Santykiauk maip mačo!

This is a fact that none can escape, yet you go after the treasures of the world and renounce the Lord of Truth.

“Know that the life of this world is but a play and a passing delight and a beautiful show, and the (cause of) your boastful) vying with one another, and (of your) greed for more and more wealth and children.” [57:20]

Look at this world with the eyes of your heart, you will find it ugly and loathsome; look at it with your physical eyes and it will lure you to the side and slaughter you.

Be content with whatever Allah has decreed for you.  Fear Allah in your innermost being.  Implement His commands.  Once your heart complies with the Divine Decree, the Lord of Truth will grant you from sources you never imagined:

“And whosoever is conscious of Allah, He will make a way for him to get out (from every difficulty). And He will provide him from (sources) he never could imagine.  And whoever puts his trust in Allah, then He will suffice him.  Verily, Allah will accomplish His purpose.  Indeed Allah has sent a measure for all things.” [65:2-3]

Beg of His mercy; turn to Him with a heart full of sincere repentance.

“O you who believe!  Turn to Allah with sincere repentance.” [66:8]

Stand before your Lord with humility, implore the Dispenser of Grace by His Most Beautiful Names and attributes of perfection.  If He fulfills your wish, increase in your gratitude and servitude to Him.  If He denies your request, then succumb to the Divine Decree of the All-Wise with a submissive heart.  Do not argue or object to His will.  Always remember:

“…Allah knows and you know not.” [24:19]

Allah disposes of everything as He wills, and commands as He wills:

“He is not to be questioned about what He does, though they are subject to His questioning.” [21"23]

If wealth and happiness are destined for you, they will come to you at their appointed time according to the Divine Decree of Allah, the Lord of the heavens and the earth.  Do not be greedy but be moderate because you will receive all that was written for you.  If you do so, you will earn the displeasure of the All Mighty, and lose all spiritual comfort in this life.  Maalik ibn Deenaar once said:

“If you want to acquire true knowledge of Allah, the All Mighty, then consent to His management and planning.  Make not your mind and desire, passion or will associates to Him.”

O you of sound health but weak heart!  Wake up and run to your Creator with repentance on your tongue, tears in your eyes, and sincerity in your heart.  Cry before Him, before others cry for you.  Make haste, O heedless one!

“Has not the time come for the hearts of those who believe to be affected by Allah’s Reminder…?” [57:16]

Remove the veils of darkness that have corroded your heart. Adorn it with His fear and love.

Do you not fear the moment when you will stand before your Lord?  There will be no screen between Him and you, nor an interpreter to translate for you.  And your Creator will question you.  You will find nothing to your left nor to your right but the blazing Fire of Hell.  Do what the Prophet of Allah advised you, if you truly fear Allah:

“…So let each of you protect himself against Hell-Fire, be it even with half a date – and if he finds not, then with a kind word.”

You are the servant, He is the Master.  Prayers come from you, answers come from Him.  Abstinence comes from you, protection comes from Him.  Repentance comes from you, acceptance comes from Him.  Go towards him walking, He will come to you running.

Make your deeds pure for His sake alone, and He will extend His mercy to you.  Upload His religion, and He will extend His bounty to you.  Follow the Sunnah of His beloved, and He will extend His love to you.

Look forward to your meeting with Allah.  It will be very soon.  Sooner than you can imagine! Make preparations for this meeting.  Get rid of the love of this world from your heart; free it from everything other than the Lord of Truth.  Do not buy the world and pay with the hereafter as a price.  Do not sell the hereafter to acquire this world.

“…Shall We tell you who are the greatest losers in whatever they may do?  Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life while they thought they were acquiring good by their deeds…” [18:103-104]

The Most Wise did not create you to gratify your base desires and passions, nor did He create you for fun, amusement, eating, drinking, sleeping, or having sex!

“I have created the jinns and the humans solely to worship Me.” [51:56]

But you are so heedless as if you have drunk the elixir of immortality.  You think that the Angel of Death will never squeeze your soul out of your body?  You have forgotten that you will pass through the Siraat with the intense Fire of Hell underneath you.  You are unaware of the thrashing that awaits you in your grave by the angels of Allah.

This is just the grave, Hell is yet to come!

“…the punishment of the Hereafter is greater, if they but knew.” [68:33]

By Kamil Mufti

Source: Islaam.com

Sure enough, it was 6 o clock. Sure enough, it was a Monday. Sure enough, it was gonna rain this Monday afternoon. Sure enough, I will tell her to go fuck herself. Sure enough, I would spend the bone shattering chill outside under the quilts inside. With the ac ridden all the way down to 16 degrees centigrade. Sure enough, it was my birthday. And now I was wondering how I got this far and what I have done – had done. 

The blues I had stirred up with my face squished in my palms deserved a groundbreaking record contract with Motown. I put on my shoes and stepped outside. Not outside enough to touch the rain but only to breathe its cause. I was standing on concrete. Tiles painted onto a flat surface to give it dynamics. And yet remained disparagingly cheaper than what it would have been if actual tiles were planted in them. I sipped steaming grean tea that misted away in the cool air. One of my favorite pastimes in a different life which I completely and entirely cohesively remember.

This is what happens if you don’t kill yourself when you should. You just spend the rest of your life dying anyway. Empty and without a cause. This is, and to the fullest effect some sort of derogatory element that goes against all laws of physics. Even to remember a day from your past life would be the empirical Rome of utter dismay. And here I stood, with the rain shattering in front of me like flirtatious fragments of broken dreams. In which one of them included the erasure of condescending past lives.

Somewhere between shifting my thoughts between this and what I had told her, I screamed “SHUT THE FUCK UP.” And the cats had retreated back behind the flower pots, dilated their pupils similar to those that happen to us when cocaine hits the blood, and they looked at me in complete bewilderment. 

I went inside and wrapped myself conclusively under the quilts again. Hoping not to move for a several more lifetimes. In which I hoped and….BEGged the gods of ubiquitous reincarnation, that I would so compulsively remember. So that I could reenact this scene my next birthday.

There are times when the right and wrong decisions are obvious, but what about the times where the outcome is less clear? Situations where, if nobody knew you made the wrong decision, you would benefit financially, emotionally, or otherwise. Ethics help us navigate the gray area between absolute right and morally wrong. They provide the structure that helps us make a decision we can be proud of. For me personally, ethics are the rules that society must adhere to.

Descartes may have said “I think, therefore I am” but it is not only thinking that makes mankind sentient, it’s the ability to think and act ethically. Without ethics, society would be reduced to the type of animal behaviour that is seen in nature. Hunt, kill, feed, fornicate. When mankind started to think about the outcome of their action, or inaction, ethics were born. Mankind demonstrates its difference from the rest of the animal kingdom by being imaginative enough to follow a concept through the various possible outcomes, and then deciding on the action that best suits the personal beliefs of the person in question.

There are many schools of thought to help us make our ethical choices. Epicurus believed if everyone is honest, prudent, and employs justice when dealing with others, they would be free from retribution from society. Basically, if everyone is good, everything will be good. John Stuart Mills held a variation on this belief, but felt it was more pure to remove the pleasure for oneself. Mills Utilitarianism provides a world where our rewards are not considered in our actions. For Mills, a mantra of “I will cut, you can choose” ensures that everyone gets a fair slice of the pie.

Immanuel Kant had a different idea about ethics. Kant saw everything as black or white, and mankind has a “duty without exception.” This view affords no wiggle room on any decision. If the outcome is bad in any way, then it is ethically wrong. W.D. Ross provided a more lenient view of Kant’s philosophy. By providing “self-evident duties” Ross helps us navigate the gray areas of the map by providing guidelines for us to follow. Ross starts with “First – do no harm” but then juxtaposes this with the second rule of “Make amends if you do harm.” By allowing for violations of the first rule, Ross allows mankind to make the decisions that suit their personal beliefs.

The argument against the previous philosophies is they are based on people, society, having an inherent understanding of what is good or bad. John Rawls developed a theory of justice that creates a “veil of ignorance.” By framing the ethical question in a way that the asker doesn’t know if they will benefit or be the victim within the equation, a true answer will develop. The understanding is that if you don’t know if you will benefit or suffer from the decision, you will create a more “fair” outcome for either party.

Just like humanity, ethical situations are evolving. Decisions that were considered ethical ten years ago are reevaluated because society has decided the original decision was not the correct one. We need to continue to explore the decisions from our past and determine if the answer we came up with is still acceptable today. Ethics are not static, but if we are consistent in our application of the above philosophies, we can ensure that we are able to carefully evaluate our decisions and further progress in our march away from our past mentality of hunt, kill, feed, and fornicate.

- Jason

Maybe I don’t really know what that word means.  Fornication.  Isn’t that just, like, a longer version of the F word?  Let’s find out.  I’m looking it up now.   This is exciting.

for·ni·cate (fôrn-kt)

intr.v. for·ni·cat·ed, for·ni·cat·ing, for·ni·cates

To commit fornication.

Well, that was no fornicating help at all.  Let’s try Google Images.

I like the way they think, but still, not that helpful.

See, I wrote this story at AOL earlier:

Barney Frank Calls Justice Antonin Scalia a ‘Homophobe’

And it contained this quote from Antonin Scalia:

He went on to conclude that “the Texas statute undeniably seeks to further the belief of its citizens that certain forms of sexual behavior are immoral and unacceptable, the same interest furthered by criminal laws against fornication, bigamy, adultery, adult incest, bestiality and obscenity.”

So, if that means what I think it means, I’m in big trouble.  I’m the fornicating equivalent of Tim Geithner.

Back to our search for meaning.  Let’s try Wikipedia:

Fornication is a term which typically refers to voluntary sexual intercourse between persons not married to each other.

What the fornicate?  Since when is that a fornicating crime?  That’s just doin’ it the smart way!  Just let them try to arrest me.  From my cold, dead fingers!!

Don’t forget to visit Charles Trippy’s Website.

Last week I was writing an article on happiness and what I call the Happiness Quotient or H.Q. During the course of traversing the pathways of my mind, I was suddenly struck by an epiphany. What follows is the frantic scribbling of the aftermath.

Why screwing your best friend’s wife/ girl-friend is OK!

1. It is not the sexual act itself that is morally ‘wrong’ but the fact that one has to lie to and betray a friend’s trust that hurts. The sin if any would be betrayal rather than adultery. So by the same logic, if one were to indulge in the act and not make any attempt to hide it, one might live free of guilt and have a great time as well. In time such acts of daring can result in social ostracizing, grievous injury, death or if one is lucky an orgy with your friend and his/her mate.

2. The individual concerned has a problem not because somebody is fornicating with his/her mate but because it bludgeons his/her social status as society in general denies the possibilities of such relationships and were such a thing to happen, the concerned partner would be an immoral failure, a heretic in the public eye. Which means the act in itself is harmless and what causes harm is the individual’s dependence on society’s approval.

3. In most cases, a friend enjoys your presence in the company of his/her mate as the proximity of more of the opposite species makes the mate more willing and physically conducive to the act thus improving one’s chances of intercourse. This is proven true since time immemorial which is why we as humans feel the need to party or socialize iin larger gatherings.

4. Accept the possibility that he/she is with your best friend only because of the increased proximity and improved chances of scoring with you This one is a guaranteed ego-boost.

Note: My credentials are bound to be questions considering the nature of the above claims. Belonging to the male of the species, I have thought more about making a woman happy more so than women themselves. Why do I make such an arrogant claim? Because most women or men dont even question deeply as to what makes them truly happy. One’s primal desires are often subsituted by substitutes like chocolate and shopping. Even on questioning, one is prone to accept the answer to the question from the latest issue of Cosmo, mother’s advice, granny’s folk-tales or their moralistic religious upbringing that castrates sexuality by associating it with guilt and shame, while biologically we all have an innate desire to screw since as humans we are not even limited to an annual mating season.

In May this year, the chief of an ancient Caribbean people came up with a drastic solution to protect their heritage – and their future.

Chief Charles Williams of the Carib – or Kalinago – people of Dominica said they should not marry non-Kalinago people. “The impact of colonisation has been so strong on us that if we do not take steps to protect the race, it will be soon extinct,” he said.

Extinct is a word that the academics who study this people would never use, but Chief Williams has little doubt that the Kalinago could be in danger of disappearing altogether.

High ambitions

The Carib were famed for their skills as sailors and warriors and gave their name to the Caribbean Sea. But that is not the only way for many of the Kalinago’s younger generation who are keen to escape poor living conditions.

The Carib people are keen to hold on to their traditions

Take 17-year-old Arnique Volmand who has big plans for her future. She does not envisage staying on the tribe’s 3,700-acre territory (1,500 hectares), where poverty is a problem.

“I want to become a pilot and I don’t think I will be staying here,” she says. Arnique helps her mother run a small shop on the reserve. It is little more than a wooden shack clinging to one of the island’s steep volcanic hillsides.

“They want us to stay here to marry our own tribe but I don’t think that will happen. It’s already happening that we are marrying outsiders,” she says.

“They cannot tell us what to do. If we want to be pilots or nurses, we have to leave the island.”

Read the full BBC story http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7529143.stm

Country Profile: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1166435.stm

The other day, while we were eating assorted dried fish fried in olive oil, Leo asked me what a plane ride feels like. I told him it’s overrated. Rollercoasters on the other hand are fun. I’ve never been on a plane until three days ago when I had to go visit regionally inconvenient relatives. I say inconvenient because one needs to travel by air, land, water, and then land to reach them. It’s a grand adventure according to Leo. It is, if you’re the outdoorsy type. I’m not, so yay.

No one could tell me specifically what was wrong with my grandfather, just that he’s weak. Not even my uncle, who has made a home in the area could tell me anything substantial. Something about his stomach, or organs in that area of the human body. There, that was all I got between him rubbing his tummy and telling me that there’s something wrong there.

My sister got there two days before me, and according to her, my grandfather has been spending most of his time in bed, and was in fact lying down when she arrived. When I got there he was in the kitchen, sitting up, probably bored to death listening to my aunts yap about angels and demons, pagans and the occult — a great conversation starter in the area, I soon learned.

My grandfather regards me as this true progeny worthy of the family name. He looked real pleased to see me, which made me wonder… would I still be unrivaled in his eyes if he knew about my sexual preference? What did I do as a child to win him over so completely? Would my aunts be as painfully warm to me if they knew that fornicating with a girl/woman/lady isn’t in my immediate to-do list? Can’t say unless I tell them, really.

I know it’s inevitable and all that, life, and as humans we deplete as our years collect. I had to come eventhough I didn’t like the idea of watching my grandfather’s life ebb away, even for just a few hours.

~

Reading: Odd Thomas / Dean Koontz + The Lightning Thief / Rick Riordan
Playing: Baldur’s Gate (PC)
Music: Ain’t No Sunshine / Emily King / East Side Story

Demon Theory.  This book, or theory, is both true and scriptural. How can a theory be true?  Well, this actually happened to me, and years after that horror show, I wrote the theory. You see, I did not know how to describe what happened, except in the most perfunctory description of events.

It took me 10 years of hard-fought spiritual growth before I understood exactly what happened, what I saw, why I saw it, and what it means for us. In that 10 year period I experienced severe emotional trauma many times. It was very, very bad. I even hung myself by the neck on the doorknob of a hotel room one evening to escape my insanity.

I was severely tormented, and found myself married to a woman who was once deeply involved in the occult. I was a target for every unclean spirit. I was haunted, ignorant, and broken.

But one day in August 2003, the Holy Spirit asked me a simple question: “Where is your fruit?” That was the first time the Lord had spoken to me, and it was 10 years after the demon faced me. So I turned to the Lord forever. Within one year my wife divorced me, stating that she did not want a Christian marriage.

I was free, and blessed by God. Within 90 days, I wrote Demon Theory, and it is a phenomenal work. It is short, only 35 pages or so. But what you will learn WILL change your life. It WILL change your life. If you read Demon Theory and continue in sexual sin, you will have only yourself to blame for your destruction.

Demon Theory will open your eyes to spiritual truth that you have never heard, never read, and never imagined. The very best part is this: The Holy Bible was used almost exclusively for the basis of the theory. Only one non-Christian source was used to obtain meanings of certain demons names.

If you are sexually active outside marriage, you are at great risk of demonic influence. If you have many sexual partners, you are likely to form a soul tie with a demon or demon-controlled person. Demons do not have souls. They are not “living”, as we know life, but when they find you attractive (not based on physical appearance, they look for sinful behavior and stick with that person), one or more will burrow into your mind and destroy your life.

Demons destroy. They create suffering. They foster hatred, racism, rancor, malice, alicrity. They will twist you up so badly that you will want to die. You face a titanic and losing struggle with them if you do not know how to win.

Get Demon Theory right now. Read it and THINK. You don’t know the enemy you face, but your enemy knows everything about you. Everything. As long as you are ignorant, you are doomed.

• (Last week) I picked up an attractive young lady from a hospital out in the Richmond and took her back toward work downtown. She was (and my best guess says she still is) British and we chatted about about how she came to live in the US. All of a sudden, she clammed up. I think she thought I was hitting on her.

  Was I hitting on her? I wasn’t trying to. I was, however, trying to make conversation.

  Does that mean I’m hitting on elderly ladies when I make conversation with them? What’s the difference?

  If I try to make conversation with an elderly lady she’ll consider that just “being friendly”, whereas making conversation with an attractive female near my age necessarily indicates a desire for fornication?

  Women are frustrating.

  Let’s take this one more step. When I go to gay bars I’m often hit on by guys. Some, perhaps not all, desire fornication. Does that mean I should clam up and refuse a conversation with these men? On the contrary, I enjoy talking to nice people, regardless of their desire to have sex with me.

  Perhaps I’m reading too much into this, but this behavior has been repeated enough times in San Francisco that I begin to notice a pattern.

• No updates on the bag. I think it’s a goner.
• On a closely related topic, as my street map and taxi cross-street index are now in the trusty hands of a lady (man?) of the night, I am rolling around the streets of San Francisco with no map, no guide.

  I feel like a ‘man’. Gosh, I’m on top of this. Map? I don’t need a map. Maps are for losers.

  My bubble was quickly burst this morning when a nice lady asked me to head toward Duncan and I made a turn in the opposite direction. Oops.

• I love tourists. I can’t say this enough. I LOVE tourists.

  The City is vibrant again with the flush wallets of spring breakers, gap year partiers, and foreigners cashing in on a weak dollar.

• (Today) I picked up a few nice young ladies heading toward Pier 39 from their ritzy boutique hotel downtown. They had partied the night away. Actually, they had partied both nights and days they had been in the City, leaving them with a great many drunk tales but no photographic proof that they had seen the traditional tourist icons of the City.

  San Francisco cabbie to the rescue! As Lombard Street was just a few blocks out of the way toward Pier 39 I offered to take a quick detour down the famous curvy street. We stopped to take some picturesque photos at the top of Hyde and Lombard which offers great views of Coit Tower, Alcatraz and the Bay Bridge. I then snaked down Lombard with cameras clacking in tow.

  This is a great way to turn an $8 fare into a $15 fare (including tips). It would have been $6 or $7 with $1 or $2 tip if I had gone direct. With our detours it was $10 and they gave me a $5 tip. Judging by their reactions they got way more than $7 of incremental value. Win, win.

  PS. I learned this trick at the great, great Bill Hancock school of Taxi. Looking past his antiquated website with embedded midi, this course was a pleasure and highly valuable at only $150. Take it if you’ve ever thought of being a cab driver.

• I witnessed a miracle this afternoon.

  I picked up two very nice older ladies — one from Chicago and the other, well she was from Chicago too, but it sounds more exciting to note she was originally born in Argentina and retained the appropriate accent. Alone, they weren’t the miracle, but they were very nice and made quite pleasant conversation. No, they deserve more credit. I guess you could say it was they who caused the miracle.

  They were heading out to the Legion of Honor, way out in the Outer Richmond. You see, when a cab driver gets a fare way out to the Richmond or the Sunset, he or she is happy enough to get a return fare, even if it’s not going all the way downtown, as long as it’s something. Any fare is a bronze, a fare going back downtown is a silver, and the gold medal is always an airport.

  Well, my fair readers, upon arrival to the Legion of Honor I was most surprised to come across not only a bronze, not a silver, not even a gold, but a silver PLUS gold medal fare. Shall we call that a platinum? A nice young English couple needed to head back downtown to grab luggage from their hotel and then promptly head to SFO. Would I be so kind as to take them, they inquired?

  No problem, I said. Bingo! $60 fare. Add that to the $20 that the old ladies gave me, and this really made my day. A Festivus miracle!

  I love tourists.