Promiscuous (Defined)

Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin promiscuus, from pro (forth) + miscere (to mix)
Date: 1601

1.) composed of all sorts of persons or things
2.) not restricted to one class, sort, or person: indiscriminate
3.) not restricted to one sexual partner
4.) casual; irregular

Notable Quotes

In God is Not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything, author Christopher Hitchens begins Chapter Two ('Religion Kills') with the following:

"His aversion to religion, in the sense usually attached to the term, was of the same kind with that of Lucretius: he regarded it with the feelings due not to a mere mental delusion, but to a great moral evil. He looked upo it as the greatest enemy of morality: first, by setting up factitious excellencies - belief in creeds, devotional feelings, and ceremonies, not connected with the good of human kind - and causing these to be accepted as substitutes for genuine virtue: but above all, by radically vitiating the standard of morals; making it consist in doing the will of a being, on whom it lavishes indeed all the phrases of adulation, but whom in sober truth it depicts as eminently hateful."

~ John Stuart Mill on his father, in the Autobiography

"Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum."

("To such heights of evil are men driven by religion.")

~ Lucretius, De Rerum Natura

Another Reason I Avoid Swimming in Rivers...

I was scanning the news this morning and came across yet another sick and twisted tale.

Cops: Man Shot Mom, Brother and Cut Them Up
N.Y. Police Say Chopped Up Bodies Dumped in Harlem River
Associated Press

"A 24-year-old man told investigators he shot and killed his mother and brother, then chopped up their bodies and dumped them into the Harlem River..."

"...they found a trail of blood in the apartment and Platt outside, who admitted to killing his mother, 45-year-old Marlene Platt, and brother, Nashan Platt..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21989886/

This is precisely why I avoid swimming in rivers. And lakes too. People dump bodies in lakes too! Haven't people figured out by now that bodies and body parts inevitably float to the surface or wash ashore? Yuck! Put them somewhere else! Sane people like to swim!

A Great Man Once Said...

Elie Wiesel, my hero, is a man I was honored to meet twice, a man who makes one feel like the smallest person in the world in comparison to his overwhelming greatness and purity of heart and soul, a man who believes in the goodness of humanity - even after suffering through the greatest tragedy and loss one can possibly imagine (the Holocaust). His soft-spoken, calm, soothing storytelling ability cannot possibly be matched. He's an equally fantastic writer. When one day he passes, it will be a great loss for humanity - for those who listen, who acknowledge, who refuse to forget.

Some links...

http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel

Some quotes...

“Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.”

“Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

“The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.”

Some quotes from Night (1958), one of his most popular novels...

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never.”

“I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes were open and I was alone – terribly alone in a world without God and without man.”

Control Freak

Merriam-Webster defines 'control freak' as follows:

control freak (noun) (date: 1971) - a person whose behavior indicates a powerful need to control people or circumstances in everyday matters.

Enough said...

The War is Good for Some

An article from The Economist (October 20th-26th, 2007), one of my favorite publications.

The War is Good for Some
Ugandans Join the Ranks of Private Security Firms in Iraq

While Americans and Iraqis argue over the merits and defects of private security companies in Iraq, for David Golola, a former private in the Ugandan army, Iraq's war means seed money for his mango-juice business. For he is one of 3,000-odd Ugandans who have been working in Iraq as security guards on American military bases, thanks to a contract with EOD Technology, a Tennessee-based firm that specialises in dealing with unexploded bombs and provides general security services to the Pentagon.

Like the other Ugandans who have been in Iraq, mostly former soldiers and policemen, Mr Golola considers himself lucky. Many have used their salaries of around $1,000 a month, about ten times that of a private in the Ugandan army, for starting businesses and buying property. One began a maize-grinding plant; another now has his own soap factory.

Not everyone, however, is keen to pack off thousands of Ugandans to guard American soldiers in a dangerous and distant desert. President Yoweri Museveni, the only leader among the 53 countries of the African Union to send peacekeepers to Somalia as well as Darfur, has been criticised by some Ugandans for putting his soldiers in harm's way to curry favour with the Americans in their proclaimed fight against global terror. To make matter worse, a scandal involving alleged underpayment and bad treatment of the security guards has dogged several of the Ugandan firms (one of them close to the president) that have been chosen by the government to recruit the men.

All the same, thousands of eager Ugandan men have put themselves on the waiting list to join the firms. "Even though it's a war zone," explains a guard back home on leave, with plans to start a dairy, "Iraq is a better option than Uganda." None, so far, has been killed.

For the record, I've seen Ugandan women here as well as men. And on another note, they scare the crap out of me. They're perfect for the job!

A Good Day to be an American

I read an interesting article on MSNBC today. It reminded me how good it truly is to be an American.

Sudan Arrests Teacher Over 'Mohammed' Bear
Briton Allows Her Class of 7-Year-Olds to Choose Teddy Bear's Name

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21973378/?GT1=10547

So a teacher, Gillian Gibbons, who works at Unity School in Khartoum, Sudan, was arrested and "accused of insulting Islam's Prophet by letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Muhammed..." She's been "charged with 'blasphemy', an offense... punishable with up to three months in prison and a fine." Apparently, she's being charged "under article 125 of the criminal law, which covers insults against faith and religion."

The course plan for the second graders was to learn about the habitat of the bear. A teddy bear was brought into class by one of the students as part of the project. "The bear itself was not marked or labeled with the name in any way." The students in Gibbons' class voted on the name for the teddy bear. (Voting - how strangely democratic.)

While reading this article, I recalled that my ex husband's uncle once had a dog - a black lab - that he named Nigger. Whether or not the man is racist is irrelevant, I suppose. The dog was black and so he felt the name was appropriate. He certainly wasn't arrested for offending anyone (and I'm sure he offended many).

Yep, it's definitely a good day to be an American...