From: ................ evil@heathens.unite (evil@heathens.unite)
Subject: ........... Re: The Cat and Tom Show, Here on Alt.Pagan
Newsgroups: ... alt.pagan, alt.magick, soc.culture.haiti
Message ID: ... <hwIE8.14$y31.14003@newsfeed.slurp.net>
Date: ................ 2002-05-15 23:41:17 PST

Original Copy: ... Click here


"nisut@hotmail.com" (on behalf of Tamara Siuda), ie. Criag Schaefer in all likelihood, wrote the material quoted below. So, let me respond,


Dear Craig,

I am so tired of hearing from you, especially after your performance in the "Egyptian Electrification" thread:

http://chipagan.freewebsites.com/Netjer/Egyptian-electrification.html

Your habit of viewing everything as being an opportunity for you to flex your political muscles gets a little old after a while. You already know that the House is due for a nasty (and embarassingly well-documented) write up on the semi-revived Agora, because I've told you this, already. It's just a matter of finding the time to put it all together. Say, by June 1.

Picking a fight in order to cover your (ahem!), politically, is really tacky. It's enough to make me wonder if the Blessed Village Shrine wasn't right about the House. For those who want a sneak preview, here's a look at one of your better moments. Things are still under construction, but there's a good taste of your style of managment:

http://chipagan.freewebsites.com/Netjer/Netjer-idiocy.html

The prose does need to be tightened up, but it is readable. One of the major players in that story is one "KheruSekhmetIsep", who claims to be John R. Hagins of Erie, Pennsylvania, who went berserk and started sending threatening messages because I wasn't willing to believe that the ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet had spoken to him, and told him to look through his girlfriend's e-mail. That, and that the ancient Egyptians might have harnessed electricity. The whole lovely tale is to be found at

http://chipagan.freewebsites.com/Netjer/kheru.html

The prior link? I had placed a post on an old thread on your board, mentioning that I had found the url for an article which I had promised. The only problem was that Kheru had deleted the first article on that thread, which left it appearing in the archives without a title. I placed a gateway post in place to mention that I had found the article, and to guide the reader to the thread which, owing to its lack of a visible title, had become very difficult to locate and recognize. Kheru, and some of his friends then argued that I had done this as part of my evil plan to humiliate him. And, do you remember what this horrible post was about, that Kheru was so threatened by?



Geometry


Yes, that's right, Geometry. There's no codeword there, it was a post about a Japanese custom of bringing geometric proofs to their gods as offerings. How very little difference reality makes in your world, and Stephanie Cass' world, for that matter, quickly becomes obvious in what follows. But of course, I did save the letters, and they're up on display, just in case somebody thinks that I'm exaggerating.

God knows, I would (if somebody told me that).

So, you and Stephanie let reality be defined by a paranoid schizophrenic who had a violent reaction to the fact that I wouldn't validate his auditory hallucinations, and denied that King Tut might have had an electric razor. I've seen some whacky stuff out of your old enemies over in the "Reader Circuit" community, but nothing this weird. And the seldom heard Tamara Siuda is presiding over this madhouse, which has to say something.

You know, Craig, I really wanted to put this gently. I really didn't want to say, "Mambo Racine, given that you are the person who initiated that utter nutcase, Tamara Siuda, I think that alt.pagan would be about 100 times better off without you or your friends trolling their way through it". I even was writing, and rewriting, trying to find a gentle way to retell the bizarre events that I saw. But you just couldn't shut up, and let me be as diplomatic as the circumstances allowed, could you, Schaefer? Fine, that's your choice, and you're entitled to it.


Now, what did you have to say? Oh yes, this ...

---

> .. Dear "Evil Heathen,"

Oh, call me Joe.

> .. Tamara Siuda has never been a student of Cat Yronwode. In
> .. fact the two have never even met.

No, but she is a student of Mambo Racine, who I had confused with Cat Yronwode. I am far from being the first person on Usenet to have ever found it difficult to keep the players straight without a scorecard, and I don't appreciate the all-too-characteristically hostile tone. I even less appreciate the effort to make political points off of an irrelevant misunderstanding which has since been cleared up, in public. Cat Yronwode is one of the combatants, and Mambo Racine is another, both of them opposed to Tom. Not that I object to them taking potshots at the man, actually I kind of like the idea, but why do it here, in alt.pagan?

If you decide to be your usual, less-than-straightforward self, and deny that Tamara ... no, deny that Tammy Siuda studied under Mambo Racine, I'll be delighted to pull up a Dejanews url that shows otherwise. Perhaps you've forgotten that Mambo Racine posts announcements regarding the progress of her initiates?

> .. Additionally, the statement you attribute to our Nisut (AUS)
> .. would perhaps better be stated

The statement I gave was a repeat of something that came directly from Tamara's lips, and hand in conversations I had with her, and as I am not about to start calling her "her holiness", I am not about to seek her office's approval before quoting her, or even hers. Comprende, Craig?

> .. given your current argument with the phrase
> .. "Neo-Pagan" rather than simply "Pagan," as the latter has
> .. different definitions to different people;

I now need your permission to choose a particular phrasing, Craig? In your dreams, buddy. No, I will not use that phrasing. It would change the meaning to something other than what was said, as the Western Traditionalist groups that your organization also objected to being grouped with, aren't Neopagan, either. In fact, given your church's stated position that the netjeru have only a subjective existence, theologically the House is a good deal closer to being Neopagan than are, say, the Asatruar.

> .. the Roman Catholic version, i.e.,
> .. "anything which is not Jewish, Christian or Muslim," would
> .. put Vodou into that category.

Um - wrong. The Roman Catholic Church has not referred to Buddhism as being "Pagan" in living memory.

> .. You are correct, however, in that our Nisut (AUS) does not
> .. consider Vodou to be a pagan religion as it is founded mostly
> .. in traditions predating the Classical invention of the word.

Vodou? Uh, huh. Please, Craig. If your group wants to claim to see similarities between Egyptian and Yoruba practice, I will have to defer to Tammy's greater knowledge in that area, at least until I can find a good authority to check these claims with. But the Yoruba don't even predate the English, much less the Romans.

That much is high school history. * groan *

> .. It is also a creole (mixed) tradition
> .. rather than one religious tradition.

Gee, Craig, you think?

> .. This is Her personal opinion and we
> .. believe She is entitled to it.

It's not exactly a controversial one, now is it? OK, I have a belief that the world is roughly spherical, and I feel that I am entitled to it? What of it?

> .. Just passing along correct information before you invoke
> .. people who don't even read Usenet into your arguments.

No, Craig, you dropped by to do the one and only thing that you and Stephanie ever do - throw your insubstantial weight around. Your nisut invited me - practically challenged me - to drop by your group, and make up my own mind about it, in an informed fashion, and then write about it. That's a reasonable request, one which I couldn't deny, but now I've done so, and I don't have to put up with your passive aggressive attitude any more. So, get it though your pin-sized head that I'm not one of your shemsu, and I don't need your permission to speak about anything.

I hope that I wasn't too vague.


........................................................ With all of the respect
........................................................ you are due,

........................................................................ Joseph



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