In Alignment

Beginning last week five planets – Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars -lined up near the moon.

This week  the three Abrahamic faith traditions–Judaism, Christianity and Islam–as major annual observances overlap this year.   Muslims will be midway through their month-long observance of Ramadan, during which they purify their intentions, words and actions. On April 2nd, Christians will celebrate Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week leading up to redemption on Easter Sunday with the resurrection of Jesus. On April 5th, Jews will celebrate their liberation from bondage during the feast of Passover.

Opportunities for “a dawning” as the old ’69 song goes?

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25 thoughts on “In Alignment”

  3. antonio, you might also mention the other big (perhaps majority of adherents) religions that celebrate spring.

    such as the Hindu Holi Holi that was March 8th this year

    and the Buddhists. 

    For example in Japan, Buddhists celebrate the flower festival, or Hana Matsuri, to honor Buddha’s birthday. Temples are decorated with cherry blossoms and children pour scented tea over statues of the baby Buddha. In India, Buddhists celebrate the Festival of the Sacred Tooth in honor of Buddha’s first teaching. One of Buddha’s teeth is paraded around in the streets as an expression of this celebration.

    and Higan according to wiki:

    Higan (彼岸, lit. “distant shore”) is a Buddhist holiday exclusively celebrated by Japanese sects for seven days; three days before and after both the Spring equinox (shunbun) and Autumnal equinox (shūbun). It is observed by nearly every Buddhist school in Japan. The tradition extends from mild weather that occurs during the time of equinoxes, though the origin of the holiday dates from Emperor Shōmu in the 8th century. People who normally worked in the fields had more leisure time to evaluate their own practices, and to make a renewed effort to follow Buddhism. The seasons beginning to change is a symbol that Buddhists should change their lives in order to reach enlightenment. Today, special services are usually observed in Japanese Buddhist temples, and Japanese temples abroad, based on the particular Buddhist tradition or sect.

  5. even stephen celebrated with an animation last night

    When the Easter Bunny introduces new AI generated inclusive peeps, the MAGA right wing incites a candy coated culture war. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her GOP posse drag the whole nation down the rabbit hole with them, unleashing a torrent of wild conspiracies and sugary beasts onto the streets of Washington D.C. Will Sonny the Easter Bunny be able to save America and Easter from THE MAGA HOLE OF MADNESS?

  6. Yeah, just heard the orange, mob boss say that not only did the judge hate him, but so did the judge’s wife and children.  That sounds like a not-so-veiled call to his supporters to target those people.  
    Do you think he ever got a full, presidential briefing when he first took office?   Wouldn’t he be telling/selling the world about our military secrets or UFOs or pretty much anything? 
    Does he, like the Reagans, have an astrologer on staff?   I guess he didn’t foresee Tuesday.

  7. The more he talks the deeper he sinks. And he’s sinkin’ fast.   
    Sinkin’ and stinkin’
    E Jean Carrol civil rape trial begins late April. Just in time for Mayday Mayday Mayday.

  10. Justice Thomas in a new hot seat. 
    Justin Elliot on twitter:
    NEW: Clarence Thomas secretly accepted lavish luxury travel for decades from a billionaire businessman/GOP donor, in apparent repeat violation of ethics law. Fmr judge: “It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would do this.”

  11. @propublica
    For decades, Justice Clarence Thomas has secretly accepted luxury trips from a major Republican donor, newly obtained documents and interviews show. The extent and frequency of these apparent gifts to Thomas has no known precedent in modern SCOTUS history…

  12. I miss Bob’s comments about the extreme weather we’re seeing these days. Reminiscent of The Once and Future King, Tulare Lake in California – a dry lake that once was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, covering 1200 square miles but drained for agricultural purposes – is becoming a lake again – it is filling up with water, damaging and displacing towns, homes, huge expanses of agricultural land, etc.  BUT WAIT, there’s more.  With record and near record snowfall in the mountains east of it, a warm Spring – and it’s looking very likely – could cause extreme flooding of the lake and the area.  The link takes you to an LA Times article on it.
     

  13. Good ol’ Clarence.  Brings back “We’re only in it for the money.” Zappa would approve.

  14. Abortion rights voters still on a roll.

    .WSJ: “The GOP’s decline in Wisconsin’s suburbs is a warning for 2024. The Left Wins Big in Midwest Elections. Progressives had a banner day Tuesday.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/chicago-mayor-wisconsin-supreme-court-election-paul-vallas-brandon-johnson-janet-protasiewicz-dan-kelly-3673d166?reflink=share_mobilewebshare

    RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel (FOX): “There is a messaging issue, and abortion is still an issue…I’m a suburban woman. I know this is an issue.”

    Kellyannce Conway (FOX): “Young people are coming out to vote in record numbers, and they will tell you abortion is a prime motivating force”

  15. Messaging issue?  No, it’s a policy issue. Dress up removal of women’s right to autonomy over their own medical decisions anyway you want and you’ll never have enough women who buy your bullshit that it’s anything other than what it is to them – denial of freedom of choice – to win on that issue. 

  17. Sturgeone – Wow, thanks for the memory.  When I was in college I dated a woman radio disk jockey, her on air name was Suzy Creamcheese.  She was a bit to be with!

  18. Supreme Court | The Hill

    The Supreme Court has ruled that transgender athletes in West Virginia can compete on female school sports teams in response to a challenge by the state to allow it to enforce a law that prohibits such athletes from doing so.

    In a brief, unsigned order, the justices denied the state’s emergency request to lift an appeals court’s injunction, which enabled a transgender girl to compete on her middle school’s female teams until the three-judge panel reaches a final decision.

    […]

    The appeals panel is now set to hear the student athlete’s appeal in full, and the case could ultimately return to the high court.

    Justice Samuel Alito in a statement joined by Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting from the decision said the case “concerns an important issue that this Court is likely to be required to address in the near future.”

    [continues]

  19. speaking of the supremes

    Senate Judiciary chair: Committee ‘will act’ on alleged misconduct by Thomas | The Hill

    Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top lawmaker on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the panel would act on allegations that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas accepted lavish gifts from a billionaire Republican donor over a period of decades.

    […]

    Durbin said in a statement that the report was a “call to action” for lawmakers, arguing Supreme Court justices needed a code of ethics that could be enforced.

    “The highest court in the land shouldn’t have the lowest ethical standards,” Durbin said in a statement. “Today’s report demonstrates, yet again, that Supreme Court Justices must be held to an enforceable code of conduct… the Senate Judiciary Committee will act.”

    It was unclear what action the committee would take, but Durbin joined a number of other Democrats who weighed in on the Thomas news; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) called for the justice to be impeached.

    “This is beyond party or partisanship,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Twitter. “This degree of corruption is shocking — almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached.”

    [continues]

  21. Dems – Look those nasty bad people in Tennessee removed two Dems from office.  It is not fair
     
    Me – eh? Those rotten cra*)er tossed two Black men out of the Tennessee legislature for being uppity and speaking when those white men told them not to.
    Me – not much has changed in three hundred years down there.

  22. BB, dammit! You beat me to the uppity black folks reference. Good on you. 

    Fuckging crackers. I feel like I’m back In Birmingham in 1963.

  23. Those Dems can get back into office via special elections.  Republicans clearly doesn’t know how to read the room.  They aren’t the pro-lifers they pretend to be. Gun fetishists.

  25. Tennessee Republicans expelling only blacks reminds me of Clarence Thomas on his confirmation hearing, calling it a “high tech lynching for uppity blacks”

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