Jesus Christ! He's not Mohammed? Wait a second!

Allow me to apologize for the extreme duration since my last verbal rant. Work has been slamming me like a $3 hooker. And yeah I mean $3 for the whole she-bang-a-bang. Going in the out door. The back entrance. If you still don’t follow you never will.

Well, holy crap folks but it looks like finally something good has come out of Afghanistan and that whole mess.

A tiny, mini-smattering of religious freedom.

Recently, Abdul Rahman was charged with apostasy after converting to Christianity. For those of you who don’t sit around reading theosophical tomes, Wikipedia defines apostasy as follows:

Apostasy in Islam is the rejection of Islam by words, either spoken or written, or by blasphemous actions, by a person who has been a Muslim. All schools of Islamic jurisprudence (madhhabs) agree that a male apostate must be executed. A female apostate may be put to death, according to some schools, or imprisoned, according to others.

Seems like a pretty harsh sentence right? Well, don’t get all high an mighty on us yet. For any Catholics out there you might remember a little thing called the Inquisition. That amounted to little more than a religiously condoned excuse to kill whoever you didn’t like. Hell, it was so popular that even American Protestants picked up the torch and set the stakes of religious observance aflame…under accused witches.

So it’s not that we’re better, it’s just that we already did it. But back to my point.

What does it take to be charged with apostasy? Not too much. For starters not believing that Mohammed was a prophet and questioning his perfection, claiming allegiance to a God other than Allah or contradicting the upheld positions of Muslim scholars including observing the propriety of fasting and avoiding adultery. That pretty much puts all of us non-Muslims in danger (and if I had to guess, a decent percentage of those that only pray 3 times a day – their version of Christmas/Easter churchfolk)..

But anyways, Abdul was released on grounds of insanity, thereby voiding the Qur’anic necessity to put him to death. Lucked out there. But really, he kind of did. In a for the good of the country and everyone else will benefit from my suffering kind of way. This case has demonstrated the division between Afghani religious law and secular law…and secular law won. Plus it probably didn’t help that GW wouldn’t have hesitated in throwing a few more bombs toward Kabul based on his religious and freedom based values. Hell he might even cook up a little “legally obtained” evidence from the phone lines. What the fuck! Make a day out of it.

The issue as a whole raises the larger point: can religion and politics exist hand in hand? If religion dictates what people must think and how they are required to act, is it any different than the Big Brother schemes put forward by those “crazies” sitting in Montana cabins? Legally killing someone based on their allegiance to another god, especially one that is the same God but delivered through a different prophet, seems a bit extreme. Don’t you think?

As sad as it is to see a man declared insane simply to avoid an international conflict and save face, it’s great that the issue has finally come forward. Kudos to the secular courts in ol’ Ghanistan for scoring big on this one. Anything less would have been a travesty for people seeking release and respite from persecution everywhere.

To find out more about this issue go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Rahman_%28convert%29

For the Love of Pete

Guten tag kids! I’ll state up front that at the end of this post is a link to a spectacular story that deals with a man, a lamb and a love so pure that only the authorities could rend it.

But before we get to that:

“All you need is love.” The Beatles

First let me rant for a second about citations. Does anyone honestly think that only Lennon and McCartney should get citations for Beatles work? Take for instance the song, All You Need Is Love. Who would want to read that crap if it were a poem with no music? I’ll tell you who -nobody. It would be the substantive equal of a fourth grade acrostic. But add in some fantastically stable drums ala Ringo and some subtly jangling guitar de Harrison and you’ve got a hit record.

Now for the real reason I quoted the boys from Britain. How long can you truly love someone without them loving you back? (I just realized how sex and the cityish this format is) Is it possible to give love and not receive it in the form you want?

This blogman was dumped by his lady about a month ago. After two years of my bullshit she walked. Don’t blame her. This brought on an intense period of introspection as to why I was the way I was. What it came down to was my whole life has been a façade of ignoring emotion. In my past I did some shit that I wasn’t proud of due to being “in love.” Never, did I want this to happen again. So I shut down and became a stoic – concerned about the rational processing of life. Pretty crappy way to live. Consistently, I neglected the needs of my lady and eventually she left.

This sparked, in me, a renewed desire to be with her. I have never been more in love with her than ever before and of course I can’t have her. My soul has a burning desire to be with her, to hold her and to love her in any imaginable way – if only she will tell me it will be done. But she has made it clear to me that the feeling is not mutual. This brings me back to my original question – can we love with every fiber of our being and be satisfied with not having it returned? I am being punished. And rightly so. I know she loves me still, just not in the same manner as before. Can I hold on and stick it out? I don’t know.

In my process of self-enlightenment I stumbled across some neo-hippie literature that stated, “To get love you must give love.” I agree with this. But what is this love? In my mind it is compassion. Giving compassion to others breeds compassion from them. Very karmic. But love is not compassion. Love is a two way street that mandates both parties drive towards each other. Love is mutual and not fleeting. To give love (truly) and not receive it is heat rendering. Can I continue to do so? We will see. I’ll keep you posted.



And now, on to the sheep humper:

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0306mesa-official.html

For the Love of Pete

Guten tag kiddies! I’ll state up front that at the end of this post resides a link to a spectacular story dealing with a man, a lamb and a love so pure that only the authorities could tear them apart.

But before we get to that:

“All you need is love.” The Beatles

First, allow me rant for a second about citations. Does anyone honestly think that only Lennon and McCartney should get citations for Beatles work? Take for instance the song, "All You Need Is Love." Who would want to read that crap if it were a poem with no music? I’ll tell you who -nobody. It would be the substantive equal of a fourth grade acrostic. But add in some fantastically predictable drums ala Ringo and some subtly jangling guitar de Harrison and you’ve got a hit record.

Now for the real reason I quoted the boys from Britain. Is it possible to give love and not receive it in the form you want? How long can you truly love someone without them loving you back? (I just realized how sex in the cityish this format is)

This blogman was dumped by his lady about a month ago. After two years of my bullshit she walked. Don’t blame her. This brought on an intense period of introspection as to why I was the way I was. What it came down to was my whole life being a coutinuing and stalwart façade of ignoring emotion. In my past I did some shit that I wasn’t proud of due to being “in love.” Never, did I want this to happen again. So I shut down and became a stoic – concerned about the rational processing of life. Pretty crappy way to live. Consistently, I neglected the needs of my lady and eventually she left.

This, however, sparked a renewed desire in me to be with her and to be in love. Now, I have never been more in love with her than ever before and I of course I can’t have her. My soul has a burning desire to be with her, to hold her and to love her in any imaginable way – if she will only give me the word it shall be done. But she has made it clear to me that the feeling is not mutual. Though she still loves me, it is not in an intense man/woman (in this case), be with me forever, lets have babies type thing. It's more of a, "I care about you as a person type thing." What us normies call compassion. This brings me back to my original question – can we love with every fiber of our being and be satisfied with not having it returned? She is punishing me by requiring me to jump through hoops. And rightly so. I know she loves me still, just not in the same manner as before. Can I hold on and stick it out? Should I? I don’t know.

In my process of self-enlightenment I stumbled across some neo-hippie literature that stated, “To get love you must give love.” I agree with this. But what is this type of love? In my mind the true emotion that is referred to in this statement is compassion. Giving compassion to others breeds compassion from them. Very karmic. But love is not compassion. Love is a two way street that mandates both parties meet in the middle. As I continually (here comes a metaphor) sat in my car and kept the engine running for a quick getaway, she slowly backed away. As I never looked to see where she was, I now have to drive farther to find her. I now realize that what I should have done is gotten out, opened the door and let her into my pimp ride so we could cruise the streets together.

Love is mutual and not fleeting. To give love (truly) and not receive it is heat rendering. Can I continue to do so? We will see. I’ll keep you posted.



And now, on to the sheep humper:

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0306mesa-official.html

Let's get this party started!

Alright my people, I've successfully arrived at work and have begun to steal precious time away from important projects just to be with you. That's called committment.

Last night I made myself dinner. A delicious pasta comprised of ziti, three cheese tomato sauce, fresh spinach and garlic. After pouring myself a glass of rich yet smooth red wine I sat down to my personal feast. As I finished my second bowl I felt a distinct crunch on my palate that simply didn't match up with any of the afore mentioned ingredients.

There was a wasp in my food. He (I say he because the little guy was obviously a young waspling striving to escape his mundane surroundings and find a life that held more excitement and challenge) had somehow managed to get into my bag of spinach. I was now done eating.

Which brings me to my real point. Kudos to Upton Sinclar's The Jungle and American food production facilities. Yes I found an insect in my food. Yes it was surprising and slightly off-putting. But it has happened once in my 23 years of life. Not to bad. Will I be a little more careful next time I eat - assuredly so. But I will not stop eating nor buying prepackaged food. If this schedule holds fast I should have 3 such encounters in my lifetime. And really, the bugs we find in food are probably just trying to join the other insects having a party in your stomach. It's been said that we swallow eight spiders a year on average while sleeping.

I wonder what it's like to live in a stomach? Probably pretty cool.

Well, now that I've had a chance to recover I'll leave you with this thought:

Do men in Japan always leave one urnial between them when they pee? Or does the lack of social stigma not neccessitate such a thing.

Discuss.

At last...I arrive

Well, here we are. The very first, virgin post. Mmmm...that feels good to get my text all up on your template. As it details in the decription I have no agenda here. I just want to post some thoughts and ideas and see what happens. Throw around a little monkey sauce and watch everyone go bananas. You know what I mean?