Lee Ardis

‘Animism’ recognizes how animals, places and plants have power over humans – and it’s finding renewed interest around the world

A movement known as “new animism,” which seeks to secure personhood rights for nonhuman beings through legal means, is gaining a following around the globe.

New animist environmental activists are not the only ones using the term. Animism itself has become fashionable. Some spirituality bloggers talk about animism as a way to deepen one’s spiritual relationship to nature. Scholars – from anthropologists to philosophers – have taken a renewed interest in the concept.

Most of these people are using animism in a very general, and inaccurate, way, to mean the belief that everything in nature has a soul. The renewed interest in animism stems from the hope that people will behave in more ecologically sustainable ways if they believe that the natural world around them is alive.

However, as an anthropologist of religion who works with people whose religious practices were traditionally described as animist, I believe the reality is both more interesting and more complicated. Animism is not a religion or even a set of beliefs about nature having a soul. It’s a term used by scholars to classify religious practices through which human beings cultivate relationships with more powerful beings that reside in the world around us.

Horrifying Pestilences Are Starting To Run Wild All Over The Globe

How many millions have to die before people start to realize what is happening? For years, I have been persistently warning that we would soon enter an era of great pestilences, and now it is here. Sadly, what we have witnessed over the past few years is just the tip of the iceberg. At this point we have been perfectly primed for future pandemics because vast numbers of people all over the planet are now running around with compromised immune systems. That means that diseases will now be able to spread even more easily, and this is a trend that we have already started to see all throughout 2022.

Strep A is the latest illness to run wild in the western world. The number of children being admitted to the hospital with Strep A is way above normal in the U.S., and this appears to particularly be true in the western half of the country…

A deadly wave of Strep A infections in children looks set to take off in the US — weeks after the UK was hit by a spate of deaths.

At least two children have died in Colorado after suffering the normally-mild illness, and pediatric hospitals in five states — Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Washington and West Virginia — are reporting much higher levels of admissions than usual.

At the country’s largest pediatric hospital in Texas, doctors are already handling four times more Strep A patients than last year.

But this has not been a typical Strep A outbreak.

In fact, hospitals are reporting that children are coming in with very strange symptoms that are not usually associated with Strep A at all…

One of the largest children’s hospitals in Missouri is seeing an influx of children with bizarre Strep A symptoms – as the outbreak continues to spread in the US.

Children’s Mercy Kansas City Hospital has had seven children in recent weeks come in with symptoms like a ‘stuck’ eye, lumps behind the ear and trouble swallowing – which led to drooling.

Doctors were initially perplexed by the cases – but further testing found each child was suffering from Strep A. The normally-mild bacterial infection is causing a spate of hospitalizations across the US, UK and Europe.

So what is going on?

Read more at: theeconomiccollapseblog.com

Misguided Hope: The Growing Call For A Global Government And World Leader

It appears that the United States and several other countries that historically have called themselves democracies are as of late been longing for a stronger and stronger leader, not a president, but more like a king. And, those leaders who do already rule countries with almost absolute authority are not really qualified to take these ultimate positions because they inevitably end up falling into megalomania.

For example, Russia’s Vladamir Putin started off as his nation’s president, but then eventually became a dictator for life. Now he sees himself as an emissary for God with a divine calling to reunite Russian and Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The end step in the path towards megalomania usually is to declare oneself as a god or even the God. We see this pattern throughout history. These leaders may start off with the right idea in serving their nation, but soon the power goes to their heads and they quickly begin demanding that the nation instead serve themselves.

There are many examples of such political leaders throughout history. Megalomania is almost the default tendency of mankind. Remember Nimrod who was a great leader back in his day. We learned that he and his descendants tried to create the Tower of Babel. Over and over again in Scripture, we are presented by leaders who set themselves up against God’s divine leadership by trying to create their own pagan empires surrounding Israel.

And, in recent years, we’ve been given a number of examples of leaders who exhibit megalomania. Just in this last century, we’ve had Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao. The Premier in China right now, Mr. Xi, is obviously heading in the same direction. Throughout human history, there’s been Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and Napoleon. Napoleon was such a megalomaniac that he didn’t even deem anybody else worthy of crowning him, so he crowned himself as the emperor of France! Even during the pandemic, many leaders began heartily embracing this authoritarian concept, who ought to have known better.

Death Toll In Buffalo Area Rises To 37 From Brutal Blizzard

The death toll in Erie County, which contains Buffalo, New York, has risen to 37 from the blizzard that struck the area late last week.

According to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, 17 people were found dead outside; nine died in homes lacking heat; four were found dead in a vehicle; four died of heart-related issues from shoveling or snow blowing and three people died when emergency medical services were delayed. 29 of the deaths occurred in the city of Buffalo. Local officials have been criticized for not implementing a travel ban earlier; Erie County issued a travel ban at roughly 9 a.m. Friday, but many people were already on their way to work.

“I think a travel ban should have been put in place a lot earlier,” Buffalo EMT Felicia Williams told The Washington Post.

Sex Offender Reportedly Dressed As Woman Arrested For Allegedly Snapping Pictures Of Women In Bathroom, Pointing Pepper Ball Gun

The incident occurred in a Forth Worth shopping mall.

A Texas man was arrested after he allegedly took pictures of women underneath a stall in a mall bathroom while reportedly dressed as a woman and brandished a pepper ball gun when confronted.

Douglas Egan, 45, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and improper photography.

On Christmas Eve around 4:30 p.m., a woman said she noticed a cellphone underneath the stall in the bathroom at Hulen Mall in Fort Worth, according to police.

The woman exited the stall and confronted the suspect, “a male that was dressed to look like a female,” who attempted to flee, police said.

NY Times Sunday crossword puzzles readers with swastika shape on Hanukkah: ‘How did this get approved’

The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah began on Dec. 18 and will end the evening of Dec. 26

The New York Times published a crossword puzzle on Sunday, the first day of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, that many readers thought was shaped like a Nazi Swastika.

No one involved with the puzzle seemed to notice. In a Times column about the Sunday crossword, Caitlin Lovinger wrote, “I love the geometry in this puzzle — so many stair steps! — and feel that it contributes to a certain evenness in the solve.” Ryan McCarty, the puzzle’s constructor, described the design as a “fun whirlpool shape.”

But The Times was criticized heavily on Twitter by people across the political spectrum for what they thought what was clear to see.

“[W]hy is The New York Times’ crossword a swastika?” Daily Wire senior writer Ryan Saavedra asked in a tweet.

Keith Edwards, a Democratic strategist and Lincoln Project alum, tweeted, “This is the NYTimes crossword puzzle today on the first day of Hanukkah. What the hell, @nytimes?”

“I personally believe swastikas shouldn’t appear in the New York Times, intentionally or otherwise. Didn’t think that would be a controversial take,” he continued.

“I know that the @nytimes crossword wasn’t intentionally laid out as a swastika so I guess the sin here is bad editing. How did this get approved without somebody noticing?” Sam Sokol, a reporter at Haaretz.com, tweeted.

‘Jesus was trans!’ Protesters clash at ‘all ages’ drag show

Protesters demonstrated outside an “all ages drag brunch” in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, clashing with supporters who eventually accosted the protesters on the street, destroying their signs. The standoff ensued for more than two hours in freezing weather, according to independent reporter Abdusselam Bezirgan. No arrests were reported.

The drag show, titled “Waffle-y cute: an all ages drag brunch,” took place at the Attic, a bar that has hosted drag shows previously, in the liberal district of Inglewood, Calgary. The venue posted about the event boasting its “fully plant based brunch menu,” with protesters organizing on Facebook with a message of “protect the children.” The protest event page has since been deleted.

“Two women stole two protesters’ signs and the altercation forced them into oncoming traffic,” Bezirgan told Blaze Media.

“Police presence grew from two officers to 12 as tensions kept rising,” he continued. “The LGBTQ side chanted ‘Jesus was trans’ and called the protesters ‘Nazis’,” the reporter concluded.

Stanford university releases list of ‘harmful language’ it plans to eliminate or replace, including ‘American,’ ‘he,’ and ‘brave’

Stanford University has identified a list of words and phrases that it will soon be removing from its websites. “American,” “he,” “straight,” and “gentlemen” are among the forbidden words listed in the school’s index of so-called “harmful language.”

What are the details?

Stanford claims on its website that “freedom of speech is core to the mission of academic life of our university.”

Marc Tessier-Lavigne, the university’s president, previously alleged that besides threats of harm, disruptive speech, and unlawful harassment, “we do not otherwise restrict speech in our community, including speech that some may find objectionable.”

It is now apparent that where official communications are concerned at the university, common words and idioms that conflict conceptually with LGBT and identitarian activists’ agendas are not to be used freely.

The Wall Street Journal noted that administrators have embraced the recommendations of the so-called “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative” and published a master list of forbidden words.

BARR: Banks Might Start Closing Accounts Of Customers Who Buy Too Many Guns Or Too Much Ammo

For more than half-a-century, Uncle Sam has been giving banks the legal tools to snoop into the otherwise-private affairs of their customers. Now, they are monitoring the exercise of their Second Amendment rights.

Thanks to a recent move by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO, headquartered in Switzerland), U.S. banks are starting to build databases on their customers’ purchases of firearms and ammunition. And, of course, they are ready and quite willing to share that information with federal law enforcement in the name of providing a public service to identify “mass shooters.”

This invasion of privacy began in earnest with enactment of the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, which mandated that banks assist federal law enforcement in uncovering, investigating, and ultimately prosecuting violations of federal law.

Virginia Democrats Fight To Abolish Single-Sex Bathrooms in Public Schools

Virginia Democrats are fighting to abolish single-sex bathrooms in public schools and keep parents in the dark when their children assume different genders at school.

Democrats on the state legislature’s rules commission in a 5-4 vote on Monday rejected Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R.) plan to protect same-sex spaces and increase parents’ role in education. If the plan is adopted, administrators and teachers would have to seek parents’ consent before referring to children by different names or pronouns. The plan would also preserve sex-specific sports teams, locker rooms, and bathrooms.

The vote is the latest attempt by Virginia Democrats to block Youngkin’s transgender policies. Delegate Elizabeth Guzmán (D.) in October floated a bill designed to counter the governor’s policies, which would make it a crime for parents to ignore their children’s chosen name, pronouns, or sexual orientation. School districts in liberal enclaves across the state have pledged to flout Youngkin’s plan if implemented.