Just hours before Halloween, the day when Americans dress up as something they are not (but must have some feeling about), and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are holding a dress-up version of a rally in Washington. The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear is considered to be so full of mocking hyperbole that the Washington Post has mused whether Stewart and Colbert have themselves entered into the very process they are mocking.

That's pretty ironic. Being so over-the-top that you are mistaken for the real thing might be okay in professional wrestling, but it's hard to see how it could work in politics. Or anyway, it should be difficult.

This is all happening against the backdrop of the usually-fun moon in Leo, the perfect sign for dramatic demonstrations. But Leo is also the sign of royalty. Politics in the United States is becoming such a Hollywood event that perhaps Stewart and Colbert really are on their way to the White House. A recent poll showed Stewart one of America's most trusted newspeople. He was somewhere behind Glenn Beck. It's hard to say what's next, but my bet is a reality TV show featuring the Obamas.

It's been very hard to keep up with all the Venus retrograde news. Women have been in the headlines for the past few weeks, particularly in politics, although in other areas of life as well. And just yesterday, 18 year old Alixandria Mills of the United States won the Miss World Pageant in Beijing. Imagine that such things as Miss World still exist. And the competition was held in Beijing, of all places.

My guess is that she'll be considered at least Vice Presidential timber by 2012.

More Venus retrograde news...

Apparently, over the past weekend the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas asked Anita Hill, now a professor of law at Brandeis University, to apologize for her remarks at the Justice's confirmation hearings back in 1991. Hill turned the voicemail message over to campus security, but apparently it is the real deal. Mrs. Thomas says she was extending an olive branch to Hill.

Hill said she has no intention of apologizing, because she testified truthfully and stands by her testimony. Click here for the CNN story.


Thomas, an African-American conservative nominated by George H. W. Bush, has remained true to his ideology, with a decision record closer to what one would expect from Patrick Buchanan than Thurgood Marshall.

In more Venus-retrograde news, Pope Benedict XVI canonized Mary McKillop, an Australian nun. Among her many accomplishments, McKillop was noted for exposing the "scandalous behavior" of a local priest. At the time, she was excommunicated for five months, but was allowed back into the church, where she was apparently a real challenge to authority.

It's nice to see that the Pope is doing something to recognize abuse in the church and to ratify the role of whistleblowers.

McKillop died in 1909.

First, a bit of context...

When Venus is retrograde, we tend to reconsider our relationships. That's true on a personal level, but also on a collective level as well. But with Saturn sailing through the sign of relationships, Libra, we are even more focused on the structure of our partnerships.

This Venus retrograde has seen us focusing on gay relationships. However, rather than bringing up the issue of gay marriage (okay, New York gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo has come out in favor of it), we have been dealing with the issue of gay relationships, per se.

It started with the story of Tyler Clementi, the gay Rutgers student who committed suicide after his roommate internet-broadcasted him having sex. Since then, the issues have been cascading, most recently with Joel Burns, a gay Fort Worth councilman pleading with teens not to commit suicide. (By the way, Fort Worth is in Texas!)



"You will get out of the household that doesn't accept you. You will get out of that high school, and you don't ever have to deal with those jerks again," Burns said. "Things will get easier ... Please stick around to make those happy memories for yourself."

Sadly, we still have to deal with these issues. And with this Venus retrograde, the emphasis has been on the heavier side of the issue. It has not been so much about going forward with gay rights, as about loss and pain. Republican candidate for Governor of New York, Carl Paladino went on a rant against gays at a talk to an orthodox Jewish group - no doubt helping Andrew Cuomo to make his point about gay marriage.

Then there is the Justice Department's overturning of the Bill Clinton's "Don't Ask - Don't Tell" policy - and of course who benefits from that and in what way is a real head-scratcher.

There are other Venus retrograde stories, too. A woman in Jerry Brown's campaign suggested calling California Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman a "whore." Whitman was offended.

It isn't about Venus, but California could legalize cannabis next week, and sadly the U.S. Justice Department has promised to enforce the federal laws, nonetheless. So much for change in the Obamaian world.