For a third day in a row, Bay Area folks will be deprived of a roaring fire due to the wood-burning ban still in effect. See, it's illegal for us to burn wood, pellets or manufactured logs in fireplaces, stoves or other wood-burning devices because of all the pollution the logs emit.

But don't tell that to a local neo-pagan pantheist who fired off this wicked email to Bay Area Air Quality Management District employees and members of its board of directors.

"I will NOT be deprived of my constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of religion by bureaucrats looking for more ways to control even more aspects of our lives ... I'm claiming an exemption because this ban violates my right to practice my religion, a right that is guaranteed by the Constitution ... When the government controls everything we do, say and think, that's fascism."

When all else fails, the yule log might do the trick, neo-pagan pantheists.