A meeting of representatives from cultural foundations and associations convened by the Nicolás Guillén Foundation, to commemorate its first two decades, demonstrated the undeniable contributions – and above all, the undeveloped potential – of these entities, which are part of Cuba’s socialist civil society.

Emphasizing this last concept is important. As part of tendentious manipulations disseminated by enemies of the Revolution, some communications media have echoed the presumed existence of a civil society which lies outside of the country’s legal margins, and which is counterpoised to popular values and aspirations. In fact, they play into the desperate attempts of the U.S. government and its intelligence services to undermine Cuba’s social fabric from within and turn back the clock.

There has been a dialectical and organic link between the class question and the race question in South Africa from the period since the inception of capitalism to the present post-settler colonial era of the country. Capitalism since its inception in South Africa has constituted the primary or irreconcilable contradiction with the masses of its exploited people. This work deals with the dialectical and organic link between the class question and the race question in the country and the fundamental need not to depart from the importance of the racial factor in South African politics for revolutionary socio-economic change. It ends with an analysis of the nature of the relationship between black capital and white capital in the present South Africa from the structural socio-economic transformation perspective.

The appropriate answer to this question and the one most women would agree with is: men lie, men cheat, men do not respect women, men are pigs, dogs, Dbags and it’s their entire fault! In a way this is accurate however, the main reason women are so insecure is because they lack self esteem!

When a man approaches a woman it’s because something physical about her caught his attention: the hair, the smile, the body, etc. if a man still continues to talk to that woman, it’s because he thinks she not only has a physical attribute that attracts him but also is a pleasant person to be around [or he wants to get laid].

Now after that initial encounter and a first date, if he still wants to go out with a woman, it means he is really interested. It’s not even only about sex anymore [although it still may] if he’s putting an effort into it.

Bottom line is, the man will; not pursue you if he didn’t think it was worth it, even if he’s a loser, a d-bag, unattractive, etc.

If a man is investing his time on you, it’s because there’s something about you he likes and if he loses that interest it’s either because he got what he wanted from you –sex- [which it’s not his fault if you gave it to him or because what or who he thinks you were was not true[to him].

If the man continues to go out with a woman it’s because he really likes her. The male species isn’t meant to attach themselves and settle. They are reproducers and that’s what they mainly do. So if he settled for you, it’s because you mean a lot to him.

But then some women freak out once a guy picks them to date exclusively, and start to make all kinds of mistakes such as compare the new guy to the last guy who cheated on her and lied. They start to question, try to read texts messages, look at his friend’s on facebook and cyber stalk him, try to find out if he’s really with his buddies or with someone else when he’s out. OK, even if a guy likes you, he can only take that for so long. It’s not worth to go through all the frustration to be with someone. No one would like that.

Every man is a new experience. People need to let go of past experiences and experience each one as what they are: new. Not one person is exactly like the other and every human being makes mistakes. Lack of confidence will drive people out of your life. If he’s with you, it’s because there’s something about you that he really likes that makes him put up with all other things he doesn’t like.

If he looks at other women, it’s normal. All men do! Be proud that you’re the one he’s going home with. Yes, you are allowed to be jealous [the cutre type that makes them feel like they are important to you] but not the psycho one!

If he cheats on you and has not left you, it’s because he still likes you more than whoever he cheated on you with. He might be looking for a replacement or he just got bored and wanted to experiment something new. It’s up to you to accept it or not.

But the main thing to remember is that no one belongs to anyone. If he left and will not answer your calls and/or texts, that’s it, he’s gone. There is nothing you can do that will make him come back. He might for the sex but not for the relationship.

Women really need to stop going after the men, women need to be more confident. If he won’t answer your calls, honey, others will. Move on, there’s no such things as “the best guy I’ve been with”, or “the best sex I’ve ever had”. The rabbit could give you the best orgasm ever and it’s just a toy!

He doesn’t call you back, then don’t call him until he does it. Don’t text, don’t try to find out where he is or what he’s doing. If he wanted you to know he’d find a way to let you know.

What women don’t realize is that the fact that they go after these Dbags enables them to keep doing what they do.

Be confident! Have your self esteem up so high that no one can ever reach it. There are plenty of fish in the sea and no matter how long it takes, you will find another one, maybe even better.

Some women are not physically attractive but what attracts men to them is their self esteem. This is why you wonder why such a hot guy is dating such a fat girl while you got such a hot body. What’s the point of being so hot if you don’t value yourself?

Nobody likes insecure people. We need to be the first and the ones to believe in ourselves because the truth is, no one else will and if they do they will doubt it until you prove them right, or wrong.

"Rarely denounced by the mainstream, this stunning anti-atheist discrimination is egged on by Christian conservatives who stridently — and uncivilly — declare that the lack of godly faith is detrimental to society, rendering nonbelievers intrinsically suspect and second-class citizens."

A great article in the Washington Post relating to and supports my recent post "The problem with belief...."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-do-americans-still-dislike-atheists/2011/02/18/AFqgnwGF_story.html 

TryUsingLogic

Perhaps not the usual article I would seed, but I found interesting and disturbing at the same time. In a way it correlates to my thinking, that religious indoctrination is the worse cancer of the human race, because insulting a woman for having a sex-life and enjoying it, is not only primitive but ignorant beyond belief. To think that a woman doesn't have the same needs, desires, fantasies as a man is not only absurd but shows a level of hypocrisy and bad faith that in my eyes is unacceptable.

PROSELITIZATION OF RELIGION: A RECEPY FOR CHILD ABUSE, TORTURE, RAPE AND GENOCIDE.

Two things led me to write this article, one is a case at the Old Bailey, the oldest Crown Court in London, where I had the pleasure of seeing convicted to 25 years the father and mother of my friend, Miss.M. Miss M. Is a 39 year old woman, who went through a gruelling childhood where she was routinely sexually abused by the father, a New Born Christian and the abuse took place with the knowledge and the help of the mother. Their defence was a string of bible quotes that in their view not only justified such behaviour, but it was sanctioned by God. The other was a recent article I have been following on Newsvine, ‘God hates Morons’.

What comes as apparent from such a case, that during the numerous court hearing one had to control not only one’s temper, but also the overwhelming feeling of nausea that such people generate, is that the sexualisation of children is institutionalized in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Jehovah impregnated a 12 year old girl named Mary at her Batmitzva, and that Christians dare call this Immaculate Conception. Paedophiles (who go Church on Sunday and scream Jesus at the top of their lungs) consider this a good thing. I assert that under English Law, or under any law in the Western World Jehovah should be tried and convicted as a sex offender. The worship of such a pervert should be prohibited as it is quite obviously the root of a culture of child sex abuse, rape, torture, and ultimately Genocide (the latter will be subject of another essay) that sees one in four children in the Western World victims of such practices.

The Bible, the Thora and the Qur’an encourage a casual lack of regard for the right of the child from the outset. Common stories in the three books, like the story of Jehovah approaching Abraham of the desert tribe of the Habiru with an ultimatum “Abraham” he said “Take your little boy to the top of the mountain and slice his throat, do this and your descendants will out-number the grains of sand on the beach.” Abraham showed Jehovah that like the desert from he came, he too was barren, empty and gutless, and in fact clearly showed Jehovah that he was more than willing to sacrifice his own son to a voice. Such a man is worthless, not only he doesn’t care for his own son, but he is more than willing to kill him in the name of his paramount worship to Jehovah.

Extreme violence against children is quite obviously overtly or subconsciously encouraged by the Judeo-Christian religious tradition and dogma all over the world. Solomon, it is alleged, when two women were claiming to be mothers of the same child ruled that the child be divided in half and each should take a piece. Once again we are confronted with a casual disregard for the child. Christians love to celebrate Christmas, as the birth of Jesus Christ, son of Jehovah and yet conveniently choose to ignore that according to their own dogmas, the birth of their Saviour was preceded by a brutal act of infanticide committed by King Herod.

Christianity has an Ace of Hearts in respect to Judaism or Islam in that Christians are taught to practice forgiveness. That makes the whole scenario even more unbearable as it allows paedophiles to get away with almost total impunity.

There is considerable theological, academic, legal, and anecdotal material written about Christianity and Abuse. There is little, though that focuses on the victim’s perspective and subjective experience. To understand that one has to understand how Christian theological teachings impact on the psyche of the child that is being sexually or physically abused and their effects once the child becomes an adult; in this respect they are truly insidious. The following themes constitute the basis of the Christian Dogma:

• The value of Suffering and self-sacrifice (which is necessary for salvation).
• The value placed on obedience to authority figures: male God, male ‘Headship’, female submission, Honour your Father and Mother, etc.
• The necessity of remaining sexually pure: no sex before marriage
• The virtue of forgiveness and repentance.
• God will protect you
• Suffering and self-sacrifice is necessary for salvation.

‘Jesus died on the Cross to save us’ is the lynchpin of the whole Christian indoctrination process. Jesus suffering was redemptive therefore ours will be. This are three very insidious messages here that play in the subconscious of Christian Believers:

• We should not therefore reject suffering; indeed in fact we should suffer.
• Suffering is good.
• To be of value we should sacrifice ourselves.

These beliefs inculcated in children since birth shape their acceptance to abuse, and are in a perverse way, a form of abuse in themselves, as children have no defence against the imposition of such beliefs by their parents.

The central image of Christ on the Cross as a saviour of the world communicates unequivocally that suffering is redemptive. If the “best person that ever lived” gave his life for others, then to be of value we should likewise sacrifice ourselves. Any sense that we have a right to cater for our own needs is in conflict with being a faithful follower of Jesus. Furthermore this insidious doctrine sais: ‘every theory of atonement commands the suffering of the disciple’. For the Christian, and more so for the extreme right wing New Born Christian the goal is to be like Jesus – such an identification with the figure of Christ manifests first and foremost as an obedient willingness to endure pain.

It is not uncommon to find survivors of sexual and violent abusive behaviour believing that they have no rights to protection – that what they suffered as children or adolescents is somehow good not bad. Carrying one’s Cross is how the abuse is justified throughout childhood. Christian child and adult survivors of sexual and violent abuse make excellent victims, dying (suffering) so others might live, and believing that this is what a good Christian ought to do. The brainwashing is so pervasive and insidious as children that they will continue to believe this as adults, and such beliefs comes from the Christian message to serve, to obey and to suffer as all in the end lead to salvation and redemption. A message common to all Religions, as in reality Religion isn’t about faith it’s about control.

This glorification of suffering encourages victims who are being abused to be more concerned about their victimizers than about themselves. This is evident in child abuse where children try to protect their, usually, male abusers; in domestic violence where women feel guilty about reporting their abusers, in clergy related cases, like the recent scandals in the Catholic Church, or the many ongoing cases of abuse, rape and murder committed by Evangelical New Born Christians, and Catholic missionaries in Africa, and Latin America that have come recently to light. Here too it is common to see that male, women or children victims of abuse will do anything to protect the priests and the respective Churches and so on.

Serving others before self is a concept that is indoctrinated and stamped in the subconscious of children that are born to practicing religious households from the outset. The very act of Baptism committed on the child in Catholic/Christian households or the circumcision of the male Jewish or Muslim child is in effect the very first form of child abuse. Females in these households are taught to obey and serve the males around them.

“Jesus then rose from death triumphant, victorious”. The allegory of the Christian common view that response to suffering should be patience as by being patient something good will come of it. The whole concept of Christian suffering, of the suffering of Jesus to be more precise, is that it has a ‘purpose’. What is that ‘purpose’, well aside from a series of meaningless quotes from the Bible no Christian can really tell.

Any rational human being with a minimum of intellect cannot accept such views. Victimization never leads to triumph. It can lead to extended pain and extensive mental imbalance if it not fought or refused. It will lead almost inevitably to the destruction of the human spirit through the death of the person’s sense of power and self-worth, dignity, creativity, and self-assurance. It can lead to death through depression and suicide.

Many Christians victim of abuse, and Miss M was no exception, believed they had to suffer. Some were unclear as to why, but that overall that what they suffered seemed the right thing, as they were ‘bad’, within the contest of their respective families faith. If you are ‘bad’ then suffering is an understandable repercussion! This feeling of ‘badness’ came from being abused; but in the Christian woman/child this is felt as sin. Being abused means that you are ‘bad’, therefore ‘bad’ girls and boys are sinners – bad and sinners often meaning the same thing.

Another Christian victim of abuse, a woman, said: ‘it has always been my firm conviction that you are not born sinful, but that someone had to plant the seed of sin deep inside you’. Evidently the reference to the sexual violation is clear. This belief in Christian indoctrinated women and men victims of sexual abuse as children is far more common than one imagines, and the whole thing is further compounded, especially in women, by the patriarchal beliefs that girls and women are “naturally sinful” by nature, inheriting the myth of Eve who tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden. In fact it is a common misnomer uttered by members of Christian Fundamentalists Churches, and also a theological assumption in main stream churches, Catholics, Protestant, Anglican, etc; that women or girls are the main cause of their own abuse. A theology that doesn’t quite make sense, especially in the light of the many abuses that have come to light in the Catholic Church, since many boys are sexually raped and abused. It does ‘fit’ if one sees, by the study of individual case files how the abused boys feel emasculated following the abuse. The sense of personal guilt and shame of the abused, whether male or female, makes it so that victims pray to God to to purify themselves from their essential sinfulness and actually give thanks to the abuser for having brought on them the rightful chastisement of God, in this case the sexual act in itself, to show how inherently sinful they are.

Furthermore, as Christian children are taught that Jesus did not complain about his suffering, indeed he acquiesced, neither should they, as this is the right and Christian thing to do. This insidious form of indoctrination consequentially brings on the concept of the identification by the victim of Christ’s suffering and that will inevitably numb any willingness to confront violence and abuse.

Paradoxically the acceptance of suffering could well save the life of the victim, and here Christian Theology safeguards as well as numbs. It is Un-Christian to complain, and this translates as un-Christian to report the abuse or violence to Professionals or anyone outside the family or the clan. This is evident in the response of both families and Christian communities when a victim does report. It is seen as un-Christian, disloyal, a betrayal and wrong not right! In one Church in Birmingham, victims were spat on and insulted by the rest of the Congregation for reporting the priest of sexually abusing them. Victims of abuse have stated in police reports that their Pastor told them not to report, as it says in the Bible that if you have anything against your brother it should be dealt within the community – you must not go to court or the police, meaning the secular agencies. Neither must you seek therapy, since God and prayer will heal you. These arguments are extremely strong within the fundamentalist Evangelical, Pentecostal, Baptist Fellowships or House Churches.

Did the Christian God make sacred suffering? Does he sanction child abuse by allowing ‘his’ son to be killed on the Cross? A worrisome number of victims of sexual and violent child abuse within the Christian communities actually believe this to be so, ‘If he didn’t save Jesus he’s not going to save me.’

There is a strong Christian (Judaism and Islam as well) message that the adult is not to be questioned; Honour thy Father and Mother. Now in a normal family that wouldn’t be a problem, however in a discordant family such indoctrination stifles the ability of the child to challenge, question, or report their abuse experience. Suffering being already a ‘Christian virtue’ is then compounded by the silence of the victim. The whole foundation of this attitude to authority, which the Church has developed since the fall of the Roman Empire, has been established in the anthropomorphic concept of the Christian deity being a male and in the consequent human relationship with God.

In Christian (Jewish or Islamic) theology the honouring of both mother and father, in reality concentrates on the father, deemed the head of the household and in most cases of abuse, the abuser. The mother must obey the father. This special role is a direct result of the belief that God is male. For most victims of abuse this image is horrific: “I was taught that God was my father in Heaven and that my Father was God on Earth.” Miss. M during her cross-examination at trial.

One doesn’t need to be a psychiatrist to understand that victims of child abuse from religious households come to perceive God as the abuser – Just like her/his father. These are not rational or articulated thoughts by the victims but rather subliminal messages absorbed over time in a Christian home, particularly in the more fundamentalist and therefore ignorant and bigoted Christian homes where the headship of the male is paramount.

A male God teaches female children that males are superior to females, that they are more God-like than women. Male children are taught this legacy from the outset. For male victims of abuse this is compounded by the thought that they are somehow like a ‘female’ in being a victim, and therefore not powerful or God-like; the fact that Jesus was a victim doesn’t help either gender in reality. The trauma is a lifelong experience.

Catholic children and adult survivors of abuse have had to deal with the additional misogyny where the headship of the male is taken much further. In the Catholic Church (the largest Christian fellowship on the planet), only males can be priests, meaning that the male body (not the mind) is a true reflection of God and that only the man/God can inseminate (with a spiritual penis) Christianity into the faithful. Within Catholic Christianity it isn’t difficult to believe, given this premise, that Mass for some (and I wish to emphasise SOME!) is essentially a sexual act. To my horror, I discovered this reading an article in a Catholic newspaper (l’Osservatore Romano, November 5^th, 1995). The author, who doesn’t identify himself, but is definitely a Catholic priest, wants to clarify why women cannot be priest. He says, “in Christ, God penetrates the world to seed a new creation – his bride, the Church. During the Mass the (male) priest allows Christ to use him, to ‘penetrate’ his creation (the congregation) once more – nourishing his bride with his own flesh and blood. The metaphor in such a statement is nightmarish.

This in female victims translates in:

• Fear of God who, with a penis has the potential to abuse them also.
• Fear of priests who just like their male abusers (if not the abuser themselves) have the potential to abuse them. They don’t trust other women who are really misbegotten males (St.Augustine). Fear of speaking to mother of the abuse, especially when the mother is helping in the abuse, either by ignoring it, or by justifying it.
• The beliefs that only men have the skills to help them, since they are ‘man/God’ figures and yet because of that they too can’t be trusted.
• Developing a sense of endless guilt, a feeling of self-rejection as they feel that they got what they deserve because of the natural sinfulness of the woman.

While in male victims this translates in:

• A profound crisis of identity as they cannot see themselves as man/God, as they like women are victims. A profound feeling of inferiority and almost non-existent self esteem.
• A complete lack of trust in women as they are inferior and don’t have the physical attributes (penis) of the man/God.
• A lack of trust in the man/God figure as they see in it the abuser.
• A feeling of sexual inadequacy with women, as they feel their man/God masculinity taken away from them, and a feeling of self hate as they feel responsible for being so weak and sinful that God has punished them for their inherent unworthiness to have taken his shape as man/God.
• Furthermore the hidden trauma that the abuse of males is in most cases an homosexual act, that further compounds that feeling of self-guilt as that is a sin in itself.

One of the most controlling aspects of Christian indoctrination surrounds the issue of purity and all that it entails. The shame of sexual violation is pervasive in both male and females. Shame is linked with self-blame. Girls are brought up to keep their virginity intact, while boys are taught to be strong therefore both feel guilty for ‘allowing’ their respective violation.

The suffering that follows the rape is not just physical but spiritual and metaphysical. The importance placed on virginity by Christian doctrine makes women especially vulnerable after such an event. ‘Dirty and sinful’ is a common feeling among victims, and their confusion is deep.

However, of all the Christian doctrines the most insidious is the ‘concept of forgiveness’. There is no discussion, one must forgive! As it is promulgated this forgiveness has to be ‘unconditional’. One has to forgive no matter what. Though this doctrine of Christian forgiveness isn’t exactly black or white, as if one reads with attention their book, the Bible (In my opinion one of the most mentally damaging books in history), one finds in Luke: 1-3 a passage that actually sais: “if your brother does something wrong, reprove him, and if he is sorry (or repents, in some translations) forgive him”. Nevertheless, accepted Christian theology tends to ignore this and goes for unconditional forgiveness. Christian children and adults are taught (erroneously) to forgive without repentance from their transgressors, and if they cannot they become the sinners. Once a child or adult sais that he/she has been abused the peer pressure is applied to forget and forgive. Why?

Two main reasons can be identified:

1) The person who firstly hears the plight of the victim, in most cases a close relative, simply doesn’t want to hear such a thing because it is too horrible to acknowledge, brings to the surface a feeling of personal responsibility, and puts into question the very dogmas of the faith.

2) The Churches and their representatives simply deny at first, and then if the abuser is a priest or a pastor close ranks, create a wall of silence, and begin to focus in a negative way on the victim.

So what we see is the Church, the family, the friends, the clan all ganging up on the victim, leaving her/he alone to cope with the trauma, the self-guilt and all consequences of the abuse. Therefore Sexual abuse becomes a social collective exercise in hypocrisy!

What the victims are left to cope with can be summed up as follows:

1) Human Experience

Mum will punish me, Dad will punish me

FEAR

Spiritual Experience

I will go to hell, Even God hates me

2) Human Experience

I’ll never trust men/women again

TRUST

Spiritual Experience

I can’t trust God – He’ll let me down too

3) Human Experience

Why is this happening to me? Why me?

ANGER

Spiritual Experience

Where is God? Why doesn’t he stop it? He has the power to stop it!

4) Human Experience

My abuser is stronger than me

POWER

Spiritual Experience

God is bigger – Divine – greater than me. He has control over my life, can do anything he wants with/to me. He is God!

5) Human Experience

Everyone thinks it was my fault. I am dirty, horrible!

STIGMA

Spiritual Experience

I have sinned sexually – I must go to confession

6) Human Experience

I allowed this to happen, I temped him/her.

GUILT

Spiritual Experience

I feel anger, bitterness, hatred, I can’t forgive. I am the temptress, I am the sinner.

7) Human Experience

They all think I am mad, that I am liar!

SELF-INJURY

Spiritual Experience

The ‘ultimate sin’! Now I will burn in hell.

The above shows how feelings permeate both realms and make for a cocktail of trauma that is not seen in secular survivors of sexual child abuse.

As Jennifer Manlowe says, ‘religious language which promotes sacred victims such as Jesus Christ, promotes the concept of a sole male authority in the home, confuses the issues of Church vs. State is an extremely dangerous discourse because it spiritualizes political and social passivity’. A passivity that all religions need, in greater or smaller extents to exercise their social and political control over the masses.

To quote an infamous Christian: “The masses of the people will more easily fall to a big lie than to a small one”. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf.

By David Jeremy Hudson I don’t understand Why we allow poverty to exist Why we allow suffering to take place In this world I really don’t I don’t understand How millions can be allowed to live without food and shelter

New Edition Of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" & "Tom Sawyer" Removes Mark Twain's "Offensive" Words
Should we be editing era period books?

What might the long term results be? Our history as a society rests with our authors and storytellers. It would seem to me, if we edit out the history we are not comfortable with, we may be doomed to repeat it. Do we want to go the way of sanitizing our social history?

JMO

Maddad

I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart that my parents are not like Kaustab’s, in fact on the contrary, they’ve been right there, by my side whenever I’ve needed their support or guidance. This however is a criticism of inevitable coming of age problems that an adolescent faces, in one form or the other and sometimes like in Kautab’s case, how they’re compounded by their demanding parents, and how so often these wobbles turn out to be the cornerstones of their success.

“Dear Mum,

I’m going through a major crisis here. I’m almost as sure about failing my 9^th Standard Maths finals as I am of being a complete idiot. So you can guess the dire straits. Dad has still not returned from his trip abroad for the conference, and there’s nobody to comfort me. I don’t know what to do with my life, not even sure whether it’s any good living anymore. The silver lining is that our school has a provision for allowing grace in any one of the subjects for students excelling in sports. My display in the interschool football championships, therefore, I feel, is my last resort. But for that I will have to make sure I’m influential enough to draw the attention of our faculty and persuade them to enact this provision.

I know you guys are in absolutely against seeing me take up the game on a professional basis as that would compromise my academic progress and all, but the irony is that just at the moment, this tournament is apparently the only way of salvaging my academics.

I know I’m going to get some stick for the appalling show in the examinations once both of you reach home and settle down, but before that I’d need all the emotional support that I can get going into the first match which is day after tomorrow. It’ll be a real lift if you can manage to make it to the ground to cheer me up. Have also warned Aman about the consequences if he doesn’t make it, so please give him a lift on your way.

I promise that I’ll do my best to improve on my studies. In fact I’ll start right after this tournament and will make sure that football doesn’t hamper my studies any longer. Am pretty sorry at being a source of constant embarrassment for you guys. Hope you can forgive me

Signing off

Kaustab”

Kaustab was an only child of a well to do Bengali Indian family, born and raised in Calcutta. His parents were typical exponents of the upper middle strata of the Indian society. Father, Arindab Chatterjee was a real perfectionist, manager at an MNC’s Indian subsidiary. He was all too busy with his office and often carried his job into his personal life both through work and the overall professionalism and attitude, hardly sparing a second of thought for his son. When free though, he used to watch football on the television as a stress buster, a habit picked up by his son. Though, in Kasutab’s case, it ended up becoming a hell lot more important than just being a stress buster that’s for sure. His mother, Pratima was a qualified teacher but aside that, she also engaged herself in active participation for NGOs, organisations for social work. She was a proud woman of firm ethics, an assertive altruist who held helping homeless kids above all her duties but ironically was guilty of ignoring the lonely kid in her own home.

Aman was a classmate and best friend of Kasutab. As a matter of fact, he also was the brightest student of the class, but quite awfully inept at sports, therefore complementing Kasutab pretty well. Without further ado, lets fast forward to the events which were about to unfold, which would take one and all by the scruff of their necks and make them go through an emotional roller coaster so that they would never be the same again.

Pratima was away on some NGO’s assignment, though in the vicinity of Calcutta, and well within reach to pop round to her son’s school for the football match. However, this email never reached her cause she had mistakenly provided an incorrect work email id to her son, due to carelessness or preoccupation, its hard to say. So, its needless to say that neither Pratima nor Aman who had been instructed to wait right outside his house by Kaustab could make it to the school for the match.

Kaustab’s much anticipated tournament, to his horror turned out to be bitter as worm wood. In the opening exchanges of the match, Kaustab, who played as a winger was the victim of a lunging challenge by a defender while on a forward run. Though unintentional from the defender who felt shattered himself afterwards, this challenge tore Kaustab’s favourite left foot apart. While he was still treated by physios at the ground, players and audience alike were horrified by the sight of his affected foot floating like a disjointed plastic toy. Seeing the extent of injury, he was quickly rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment, Mr. Agnihotri, the English teacher, who was one of the very few in the faculty who got along really well with Kasutab leading the way. Their football coach was left startled but had to stay on the field and get on with the match.

The doctors had to go for an emergency surgery to minimise the damage caused and ensure that he didn’t end up being crippled for life. When Kaustab regained consciousness, he could overhear his parents absolutely furious at him firstly for compromising his studies for the sake of football, and secondly to top that, sustaining an injury that could’ve potentially crippled him for life while taking part in a football tournament. They were also having a go at each other for not taking care of their responsibilities. Their rebukes at each other and common ones at their son were cut short though by the doctor, who came in with the first post operative test reports.

“I’ve a good news and a bad news. The good news is that your son will be able to walk again, it’ll take time, but he’ll eventually start walking without crutches. The bad news is that he’ll never be able to run again at the speed he used to, and it’d be best if he refrained from playing demanding sports like football”

“Thanks doc, thanks a lot for your help” replied Arindab

Then he turned to his wife with the beginning of a smile on his face and said

“I know its pretty sick to say this, but I think that in a way, its a couple of good news. Football won’t come in the way of his success now.”

Pratima was still lost in deep thought about the implications of doc’s prognosis and couldn’t join in on Arindab’s positive outlook towards the horrible injury to their son.

In the meantime, Kaustab who had been all ears ever since waking up had lost the plot completely. He was beside himself in anger, aimed both at his fate and parents who had apparently already started rejoicing about his inability to do the only thing he loved doing in his life, playing football, the only thing he held dear in a world which was otherwise so full of disappointments.

As he rose into a sitting position in fury, his eyes were fixed on a box of sleeping pills on the table just by his bed side in the patient room. He cried aloud both out of disgust and anger for his parents as a rush of blood passed him

“Here’s to death. That’ll hopefully please all”

By the time his parents could reach the room after getting alarmed by the cries, he had swallowed a handful of those pills and had almost as many in his hand. Just then, his cell phone rang, it was a call from Aman.

He stopped, thinking it’d be fitting to have a parting chat with his best friend before he bids adieu.

But it was his mother who was on the line.

“Kaustab, please come over to the City Hospital as soon as you can, Aman has attempted a suicide.”

Aman who had a single parent and held nobody dear in the world apart from his mother and best friend had somehow managed to fail in the Maths exam, quite like Kaustab himself. But Aman’s case was different; being a successful mathematician someday was his ambition in life, ever since he was just a small kid. Obviously, he was crestfallen learning that he had failed, and couldn’t take the blow retorting to a suicide to escape his misery.

But fate so had it that Aman didn’t only fail in the examination, but also in his suicide attempt which he executed by jumping from the top of his house’s roof. Hearing the news, Kaustab was stunned and in a moment of self introspection, realised his stupidity, throwing away the sleeping pills. Its quite remarkable how people learn from other people’s mistakes so easily while ignoring their own. So, one friend’s attempt at taking his own life ended persuading the other to stall similar plans of his own, ensuring that both of them survived the wobble and recuperated well, regaining near normal health eventually. Just at that time, both of them were pretty similarly injured though, only difference was that Aman had broken both his legs against Kaustab’s one.

What happened after that? Did Kaustab ever play football again, or did Aman overcome the setback and ended up becoming a mathematician, well that is not really important here. What's important is that they survived to tell the remarkable tale to others.

Victorians were enamored of the new science of statistics, so it seems fitting that these pioneering data hounds are now the subject of an unusual experiment in statistical analysis. The titles of every British book published in English in and around the 19th century — 1,681,161, to be exact — are being electronically scoured for key words and phrases that might offer fresh insight into the minds of the Victorians.

Thinking outside the box - something most Americans have lost the ability to do .....

My views and practices have changed on spanking over the 23 years I have been a father.

Growing up I experienced and witnessed 3 types of physical discipline.

The 1st we can call the Terror Type. This was my drunk mother's way of dealing with children. She would pick up this massive ash-tray she hovered over while she consumed vodka, and threaten to split my head open with it. She never did, but I was never certain what kind of new hell she was capable of that particular day. She was also habitual about swearing she was about to throw us down the stairs to the basement....again still here....but it scared the hell out of me for along time.

The next type was what I to this day considered basically Appropriate. I got the message quick at the private school I attended around 5th grade. That boat paddle over the principals desk really had a practical purpose. Never did that again! Then there was my grandfather. A very religious, hard working and charitable man. He never tried very hard to fill in for the father who was in prison, but the memories are good. One afternoon I was riding my tricycle on the sidewalk along side the garage. I was probably about 5 or 6. He had just planted some vegtables near the edge of the sidewalk. He said "don't ride off the sidewalk, be careful of the plants", I heard. "Ride straight through that row of veggies", he reached down and gave me one whack to my ass. I was certainly ashamed of myself, but I have no memory of physical pain at all. When I looked up he was wiping away a tear. I never intentionally wanted to cause him to be sad again, and didn't until I became an adult. Grandma never physically disciplined me that I remember. She used guilt to the max. She did go after my sister a couple of times with a dried willow branch....that was pretty borderline stuff.

The last is Criminal. My 3rd stepfather got off on getting drunk and beating the hell out of me. Kicking me around the outside of the house, broken ribs, more black eyes than I can remember...why? I looked him in the eye when he was yelling at me, because he told me to, but he didn't like the look in my eye. I went back to shoot the bastard in my 20's drunk one day. New owners at his house, he had died from an aggressive, painful cancer....Prison would have sucked!

The problem is the state, charged with protecting kids from intentional abuse has lumped all physical discipline into one bag. It would treat my grandfather and my stepfather the same.

Parents are now becoming unwilling to disciple their own children appropriately for fear they will be thrown into a foster care system that has less to do with reunifying families than it is a warehouse for children.

We have become a society that is so impressed with a well behaved, respectful and charitable kid, they are friggin front-page news. If our public school's put the paddle back over the desk & parents corrected their children with love and firmness without Dr. Spock, The Government & Dr. Phil peering over the back fence, we just might be able to live in a society again, that with all it's diversity, practiced more respect for our fellow humans. We could actually get the Criminal Justice budget under control in a generation or so.

Just My Opinion...

Maddad

The second thesis.

The American dream of individual spirit is lodged into the head of anyone here or who comes here Right? my thesis is to call this a simple myth, it is not just our dream, it is not just American, French, Japanese, male, female, black, green, old, young, sick..........

It is old, it is found in the cave, it is the ghost in the machine, our genes, our essence, our human-ism, and our animal-ism, the ghost appears and we flee or fight and live or die. it is also the force that makes us multiply, the Mother, the Venus of "wherever". We do not own this dream as a country. We can sustain and make it work and, the spirit of the individual, nature is the key.

Herman Hesse wrote Steppenwolf for all of us to learn the darkness of the individual, the place beyond the fire, the shadows we produce on the cave walls. Not the images of triumph, but the hidden heart of Kali. The thuggery of the coin in the scarf is now the bloody word, the book, the movie, TV.................

We are all Steppenwolf, we hide it with social, religious and psychological make up. The other and most powerful tool is knowledge. Knowledge that is as free as it can be, to everyone, no other option...............

Ingenuity and the individual ghosts in the machine are in us all. We are here because all of our ancestors were able to chip flint, hold a spear and kill for food. We can learn again to sustain ourselves using the tools that are right at our finger tips. Growing food that doesn't kill us.

Our ancestors used genetic manipulation to create a great many different kind of plants and animals with out splicing and dicing small bits of animal. We used the whole damn animal and slowly created more and different kinds for specific purposes. We saved seed from specific flowers, fruits, herbs, medicinal plants that were valuable enough to be kept. Our ancestors took there time in all things because they had to make and use the things that helped them to survive and build humanity. Craftsmanship is the key, we must rediscover that art and science........

Those who are without, the so called outcasts of today, were once taken care of by the tribe, it was essential to keep that one being, person, alive because of their knowledge and history and family connection and the tribe did this together. Sick and crazy, diseased or infirm. These persons were valuable. No excuse for the tribe to waste valuable things........

We were and are still experimenters, builders, makers, creators, artisans, actors, musicians and scholars. Let's not bicker if these things are important. Our ancestors knew this, it is in-grained in our ghost to accept the need for it and to look for it and cherish it.........

We are all Artists, I see it in the photos and words here everyday, I see the knowledge and history here, the lessons and the friendship, the love of the maybe, the tribe is sitting at the fire..........

We have created some of the finest medicines, herbs, potions, elixirs and other healthy, mind and mood altering things from plants. Why play with chemicals only when we still have not exhausted the plant family?

As individuals, and people in general with the spirit of life, the ghost of Kali, the shadow of the night with green eyes, Steppenwolf or even Herman Hesse shows up. It is just the oldest memory of that ghost in our machine, it might be fear, death or just extinction. This one maybe the first one that made us think, fear moved us to gain control of a situation, panic, running scared, that's what other things do, not humans, we thought it out and conquered that first, dark primal emotion. It is mortality, it never leaves and fights for our self everyday.

The last ghost I wish to talk about is the witchdoctor, the shaman, the voodoo priestess. They are in us all, they are the magicians that got us here. Don't discount them, learn from them.

The Universe is still a very large playground and we are still just playing with old ghosts.

I've often thought that chips should be embedded in guns as well - just think of all the new industries and jobs that would result if we used technology to solve problems! Not to mention saving money on social systems that are broke and getting more expensive every day.

By the time any of us had made it out to the playground, it looked like there had been a bloodbath, except for the missing blood.

But something was horribly wrong. Everybody was laying in the dirt, crying, except for all the skinny kids, the fat kids, the kids with glasses, the kids with braces or still with buck-teeth, the kids with too-long hair or just bad haircuts, the kids whose pants were too short, or sewn together at the seams, the kids who were too dark, and that one kid who cant even go out in the sun without putting on protective outerwear, the kids with calculators still in their front shirt pockets, for that matter all the kids with front shirt pockets, whether there was anything in them or not, the flat-chested girls and the ample-breasted boys, and the big-footed boys and long gawky girls. For the first time in probably the history of the world, certainly of this school, all those kids were laughing.

It wasnt easy to find out what had happened. Recess aids around here usually keep their fingers up their noses and their heads up their asses. It's usually not worth getting involved until somebody needs the nurse, and the physical assaults tend to happen too quickly, and the bullies travel in highly organized packs that only look chaotic from the outside, but which means that it's impossible to tell who hit the kid with the obviously bloody nose even as it's happening. This is farm country, which tends to make the cliques even worse, and the hierarchy of power and control at the high school level is nearly immovable.

There was one kid—Clay—who couldnt even talk, he was crying so much. He had gone into that hysterical, hyperventilating stage of sobbing—the kind whose only response is something between abject fear and equally hysterical laughter. But it was impossible to keep out the laughter without letting some giggling through, which I felt absolutely horrible about, especially when I remembered what had happened in class that morning.

Clay had turned in another piece of @!$%# writing assignment. It wasnt just full of typos and ridiculous claims—it looked like he had taken the worst of every other paper he ever wrote, mixed everything up with the worst lines from the papers all his idiot friends had produced, and scrawled it out in a rushed moment in between taking a leak and stepping into the janitor's closet for a smoke.

It was titled, "Evrybody kNows geeks & Girls our Fags..! (POLL----Is ELLA going to Hell? [YES!])"

I had had enough. Him and little gang of thugs had been stirring things up in English class ever since it was announced that Ella had made first-string quarterback. She had made it onto the team the year before as the placekicker, but when she kept getting up after Clay's friend Arnold kept late-hitting her in practice, the coach decided to give her a shot behind center, and, while she wasnt going to make All-Conference or anything, she could throw the ball better than the last QB we had, whose only success was had handing it off, and she could memorize more than two or three plays at a time, which made her the best QB this school had seen in almost a decade.

She also didnt try to @!$%# every cheerleader who came along, and that by itself was a dramatic improvement.

But the kids who used to roam through the halls like they owned the place werent amused. Their parents organized and went after the school board, trying to insert language into the district bylaws that only boys could play football. When that failed, the kids wrote letters to the school paper, which were mostly ignored because they had headlines that looked a lot like the title of Clay's latest masterpiece, and the letters themselves were usually even worse. Their last resort, which had actually already started the day after the team roster was posted, was to walk down the halls every single day screaming at the tops of their lungs that the school was the "worst school ever" or was "going right down the @!$%#ter" or was "never going to be the same again."

So when I read Clay's paper, I decided to make an example of him. I knew we weren't going to get much mileage out of our already malfunctioning overhead ELMO display, mostly because kids like Clay were failing all their classes and we were running out of funding, and so I'd been looking for ways to use it most effectively in the time we still had with it, and I put his paper on it and went line by line—each of his hilariously inexcusable mistakes of grammar, logic and common sense splayed up on the wall for everyone to see—correcting each part and demonstrating how a second-grader would have improved the thing in her sleep. By the end, my red pen was just about all you could see. It wasnt just a final defense of Ella, I thought at the time, it was a defense of everything intelligent and ambitious students stood for.

But that was my mistake. Ella wasnt in my class, but her friend Jason was, and the paper he turned in was the first draft of what he was intending to send to Yale as his application essay. He wasnt pleased that we had spent the whole class trying to convince Clay that he was a terrible writer and was on his way to becoming a terrible person.

"Why did you waste so much time with him?" he asked me after class.

"It's important to help those less fortunate," I told him.

"But why? He's a @!$%#ing @!$%#."

"Jason, stop."

"It looks like we're going to have to take matters into our own hands," he said. I asked him what he meant, and he told me I'd find out soon enough.

So I knew I'd have to break through the blubbering to find out why Clay and all his buddies were in such tatters. And that wasnt easy—all he did for the first hour he sat in my office was alternate between sobbing and muttering angrily "I hate them I hate them I hate them I hate them."

I finally got him to come around by telling him how much I admired his father, even though I had never had any interest in visiting his magic shop. But it was legendary—the biggest in the state, or something. He had even built a coffee shop in the back of it, where connoisseurs of tricks and illusions from miles around still hang out on weekends and shoot the @!$%# about Houdini or Lazarus or the rest of them.

"You should have heard the things they said," he finally blubbered.

"What who said?"

"All the kids from the chess club."

"Is this before the fight?""

"What fight?"

"Wasnt there a fight?"

He sat back and smirked. "No. If there was a fight," he said, "WE WOULDA KICKED THEIR ASS!"

"So this is because some kids from the chess club said something to you? What did they say?"

"It wasnt just them—first they called us stupid—"

"Us who?"

"All of us—they didnt even care who they were talking to. First they started picking on me and Arnold. Then Jason and his stupid Mexican friend Jorge got up on top of the slide and said the wrestling team was a bunch of 'tights-wearing anorexics who love to play grab-ass.'"

I had stopped giggling but now I was just confused. The only response I could think of was, "Well, arent they?" but I didnt want to send him into another fit of despair so I just kept my mouth shut and let him finish.

"Then Ella and all her friends were walking around singing, 'boys, boys, boys' or something. But they were doing it so meanly. And then—I dont know, it just got even worse. They kept following us everywhere and telling us how dumb we were and that we couldnt do anything without our fists, and they made fists and shook them up and down like this—" and he imitated them imitating him, jerking his fist up and down, which I guess could have been either churning butter or beating off—in a town like this you can never tell, "and they called us 'fisters,' and they were singing, 'fisters, fisters, fisters—if it aint your fisters then it's your sisters' which DOESNT EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE," and he started crying again, but regained enough composure to finish, "And then Jason said with grades like mine I'd never amount to anything."

"Well, that was a mean thing to say," I told him. "So what happened next?"

"Thats what happened! I cant believe you dont believe me!"

I didnt know what to do, so I called his parents to come and take him home. And then, between me and the rest of the teachers, it took the better part of the rest of the day to talk to every one of the other jocks and bullies that had come off the playground in tears, and we sent them all home. A few came back over the next few days, but they were never the same, though some were able to refocus on their work and do pretty well. It was tough to feel bad once our funding improved.

The rest started homeschooling and most of them, I think, are actually studying under the tutelage of Mrs Spankmeier, who the district fired years ago for sticking magic wands up the asses of some of the weaker kids in her American History class.

The halls are actually louder these days—there's more interaction between the kids that doesnt involve tripping each other or pushing books to the floor. Our football team still cant win, but there's a sign above the entrance to the girls' locker room now, where more student-athletes than just Ella change before games these days, which reads:

Girls And Geeks Unite!

Seems everything about our planet centers around being white unless of course you live in China. As a child you inherit your way of thinking from your surroundings and your parents. Happy, unhappy - words of hate, love, fear - @!$%#, spic, gook etc

The end product is embedded in each of us - I was fortunate though - I was white.

Even better I was a male. Although at the time I was growing up I didn't realize the benefits that come with being a white male.

As a white male looking back I was treated better than women or non-white males. It was easier for me. Still I wasn't aware at the time.

Who taught me that white males are the supreme rulers? No one - it's just the way it was and it's the way some want it to be now.

The problem with this way of life isn't the color of our skin. We humans are flawed - in the way we think and act. We each define what is right and wrong -and what to forgive or not to forgive. We each individually don't like humans who are different than ourselves, color, weight, cosmetic features all influence the way we think and the way we act towards one another.

All of us believe we are better than other humans to a greater or lessor degree. But the perfect human would act human - according to our own definition of the word human! WE are all equal - not just humans but all life is equal. Because the end of life is the same for anything that lives.

Being human. What does that mean to you? Are you human or inhuman? Use your time wisely. If there is to be retribution and a life hereafter most of us are doomed.

Is being human wanting more than you need? Is being human taking away from others so you can have more?

Or is being human kindness and love and bravery? Compassion for others and tolerance?

We say that utopia is not achievable - yet it is - but only if we establish boundaries. Freedom was not meant to allow us to mistreat one another or ignore the plight of other humans less fortunate.

The boundaries of our humanity at this stage are very primitive. This is because as a species we are evolving.

I believe humans are the result of cross breeding apes with extra-terrestrial life. Crazy?

How do you explain our self-awareness and our ability to learn and imagine - we have not been around long enough for it to be natural evolution.

The question is - will we be evolving for better or for worse?

What do you think?

We have all met them: people who seem pretty enthusiastic in what they are doing. They usually start something new (like DIY builders) but somehow never finish, before quickly moving on to something else, or they take ages to do it in order to have everything 'perfect' first. They are at the mercy of PERFECTION, constantly seeking perfection in themselves and their activities. As any kind of perfection is very limiting and static, they never really achieve their full potential.

Perfect people tend to be unattractive, one-dimensional beings who get into a particular dead-end groove and find it difficult to extricate themselves from it. They believe there is only one route to a desired end and it is usually theirs. No one else's idea could be as useful or appropriate. Their act is limited, predictable and prescriptive and their vision foggy. As they tend to close their eyes to other options, they miss out on the significant input of others. Input that could provide crucial balance. People who lead controlled, risk-free lives genuinely believe there are only certain ways of doing things: of loving, feeling, acting and thinking. Those ways may give a false feeling of security, something to hold on to when things are difficult, but, being temporary, they prevent such perfectionists seeing the real options and acting upon them.

Genuine confidence comes through recognition and encouragement of our actions by the three Ps: our parents, partners and peers, which is an important tonic to our self-esteem. If our self-perception is never confirmed by others who matter to us, we will be continually insecure and never sure of ourselves. That will prompt us to spend our lives seeking an eternal solution for getting that affirmation, as well as their approval, by making things 'perfect' for them. Activities that begin in a flurry of enthusiasm and lead nowhere act as crutches for personal frustrations while denying other opportunities to remedy our situation. These are the times that we are most likely to blame others, especially our partners, for our situation. Our circumstance are then seen as the direct result of other people's actions and not of our own making. It becomes easier to abdicate personal responsibility altogether and wait for others to act.

The Problem With Being 'Safe'
People seeking perfection dislike taking risks, which keeps them in the same comfort zones. One familiar, specific approach might be safe', yes, but because life has a rich tapestry of experience, our existence then becomes severely limiting and stultifying. It is like getting up to oatmeal porridge every morning, a texture and taste one knows in detail and can be happily predicted. You feel 'safe' with it but, because you never consider anything else, you will never know about bacon and eggs, muesli or even corn flakes. Yet they might prove even tastier. They are likely to give greater nourishment than the oatmeal and would only harm if you choked on them! Worst of all, as you have the same fare every morning, you will very gradually learn the health consequences of not having a balanced diet. So much for a 'safe' choice!

What perfectionists find difficult to accept is that there are many routes to the same end some are shorter, some are longer, some are more tiring and some are downright disastrous but they all lead to the destination we originally had in mind. What would have changed us for the better is the actual experience we gained getting there. To aim for perfection is to rob ourselves of essential experience required to increase our competence, widen our possibilities, strengthen our determination and boost our inner resources. It means a gradual acceptance of flexibility while accepting the possibility of multifarious forms of excellence but only one kind of perfection.

Emphasis on Winning
We're heavily influenced by our society which values flawless performance and places great emphasis on winning, especially for men. While it is only natural to care about doing the best we can, it is also important to learn to feel good about ourselves just for who we are, warts and all. Nothing is ever exactly as we want it, but our confidence will do much to shape our circumstances to our own satisfaction and this confidence comes from personal power. The power of self belief and faith in who we are and our potential. Many people have power but cannot see it, while others haven't got it, but think they have. It's probably good to get back to the feeling we had as children, when we had self-confidence without even questioning it. We were valued for being people, for just being born into this world. We didn't have to 'prove' anything to be valued. Just being alive and thriving was enough.

As adults we often believe we must continually justify our place in society, especially weaker minorities in a majority community, women in the world of men or people with disabilities among the able-bodied. We believe we have to somehow prove to other people that we are worthy of their esteem; spending excessive amounts of time worrying about that, while we lose sight of the basic fact that we are usually perfect just as we are and deserve the right to our existence, our identity and whomever we wish to be at any point in time.

Elaine Sihera (Ms CYPRAH)
Emotional Health Consultant
"Respect and love begin with the self. If we have none, how can we give away any?"

What do I do, tell me? There is a new found feeling inside, which I am failing to recognize, it has besieged my mind and heart beyond my comprehension. What is my fault that I have to bear these strange emotions which I always thought existed in fiction?

Joan Bakewell, the veteran broadcaster, has accused the BBC of damaging the position of older women in society by exiling female news presenters. Bakewell's criticisms - in the wake of extraordinary condemnation by Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader - have particular bite because the respected journalist reports to the Government as the official "voice of the elderly".

The 76 year-old said that greying women journalists would have to dye their hair to remain on television because of the corporation's age bias.

"There are no grey-haired women on TV as there are grey-haired men," she said. "It's like they have all somehow died off."

Some feel that being deaf is a cultural issue and that attempting to get medical assistance to repair one's hearing is a serious sin against the deaf community. Others feel that being deaf is a very simple situation: it is a birth defect, a disease or an injury of some sort that can (many times) and should be fixed.

Speak up on this issue here on my column. Is deafness just a part of the human condition like eye color or height? Or is it a defect that should have its effects minimized or totally reversed if possible?

"How idiotic civilization is! Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?" ~ Katherine Mansfield, Bliss And Other Stories

The human body, a miraculous collection of the infinitely small with the awareness of the infinitely large. In grade school we are taught that the elemental constituents are worth about $7.00. The chemical and mineral composition of the human body, which breaks down as follows:

65% Oxygen
18% Carbon
10% Hydrogen
3% Nitrogen
1.5% Calcium
1% Phosphorous
0.35% Potassium
0.25% Sulfur
0.15% Sodium
0.15% Chlorine
0.05% Magnesium
0.0004% Iron
0.00004% Iodine

Additionally, it was discovered that our bodies contain trace quantities of fluorine, silicon, manganese, zinc, copper, aluminum, and arsenic. One thing that these elements have that we do not, is the freedom to be themselves.

Walk out to your sidewalk, place a lump of carbon upon it. Wait......

No one will make a ruckus. No one will honk there horns. Children will not laugh at the charcoal on the sidewalk. In fact, no one will even notice it, except the wondering toddler that will think it is a nifty find.

And G-D said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"~Genesis 3:11 NIV

Now, put someone naked on the same sidewalk. Depending on your level of beauty, you will get cajoled by passersby. Mothers will leap out from their houses defending their children from such a vision corrupting their children. School children will point and laugh. People will avoid you. Your mail man will not look you in the eye. Society, on a whole, will project a sense of shame on your person.

I decided I would try to live one day of my life naked, staying in my apartment. I could not believe the experience I had.

The previous night, I had showered and slept naked. That morning I woke up, brushed my teeth hand hair. That was it, I was ready for the day. In my mind I just kept thinking how convenient this was. I had shaved 45 minutes off of my rush in the morning. I could have very easily just spent that time sleeping.

I was feeling a little peckish, so I decided to make breakfast.
"What to have, what to have??"

I decided to have scrambled eggs, toast, and beef sausage. So, I fired up my skillet, poured some oil, and threw in a couple of sausage patties.

NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I EVER EXPERIENCED THE AMOUNT OF PAIN AS SOON AS MY SAUSAGES TOUCHED THE SKILLET. The oil flared up and splattered in places I never thought of. When I was thinking of frying sausage, I was not meaning the one found in my nether regions.

I have discovered a hard learned truth in the first hour of my nakedness, the lessons of common sense changes when you are naked. You have be more thoughtful of your body, more protective. It seems that in the effort to clothe our nakedness has made become even less aware of the condition of our bodies. Whether we be fat or thin, muscular or thin, thick or thinned framed, clothes allow us to deceive ourselves and others concerning the thing we can endure.

After sitting back and looking out the window of my second floor apartment, there came a knock at my door. I expected this would eventually happen. Having a naked day would make me confront my modesty and self consciousness.

The man at the door first look shocked and then offended. I could tell by his satchel that he was selling newspaper subscriptions. He looked at me and asserted, "You better get dressed or I will call the cops."

Call the cops? He came knocked on my door. Invading my space, to sell me newspapers. How could anything I am doing be illegal? It appears that any officer responding to reports that an action is against public decency, has the right to order the offender to cease his action, even if it is on private property. Does this mean that if I am using the bathroom, a police officer could conceivably knock on my door and tell to cease and desist as well?

"as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell."~ Philippians 1:20-22

Well, after dealing with the sausage issue and the offended salesman, I thought I had survived the drama of a naked life. I sat down on my sofa, put my feet up and browsed the internet. Then came another knock.

A young lady from across the way had see the conversation with the salesman and told me she did not appreciate me answering my door naked, it is disrespectful. Would I please start putting on some clothes.

I breathed a heavy sigh, looked at my clock, it was still an hour and a half before twelve. I looked deeply into her eyes and told her:

"I am so sorry for the inconvenience of how I made you feel. I was trying to find out what it would be like to live naked. For the sake of being a good neighbor, I will gladly clothe my nakedness. I am sorry once again."

She said thank you, and waved goodbye. She looked backed at me and winked, saying:

"And Don't let it happen again," laughingly.

Well, that is my adventure in nakedness. Unfortunately, it seems the individual components appear to have a lot more freedom than the sum of their parts, especially when it comes to the human body.

"It seems the point of a group society is to forget our individual humanity."~Daniel Slack

"Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."~Isaiah 1:17

When it comes to video games, cartoons, and violence, I think that we should be more "wary" of games involving playing a character with direct physical violence and intention of revenge or evil. As believers, we get caught up in the ideas of trying to teach our children peace and love.

Then, as children mature, reality sets in. The conditions of our nonviolent lessons get muddled with the fact that we, as adults, are very violent. We march off to war. We fight with our neighbor. We peacefully support leaders when deciding to go to war for the right reasons. Then, we change the translation of the bible to support our position. (For example changing the commandment Thou Shall Not Murder to Thou Shall Not Kill.) This lessens ours and GOD's credibility in our children's eyes with out even realizing it.

Though some claim that GOD is forgiving and Jesus is the "Prince Of Peace", the bible reflects a rather violent aspect to GOD's nature. GOD's violent tendencies are seen in some of the most fundamental and well-known Bible teachings.

The Old Testament claims that God damned the entire human race because of the acts of the first two people: Genesis 3:16-23, Romans 5:18. It also says he caused a worldwide Flood that drowned pregnant women, innocent children, and animals, Genesis 7:20-23. It reports he killed Egyptian babies at the time of the Passover, Exodus 12:29-30.

The New Testament states that GOD required the torture and murder of his own son, Romans 3:24-25. It promises he will send to eternal torture all who do not accept GOD as sovereign, Revelation 21:8.

Without accepting this and teaching the reality of the verses in the bible, without accepting the reality of the real world and the violence within it, it may undermine the faith of many youth in this day and age.

Anger is a real emotion. Violence is a reality in society. So, the only alternative is to teach the difference between righteous and unrighteous anger, proper ways to handle anger, and when is action appropriate.

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."~Proverbs 31:8-9

I am not a violent person, never have been. I rarely got into fights growing up, but the fights I did get into were a result of defending the less fortunate then myself, the small, the weak, the handicapped. Partially from Christian Values, partially from comic books, but also partially because I only played video games that either involved strategy, or that the intention of violence was for somewhat "righteous" reasons.

We should not call a game "violent", if it is similar to chess, where the pieces battle, but you are just the general. Likewise, why do we try to deny teaching the "real world" truth of violence, consequences, and death. This will only leave our children unprepared for the realities of life.

As Believers, we may choose to "turn the other cheek" for acts that are caused against us, but we do not have the moral choice to allow such violence, prejudice, and hate to occur to our brothers and sisters in humanity. How do you turn the other cheek to child molesters, rapists, con artists and deceivers?

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling"~Psalms 68:5

IN a perfect world, there would be no need for violence. We would be able to debate with words our differences and either change our minds, change the oppositions minds, or agree to disagree, and still be able to respect each other after the debate is done.

But, we do not live in a perfect world. I believe that the whole universe is essentially a Temple To God's Glory. We live in a temple that reflects certain aspects of God's divine wisdom and beauty:

"When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
"Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"
"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."~Luke 19:37-40

Even Jesus resorted to angry words and violent action when he saw what was being done in the Temple Of The Lord:

" And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, "It is written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER'; but you are making it a ROBBERS' DEN." ~Matthew 21:12-13

As parents, we should not turn a blind eye to the reality of the world, but use whatever tools are available to instruct our children to take the best, appropriate, action. We should not deny the fact that we and our children get angry. The Bible outlines when action is appropriate and inappropriate, so start teaching the truth!

"Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path."~Psalms 119:105

Every year, the citizens of the United States drink on average 21 gallons of milk. Most of this milk is from cows. Ever since I heard that PETA wanted Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream to use human milk, I have been researching about the advantages and uses of it. Here is what I have come up with.

8) Human Breast Milk has been used as a medication for thousands of years. In the ancient world, breast milk was sometimes consumed as Medicine, in Fertility Rituals, and in other religious ceremonies. The Ancient Egyptians used are honey and human breast milk as medicine. Not only did they have medicinal values, they also are believed to have been used to ward off evil spirits and demons. It is even theorized that our ancestors not only breast fed their children during long migrations, but also breast fed their men too!

7) It helps fight off long term health problems. Breast milk can help prevent ear infections. People who drink it are less likely to develop asthma, Multiple Sclerosis, and help prevent some food allergies. It is said that Breastfeeding protects against cancer, helps prevent heart disease and even relaxes tension caused by stress . People with GI disorders and organ donation recipients also benefit from the immunologic powers of human breast milk. Talk about a health drink!!

Antibodies (also called Immunoglobulins) are made by the body's immune system in an attempt to protect it from harmful substances such as bacteria, viruses, fungus, or animal dander. The antibodies work by attaching to these substances so that the immune system can destroy them.

There are five major types of antibodies: IgA, IgG, IgM, IgE, and IgD. All are found in breast milk. IgA antibodies protect body surfaces that are exposed to outside foreign substances. They are found primarily in the nose, breathing passages, digestive tract, ears, eyes, vagina, saliva and tears. This makes IgA particularly important for babies who are always putting things in their mouths.

In patients that are suffering from immunilogical diseases, such as AIDS, Leukemia, or Hepatitis, or patients recieving a therapy that deteriorates the immune system, such as chemo or radiation therapy, have shown the benefit when supplimenting their diets with human breast milk.

For more information:
http://www.breastfeeding.com/allabout.html

6) People are always complaining in the USA, about stupid people doing stupid things. People cutting us off, insulting us, and even lacking common sense. Well, turns out that Human Breast Milk may actually increase intelligence. Studies show breastfed infants have higher IQ s than bottle fed infants.

For more information:
http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_about/all_about_iq.html

5) Breastfed babies grow up to be leaner than bottle fed babies. Maybe it has to do with the fact that babies digestive systems are still in development. Then again, it maybe just that babies are trying to fill a psychological need with food. When a baby nurses with its mother, he is learning the basics of relationships. He is learning the recognize boundaries for good behavior, and what is not acceptable. The closeness that develops during breast feeding carries over to any relationships later in life. We, as Humans, learn by example.

Read more at:
http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/004125.html

There are more and more people considering the advantages of breast milk not just for the treatment of illness.

4) PETA wants Ben and Jerry's ice cream made from Human Milk. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, co founders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

more on this :
http://www.wptz.com/news/17539127/detail.html

3) Swiss restaurant to serve meals cooked with human breast milk . The owner of the Storchen restaurant in the exclusive Winterthur resort will improve his menu with local specialties such as meat stew and various soups and sauces containing at least 75 per cent of mother's milk.

more on this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2976181/Swiss-restaurant-to-serve-meals-cooked-with-human-breast-milk.html

2) In France, a "dairy" produces Human Milk Cheese. Founded in 1947, the cheese Cosma was able to recover the wealth of a farmer ancestral tradition Ardennaise forgotten until then. Indeed, the Petit Singly, the only cheese with woman's milk , has long remained in the shadow of specialty cheeses, ordinarily milk cow, goat or sheep.

In France, no other product of this quality is listed, the Petit Singly has managed over time refining its taste thanks to the expertise of the master cheese maker, Patrice Cosma. Tinged with a touch of hazelnut and a subtle caramel color, sweetness and its basis will only tempt you.

For more information on this:
http://membres.lycos.fr/petitsingly/

1) A Business in Miami, FL wants to promote the virtues of Human Breast Milk Ice cream. U.S. citizens consumed an average of 23 gallons of bovine milk in 2001. Quite an astonishing amount when you consider that Homosapiens are the only organisms known to consume milk beyond infancy. Even more extraordinary is the fact that humans are the only organisms that consume the milk of other animals!

Female mothers in the Class Mammalia produce nutrient-rich milk for consumption by their own newborn babies. Humans have attained the unique (and bizarre) position in the food web from which they exploit the reproductive cycle of other animals (particularly Bovidae) for food. Adding to the cultural mystique of milk consumption is the widely held taboo against consumption of human breast milk either by unrelated individuals or persons beyond some generally unspecified age.

It is the mission of MMICCo. to challenge the traditional paradigm that there is nothing abnormal about conversion of mammalian milk into luxury food items. Mother's milk is a natural creation that we should celebrate, but is the milk of other species truly fair game for human consumption? If so, why isn't human milk? Our hope is to provide a delicious frozen product while framing this conversation in a way that leads to fruitful progress in consideration of the ecological niche of Homosapiens.

For more information on this:
http://www.bio.miami.edu/muscarella/mothersmilkicecream.html

I do not understand why it would be OK to drink from a cow Teat, but not from a human Teat. I have found evidence to the detrimental effect of cow's milk with Bovine Growth Hormone. One study not only shows evidence that it leads to obesity and excessive male breast development, but suggests that drinking nonorganic milk will give women a 42% higher chance, and men a 20% higher chance of developing Breast cancer.

Mostly, I wrote the article so that people will start questioning why we believe what we believe is OK. Society says it is OK to drink cow milk. Society also says we should expect politicians to lie, judges to take bribes, and car dealers to try to rip us off. How far back are we personally willing to push the boundaries of what society says is acceptable? Is it worth it, to improve your health?

Here are some more informative sites for further information:

This one is the world famous La Leche League, promoting Worldwide Awareness to the benefits of Brestfeeding:

http://www.llli.org/

This article talks of Human breast milk for adults as an anti aging substance, What does human milk bring other than nutrition:

http://www.imminst.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=28490

A few more good sites:

http://www.freedompondmoonworks.com/pb/wp_2e517814.html

http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/opinion/community_voices/article/breastfeeding_is_both_normal_and_natural/7724/

I'll admit that I'm not the one to come to if you need money management advice. But like many other Americans, the idea of AIG handing out bonuses to executives after being bailed out with taxpayer monies, just doesn't sit well with me. And I'm unconvinced by AIG's claim that they are contractually bound to make these bonus payouts; the employees hit certain goals for which the bonuses were promised.

Personally, I think company on the verge of failure should have no obligation to fulfill any such contract. It seems to me that the bigger necessity would be to keep the business running, so it can do what it was saved to do. I mean...if the sales and revenue were worth bonusing, wouldn't the company be healthier?

On this point I'm conflicted because I was recently laid off from a company that went under through no fault of its owners or employees. But during those last few difficult months, we employees felt the struggle for the company to stay afloat, in reduced hours or pay. The CEO hadn't taken a salary for months before he was forced to cut the author pay and eventually the time for which he could pay internal staff. It was painful, but how else was he supposed to sustain his business?

I think the same principle applies for this situation with AIG. Sure they may have these contracts, but the company can't actually afford to pay employee bonuses - however deserving that employee may or may not be - in its current condition.

On the other hand, I can see AIG wanting to retain the people they consider valuable; their top talent so to speak. There may well be a few folks wondering what their incentive is to stay at a company when they have to settle for not getting the compensation they were promised and believe they deserve. However if taxpayers have to save a company from failure, the employees should have to shoulder some of that responsibility as well.

I can see how for AIG this might be a very difficult decision to make; I certainly don't envy their HR departments who are probably fighting to save employee comps. But since the company can't really afford those comps - to the point of needing government/taxpayer assistance - no, employees should not be awarded bonuses. If I'm missing something, please explain it to me, because it seems rather simple to me.

Cross posted from KymleeIsAwesme.net

© 2008 Kimberlee Morrison. Some rights reserved.

Most people who really know me, know that I highly tolerant and accepting even. I used to be militant and wear my blackness on my sleeve. This was a result of being accused by my black peers of "talking like a white girl," and feeling like I always had to prove I was black enough. I know it sounds silly, but where I grew up proper English was a black kid's kryptonite and so I just got used to either being alone and eventually building a multicultural group of friends.

But back to my point, I was terribly disappointed to find out a picture sent out by a local mayor, depicting the lawn of the White House as a watermelon patch. Are you @!$%#ing kidding me?! How is this appropriate in any way shape or form? Unfortunately, the image wouldn't load to Newsvine, but here it is, see it for yourself if you haven't already.

I was disturbed to find that there are actually people who really do not to get why one might be offended by this image. They say those of us who are offended are looking for reasons to be so. Just for the record, there is historical context and reason for the offending in this case. What with our new African American president, the caricatures of the black minstrel with the big pink lips eating watermelon...Seriously? There's no reason to be upset or be disappointed in a public official who circulates something like that around his office?

There is actually a term for people who think racism is dead: enlightened racist. Yes, I know its harsh and I'd hate to think any of my friends (virtual or otherwise) are racists, but the fact is that's what you are, if you can completely ignore racism and accuse the target of overreacting...sigh

Like I said, I don't look for reasons to be offended. I was actually more bothered by the defense than the actual image itself. By the fact that people said that it should just be ignored. By this standard, this racist mayor would have been allowed to stay in office and that city would have reverted back to 40 years ago.

Seriously, 40 years is not that long folks...my mother was only a teen-ager during the desegregation civil rights movement. Obviously we have made huge progress between then and now, so I don't want to harp on the negative history. At the same time, the dismissive attitudes can take their toll.

Fine, don't be offended. But don't tell me I should just get over it, or ignore it. Don't pretend that it can't be racist because there are no racists anymore. Its not true and it makes you seem even more racist and ignorant than the person who created the image or circulated it. You, dear enlightened racist, are a barrier to progress with your turning a blind eye and denier syndrome. Racism is still very real and depicting the white house - currently inhabited by our first black president - is proof that as far as we have come, we still have a long way to go.

Cross-posted from KymleeIsAwesome.

© 2008 Kimberlee Morrison. Some rights reserved.

This video is associated with the article quoted here:

Dozens of hip-hop clubs have opened up in cities across the country, and thousands of raps and music videos by Chinese M.C.'s are spreading over the Internet. But making Chinese hip-hop is still a relatively profitless — and often subversive — activity. Some Chinese rappers address what they see as the country's most glaring injustices. As Wong Li, a 24-year-old from Dongbei, says in one of his freestyle raps:

If you don't have a nice car or cash

You won't get no honeys

Don't you know China is only a heaven for rich old men

You know this world is full of corruption

Babies die from drinking milk.

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The clock on the Church Tower struck midnight as Peter slowly walked through the almost deserted High Street.

It was New Years Eve 2014, and Peter could not help but remember those New Years Eves of years ago, in the days before the Great World Depression hit. It all started back in the early Summer of 2008 when the Sub-Prime Loan scandal first affected America, and the knock-on effects quickly spread to other Countries.
The governments of the day tried massive Bail-Outs of the banks all to no avail. The Global Economy contracted, car manufacturers went bust as did many banks and financial institutions. Shops closed, businesses went into receivership, and the British Economy ground to a halt.

He recalled that last New Years Eve when some people still had hope for the future. It had been bitterly cold, but he wrapped himself up warmly and made his way up to London and saw in 2009 with many other similar minded folk. Even then, there were those who stayed at home not having the inclination nor the cash to waste on a night out.
Peter was made redundant a few months later, and had been out of work ever since. Oh yes, he tried to find another job, writing applications, visiting Job Centre Plus three times a week, but all to no avail. He learned quickly how to get by on Dole money, supplemented with doing Car Boot Sales, until things grew so bad, that people started staying away from those even.

Soup kitchens appeared in the cities and towns all over the country, mostly run by the Salvation Army, who, despite fewer and fewer donations, managed to somehow keep going.

He continued walking past the rows of empty and boarded up shops, shops that had not so very long ago been full of goods and produce, and friendly staff.

Now, all the Independent Butchers, Bakers, and Greengrocers had given up. The four main Supermarkets Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys, and Asda, were all now taking Food Stamps. These Food Stamps were issued by the Government in place of cash, this had happened when the Pound had finally become worthless, about three years ago.

Britain, along with America, and many other Western Countries was technically bankrupt. The huge Public Infrastructure Work that had been brought in by Gordon Brown in 2009 had run out of funding, and half-finished bridges, roads, and hospitals seemed to be everywhere.

Peter became aware of a shadowy figure hurrying towards him. The figure was dressed in the uniform of a Council Enforcement Officer.
"Happy New Year", ventured Peter, "cold tonight, isn't it."
"Show me your I.D." replied the CEO, gruffly, not bothering to respond to Peters greeting.
Peter reached into his inside pocket and produced his Identity Card. The CEO snatched it, and ran the beam of a powerful torch over it, then flashed the beam into Peter's face to check the photo was correct.
The man handed back Peters card, saying, "If I were you, I'd go home, there's nowhere open now, and the best and safest place is in your own home".

"Goodnight then" said Peter. "I'm on my way".

When Peter arrived at the grotty bedsit he now called "home", he let himself in, flicked the light switch, but there was no electric. Blackouts were a commonplace thing now, so he lit the stub of a candle, checked his camping Gaz stove to see if he had any gas left in the tiny cylinder, and put the kettle on to make himself a cup of hot tea before going to bed.

Before blowing the candle out and going to sleep, Peter wondered just what the New Year would bring. Probably more of the same, but he still had some hope left, however slender it now seemed. He drifted off to sleep, and escaped to his dreams.

An article seeded by Killfile reports on a study that appears to show a correlation between more religious societies and higher rates of various social ills such as crime, STD's, abortion, etc. This article will discuss what I see as some of the reasons that religion may play a real - albeit unintended - role in the breakdown of society.

** Please note, this is not a condemnation of anyone's personal belief in a higher power, but rather an observation on the effect that many organized religions, and Christianity in particular, have/has on the individual and the larger social group.

There are certain aspects of religion in general that, depending on their interpretation and implementation by the individual, can lead to societal ills. First among these is the belief that anything done "in the name of God" is righteous, even if it means engaging in behavior or actions that might otherwise be considered "sinful". A prime example of this would be putting out false and deceptive information in order to influence the decisions of others toward one way of thinking. Such can be said about many Christian churches and organizations that have put out flyers and websites claiming that abortion can lead to things like cervical cancer – when there is no actual scientific proof to support this – just to deter women from getting an abortion. These "Christians" subscribe to the theory that the end justifies the means – in this case, that lying (supposedly a "sin" in Christianity and expressly forbidden in the 10 Commandments) to a woman in order to prevent her from having an abortion (which they obviously consider to be the larger "sin") is okay even in the eyes of their God.

The problem with this type of thinking is that you cannot control the results. For instance, once a religious group that claims to follow those Commandments and all the other tenets of Christianity begins to set up an apparent hierarchy of "sins" (ie: that lying, in some cases, is a lesser evil than allowing a woman to get an abortion), they are by extension giving permission for their followers to do the same thing. These groups have, in effect, condoned lying for their followers by implying that the ends (preventing an abortion) justify the means (lying). This mindset eventually is likely to become accepted by all the followers of that particular church or sect, who may then use that same poor logic to justify far less "altruistic" acts such as stealing, being unfaithful to a spouse, mistreating their children, drinking and drug use, murdering a homosexual, blowing up a women's clinic with patients and employees inside, etc. All these individuals have to do is use the same "creative logic" that the church or religious group itself used to justify committing one "sin" in order to prevent someone from committing another, ostensibly more heinous, "sin".

There is also the fact that people can use religion as an excuse for an extensive list of behaviors that a secular, enlightened society finds abhorrent. For instance, any man can find plenty of examples in the Bible that might support his desire to humiliate and dominate his wife, abuse her and his children, have more than one wife, or have one or many mistresses on the side. Of course, such behavior is not socially acceptable in today's world – but it IS accepted by some religious sects, and even those that do not explicitly accept that kind of behavior provide a tacit endorsement with their very rigid rules regarding divorce and a woman's "place" in the home and family, "spare the rod" child rearing theories, etc. Moreover, religion is often used to justify even more horrific behaviors, such as slavery, oppression, abuse, rape and pillaging, war, terrorism, etc.

But perhaps the most insidious form of damage done by religion is one that takes place entirely inside the head of the individual. Guilt.

Guilt is a big part of religion, especially Christianity. And guilt can drive people to extremes that they otherwise might never have sought. There are literally thousands of examples of this I could cite, but I will use just one for now. Ted Haggard – a man who obviously has some homosexual inclinations, but who was so guilt-ridden by them because of his belief that homosexuality is a "sin" that he could only act on them in secret, with the aid of drugs. In the end, his duplicity was discovered, and the repercussions were felt not only by him and his family, but by his entire (very large) church congregation. (Note: Mr. Haggard recently claimed he had been molested as a child, and that this led to his later actions – but this only supports the guilt issue, as almost every child that has ever been molested has suffered through feelings of shame about having been victimized in that manner, and those feelings of shame are often related to the victim's religious beliefs or that of their family and community.)

So here we have a list of reasons that there may be a correlation between a high rate of religious belief and higher rates of crime, indiscriminate sexual activity, abortion, drug use, etc. Guilt, fear, assigning a hierarchy to certain "sins", justifying bad behavior by claiming it can lead to a "good" result, etc., all contribute to the ills that we as a society must face, and all can be attributed, at least in part, to the various religions of the world and their influence over the minds and hearts of their followers.

Once again, I want to remind those reading this that I am not trying to disrespect anyone's personal beliefs. I am, however, trying to provide a rational, objective look at the role that organized religion may play in the various problems that plague society. Although I am no longer a believer myself, I have no wish to destroy anyone else's beliefs, or even see an end to organized religion. Such organizations and belief systems offer a great deal of comfort to many people, and there is nothing wrong with that. But when they go beyond that role and begin trying to dictate behavior for everyone, or do more harm than good by creating an "us vs. them" worldview, or preach one thing and then do something entirely opposite – they are no longer serving as beacons of goodness, and can actually do a great deal of harm to society as a whole.

Are we as a society,
Lost in contentment?
I personally am not,
I'm filled with resentment.

Resentment for those,
That would allow.
The evils that take place,
In the here and now.

Why do we let pedophiles,
Molest our youth.
And slap them on the wrist,
In light of the truth.

Why let sex offenders,
Offend again and again?
When most end up,
Back in the pen.

Why do murders,
Get a life of ease?
As we provide,
Their every need.

We need morals,
and justice to prevail.
Hold leaders accountable,
When they fail.

We the people,
Must take a stand.
Against the evils,
That consume our land.

If we band together,
Our voice will be heard.
Leaders will be forced,
To hear our words.

So do not get lost,
In a state of contentment.
Stand not for injustice,
As I resent it...

6-5-08
Dreadspydr

The moving trucks were there. The household was abuzz with activity. Hector was underfoot and being told to go in the other room. When they would move into the other room, he was told to go into the other room. This is how it went for three days.

Hector was scrawny for his age. At 9 years old, he was very thin and not very large. His ribs poked out and his head looked too big for his body. It was easy for people to overlook him upon first meeting his family. His usual look was one of nervousness - his large eyes mistaken for questioning by people who did not know him. The people who did know Hector surmised it not so much as questioning but derived from fear. He usually stood back and watched any new situation from afar. Only until someone approached him and offered a friendly tone would he seem to relax.

Once in a while, a person might wonder what the fear was caused by. Had they been Hector's neighbor, they would have known, too. Had they lived beside Hector they would have heard cries and screams in the middle of the night, once in a while. Had they lived beside Hector and, in trying to befriend the family in order to assuage any volatile situation, one would have seen Hector having to go get the belt that would be used to beat him.

I lived beside Hector and his family for two years. I tried to befriend the odd family and mainly for Hector's sake. I ached for him and felt sorry for him and tried to set up play dates for Hector and Molly. But the matriarch would have no part of it. Her mouth was usually in a snarl, her black roots often showing underneath her otherwise fried bleached-blond hair and her language skills, but for @!$%# were reserved for people she knew well.

The day my partner and I saw the moving trucks pulling out along with their beater of a car - that never seemed to otherwise start and even today seemed excited to be leaving - we breathed a sigh of relief. The era of "crazy woman neighbor" was finally at a close. It had even been recently discussed among the neighborhood associations to try to get the house declared a public nuisance; What with drug dealers in and out, and the matriarch's mentally handicapped daughter being sent to the store on foot for alcohol, the episode of the matriarch using a skillet to hit her daughter in the head 'for discipline', numerous ambulances in the middle of the night, and then Hector...

As a new neighbor and first time home owner, anxious to meet my neighbors, I'd gone next door to introduce myself. I remember it vividly. As the door opened with a slow eerie creak, I was greeted first with a cloud of cigarette smoke. Next, I would be face to face with a middle-aged, rough looking woman whose blue eyes were perpetually wide and with the milky haze of cataracts . Her thin, lined mouth was crooked and drawn up on one side in a snarl, I would come to know later, that was there all the time. She had a slow gimpy limp forcing her to drag her left leg behind and then up. Stroke paralysis, I would come to know later, on the left side of her body is what had her left hand almost in a hooked shape - like a claw.

After opening the door she looked me slowly up and down. She had a cigarette hanging from a corner of her mouth. Her raspy voice made the statement, "You the new neighbor." Not a question. A declaration. She turned, leaving the door open, and began a slow dragging limp away; Drag, up, drag, up, drag, up. Unknowing whether I should follow or shut the door and leave, I just stood there. "Come on," she'd said.

Now they were gone.

I worried for Hector. I didn't think he could last much longer. Were it not for the love of the mentally handicapped girl that ached along side him and in fear of the matriarch, I am sure I would have done something more than I did. But Hector and the girl were all each other had in that family, and for reasons that make sense only in the most dysfunctional of households, the girl loved her mother; And constantly sought her approval at the same time trying to protect Hector and shield him as best she could. She and Hector were all each other had insofar as love minus abuse went.

I would pray more. That's what I would do. I would pray for Hector and the girl, I decided. She'd just been over to say goodbye. I gave her some going away gifts and she was excited. I gave her a plant and she started crying thinking it was the most beautiful plant she had ever seen. I hugged her tightly. We shared some good memories; My cutting her hair and styling it like mine, my taking her picture and digitally-altering-her-beautiful and beside Enrique Iglesias at that, her coming over and happy she had a boyfriend to show off... Indeed, a beautiful spirit and extra large heart with a lacking IQ that often left her stymied unless her mother told her what to do. Yes, I would have to pray more.

It wouldn't be until the next day that Matt and I would hear the familiar cry and yelps.

"They wouldn't leave him!" I said, thinking it couldn't really be Hector. Matt left out the front door and went around the corner.

When he came back 5 minutes later, Matt said, "The bad news is that they abandoned Hector. The good news is we have another dog."

Before leaving, they had tied a rope around Hector's neck, with only three feet worth of roaming room, and connected it to the back fence separating our properties; No water, no food. After inquiring the neighbors, the family had apparently no plans for anyone to come get Hector or take care of him.

Hector, the dachshund stayed with us for a few weeks, found a sister in our Molly, and received plenty of love, affection, and food until we were able to find him a good home with kind people.

Hector never had to worry about having to go fetch his own belt in order to get beaten again.

So said the late Author of the Flashman books. Read his article here.

Faludi notes that the fixation on feminism began just days after 9/11 -- perhaps best encapsulated by the Houston Chronicle headline, "No Place for Feminist Victims in Post 9-11 America"; a seemingly out of place assertion that speaks volumes about the American fixation on a clear-cut vision of victim and hero, otherwise known as female and male. Indeed, while the bulk of the World Trade Center victims were male, it is the pictures of the woman being comforted by a fireman that we saw in the newspapers. And it was, as New York Magazine put it in a headline, the stay-at-home widows -- preferably pregnant at the time of the attacks, those "Perfect Virgins of Grief" that America's attention turned to.

As Faludi sees it, after 9/11, "We reacted to trauma ... not by interrogating it but by cocooning ourselves in the celluloid chrysalis of the baby boom's childhood." When search dogs at the site of 9/11 could not find any living humans to rescue, they became so demoralized that their handlers took turns hiding for each other's animals in order to simulate a "live find." It's a striking parallel to the American media's attempt to rewrite 9/11 as a moment of valor and glory, conveniently skipping over the sadness, the loss, the humbling gravity of a world in which America could be so vilified by those in other parts of the world.

Its no secret that the suicide bomber is one of the most feared weapons in the world, but it requires someone willing, not only to die, but to kill themselves and others. As Americans, we value our lives far too greatly to strap bombs to our soldiers or employ kamikaze tactics, so we find it difficult to understand the mindset of the classic 'suicide bomber.' What would compel someone to blow themselves up? For that matter, what kind of a military commander voluntarily sends men under his command to certain death? Why, exactly, is suicide bombing such a prevalent tactic? Answer: Exactly the same reason soccer (or football) is so popular around the world: its extremely cheap. To play a game of soccer, all you need is a ball, a couple people, and some sticks to mark off a goal or two. For a suicide bomber the requirements are similar; you need some homemade explosive, a couple people, but that's it! ... no sticks required. That answers the "why," but what about the "how"? How does someone reach the point where they want to kill themselves?

In a country like Iraq, people who've lost everything are easy to find. They have no families, no friends, no home, and no hope (largely due to us, but the Iraqis share some of the blame). There are people so desperate for something more than their misery, that they're willing to believe that, by killing themselves, they'll end up in paradise with all the virgins they could want. However, that's a stupid belief. That's right, I said it! A "stupid belief". Its the kind of thing that only a desperate person would latch onto, and not anyone who would be willing to commit to a religion (In fact, the Koran says not to do this). So now we've answered the question of "how" ... Militant forces are able to find people willing to kill themselves because of their intense misery, and not, in fact, because of any kind of deep religious study partaken by the individual.

The "who," "what," and "where" are givens (Iraq, Iraq and Iraq) but there's still one more lingering question, and one that often keeps me up at night.... if we send soldiers into battle, into Iraq, and we keep them there knowing full well that, odds are, many of them will not be coming home alive, are we not employing suicide tactics ourselves? I mean, sure we strap our troops with body armor instead of explosives, but if we accept the loss of even a single soldier, while the greater good will have been served it is only at the price of that soldier's life. The only real difference that I can see between us and them (in this respect) is that we have hope and they do not. Our soldier's hope to come home, theirs know full-well they are taking their last breaths. We have hope and they do not.

Why suicide bombers? Because they have no hope for a better future on this Earth. If we want the suicide to stop, we have to bring the Iraqis hope.

With the death of the founder of the Body Shop, Anita Roddick, at only 64 years of age, it is now time to reflect and decide whether her in many ways radical company helped push business to new heights of social responsibility and positively affected the world.

The Body Shop is fundamentally different. The name, a tongue in cheek play on American car repair shops, epitomizes the Body Shops philosophy: a jovial, eccentric attitude that embraces change. The founder Anita Roddick explains that the business exists only to act as a force of social change, to continue the education of our staff, to assist development in the third world, and above all, to help protect the environment.1 The Body Shops dedication to changing society creates a vibrancy, purpose, and distinction from the cosmetic industry. This new business paradigm, business dedicated toward a societal goal, is the future of business but also threatens to blur the line between political activism and business.

Business Aspects of the Body Shop

The Body Shops social action creates a dedication many companies lack. Roddick comments that she would never get such dedication if the Body Shop were just selling shampoo and body lotion.2 Being committed to bettering society gives the Body Shops employees purpose, a feeling that they are benefiting others. This purpose creates a connection between the worker and the company, and sparks motivation to succeed. Motivated and dedicated employees are not only more loyal but are more productive because of the resulting enthusiasm.

Social action is not enough, though. Apple used the slogan think different to much success, but the Body Shop has taken it to heart. Roddick states that it is imperative to [create] a style that becomes a culture. But that real sense of change, that anarchy - we do whatever we must to preserve that sense of being different. Otherwise, She explains, The time will come when everyone who works for us will say the Body Shop is just like every one else. Roddick desires to have an innovative and unpredictable company to keep the company from stagnating. This constant sense of change keeps the employees interested and involved. Along with the social action, this creates publicity for the company and loyal consumers who believe in its philosophy.

The Body Shop certainly is successful. Starting with an equivalent $6,000 loan in 1976, Roddick grew the Body Shop at a tremendous rate. Her work paid off with 50% annual sales growth and a 17.2% pretax margin.3 A large cause of this rapid growth is Roddicks decision to franchise the company which led to explosive growth, opening 586 stores between 1976 and 1991.4 She feared that franchising may cause the Body Shop to lose its culture. To reduce this effect, she had a challenging, two to three-year interview process, culminating in a final interview she conducted herself.

Social Aspects of the Body Shop

Financial success is not the Body Shops main goal. Its financial success is the means to its end of contributing to society. This manifests itself in both large and small forms. When Roddick started the first shop, she refilled bottles at a 15% discount because she could not afford to buy more bottles. Although she did this out of necessity, she reduced the amount of waste the Body Shop produced. In addition, the labels had detailed information on what the product contained and what it did, not fantastic claims that other cosmetic companies enjoyed making. This was out of necessity, too; her ingredients were mostly exotic, so the label had to inform the customer of what they did. Roddick believes that the greatest grace they had when starting was that they did not know they could tell lies. She liked to say that There are no magic potions, no miracle cures, no rejuvenating creams. Skin care products can do nothing more than cleanse, polish and protect.5 A large part of her business, whether out of necessity or design, is being honest and just with the customer.

The Body Shop helped on a large scale as well. Perhaps their most successful and innovative project, Trade Not Aid, aimed to help third world countries by building economic infrastructure rather than handing out money. This program successfully created factories and improved the lives of many in India, Africa, Mexico, Thailand and Nepal. The program did run into trouble but even so, the program was a great success in creating jobs in destitute areas of the world, and set a great model for others to follow.
The company became politically active, working with Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and on campaigns to help protect whales, stop animal testing and the burning of the rain forests. Their most controversial action, however, came when the Body Shop began associating itself with Amnesty International and FREEZE, the anti-nuclear weapons group. The resulting backlash from several franchises caused the Body Shop to reconsider such political activism.

The Body Shop: Good or Bad for Society?

The Body Shop has certainly contributed to society. It has done this both in being more honest and fair to the customer, and by helping build economic infrastructure in third world nations. It has also led many beneficial campaigns such as working to stop animal testing. But the most important single thing the Body Shop has contributed to society is conceptual: it has shown that business can help the customer and society in tremendous ways while making a profit.

Roddick stated that the responsibility of business is not to create profit, but to create live, vibrant, honorable organizations with real commitment to the community.6 The Body Shops success proves this not only can be done, but is the future of business. This new business paradigm will focus on adding value to society, educating its employees, and creating genuine social organizations dedicated to a single societal purpose they all believe in. Business dedicated to benefiting society may be one of the largest contributions of the 20th century, and the Body Shop helped make it reality.

The Body Shops political activism raised a large question, however. Should business be actively involved in controversial political topics? Should their purpose be to change the political reality? Roddick is certainly clear in her position on this question, stating that she realized she did not necessarily have the right to speak for every Body Shop on every issue. I accepted that principle - and completely ignored it. I have never been able to separate Body Shop values from my own personal values.7 This also questions the purpose of the organization; is it to responsibly produce high quality products, or to affect political change? Businesses must attempt to balance the two, always recognizing their primary purpose is to produce quality goods or services, and help society through them. Any other action should be on the side.

The Body Shop: through Druckers Lens

In The Post Capitalist Society, Peter Drucker defined organizations as specialized groups, defined by their tasks. The Body Shop, then, is a very well-designed organization; its task is to benefit society through its products, its social action, and the education it provides for its employees. Drucker recognized that organizations, by intending to benefit society, also intend to change society. Therefore, Drucker, states, the ability to create the new also has to be built into the organization.8 The Body Shop is dedicated to this, first through Roddicks conviction that change must be inherent in a business (Department of Surprises), her constant encouragement to break the rules and think frivolously,9 and second in the companys two-way assessment system. The Body Shop encourages the managers to review their employees, and most importantly, the employees to assess their managers. This system creates a constant review of how each person in the organization, whether a low level worker or a top level manager, are doing, and thus constantly improves the efficiency and quality of the company.

Drucker also placed large focus on education, contending that in the post-capitalist society individuals will have to acquire new knowledge every four or five years, or else become obsolete in the knowledge society.10 To help their employees gain new knowledge and become better workers, the Body Shop offered courses on the companys products and philosophy, problem hair and skin care, and customer service. Soon, though, it began offering sessions on topics ranging from sociology, to AIDs, to urban survival, and aging. The Body Shop wants knowledge workers, not just labor; employees that know the company and its industry, and are educated beyond it as well.

Conclusion

The Body Shop is a unique case. Roddick has built its entire existence around eccentricity and change, honesty and social responsibility. The Body Shop values its social initiatives most highly, but recognizes that financial success is necessary to support them. It is the face of the new business: organizations dedicated toward one social purpose that, while creating a profit, remained focused on their social goal first. The Body Shop represents nothing short than a huge leap in the purpose of business in society.

There is nothing scarier than a blank white page. It sits on your table menacingly, reflecting back at you nothing but white. A blank page is not a finished piece of work, or even a beginning of one; it is nothing, and everything, at once. A blank page has nothing to start from. It gives you nothing to work with, and that is why it is so scary. We are used to finished products. That is our comfort, where happiness is found. We buy food from the market pre-prepared, and ready to be eaten, or only requiring such easy steps that I think a monkey could follow them; our clothes are ready to where wear from the store; our music already completed; and knowledge has been preconceived, too, only a Google search away.

This is comforting because to use these things requires no thought and imagination of our own. Why discover how to cook meals with your own twist when you can buy mediocre food at the market? Why learn about the world through sleepless nights with a book in your lap and a pen in your hand, or long days spent doing research in the real world, when you can simply look at Wikipedia?

Not everything is bad about finished products. It is not evil. But the culture this creates -- one based around the assumption that everything we need in this world is packaged and given to us without so much as lifting a finger -- is dangerous. A society that embraces this culture is a society that stops dead in its tracks, lays stagnant, and regresses to the Middle Ages.

Herein lies Newsvine's true purpose. Newsvine gives each and every one of us a blank page. A blank page that stares at you teasingly, daring you to put something down, and laughing at your naked truth: using your knowledge, thoughts and imagination to write something of your own is a challenge. That blank page pushes us to do something we rarely are required to do throughout regular life: to create something of your own, that you are proud to put your name on.

Societies depend upon people who not only do create, but can only live because they create. All great artists, scientists, and businessmen do not do their work as a hobby, but as an obsession. They cannot live without creating new art, without discovering insight into the nature of our universe, or without making great innovations accessible to the masses. Their work is their life and their life is their work.

That is what Newsvine is for. It is to remove us from the daily grind of consumer society, and remind us that at heart we are creators. To remind us that life is not worth living without creating, without thought.

In Mahoney's new book, "Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff," most of the adventure occurs on solid ground, navigating among schools of sexist Egyptian men. Homing in on a Western woman traveling alone, they are nosy, brash, amorous, and relentless -- ever ready to ask the most intimate questions, to paw and stroke, to propose marriage or sex.

An experienced rower on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, where she lives, Mahoney has plied her stroke in waters as varied as Boston Harbor and the Sea of Galilee. On the 120 miles she intended to row on the Nile, from Aswan northward to Qena, the rowing was expected to be easy. There were no rapids -- better yet, no crocodiles.

Yet when trying to buy a boat at Aswan, she was repeatedly rebuffed. Felucca captains, whose business was tourist-dependent, were unaccustomed to seeing any foreigners venturing on their own down the river, let alone an unaccompanied woman. Here, "rowing was not a pastime. It was work that no one wanted to do if he didn't have to." No wonder everyone thought she was crazy.

Great new poem, I think. It was difficult choosing which series of lines to quote here, and you can only really get the thing of it by reading it all. A better-than-expected free verse knock on our new capitalism.

It's lonely at Starbucks
closing time at the big box malls
employees released from their schedules
their perky personas
serving lattes
lights turning off going out
McCartney on the stand
packaged in unbreakable sealed plastic
miles from Liverpool
untouched next to Albom
(in truth the music is horrible)
he's long since been homogenized
orange-red gunshots cascading across
carnival streets as
the civilization of greed cracks in half
but the glass door to the chain store is locked
security code set
no one robs a Starbucks
or a Wal-Mart
except the insane
no one robs a church
Capitalist temples
Harry Potter on sale
40% off
The unseen sky
grows late
time to get to sleep

I could have been killed today.
Ok, I know that sounds a bit melodramatic but it's true.
I was driving back from church and I was going about 70. That was in the "slow" lane.
A car in the "fast" lane that was about 3/4th of a car length ahead of me began to drift into my lane. I began to drift
to the right also to compensate but there was only two lanes and the rough shoulder dropped off
so I could not have pulled onto the shoulder, even if I wanted to, without possibly crashing.

The other car, smaller than an SUV but bigger than a pinto, definitely big enough to make me spin like a top if it hit me, wasn't seeing me.

Then suddenly the other car saw me and saw that if it kept drifting it would hit me and we'd both be spinning around at 70 mph and we had cars ahead and behind us.

The driver overreacted and the car swerved toward the shoulder on the left side, then it swerved again toward me at what seemed like a 33 degree angle. If the driver didn't correct I was about to get hurt.

Then at the last minute the driver jerked the car again, this time in the direction of the shoulder. The car went off the road and partially up the incline in the median. I was now watching this car turn around while I pulled off to the shoulder and began running up the interstate to make sure the driver was ok.

I was thrilled the car did not flip over. The whole thing was reminding me of my own car crash where my truck flipped and spun. I wrote about that here. I was originally going to post this as a comment there but decided better to
give it its own entry because I'm curious if others here have close calls like this and how they react to it.

Anyway...
Not only was this car not flipped, though, but another driver beat me to the car in question and was returning to his car. He shouted at me, "She said she's ok" and gave me a "thumbs up" sign.

I tried to think of the sign to indicate "I need to check on her because I'm the car she almost hit and--" damn, there was no sign for that. I kept running - well, walking now as I realized I was out of shape - toward the car which now seemed to be... was she turning her car around? She was.

I thought quick. Is there some kind of car accident etiquette here. I felt bad and yet I really had no reason to
feel bad - I had the right of way and did nothing wrong. Was this driver obligated to tell me herself she was ok
and/or bore no ill will. Or I to her? As I now got closer to her car - about 50 yards now - she had her car turned around
and was signalling to re-enter the fast lane.

It hit me suddenly that there was going to be no conversation. And while there was no real technical or legal
need for us to exchange "I'm ok, are you ok?" it still seemed the right thing to do.

Was the other driver embarrassed? In a hurry? I was starting to, frankly, get kind of pissed off. This person
had come close to making a movie that could have gotten both of us killed and she did not now even have
the courtesy to... Her car started to enter the fast lane and there was no indication the driver was going to come in my direction.

That was it. I turned around and started back to my car. Not only did the driver avoid slowing down as she approached me but she was speeding up. A hand shot out and I'm not sure what it was. I was expecting a
thumb's up or a wave to indicate she was ok. But it wasn't that. I don't think she gave me the finger, either.
I really have no idea what that gesture meant, which is why I wanted to exchange words, to avoid
this type of ambigious exchange.

I thought about this in the larger picture. Has it come to this: Are we now not even going to talk to people
we crash into?

I was reminded of the movie Crash and while I liked much of the movie I thought of a line referring to the title
was absurd, perhaps intentionally so:
"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

As I got into my car I drove a little slower, more aware of how quickly my life could change, and pondered that statement. No, I decided, not only do we avoid having our cars touch each other strangers don't want to touch or talk to strangers either, even if, for one odd moment, their lives intersected.

I could not decide which I find more troubling - how close I came to being hurt in a car accident or the latest
indictment about the sad state of our society. I still have not decided. The butterfiies of alarm are still
rumbling in my stomach but those will go away - what will be with me tomorrow is the knowledge of the
driver's actions or inactions. And that, I think, disturbs me the most.

Global warming isn't junk science. It isn't the crazy imaginings of wacko environmentalists. It isn't the clucking of Chicken Little. It isn't controversial.

What is controversial is the political activism associated with it. Let's review:
* Global warming is a theory created by scientists to explain an observable warming trend.
* Anthropogenesis is used to explain the cause of this warming trend, or rather . This carries with it a suggestion for action.

That is what people don't like: the idea that (a) they might have had something to do with, which would imply (b) responsibility.

In other words, not only is it "our fault," but we might have to change our lifestyle. Even if, as Gore stressed in "An Inconvenient Truth," the actions we can take are small and manageable, anyone, be they scientist, environment activist, or politician, who suggests that we drive more fuel-efficient cars, switch off TVs when we're not watching, and replace the lightbulbs, is working against the ideology of American supremacy. America can do no wrong. That's a topic for another article; what's pertinent to this discussion is the combination of consumptionist, supremacist, and anti-environmentalist attitudes.

Indeed, environmentalists often find themselves butting heads with capitalists, who view America's resources as essential to monetary gain and upward trends, and of course, available for the taking. Considering that America is quite
the capitalist society, it seems likely that those highest in social status would want to preserve the interests of capitalism, and with the resources that come with power, enforce sanctions against any who would threaten capitalism, even if they do not do so with that intention.

This denial of responsibility is especially common among the anti- crowd, as I discussed before. Here, I think the anti- attitude is fully a product of ruling class ideology, as discussed in the previous paragraph. It's "patriotic," in the sense of being pro-capitalist, to reject environmentalism and political action. That global warming is the hot topic (no pun intended) is almost coincidental. But I suspect that it's garnered more attention because wildlife protection, for example, does not imply a lifestyle change of the sort that global warming does (that is, giving up things). Additionally, the theory of global warming names as the culprit emissions from the use of energy. As we all know, the energy industry is huge, and you can bet that politicians and industry leaders would be playing together, just due to the nature of American society.

Unfortunately for global warming, policy changes are necessary, and thus political involvement is necessary. In the end, accusations of global warming "enthusiasts" serving their own political interests may be baseless, but they're to be expected, and almost natural. It would be excellent if a general sense of respect and openmindedness were brought to this particular political scene. But the vomit reaction of the anti- crowd to global warming, and the associated insults and accusations, provoked enough response from the impassioned global warming activists to start a neverending cycle of pointless debate and an ultimate departure from a possible solution.

These ideas were partly drawn from Richard Robbins' Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism and Nachbar and Lause's Popular Culture: An Introductory Text.

I'm a big picture person so I often think about how an entire group is affected by certain things. Recently there was some discussion about banning the word "@!$%#" and other words categorized as hate speech, with no one coming forward in support of such an extreme action. While many recognize the n-word as hate speech, quite a few argued that words only have the meaning we as individuals give them thus ignoring the place of language in our social construct. With my big picture thinking, I was led to disagree with this argument, choosing instead to analyze how language affected society as a whole.

As children we are indoctrinated into society learning the norms, mores, and values of the majority culture as well as (in the US) that of our individual heritage, much of which is reinforced or mainstreamed by the media. It is through this socialization process that we develop schema to help us process the world in which we live, giving some understanding to what would otherwise be a random collection of people, events, morals, etc.

Because language plays a major part in this cultural socialization process, choosing our words wisely has caused the rise of politically correct speech and euphemisms necessary. I don't like either. I think people should be able to say what they mean with respect for others. Likewise, those we communicate with should try just as hard not to be offended, as we are trying not to offend. Then again, I have been accused of being too bluntly honest…

There are some parts of language though, that society has marked as inappropriate, hateful, or even juvenile. Words have a meaning in our processing, and this socialization is not all in our heads as some would suggest. Check out this unofficial word association test. Some responses will surprise you, others won't; some are funny, still others may scare you. The list is short but if this is even is the tiniest microcosm of how people process words and language, my deduction would be that words are not just disconnected communications, only given the meaning we apply to them. I believe the people present during Michael Richard's bad joke turned racist rant were collectively offended and there is nothing disconnected about that.

This personal account (thanks for the link E to the Z) sums up how certain words force us into defense mode, by jogging the painful memory of what the words mean as a result of social interaction or historical relevance. My personal account with the word "nigga" has been disproportionately negative - much like the author of this blog entry in relation to racial epithets about Asian. In the eyes of the majority of my Black peers, I was never "nigga" enough, though I never really wanted to be what the word seemed to represent, nor did I understand why I should.

The word was most often used to describe the image of what Black people are supposed to be, not the poised, well spoken, queen I was taught to be. My peers often told me that I thought I was too good to be a "nigga," that I wasn't black enough, that I was trying to be white (but I'm certainly not light enough to pass) because I did not fit into the idea of what they thought being a "nigga" meant. All the "niggas" I've known in my life-time (self-proclaimed of course) were mostly young men who fell victim to the pant-saggin, curse like a sailor, hat-to-the-back, woman-hating, ignorant and self-loathing image of "blackness," instead of defining themselves.

So my conclusion...words are much more than the individual meanings we give to them. They sting even when people use them in ignorance, sometimes even more so. But it's those moments in history when language is wielded to accomplish evil means that should serve as a reminder of the power language has when that power is underestimated.

I was involved in a discussion about the banning of language that lead to another discussion about how language affects socialization…or at least that is the direction I was going. I believe that while between individuals, we can claim that word only have the meaning they are given or that they have no meaning at all, but in the wider scheme of society, words do in fact have relevance to our social construct.

Just to test this theory out, as well as gather tangible data for analysis, I would like to play a word association game. While this is not my intention to offend anyone, I assure you there is a method to my madness, however I am reluctant to offer any additional information for fear your responses will be tainted. Once you have responded to the words, you are welcome to analyze why you believe you associated the words as you did, as well as any additional reflection you might find helpful to my research. Later I will write an article including this and other research.

Since this experiment (and not necessarily the research for my article) are dependant on participation, I want to thank everyone in advance for your help.

Instructions: Examine the list of words below and respond to each with the word that first enters your mind. It is very important to the integrity of this experiment that you are honest with both me and yourself. Don't think to hard; just answer.

Jews
Black
White
Immigrant
@!$%#
Bourgeois
Communist
Liberal
Beautiful
Conservative
Rebel
Christmas
F.U.C.K