Prop 19 – Bringer of Good or Advocate of the Devil?
Hi everyone! So i realize that Prop 19 in California didn’t get passed. For all of you out-of-state readers, if i have any, Prop 19 would have legalized marijuana. However, I believe that Prop 19 should have passed. Now don’t get me wrong. I absolutely hate any sort of drug, and even avoid taking Advil when i have to. I am also of the strong opinion that any natural particle, including marijuana (i don’t care if it comes from nature, NOTHING was intended to be smoked, except ham! haha!) cause severe damage to the body. Just because they haven’t found any “conclusive evidence” doesn’t mean much if you ask me. Therefore, i actually think ALL drugs should be 100% banned. But, even after these strong opinions, i voted yes on legalization. Why you ask? Because there is a HUGE problem with the train of thought i had, not morally or physically, but feasibly. MORE people die in the world, not from overdosing on marijuana, but from the drug cartels that kill innocent people, or get in gang wars over, or territory disputes over who gets to sell what drug. In essence, the problem lies with drug cartels. They make HUGE profits off the drug, but end up killing hundreds of people every year. And frankly, it is a waste of time and money for the police to be going after druggies, who aren’t going to change their mind on smoking anything, even if you provide them with the most conclusive evidence in the world. When they start, for the most part, these druggies know what they are getting themselves into. So why do it? It is of my opinion that they simply have a “parent complex.” In other words, when your parents tell you VERY specifically NOT to do something, you want to do that thing EVEN more! Likewise, BECAUSE the drug is illegal, these smokers want the drug even more! Where’s my evidence you may be asking? A few years back, Switzerland lifted their ban on marijuana, and do you know what happened? The rate of users went down some 16%, practically making the usage of marijuana non-existent. So, we can conclude from this, that most druggies simply smoke to “prove a point” – that they can do whatever they want.
So, why NOT make marijuana legal, destroy and chance of survival the cartels have, and then when people have stopped caring about marijuana one way or another, you can make it illegal again, and it won’t make a difference. Of course, there’s always the positive of the state making some money off of a business that COST us huge funds before. But whatever floats your boat i suppose.
POLL!!!
In honor of the upcoming elections, i hoped to have a little poll myself. With the awkwardly awesome amount of hits the blog has been having lately, i was wondering what it is you guys like best about the site. If you could take literally 5 seconds (unless you’re a REALLY slow reader) to just answer 1 question, it would be very much appreciated! 😀 Thanks guys!
What’s Black and Red all over?: The Red-Tailed Black Shark
Hello everyone! So i know i haven’t done this segment in a while, and i apologize for it. While i’m at it, i’d also like to apologize for the corny joke in the title, but i just couldn’t help myself!
At any rate, today, we bring you the Red-tailed Black Shark which has been extinct in the wild since 1996, so not that long ago! Although it is called a shark, the Red-tailed Black Shark is actually a relative of the minnow or carp, freshwater fish. This little guy was indigenous to the beautiful nation of Thailand, but it is suspected that after a long period of river construction (like dams), the fish was killed off. Today, the aquarium bred fish have either orange or red tails, and oddly enough, is an excellent jumper, liable to jump out of its aquarium. Occasionally, these fish can be territorial with members of their own species and will sometimes fight to the death, though other species of fish do not bother it so much.
Unfortunately, much like plants, fish don’t seem to raise much of a conservation effort. However, as you may already know, i feel that all creatures have the right to live on this beautiful planet of ours, WITHOUT any threat of humans! Therefore, i encourage all of you to do whatever you can to save this fish! You can contact the IUCN or the International Union for Conservation of Nature to ask them to help out at: mail@iucn.org
Their website is:
where you can learn about a lot of conservation efforts! Thanks guys!
200 – the movie!
I know, i’m being chessy with the puns again, but i wanted to thank everyone for all there support for this blog! Today, we have hit TWO-HUNDRED hits, which for me, is a very big accomplishment! 😀 So thank you everyone and look forward to the next article ;D
And remember! If you have ANY concerns, comments, suggestions, or anything else, PLEASE feel free to contact me! Thank you!
The Devil Worshipers of Pokemon
Hi all! So as i was browsing the wonderful world of facebook, i stumbled upon an article my friend had posted.
So as i was reading this article, at first i thought this man was going to make some valid points about how children can be overly obsessed with popular artifacts today, and how parents should learn to not give their children everything they want immediately. But as i continued to read, i realized that this man was in fact a pure religious idiot, stating that Pokemon was actually Satan’s game, and that it incites children to abuse others, beat kids up, and run away from home. The example he specifically cites is that of his 4 year old grandson. Because 4-year-old boys have never in the history of man bit their sisters, or enjoys violence of any sort. Of course, today’s increasing violence in media is to slightly blame for this, but one CAN NOT blame the tantrums and attitudes of little children on a CARD game!
Afterwards, this ridiculous even manages to classify Sailor Moon and Star Wars as part of the occult! Although a stretch, i can somewhat see how the game Magic may be misconstrued as this, but a show where the heroine tries to actually GET RID of evil!!! And i don’t even see where the Star Wars point could possibly go other than in the belief of aliens, which I’m inclined to believe HAVE TO exist somewhere in this wide expanse of the universe!
He even raises the “concern” of children “carry[ing] their favorite monsters like magical charms or fetishes in their pockets, trusting them to bring power in times of need…”. Yes, a child being able to carry a pack of cards in their pocket as a form of entertainment absolutely qualifies as depending on a magical charm and chanting spells to grant good luck on a test or receiving a board position. I wonder if he ever considered that while children ARE impressionable, they are NOT stupid! Which raises my next point!
The highlight of the article was when this genius of a man was seriously concerned about children playing a card and then raising a stick in the air saying “I summon you!” is actually a form of possession, and children believe that the “spirits” of these cards ENTER them! Also, did i mention we live in the medieval times and that the black plague and small pox are still running rampant? Oh! And we can’t forget that the US is actually not a country but a territory of the the largest empire in the world – Great Britain. Oh, wait, none of that is true! It ONCE was, much like people ONCE believed that possession was a common place incident. Fortunately for mankind, we’ve evolved past that and are now past these ridiculous beliefs. And if anything with “cult-like” properties, like childrens’ television shows, like Spongebob and Dora the Explorer (though i wouldn’t actually mind getting rid of either one of these), should be banned, hell! – why don’t we just ban TV? Because EVERY show has SOME viewership following! That’s Satan calling out to us right there!
Do you know what we as American citizens should do? We should IMMEDIATELY follow the advice of intelligent people like this, and let the world fall to hell. Don’t YOU think that’s a good idea? Honestly, people NEED to learn that there is no harm in letting your child have fun in these things, though everything should be done in moderation. Not EVERYTHING can and SHOULD be related to religion! Speaking from personal experience, if one lets religion dictate every emotion, action, and thought they feel, why we are no more than shells of the humans i’m sure God intended us to be. If God created man, I’m sure his purpose, as a supreme being/creator, was NOT for us to worship him for 10 hours a day (like my religion states (and i DEEPLY disagree with)), but to instead live out our lives in the best and healthiest way possible and to enjoy our lives! And if there IS no God, no heaven or hell, and no satan unlike the genius above is stating, then would all this religion really do us any good since we would simply be dead. The ONE life that we had would have been wasted on something that never even existed.
At any rate, if you have any comments or anything else, please feel free to leave them and let me know your thoughts on this atrocity of an article! Thanks for reading! 😀
The Geisha: the prostitute of Japan?
Hello everyone! I’m sorry i haven’t had a chance to write lately but i’ve been really busy with college. At any rate, i recently watch the movie Memoirs of a Geisha and am now reading the book. Although i consider myself a Japanese fanatic, or a weebo as one of my friends so delicately put it, i really didn’t know about one of the most cultural aspects to have somewhat survived in Japan – the Geisha. When most people, particularly Americans, think of a geisha, they immediately think that a geisha is the equivalent to a prostitute. However, based on the research done by the author of Memoirs, this was not the full truth. According to Arthur Golden, a geisha is a woman who entertains men with conversation, dance and music, but also has to sell her virginity to the highest bidder. After doing some research of my own, i found out that the geisha of Japan were actually very sophisticated and cultured women who practiced many arts, flower-arranging NOT being one of them. Furthermore, the practice of selling one’s viriginity, or mizuage, was not real. In fact, a mizuage actually consisted of a tea ceremony and a different hair cut to symbolize one’s coming of age.
After going into my research, i began to wonder why many people have the misconception that geisha are prostitutes when i can upon a startling find. Back in the hay day, or during WWII to be more precise, many American soldiers were stationed in Japan, and Japanese women (meaning geisha and prostitutes) were stumbling over themselves for a chance to be able to entertain these men and gain some sort of higher status – to clarify, geisha simply wished to continue to practice their art, not sleep with these men. Thus, the “geisha girl” was born. Geisha girls were actually prostitutes who dressed like geisha, BUT wore the traditional obi, or the band that held their kimono together in the front (for easy removal since it could take up to an hour to arrange an obi correctly for a real geisha), and they also fashioned their hair a different way.
With the girl on the left, you will notice her obi is tied in the box fashion, while the girl on the right has the sash fashion. It is important to note that both of these girls are prostitutes, which can also be seen from their hair.
When the soldiers began coming to Japan, prostitutes began dressing more similarly to geisha, with a few differences, as stated above. However, the American soldiers couldn’t tell the differences between the girls, as they probably only saw the white face make up as a distinguishing feature. Just to clarify, I’m for once not blaming Americans for their ignorance as i realize how difficult it can be to distinguish people from a completely different culture. To these Americans, they were probably trying to distinguish different types of foods, forget about the people. At any rate, the soldiers, in their unknowing-ness began calling these women “Geisha girls” and the word forever became synonymous with the word geisha. Even today, when foreigners see real geisha, they still call them “geisha girls.” I can bet you that if you go out onto the street and ask someone what a geisha is, they will either reply that they do not know, or that it is a prostitute.
I’d like to point out that a lot of this knowledge would not be available to me, and thus you, if it wasn’t for 1) Mrs. Mineko Iwasaki, who had to bear through many horrendous things because of Mr. Arthur Golden’s inability to follow a contract, and for her book Geisha, A Life, which although i have yet to read, made me realize how many of Mr. Golden’s details were incorrect, and 2) Mr. Okinawa Soba, whose flickr account made many interesting details about the lives of geisha and prostitutes available to me. Three of the URLs i used were:
I’d also like to point out just HOW difficult it is to find a picture of a formally and correctly dressed geisha, and a japanese prostitute. Well, I hoped this article brought some light upon the subject. Furthermore, I really don’t have much feedback from anyone about how i’m doing with these articles, and as i’ve never done anything like this before, i would very much appreciate any comments, feelings, questions, discrepancies, criticisms or whatever else it is that you can think of! In closing, I will leave you some pictures of ACTUAL geisha, and you can compare the differences for yourself. Thank you!
Geisha back (the neck was very important for geisha)
Geisha full back
Geisha (modern day)
Mineko Iwasaki as a young geisha in the 1960s
Tolerance in America: Does it still exist?
Sorry i haven’t written anything in so long, but i was out on vacation. I was gone for a wonderful 2 weeks in spain. I hoped to come back to not too many changes, but lo-and-behold, miss a lot i did. Upon coming back, i learned of the mosque issues running throughout America.
I don’t understand how it is that people can at all deny others religious freedom, ESPECIALLY in the so called “the land of the free”!!!! Forget the issue of New York City, WHY is it an issue ANYWHERE else in the country to build a mosque??? Are Muslims not people? Do they not have rights? What right do we have as fellow human beings to say Islam is not a valid religion? Are we so ignorant and close-minded that we can not realize being terrorists and being a Muslim are two COMPLETELY separate and unrelated things?! The IRA are supposedly known terrorists and are THEY Muslims?! I don’t think so! Yet, they have attacked innocent British and even SPANISH citizens FAR more than any Muslims have!!!! And even IF they were terrorists, would ANY terrorist be idiotic enough to set up a terrorist HQ in a mosque – a KNOWN Muslim center?! If they are, then they can’t be much of a threat can they???
And why is building a mosque in the middle of NYC even an issue? Everyone keeps saying its to “respect the victims” of 9/11, but aren’t the Muslims the BIGGEST victims of 9/11? The entire world for the last 9 years has been CONTINUOUSLY attacking and secluding the world’s Muslim population, for a completely idiotic and completely misunderstood base. If ANYTHING, the entire Muslim population deserves a HUGE apology and should without a doubt be allowed to build a mosque wherever they want, ESPECIALLY in NYC near Ground 0 where WE, as America, should be respecting the biggest victims – the Muslim community.
Congratulations!
Congratulations California! In response to the article i wrote a few days ago about gay rights, and going along with the buzz everyone else has been talking about, i would like to congratulate California on the first CRITICAL step towards homosexual equality – PROP 8 has been REPEALED! I am so proud (now) to call myself a Californian, when finally some part of america has REALIZED that denying homosexuals the right to marry is not only hypocritical, but as aforementioned, is another Christian excuse to not allow gays rights. I for one, am incredibly happy that Prop 8 has been repealed!
The Guam Rail – No, It’s not a train
Alright, back to the progression of enhancing the availability of endangered animals! This time, we’re featuring the Guam Rail – a cute little bird, unable to fly, and extinct in the wild since the 1970s and 80s. Out of the 11 species of this bird that are native to Guam, 9 are extinct on their native island and is now only seen in few US zoos. Although attempts have been made to reintroduce the bird into the wild, those darn cats continue to prey on these innocent little birds…as well as the contribution of accidental deaths. Unfortunately, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, in its infinite efficiency and competence (but what do you expect from a government service?), listed them when they were already extinct on Guam. Unfortunately, before cats became a problem, snakes were devouring the Rails, and after reintroduction, the snakes continued to prey on them, making chances of survival incredibly dim. Luckily, new technology has allowed a perimeter to be set up around the Rails that does not allow snakes in, which has increased the amount of birds surviving in the wild. However, it is thanks to the efforts of Zoologist Bob Beck that we have the few Rails we have today!
Gays: It really IS that simple
What i don’t understand is that in this day and age, how people can still be so close-minded to deny ANY person rights, that are inclusive to everyone in america. We claim that there is a separation of church and state, yet every where you look, and controversial topic is immediately justified by some ridiculous bible quote! I’m not at all saying that every religion shouldn’t be respected, but for a society that prides itself on not being religiously based, like Iraq or Iran, we sure use Christianity for the basis of many of our arguments. The “should gays have the right to marry” question has been around for a while, but now a completely ridiculous argument has popped up! – should the “don’t ask don’t tell” rule be repealed. That rule should have never been in existence and here they are asking whether gays should be allowed to serve our country? What on earth makes anyone think that gays or lesbians, or even bisexuals are anything less than us? Are they for some reason sub-human; are they below of us because God made them one way and not another? That’s right, if you can use religion as a basis then why can’t i? If God made every living thing the way they are, the way the creationists, or any other religious believer believes, and he made them that way for a purpose, and ALL creatures are God’s creatures, then why should there be any prejudice at all? And above all, WHY have GAYS always been the target of unfair prejudice? The Ancient Romans and Ancient Greeks pursued homosexual tendencies, yet nobody says that the Greek or Roman Empires DESERVED to be destroyed. In fact, every man was allowed to take part in the Senate. If you ask me, it seems that over the last 2,000 years, man has become LESS understanding and MORE prejudice, NOT the other way around. Personally, i find that an embarrassment to the human race in general, that instead of PROGRESSING, we have REGRESSED over the last couple of millennium. Essentially, to me it is OBVIOUS that gays should not only be allowed to serve in the army if they so choose (God knows we need as many recruits as we can get these days), but they should also have the freedom to choose who they want to marry, and get the EXACT same rights as ANY other free American citizen.
The Opinions of a New Age Student 