Provocation of your Mind - Part II on Islam and Christianity (My thoughts)

Provocation of your Mind – Part II

Since his election as our President, I have kept an open mind and a supportive attitude towards Barack Hussein Obama and his presidency. In fact, up until lately, I had never criticized him by name or position for the respect of his office as our president. However, that is rapidly changing. I no longer keep silent about my feelings towards him, his vice president and his former secretary of state.

 

They have all demonstrated and disclosed behaviors, words, and actions that betray the American way of life in its purest sense and foundation. They have and are presently still………. Undermining our constitution. Gathering my thoughts on this matter, I researched the president’s words and how he stood on Islam and Christianity in our world.

 

Notice: Remember that these are my thoughts and nobody else’s so keep that in mind as you read this. It is after all is said, conjectural and speculative in nature and not necessarily factually applied to the situation these words were spoken and delivered.

 

Citing an article written by Geofrrey Grider, on October 2, 2013, I gathered some of the president’s thoughts which he has conveyed to the public, foreign governments and his own staffers appointed with his authority to act on behalf of the United States. In all honesty, my writings were prompted by a personal discussion in the home where another person challenged me to debate the patriotism of Allen West, a strong critic of our president.

 

In his own writings, Allen West alludes to the president’s comments about Islam and Christianity in his own web blog that is controversial because he appear to me [my opinion] to be a blunt and honest speaker as well as a writer. Allen West, in my opinion is an American patriot and should be recognized for his work to tell or expose the truth about what is happening in American society and media outlets. His comparative listing of approximately 40 quotes from our president reflects an ideology I cannot and will not agree with.

 

In return, I invite you to research your own findings and determine your own conclusions about the president’s mind provoking statements and his intentions of bringing a collective idea how to embrace this religion in our country.  To quote Mr. West, it paints an “interesting picture.” He mentions that he tried to balance the POTUS words on Christianity that were favorable but was more concerned about public awareness of the words spoken and those ‘left unsaid” as to the true nature of our president’s intentions. He writes that some of those unsaid words leads to an ideology of the Black Liberation Theology which we all know is a growing concern inside our country as it radicalizes our men and women as well as children as disciples of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s church and gospel.

 

So where does Barack Hussein Obama stand on Islam and Christianity? You decide that on your own – it is not my resolve or desire to change or influence your mind and believe what I believe it to be.

·         “The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam”

·         “The sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer”

·         “We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.”

·         “As a student of history, I also know civilization’s debt to Islam.”

·         “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.”

·         “Islam has always been part of America”

·         “We will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities”

 

·         “These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings.”

·         “America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

·         “I made clear that America is not – and never will be – at war with Islam.”

·         “Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism – it is an important part of promoting peace.”

·         “So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed”

·         “In ancient times and in our times, Muslim communities have been at the forefront of innovation and education.”

·         “Throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

·         “Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality”

·         “The Holy Koran tells us, ‘O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another.’”

·         “I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month.”

·         “We’ve seen those results in generations of Muslim immigrants – farmers and factory workers, helping to lay the railroads and build our cities, the Muslim innovators who helped build some of our highest skyscrapers and who helped unlock the secrets of our universe.”

·         “That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

·         “I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story.”

·         “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation”

·         “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.”

·         “Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy?  Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination?  Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?”

·         “Even those who claim the Bible’s inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural edicts, sensing that some passages – the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in Christ’s divinity – are central to Christian faith, while others are more culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life.”

·         “The American people intuitively understand this, which is why the majority of Catholics practice birth control and some of those opposed to gay marriage nevertheless are opposed to a Constitutional amendment to ban it. Religious leadership need not accept such wisdom in counseling their flocks, but they should recognize this wisdom in their politics.”

·         From Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope: “I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens a civil union that confers equivalent rights on such basic matters as hospital visitation or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are of the same sex—nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount.”

 

 Obama’s response when asked what his definition of sin is:

 

·         “Being out of alignment with my values.”

·         “If all it took was someone proclaiming I believe Jesus Christ and that he died for my sins, and that was all there was to it, people wouldn’t have to keep coming to church, would they.”

·         “This is something that I’m sure I’d have serious debates with my fellow Christians about. I think that the difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they’re going to hell.”

·         “I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell.  I can’t imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity.  That’s just not part of my religious makeup.”

·         “I don’t presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. But I feel very strongly that whether the reward is in the here and now or in the hereafter, the aligning myself to my faith and my values is a good thing.”

·         “I’ve said this before, and I know this raises questions in the minds of some evangelicals. I do not believe that my mother, who never formally embraced Christianity as far as I know … I do not believe she went to hell.”

·         “Those opposed to abortion cannot simply invoke God’s will–they have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths.”

·         On his support for civil unions for gay couples: “If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount.”

 

Other quotes by Obama –

 

·         “You got into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

·         “In our household, the Bible, the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology”

·         “On Easter or Christmas Day, my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites.”

·         “We have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, and their own path to grace is one that we have to revere and respect as much as our own”

·         “All of us have a responsibility to work for the day when the mothers of Israelis and Palestinians can see their children grow up without fear; when the Holy Land of the three great faiths is the place of peace that God intended it to be; when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra — (applause) — as in the story of Isra, when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed, peace be upon them, joined in prayer.  (Applause.)”

·         “I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.”

 

Sources:

 

http://www.allenbwest.com/2014/04/obamas-40-alarming-quotes-islam-christianity/

 

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=15200

Social Distortion - a Corridor of Glass

Social Distortion – a Corridor of Glass

 

We have all heard the idiom of not casting stones at others if you live in a glass house but do you know what it is like to walk through a corridor of glass? Can you imagine never stepping outside your house and getting an opportunity to enjoy the fresh air from the outdoors and be constantly surrounded with walls of translucent see-through glass walls to protect you and shelter you from life?

 

Certainly, one can say that living with glass around you is seeing life through rose colored glasses although one might mention the fact that although the glass may give a person a sense of sensibility or reality, it doesn’t give the mind enough to allow the sensory receptors to work at its fullest dampening some levels of understanding in what you see, hear, feel or touch and smell.

 

No glass is perfectly aligned, created or shaped thus the distortion of whatever you might see, is real. In addition, stress might be induced if living under such extreme conditions were to be prolonged either physically or mentally. The glass corridor by itself creates a probable imperfection. There will be impaired functions of the human senses and miscalculate whatever the brain might suppose if the examination processed is real or not.

 

Looking through glass can change shapes, perceptions and every other function of the mind. In other words, glass gives us evidence that it can and does created an altered perception. This makes looking at the outside from the inside different than standing on the outside and looking outside. By chance, looking to the inside through the glass will also alter the perception as the glass distorts whatever it is you are gazing at as whatever you see, is distorted by the glass’s properties and effects. Whatever it is you are looking at from behind the glass is technically out of focus.

 

One can see the social implications by making decisions when looking through a corridor of glass. This change of focus could in fact have repercussions unprepared to deal with as it alters the truth from another angle provided without the glass. One has to admit that no two similar things may occur as the view through the anomalous panel likely will be designated, at least initially, as ‘out of focus.’ 

 

Thereby, there could be two different views made when you look at whatever is visible through the glass and judge the perception distorted or typically real even when the glass has refractions, altered shapes and colors and other distortion qualities not mentioned in this article.

 

So how can one brag that looking through a corridor of glass is looking at the truth? If someone was to be asked what they saw under oath, they would speak what they believe to be the truth but in reality, it was their own distortion that may not resemble anyone else’s view.

This fact should cause some concern for uncertainties and other factual evidence in testimony and related cases. Looking through polished glass can and does alter the landscape or objects viewed as well as looking through raw surfaced glass does the same providing an anomalous situation but still different in properties.

 

Just because these panels are opaque or transparent or even tinted there is real evidence presented scientifically that could dispute the actual conditions described or detailed when it also applies when you are looking out of a car window that is also shaped, angled or fabricated to meet the contour of the vehicle and giving the viewer a pure refraction in nature. This fact alone takes us into a gray area of what is factual or perceived to be the truth.

 

The same can be said for a person wearing glasses or contacts or sunglasses. If you wear glass to cover your eyes, it might produce a superior or inferior capacity for resolution of the object’s details. Regardless, the view is distorted whether we want to admit it or not as its true state is different from what was seen.

 

One could concede that all glass panels are distorted but that, demonstrably, some are unacceptably thus for this article serves as a fact for practical purposes only and a baseline for comprehending the concept. Moreover, since final resolution is precluded, experimentation with different size and shape of panels always entails the empirical possibility that--given a new focus--a decision may be reached that certain innovative panels are not as distorted, for practical purposes, as other existing panels. I am certain how something like glass can tamper with the mind in many different ways.

 

Perhaps, one could propose that such perceptually expanding or refining panels are ‘positive’ distortions relative to the eclipsed ones and more importantly, we could perhaps concede that in the social world or community, the distinction between distortions is often man-made and not noticeable or taken into consideration when the mental process takes place and therefore not bogus or untruthful when in fact, it might be totally false in perception.

 

 

Antique Morality

Antique Morality -

The point is hardly befuddled and often misunderstood. What is now a rusty tractor was once a trusty tool that brought food on the table. So now it sits and boring the landscape with its old creaky presence breaking the scenery with its rusty nuts and bolts, rotten out tires and less than elegant symbol.

This tractor is breaking the antique morality lines of the old versus the new and how I interpreted this situation is based on my own inferences and experiences that what once young is now old as I seem to be saying, the younger generation have looser morals than the older ones had when they were young.

Today we are old and stuffy, old-fashioned and not in tune with the spry and wit of today’s children or youth. We are the older generation today but once we were young. We had our turn to make life exciting, we turned up the heat and danced with our own music to our own favorite songs.

My ultimate point is I suppose that everything that is young will turn old and everything that was worth having turns into junk one day. It is worth seeing this change around me.

It makes me feel like it was once important that we existed and made a difference in someone’s life but this is nothing to get worked up over or about – getting old is the price we all pay when we talk about the antiques and morality.

Breaking my Mortality

Breaking my Mortality

 

Dying is ultimately the definitive result of the natural cause and effect related to birth. While dying is the ultimate experience for oneself it is also the ultimate experience for others who suffer the loss. There are natural and unnatural stages to one’s death and they are sometimes sudden or long drawn out processes that makes it hard to break in the heart for such an eventuality.

I am not worried about the grieving process – my life will be over and I shall be dead. However, I am concerned about those I leave behind as I break my mortality and find the end of my life cycle a moment of grim pleasure. Thinking of dying has had a profound influence on my thinking while alive. I think it haunts me more than I admit to but regardless, I am ready to deal with it the best I know how.

There is no denial of me dying. I confronted this matter since I was thirty six years old when I thought I was a dead man because of my lifestyle and my choices. It was then when I realized that I was susceptible to this fear of dying because either I was unprepared to die or I was unable to deal with it. Today, it has become a total new experience – I am ready to deal with it; the fact is my impending death is not only happening but inevitable.

This experience is not new and unreal in any manner. It is possible and not impossible that the time is coming sooner than later. Simply said, I fear a painful prolonged death more than death itself. I pray I fall asleep and never wake up. Under the best circumstances, facing one’s own mortality is very difficult and breaking it up in pieces is in fact, impossible for it will happen.

We all have a death sentence. The task of dying has been mandated the moment you were born so there is no time for denial and premature mourning. Worrying about my death is next to impossible yet, it doesn’t matter as much as it did before. I would rather die in peace than in chaos. I fear the fire but not the cold. I don’t want to be morbid about it but at the same time, I can’t dwell on my fate – death is coming whether I like it or not.

There is no coping strategy here – death is inopportune and knocks on the door any moment you are still alive. There is no anger here for I have learned of my fate much sooner in life than I care to admit. I am thankful of the happiness I enjoyed, the blessings received and the life I lived. My accomplishments are real and my mind has committed its own thoughts that I feel more sanguine about dying than ever before.

I have witnessed the deaths of my mother and father – I am ambivalent about my future as well as the time of my death but I am certain it is coming. There is no rage, no sorrow or even regrets that would cause me to have second-thoughts about me dying. I want to gently say good night and turn out the light.

 

Dealing with Tele-pressure and FOMO

Dealing with Tele-pressure & FOMO

As a correctional officer or employee, your typical duty day is long enough as it is especially if you are volunteering for overtime or working on special projects. Today’s technology has extended the work day even more so than before, as the organization you work for expects more with less and that puts a big burden on your mind and body. 

One can only imagine the fatigue you feel when you walk through the front door of your home and your cell phone rings or an email catches your eye, and either asks you come back to work or come in early the next day. Drained of energy as you may be, you need to respond to matters brought to your attention. More importantly, the boss expects an immediate response whether you are available or not. 

It is almost impossible to disconnect your relationship from work at home. Technology has attached your mind forever as a lifeline or as long as you carry a Smartphone that delivers your calls and emails 24/7 creating a phenomenon called Tele-pressure (stress). A study conducted by the American Psychological Association found that more than 50% of us check work email before and after work hours, throughout the weekend, and even when we’re sick. Even worse, 44% of us check work email while on vacation.

Mobile phones are rarely turned off. Even while on the charger, it is on. Sometimes, we take the time to silence the ringtone but phone’s power is on.  You and your phone are collaborators in you life – it’s either going to be a positive relationship or a bad one. One of the most obvious signs you are suffering from Tele-pressure is the phenomenon called FOMO. 

Better known as the “Fear Of Missing Out” syndrome, FOMO is a relatively new term associated with today’s high-tech millennial generation which includes those born after 1980 but has grabbed those before this time as well.  These people fear that they’ll miss out of something important, fun and interesting.  FOMO is a powerful force and it correlates to people’s tendency to avoid loss of information in their lives. You can almost call it an addiction as there are many people who rely on their phones too much and too often. 

This constant connection cannot be a good thing if not balanced between your off duty time and your on-duty commitment. Tele-pressure ensures that you are never able to relax and truly disengage from work. This prolonged state of stress is terrible for your health. Besides increasing your risk of heart disease, depression, and obesity, stress decreases your cognitive performance.

In order to deal with the Tele-pressure whether personal or professional, we need to establish clear lines or boundaries between those dynamics that motivate or guide us daily. If we don’t do that, we are subject to fall victim to poor health, extreme stress and anxiety and deprived relationships. 

Whenever you are faced with a busy schedule that intrudes on your life in all directions, you need to prioritize your needs or values and put them in some kind of order so you remain healthy, happy and balanced.

Easier said than done, it is important you take the time to do this is you are to sustain a long and happy relationship and career – those two works hand in hand and need a sound balance in order to get along with each other. Learning how to say no to the boss may not be an option - however, setting you priorities can help you achieve a measurable value to allow a balance between work and play. Set your values in order; don’t give them away without first evaluating what is important and where it is on your continuum of life and the pursuit of happiness. 

Shape your character to fit your values and allot your time spent for those things to be reasonable and necessary in order to remain fit and mentally alert. Taking short cuts can only hurt you in time as stress and other ailing symptoms take time to show up or be detected and often that is a case of being in dire straights and in need of treatment or rest. 

Based on my own evaluation of my service record, I prioritized my life in the following order – physical health, family, mental health wellness, as well as my ethics, contacts, activities. Certainly, there are more activities in your life than those mentioned above and you can add them to the list as you see fit or proper. The key here is to sustain the long hard traveled road and career as well as taking care of yourself and family.

You cannot let bad things sneak up on you, and the way you do that is by keeping a consistent routine. Think about what you need to do to keep yourself active and healthy (taking brisk walks during lunch, skip working weekends, taking your vacations as scheduled making it more remote than ever, etc.), make a plan, and stick to it no matter what. 

If you don’t, you’re allowing your work to overstep its bounds. When your mind is at ease, you naturally feel good, and make it easier to deal with the things around you. What is more important is that your energy is regulated to the point where you are able to respond effectively and within a reasonable amount of time.

Bad Leaders

Link to my corrections.com article Bad Leaders

Living in the world - not on it -

Living in this World

“Most people are on the world, not in it — have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them — undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.” ― John Muir Reading what I get out of what naturalist John Muir wrote, I sense we have all been “on the world not in it.”

Living on the world would cause us to be void of those incredible human traits that make us unique and caring about each other. Living like someone whose mere existence on this world would resemble an empty form of humanity, filled with the lack of empathy, guilt, remorse, shame or compassion. In other words, this kind of person is a parasite in nature’s own definition. Certainly, living a life like that is and can be deceitful, immorally dreary and likely such a persona would reflect someone who is unhappy or unfulfilled in his or her personal life. Unconsciously or consciously, one might refer to someone with those types of traits as a sociopath and complete the list of lacking substance or morals making them void of a conscience as well as some well hidden criminal traits.

Otherwise known as pretenders, they are great at faking caring for others and use their ‘moral outrage’ as a tool to play victim in various situations. They use the world around them as a tool or scam to give off false impressions and pretending to be a caring or thoughtful person. Sadly, there is little reality in their lives as they focus on doing and saying things mere for the show of it and not sincere at all. Living in the world would include character traits or personalities of all those things a sociopath possesses. There would be empathy, sorrow, shame or guilt and this would motivate them to become better and more empathetic rather than a scammer or ‘player’ in most cases.

Basically, sociopaths are the chameleons of our society and prey on others to co-exist amongst us so they can profit from us, rather than share or care for others. They are the kind of people who have no conscience and should not be trusted. After all, they would only pretend or act as if nothing had happened if challenged when something went wrong and find an opportunity to play a mind game in some manner or another. They are good at reversing the guilt factor as they themselves do not feel any guilt.

Living in the world requires you care and fear about others. Your mind focuses on what others think and how you act or treat them as well as how they treat you without any per-determined conditions or arrangements. A sociopath, on the other hand, manipulates these types of conditions or engagement to further impact their ability to ‘con’ others further than they already have. Their limit of fear is almost zero and their ability to scheme or work against others is higher than the average person. Living within the world would require a compulsion to tell the truth, avoid deception and manipulating others.

Sharing and caring requires positive behaviors that includes no cheating and having a strong moral fidelity to stand by others rather than cheat or sin you way around them. While a sociopath takes others for granted and refuse to take responsibility for their own actions, a person living within the world or society, learns to give rather than take or steal, to love and not fake or hate, and to praise and help rather than threaten, ruin someone’s reputation or smear a name.

Living in the world means you have to think of others and creating an agenda that is beneficial to many rather than only yourself.

It means to be considerate and going the extra length to please someone rather than taking advantage of someone you have targeted especially in their time of need or grief.

Living with the world and not on the world means thinking of others rather than self and giving a damn about their feelings more so than your own. You would experience guilt, pain, regret and other feelings that a sociopaths lacks. Therefore the circumstances are such where you can sincerely say you are sorry when someone loses someone dear to them and mean it rather than simply saying you are sorry for your own loss or opportunity of the event.

Thus the major difference is in the actions of self and how they affect those around you as you determine how the hurt has affected others rather than your own life. Being part of a social circle or family brings true feelings of regret and other emotions without any emotional discounts, where the fake regret of a situation around him or her affected their own lives or damage to themselves.

Finally, living within a social circle may bring stability, togetherness, companionship or loving someone and having personal relationships that include elements of trust and keeping promises. Your focus is on being reliable and dependable rather than betraying or failing the others again and again.

Whenever one lives on the world, one can ill afford to remain in one place too long before exposed and therefore moving around and wandering all over the world is required to find new victims and play their games over and over as such a pattern is likely to exist if you live on the world and not in it.