I love you, lets get stoned

Stoning is sanctioned within the bible. Islamic law prescribes the stoning of couples suspected of having sex, or having children out of wedlock. Many of us now ridicule such a practice, deeming it inhumane, or unfair---at the very least. But this sort of punishment isn't exclusive to old religious practices. It is still an accepted means of reprimanding convicted persons today. This way of capital punishment is shameful, but legal in various societies. And though we don't necessarily throw physical stones in our society, here in the U.S. of A., we aren't free of guilt. For we have alternative, and just as sickening means of throwing stones, for the mere infraction of loving someone.

 I've learned recently, that Islamists have carried out such an execution just days ago. They controlled a town in northern Mali. An otherwise innocent couple were brought to death---after the Islamic group accused them of having children outside of marriage. The couple were maliciously transported to the town of Aguelhok. Once there, the less than human group of Islamists buried them in voids four feet in depth, leaving exposed their heads, and proceeded to pelt them with stones, until death ensued. http://americablog.com/2012/07/islamists-in-mali-stone-couple-to-death-for-having-kids-out-of-wedlock.html

 The normal, decent individual might understandably think this to be a fairytale. That individual has not the slightest idea how much I wish it was so.

 Though it isn't a common occurrence, this barbaric,idiotic practice is alive and well in Afghanistan, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates. To the extent of my knowledge(everyone knows that's not far), there's not much that definitively indicates that stoning has been carried out in Pakistan, Nigeria, or Iraq. That doesn't mean that there isn't a possibility.

 The Old Testament prescribed stoning for murder, blasphemy, and apostasy. I am not perfect, nonetheless I try to uphold honesty whenever possible and practical---so, I can say that I can probably understand how this might barely be justified for murder. This guy here has minimal respect and remorse for murderers that prey on those who cannot defend themselves. Those are the mentally and physically impaired, children, and women( I don't mean that women are inferior, bare with me here). Death for apostasy and blasphemy is senseless. That's putting it gently.

 How it's specified in law: Article 102 of the Islamic penal code of Iran, states that "men should be buried up to their waist, and women up to their breasts", for the execution. Beautiful right? --Yeah. Article 104, referring to adultery, contains directives for the stones that are used. According to this directive, stones that are to be utilised shall not be sufficiently large as to cause death by only a couple of strikes. Selected stones should neither be so small that they can't be classified as stones. Who in Hell comes up with this stuff?

 I've even discovered that persons who were able to fight themselves free from the hole they were placed in, were let go. This doesn't make me feel any more chipper. And women always seem to afford the short end of the stick. Because women are buried to their breasts, and men to their waists, it is easy to deduce who possesses the greater probability of escape. It's not like men are generally physically stronger or anything. Sillyrabbits. http://www.violenceisnotourculture.org/faq_stoning

 Why the U.S. is guilty: We throw stones of a different type. These stones come in the form of destructive words, and ridicule to single mothers, that even a child can sense the inequality and unfairness in. Single fathers and children of single fathers don't seem to endure quite the judgement. They may receive a few bats of the eye, from the "uppity", out of touch with the crude world posh, but nothing in comparison. For a being as delicate as a child, why must we make them to endure such disgusting description? Words like "bastard", "illegitimate", "whoreson", and other choice words that I would consider choking the life out of a person for, are completely unacceptable. Adults are less mature than the children they are describing when they decide to use such language. Regarding the aforementioned derogatory terms, many people use them to distinguish themselves from the unwed, or children therefrom---as if it makes them elitists. Reasonably, having that thought process lessens one's credible character. Is that a tenet of what we stand for? I opine that people should use less of dilapidated texts to define, or govern respiring human beings, and start using their hearts.

 Legally, the method of legitimizing a child involves the parents being married at the moment of birth. Currently, children are regarded as legitimate if they are formally acknowledged by their father. Am I the only one who thinks this to be a bit absurd? All children are legitimate! I mean, have we gone mad or what? Love is the binding force that legitimizes children---love from any direction in fact. Who cares what the conveniently pious thinks? Love is too that binding force that legitimizes any true relationship. It is the ring figuratively around your heart when commitment is real--the one around the finger is intended to be symbolic, but it's rapidly changing into a piece for show. As soon as a child is born, that child is more significant than a word. The magical moment a mother embraces her newborn for the first time, that child has a proper name, and shan't be called upon by anything other than what it is, unless one is speaking constructively. No legal entity, nor religious text, nor any emotionally debilitating opinion from any poor excuse of a person shall be credible.

 Perspective: With divorce rates in the neighbourhood of 50%, who shall casts judgment? Moreover, the U.S. is running a close race with having the highest rate in the dissolution of marriage. That's alarming. This isn't to mock or look at our nation negatively. I'm a realist. I introduced the aforesaid fact to introduce another: the institution of marriage, and the adherence to religious beliefs, do not necessarily guarantee a healthy or sound partnership, or childhood. We all know troubled children of married parents; each of us can think of an abusive marriage.

 The effect: Parents and children especially, living under a single parent roof, face different realities; some never overcome them. Sometimes a child will try to compensate for that absent parent. Many times this is done positively and effectively. Also, a bleak truth is that some children grow to compensate counterproductively. The euphoria from a missing parental hug, in some cases, is replaced chemically or promiscuously--There's an array of other ways. (Obviously this isn't exact under every circumstance.) This compensation can be known as self medicating, psychologically. http://crcw.princeton.edu/workingpapers/WP10-14-FF.pdf

 I intend to do nothing more than shed light on the hearts that may indeed be fractured. Why would we throw lexical stones at hearts that might already be in pain?

 Unmarried couples, children of unmarried couples, and single parents do not have to be plagued by the shirt that society, theocracies, or any other entity have stitched for them. Not knowing his father has never stopped Lance Armstrong from achieving greatness(I don't give two cruise ships about his steroid accusations, or use). Being raised by his grandparents didn't stifle the suave voice, or comedic genius of Jamie Foxx. Being abandoned doesn't jeopardize the wealth of Jay Z today. And having met his father only once as a tot doesn't seem to damage the ambition of Barack Obama(set aside your political or personal dislike for a sec).

Perhaps we should think about the acceptance of stoning in the Old Testament---But surely, we should watch how we throw stones, in the form of words.

 -cheers, D.A.
 Thanks for reading.

Sorry, you still have to deal with your crappy boss. The world doesn't appear to be going anywhere.

We have an uncanny ability, as people, to believe in notions that are considerably improbable, and some are just down right impossible. I haven't a confident explanation as to why this is so, but it's quite a curious thing. For example: a doctor can forewarn a patient of imminent health problems, and often times that patient has the audacity to be skeptical of the doctor's expertise. This is done irrespective of the doctor's medical and scientific training, and his daily practice. Of course, the analogy isn't to insinuate that doctors are infallible; the doctor has the higher probability of being correct in the matter, and should therefore earn more of your trust. 

Yet, in many cases they don't. But people will lend 100% of their faith to superstition and things as trivial to your existence as a daily horoscope. To augment my confusion, I watch people visit neighbourhood psychics and swallow the reader's whole "prophetic" pill without question. 

Just as I am amused by the propensity to invest faith in neighbourhood psychics, the reverence that Y2K, Harold Camping's predictions, and the 2012 commotion received also has a strong command of my attention. Herein, I shall visit the three of these doomsday, scaremongering concepts. If nothing else, perhaps we will relieve some of their superfluous woes. The good news is--that the world is unbelievably older, and more stubborn than you are on your worst day.(even a Monday) And it will be that way for a number of years longer than we are used to putting into numbers. 

Y2K!!  

 I watched as reporter after reporter broadcasted live at various retail locations, as people frantically ridded stores of gallons of water and canned goods. To maintain integrity here, I should admit I was amongst the frantic patrons and crowd; I had no choice, as my age at the time was just a trifle too tender to have any say so in the matter. So, reluctantly tethered to mother, I helped to carry gallons of water as well, preparing for what she thought could be the end as we knew it-Y2K. 

How did all this come about? My computer savvy friends may be able to modify the sentences that will follow, or perhaps be more elaborative, but I think you'll get the gist. Though the story morphed and mutated a few times, the original cause remains intact. The problem that sent everyone into a frenzy was due to dated computer programs, as I understand. Yes, this is what had some people in chapel at midnight, and the reason Wal-mart and like stores experienced a fat payday, and customers lamented of skinny pockets. 

Until recent times, computer scientist, or programmers, used a month/day/year format that required a two digit number in the respective positions. For example: my birthdate would be written 11/21/84. You might be intuitively already suspecting a problem this could cause, come year 2000. Such a format cannot accommodate any such date from year 2000 onward. Inputting 11/21/00 could consequently cause faulty calculations and/or software crashes. I guess we expected the world to crash technologically. 

Software was merely, though not simply,  recoded so that it can understand and utilize numbers such as 00, 01, 02, etcetera. Nonetheless, we are still here, and have yet to technologically crash the earth. 

Harold Camping!!!   

Anyone remember the Judgement Day May 21, 2011 signs? Probably so. They are easily traceable to an American Christian radio broadcaster, namely Harold Egbert Camping. Mr. Camping erroneously predicted(on more than one occasion) that Christ himself would return to earth on May 21, 2011. As preposterous as you may think this, it caught on with many a entranced people. Camping has multitudes of followers, and sadly some of these people were naive enough to give up everything, as they braced for judgement that never came. The only judgment they received was from atheist, and even Christian skeptics alike. Robert Fitzpatrick, aged 60, surrendered his entire life savings of $140,00, to campaign for camping. Fitzpatrick is a retired transit worker from Staten Island, New York(http://m.christianpost.com/news/christians-respond-to-campings-may-21-rapture-prediction--50275/)

27 year old Adrienne Martinez opted not to go to medical school. Instead, she and her husband migrated from NewYork to Orlando, where they too proceeded to exhaust the remainder of their savings. They didn't think it mattered(http://m.christianpost.com/news/christians-respond-to-campings-may-21-rapture-prediction--50275/). Both of these accounts are profoundly, and confusingly sad to me. 

Camping is said to incorporate numerology in his interpretation of the bible. This should easily be detected as a recipe sure to lead anyone considering it astray. Numerology involves studying the special(mystical) powers of numbers, or the divine, mystical relationship between a number and an event. The mixing of numerology with the bible seems a touch illogical to me, but Mr. Camping, having a BS (stuff he's also filled with) in civil engineering, found quite the sly way of manipulating the mathematics to work in his favour. Reportedly, Camping later admitted that his predictions were "sinful". Not quite the words I would like to hear, but at least the unrelenting pressure of the public squeezed that much out of him. 

2012!!!!

The earth is over 4 BILLION years old!  There is ample science to substantiate that. However, there are a plethora of theories suggesting that, regardless of how long it has been carrying on without our intervention, we get to tell it when it shall perish. It's hard to contain oneself from wearing a pretty firm smirk in response to some of the ideas. 

There are several assumptions about 2012 that contribute to its doomsday baggage. Some think that planets will align in such s fashion as to cause a negative effect on earth. Scientists don't think this to be plausible. The earth will not pass through the galactic plane in 2012. This plane is where most of the mass from disk-shaped galaxies lie. Even if some weird alignment was to occur, many scientists believe that the effects on earth would be negligible. As far as celestial wonders, we have nothing more to look forward to than the December Solstice, or Winter Solstice, if that tickles your fancy. 

I wanted to know and understand some of where the 2012, world ending predictions began. The following is what I've learned thusfar: Nibiru, an alleged planet, is headed toward earth. It was supposedly discovered by the Sumerians. According to the claim, the disaster was projected to happen on May of 2003, but quite apparently nothing happened. This caused the date of doom to be moved to December 21, 2012. When this fable was linked to the end of ONE of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar( that's right, one of the cycles), at the winter solstice, it solidified as a viable doomsday prediction. Calendars abroad will carry on. 

Here's the deal mates, the earth preexisted us, and it will out endure us. This is especially true considering how silly we are nowadays. We don't have to fret over some end of the world rubbish; with our behaviour, we're likely to destroy ourselves. 

-cheers 

Interracial Matrimony

We see traces of it on television with celebrities. The majority of us can at least recall one family member who took the leap of blind love, and consequently landed in the frigid territory of other outcasts. Perhaps social clout plays a role in the acceptability of interracial courtship, as some high profile celebrities flaunt their colourful love, suffering way less ridicule.

  As recent as the past century, interracial marriage has matured from something that could warrant jail time, to something that basically, instantaneously classifies you as a minority. 1 in 12 marriages as of the year 2012 were of couples of different races. In optimism, we can celebrate outstanding progress, as we have made grand strides from a time when the average joe could die from following his heart. In 2000, Alabama became the last state to lift its ludicrous, and divisive ban on interracial matrimony. The fact that there were, and is legislation in place to govern love, easily makes us look infantile as a nation. As people, our capacity to love acts as a glue that is capable of uniting anyone with any decent person, irrespective of colour or creed. This ability given to us by mother nature shouldn't be trifled with by any law.

 Obviously, how accepted it is to date or marry a person of another race, depends on who you are, what you are, your intellect, and where you are. Minorities and young adults were among the most tolerant and embracing of such courtship and marriage. Perhaps the harmful pollutants, in the form of passed down prejudices and hateful coaching of children, are being diluted as time moves forward. Is this an indication that this socially hindering beast is near extinction? -Maybe. But the mind of a child is pristine and malleable, which infers that if they indeed have these negative prejudices, they were taught. Pursuant to intellect, people of higher education seem to accept the idea of a person " marrying outside of their race" more than their less educated counterparts. If I had to submit a guess as to why this is so, I'd say that naturally intelligent people tend to "think outside the box", and hold conflicting views with the at the time norm. It is too probable that intelligent people seek to understand before they load their mouth full of judgments and carelessly fire off. The latter, I would opine, is the more accurate. Because people have much to do with the feel of a state, it might occur to one that there are varying philosophies among the states. The north is typically more socially liberal than the south. Western and Northeastern states showed more occurrences of interracial marriages. It is no need to expound on the stubbornness of states near the bible belt.

 What does all this mean? Essentially we should go forth and love unrestricted, instead of  being so preoccupied with something that's only about 2mm thick. That's how thick human skin is; it has surprisingly been a formidable barrier  between many a people. The  vast majority of black women act as though it is a heinous crime for a black man to be romantically involved with a white woman( I've definitely been guilty). But  no one should be held to the social letter of the law simply because they possess an open mind, and selects to think for them self. I've seen real life, and current examples of hindered hearts. These are people who may be free, but their hearts are imprisoned. There is a grandfather at this very moment imprisoning the heart of his granddaughter. Naturally occurring thoughts are being swayed everyday.

 I have the fortune of having been taught, that as a whole, we are more alike than we are dissimilar. My family remain wholesome, loving, and accepting people. During my school days, my mother dealt with my colourful, juvenile romances without even blinking an eye. Of them, she has met: everyone from the purest of African to the palest of white, and everything in between. Take a look at my family, and it will be evident that we love without parameter, from my grandfather to my brother.  

Cheers -D.A.

Oh God

Often, it is during our darkest, gloomiest hours that we find ourselves believing more firmly in the supernatural, especially when the rigors of life weaken our ability to manufacture hope.

When we are at our highs, we tend to rely less on religious, spiritual,  or superstitious practices for intangible comfort. Comfort contributes largely to the reason these belief systems are utilised still today, as they soften the blows of society, by distorting a person's perception of reality. However bleak it may be, it is easier to imagine a lamenting person on their knees praying for the change they desire, than it is to picture  a person with a shining smile thanking a deity for the misfortune they've acquired. From boyhood, I can recount being confused by many religious and superstitious customs, living with a family who held strong beliefs. I was oblivious that as my imagination widened, my confusion would only grow deeper, as I matured.

   One of the oldest of questions that I can recount from one of my youngest of ages, asked to any adult that would listen, was: "why does god have three names; are there three people?" --Exhausted questions about "the birds and bees" were taken care of a considerable time before that, as I happened to be a firy little fellow. What worked for me at the time, especially those times I was ignored(a lot), was considering the possibility of a first, middle, and last name. My mother thought my immature theory to be laughable. Instead, she did her best to explain that Jesus, God, and Lord were essentially the same person. "Baby, Lord Jesus is our God", is closer to her precise words. It is needless to say that fun strolls to the neighbourhood market were not so fun for her sometimes. 

 Fortunately, or not so luckily, I've retained the curiosity that plagued the sanity of my mother during my boyhood. Questions designed to discover the difference between Jesus, God, and Lord made the smooth transition to questions engineered to find a working explanation of puzzling things such as the Holy Trinity. To this day, though some of my believing friends think the answer is simple, I am perplexed by that divine trio. --The father, son, and Holy ghost. The manner in which I've been taught to theorize is in complete disagreement with any proposed religious explanation I've ever received. Is reason the culprit? If I even hint that this is so, I will never hear the end of it.    

Science permits us to peer at the world as it truly is. It is through utilising its laws, and seeking to better understand them, that the world makes sense to me. I've been unsuccessful thus far in locating a scientific theory, or law that demystifies the Trinity; how a divine father, son, and spirit are one remains inconceivable to me.  Many philosophers regard religion to be a cultural and historical phenomenon. Reductionism is the idea that a system is merely the workings between its parts. It fares well in providing an array of explanations, but it performs poorly at providing an adequate elaboration on how the inner workings of the human mind makes way for religious experience.  

 This is where neurotheology introduces itself, though greeted with fierce criticism. A scientist, namely Dr. Andrew Newburg, uses this branch of study to uncover what transpires in a human's brain when they are having religious, or spiritual experiences.  The jargon responsible for this madness is "single photon emission computed tomography". This process involves a chemical that emits gamma rays being injected into a subject. Once injected, a computer builds an image that depicts many areas of the brain.- Personally, it's just a bloody MRI on steroids to me. Dr. Newburg has analyzed the brains of people including nuns while in prayer, Tibetan monks indulged in profound meditation, and Pentecostals while speaking in tongues(that's pretty spooky, sue me). 

 The discoveries single photon emission computed tomography has afforded the scientific world are quite amazing. When subjects were entranced in deep prayer, and other spiritual practices, blood flow to specific areas of the brain changed. The frontal lobe suffered a dramatic decrease in blood flow; 
this has important implications.  The said area of the brain is known for its role in willful attention, and our humanly sophisticated consciousness. Closing down that area is likely to induce the feeling in a person that something divine is actively controlling their actions; it allows them, as evidenced by the scans, to have the realistic experiences. While I don't have the fancy equipment, and am definitely not as informed as Dr. Newburg, I am just as curious about the persistence and evolution of religious practices. I imagine that I will continue to seek understanding as long as I live, as there are multitudes of gods, and billions of people.   -cheers D.A.

Humanly Lovebirds

Pop star Ke$ha sang "your love is my drug". I posit that life plays a very dark joke on us. It seems to find humour in providing us the ability to clumsily fall madly in love, for what I believe to ultimately be a mechanism of evolution. -We procreate, purposefully or otherwise.

 The highs we feel when we are enamoured, induced by the pleasure chemicals' effects on the brain, are the reason for the intense longing for your mate when they have only been away for a mere 15 minutes. When one says that their mate intoxicates them, that can often times be taken literally. Love intoxicates you in a very similar manner to a narcotic. An opiate brings about a euphoria completely comparable to that of a perfect, under the moon light kiss.

 However, we must remember that life isn't always perfect sailing, and that there rests a dormant bitterness under the sweetest of kisses. The question of whether this bitterness activates depends largely on the person's ability to consciously control what nature has made subconscious, or involuntary to us.

 The bliss is impeded when the faculties that ignite the fireworks within us, when we look into the eyes of the love of our life, fail to stop creating those explosions when an anatomically correct curve ball is thrown at us. This curve ball comes complete with something different, something curiously peculiar that peaks your interest. The culprit can be an unfamiliar accent that you fancy or perhaps something about their attitude. This is often quite the confusing time. Irrespective of how much one's mate causes their breath to escape them, they aren't exempt from being the but of nature's joke.

 We have evolved in such a way that one man is attracted to women, and a woman is attracted to men (I do acknowledge the legitimacy of same sex couples as well). Being smitten doesn't erase the primitive tendencies that each of us possess. At most, they are suppressed.  All other women, or men will not become transparent because one's finger is weighted with metal.

  Fortunately as human beings, not only do we have primitive instincts, but we have pretty sophisticated frontal lobes. This area of the brain aids in fighting unacceptable social responses, and choosing between good and bad, based on outcomes. This area should indeed be utilised to its full potential. The divorce rate doesn't appear to be getting any more beautiful, after all. 

-cheers d.a.

Nine 11

911 was a moving day to most Americans. It was surreal to those watching as two monumental pieces of engineering crumpled to mere rubble. Hearts of love ones crumpled the same, as they struggled to make reality of irreplaceable losts. Political figures offered candid apologies with insincere eyes. The then leader of the country deemed the culprit a "faceless coward"( feel free to attach his easily mockable  accent).  Soon thereafter United States troops flooded the middle east, prepared or not. Wives and love ones prayed on bended  knees as young soldiers in unfamiliar territory were involuntarily brought to theirs. This would mark the beginning of a war that would reach near adolescence. This would be the nearest political mold that would shape the hearts of the American people irregularly.

  That day in recent history, has for me  made two things apparent: The power of Americans, when united, is damn near untouchable. And extremism and hate is as toxic as the two have  always been. We have the potential to be harmonious, as demonstrated during such a catastrophic time. However, it seems that we're only that perfect puzzle if we are uniting on a basis to fight.-Take care not to misconstrue what is intended here. It is obvious that one cannot verbally reason with a combatant that is smiting you with ferocious blows; in such a case you have  to counter with tactics, sometimes lethally. It is so that we've done.

 Just as it is crucial to know how to neutralize an enemy, it is equally as important to show your foe who you truly are, unless the bloodshed legitimately represents you. I'd like to hope the latter isn't the case, but I've gotten a sneaky suspicion that my hopes don't amount to much, as per usual. After the 11th of September, the news was filled with calculated footage from Iraq and neighbouring hotspots( no wifi intended). Every once in a while it would be contaminated with something good. Common gibberish in the workplace was that of the war, a minority of the conversation holders were conspiracy theorists-I haven't met one yet without astronomical amounts of free time on their hands. No matter what, the theme of most conversations pertaining to the war was revenge. But where precisely do you draw the line? When both sides are inflicting wounds faster than it takes for the recovery process to take place, it seems to be only a matter of time before a national body meets death. To my disdain, this arouses us. We pray slanted prayers for our own, while women and children perish  in robotic crossfire. They celebrate kamikaze deaths of their own, that take out Americans.  The cycle is nonetheless vicious.

 November of 2008, the fight continues. The only difference is that it was overseen by a new commander in chief. His philosophy, if my memory hasn't yet failed me, as it threatens to, had to do with stern diplomatic talks, and ultimately bringing our troops home. Sounds decent? I'd think so, but the whispers that floated around were actually sufficiently loud for it to catch on. He was deemed a coward. This is the same word that the prior leader scolded the terrorists with. This isn't being composed to paint the current commander in chief brightly or dull. However, it should be necessary to mention that anyone can throw a punch, but it takes a courageous, standup individual to be willing to converse to obtain mutual understanding after wiping away blood. As I've always said, I have an undying respect and love for my fellow soldiers, but the leaders of America, and many of it's citizens, could use a bit of work.

 This is a very real day for some. Each of you should offer an untiring shoulder to anyone that might be still struggling with memories. In the words of  Indira Gandhi, "you cannot shake hands with clenched fists".  -cheers d.a.