American Halloween: Satan is dressed like Atticus Finch

"The real Satan however will look just like Jesus Christ (Revelation 13), he shall come in peaceably (Daniel 11) and he shall work wonders in the sight of mankind in order to deceive them into believing he is Jesus Christ (Revelation 13)." comments from Times of Israel

The ACLU vigorously defends the rights of all Americans to practice their religion. But because the ACLU is often better known for its work preventing the government from promoting and funding selected religious activities, it is sometimes wrongly assumed that the ACLU does not zealously defend the rights of all religious believers to practice their faith. The actions described below – over half of which were brought on behalf of self-identified Christians, with the remaining cases defending the rights of a wide range of minority faiths – reveal just how mistaken such assumptions are. ACLU

America has a devil of problem.  We believe that everyone has a right to practise their faith.  Americans have a poioumenon problem - in over two hundred years we have decided to take the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and The Devil and Daniel Webster as a metafictional taffy pull.

My twenty dollar words  roughly translate to a 'product' in which the story is about the process of creation.   Pure John Dewey - the play is the thing and it is all about the inquiry, Yo!

Take a text, an article of faith, a statement. a word, or even a gesture and make something huge out of it.  Think of a social justice defense lawyer, - a protester has a constitutional right to exercise his free speech (verbally, artistically, dramatically and confrontationally); ergo, the charges against a protester must be dropped, unless they embarrass the mayor who blesses the actions of said attorney.

It is not what the Bill of Rights actually says in the document, but what a press protected, politically paid up pettifogger can make the public go along with at the moment.

Feelings help. Appeals to the breast of a public television subscriber can't miss in America.

America no longer trusts in God and it bans prayer, religious iconography ( unless Muslim for the time being, anyway), rosaries, crosses, or even solemn looks.

However, amid all of this civitas in bella Dei,  quasi-quack collegia et Satanas Wicca vocati sunt. Satan and Wicca are welcome.

I travel to the great State of Wisconsin as often as possible.  The people the grace and simple courtesies offered statewide above the Illinois border are a tonic.

I tend to go to Monroe, Green, Lafayatte and Madison counties, lands settled by sturdy Swiss, German, Nordic and Celtic immigrants before the Civil War.  There are United Churches of Christ, Catholic parishes, and every Evangelical and Mainline Protestant houses of worship up and down the rolling hills of Dairyland.  There is at least one synagogue in Madison and more than few Mosques and Muslim Circles. It is the UCC Swiss and Mennonite Dutch and others whose dairy barns in the Swiss/Nordic counties that sport Hex signs.  

The word Hex is believed to have come from the Teutonic word Hexe, or "witch." The signs are elaborate Rosetta's, circles with interior designs of geometric shapes.  They are beautiful examples of folk art. Some believe they have more to do with flowers, than witchcraft.  Most acknowledge the pre-Christian designs as part of the Alpine German " Sun of the Alps."

I was told by a Swiss blooded American that farmers placed Hex Signs on their barns to ward off Satan - he explained that many built round barns " so the Devil had no corner to hide in."

Actually, they were very practical and sound structures.  Here is one in Dane County near Mount Horeb that was converted into a magnificent home
Mount Horeb is home to Circle Sanctuary's many tribes of 'witches' and Wiccans, shamanns, circkes of drummers and Indigenous Peoples practitioners along what is collectively called The Spirit Pathways.  

In Mount Horeb,  the "Circle comprises a network of Pagan, Wiccan, Goddess and Shamanic gatherings from around the country and the world. Directed, more or less, by Selena Fox. The Circle home page is an extensive informational site, to say the least."  That it is.

The ACLU has no beef with The Circle whatsoever. The ACLU is all over Catholics, Jews and Evangelicals ( Main-liners are totally NPR and Muslims have yet to experience the Roger Baldwining of their beliefs).


The ACLU has no problem with Satan, but sure has one with the Decalogue.

Satanists have found a haven and coven in Salem, Massachusetts , home to full-blooded nut job and 1/2,6789th Cherokee Senator Bessie Warren.  Salem was where deplorables and abolitionists burned witches at the stake in 17th Century, inspiring Hawthorne's Hester Prynne to proudly sport the Big A and causing Arthur Miller to attack McCarthyisms with the Crucible. Roger Baldwin's ancestors ran Catholics and Baptists to Maryland and set the tone for  ACLU the American bed and breakfast industry  

Located one-mile from historic sites tied to Salem’s 1692 witchcraft hysteria, the building — a former funeral home — was inaugurated last month by activist Malcolm Jarry, a self-described “secular Jew” who co-founded The Satanic Temple (TST) in 2013. Jarry is a pseudonym, and he refuses to be photographed.The temple houses an art gallery in honor of Baphomet (see above), a “sabbatic goat” representing the universe. Behind the two-story building, an eight-foot tall statue of Baphomet sits in a plain shed, where visitors can pay to view it.
With up to 50,000 members in chapters around the world, TST has garnered colossal media attention in the last three years. Chief among Jarry’s causes are marriage equality and women’s reproductive freedom. Any issue related to the government using religion to restrict individual freedom is also likely to engage temple leaders, some of whom staged a 2014 “Black Mass” at Harvard University to push the envelope on religious freedom.
Outside of New England, TST has taken legal action against the placement of edifices of the Ten Commandments in civic settings, including statehouses. To illustrate how such displays violate religious freedom, the temple has insisted it be allowed to erect goat-headed Baphomet statues in the same locations. TST is also planning to take on some schools’ use of isolation, denial of bathroom access, and corporal punishment of children. Times of Israel (emphases my own)

Man, talk about outdoing the public relations of NPR and the Unitarians!  Satan is a Progressive and dresses up like Atticus Finch for go-to-meeting duds, I'll Elizabeth Warrant !

The establishment of a religion?  No. the State sponsored destruction of religious liberty.

Happy Halloween!

Time with Rip Pecatonica: Recall Scott Walker? Nope, Can't Say I Do.

Russell Issac "Rip" Pecatonica of Moscow, WI was in Chicago last week.  Rip P runs the Happy Viking Lounge in Blanchardville just south of Moscow in Iowa County and west of New Glarus in Green County all tangled up in Rts. 39, 78 and bunch of Fs, Js, Ks and Ms. The Happy Viking Lounge is more of a bar and much less of a lounge as there are no tables other than shuffle board and pool and no booth other than phone.

You can get your deer processed by any number of habitues of The Happy Viking.  The Swiss Pabst quaffers outnumber the Swedes and most Happy Vikings have more Native American Indian blood coursing through their veins than 32 Elizabeth Warrens.  Rip, as his surname proclaims, is,  a scion of the Algonquin tribe - attributed to the cognomen Bekaaniba or "Slow Water". I got to know Rip during my frequent visits to The Happy Viking as part of my fistful of annual peeks beneath The Cheddar Curtain.

I met Rip in the Loop while he was on a purchase of bar equipment.  I found my contemporary mixed-breed Swiss/Injun Packer Fan on the corner of Jackson and Franklin with his neck craned back and taking in a full view of Chicago's Own 2001 black obelisk structure intruding the heavens, " Dat's one Serious Tower, dere Hickey."

No, Rip. that is no longer Sears Tower, but Willis Tower.

"Didn' day Sears, said  SIRIUS!  Big!"

I agreed but offered to moderate his observation to the more accurate -Tall.

"Big too."

That it is.  With that proportional debate settled we walked to Lou Mitchell's for coffee. As my Badger State boon-chum and master tap-tun was available, I asked about today's political focus.

Rip, will you recall Walker?

"Depends."

Upon?

"On if he done something for me."

Has He?

" When?"

In this past year or so.

"Can't say as I recall"

Will Walker be recalled next Tuesday,? I asked peremptorily I hoped.

" If he done something."  Hopes dashed.

For the State of Wisconsin?

" For anything and anywhere"

Will you recall Walker?

" Depends."

Have you voted already?

Yes. Month back

How did you vote, Rip

"Easily"

By what method?

"Absentee"

For whom did you vote?

" The ones running."

Walker?

"Which one"

Scott Walker.

"Can't recall. 'S a month back. Pricey coffee down here."

On me, RIP.  And do take the powered donut holes with you.

"Ahead of you!"

Always.

War in Wisconsin - Only in Michael Moore's Head

"This is so not the end," Wisconsin School Teacher:

Protests have rocked the Capitol almost every day since Gov. Scott Walker proposed taking nearly all collective bargaining rights away from public workers, but the largest came a day after the governor signed the measure into law. Madison Police estimated the crowd at 85,000 to 100,000 people – along with 50 tractors and one donkey – by late afternoon. No one was arrested.

HuffPo ( click my post title)

I was there. I was in Wiconsin. I was on the streets . . .and in the diners, the bakeries, The Glarner Stube in New Glarus (Geschnetzelets "Stube Style" - Tender veal slices sauteed with white wine, cream and mushrooms), Baumgartner's in Monroe ( Klaberwurst and sauerkraut with a slice of Limburger and draft root beer), Chalet Landhaus ( Roesti and eggs), 10:30 AM Mass at St. Pat's in Hollandale, the BP in Argyle, and coffee and at the MM diner in Monticello (This Dude can Activist!) - the mood was . . .palpable, tasty, friendly, and Walker favorable.

On Saturday, a reported 85,000 to 100,000 protesters convened in Madison for the MSNBC rallies in solidarity with the public salaried union members, Michael Moore, Martin Sheen, Big Ed Schultz, Rev. Pops Jackson and the many, many talented drum and bongo players of the youth generations of all ages.

About thirty minutes south on Rt. 39, the rolling hills of Wisconsin were less congested and quiet.

I arrived in New Glarus on Friday night. In the Chalet Landhaus, packed with the Guernsey Breeders Convention, there was some atmosphere. There was concern. There was anticipation. What would happen were numbers of Holstein Breeders to enter the Landhaus bar room and bump bellies with the Guernsey crowd? " Brown and White - You Gotta fight! Black and White -I know I'm Right!" Bloodshed? I asked that very question of the Swiss Miss attending the counter. " Oh, they get along just fine," she assured me. I asked about the controversy in Madison. " Oh, that should be settled soon. Are you goin there?"

No Ma'am.

Instead, I infused stimulus money into the troubled Wisconsin economy. I wandered the home of Swiss settlers and took in the frosty but inviting air of Wilkommen.

The only Fighting Bob La Follette rhetoric that I heard in Wisconsin between Friday and Sunday afternoon came from a bald priest from Notre Dame University in civies, who wasaddressed as 'Father So-abd So' by his lay person table makes in the Glarner Stube, as Father tore into a giant sized cut of prime rib of beef with a skillet side of Roesti ( a Swiss potato/Swiss Cheese version of has browns that is artery clogging goodness itself - I opted for the creamy roasted mashed potatoes - silked by cream and Swiss Cheese). The shiny headed Curé of Ars opined to one and all - "This is Class War! Koch brothers and the same George Bush nonsense all over. Walker's a dead man. Try the klaberwurst it is made next door."

Yes, it is. Sign me up 24/7.

Welcome to the Village of New Glarus ~ America's "Little Switzerland"!

New Glarus was established as a Swiss Colony in 1845 and incorporated as a Village in 1901. The Village has retained its Swiss charm with Alpine-style architecture, ethnic festivals and Swiss delicacies. The Village is located in beautiful Green County in southwestern Wisconsin. We are just 28 miles south of Madison and 17 miles north of Monroe on State Highway 69.



Monroe is a community of 10,000 people located in Green County's rich cheese producing area of southern Wisconsin. It can be reached within an hour's drive from I-90 by exiting at either Beloit or Janesville; a 30-minute drive from Freeport, IL, by traveling Highway 26 and 69 North; less than an hour from Madison by taking Highway 69 South; and a pleasant 60-minute drive from Dubuque, IA, on Highway 11. Once you are here, the Swiss-style front on the downtown square marks your destination.

Baumgartners
1023 16th Avenue
Monroe, WI 53566-1764
(608) 325-6157