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Ladies, this is for you. Sorry gents, unless you are feeling particularly girlie, you might want to skip this one. What Greek Goddess are you? N.S. Gill’s Ancient History Blog brings you this fun little quiz to determine which one you most resemble. I’m Athena by the way, a pleasant surprise. Have fun, and guys, go ahead and try it for your favorite significant other.

An extraordinarily good post by Media Matters, reprinted at Alternet. While the media wastes our time telling us about Jesse Jackson’s gaffe, McCain’s unbelieveable statement about Social Security being a “disgrace” goes almost unreported.The selacious wins out over serious issues once again, but not if you follow the link.

Glenn Greenwald reports in a well documented post that Johnny Mac is doing the same thing as Bush did as candidate. And what would that be? Well, stacking the deck as they say. People who seem to be against the old codger are being forcibly evicted from his “open” town meetings. Furthermore, he’s hired the same snake that Bush used for these very events. Bushiness as usual it seems for McBush, and its all negative ain’t it?

A good recipe can still be found here. Nothing is better in the late fall and winter than chili, and nothing sounds better to me with chili than cornmeal biscuits. I loved this recipe from A Mingling of Tastes. If you are inclined pop over and make a copy for yourself.

If you haven’t had a chance, drop by Dancing with Fire run by a dude name Kurt, with a fine sense of anger/humor. We think alike which is why I like him. His post on why you should vote for McCain is worth the trip!

Linda at Essential Estrogen has a wonderful piece with some nice links about the media and how it continues to fail Americafor the most part. She has the amazing opportunity to interview Helen Thomas, so well known to those who follow the White House journalists. She also has remarks from Bill Moyers. Both are worth reading. We bloggers are about the only thing going these days in trying to ask the tough questions and point out the truth as we see it. I as always know I’m on the bottom of this long ladder by I do feel the need to alert people to all the missed questions and missed research that is lacking in the major news media these days. This article is worthwhile.

The Republicans tout “free-market” economies as the only sensible way to go. Let business alone, and all will be fine. But is that true? No, not the fine part, we know that isn’t true, just look around. But have we ever had “free-markets?” Professor Steven Conn takes us on a historical trip to the so-called Gilded Age when free markets were alleged to have held the day. It wasn’t true then, and it’s not true now. It’s really about government supporting business, giving them what they want. Learn as I did that it ain’t really so, this laissez-faire they keep talking about.

Sr. Joan Chittister weighs in on the latest disciplinary action taken against Sr. Louise Lear. She cautions that the Catholic Church is punishing questioning Catholics instead of those who actually do evil things. Moreover, many who are excommunicated historically have a nasty habit of ending up being sainted in later years. Does this suggest we ought to temper our use of punishment in the Church? She sees some evidence of that in Pope Benedict’s fine warning to the Anglicans to not divide over their issues of homosexuality and women. Perhaps he is also speaking to the ultra right wing wingnuts in his own Church. I hope so.

There are things that the internet is perfectly adapted to. This is one of them. Live Science reports that biblical scholars are intent on putting together an entire online copy of the oldest copy of the New Testament. Bit and pieces are scattered around the globe, but the internet can bring them all together. I for one will be excited to see it. Look for Codex Sinaiticus to be available next July. The Codex shows a different ending for Mark that we are accustomed to, and books that were not admitted to the official canon, such as the Epistle of Barnabus.

I find that one of the things I do most here is clear up stuff the media fails to clear up. Of course, I’m reporting mostly what others are doing, and simply picking it up for you. Passing it along as it were. I think it might be worthwhile if you subscribe to Media Matters. They try to pick up and research virtually every statement and claim made by the candidates and where they are wrong. I can’t of course begin to do them all, so if you want to be updated on the truth instead of the lazy person’s version which is passed off to you by mainstream media, the hop over to http://mediamatters.org and pick up a subscription to their feed or get their newsletter. You will be glad you did so you can cut through the crap.

Raising Yousuf and Noor takes reports a story sent to her by a Palestinian man and his Gaza born wife. Their trials and tribulations living in West Bank Ramallah, occupied by the Israelis. Sounds a bit like living in Baghdad these days under the US occupation. These vignettes of life that others are forced to lead, remind us in the states, just how very lucky we are by comparison.

What many of us fail to realize is that history is seldom over. What? Well I mean that we keep finding new stuff that helps us understand what happened, and then somebody writes a revision of what we thought we knew. The advent of technology busting out all over has indeed helped this process immeasurably. Techniques for extracting text from what fifty years ago might have been unthinkable rags offer insights into history never before dreamed of. History is written by not only the winners but also the rich. Now efforts are being made to uncover a bit more of real life in Egypt in the vicinity of 300-30 BCE. Read about the fascinating methods used and what is being uncovered at rogueclassicism.

Well these are the bits and pieces I’ve collected over the week. Hope you find a link or two that tickles your fancy.