कालचक्र

Kalachakra-The Wheel of Time

Saddam Hussein executed for war crimes

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writers

BAGHDAD, Iraq -

Saddam Hussein struggled briefly after American military guards handed him over to Iraqi executioners. But as his final moments approached, he grew calm. He clutched a Quran as he was led to the gallows, and in one final moment of defiance, refused to have a hood pulled over his head before facing the same fate he was accused of inflicting on countless thousands during a quarter-century of ruthless power.

A man whose testimony helped lead to Saddam's conviction and execution before sunrise said he was shown the body because "everybody wanted to make sure that he was really executed."

"Now, he is in the garbage of history," said Jawad Abdul-Aziz, who lost his father, three brothers and 22 cousins in the reprisal killings that followed a botched 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the Shiite town of Dujail.

Iraqi television showed what it said was Saddam's body, his head uncovered and the neck twisted at a sharp angle.

The footage showed the man identified as Saddam lying on a stretcher, covered in a white shroud. His neck and part of the shroud have what appear to be bloodstains. His eyes are closed.

In Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, hundreds of people danced in the streets while others fired guns in the air to celebrate. The government did not impose a round-the-clock curfew as it did last month when Saddam was convicted to thwart any surge in retaliatory violence.

It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict.

The execution took place during the year's deadliest month for U.S. troops, with the toll reaching 108.......

(Photo--artist Swapan Kumar Das)

Heaven? or Hell?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DCSJdhy3-0

Hah?? :P

hmmmm.....

What are the theological implications of Dr. Ramachandran's split-brain patients...?

So glad I'm not one of them.... ;)

a silly thought at night...

I was thinking about fear again.

Remember how I talked so informed, and determined about it...and yet hypocritical about it at the same time. It's one thing I've yet to overcome.

I have to say, I am getting better at it...getting better at controlling fright in myself. It's just something that was forced into me all at once ever since I was very young and now, I am really pushing for a new start. A new start in all aspects of my life. And it all began with my decision to come here. Now.. I am forced to be brave....not only by nature, unknown sources...but by myself. I'm talking to myself now. Telling myself what only I know I need to hear.

I think at this point, I've realized...temporary or not, that is where my comfort is...as well as my enemy. You know.. they say the most formidable enemy lies within oneself.

Have I begun answering my own questions?

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."--Alan Cohen

"The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."--Charles Dubois

"Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." -- Dorothy Thompson

"If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream." --'The Trumpet of Conscience'- Martin Luther King Jr.

P-p-p-possibilities

Even though I can honestly say that I have gone through quite a bit so far in the last 15 years..blissful, hard, good, bad...Everything that I've experienced has come from just a tiny corner in the universe of the possibilities, my posibilities. I just imagine growing my awareness, my thinking, and my actions beyond that little corner of life I've seen. How much more could there possibly be? How could there possibly be more....?

I'm just thinking..... that what if the reason something seems impossible at times, is because you're looking at it from a limited perspective. You're not looking at it the right way, you're not considering each and every particle of it. I guess over all you've just got to remind yourself over and over... To consider that there is so very much more to life than what you have so far encountered. So much more possibility.

"A useless life is and early death" --Goethe

"One needs something to believe in, something for which one can have whole-hearted enthusiasm. One needs to feel that one's life has meaning, that one is needed in this world." -- Hannah Senesh

"All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom." --Albert Einstein

Turn around.

Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you
Tell you I need you
Tell you I set you apart
Tell me your secrets
And ask me your questions
Oh let's go back to the start
Running in circles
Coming in tales
Heads are a science apart
Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start
I was just guessing
At numbers and figures
Pulling your puzzles apart
Questions of science
Science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart
Tell me you love me
Come back and haunt me
Oh and I rush to the start
Running in circles
Chasing tails
And coming back as we are
Nobody said it was easy
Oh it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard
I'm going back to the start

It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.

My mother...

"I never really put much thought to my role models. Whenever asked that question; Who is your role model(s)? I always ignored it, dismissed it...as just being another one of 'those' questions that I'm known to answer with an "I don't know", like...What do you want to be when you grow up? " Remember this? Let me just add...

Really, I think about my role model...my hero... every day...without ever acknowledging that that is what she is. I think...if I had to choose one person in the entire universe as a model for me, I think I'd have to say it's my mother. Maybe she doesn't realize it, but she's absolutely AMAZING...really, truly, no lie. :) There's just simply not enough adjectives to describe her greatness. I could go on and on and on about her. Yea, she has made mistakes, but who doesn't? That's what makes her even better. That there's proof that she can be so awesome and yet still be human.

The most breath-takingly beautiful people I know are the ones who have suffered incredible pain and somehow managed to let the bitterness of it drop away and only carry the beauty of their agonies forward.

She's my hope for the end of the road!

The Last Cloves

U.S. Air Strikes - (Poets Against War)

In the four minutes/ it took me to mince the cloves,/ dump the tea leaves/ in the rose bush,/and soap the carafe,/ a whole city was lost./

There were feet still in school shoes,/ limp flesh singing into satchels,/ clinging to a post, a shattered clock.

The children, if not orphaned,/ were purpled beyond recognition./ Orders had been carried down,/one signal igniting another./ And a man had let a deafening rhapsody/ guide his young hand to/ drop a five hundred pound bombon a mosque.

Just when I finished rinsing the carafe,/ a whole city was under cement dust and smoke,/ and I thought I heard screaming/ behind walls of fire/ in the kettle’s sharp whistle,/ just when I added the cloves,/ the last green lime./

--Shadab Zeest Hashmi: (She is the editor of the annual Magee Park Poets Anthology.)

Fahrenheit 451: The Hearth and the Salamander

"....It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history...."

"......The last few nights he had had the most uncertain feelings about the sidewalk just around the corner here, moving in the starlight toward his house. He had felt that a moment prior to his making the turn, someone had been there. Ther air seemed charged with a special calm as if someone had waited there, quietly, and only a moment before he came, simply turned into a shadow and let him through. ..."

"...How do you get so empty? he wondered. Who takes it out of you? And that awful flower the other day, dandelion! It had summed up everything, hadn't it? "What a shame! You're not in love with anyone!"...And, why not? ...."

"...One drop of rain. Clarisse. Another drop. Mildred. A third. The uncle. A fourth. The fire tonight. One. Clarisse. Two. Mildred. Three, uncle. Four, fire. One, Mildred, two, Clarisse. One, two, three, four, five, Clarisse, Mildred, uncle, fire, sleeping tablets, men disposable tissue, cottails, blow, wad, flush, Clarisse, Mildred, uncle, fire, tablets, tissues, blow, wad, flush. One, two, three, one, two, three! Rain. The storm. The uncle laughing. Thunder falling downstairs. The whole world pouring down. The fire gushing up in a volcano. All rushing on down around in a spouting roar and rivering stream toward morning. "I don't know anything anymore," He said, and let a sleep lozenge dissolve on his tongue...."

--Ray Bradbury

"The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself." --Albert Camus

"But words are things, and a small drop of ink/ Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces/ That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think." --Lord Byron

"Fiction is the truth inside the lie." --Stephan King

I AM PROUD

You know... I have been unusually happy lately. It's kind of strange. But I'm loving it. And guess what?! The reason isn't a mystery to me for once, either! Although, I'm not going to mention it here.

But this is just great. A dramatic change from how I've been living for the past few years. I know I always say "Oh things are much better now"...well...hel-lo? They never were. That was me trying to convince you to convince me that it is. And I know.... I've just got to tell myself to be happy and I will (who was it they interviewed on mancow about this? Chopra?...or was it that other guy...AKA "David").. but it hasn't worked until I finally got off my lazy bum and did something. I just needed that extra action. And thank goodness I did, because it's changed my life in more ways than one.

See... I know it's going to be fine this time because this time I can't feel any bit of doubt/regret/fear that it wont and I'm on a role! It's been almost a week! Score! Nothing incredibly depressing for almost a week.. at least nothing strong enough to pull me down again. Can I say this? I AM PROUD of myself. :)

Anyway, change of subject. I've got so many things I want to post about here, but haven't gotten the chance lately simply because of lack of time. I'm studying too much for these finals! But thank goodness only one more day of them. I can come home at noon tomorrow and just relax. Maybe take a bubble bath and a nap...eat some CAKE. :P I think I've lost too much weight...really, too much.

hmmmmm anyway, I went to lunch today with my dad. He took me all the way out to Ali Baba's upon my request! I offered to pay, mostly for the 'waste of gas' :P but he declined. Anyway, came home and..... Studied!

Did you?

Did you know....

Not all dogs are colorblind, and birds were given wings to fly? Did you know the grass has dew in the morning and four-leaf clovers are lucky? Did you know the sky is really blue and the clouds are really made out of whipped cream and marshmallows no matter what they say? Did you know if you look at the sky when it rains, and open your mouth wide...the rain tastes better than wine? Did you know there's a man in the moon? And catepillars turn into butterflies? Did you know the wind can whistle, and birds can sing, and leaves can dance? Did you know that if you rub a dandelion under your chin and your chin turns out yellow... it means you're in love? And if you can blow all the seeds off a dying dandelion you get to make a wish? Did you know tying your shoes with two bunny ears works just as well as one? Did you know if you spin around in circles too long you'll fall over out of dizzyness? Did you know the sun rises in the east and sets in the west? And you get good luck if you can hold your breath through a tunnel or cross your fingers on a window when you go over railroad tracks? And you can make wishes on shooting stars and a 1000 oragami cranes? Did you know, you can do anything if you want to enough? And you can be happy if you choose to?

Did you know??

Suddenly I see

Her face is a map of the world/ Is a map of the world/ You can see she's a beautiful girl/ She's a beautiful girl/ Everything around her is a silver pool of light/ People who surround her feel the benefit of it/ It makes you calm/ She holds you captivated in her palm/

Suddenly I see/ This is what I wanna be/ Suddenly I see/ Why the hell it means so much to me (Repeat x1)

And I feel like walking the world/ Like walking the world/ And you can hear she's a beautiful girl/ She's a beautiful girl/ She fills up every corner like she's born in black and white/ Makes you feel warmer when you're trying to remember/ What you heard/ She likes to leave you hanging on a wire/

Suddenly I see/ This is what I wanna be/ Suddenly I see/ Why the hell it means so much to me (Repeat x1)

And she's taller than most/ And she's looking at me/ I can see her eyes looking from a page in a magazine/ She makes me feel like I could be a tower/ Big strong tower/ She got the power to be/ The power to give/ The power to see yeah yeah

Suddenly I see/ She got the power to be/ The power to give/ The power to see yeah yeah/ Suddenly I see/ She got the power to be/ The power to give/ The power to see yeah yeah/ Suddenly I see/ She got the power to be/ The power to give/ The power to see yeah yeah /

Suddenly I see/ This is what I wanna be/ Suddenly I see/ Why the hell it means so much to me (Repeat x1)

Suddenly I see/ Why the hell it means so much to me (x2)

--"Suddenly I see"- KT Tunstall

Torture, a part of the soul

Torture is Now Part of the American Soul

Cost of the War in Iraq$351,428,317,771

Torture Is Now Part of the American Soulposted Monday, 18 December 2006

Torture Is Now Part of the American SoulBy George Monbiot, The Guardianhttp://www.alternet.org/story/45613/

After thousands of years of practice, you might have imagined that every possible means of inflicting pain had already been devised. But you should never underestimate the human capacity for invention. United States interrogators, we now discover, have found a new way of destroying a human being.

In early December, defense lawyers acting for Jose Padilla, a US citizen detained as an "enemy combatant," released a video showing a mission fraught with deadly risk -- taking him to the prison dentist. A group of masked guards in riot gear shackled his legs and hands, blindfolded him with black-out goggles and shut off his hearing with headphones, then marched him down the prison corridor.

Is Padilla really that dangerous? Far from it: his warders describe him as so docile and inactive that he could be mistaken for "a piece of furniture." The purpose of these measures appeared to be to sustain the regime under which he had lived for over three years: total sensory deprivation. He had been kept in a blacked-out cell, unable to see or hear anything beyond it. Most importantly, he had no human contact, except for being bounced off the walls from time to time by his interrogators. As a result, he appears to have lost his mind. I don't mean this metaphorically. I mean that his mind is no longer there.

The forensic psychiatrist who examined him says that he "does not appreciate the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him, is unable to render assistance to counsel, and has impairments in reasoning as the result of a mental illness, i.e., post-traumatic stress disorder, complicated by the neuropsychiatric effects of prolonged isolation." Jose Padilla appears to have been lobotomised: not medically, but socially.

If this was an attempt to extract information, it was ineffective: the authorities held him without charge for three and half years. Then, threatened by a supreme court ruling, they suddenly dropped their claims that he was trying to detonate a dirty bomb. They have now charged him with some vague and lesser offences to do with support for terrorism.

He is unlikely to be the only person subjected to this regime. Another "enemy combatant," Ali al-Marri, claims to have been subject to the same total isolation and sensory deprivation, in the same naval prison in South Carolina. God knows what is being done to people who have disappeared into the CIA's foreign oubliettes.

That the US tortures, routinely and systematically, while prosecuting its "war on terror" can no longer be seriously disputed. The Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project (DAA), a coalition of academics and human rights groups, has documented the abuse or killing of 460 inmates of US military prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay. This, it says, is necessarily a conservative figure: many cases will remain unrecorded. The prisoners were beaten, raped, forced to abuse themselves, forced to maintain "stress positions," and subjected to prolonged sleep deprivation and mock executions.

The New York Times reports that prisoners held by the US military at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan were made to stand for up to 13 days with their hands chained to the ceiling, naked, hooded and unable to sleep. The Washington Post alleges that prisoners at the same airbase were "commonly blindfolded and thrown into walls, bound in painful positions, subjected to loud noises and deprived of sleep" while kept, like Jose Padilla and the arrivals at Guantanamo Bay, "in black hoods or spray-painted goggles."

Alfred McCoy, professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argues that the photographs released from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq reflect standard CIA torture techniques: "stress positions, sensory deprivation, and sexual humiliation." The famous picture of the hooded man standing on a box, with wires attached to his fingers, shows two of these techniques being used at once. Unable to see, he has no idea how much time has passed or what might be coming next. He stands in a classic stress position -- maintained for several hours, it causes excruciating pain. He appears to have been told that if he drops his arms he will be electrocuted. What went wrong at Abu Ghraib is that someone took photos. Everything else was done by the book.

Neither the military nor the civilian authorities have broken much sweat in investigating these crimes. A few very small fish have been imprisoned; a few others have been fined or reduced in rank; in most cases the authorities have either failed to investigate or failed to prosecute. The DAA points out that no officer has yet been held to account for torture practised by his subordinates. US torturers appear to enjoy impunity, until they are stupid enough to take pictures of each other.

But Padilla's treatment also reflects another glorious American tradition: solitary confinement. Some 25,000 US prisoners are currently held in isolation -- a punishment only rarely used in other democracies. In some places, like the federal prison in Florence, Colorado, they are kept in sound-proofed cells and might scarcely see another human being for years on end. They may touch or be touched by no one. Some people have been kept in solitary confinement in the United States for more than 20 years.

At Pelican Bay in California, where 1,200 people are held in the isolation wing, inmates are confined to tiny cells for 22-and-a half hours a day, then released into an "exercise yard" for "recreation." The yard consists of a concrete well about 12 feet in length with walls 20 feet high and a metal grill across the sky. The recreation consists of pacing back and forth, alone.

The results are much as you would expect. As National Public Radio reveals, 10% of the isolation prisoners at Pelican Bay are now in the psychiatric wing, and there's a waiting list. Prisoners in solitary confinement, according to Dr Henry Weinstein, a psychiatrist who studies them, suffer from "memory loss to severe anxiety to hallucinations to delusions ... under the severest cases of sensory deprivation, people go crazy." People who went in bad and dangerous come out mad as well. The only two studies conducted so far -- in Texas and Washington state -- both show that the recidivism rates for prisoners held in solitary confinement are worse than for those who were allowed to mix with other prisoners. If we were to judge the United States by its penal policies, we would perceive a strange beast: a Christian society that believes in neither forgiveness nor redemption.

From this delightful experiment, US interrogators appear to have extracted a useful lesson: if you want to erase a man's mind, deprive him of contact with the rest of the world. This has nothing to do with obtaining information: torture of all kinds -- physical or mental -- produces the result that people will say anything to make it end. It is about power, and the thrilling discovery that in the right conditions one man's power over another is unlimited. It is an indulgence which turns its perpetrators into everything they claim to be confronting.

President Bush maintains that he is fighting a war against threats to the "values of civilized nations": terror, cruelty, barbarism and extremism. He asked his nation's interrogators to discover where these evils are hidden. They should congratulate themselves. They appear to have succeeded.

George Monbiot is the author of 'Poisoned Arrows' and 'No Man's Land' (Green Books). Read more of his writings at Monbiot.com. This article originally appeared in the Guardian.

© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/45613/

if you're not angry, you're not paying attention

Mirror Mask

Wow... I was so close. TIME magazine "person of the year" turns out to be...well, 'You'.

Honestly I had a similar first thought. I was thinking, they'll probably just throw away all candidates and just have it be everyone. 'You', as the consumers and citizens that make up the most influencial event(s) of 2006, according to TIME. It was a perfect choice. Couldn't go wrong with it. There was simply too many major events this year that could have been covered.

I mean, as soon as they started narrowing the choices down, I started dismissing my original ideas. I switched them out for what I wanted it to be. I personally thought, maybe they out to do the "bad guy" this time. It's been too long since there was a "bad guy". So I was going more for Ahmedinejad ((sp?) AKA the modern Hitler??). But I'm happy with their choice, and can't wait to head over to Borders with a Starbucks and read it!

"If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost." --Aristotle

Damn.. if only ^. All congress will be doing in 2007 seven is focussing on how to gain more power for their party or just themselves in preparation for 2008. They aren't the leaders....we're the leaders, the people........ummm.... right?

“We believe that atomic energy is a blessing given by God”-- Mahmoud Ahmedinejad-- "How can you prove you are not a bad person? You can't prove that.”

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." -- C.S. Lewis

My Interesting "Interviews"

Why are we drawn to things we know are untrue, wrong...'bad'....?

• Because we have an inherent will to usurp authority; therefore, no matter what command we are given we will stumble to obey. Adam and Eve could not even keep one command why should we be any different. --Phoenixslayer


• It is due to the dark side of our fallen nature and like will attract like. --Believeme


• It would be difficult to know good, ifthere was no evil. How would we know love,if there was no hate?Life is a challenge. The good choiceswe make, enrich our person ale. --Kylekeye


• I don't think we're drawn to the 'untrue".I think human beings are naturally lazy.If someone can have an answer without having to do the research, then why should they memorize anything? I see this more and more in my daily life everywhere I turn. Nothing but lazy ignorant people who are just as content to let someone else think for them.The entire political system actually COUNTS upon this phenomenon so that they can get elected into office. Source(s):
  How many times have you heard (and will you hear) "I voted my party this year"?You see the signs of laziness all around you.You seem to have risen above the mess... just keep treading water until you get to the high ground. Then NEVER give it up to anyone...... --Wolfie


• Much of who we think we are is 'bad'. But the 'bad' I'm referring to is better described as 'delusional'. Are reality is set wrong. This, at the most fundamental level, is why we do 'bad' things (often without even knowing they're 'bad'). --Badbuddhist


• It is part of human nature to be curious and to fall to temptation. We are curious about the things we're told are bad and the people involved in those things seem to peek our interest, too. I think it's just wanting to understand why it's so bad or why those people seem to participate and not care about the consequences. We ask ourselves what makes them that way. When we're younger, I think those things we learn are bad become tempting, just to see what will happen if we do it...or if we can do it and not get caught. I think it all boils down to curiosity and temptation....the same thing Eve dealt with. --vanhammer


• 
  I heard this one quote from I can not recall, but it said that "satan would not BE without his cunningness". "Have you seen those whom have taken thier desires as GOD"-quranI have come to the conclusion that there is ONE universal truth of the matter to existance. And that being the only thing capable of creating it. But creations more than have the capability of frustrating and manipulating to the destruction of others well beings. Let alone the world on a thought that is of your own. GRANTED. My reasons to questions like such that you asked are highly blasphemous. Though they are blasphemous, they are true. So I martyre myself inshallah(GOD willing, if GOD wills, if it must be, if I must, if that is what I choose, etc). And I beg allah not to place me amongst the disbleiever, but to create a throne that I can call my own that I may one day sit upon with no crown. Only piety. Where my own thought will be the TRUE KING. I am sovereign reflected off of malik(sovereign lord). Thought could be the greatest toll that is of mankind. If one does not use it, how can they come to realise. Salam! Source(s):
  May you take care on your path. Some are more easy than others. This is the will of allah. And I humbly accept the inequality for the ONENESS of ALLAH. PEACE! --misconstruded

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word "terrorist" ?

• bin laden-- BloodyAdalwolf


• airplanes hitting buildings--David T


• BUSH --Feather


• Muslims! --MarkosM


• Explosions. --daisykris


• The World Trade Center, car bombs in the Middle East, abortion clinic bombings in the US.--rt66lt


• MY MOTHER,HER FAMILY AND THE CHURCH --badtricky


• George Bush --Mu'taz


• arabs blowing themselves up--Mrmoo


• islam....Honest answer to (what I hope is) an honest question. --CommonSense


• It certainly isn't Muslim. There have been MANY groups terrorize groups by terrorist activities. About the first terrorists I can think of was the Catholic church during the inquisition. --Rev. TwoBears


• Attack.--KAITLYN


• George W. Bush, the idiots who abused the prisoners at Abu Ghraib and now terrorize the guy who blew the whistle on the wrongdoers, Rumsfeld, Timothy McVeigh--vinslave


• Muslims with fat faces and beards and ugly women covering themselves from head to foot, in case they tempt men! --Franco


• Religion.--Godzilla


• 9/11 --pepsiolic


• Satan's and his outlash on Christian's .......--Ripcord3


• Islamic fanatics who believe in killing anyone who does not believe as they do. They want to have the crusades all over again but instead of catholic they are Islamic.--Chris Z.


• Arabs dressed in towels carrying AK-47s and a Koran. Don't blame me its just what comes to mind first of all since its the ones I see most often.--Anon.


• Anger...and ignorance--Colin C.


• I think of the Middle East and masked men in black clothes with guns, who are mostly Islamic radicals willing to die as long as any non-Muslim, or "infidel," dies with them. Source(s):
  My source is merely the imagery the pops into my mind. Although, the associations I have with that word do come from the media exposure of the subject and the current state of world affairs. --Danielle C.


• The Irish Republican Army...actually terrorist is a debatable word and has many defentiton so it doesn't mean blowing things up for religous zeal....--Amin

What is your first thought when you hear the word "Muhammad" ? "Allah"? "Islam"?

• pretender--Kim C.


• 1; Ali 2; lahve 3; Cat Stevens is a moron --GM


• Praised one, The GOD, and submitting to the will of GOD.......la ilaha illalah --misconstruded


• "Muhammad"- Intuitive fellow, "Allah"- Divinity, "Islam"- Beautiful, misunderstood --PaganRebirth


• Heads up-- TarKettle


• 1- founder of Islam, 2- Arabic word for "God", 3- a religion based on the Qur'an --rt66lt


• The Noble Prophet. Allah means God. Islam is the peaceful religion Muslims follow-- Affan


• Muhammad: peace be upon him, the greatest of mankind, Allah: The most merciful, the most glorious, the Almighty, Islam: my beloved religion the complete system for human life.-- MuslimRose


• Child Molester. False prophet.-- Georgiegi


• The boxer..That's what.. Then I think of KILLING...BABIES HOLDING GUNS, WITH PROUD PARENTS IN THE BACKGROUND..... DEATH..SAND ...SUFFERING....BLOOD...CARBOM... PARTS..why do you ask?? -- Thnkni


• Planes flying into buildings. -- Jer


• Ali-- Fuster


• Works in the corner shop-supports Arsenal and gives me crap horse racing tips. -- Andymcj66


• Another set of god-statues in need of constant polishing and stoking. I intend no specific disrespect of Islam, I think exactly the same of Christianity. --MiddleMan


• muhammed.....violent middle eastern man who was demon possessed. allah....fallse moon god, non existant. islam....lost and blind faith in a false prophet worshipping a false and dangerous god. -- Sheepinar


• 1. Muhammed Ali, the Boxer 2. Islamic word for G-d 3. Terrorism -- David T.


• My smallness and the God's greatness. --Emina


• Sick man. His follower are sicker to follow some one like him. --MD


• muhammad=islam=allah=Satan. -- Cthemagic


• really the first thing i think of is purity of religion, peacfulness,love and that goes for all three categories being, allah islam, and the profit muhammed(PBUH). And why do u ask ?? -- Muslimahg


• Courageous man, who united the Arab people and spread the word of God. (I am not a Muslim) peace. --Colin C.


• A dead man. -- dustylee3


• Muhammad - his amazing encounter with the angel who demanded he recite and his discussion of how women should be treated well; Allah - "The Merciful, The Compassionate..." ; Islam - muslimahs, hijab, beautiful masjids, the Q'uran... the beautiful call to prayer... I could go on for hours... --vinslave


• muhammad = the greatest man that ever lived -- UmmAyman

Are we becoming slaves to this modern and ever-enhancing technology?

• We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. Yes, to a degree, but you can always turn the computer OFF. -- Paul H.


• I think you've becomes a slave of something when you either can't or don't think you can do without something. I think countries in the western world are becoming slaves of oil-producing countries because of their dependence on oil. This dependence is not totally necessary in that it is the result of western addiction to using vehicles more than they need to ans using vehicles that are bigger than they need to have. Commercials 'create' needs so that companies can sell their products, and people start to think that they can't do without them. Of course, we are now so dependent, in a real sense, on computer technology, that we would suffer greatly if we had to do without it. I think that anything you become dependent on you also become a slave to. --Rgtheisen


• Well we are free...free to need a new mobile every year although none work as well as an old analogue, need the same running shoe with a different stripe etc. Are blackmailed to throw whole television systems and computers and software in the bin. As we continue to glut ourselves and 3rd world countries follow with ever increasing air conditioning and dish washers I have to draw a parralell with locusts stripping a feild. Yeah sure we are slaves of our own destruction. --BOverit


• We are sitting in front of a PC answering and asking questions, are we not? muahahahahaha!!!! --ConstElat

What? I was bored...

That I am

Thinking, wondering, hoping, wishing, going, jumping, leaping, spinning, dancing, smiling, laughing, trying, hurting, functioning, understanding, caring, being, singing, listening, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, loving, flying...

I'm gonna be happy....

Gaurdian Angel

My hero...

Black Spruce

Today went pretty good. I woke up to rain :) and the weather warmed up a bit, so it was perfect. Other than I had a surprise EOC today...mleh.... that's always fun, huh?

But, I decided I'm going to do one of those Angel Tree's. It's a little program where you take responsibility for one homeless and/or 'unfortunate' young child, and give them what they need/want for christmas. My little boy is 2 and a half years old... and it was the cutest thing. He asked for a 'Mr. Potatoe head' and a toy "truck that makes noises and flashes". It's so cute. But his mother said what he needs is clothes, a pair of pants or two, or shoes, and a jacket. :'( So... I'm going to spend a little money this weekend and find him an outfit and a toy truck. Can't wait to give it to him. :)

"Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others. " --Barbara Bush

"You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give." --Winston Churchill

"There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the wish to scatter joy and not pain around us. 'Tis good to give a stranger a meal, or a night's lodging. 'Tis better to be hospitable to his good meaning and thought, and give courage to a companion. We must be as courteous to a man as we are to a picture, which we are willing to give the advantage of a good light." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands." --Anne Frank

Satan is our Scapegoat

Why are we drawn to things we know are untrue, wrong...'bad'....?

Why will we do things that we know are wrong, or will cause something 'bad'...?

Like that test...putting two people in seperate rooms, and giving one of them a button and telling them "Press this button and it will shock the person in the other room"....What does that person do? Press the button. Do we do it because of curiosity? Or fear or punishment? Or raised beliefs that respect for authority has no limits.

But really.... on the other note.....Why are we drawn to things we know to be untrue?

"Bad hippy...no more Patchuli..."

Hmmm... Today was a great day. No specific reason either. I just thought to myself as I got out of bed "today is going to be awesome" --and bam, look at where the power of suggestion landed me :) Or is it just karma catching up to me....?

Sorry sorry... I'm not being conceited, I promise.

So, I seemed to accumulate a lot of homework today, and yet, I finished it all quickly after I got home. Just because I needed something o keep me occupied while I waited for it to be 4:oopm in the western hemisphere (of the US). Evan's birthday. I just so happened to catch him while he was waiting to pick of Josh. And I had a great talk with him...

And tonight, I'm just relaxing.... with my new CD, maybe a good book, maybe some art, and burn a little Santal..or maybe Lotus tonight, Patchuli? I don't know, but I'm looking forward to it; looking forward to catching up on some sleep....hopefully.

"Love...what is love? When it occurs , it cannot be denied. No matter what your past has held...when love occurs...your life has forever changed"

"They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: Somone to love, something to do, and something to hope for."

"Experience is a hard teacher; She gives the test first and the lesson afterwards."

'Cause when it all comes down...

Car door slams, it's been a long day at work/I'm out on the freeway and I'm wondering if it's all worth/The price that I pay, sometimes it doesn't seem fair/I pull into the drive and you're standing there/And you look at me/And give me that come-here-baby smile/It's all gonna be alright/You take my hand/You pull me close and you hold me tight

It's the sweet love that you give to me/That makes me believe we can make it through anything/'Cause when it all comes down/And I'm feeling like I'll never last/I just lean on you 'cause baby/You're my better half

They say behind every man is a good woman/But I think that's a lie/'Cause when it comes to you I'd rather have you by my side/You don't know how much I count you to help me/When I've given everything I got and I just feel like giving in/And you look at me/And give me that come-here-baby smile/It's all gonna be alright/You take my hand/Yeah you pull me close and you hold me tight

Well, you take my hand/Yeah you pull me close and I understand

It's the sweet love that you give to me/That makes me believe that we can make it through anything

Oh baby, it's the sweet love that you give to me/That makes me believe we can make it through anything/'Cause when it all comes down/And I'm feeling like I'll never last/I just lean on you 'cause baby/ You're my better half

Oh, oh baby you're my better half/Ooh, hey baby you're my better half

--"You're my better half"-Keith Urban

Technology

We create it, we birth it, we feed it, we enhance it...and yet we fail to realize that it is biting us in return. And somehow, it is able to influence us so much that we drop down like we're slaves to some diety. When in actuality, this is the very true meaning of "idol worshipping" that we've been told to avoid.

It's simply common sense.

We think we are solving our stress problems by inventing a way for more leisure time. It's only creating more problems, more complications, more feelings that life is moving just too fast to keep up with.

So what are we really doing with that spare time due to our newly concocted labor-saving gadgets? Sitting in our cars in a jam because more cars and same old roads equals everyone going nowhere fast. Sitting in front of TV and computer screens with frivolous and violent video games, movies... that do nothing particularly good for us because it's just like heroin and gambling. Addictive. People waste away for hours on end doing nothing productive, and nothing sentimentally memorable, nothing beneficial...Just getting addicted so that we become dependent on these devices, dependent on their manufacturors to keep our lives......stable? Besides our dependency on this technology is not making life 'easier', it's just making us less productive and more stressed...removing what little life we have left.

Of course.. not all technology is malicious, man-eating, artificial scum. Some is beneficial in ways. We've just got to keep it to the basic needs. For example, a remote control for a TV set... imagine what a difference it would make in our health if we got up and took those few steps back and forth. Or a movie theatre...Rather than waste your money to kill your eardrums with the intense sound effects....why not save time, money, and health by watching it at home. I suppose, part of it is man's natural curiosity...almost impossible to overcome. Just keep your use of appliances reasonable... Although it doesn't seem so, life is so much more enjoyable and simpler with out them.

So...Are we just gonna let this thing make slaves of us?

"All of the biggest technological inventions created by man - the airplane, the automobile, the computer - says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness. " --Mark Kennedy

"Modern technology;Owes ecology; An apology."--Alan M. Eddison

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity." --Albert Einstein

"The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people. " -- Karl Marx

...Yes, I love technology/ but not as much as you, you see. /But I STILL love technology. /Always and forever./ Always and forever... --"Kip's Wedding Song"

Sjeemft

-You can't keep this until you have given it.

-Your mother’s brother’s only brother-in-law is asleep on your couch. Who is asleep on your couch?

-A father's child, a mother's child, yet no one's son.

Have you caught my simple drift?

(ran out of time, sorry)

Eta Carinae

Star children

“Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events.” --Albert Einstein

HAL; "I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do. "

real?

I couldn't because I can't allow my imagination to become a reality that doesn't exist. I cannot allow myself to believe in that reality that doesn't, and never has existed.

It isn't real, it's in your head, it's meant to be forgotten as a child, just imagination, just empty, meaningless words and dreams, they say. Okay, I trust you.

But they don't go away.