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Thoughts on Atheism and Religion

2008-01-18T20:28:00.001-08:00

I'm an atheist. But I don't see why so many of us are constant harping on religion's history. Yes, there were horrors perpetrated in the name of God(s). But there was also unmitigated good. Religion, I think, is a fundamentally human thing. It's both good and evil and often within moments of each other.
I would be happy to live like Christ--he left something good behind him (help others) and it was later people who made it into killing and oppression. He died for what he believed in. I'm perfectly willing to do the same.

So I Lied

2008-01-18T20:26:00.001-08:00

I'm not moving the site.

Moving

2008-01-06T15:53:00.000-08:00

Hey cats. Moving to Uber. I link you later, once I get it set.

UPDATE: Noooooo!

2008-01-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

So apparently that glitch in the middle was an edit. He still doesn't support evolution, but at least he'll leave it up to the states. I cautiously coming back to Pauldom.

Nooooooo!

2007-12-28T19:24:00.000-08:00

That was my thought when Isaw the video where Ron Paul admits to being an evolution denier.
I'm sorry, can't vote you now, Dr. Paul. One scientific ignoramus in office in my lifetime is more than enough.
Kunich, now, I suppose. :le sigh:

Post-Bhutto

2007-12-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

In the wake of the murder of Ms. Bhutto (RIP), I once again must reflect on a trend I see in Western politics.
Most of the time, non-Western politicians are portrayed as either being infinitely worse than ours (when they kill, maim or oppress their citizens) or much better than ours (when they stand up for what they believe in and possibly killed for it), when the truth is, they're about the same as ours.
Humans are the same the world over, and the same type is attracted to power the world over--the more authoritarian sort. No matter where you go, there will be a few principled politicians (Ron Paul, Aung San Suu Kyi and others), some incredibly corrupt ones (Musharraf, the leadership of Burma, Nixon, Cheney) and the rest are in between (Clinton, Bhutto, etc.)
Of course, politics aside, my condolences go to Ms. Bhutto's family, and most particularly her mother, since this is her fourth or fifth child to die, in addition to her husband.

Difference

2007-12-19T19:49:00.000-08:00

I apologize to anyone who read this post. I think I was going through a funk.
That may finally be lifting, after two years.
Yes, I know, not really a funk--that's depression--but in any case I was feeling particularly lost.
I still don't know what I want to do with my life, but it's a little better now.

I think realizing that my depression was originally fear of my future, which shifted to general depression after I was pressured into not attending my university because I didn't have every nickel covered (was about $10k short, on a $48k/year school), and forced to attend my local community college instead.
Where it got worse, with idiot classes and no friends in the very beginning.
I regret allowing myself to be pressured. Every day I wish I was at UOP. Every single day.
But I allowed it to happen. My manipulative, fearful mother conned me into not going.
She made logical arguments, but the crying fits after my acceptance and receival of my finical aid notice got me. And the threat of her anger and disappointment if I went anyway.
Her approval means so much to me, and she knows it.

OMG

2007-11-21T18:28:00.000-08:00

So I read a lot, as I said before, and one of the things I see frequently is riots over the hurt feelings of Muslim Rage Boy.
Let me preface what I'm going to say with this: I have no problem with moderate Muslims. Totally cool with you if you don't want to make me A) convert or die or B) live under Sharia law in my home country, or C) blow people up.

But the riots over the Danish cartoons two summers ago made me laugh. I hardly thought they were serious--you set shit on fire (the shit belonging to innocent, not-involved people) because your poor wittle feeling were hurt? Awww.
Seriously, who does that? Didn't your mother teach you not to lash out violently when you were angry? Or did she skip that lesson? I thought everyone's other did that around the age of five.
I find it very hard to take people who lash out like angry children seriously. I really want to just sit them in a corner until they learn their lesson. And tell them they can't have any pie after dinner.

The most recent example of this is the riots in Calcutta that happened recently. Taslima Nasreen is a controversial feminist Bangleshi writer in India, and apparently her writing tends to ridicule Islam.
Honestly, if you can't take mockery, than you've never gotten past middle school mentally. Yes it hurts sometimes, but FIX WHATEVER IT IS (unless it's something like, I dunno, having a spine and a mind and a vagina). Or maybe think about the time the book was written.

Any and every book is the product of its era, so think about it. Would the Pope suggest that someone be whipped for theft? Well, no, he wouldn't. Community service, or maybe work to pay for whatever they stole, but not 30 lashes.
Humans are failable, yes? The Quran was not written by the Prophet himself, but by his followers, the same as the Bible. So it maybe garbled, and thus require some thought to it, rather than blindly following Scripture/the Word/etc.

Yay for the tangent!
Back to MRB.

So grow the fuck up. Grow some balls and deal with the world. Deal with the fact that there is a mind inside her pretty little head, and that she is your equal.

Now, a good question would be why woman are supposedly unequal to men. I realize the Quran says that, though what the Scriptural* reason for this is is still beyond me.

My mother has a theory that I tend to agree with that explains this trend in world culture.
Woman have an incredible amount of power simply because they are women. Men are fascinated by women--the shape, the smell, the possibilities that she holds. I've seen men go to incredible lengths to get a woman, and even further ones to keep her.
By this very fact, she wields power over her man. And no one likes to be powerless, so he puts her in a veil. Keeps her under his control, or that of a close male relative. (A lot of cultures had variations of this, but I'm going to use Middle Eastern tendencies because it's the most familiar to most people).
If he controls her behavior, he controls her allure. He cloaks the mysteries within. Hides them for his personal perusal.
Because the woman has power over him, she becomes unequal.
Why women tolerate this is beyond me. I suppose the threat of death or loss of a protector/income or physical violence is enough to convince most women it's better to give in than suffer the consequences.

*I'm probably not using the correct term for the Muslim version of Scripture, but I'm not sure what is the right one. Feel free to inform me.

Ugh

2007-11-16T20:33:00.000-08:00

As something of a political/news junkie, I run into any number of depressing things--Often US policy is the worst.
I can't help but be frustrated by what I see.
The US is now nearly indistinguishable from the people we claim to be fighting. Torture, violence, violations of rights, and a fiercely ideological rhetoric is spewed frequently. Secret memos passed around. Hiding things from the public. Lies. Bull shit. Misdirection.
I'm probably going to end up with my own file someplace because of this post. If I haven't already got one for attending protests and protesting in general.
I cannot support anything or anyone that hurts other people. I may not like people in general, but I'll be damned if I allow pain and suffering to brought on anyone by a ruling entity without some squeak of protest.
I want to change things. I want to help make the world into what it should be. I want to help other people become what they could be.
You know what scares me?
The USA PATRIOT act was a shelved bill, brought back out right after 9/11.
The fact that the government has lied to me and to the public flagrantly. Perhaps they believe we are, as whole, less intelligent than a young goat.
That it watches everything with the Predator program, which watches for key words and then tracks anyone who enters those key words.
That there are secret prisons.
That there are people who are drugged and tortured by government officials with official approval.
That we were lied to get our nation embroiled in a war that we will never be able to leave properly. The day the Middle East is stable is the day the world begins to end.
That there are cases of people being arrested IN THE US for running opposition sites.
That the American public has simply accepted the various violations of human rights with nary a shrug.
That we've left the values we championed for so long so far behind that it will take some serious, strenuous effort to recover.

And that's what scares me the most--hard work is not something people are willing to do. As long as day-to-day life runs smoothly, who cares about what the politicians decide? Who cares what happens to other people as long as I'm ok? As long as my circle of friends and family is ok?
Neil Postman warned against this in Building a Bridge to the 18th Century. And damn it all, he was right.

If we set our minds to it, roll up our sleeves, and plunge forth into the muck and mire of what the Bush administration will have left us, we can move heaven and earth. The diety of your choice cannot stop us.

But I don't think it will happen. It makes my heart break, but it's true. Nothing will change unless something serious happens. It would take a lot of secretive arrests--mysterious disappearances of friends and neighbors--lots of trials that end in censorship--to honestly change the world my generation is setting foot in.

The nation I cherish--the ideals and ideas that I live with and for--is slipping away. Slowly. There are hints of what we were still. But they are slowly dying away.

And we will soon be left with nothing but memories of a golden past, when every man and woman could have a real trial. When the word of secret arrests reached us, we assumed they were in some forgotten hell-hole of a nation. When lies of government officials consisted of, "I did not have sex with that woman!"

Time for a change

2007-11-14T17:48:00.000-08:00

More than just me, of course.

Need a new, well, government. Need to go back to...*le gasp* the CONSTITUTION!
*Faints*
My generation needs to get moving. We need to make a difference.

Everyone needs to help. We need to tell the people we put in charge what they ought to be doing besides feeling up the skinterns and/or page boys.

Post

2007-11-13T21:47:00.000-08:00

It is generally not my thing to post my real life here, 'coz, well, I like my privacy. But I need to, so I'm going to . Not, of course, that many read this.
So I accidentally (initially) got myself entangled with a friend romantically. (IE, I accidentally got him interested in me). I decided that I DID like him, so I encouraged him. And today, I simply lost interest. A couple of us went to his place, and he insisted on giving us (read me) the grand tour, which included excursions to see his vacuum. And he generally acted immature. And I'm not really interested in that.
But I don't want to hurt him, because I want to keep him as a friend.

I'm also feeling trapped, like I need to escape. Falling into a rut, and I don't want to get stuck. School, do nothing in between classes (except flirt), work, catch up with school (sometimes) and more work. I need to go out. I need to get out. I don't know where I'm going to go or if I can. But I need to.

Playing Catch-up

2007-11-11T14:00:00.000-08:00

So I have a variety of things to say:

1. The term "va-jay-jay" that has become a trend is the stupidest thing I've heard. Sounds like the kind of name you give to a small furry creature you don't expect to live long.

2. Mitt Romney's despicable play on Islamophobia is getting old real fast. "Barak Osama?" Jeesus. Pathetic and wrong.

3. Hillary Clinton--aka She Who Must Not Be Named--is getting on my nerves. She was here in my city a few weeks ago and , as usual, she pandered. She apparently had to pay for law school (oh noes! She's sooooo poor!), and the tried to acquire the vote of the poor and uneducated.

4. Ron Paul is not a racist, and he attracts people from up and down the spectrum. I've seen trannies and homophobes alike at rallies and all sorts of people, too. You're going to get the crazies with every campaign--SWMNBN has her vagin-nazis and I suspect Barak's going to get some crazy Black power people in there.

And that's it, I think

Myanmar...

2007-10-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

Alive!

2007-10-01T21:05:00.001-07:00

I am forever posting that. But I am.

Aha!

2007-07-22T17:14:00.001-07:00

I am HOME!

--
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure:
Ted: Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.

Police Psychiatrist: I don't know why you claim to be Sigmund Freud.
Sigmund Freud: Why do you claim I'm not Sigmund Freud?
Police Psychiatrist: Why do you keep asking me these questions?
Sigmund Freud: Tell me about your mother.

"That's blasphemy!" said the vampire.
..."That's what people say when the voiceless speak," replied Vimes.
--"Feet of Clay" Terry Pratchett

Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.

VOLTAIRE, quoted in William R. Shad's The Whole Truth

My Art Site:
http://dorkanese.deviantart.com

Follow the link!

2007-06-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

I consider humanitarian causes to be very important, particularly when they involve freedom. Go. Help raise awareness of the the issue.

Imprisoning Children?!

2007-06-08T17:52:00.000-07:00

Yes, I just posted, but this is something that cannot be allowed to slide by--imprisoning and using torture-lite against children. By the US government.

We are not sure what has been done to them, though there have been claims of torture. Putting ants and such on 6 year olds, neglect, and such. I do not support torture to begin with, but this is something I would not be surprised to hear about in a particularly malicious dictatorship. Or a terrorist government. But most definitely not the West. Not America.
It is this sort of thing that makes me question my allegiance to this nation, makes me want to move. I love the ideals America stands--or stood--for, but I can never support torture or the loss of rights. It makes my heart hurt.
I would link, but the site's in German, and I can't get my javascript thing to work. Apologies.

I'm alive, I promise

2007-06-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Not that anyone ever reads this poor little blog. I've been busy wrapping up school and all, so I haven't had time to post. But skool is over now, so I'm free to post my little heart out.

Anyway, look at this:
"This morning when Arman Sadeghi and Ismail Salmanpour, both members of the Islamic Student Association activist body at Amir Kabir University in Tehran, tried to enter the university they were attacked by the university’s security guards who were ordered to do so by the university’s president, Dr. Ali-Reza Rahayi, who came to power last year by help of Ahmadinejad.

They broke Arman’s glasses and kicked and punched Salmanpour to the ground until he went unconscious. Both students have been taken to hospital. Soon there were clashes between students and the university guards & Basijis."

(City Boy Blog)

I need to research the goals of the ISA,--and at this point, I'm having no luck-- but at the moment, I support them.

Heartbreaking

2007-05-01T14:52:00.000-07:00

It really is. Couldn't go to his husband's funeral, kicked out of his apartment, all because his husband's family refused him that right.

Not Good

2007-04-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

I smell something damn near civil war coming if Thailand doesn't chase out the crazies of either stripe.

Sigh

2007-04-09T13:43:00.000-07:00

I really hate this. I ahve to write a paper for my English class (one which I was going to write anyway), and I'm writing it on terrorism, and interesting topic. Problem is, I want to defend Irish use of terrorism while condeming all other ones. Perhaps it's because I indentify ethinically as Irish, and my family is VERY VERY Irish. (I've been told to spit on any Duckworth I meet, as they owned the land we tenanted on in Ireland.) I know that its wrong, but I can't help it. I'm trying to work around it. Wish me luck, I suppose.

What Silliness

2007-03-06T16:55:00.000-08:00

It is. What are we supposed to do with all those cows, sheep, and pigs? Let 'em loose? They'll either go feral or die. If they go feral, they'll get into fields, or if they're pigs, hurt people, given that pigs aren't exactly nice. (In my experience) PETA would object if we killed them, and they can't be freed. What is a body to do?

Sleepy

2007-02-23T15:21:00.000-08:00

That's how Fridays around here are. *yawn* Naps are totally under rated, and there needs to be a nap-time in high school.
I should start/join a movement for it. Who's with me?

First posts....

2007-02-18T16:26:00.000-08:00

Are always hard.
Introductions are in order, I suppose. I'm in my senior year of high school, and I'm hopefully going to be atending UOP next year, studying international relations. I eventually intend to go on to law school.
I like debate and forensics, photography, watching current events, writing, and plants. I'm a bit of a grammer and spelling nazi.
I will more or less pop in and out and post things relating to politics, rants, photography, and anything else I think of.

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