Monthly Archive for January, 2007
Freedom, as I see it, is about having the choice to do a certain action, not about doing the action itself. When people fight for freedom, they fight to have the choice, to have control. I believe freedom is revealed when people disagree about the action. For example, if a child wants to do something, and his parents think he/she shouldn't, and yet he/she gets to do this thing, then that can be called a free person.
It might be trivial that a child has little freedom, but what about adults? Logically, as people grow up, they should be given more freedom gradually, until they get it completely. There's no clear line as to when this full freedom should be given, but it's obvious that this can only happen when the person can make conscious choices and can handle the consequences of any action he/she does.
This is one of the situations where I see how deep sexism is rooted in our societies. Even though it's a well-known fact that females mature 4 or 5 years earlier than males, we find that most males have full freedom before they reach 20, while most females never get it at all. It saddens me beyond words when I see how lucky a girl in her twenties is considered when her parents allow her to do more things than other girls because they're open-minded, and I cannot help but wonder: How many great minds do we have to lose to oppression and sexism before we realize how silly and stupid this whole thing is and decide to do something about it?
I want to keep this particular post short, as the vacuous waste of tabloid drivel that seems to constantly take up air time on Channel 4, deserves to have its oxygen forcibly ripped out of its lungs. However, looking at the tabloids this morning, it was interesting to see that nearly all had pictures of Shilpa on their front pages. All that is except the Daily Express. Again no surprise there. Nice to know that the ever "respectable" Daily Express is taking a completely unbiased view.
However this could be a part of a bigger problem. What if all animals start coming back from the dead? One day your biting into you burger, and the next its biting into you. As I see it we only have a few months left. Start stocking up on all the vegetables you can, and hide yourself away from the meat. It's now survival of the meatiest.
Link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6309159.stm
The solution however is obvious.
We attach fat children to the front of our cars and make them run. Not only do we turn our children into lean, mean, Olympic winning machines, but we also beat climate change by getting rid of fossil fuels. I can't imagine why this hasn't already been done.
I remember very clearly the day I was “saved”. I especially remember the drive back to my apartment with my then-girlfriend (now my wife). But more than anything I remember the week after I was dunked.
A church deacon came to me and asked me to take up some task in the church. This particular time it was to sit out in the parking lot during the service and make sure that the cars stayed safe. But the requests kept growing both in time and money required.
What it left me with was a feeling of betrayal. The entire time I visited that church as a pre-Christian I was told that I just needed to accept Jesus and everything would be good. Now I was being told that I also needed to donate to the church in addition to the 10% that God required me to give, join a class or even better teach a class, and help out with other tasks around the church. Worst of all I was told that I should do so happily because it was “for God”.
No. I felt lied to. I felt that they had told me of the simplicity while leaving out all the other works, the entire time telling me that works wouldn’t save me.
I saw this on a ChristianForums thread and thought it was too good not to repost here.
660: Approximate number of the Beast
DCLXVI: Roman numeral of the Beast
666.0000: Number of the High Precision Beast
0.666: Number of the Millibeast
/ 666: Beast Common Denominator
666 ^ (-1): Imaginary number of the Beast
1010011010: Binary of the Beast
6, uh… what was that number again?: Number of the Blonde Beast
1-666: Area code of the Beast
00666: Zip code of the Beast
$665.95: Suggested Retail price of the Beast
$699.25: Price of the Beast plus 5% state sales tax
$769.95: Price of the Beast with all accessories and replacement soul
$656.66: Walmart price of the Beast
$646.66: Next week’s Walmart price of the Beast
Phillips 666: Gasoline of the Beast
Route 666: Highway of the Beast
666 F: Oven temperature for roast Beast
666k: Retirement plan of the Beast
666 mg: Recommended Minimum Daily Requirement of Beast
6.66 %: 5 year CD interest rate at First Beast of Hell National Bank, $666 minimum deposit.
Lotus 6-6-6: Spreadsheet of the Beast
Word 6.66: Word Processor of the Beast
i66686: CPU of the Beast
666i: BMW of the Beast
DSM-666 (revised): Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Beast
668: Next-door neighbor of the Beast
665.9997856: The Number of the Beast on a Pentium
For most people, the idea that natural selection and evolution are the real creators of our race is ludicrous even though there is so much evidence to support it. I think this is in part due to the fact that 3.5 billion years is a time so long that most people can't even begin to imagine it. When compared to our relatively short lives, a person tends to mistakenly underestimate such a long period and the amount of events that could take place during it. When this is added to humans' desperate need not to feel lonely, their inherent feeling of extreme superiority to other creatures, and the religious brainwashing almost every person has been undergoing since he/she was a child, I find the outcome quite expected.
Sometimes, I find myself wondering if our race (and especially our society) will ever be able to dig itself out of the comfortable hole of denial and ignorance it's so determined to stay in, consider the facts subjectively, and face reality.....
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you
shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
The Prophet
Khalil Gibran
The only theory I could come up with was that this is some sort of starter doctrine for new converts to Christianity. You know, for those people who really want to join up, but are finding the Lord-of-the-entire-universe thing a little hard to take on all at once? I guess the churches figured, "well, let's start them off with something manageable; something still pretty vast and important, but nothing the layman can't flip through in his ADC Road Atlas."
I'm hoping to see that car again--I hear there's an opening for Lord of the entire Mid-Atlantic Region, and I'm pulling for Jesus to get the promotion.


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