When did the Celtic Cross become a Neo-Nazi Power Symbol?

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from: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/15/neo_nazis_army/

Over a plate of chicken wings, he tells me about his path into the white-power movement. “I was 14 when I decided I wanted to be a Nazi,” he says. At his first high school, near Los Angeles, he was bullied by black and Latino kids. That’s when he first heard Skrewdriver, a band he calls “the godfather of the white power movement.” “I became obsessed,” he says. He had an image from one of Skrewdriver’s album covers — a Viking carrying a staff, an icon among white nationalists — tattooed on his left forearm. Soon after he had another white power symbol, a Celtic cross, emblazoned on his stomach. (emphasis mine)

Excuse me, but there is NOTHING to relate the Celtic culture, and specifically the so-called Celtic Cross with Neo-Nazism, white supremacy, or any of that ilk. I mean, it’s totally wrong to do, but at least it’s understandable when people mistake Viking or Norse symbols for “white power’ symbols. But the CROSS? (Celtic or not)

P.O’d at the USPS

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One of my other roles is the editor of Facing North, a review site for all things alternative spirituality. Every month or so, I send out a pile of books and things to my group of reviewers.

I have learned to always put a ‘delivery confirmation’ on my packages, otherwise they tend to mysteriously disappear en route. (I once had thirteen, yes THIRTEEN, packages to different people disappear — an entire mailing.) This costs me more money, but media mail is pretty cheap to begin with so I just chalk it up to the cost of doing business.

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One Reason We Are (Still) Together

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(driving home from work)

J: I love you, sweetie.
M: Aww . . . . I love you, too. Where did that come from?
J: I just got the feeling your day was extra-tough and decided to send you some love.
M: That is sweet, and appreciated.

(I bask for a moment and enjoy the love. Mellow good feeling time.)

J: You are not like other girls.
M: Um, no.
J: I mean . . . candy and chocolate just doesn’t cut it. . . . Flowers, sometimes.
M: Flowers, often. But yes. It is hard to cheer me up sometimes.

(moment of silence)

M: I’m sort of an odd duck that way.
J: That’s just it, you’re not a duck at all. It’s one of the great things about you.
*beat*
J: You’re a swan.
M: Well, that’s lovely. (I’m thinking about swans now.)
J: Oh yeah. Swans are beautiful, graceful, lovely . . . .

We say together: “And vicious, vicious, beasts!”

*laughter*

J: I’m so glad you found that funny.

A final ‘raspberry’ from Mercury

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Not long ago, I spent a bit more than an hour creating a wishlist (at wishlist.com). Today I went to update it (since we got some DVDs over the weekend) and I accidentally deleted it.

You see, the were the first entry duplicated the second entry, so I deleted the first entry, not realizing it was a listing for the ENTIRE wishlist. Now, I think there’s some poor design on wishlist’s part, but mostly this was operator error.

I’m not sure I have the energy to recreate that list.

Slogging through Resumes

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I know this is a terrible job market . . . but that means it is all the more necessary for applicants to pay attention to the advertisements.  I’ve written about this before, but things have gotten a lot more intense this time.

We’re hiring an administrative assistant, having been without as a budget-cutting measure for a year now. We’re very clear about what we want in an ideal applicant. And, as usual, I am very specific about what I want from applicants: a cover letter, a resume, and salary expectations. (Don’t believe me? Here’s the post, at least until it expires on CL.)

I got 25 responses within an hour of posting the ad. And 120 in six hours, when I stopped checking my office email. Today I have another 50+ to input. My guess is that I’ll have 300 resumes to review before the weekend is over. Look at that figure for a moment: three HUNDRED resumes.

I said it before: you’ll get a lot further in the process if you write your cover letter to me. But you are now going to get an automatic rejection if you don’t include the items I specifically requested: a cover letter, a resume, and your salary expectations. I

I started out willing to ask people for a cover letter/writing sample — now I just mark the person ‘no’. I may lose a great candidate, but I doubt it. In fact, my impressions is that the people who don’t bother to compose a cover letter have little or NO relevant experience.

What a waste.

Facing North Update!

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Despite Mercury retrograde, Facing North has been updated! It’s a great collection (as always) of honest opinions about items of interest to our community. I’ve got an even dozen reviews of books, ‘tools’, and CDs, some old, some hot off the presses.

Michele Morgan and I did a fun interview a few months back, and that’s been posted for you to enjoy.

Mark Lesser wrote a couple of articles for me, each based on the idea that doing less means you’ll do more. It’s a groundbreaking idea in this day and age of busyness. My review of his book (Less: Accomplishing More by Doing Less) will be in next month’s update. I can tell you now that it is making em think very carefully about certain assumptions I’ve been making for a decade or more.

Brooks Palmer gave me a great article (Clutter Busting!) which feels timely for all of us looking at our spring cleaning rituals.

All in all, a nice bunch to add to one of the largest collections of reviews of interest to the Pagan and alternative spirituality community. (And yes, it is free.)

Check it out!