensen to remove the wreath removed, they refused. Jack Lilly, chairman of the group, said it decided it was merely a seasonal symbol that didn’t say anything. Lilly also said he had received no complaints from homeowners.

Kearns fired all five members of the committee.

Let’s repeat that: BS fired the entire committee. If I were a political cartoonist, I would be inspired to draw BS as a man-child swaddled in a diaper in his office surrounded by his HOA rules. His head would be thrown back with tears flying from his tightly-closed eyes. The mouth would be open in a Charlie Brown scream: "YOU’RE FIRED, BOB CRATCHITS!!". The office would be in shambles due to his tantrum. The members of the control committee would be leaving with their heads bowed, but their faces would be broken with a smile so sardonic there would be no doubt of the relief of being outta there — almost as if an abusive father had just died.

I wonder if it would make BS and those very, very few complainers happier if Jensen were to join the NRA, buy a rifle, shoot and kill a dove, have it stuffed, cram an olive branch into its dead, useless beak, wrap the entire ornament in colored, blinking lights and mount it on her house as a symbol that she desired peace in the world for her holiday wish. It certainly would seem to be the current American way: killing an innocent just to appease an ignorant, vocal minority.

Listening to: Cope - The Futureheads

Obviously I’m kidding. The cool thing is the amount of support they received. From calls offering to pay the fine to keep the wreath up to people from around the world voicing their concern including South America, the Netherlands AND troops in Baghdad. From now on, why don’t we let the women and men serving America speak for themselves?

When you are a large news organization or even just a popular blog and you have an open-ended comment section, you are just asking for anyone with no depth of knowledge about your subject matter to voice their opinion especially if said reactionary commenters are allowed to post anonymously. They are either going on beliefs, hearsay or their own imaginations. Ironically, when the Hubble telescope was launched in 1990 it was the dream of many to actually see more of the universe. In reality, the ’space’ we occupy is so small a portion that you wonder if the intelligence out there even cares that we are living here much less wants to talk to us especially if they are watching our television shows. (I have wondered on occasion though if Nielsen families are indeed aliens themselves subverting our culture.)

In the meantime, this mechanical device — let’s repeat that — mechanical device has had a few mechanical problems and, like mechanical things, needs to be mechanically fixed and have mechanical parts replaced. According to the CNN report once the Hubble is repaired in 2008, the telescope will have cost tax payers a total of $10 billion, which is what our war on Iraq is costing us — each month. The difference here is that the Hubble has actually delivered results - discovering black holes, finding out that the universe is not only expanding but accelerating, and capturing the most stunningly beautiful pictures of the universe around us. CNN also solicited email about what people around the US thought about NASA’s decision to, now, keep Hubble operating. Let us rant about them.

I cannot see the necessity of pouring all this money into outer space when we cannot come up with enough money to take care of the hunger, sickness, and myriad problems right here on earth. Who cares if there was water or life on Mars a thousand years ago? All it is doing is making nice jobs for a lot of people while the working class is getting shafted with the payments for years.

“Come up” with enough money. Oh, there is enough money. Just print some more, right? The problem here is spreading money around isn’t the only solution, plus with the greed that capitalism causes you can get an easier spread at a nunnery. I wanted to study astronomy. I discovered how much astronomers make. They are the working class, too. The people making ‘all that money’ are the people running the companies who supply the parts and who overcharge the government for, say, toilet seats. As for water on Mars — has this person ever sat down and just, you know… wondered? About anything? Except what Paris Hilton looks like under the flaps of fabric she normally wears?

The bigger question should be “who cares?” With our social, border security, homeland security and educational programs in dire need of limited federal funds, spending one penny more on the space program of any sort is absurd. I’ve yet to hear one report of how money spent in space has helped our general population of the United States and any meaningful way.

Instead of hearing, why don’t you try researching and reading. Anything. Here I’ll make it easy for you; however, you may just want to ignore this list of things that the space program has done for mankind. Go ahead. They’re just words. They only hurt if you let them. Like all your exes. One other thing — did you know that there are other people and countries outside the United States that this same list is helping? Yes! It’s true! There is a whole big world of people, many who have it much worse than you.

Why can’t the Hubble be towed to the space station and docked there?

A little research came up with this answer: “The space station is in a lower orbit, and takes a much different path around the Earth. If the Hubble could be moved into that orbit, it is not clear whether the space telescope could work because of drag from the small amount of the Earth’s atmosphere present at that altitude.” Did we learn NOTHING from Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Kahn? Space is three dimensional. It’s like being able to swim in water — you can go up and down, too.

I do not think there should be a mission to extend the life of the Hubble. My inner city community could use the tax dollars being spent.

See the second paragraph in this post about how much Congress is spending on a war that is about as effective as Congress itself. There’s where your inner city money is going. Oh, wait. The war is making us all safe, you say? Oh, right, I forgot about the seven terrorist cells that are specifically going after Kansas City. Quick run for your bunker! I’m sure it’s stocked with the best BBQ in the good ole US-of-A.

Put the money to better use. The space program is too costly already.

Wow, the breadth of your insight is as blinding as a supernova. And thank you sooo much for offering some ideas and solutions of where the money can be better spent. Of course after a supernova, the star collapses upon itself and creates a black hole. I’m sure that’s where your ideas went.

I believe instead of spending the money on Hubble, they should replace it with a more powerful telescope. I also think they should put several powerful telescopes on the International Space Station instead of putting them in orbit. That way we can justify some of the expense of the station and get a little more research out of it.

I’ve nothing bitchy to say here since not everyone keeps up with space news; however, the plan is to launch the James Webb Space Telescope in 2013. I realize that it’s not one of the big news items, but if you’re going to comment about the space program, you should know a little about the space program.

I think there are a multitude of things that need fixing on earth than in space. This money could be used on education, health care and social security.

Yeah, NOOOOO one has thought of that before. Instead of writing to CNN, how about you send this on to your elected officials. Sure it may not do anything, but at least you’ve done something to let the government know how you feel. Who knows? Enough people might actually do the same thing and affect some change.

Don’t believe those folk who say the money is better spent on immediate needs. Money is spent wisely when we look to a far horizon and encompassing goals. That’s why extending Hubble’s life is so encouraging. The shorter our vision, the more overwhelming our problems. We need all the vision-thing we can get.

“Vision-thing?” Here: a link to an online thesaurus. This is the other extreme. Let’s ignore the ‘now’. “Ahh, the baby will take care of itself until it’s 18 and then we can throw money at its college tuition.”

And just to leave you on a positive note, here is the most realistic and practical of the emails printed from someone right here in the Denver area, which sums up my opinion quite nicely.

Philip Chika, Aurora, Colorado
We’ve spent a fortune putting it up there, we ought to get our money’s worth out of it and keep it up there as long as possible. Yeah, I know it’s expensive to fix, but so is my car’s transmission. It was a lot cheaper to repair it than buy a new car.

Yes, I know they are building a “new car”, but like most of us, they are budgeting for the purchase to replace the puttering, old gas-guzzler. There is also a great commentary here on CNN.

Listening to: Dickhead - Robbie Williams

Kelly over at A Yoga Coffee Outlook relayed a RSVP in the negative to her Halloween party and it’s a doozy:

Kelly, Thanks for the invite. For religious reasons I do not celebrate Halloween. I appreciate being included. I hope you won’t take this personally, but human sacrifice and other Halloween traditions should be feared not celebrated.

OMG, that is so 2 centuries ago. It reminds me of a comment left about the cartoon series, "The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy" which inspired the Celebrate Death post. Not that anyone who has a strong belief in the religious right — who I refuse to call Christians — is going to read it.

You want the definition of Christianity? Read what the Amish did after the horrible school shootings when several Amish went to console the wife of the shooter AT HIS FUNERAL! And the grandfather of one of those killed insisting on forgiveness and to do what they can to help the wife and kids of the killer of his granddaughter. I believe that’s the "Forgive those who trespass against us" rule.

Another commenter on Kelly’s site had a great point about how the reason so many believe that Halloween and death are evil is due to the Christians preying on the naive and causing them to believe that pagans were the bad guys. This always leads me to ponder one of the biggest hypocrisies of Christianity. If the rule is live a good life then you will be partying with God when you die then why instill the sense of dread and foreboding about death. Why make it something to fear and hate? Are our religious leaders that concerned about their own afterlife that they are projecting their own judgement on death? Rhetorical! And don’t give me the "mass suicide" reason. Not only is suicide the most selfish thing an individual can do, it is corkscrewed into our heads about how God hates it.

Besides, All Saints or All Hallows Eve (or Halloween) is supposed to be about remembering those who have died and to CELEBRATE their lives, but thanks to those who want nothing more than to make money off all holidays, Halloween can be just as crass as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and the bane of all holidays, Valentine’s Day.

Ugh, I shouldn’t let these antiquated beliefs get to me, but frankly it’s only Hollywood and a few nutters (if I may borrow that term from my UK friends) that have continued put out the idea that Halloween is all about zombies, demonic rituals and giving your virgin daughters to Beelzebub, which is just sexist. What about your virgin sons? I mean, if homosexuality is a thing of Satan then I’m sure he wants the boys more than the girls.

Am I right, brothers and sisters? Can I get a "Smell my feet!"? And while you’re at it, give me something good to eat.

Listening to: Gene By Gene - Blur