I really should get back to this…

How to empower someone:

Step one: make sure you are an abused person.

Step two: find an oppressor.

Step three: torture them, rape them, slit their throat, do whatever you dreamed of doing to them.

Step four: consider your act justice for all of (insert minority here) kind.

No. This is not how it works. You cannot take something like this into your own hands, no matter how much it hurts. In the first place you have become like your enemy. You have stooped to their level and acted in the same manor as they have. Secondly, you then place yourself on the same pedestal as god. You have taken a human life into your hands and judged it on your own terms (which are just as easy to negatively influence by whatever emotion you’re using). Thirdly, you have abandoned the same morality that makes you a victim. Once you cross the line into empowerment like that, you are no longer morally upright, you deserve the same as what you do to your enemy.

Have you read the synopsis of or watched the film “ticked off trannies with knives”? The film is an awful, campy story where transexuals kill three men who overpowered and raped them. Among other complaints about the portrayal of trans people, one of the complaints appears to be about victimhood. Wikipedia quotes the director saying “Writer/director Luna was puzzled by the negative reaction. He noted that the film’s theme was one of empowerment, not victimhood.”

The hell? Empowerment and not victimhood? Is the only way to get justice and to be empowered is becoming your rapists executioner? In a situation where peoples lives are at stake, and you have the opportunity to stop someone from killing other people, I am a believer that said person has given up their rights to life temporarily. But seriously, even the stories of batman and doctor who present us with the belief that even the most evil of us should have a chance to redeem ourselves and stop before force is necessary.

If you have been raped, a family member or friend was murdered or something akin to that, I am so sorry. Ive seen the madness that people go through years later, it is awful. You have all of my sympathy and support for your situation.

However, I cannot allow any situation to justify a vengeful action where the attacker is killed, tortured or anything else in the name of justice, or because you believe they deserve it.

October 2006, “the independent” ran an article about the burial of five Amish girls who were shot by a man at their school. The article presents an interesting thought: “In stark contrast to many mass murders in the United States, when victims’ families express only anger towards the killer or killers, the bereaved Amish have also reached out to the family of the murderer, Charles Roberts, who was not Amish but lived near by and knew many community members personally.”

Enos Miller, the grandfather of the two Miller sisters, was with both of the girls when they died. Asked by a local television station whether he had forgiven the gunman, he replied: ‘In my heart, yes through God’s help.’”

Interesting, how men like enos miller can do that. It must be one of the most difficult things to do, but there are people who still do it.

What is it that people say so often? How nice it would be if people stopped fighting? Stopped killing each other? The ideals swing both ways, not one.

Lady Gaga

As I’m sure the entire world has been for the last two years, I have been intrigued by the image of Lady Gaga. It is my personal opinion that Lady Gaga is one of the greatest communicators of this current generation. Why? Lets look at her history.

1: She is one of the most legitimate musicians today, writing her own material and playing a wide range of music.
2: She creates an image of crazy and weird, and everyone loves it. She constantly wears clothing that is strange and often controversial, gaining her attention and popularity.
3: She writes music that is fun to listen to, is sexy, and has some extremely interesting lyrics. Her style is familiar enough to put her in a category people know, but different enough to be extremely unique.

So she builds up this entire empire based on legitimacy and weirdness. Then, she changed her beat.

4: She changes from simple sexy to very specific to the LGBT community. With a captive audience of millions she was able to switch very quickly from a simple pop star to a musician with a message for the oppressed.

AND she did this in about two years. WOW. This is an impressive track record.

But… something bothers me all the same. No, its not really her “controversial” style or her support for LGBT (though I do have thoughts on that topic). Its something different… something that I’m surprised happened.

She’s lost a lot of momentum because she over did it. Looking at her in the beginning, she was new, fresh and different. She had a style that changed the world’s perception and got people talking. Her music videos were strange, weird and somehow straddled both sexy and not sexy at all. But all of this quickly turned from “OH GOD WHAT IS SHE DOING” to “Awwww Lady Gaga is trying to be controversial by doing a sexy nun look… how cuuuuute of her…”

Going back over her stuff, I’ve begun to also notice that a lot of her songs are now simpler and rely too much on the hook to be decent. Her song “Born This Way” is extremely encouraging to it’s audience but gives little reason to actually understand the mindset of being “Born this way.” Judas also seriously disappointed me in that it’s hook is the only thing that connects any of the song together. Meantime the verses develop little about the topic itself, suggesting to me that the song was almost throw away and that it doesn’t really want to do anything else but be theoretically “sexy.” It’s topic makes it technically controversial, but I almost wonder if you did a few word replacements if the song would have the same meaning without being religiously offensive.

A lot of songs today are simply designed to give you a quick rise sexually, but have very little content in them. Katy Perry does this spectacularly (And should be awarded for doing this, it is quite a feat). Lady Gaga seems to have fallen into this trap. She has little content anymore and just focuses on giving her audience what they want to hear: a quotable hook.

To finish this off, I want to also point out that she is not an incredible artist or anything, especially with her music videos. I’ve heard her Videos compared to Michael Jackson’s. In an article (I can’t remember where I read it, I think it may have been WIRED, but [citation needed]), the author points out that Telephone has over 115 million views (its now 118 at the time of this writing) and highlights the fact that not many videos ever get that many views. The author believed that the highly stylized and strange look of the music video made it so popular. Poker Face has over 97 million currently, Alejandro 148 million (This probably wasn’t highlighted in the article because Telephone has a much stranger and more artistic styled video), and Born this way 72 million. The rest of her videos run up between 5 million to 30 million. I did some checking on another set of videos. The Lonely Island’s “I just Had Sex” currently has 117 million views. “Jizz in my Pants”, 108 million. “Like a Boss” has 64 million and “I’m on a boat” has 60 million. Their good music videos generally hit between 20 to 30 million views.

Lady Gaga has a stronger following, but my point here is that Lady Gaga is not some superhuman artist. The Lonely Island, a comedy group, has run up numbers relatively similar to her numbers. Can they be considered super human too? No. They are just really good at what they do. Lady Gaga is a great performer and artist, but really, she’s no longer a controversial goddess, she’s just another cute singer.

Florida and Kentucky were the first states that will require drug testing when applying for WELFARE, effective July 1st. Some people are crying that this is unconstitutional? It’s okay to drug test people that are working for their money but not those who don’t? Reblog this if you’d like to see it done in all fifty states

thewaterwillcome:

While I desperately want to see all drugs legalized a person who needs to accept stolen property in order to survive should not be able to afford drugs. That money is for people who need shelter, food, and medicine not for people to get high. 

Fairest thing I’ve heard all day.

(Source: punkypunk, via talkstraight)

Reading through the Bible suggests many interesting things

For example, today I was reading about the several different exorcisms Jesus performed. using different commentaries I began to study these situations and learned some interesting things.

1: The people who were “demon possessed” demonstrate bizarre characteristics that are not of a normal human’s nature. The basic point is that someone could be identified as being demon possessed by their characteristics; bizarre characteristics are not common and can easily be spotted.

2: these characteristics are very akin to several mental illnesses that are identified as a mental problem, not a demonic issue. This is really not that surprising on any level.

3: Strange characteristics were demonstrated by a second unit in one story where Jesus sends demons into a herd of pigs. After sending the group of demons (Theoretically 6,000 due to the name Legion) into the herd of pigs, they ran to a body of water and drowned. Supposedly, pigs don’t run in groups like that (though granted I can’t affirm that right now). Also… pigs swim. not only that, but they swim well. a quick Google search revealed a story about a pair of pigs that swam 1.5 kilometers of water. This story, if accepted to be historical fact, is a strong example of demon possession being more than just mental illness. This brings me to a new thought:

What if some mental illnesses are partly due to demonic influence or possession?

I don’t claim to know much about demons, demonic presence, demonic influence, or demonic possession, but I like to think about theoretical situations. Consider the thought that many people never really get well mentally, they just suffer through life with their problems. I’ve had friends who cut themselves, starve themselves, attempt to drown themselves or kill themselves in different ways. friends who claim to have had demonic influence on them tell me that in a very direct way demons told them to kill themselves. Again I cannot claim truth to those stories, and I only present a theoretical proposition.

Many people who suffer from these problems get to a point where they tolerate the voices in their head and the desires to harm themselves. Is it possible that the problem isn’t fully mental, but demonic as well? Could a spirit be communicating to them in such a way that it sounds like their own thoughts? I don’t think people are possessed by demons much, if ever, anymore. However, it would not surprise me to find out that many of the serious mental cases that we all have in our daily lives are actually influenced by demons.

What do you think?

I have a Dream

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.—Martin Luther King Jr.

I’ve been observing several other blogs and sites that post the complaints and frustrations of many people. Some of these blogs go as far as to post stories of defilement of a person, physically or mentally… and wishes for gruesome revenge. Other sites are simply reasons why people feel oppressed or feel like the privileged and powerful still oppress them.

Martin Luther King Jr. provides a lot of wisdom that I’ve come to live by. Resorting to things like bitterness and hatred, or to wrongful deeds will not lead to a satisfying victory for yourself. As King said:

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Wait for the times to change, make a difference over the slow period it needs to work. Instantaneous change is unreasonable (if a mind changes a belief instantly, they are a weak mind). I know you struggle in this world as many people do, but if things are going to change, let them change as they need to be. Prove that you are the equals or better men and women by going back to your homes and work for a change in a way that shows you are above the violence and hatred that you receive.

Martin Luther could say that he “had a dream” among the suffering and turmoil of his own life. Can you say the same thing? Relieve yourself of your hatred and baggage from your suffering and stand up. There is no need for a rise to arms, but for the rising of arms that your life may improve, or that the lives of the next generation will improve. We don’t need more hate, we have enough of that going around. Instead, show love for those who cause you to suffer. Show love for the ignorant. Show love for those who oppress you. Part of freedom comes from inside, when you think yourself to be free even when you are not. Only then will you recognize true freedom. Then, you will be able to say “Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty we are free at last.”