My Jesus Balm

I'm slightly tormented by the pot of Balm of Gilead sitting innocently on my bookshelf. I was unable to stop myself from digging further into the Twelve Tribes cult that made this product and I discovered that in addition to being generally koo-koo, the cult is anti-Semitic, homophobic and beats the snot out of their children from age two. They used to contract with Estee Lauder to make some products for the Origins line (I don't even want to know which ones, just don't let it be that nice foaming cleanser) but Lauder terminated the contract. Their products are currently available on Amazon. There is also an entire organization dedicated to providing assistance to individuals or families that have left or been kicked out of Twelve Tribes. Once I saw that, any doubt I had about TT being a cult went right out the window. Then again, getting invited to dinner by the Common Sense store so they could spread their love for God really should have sealed the deal. I've been shopping at Walgreen's for fifteen years and not once have they invited me to dinner.

After the unsettling natural food store experience, we walked toward the water and found Plymouth Rock, which turns out to be a load of crap. There is a rock in Plymouth engraved with "1620" residing in a weird fenced-in dungeon surrounded by Zen-raked sand that tourists ogle and photograph, but the signage around the rock explains that that idea of Plymouth Rock didn't surface until 140 years after the Pilgrims landed. So the rock is likely not the landing place but we sure like our symbols, even if they have no connection to reality.

On a much lighter note, if you've not yet experienced Bossy, do check her out. She's hilarious, and I suspect a touch insane. Such a winning combination. It was because of her BlogWhore spoof of BlogHer, possibly the worst name in the history of names, that I finally went over to that site, but became immediately overwhelmed and had to leave.