**UPDATE** Within an hour of posting this retraction video this girl closed her YouTube account and all her videos are gone.  I heard someone has started to repost the videos but I haven’t seen them, just other people’s response videos with bits of her original posts added in.  None of the videos or her page will be available for viewing unless you can find them somewhere else.  Also, there was a rumor that quickly spread on YouTube that a viral video group called LaughAloneTV actually created TamTamPamela and claimed the rights to her videos, a rumor that LaughAloneTV has denied on their Facebook fan page.

I managed to find someone that reposted this “retraction” video so you can now see it here.

I have a problem here…actually I have a few.

A) If, in fact, this chick has been trolling for over a year making videos like this, she has put way too much time, thought, and energy into creating a lot of hate around her.  Just about all of her videos have created problems and given her a rash of hate messages and people opposing her views.  I don’t understand why anyone would want to senp that kind of time creating such intentional hate (but then, that’s what trolls do).

B) I honestly don’t believe that she’s been trolling this whole time.  If she really has been she did a brilliant job by placing things like crossings and religious items randomly round the rooms she’s in when she make some of her videos and wearing religious jewelry a lot of the time.  Again, too much time and energy for something so counterproductive…for over a year!!!

C) Frankly I think this is a girl that got busted.  Honestly how could even the best (i.e. worst) troll not realize that making a video like that would become such a huge problem??!!  I mean, this isn’t just talking about wanting to have God wake up all the non-believers around her but praising God for destroying part of Japan.  SERIOUSLY!?!?!  You thought you were being funny or witty or ironic?!  Not in the slightest and that’s what trolls go for…and this is none of that.

So personally I don’t buy it.  But now hopefully she’s just going to fade off into the ether and we’ll be done with that crap.  But honestly I think that people who troll like THAT (if that is honestly and truly what she was doing) are incredibly awful.  “Letting the cat out of the bag” doesn’t make any of this OK; frankly I think it’s worse because of the calculated aspect that is implied that, if she was just some brainwashed crazy born-again chick out of a Jesus Camp situation, wouldn’t have been as pronounced.

Either way…enough of this.

**UPDATE** So since her account is closed and the videos are gone, a few really great comments were made on my Facebook page that I thought were worth mentioning.  This video, when compared to her others when you were able to see them, was very different in feel and tone.  It was forced.  Her face seemed almost different…she seemed pale and scared.  So either this really is a girl that was told by someone “you’ve gone too far, get it offline” or she is an actress of Oscar proportions and Martin Scorsese better give her a call and cast her in something quickly!

Today I saw this and I nearly lost it…
***UPDATE***She has since closed her account (see my post “Trolling? Or Busted?”) but someone has reposted this video in an article online so here it is for those that still haven’t seen it.

Did you hear that!?! Seriously!! The loss of thousands of lives in horrific earthquake and tsunami in Japan is a result of the prayers of people wanting Atheists to start believing that the Bible and their God is real.

Loving!?!  Where is love here?  Overjoyed!?!  Overjoyed at the death and destruction in a major country of the world where billions of people live and where millions of people live their lives with their families in peace who are now dead, displaced, separated from their loved ones…their lives altered forever!?!  This is the answer to a prayer!?!  This is the way you want to see your message come across to people?  You want people to believe in your ways through death, destruction, and fear!?!

I’m appalled.  I’m sick at the thought that someone could look at something as tragic as this, knowing that this isn’t the end of the event, and say “God is answering our prayers!”  Would it still be an answer to your prayers if you had friends or family there?  Would it still be an answer to your prayers if you were there when it happened?  And what about the Christians that died as a result of the “answer to your prayers”?  Just a few necessary casualties in your cerebral holy war?  I don’t get it!!!

So TamTamPamela, according to her YouTube profile, is 22.  She lists her interests as “Reading the Bible, praying/fasting, worshiping God Almighty with every breath I take…” Her whole bio on her YouTube page is just filled with frightening quotes like:

“Nobody has the right to worship on this planet any other God than Jehovah. And therefore the state does not have the responsibility to defend anybody’s pseudo-right to worship an idol.”
–Rev. Joseph Morecraft, Chalcedon Presbyterian Church

And she lists her favorite quote as being:

“I don’t know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.”
–President George Bush, August 27, 1988

Since she doesn’t do a lot to let you really know who she is on her YouTube page I did a little looking and found out that, yes she is 22, and her name is Pamela Foreman and that she’s from Tampa, Florida.  Someone on a forum I found managed to (supposedly) find her address and phone number and posted it online for everyone to see and apparently utilize as they see fit.  I’ll be honest and say I’ll be watching to see what sort of fallout she might feel from this because in the time that I was on her YouTube page I saw the views of that video go from about 60,000 to 154,000 in about 20 minutes.  And let’s just say she’s NOT getting a lot of support.  If people start to find this girl’s phone number I think it’s going to be one hell of a busy night at her house.

So this nimrod is now getting her 15 minutes by being crazy and thanking her violent and vengeful god for killing thousands of people to try and get people to become born-again.  This is what I don’t understand when it comes to the whole “our god is loving god” logic.  I understand the idea of destruction within the cycle of life and I get the ideas of vengeful gods and all that, but I have an issue with finding the love in acts of vengeance and violence, even within my own faith.  It’s one of those spiritual struggles I suppose.  But I think this sort of joy over something like this is just sick.

The sick part of me wants to watch more of her crazy videos but I fear it will just make me more enraged.  From what I have seen of her list of videos she sure has a few bones to pick with the Atheists.  Just…wow…

A search of the BBC News site turned up a few different pieces with update or post dates of Oct 30th to Nov 1st including these:

Druids, witches and other Pagans celebrate festival of Samhain

Druids mark festival after becoming official religion

Paganism: a modern religion

However the specific piece that seems to be getting the attention from Mike Judge and the Christian Institute is one by BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott entitled “Pagans celebrate Halloween as part of the country’s newest religion” which has a short video clip, only slightly more than a minute and a half in length, and a full article attached to it.

There is also this piece from BBC editor Kevin Bakhurst titled “BBC reports on pagans at Halloween” which also talks about the accusations pointed at the BBC for reporting on the Pagan activities at Samhain and Halloween and how the BBC seems to be making an attempt to push Paganism into the mainstream while downgrading Christianity.

With the recent changes of the legal status of the Druid religion in the UK at the early part of October, it’s not much of a surprise to see local Druids and Pagan groups finding their way into the news media.  It’s also not uncommon given that it is Halloween and Samhain, a time that is rooted in ancient Pagan practices which, even when veiled by pop culture and  modern society, are still going on today when every child goes trick or treating and when each of us dresses up in a costume.  So why the sudden surprise about the attention to Pagans in the media in the UK?  It seems that some feel this even which they feel received “extensive coverage” was such a minority even that there must be some sort of underlying agenda to represent Paganism at length.

The BBC has both given the “no comment” statements about the coverage and then, in contrast, had Kevin Bakhurst’s op-ed piece explaining that the BBC is using opportunities like this one to explore the varied beliefs of the people of the UK.  This still seems to concern a handful of Christians and Christian groups.  Andrea Williams, the director of the Christian Legal Centre, was quoted in an article in the Telegraph as saying  “It’s not always healthy to represent such beliefs as paganism as mainstream…” and  “It’s vital that our national broadcaster remembers our great Christian heritage and all the precepts that come from it that are good for the nation.”

So are the Christian majority feeling as though the are being somehow pushed aside for the “new religion” of the UK?  In a brief article on Gather written by Doug York titled “BBC Criticized for Halloween Pagan Coverage” he makes it clear that he feels the change of the Druids legal status is creating an environment that could lead the way for the minority to become the majority, something he seems to feel is already beginning to happen. “…but when the majority is pushed out, and the minority gains majority coverage, people get annoyed. That’s what is happening in the United Kingdom.” He also makes the estimation that this is what’s happening here in the US with the Christian community clashing with not only Pagans but the Muslim community saying “It is happening in the United States as well, and Christians are waking up to the one-sided reporting, not just of pagans but of Muslims as well.”

It will be interesting to see if anything more comes of this and if the BBC makes any official comments or statements as the week carries on.  It’s probably more likely that, with Halloween now falling into the rear view the controversy will die down and the Druids and other Pagans will fall back into obscurity until Winter Solstice events at Stonehenge become planned.

I think it’s a bit odd that there has been so much surprise Pagan groups, Pagan events, and Pagan related articles in general should dominate the news during the time of a Pagan rooted holiday.   And while the Druids got their legal status in the UK and Paganism and Wicca are fast growing in the UK and around the world, I hardly think that the Christians in the UK need to worry about being overrun by Pagans and being made to be the minority any time soon.  Maybe instead it’s time for the Christians to realize they aren’t the only ones there and that there’s plenty of room for the Pagans to life side by side with them.

Welcome back! So the reason I wanted you to check that story out first is because that will be the whole basis for this slightly ranty post that I’m going to toss at you all here. When I write at Examiner.com I write from a more journalistic point of view. It’s not a blog, it’s a new site. So I write in a different way. Here it’s a whole other game. I try and keep my ranting down to a low roar when I can and I try not to let it get out of hand but this is a topic that, quite frankly, pisses me off every year.

Most retail companies acknowledge and understand that this is a big world. There are lots of people that believe lots of things. Most of those people don’t believe in the same thing. When the winter holiday season comes around there are many different holidays taking place. I know that there are people still living under the delusion that this is a Christian nation, but it’s not. Christianity is not the “state religion”. So why on earth would it be expected that at this time of year the only religious holiday that should be publicly acknowledged is that of the Christian faith? Why is it that when retailers are trying to make all their customers of all different walks of life and spiritual persuasions feel included in the holiday does a section of one religion have to come up and have what often boils down to a temper tantrum about their not being the exclusive holiday of choice, or at least being head of the pack?

Now, I know not all Christians feel this way. I know there are plenty of open and accepting Christians out there that are find with those of other faiths openly practicing and acknowledging their faith at this time of year. But I have to ask one question; where are they all!?!? Why is at that they aren’t standing up and opposing these right-wing conservative Christians and saying “No! We don’t all feel this way! We say Happy Solstice, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa to all!” Maybe it’s just that it all again boils down to the issue of those that are talk the loudest know the least.

I’d like to tell them all to remember us evil Witchcraft practicing Pagans when they’re handing out presents from under their tree this year.

So I say no more being quiet during the holidays! If you don’t celebrate Christmas because you’re not a Christian then stand up and tell people you celebrate Yule or Modranect or Festivus if that’s what you honor! Don’t lie down and fall in line with everyone else because it’s easy! This path isn’t about “easy”; if you want to just toe the line there are lots of other places and faiths to do that in. Most of us have no problem standing up and being “proud Witches” during the month of October to set the record straight about Samhain and Halloween but then we hide back under our proverbial rocks and let Christmas often overshadow the fact that we celebrate something different. Don’t let the winter holiday season be a time for sitting down. Stand up like you do at Samhain. Celebrate Christmas with your family if that’s what you do, but at the same time acknowledge your Pagan path and don’t let the craziness and commerce of the season cause you to miss out on honoring one of the most spiritual times of the year in our tradition.

For those that are in the broom closet, I know this can be a tough time of year. But do what you can to acknowledge and accept your different belief and honor that holiday as well. Being in the closet with your beliefs is no excuse for doing nothing to honor your path this time of year.

If you are truly a Witch and a Pagan then you are one 365 days a year, not just the 31 days of October.

Mood: pissed off