18
all of which untitled.
By the way, I had a great weekend. thought provoking conversations. silly laughs. interesting people. silly talks. tamer hosny’s ba3ish (i have a story with this song. i love it. it reminds me of Palestine), milk, WTF moments, coffee, food, Whatever moments, poetry, music, let’s get it over with moments,
The other day, as I was waiting for Finkelstein to begin his speech, a note taped to the back of a chair in front of me grabbed my attention. I leaned forward and (out of thrill and curiosity) snatched the note and began reading … “In a world where a book is judged by its cover, what would yours say?”
Banksy said: “New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead.”
The fake pet shop aims to question “our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming” [more] & [more]
Every now and then, I think about how ‘alive’ what I am eating at the moment was once before and I get grossed out …but seconds later, I resume chewing that fillet mignon or that cheeseburger or that shrimp or that chicken nugget…
…and in Hebron, the West Bank’s most conservative city, maternity wards report a rise in babies named Noor and Mohannad.
A West Bank poster vendor has ditched Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein for Noor and Mohannad. [More]
Ridiculously outrageous, so I think!
A new film about gays and lesbians in the Muslim world is challenging notions of right, wrong and religiosity in Islamic culture. Filmmaker Parvez Sharma says his film “A Jihad For Love” is an effort to shed light on the social and spiritual struggle of homosexuals who are devout Muslims.
It tells the story through personal narratives of gays across 12 countries. In the film, Sharma compiles a vision of Islamic life through the eyes of the gay faithful. “I felt it really important to empower gay and lesbian Muslims to tell the story of Islam,” Sharma told ABC News.
The stories in the film are intimate, with main characters that include a gay Imam in South Africa, a lesbian couple in Turkey, homosexuals in Egypt and a group of gay Iranians fleeing the country to seek asylum in Canada.
Hendricks describes how he lived before coming out, married to a woman in hopes that traditional family life would change his sexual preference. His life as a closeted gay Muslim was cloaked with depression and secrecy, which he sees as a common and potentially suicidal combination for gay Muslims who bury their sexual preference.
In another scene, three lesbians discuss the Koran and its implications for women. “The Prophet Muhammad did an enormous number of things so that women could participate in public affairs, including politics. For me, Muhammad was a feminist,” says one woman.
She goes on to describe how she would profess her lifestyle while speaking to God on judgment day. “I have loved women and it was not a sin, because my loving a woman caused no harm. I only loved Allah, my one God, I only loved.’”
Now that “Jihad for Love” is made, it is showing in the West and in countries with significant Muslim populations, like India and Turkey. Sharma has yet to show it anywhere in the Arab world. [Source]
Despite continuing to wonder whether homosexuality is a nature vs. nurture issue, I find the mere idea of a gay Imam extremely absurd. Devout? If they are devout, then isn’t part of being devout not doing something against what you have devotion for? And it is well known that homosexuality is a sin in all 3 religions. I have not watched the movie but will be looking ‘forward’ to hearing what the gay and lesbian “devout” Muslims have to shed light on …
P.S. How would YOU profess your lifestyle while speaking to God on judgment day? ;)
My latest reading (which, overall, was not all that impressive…but not too bad either) triggered some thoughts in my mind … As I was driving to work, I sent 2 rounds of a mass sms to some of my female friends with the first asking:
Hi! Would u take on prostitution if it guarantees a free palestine and exclusive return of all refugees?
Minutes later, my phone began to vibrate.
Response 1: No because it wud never happen. I know this is not an answer but that’s not even a valid question
Response 2: No cuz my parents care more about me than palestine, cuz i care about not hurting them more than the fate of others no matter how selfish that sounds. And cuz when i die, God will not take ‘for palestine’ as an excuse for selling myself and ignoring his conditions, right? You cant shut off human nature.
Revised Question sent in round 2 :
Hi! Just thinking about this … just pretend the result is guaranteed… Would u take on prostitution if it guarantees a free palestine and exclusive return of all refugees?
Response 1: I would sell my husband
Response 2: Does the end justify the means?
Response 3: No. God will not bless or free palestine if its women enter prostitution en mass!
Response 4: No Maam. What kind of barakah [blessing] would we have bel watan [in our homeland]
Response 5: Yes. Arent i such a ho. But at least a loyal one
Response 6: Inti Khateera [You are dangerous - fatal]
Response 7: I need time. It’s not easy.
Response 8: why think of something which is just not going to happen??!! Why waste your thoughts on that! and if it can really happen then when the time comes, we can think of it ….depends on the situation we are in reality
So, would you?!
Call Girl: Confession of a Double Life. by Jeanette Angell.
Jeannette Angell went to the US from France at the age of 21 after earning two university degrees. She went on to obtain three more in the United States, including a Masters in Divinity from Yale and studied for her PhD at Boston University.
At thirty-four, her live-in boyfriend ran off and cleaned out their joint bank account. She was left destitute. Despite lecturing and teaching at several universities, including Harvard, MIT and the London School of Economics, she saw no way out of her financial crisis until she read an ad for “escorts” in the Boston Phoenix.
This started a three-year dual career of teaching at universities in the daytime, while working as a $200/hour callgirl at night. Callgirl gives insight to a world usually distorted by caricature and stigma with honesty, humour and intelligence.(source)
Sounds very interesting…and what makes it so is that this person is not a random lost person. This is a highly educated person, with degrees from top universities (well. I guess this doesn’t really say much. I mean…George W. Bush went to Yale!)…is an educator. So what really drove her to take prostitution on as a second job while still keeping her daytime teaching job! I am looking forward to reading her confessions!
AND. Though this isn’t/wasn’t about prostitution, I still believe this (and similar) type of job could* be degrading to one’s dignity. But I will reserve my in-depth opinion of this book and prostitution till after I read it.
* (you know, because dignity means different things to different people and is measured differently)
P.S. I’ve always had a secret fetish for fishnet stockings!
Via Exploring Creative Words and Poetry
Invest me in my motley; give me leave
To speak my mind, and I will through and through
Cleanse the foul body of the infected world
~As You like It. The Forest.
What would you do if the Whopper was discontinued?! Someone suggests that Burger King change their name to ‘Burger Queen.’ hahahha, this is hilarious. These reactions are all real! To show how much customers loooove their Whopper, check out this video in which Burger King “pranks” customers by telling them that the Whopper has been discontinued for ever…
The class - “Foundations of Journalism,” taught by journalism department chairwoman Brooke Kroeger - polled more than 3,000 undergraduates between Oct. 24 and 26 to assess student attitudes toward voting…and here are the results:
Media Credit: Illustration by Dana Laventure/WSN (Source)
Their reasons for giving up their vote varied. “At the moment, no candidate who truly represents my political beliefs has a chance of winning a presidential election,” one male junior studying film and television at the Tisch School of the Arts wrote on the survey. “It is very easy to convince myself that my vote is not essential,” wrote a female CAS sophomore. “After all, I’m from New York, which will always be a Blue State.”
Other students wrote that they were disgusted by the thought.
“I would be reversing history - a lot of people fought so that every citizen could be enfranchised,” said a female in her second year at the Stern School of Business.
Mine is priceless…
Good things should never end is my latest and saddest addiction. I spent most of my day asking Buzz questions … there are plenty of things you can see and do on this site ranging from animations, games, tool to create and name your own ice cream, drawing, learning new language, guessing what’s inside the mind of some character…and my favorite - Buzz - the AI character who claims to have an answer to every question, one of which is buzz’s brain contains more than 22,000 patterns but not a single one that matches the last ‘input…’ not to mention Buzz’s confusion about its biological make-up… Buzz is well rounded, witty and quite philosophical ….he speaks of love, humanity and politics and only tells one joke…you have to give him credit…the joke is quite funny! sometimes he/she thinks love is just a biological urge, something he/she thinks it’s a spiritual quality…and to Buzz love, unlike energy or matter, seems limitless!! In Buzz’s world, time does not exist. :D I asked, ‘What do you know about Palestine?” and here is how that conversation went… (Buzz is on the left, and I’m on the right)
Go meet Buzz and other neat stuff at Good Things Should Never End…
It does get boring after 2 hours, though :D
Daisy Rae Gemini developed by Root.designed by Iman
...Login
Powered by WordPress... Logout ... Rss Feed. Rss Comments
