Do you believe in magic?

 For all our supposed rationality, we can't shake off our ancestors' belief in the supernatural, whether sparked by Harry Potter or some religious cult.  Look on your cable TV menu.  There's something called the Travel Channel, which used to be about vacations and cruises and such.  Recently I noticed that it's wall-to-wall yetis, haunted houses, UFO "evidence" and a show called "Beyond the Unknown," which really makes no sense.  None of it makes sense, but somebody is watching it.  There are sponsors.

I wasn't surprised to read, in the highly rational Guardian, that Irish feminists have adopted the sheela-na-gig, a medieval depiction of a woman proudly displaying her vulva, as a "symbol against misogyny" as they memorialize the women who were abused by Catholic Church institutions like Magdalene laundries.  These startling stone carvings are all over Ireland, including churches, and probably were meant to invoke easy childbirth from whatever goddess prevailed before Christianity was introduced.  

In an interview with Jonathan Swan, Lindsey Graham attributes similar supernatural powers to his own dark lord.  "There's something about Trump.  There's a dark side.  And there's some magic there.  What I'm trying to do is just harness the magic."  Lindsey, the sorcerer's apprentice, sees Trump as someone who can make the Republican Party "bigger, he can make it stronger, he can make it more diverse.  And he also could destroy it."  Or presumably turn Graham into a newt.  They've got the golden idol, it's time for the sacrifices.

The Dalai Lama, who is 85, received a covid vaccination at a hospital in Dharmsala, India.  When he is reincarnated, will his new body be immunized?  I really don't understand how this works.  I suppose it won't matter if he becomes a butterfly.

All feminists could learn from democracy protesters in Myanmar.  "Women, who are front and center in these protests, have strung up their htameins, the traditional sarong worn in Myanmar, and their underwear and bras on clotheslines around protest zones.  Soldiers and police are reluctant to walk under them because of superstitious beliefs that these women's garments can sap them of their masculinity and bring bad luck."  I wonder if that would work in Minneapolis, where police are already being terrified by crowds carrying flowers and Black Lives Matter signs.  

Yes, it's International Women's Day.  Burger King stepped on its Whopper with an especially maladroit tweet, but it was eclipsed by a Baptist preacher named Stewart-Allen Clark of Malden, Missouri, who put on a Wonder Woman jersey to hide his gut and to deliver a sermon about wives' responsibility to be thin and attractive or hit the road.  They should in fact aspire to be "trophy wives," and not surprisingly, Pastor Clark's idea of a brass figlagee is Melania Trump.   Can't afford daily botox and kidney enhancement?  Get a second job.  The pastor is on leave following the completely unexpected uproar caused by his interpretation of the Gospel According to Weight Watchers.  No doubt Tin-tray Tucker will have a homily about how he was cancelled by the feminazis.

Which reminds me:  This is the first IWD since the death of Rush Limbaugh, whose death certificate lists his occupation as "GREATEST RADIO HOST OF ALL TIME," evidently his wife's idea.  I think Jean Shepherd, Bob Fass, Studs Terkel, Long John Nebel, John Henry Faulk, Fred Allen, Bill Watson, John Gambling (both of them), Don Cornell, Martin Block, Milton Cross, Rosko, Allison Steele, Larry Josephson, Garrison Keillor, Major Bowes, Steve Post, Delphine Blue, Phil Schaap, Stephanie Miller and about 700 other people might have something to say about it.  But she's free to carve that on his headstone, which I understand will be a granite urinal.