Bush for Four More Years? Now THAT'S a Real Friday 13th Horror Story!

Stock up on your voodoo candles today!

Just who or what do you fear on this day?

The word is paraskavedekatriaphobia - the fear of Friday 13th. Up to 20 million people in the U.S. are influenced so much by this superstition - many people fearing to fly or even get out of bed! - that it is estimated that this fear costs $800-900 million in business.

What do you consider a Friday the 13th kind of day? A black cat crossing your path? Some people believe that the number 13 became evil because it went beyond the "perfect" number twelve. Example, since Jesus had twelve apostles at the last supper (making the total 13), some people are afraid to have the host and guest list number thirteen because one of the people will surely die.

Who will Friday the 13th strike? SOMEONE in this country is going to be killed today, be it in a car crash, or a gang fight, or a gay bashing. But unlike those who are so paralyzed by superstition as to not even get out of bed, most of us have to face the day and laugh at the superstition. Reason has to prevail... doesn't it? And reason tells us that trying to limit the causes of accidents and violence would almost eliminate superstition.

But America does not operate on "reason" these days. Thomas Paine is passe and Aristotle is too difficult to understand (at least as taught by our regressive school system). I'm currently reading the book, The Age of American Unreason, by Susan Jacoby. It paints our culture as "dumbed down" by Reconstructionist authoritarians like Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, et al.

So, I ask again, who or what will Friday 13th strike?

Will the price of gas go up to $6.66?

Will China call in its loans?

Will George Bush be struck dumb? (isn't that some kind of oxymoron?)

Will John McCain be forced (by voodoo) to tell us what he really thinks of televangelists?

You'll have to get out of bed today to find out.

This is my cat, Katie Scarlett. This picture was caught in one of her more pensive moments, but most of the time she is playing a rough house (that's rough on the house) game of "tag" with her sister, Chloe. She crosses my path a hundred times each day and she only brings me good fortune, joy and love.

Like Dickens' cat, she's beginning to like it when I read to her. And the only demands she makes of me are cat treats and attention (Oh, and that includes wiggling the "cat dancer" in front of her while the stereo's playing ABBA's Dancing Queen.)

Years ago, she would have been feared as a sign of doom or as a familiar to a witch. Years ago? Ooops, I forgot that the same preachers so horrified by Harry Potter books, would probably consider Katie some form of demon.

Katie, let's go out today and make some preacher's day - a real Friday the 13th!

The more I study religions, the more I am convinced that
man never worshiped anything but himself.
-Sir Richard Francis Burton