see you space cowboy

Photo

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:53:28 -0400

Celebrities (other than Chris Brown) who have committed violence against women

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:47:04 -0400

Celebrities (other than Chris Brown) who have committed violence against women:

somethingtoobrave:

In 1988, Sean Penn tied then-wife Madonna to a chair and beat her with a baseball bat.

Charlie Sheen was arrested for violently assaulting adult film actress Capri Anderson.

Roman Polanski raped a 13-year-old girl before fleeing the country.

Michael Fassbender was charged in 2010 with beating an ex-girlfriend.

Gary Oldman hit ex-wife Donya Fiorentino repeatedly about the face with a telephone receiver in front of their two children.

Sean Connery thinks an openhanded slap is justified if a woman is a “bitch, or hysterical, or bloody-minded.”

Feel free to add to the list.

Josh Brolin was arrested for abusing Diane Lane in 2004.

Glen Campbell beat Tanya Tucker and on one occasion knocked her teeth out. Glen actually received a tribute at the 2012 Grammy Awards—the same year that Chris Brown received so much vitriol for performing.

Photo

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:37:04 -0400

whereverbee: androphilia: Mohammad Was Not a Womanizer, and...

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:23:36 -0400

whereverbee:

androphilia:

Mohammad Was Not a Womanizer, and Other Common Misconceptions About Islam Debunked | The Daily Beast

A virulently anti-Islam movie trailer sparked widespread protests across the Arab world and may have caused the death of a U.S. ambassador. But the truth about Islam is anything but hateful, writes Olga M. Davidson.

By Olga M. Davidson

September 13, 2012

1. Allah is not a name of a god. It is the Arabic word God, with a capital G, referring to the very same god that Christians and Jews worship. If you want to be very literal-minded it means “the god” because it is the definitive of the word “god” (ilah or ilāh), and if one adds the definitive article (al) it become Allah (Allāh, actually but let’s not quibble). In Farsi, God is called khodah—as in French, God is called Dieu, etc.

2. Mohammad isn’t a god. According to Islam, Mohammad is the final prophet, or messenger of God. He isn’t worshipped, since he isn’t God or an avatar of God. His example is emulated, but he is considered a real person, who eats, sleeps, loves, and so on. Islam has many prophets before Mohammad, including Abraham, Moses and Jesus and arguably Mary, because she spoke with God. Mohammad is just a man; progeny of human beings. In the Qur’ān it is clearly stated that God is neither begotten nor begets (lam yalid wa lam yūlad)

3. Speaking of Mary, mother of Jesus … she is considered to be among the finest of women and there is an entire surah, or chapter in the Qur’ān, entitled Maryam, the Arabic form of Mary. She is emulated because of her unwavering faith in God and her supreme spirituality. She becomes pregnant with Jesus, though a virgin, because God can do anything, but God is not considered to be the father.

4. Mohammad was not a womanizer. He married a widow, Khadijah, and was singularly devoted to her until she died. She left him with Fatima, their daughter. Upon her death, Mohammad did not want to remarry but was urged to do so by his followers. His subsequent marriages were primarily to form alliances with his nearest and dearest as well as with more remote followers. In the Sunni tradition, Aishah, daughter of Abu Bakr, was considered to be his favorite wife. She was married to him at a very early age and was consequently raised by him and was his only virgin bride. Her tender age was considered to be normal at the time, but marriages are not consummated until the bride has menstruated, just as in Game of Thrones. His other wives were either widows or divorcées. Mohammad wanted to form a tribe or ummah that was connected through faith, as opposed to blood ties. As this tribe grew, consolidating it through marriage ties was politically prudent. At the time, polygamy at was the norm in Arab tribal society and marrying widows and divorcées was a noble thing to do.

5. Women aren’t sold into marriage. Marriage and divorce in Islam have been greatly misunderstood. In Islam, marriage is a contract, not an oath. The groom has to give the bride a dowry to make the contract valid, and that dowry is for her and her alone to use as she wishes. Hence, her father or uncle or brother does not sell her. Unlike her Christian and Jewish sisters at the time, Muslim women could own property. As for divorce, it is not as simple as making a public declaration. Because marriage is a contract, dowry negotiations are taken very seriously; half the dowry is given at the marriage, while the second half has to be given if the bride asks for it or if the marriage is terminated through no fault of the bride. Furthermore, the groom needs to answer to the bride’s family of he wishes to terminate the contract. A bride can terminate the marriage if her husband is impotent or abusive; if he is an alcoholic or drug abuser; if he forces her to abandon her faith or act in a way that she deems as abandoning her faith; or if he disappears for over a year. Marriage as contract, not an oath, is are meant to be fluid, and if a couple is not happy in living together, they can part from each other, remarry and continue to live normal lives.

6. Mohammad was not illiterate. The word Qur’ān means recitation, coming from the root q-r-‘, which means primarily to recite or declaim and then to read. If Mohammad is said to be illiterate, that is to underscore the importance of the spoken word, not the written word. The angel Gabriel gave the command form of q-r-’, saying iqra’, which means “recite!” in Arabic, when he transmitted the message of God as opposed to having something written on tablets. That is why memorizing the Qur’ān is so valued. Under Uthman, who was caliph from 644-656, the Qur’ān became a fixed text, as in it was written down as a finalized text and has not changed since. The style of the Qur’ān in Arabic is rhymed prose, so it is easier to memorize and is considered to be inimitable. The physical book as called a maṣḥaf (pronounced as maṣ-ḥaf), which means pages between two covers or a volume, but the value of those pages is in the recitation. When the Qur’ān became mass-produced, recitations of it were considered extremely reliable, to the great surprise of European editors.

7. You can’t be a Muslim if you don’t want to be. Contrary to the misnomer, “Islam or the Sword!”, the Qur’ān is quite clear about not forcing anyone to convert. Conversion must be done through the heart. It is simple because one just has to pronounce, with sincere intention, the shahida: lā ilāh ilā allāh wa muhammad rasūlu’llāh ( “there is no god but God and Mohammad is his messenger”) three times in front of credible witnesses. Hence one comes to Islam from pure intention as opposed to being schooled by a priest, minister or rabbi.

8. You are unlikely to meet 72 virgins in heaven. The Qur’ān says nothing about 72 virgins waiting for you in heaven. Heaven is described, among other things, as the opposite of the harsh desert, hence it is verdant with the river or body of water, Kawthar, and filled with hūr al ayn, which means “ones with eyes that are very dark around the pupil”—a sign of true beauty. The concept of 72 virgins comes from outside of the Qur’ān.

9. Non-Muslims are not infidels. Christians and Jews—also Zoroastrians, for that matter—are considered to be ahl al kitāb or “people of the book,” because they are monotheists, and Islam is strictly monotheistic. References to infidels in the Qur’ān usually have to do with the Quraishi of Mecca, Mohammad’s own tribe, because they tried to kill him and destroy his following. Same would go for any Christian or Jewish tribe with the same intent.

Olga Merck Davidson earned her Ph.D. in 1983 from Princeton University in Near Eastern Studies. She is on the faculty of the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations, Boston University, where she has served as Research Fellow since 2009. From 1992 to 1997, she was Chair of the Concentration in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University. Since 1999, she has been Chair of the Board, Ilex Foundation.
She is the author of two books: Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of Kings (Cornell University Press: Ithaca, 1994; 2nd ed. Mazda Press: Los Angeles, CA, 2006) and Comparative Literature and Classical Persian Poetry, Bibliotheca Iranica: Intellectual Traditions Series (Mazda Press: Los Angeles, CA, 2000), both of which have been translated into Persian and distributed in Iran.

Copyright © 2012 The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC.

[Image: Indian Muslims offer Eid al-Fitr prayers at the Shahi Jama Masjid Mosque in the Walled City of Ahmedabad on August 20, 2012. (© Sam Panthaky, AFP/Getty Images)]

worldexperience: benconservato

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:11:44 -0400

worldexperience:

benconservato

pandaseal: baturday: Wallpaper by Dan Funderburgh [image:...

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:15:03 -0400

pandaseal:

baturday:

Wallpaper by Dan Funderburgh

[image: 18th-century-esque floral wallpaper featuring bats. ]

haaretz: Protests against the U.S. and Israel have spread...

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 12:31:27 -0400

Photo by: AP

Photo by: AP

Photo by: AP

Photo by: AP

haaretz:

Protests against the U.S. and Israel have spread across the Middle East, from the West Bank and Lebanon to Kashmir and Iran.

"I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying."

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 12:25:10 -0400

“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”

- Oscar Wilde (via allegorys)

When throwing a punch:

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 12:17:56 -0400

When throwing a punch::

everythingbutharleyquinn:

asinheavenasinhell:

thnafu:

• Use the hand you write with.

• Make a fist with your thumb outside, not tucked inside. If it’s tucked inside your fist, when you punch someone, you might break your thumb. The thumb goes across your fingers, not on the side.

• Don’t be like in the movies—don’t aim for the face. Face punches don’t usually stop people, and you can miss when they duck their head or break your hand on their jaw. If you want to get away quickly, or end a fight, aim for the chest, or the ribs. If you really want to do some damage, e.g., you’re being attacked, aim for the throat, which will make it hard for your attacker to breathe for a hot minute.

• When you punch, you want to aim and hit with your first two knuckles. Not the flats of your fingers, and not your ring or pinky knuckles, which can break more easily. You can use your weight, if you’re on your feet, to add wallop, and spring into a punch with your feet and torso.

Useful information, esp. if you haven’t taken self defense.

I reblogged this once before to add this and I’ll do it again…

keep your wrist straight.

You can also risk breaking your wrist if you allow it to bend. I actually can’t believe this isn’t in there.

Also, the solar plexus is a good target. It’s that soft spot right below the breast bone and inbetween the top of the ribs.

Tribe's bid accepted for South Dakota land

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 00:59:16 -0400

Tribe's bid accepted for South Dakota land:

nakkyy:

ROSEBUD | A Native American tribe said Monday it has reached a deal to buy land it considers sacred in South Dakota’s picturesque Black Hills, ending weeks of worry about possible development on the land.

The owners of nearly 2,000 acres of pristine grassland prairie have accepted a $9 million bid by the Rosebud Sioux, tribe President Cyril Scott told The Associated Press. The Rosebud Sioux already has paid $900,000 as an earnest deposit; the remaining $8.1 million is due in November.

The land’s owners, Leonard and Margaret Reynolds, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The couple has declined to talk publicly about the matter since mid-August, when their plans to auction off the land went public and prompted outcry from the Great Sioux Nation.

The land plays a key role in the creation story of the tribes, and members feared that new owners would develop the property, which the tribes call Pe’ Sla.

The public auction was cancelled just days before it was to take place. The Reynolds invited private parties to bid on the property, including the Rosebud Sioux. The tribe’s bid was accepted in late August, Scott said.

“We have come together as a nation,” he told the AP. “Rosebud is ready to secure this land for our people.”

The tribe plans to conduct an environmental assessment to make sure the land doesn’t contain any hazardous surprises.

“We don’t want to find anything out there that would require major cleanup,” said Vernon Schmidt, executive director with the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Land Enterprise, which was established to piece together the tribe’s lands.

“We’re hopeful about this. We’re confident we’ll be able to close the deal with this,” Schmidt said.

An online campaign to help the tribe buy the land raised nearly $390,000. The campaign ended last weekend.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is looking to see if it can cover the remaining land cost itself, Schmidt said. If not, the cost could be spread among the roughly 20 tribes that make up the Great Sioux Nation, which was fragmented when Native Americans were pushed to reservations and now spans several states, including Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas and Minnesota, as well as Canada.

The tribes believe the Sioux people were created from the Black Hills. According to part of their spiritual tradition, Pe’ Sla is where the Morning Star fell to Earth, killing seven beings that killed seven women. The Morning Star placed the souls of the women into the night sky as “The Seven Sisters,” also known as the Pleiades constellation.

Tribal members hold ceremonies and rituals on the land.

Schmidt said the tribe hopes to eventually get the land into trust status with the federal government.

fuckyeahanarchistbanners: creativenothing: xvxican: Word...

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 00:56:24 -0400

fuckyeahanarchistbanners:

creativenothing:

xvxican:

Word (Taken with Instagram)

possibly the best banner ever

Burn prisons, hug cats. YOLO (A) ACAB // Seattle, WA, USA // September 13, 2012

"There’s a poisonous double standard in our society which says that it’s reverse-sexist and wrong for..."

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:34:48 -0400

“There’s a poisonous double standard in our society which says that it’s reverse-sexist and wrong for women to feel threatened by creepy-awkward male behaviour because our fear implies that we hold the negative, stereotypical view that All Men Are Predators, but that if we’re raped or sexually assaulted by any man with whom we’ve had prior social interaction – and particularly if he’s expressed some sexual or romantic interest in us during that time – it’s reasonable for observers to ask what precautions we took to prevent the assault from happening, or to suggest that we maybe led the guy on by not stating our feelings plainly. The result is a situation where women are punished if we reject, avoid or identify creepy men, and then told it’s our fault if we’re assaulted by someone we plainly ought to have rejected, avoided, identified.”

- The Creepiness Question « shattersnipe: malcontent & rainbows (via sacet)

Example:

Judge To Woman Sexually Assaulted By Cop: ‘When You Blame Others, You Give Up Your Power To Change’

(via fuckyeahfeminists)

White vegans listen

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:27:15 -0400

coldeyesthatburn:

spocksbrain:

whitewhinesangria:

coldeyesthatburn:

Ain’t here for you

Never have never will be

Go eat your lettuce wraps and think your morally superior while forgetting people pick your food

I ain’t here for you

Brown folk.
Children, even.
Out there picking crops they can’t afford to eat no more because crackas ruin everything.
Moral superiority, my ass.

right because non-vegans definitely don’t eat any vegetables whatsoever

I consume only the finest animal souls thank you very much

artmonia: Sometimes I can’t sleep (sometimes I can’t wake up)...

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:17:44 -0400

artmonia:

Sometimes I can’t sleep (sometimes I can’t wake up) | Sérgio Almeida.

White vegans listen

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:52:36 -0400

whitewhinesangria:

coldeyesthatburn:

Ain’t here for you

Never have never will be

Go eat your lettuce wraps and think your morally superior while forgetting people pick your food

I ain’t here for you

Brown folk.
Children, even.
Out there picking crops they can’t afford to eat no more because crackas ruin everything.
Moral superiority, my ass.

right because non-vegans definitely don’t eat any vegetables whatsoever

mind the gap cover by skottieyoung

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:42:58 -0400

mind the gap cover by skottieyoung

plinytheyounger: Pennsylvania is preparing to execute Terrance...

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:33:55 -0400

plinytheyounger:

Pennsylvania is preparing to execute Terrance “Terry” Williams, a man who suffered years of physical and sexual abuse by older males, eventually killing two of his abusers while in his teens.

Mr. Williams, known to his friends and family as “Terry,” is on death row for a crime he committed three and one-half months after his 18th birthday. On that tragic day, Terry and another teenager killed a man. As the sentencing jury heard, Terry also committed another killing five months earlier at the age of 17. What the jury did not hear was that both of the men had sexually abused Terry, and both crimes directly related to Terry’s history of sexual abuse by older males, which began when he was six years old.

The jury that sentenced Terry to death never heard that both of the men who Terry killed, like other sexual predators, were significantly older men who used their positions of power and authority to prey on vulnerable underage boys. Terry was one of those boys. In fact, the night before he committed the crime for which he was sentenced to death, Terry was violently sexually assaulted by the man he killed – a man who had been sexually abusing Terry for years, and who used his position in the local church to prey on other boys.

The jury that sentenced Terry to death never heard that both of the men who Terry killed, like other sexual predators, were significantly older men who used their positions of power and authority to prey on vulnerable underage boys. Terry was one of those boys. In fact, the night before he committed the crime for which he was sentenced to death, Terry was violently sexually assaulted by the man he killed – a man who had been sexually abusing Terry for years, and who used his position in the local church to prey on other boys.

Like so many adolescent victims of sexual abuse, Terry felt intense shame that kept him from talking about what had happened to him. Terry’s history of sexual abuse was not presented at his capital trial because Terry’s lawyer failed to conduct any meaningful investigation into Terry’s background and ignored obvious evidence of abuse.

While courts agreed that Terry’s lawyer failed him, those courts also said that evidence of sexual abuse would not have made a difference to the jury. However, in sworn affidavits, jurors who sentenced Terry have acknowledged that they would not have voted for a death sentence had they known about the sexual abuse he suffered as a child, the abuse he suffered at the hands of the men he killed, and the psychological impact of that abuse.

In addition, several jurors have stated that they voted for Terry to be put to death only because they mistakenly believed that if they did not sentence Terry to death he would later become eligible for release on parole. The victim’s widow also supports clemency for Terry.

Terry is due to be executed October 3rd! Please sign the petition calling for his release and spread the word!

"Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood."

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 21:16:38 -0400

“Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.”

- George Orwell, 1984 (via allegorys)

Photo

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:54:16 -0400

Photo

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:49:46 -0400