New bill passed to improve Veterans’ health benefits; allows for choice of Hospice home care or supplementary Hospice services while in acute care settings.

Influential/controversial psychotherapist, orginator of rational emotive behavior therapy, Alfred Ellis dies. 

Rational emotive behavior therapy, defined.

There’s no health care crisis in the U.S–well, at least not for the corporate/politcal elite…

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Water “holiday” in Armenia mixes Pagan and Christian traditions, cultures.

Nepalese “living goddess” gets the pink slip for travelling to U.S.

Outdated, “neander-thoughts” about religion.  Interesting stand on goddess worship.

Pagan radio stations online through Witchvox.

July Astrology Forecast:

For Everybody ~ Amidst tremendous impatience and intense but unrealistic desires, we must address immediate challenges and make wise, far-sighted decisions.  We have room to maneuver and we sense the support of circumstances.  The right thing to do is consolidate your position and prepare to meet challenges you know or sense very strongly are on the way.  The mistake would be to overreach.  Don’t use your previous resources to pursue a new and unrealistic goal. Whatever choices you make will have lasting and far reaching consequences.

Sign by Sign Astrology Forecast for July 2007

ARIES ~ You are feeling the need for personal independence and self-expression. Or maybe you just need to assert yourself in your present situation in order to make it more comfortable for you.  But take care.  There is only so much flexibility in this situation.  Continued stability and security will depend on your patience and forbearance.  You must adapt your deeply felt, powerfully charged personal ideals and your urge for self-expression.  If you don’t bend a little, you risk a major upset.  You could tip over the proverbial apple cart.

TAURUS ~ You are feeling the tug of your hopes and ambitions and the pull of your personal ideals intensely about now.  You are also feeling blocked and impatient because of your relative powerlessness.  My advice is to work patiently through the details of the complex and demanding situation in which you find yourself.  Observe changes in your neighborhood and community, also.  Some of these changes will not be well thought-out.  They will require foresight and careful responses on your part.  Meanwhile, take comfort from positive developments in long-term financial matters.

GEMINI ~ You are sensitive to the numerous concerns expressed by others, but like others, you aren’t yet in a position to change anything.  It is true that opposition forces are weaker.  But there is too much confusion for effective action.  There is also risk of overreaching or premature action.  The foundation you have worked so hard to create can only take so much weight.  Let those in charge do what they can.  Meanwhile, you would benefit by working through some tricky philosophical and spiritual issues.  Your personal position is secure.

CANCER ~ Others will be influenced naturally and spontaneously by your response to events.  You must rise above your disappointments or risk spreading gloom and dissatisfaction.  Your personal bonds with others in the community are especially lively and productive right now.  You can use this influence to make people see beyond their own self-interest and work cooperatively.  Cooperation is a necessity if everyone is to come out of this OK.  You’ll have to be even more diplomatic and sensitive to the feelings of others than usual.  Impatience and irritability are running high.  

LEO ~ Leo has been under a tiring, inhibiting planetary influence for a couple of years.  Fortunately, this influence will leave Leo early in September.  You will then experience an immediate boost in mood, attitude and energy levels.  The first half of July will offer a preview of this new condition.  Don’t be discouraged when the preview ends and things bog down again in late July.  In September, a new, refurbished Leo will arrive on the scene to stay, minus lots of old baggage and full of new life and energy.

VIRGO ~ Your input will be important.  People, including some powerful and highly motivated people, will depend on your input.  However, it could be hard to express some of your more innovative, intuitive ideas, especially since some of your thoughts will involve rebellion against the system.  Your ideas will be quite influential in any case.  You might be surprised at what people do or say on the basis of your advice.  Overall, you are under very supportive and protective influences. If you keep work and partnership affairs under control, you’ll do quite well.

LIBRA ~ This month, the challenges will not be in any of the financial, or economic, areas of your life.  (Although, if you allow it, professional and work issues could spill over, upsetting the rest of your affairs.)  The challenges will be kind of spiritual, philosophical and generally abstract.  They will involve relationship and emotional issues, which are so important to Librans. Even relationship matters that seem to go well might conceal knotty problems for later resolution.  Your solution of these intellectual and emotional issues will eventually have important, concrete benefits.

SCORPIO ~ You are still being powerfully affected by a lot of things over which you have little or no control.  It seems that your own commitments and loyalties, especially in partnership and professional areas, are helping contribute to the impasse.  The wise, selective use of financial resources can supplement your personal capacity while you work toward a resolution of some stubborn issues.  You are certainly coping very well.  However, coping well is not at all the same thing as prospering.  Take advantage of upcoming changes to further lighten your load.

SAGITTARIUS ~ There is nothing motivating you strongly in one direction or another.  Also, a lot of tricky issues are keeping you from decisive action.  Normally thoughtful people, Sagittarians are now overly thoughtful people, preoccupied by many complicated and subtle questions.  This lengthy standstill will end later this year.  When it’s over you will have changed your mind about many things.  But the *way* you think about things is going to change also.  Reason and evidence won’t be enough to convince you anymore.  You will take imponderables–feelings, conscience, and intuition–much more seriously.

CAPRICORN ~ The options are rattling around out there, but none of them measure up to your expectations, yet.  You might have to disappoint a lot of eager people.  If you said yes now, you know things wouldn’t work out anyway.  It’s partly a question of keeping finances within bounds.  But you are also troubled by a lot of subtle philosophical issues.  To be honest, it would probably be best for all concerned if you held off completely on some things until late summer.  New and more promising conditions will emerge then.

AQUARIUS ~ Relations with those close to you are strained.  Even casual friendships seem to have chilled somewhat.  Present tensions are part of a planetary renovation of your social life that will soon be completed. Relationships are being put on a sounder footing.   When this seeming chill has passed, your relationships overall will be more flexible and sustainable than before.  These new arrangement will work better for years to come. Shakeups in relationships can be upsetting, but you should remain confident.  The planets have placed a protective mantle over your affairs.

PISCES ~ There is a lot riding on your decisions.  Your choices are influencing the lives of those around you.  This is partly because you have special insight into what’s happening.  But it’s also because your understanding of underlying realities is very clear.   Many in your life don’t quite understand where you are coming from or what your needs are anymore.  You should make a special effort to explain your thoughts. You’ll have to break free of some old ties or at least adjust the terms in accordance with recent insights.

“Imagine books and music and movies being filtered and homogenized. Certified. Approved for consumption. People will be happy to give up most of their culture for the assurance that the tiny bit that comes through is safe and clean. White noise.” ~ Chuck Palahniuk

Ugh–this is utter bullshit.  A Mississippi Waldenbooks store recently pulled all of the books off the shelves in their relationship/adult section because some ultra conservative nut job was offended by the title and cover of The Good Sex Bible.   I am flaberghasted, not only by the corporate decision to react so dramatically but also because I am trying to do a search on Amazon.com for this book and it simply does not appear to exist!  It is also very difficult to find any information about this book on google.  I came across a couple of websites that state the book was to be released in 2005, and yet there are virtually no real links to find out more about this book.   Perhaps a glitch, but then again, perhaps not.  I am quite curious to know what the deal is.

I never even heard of this book before today and honestly wouldnt be interested in reading it based on its title alone.  But for some bible thumping radical woman in Mississippi, the title alone was enough to raise such a ruckus that every book in the relationship section of Waldenbooks gets pulled and the store manager has had to face the threat of arrest as well- though I am not clear on what charges.  

All this makes me feel very sad indeed.   Censorship continues to creep into our society. I wonder how many realize that the religious fanatics in our own country pose more of a threat to us than radcial religious-terrorists abroad do.