nil

gawl it's just so difficult to be sexually all-emcompassing as an asexual! accept my sincerest apologies!

well we all know i'm not that smart. foie-gras is disgusting, you are welcome to all the foie-gras (however that's actually spelled) (spelt?). btw: misogyny is termed by most feminist theories as a political ideology—similar to racism or anti-Semitism—that justifies and maintains the subordination of women by men. wiki-ped-antics and i'm not a feminist. not really. but yes i am. but no. i antagonise myself.

ah, going for the easy out. not surprising. no better way to avoid looking at yourself and the issues you might have. no worries. this whole post of yours is passive-aggressive bs. i'm not a hate or a 'self-hater'. "i think those who play the accusatory cards are actually themselves haters and self-haters?" is that an accusatory card?

damn. and i was on a roll. i've never seen a bumper sticker 'no bald guys' or 'no skinny blokes'. i mean, come on.... i don't have a problem being in a primarily male environment. i actually tend to have "more in common" with men as a total generalisation because i don't like to pretty myself up and would rather just be one of the blokes, but maybe the token asexual bloke. i don't have a problem that this is a primarily male environment. i don't have a problem with secret men's business or secret women's business. i do have a problem with people who go to gyms, but if you want a men's only class because you're tired of being ogled by all those women, i'd suggest bringing that up with the management. i know that's a common complaint amongst the male populace. equanimity for all! should i start posting pics of 'hot guys' up in here so the women can drool over the male form? or should i just admit now that i've never been attracted to physical structure and have always found the intellect and spiritual being the real turn on? maybe the bee in my bonnet is i tend to expect that of a humanity attempting to evolve and when i don't see it i get sad. maybe when i get sad, rather than behaving 'like a woman' i come off agro and crass, instead. maybe i bring up things at the wrong time in the wrong place. maybe i need more coffee. maybe i need less coffee. maybe i need some khat.

nobody's reading what i said. i give up. please read what i said and ask for clarity if you don't get it. woman was an idiot to come up in here and post send me illegal seeds i want to get loaded i just can't take it anymore. if you have psychological issues you ought to see someone to help you with that. and on another note, this place has a VOCAL misogynist attitude and don't feel like you have to make a commentary defending women by saying we don't all think we need to be treated like princesses. uhg. i'm taking my fat arse to the beach now.

the bulk of this thread doesn't suggest an element of misogyny. there are a number of threads smattered throughout the forums that do, though. instead of wasting time pointing them all out to you if you like i can let you know each time something comes up that smacks of it. the most recent i can come up with was the spaceship with the 'no fat chicks' commentary in the first post. that's surreal to me. it's not the flaming of hardtimes i'm talking about at all. there's an undercurrent with SOME of the VOCAL blokes up in here that is disturbing. not in this thread, in the forums in general. and, again, not a generalisation if you read my post again. there are SOME very VOCAL guys in here who have incredibly misogynistic attitudes towards women. you're not one of them. many of you aren't. as a woman in a primarily male environment (this or any other) it's the commentary that is anti-woman that really stands out to me, making me state this is a 'misogynistic wonderland' because, primarily, they are left to their devices and nobody (least of all me) will bother to bring it up to "them". how do you like your eggs?

yep. if it doesn't apply to you then why get angry. i personally feel objectification of women up in here is ridiculous (and it isn't done by a majority but it is done by a vocal majority). if that doesn't apply to you why let it upset you?

*cackle*. i hope you wax that shit.

this is a misogynist wonderland. the VAST majority are blokes and the vocal majority tend to be idiots when it comes to women, despite being knowledgeable about a few plants. there is a faction of 'aware' guys in here who you'll find helpful and kind. my personal experience here has been a lot of dick-in-hand types that you have to look past who find objectification of women as exciting as "what-new-thing can i use to get fucked up on". it's a great place for the most part because there are a number of enlightened and intelligent people here, irrespective of gender. my best advice is don't pander and yeah, obviously don't come in balls out hoping to score. ~another woman

what about the shit we deal with in australia? i had to kick a cow out of my house the other day for talking racist crap against aboriginal people in front of my four year old son. racism is rife in the usa, but we win the racist bullshit award here 100 fold compared to there. never before i moved here had i heard so much disgusting crap. imagine what it's like to grow up as an aboriginal child in this country. i cannot even imagine. so what do WE do about it??

berkman is ok. kropotkin is better. much, much better. conquest of bread. no buy amazon for revolutionary ideologies. purchase power against the multinationals. that's my report. /soapbox.

asalaamu alaikum - a greeting which says 'may peace be upon you' wa alaikum mus salaam -the response which means and also upon you (remind anyone of anglican services?) allahu akbar - god is great (this is what you say before blowing yourself up in the airport). muslims say 'allahu akbar' whenever they kill any living animal and this is part of what it takes to make meat halaal. so, if you wanna stir shit in the airport, you say 'allahu akbar'. sounds like "allow AHK-bar" (with an amerrrrican r on the end).

top three: 1. brugmansia (can tell you species when you get a flower photo from the side please also important to determine if the anthers are fused or separate and if the flower is loose or tight inside the little cover you're calling a casing). 2. brugmansia (same as above but this one looks like it might have wicked spider mite infestation. treat it asap or you're looking at losing your brugs and fast). 3. datura metel probably double purple flower. that's the best i can do at this point, sure someone can help you with the rest.

haha creach. i'll take more anytime, hey. and osiris, it is very phallic. wonder what that says about me. couple of cephalocerus sinilis at the base and i'd have my ex husband without the financial strain.

A group of researchers working at the Human Genome Project indicate that they made an astonishing scientific discovery: They believe so-called 97% non-coding sequences in human DNA is no less than genetic code of extraterrestrial life forms. The non-coding sequences are common to all living organisms on Earth, from moulds to fish to humans. In human DNA, they constitute larger part of the total genome, says Prof. Sam Chang, the group leader. Non-coding sequences, originally known as "junk DNA", were discovered years ago, and their function remained a mystery. The overwhelming majority of Human DNA is “Off-world” in origin. The apparent “extraterrestrial junk genes” merely “enjoy the ride” with hard working active genes, passed from generation to generation. After comprehensive analysis with the assistance of other scientists, computer programmers, mathematicians, and other learned scholars, Professor Chang had wondered if the apparently “junk Human DNA” was created by some kind of “extraterrestrial programmer”. The alien chunks within Human DNA, Professor Chang further observes, “have its own veins, arteries, and its own immune system that vigorously resists all our anti-cancer drugs.” Professor Chang further stipulates that "Our hypothesis is that a higher extraterrestrial life form was engaged in creating new life and planting it on various planets. Earth is just one of them. Perhaps, after programming, our creators grow us the same way we grow bacteria in Petri dishes. We can’t know their motives - whether it was a scientific experiment, or a way of preparing new planets for colonization, or is it long time ongoing business of seedling life in the universe.” Professor Chang further indicates that “If we think about it in our human terms, the apparent “extraterrestrial programmers” were most probably working on “one big code” consisting of several projects, and the projects should have produced various life forms for various planets. They have been also trying various solutions. They wrote “the big code“, executed it, did not like some function, changed them or added new one, executed again, made more improvements, tried again and again.” Professor Chang’s team of researchers furthermore concludes that, “The apparent “extraterrestrial programmers” may have been ordered to cut all their idealistic plans for the future when they concentrated on the “Earth project” to meet the pressing deadline. Very likely in an apparent rush, the “extraterrestrial programmers” may have cut down drastically on big code and delivered basic program intended for Earth.“ Professor Chang is only one of many scientists and other researchers who have discovered extraterrestrial origins to Humanity. Human Genome Project Coordinators Human Genome Project Coordinators find absolute proof of Extraterrestrial contact with 'Earth humans' via DNA evidence. Professor Chang and his research colleagues show that apparent “extraterrestrial programming” gaps in DNA sequencing precipitated by a hypothesized rush to create human life on Earth presented humankind with illogical growth of mass of cells we know as cancer." Professor Chang further indicates that “What we see in our DNA is a program consisting of two versions, a big code and basic code.” Mr. Chang then affirms that the “First fact is, the complete ‘program’ was positively not written on Earth; that is now a verified fact. The second fact is, that genes by themselves are not enough to explain evolution; there must be something more in ‘the game‘.” “Soon or later”, Professor Chang says “we have to come to grips with the unbelievable notion that every life on Earth carries genetic code for his extraterrestrial cousin and that evolution is not what we think it is.” Human Genome Project Discovery Implications associated with “Human-looking Extraterrestrials” The implications of these scientific finds would reinforce claims by other scientists and observers of having contact with ‘off-world' human looking extraterrestrials. The ‘off-world' human looking extraterrestrial have been claimed to have provided some of the genetic material for human evolution, and that many of these extraterrestrials have allowed some of their personnel to incarnate as ‘star seeds' on Earth in human families. These “star seeds“, “star children” or “star people” are described by Brad and Francie Steiger as individuals whose ‘souls' were formally incarnated on the worlds of other star systems and then traveled to Earth and decided to incarnate here in order to “boost” the spiritual evolutionary development of humanity. Most of humanity would consider this group of extraterrestrials to be ‘benevolent' as described by ‘contactees' such as George Adamski, Orfeo Angelucci, George Van Tassell, Howard Menger, Paul Villa, Billy Meier and Alex Collier who each explain the nature of their voluntary interactions with these human looking extraterrestrials. These “contactees” often provide physical evidence in the form of photographs, film and/or witnesses of their contacts with extraterrestrial races. The most extensively documented and researched contactee is Eduard ‘Billy' Meier who provided much physical evidence for investigators. Representations concerning ‘Ancient astronauts’ Indeed, ‘ancient astronaut’ writers believe that a race of intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited and/or colonised Earth in the remote past, whereupon they upgraded the primitive hominid Homo erectus by means of genetic engineering to create the human race as we know it: Homo sapiens. Evidence for this idea is found (a) in the improbability of Homo sapiens emerging so suddenly, according to the principles of orthodox Darwinism; and ( in the myths of ancient civilisations which describe human-like gods coming down from the heavens and creating mankind ‘in their own image’.Homo sapiens is thus regarded as a hybrid being, incorporating a mix of terrestrial genes from Homo erectus and extraterrestrial genes from an ascribed “race of the gods“. Prior to the modern age of space travel and genetics, this theory for the origins of humankind could not have been conceived. And even now, in the 21st century, there are many people who would regard it as science fiction. However, in the light of the problems with the orthodox theory of human evolution, the idea of a genetic intervention by an intelligent human-like species (who themselves evolved on another planet over a more credible time frame) does require to be taken seriously as a potential solution to the mystery. The most famous exponents of the ancient astronaut intervention are the Swiss writer Erich von Daniken and the American writer Zecharia Sitchin. The latter, in particular, has argued the case in great detail. Representation by academics from “Exopolitics” groups Dr. Micheal E. Salla is one of the founders of an Exopolitics movement which seeks an open and informed dialogue on, and with, Extraterrestrials, toward the affirmation of “global democracy” and the quality-of-living of humankind as socially responsible beings in the Universe. Dr. Salla indicates that “There are an extensive number of extraterrestrial races known [by various research institutions and agencies] to be currently interacting with Earth and the human population. Dr. Salla, is also the author of Exopolitics: Political Implications of the Extraterrestrial Presence (Dandelion Books, 2004). He has held full time academic appointments at the Australian National University, and American University, Washington DC. He has a Ph.D. in Government from the University of Queensland, Australia. During his professional academic career, he was best known for organizing a series of citizen diplomacy initiatives for the East Timor conflict funded by U.S. Institute of Peace and the Ford Foundation. He is also the Founder of the Exopolitics Institute ; and Chief Editor of the ‘Exopolitics Journal’ and Convener of the “Extraterrestrial Civilizations and World Peace Conference.” In a 1998 interview, Clifford Stone, a retired U.S. army Sergeant who served in the U.S. Army for 22 years and allegedly participated in operations to retrieve crashed extraterrestrial ships and extraterrestrial biological entities (EBE’s), revealed there were a variety of extraterrestrial races known [by various institutions and agencies]”. Dr. Salla further elaborates that “The most compelling testimonies on the different extraterrestrial races comes from ‘whistleblowers’ such as Sergeant Stone; and also ‘contactees’ who have had direct physical contact with extraterrestrials and communicated with them.” Dr. Salla further notes that Master Sergeant Bob Dean had a twenty seven year distinguished career in very senior areas of the military indicates that among the know extraterrestrials one group “looked so much like us they could sit next to you on a plane or in a restaurant and you'd never know the difference." Apparently “Human extraterrestrial races can easily integrate with human society in the manner described by Dean and others where they can be indistinguishable from the rest of humanity.” Dr. Salla corroborates. According to Alex Collier who claims to be a “contactee“, “a variety of extraterrestrial races have provided genetic material for the ‘human experiment‘. “ Alex Collier indicates that “Earth humans” are “a product of extraterrestrial genetic manipulation, and are possessors of a vast gene pool consisting of many different racial memory banks, also consisting of at least 22 different races.” Alleged Human ET efforts to promote the unity of humanity through religious spirituality Alex Collier further claims that constituents of “Human ETs” seek to “ensure that global humanity evolves in a responsible way without endangering both itself and the greater galactic community of which it is part. “ Exopolitics groups and independent contactees also indicate that constituents of “Human ETs” seek to “uplift human consciousness and to promote the unity of religion.” Alex Colliers alleged contact with ETs suggest that fundamentalist messages in from Christianity to Judaism to Islam, and other institutionalized religions, as well as outright apparent ‘cult’ groups, have been specifically placed by “hostile elements” to manipulate and control humankind. Jesus, who many groups allege was a “Human ET” sought to inspire the social consciousness of humankind toward unity, and not to create a “Christian religion”, with its sexually repressive as well as homophobic undertones, which also have been used for the execution of racism, and to legitimate atrocities like the ‘slave trade‘. ETs who allegedly contacted Alex Collier, also further allegedly stipulate that Jesus did in fact live; and lived out the rest of his life in Massada; and that Jesus was only crucified through the religious doctrine, and myth-making associated with ‘the palms‘. As far as the “saviour scenario” is concerned, for example, Alex Collier was allegedly told by ETs that it has been put into our belief systems to “disempower us.” The saviour scenario within the dogma of institutionalized religions legitimate the creation of an elite-driven oppressive power structure who appoint themselves as “judgers of morality“. These religious elites have historically used their self-appointed roles to execute a comprehensive system of social controls that complement their joint pursuit of greed-oriented self-aggrandizement with other elites from government to business enterprises. The alleged efforts of socially progressive Human ETs to inspire the affirmation of the quality-of-living of ‘Earth Humans’ through spiritual and other “emissaries”, have been undermined by the efforts of “capitalists” to exploit such alleged initiatives in the pursuit of an oppressive agenda of greed and fascistic power. Constituents of Human ETs allegedly seek to “help humanity find freedom from oppressive structures through education and consciousness raising.” Allegations of “Human ET” encounters on Earth In Dr. Salla’s article “Extraterrestrials Among Us” published in October 2006, he alleges that, “There is startling evidence from a number of independent sources that ‘human looking’ extraterrestrial visitors have integrated with and lived in major population centres up until recently, and this is known by a select number of institutions. Aside from whistleblower testimonies, like Sergeant Major Robert Dean, a number of private individuals claim to have encountered extraterrestrials posing as ordinary citizens in major cities around the planet. George Adamski was the first to write about extraterrestrials secretly living among the human population. In his second non-fiction book describing his extraterrestrial contact experiences, “Inside the Flying Saucers“, Adamski discussed how human looking extraterrestrials had established a presence among the human population. “They apparently looked so much like us”, Dr. Salla notes “that they could get jobs, lived in neighbourhoods, drove cars, and could blend in easily with the human population.” Dr. Salla further notes that “Adamski wrote about how they contacted him to set up meetings that led to his famous flights aboard extraterrestrial vehicles.” But as Dr. Salla explains “While controversy over Adamski’s contact experiences and his credibility continues, Adamski’s UFO sightings and contacts with extraterrestrials were supported by an impressive collection of witnesses, photographs and films that a number of independent investigators concluded were not hoaxes.” Dr. Salla additionally stipulates that “Adamski’s testimony offers important insights into how extraterrestrials may be living incognito among the human population. After discussing the Adamski case and the strongest evidence supporting it, Dr. Salla in that article further discusses other contactees similarly claiming to have encountered extraterrestrials acting like ordinary citizens. Finally, Dr. Salla in “Extraterrestrials Among Us” examines the official testimony of a number of whistleblowers concerning knowledge that extraterrestrials live among ordinary Earth-bound individuals. Contact Testimonies of ‘Extraterrestrials Among Us’ Adamski’s famous “Desert Center” meeting with an extraterrestrial emerging from a ‘scout ship’ on November 20, 1952 was apparently seen by six witnesses who signed affidavits confirming Adamski’s version of events in his subsequent book, The Flying Saucers have Landed (1953). In fact, four of the witnesses immediately reported what had happened to a nearby newspaper, the Phoenix Gazette,that published a story on November 24 featuring photos and sketches. The Desert Center encounter was among those of Adamski’s claims regarding extraterrestrial contact that, according to UFO researcher Timothy Good, were “accurately reported,” and “sensible and verifiable”, as footnotes by Dr. Salla. Given the clear supporting evidence supporting Adamski’s first meeting with an extraterrestrial traveling in a scout craft, it is worth examining closely his alleged subsequent meetings with extraterrestrials living on Earth. In the first chapter of Inside the Flying Saucers, Dr. Salla re-visits Adamski’s testimony of his meeting with two extraterrestrials while he was sitting in the lobby of a Los Angeles Hotel on February 18, 1953. “I looked at my wrist watch and saw that it said ten-thirty. The lateness of the hour, with still nothing of extraordinary significance having taken place, sent a wave of disappointment through me. And just at this moment of depression, two men approached, one of whom addressed me by name. Both were complete strangers, but there was no hesitancy in their manner as they came forward, and nothing in their appearance to indicate that they were other than average young businessmen… I noted that both men were well proportioned. One was slightly over six feet and looked to be in his early thirties. His complexion was ruddy, his eyes dark brown, with the kind of sparkle that suggests great enjoyment of life. His gaze was extraordinarily penetrating. His black hair waved and was cut according to our style. He wore a dark brown business suit but no hat. The shorter man looked younger and I judged his height to be about five feet, nine inches. He had a round boyish face, a fair complexion and eyes of grayish blue. His hair, also wavy and worn in our style, was sandy in color. He was dressed in a gray suit and was also hatless. He smiled as he addressed me by name. As I acknowledged the greeting, the speaker extended his hand and when it touched mine a great joy filled me. The signal was the same as had been given by the man I had met on the desert on that memorable November 20, 1952. (Described in the book Flying Saucers Have Landed).” Significant in Adamski’s description is how the two extraterrestrials could pass off as businessmen. Aside from a penetrating stare, nothing struck him as unusual in their appearance. Adamski goes on to explain how he went with them in their car to travel to a remote desert location: “Together we left the lobby, I walking between them. About a block north of the hotel, they turned into a parking lot where they had a car waiting. They had not spoken during this short time, yet inwardly I knew that these men were true friends. I felt no urge to ask where they proposed to take me, nor did it seem odd that they had volunteered no information. An attendant brought the car around, and the younger man slid into the driver’s seat, motioning me to get in beside him. Our other companion also sat with us on the front seat. The car was a four-door black Pontiac sedan. The man who had taken the wheel seemed to know exactly where he was going and drove skillfully. I am not familiar with all the new highways leading out of Los Angeles, so I had no idea in which direction we were headed. We rode in silence and I remained entirely content to wait for my companions to identify themselves and explain the reason for our meeting.” “What’s significant here is that the two extraterrestrials possessed a car and knew how to navigate on the newly completed Los Angeles highway system. This is no mean feat and suggests that the extraterrestrials had taken the time to learn the road traffic rules and how to navigate through Los Angeles.” Dr. Salla indicates in “Extraterrestrials Among Us”, that Adamski further reveals: “Lights and dwellings thinned as we left the outskirts of the city. The taller man spoke for the first time… His voice was soft and pleasant and his English perfect. I had noticed that the younger man also spoke softly, although his voice was pitched higher. I found myself wondering how and where they had learned to speak our language so well.” “…We are what you on Earth might call ‘Contact men.’ We live and work here, because, as you know, it is necessary on Earth to earn money with which to buy clothing, food, and the many things that people must have. We have lived on your planet now for several years. At first we did have a slight accent. But that has been overcome and, as you can see, we are unrecognized as other than Earth men. “At our work and in our leisure time we mingle with people here on Earth, never betraying the secret that we are inhabitants of other worlds. That would be dangerous, as you well know. We understand you people better than most of you know yourselves and can plainly see the reasons for many of the unhappy conditions that surround you.” Dr. Salla indicates also that, “This passage [previous] is significant since it describes how the extraterrestrials have spent years living on Earth, learning the language, getting jobs and mixing with the human population. Furthermore, it appears as though extraterrestrials living among the human population may work in pairs, a kind of buddy system that would make sense in terms of ensuring safety and communications with the home world if an emergency ever occurred. If Adamski is accurate in his recollections and the extraterrestrials are telling the truth, then it would appear that there could be a significant number of extraterrestrials who are living incognito among the normal population in many if not most major cities on the planet. Upon examining other contactee cases and the testimonies of whistleblowers, it does appear as though this is indeed the case.” Exopolitics groups furthermore provide additional representation that Adamski was not the only one of the contactees making representation that extraterrestrials were blending in with the human population. Howard Menger, for example. also claimed to have been contacted by extraterrestrials posing as ordinary human citizens. In one case, the extraterrestrial was posing as a real estate salesperson and asked Menger to accompany him in one of the extraterrestrial’s vehicle. In addition to seeking to learn about human values and civilization, it appears that “Human ET” visitors were conducting a low key education effort to promote awareness of their presence to a limited number of individual ‘contactees’. These “Human extraterrestrial visitors” have been represented has often having as very attractive physical characteristics, with “Human extraterrestrial females” being described as among the most beautiful women that male observers have witnessed. The “Human extraterrestrials visitors” furthermore have been represented as going to great trouble in learning the indigenous language of the culture they are immersed in, learning how to drive and navigate on highways systems, and taking innocuous jobs over several years. Extraterrestrials living among us appear to be operating in a manner similar to a “celestial peace corps” where they try to blend in. They presumably wish to learn about Earth culture and behaviour; and to, perhaps, assist in passing on information to selected individuals. Representation on Earth Humans relative to “non-Earthbound” humans: Advanced Human ETs as viewing Earth Humans as barbarians and savages which are a threat to themselves Alex Collier alleges that ETs revealed to his that there are over 135 other billion human beings in the 8 galaxies closest to ours. Alex Collier alleges that “The first time I walked on to one of their ships [Human ETs] , a bunch of their children started to run away from me. They knew that I was from Earth.” “We have a very bad reputation,” Alex Collier indicates, “because we are the only human race in the galaxy that kills itself, that turns on itself. We are the only race [human] that allows itself to live in poverty. We are the only ones who allow members of our race to starve. We are the only ones that allow members of the race to be homeless. We are the only race that would sell itself into slavery. I don’t like the reflection they give me of us. It’s not that they are judging. They just don’t understand why we do it. If anyone’s got an answer for it, I’m open. Yes, we’ve been manipulated by belief systems, but why do we believe these belief systems?” According to testimony by Alex Collier in associated with alleged ET contacts, Earth Humans “are the only race of human beings which oppresses and kills itself.” If Human ETs do exist, as scholarly and other representation suggests, the saving of Humanity from its current apparent course of self-destruction, including on-going catastrophic Global Warming, may very well vitally rely on human governance systems placing its greed-driven bigotries aside, toward a constructive dialogue. SOURCE

haha funny! she can't afford dental care and hasn't been born to privilege like the white boy who finds her photo amusing!! ahahahaha! that's the funniest thing i've seen all day! good onya sobriquet, another enlightened post that had me in stitches!!

can i give a tip? i just did this for the first time and used elastic that you use for sewing. it's wide, it's soft and cloth-like and you can tie it to any size you need. i'm giving tips but i don't know if mine has worked yet. will start a new thread. and i also grafted to a 'trich that tall'. i'm going for sculptural effect, though, because i'm artsy like that.

that's terribly cute. for a bloke.

neato!! i just tried my hand at grafting cacti for the first time. will make a new thread about it. maybe you can give me some pointers and/or let me know if i'm going ok or not. i *think* i have done it, but i don't want to jinx it!!

favourite non-fiction book: Anarchy! An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth/varous authors edited and compiled by peter glassgold favourite fiction authors: tom robbins, william s. burroughs, hunter s. thompson, kurt vonnegut, anne rice favourite whacko book: bringers of the dawn/barbara marciniak and i have no favourite ethno book as of yet, but my favourite gardening book is botany for gardeners by brian capon.

shit. the world of disney is after us.

fuck it all!

if only the dichotomies ended there!

here's the deal. if anyone wants to openly discuss MY feelings about MY islam with me go for it in pm. i'm not having conversations with people in defence of my beliefs or faith in this venue. ya'll can be hostile all ya like or feel what you want, alhamdulillah we live in a fucking brilliant, civilised, country that allows us freedom to believe what we all want to believe. all praise to Allah for my visa. now if only australia could stop buying into amerikkkan propaganda i'd be home free. i believe La ilaha il Allah, Muhammad-ur-Rasool-Allah (none has the right to be worshipped but Allah, and muhammad is the messenger of Allah). that, alone, makes me a muslim. everything else is icing and sprinkles on the cake. whether or not i'm a "good" muslim or a "bad" muslim remains to be seen. i practice islam. i practice islam poorly. islam means submission to Allah ta'ala. Allah is a word that stands for "The Creator", "The Great Spirit". the word Allah has neither male nor female connotations. i believe there is a creator and that creator is One. i believe we all live in "submission" to something, even if it's only just our own heart beating. i have found peace in imagining i don't always have total control of everything in life, because as far as i can tell, i'm not in charge of my heart carrying on. that's profoundly humbling. i believe in a supreme force. i call that force Allah because a) it sounds cool and frankly, it pisses narrow-minded idiots off . i believe in a long line of prophets and prophecy. i believe that much of what brings us to forums like this specifically are the beauty of the creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. i also believe we are all in submission to the Great Spirit whether we want to accept that or not. in essence, i believe we all practice islam. our hearts beat for a reason. we all have the spiritual freedom to discern why that is. i'm right behind you in your quest for truth. i believe that many of you have SEEN and FELT a closeness to the creator spirit in your daily lives. how you choose to interpret that is between YOU and YOUR creator. i'm not here to tell you how to interpret your spiritual being nor am i going to say my way of interpretation is the right way. i do not know the right way. the ONE knows the RIGHT way. the ONE is the TRUTH. live your truth and let me live mine. there are truths I have GLEANED from islam. i am a happier and more peaceful person because of this. woot i f'n rock. muhammad (pbuh) was a man. islam doesn't teach that he was some kind of angelic force or otherworldly being the way christianity teaches about jesus (pbuh). he said dates were all a pregnant woman needed to eat for shit's sake. he was a guy who was visited by the angel gabriel. i believe that. i'm not going to shoot you if you don't. there are people who might. i'm sorry there are narrow-minded and angry people in the world who have given up their own ability to think for themselves. that's not me, though. neither is that the whole of islam. i am an old lady. i'll be 38 in 12 days. i have eaten enough psychoactive substances in my time to knock the continent of australia on its arse. i have studied myriad religions and ideologies as well as practiced them. what makes me a muslim is that i believe in the shahada which states that there is one creator and muhammad was a prophet of that creator. you don't like it that is really ok with me. take your anti-islam arguments to someone who wants to discuss all of that, trust me there are plenty out there. i'm doing what is right in my heart. as torsten pointed out elsewhere, there are a number of angry, disgusting and violent things in religious texts. i couldn't agree more. there is violence in religious dogma in general. that said, i'm also not a pacifist. i'm an anarchist and i don't believe in putting flowers down gun barrels. i believe in fighting for what you believe in. wage slavery isn't going to end with the working class eating a bunch of mushrooms and singing songs and imagining oppression out of the mix. i also do not "buy into" everything mainstream islam has to say so much that i have been called all sorts by religious fanatics just because i use the term muslim to describe a part of myself. there are some angry arse people out there, muslim and not muslim. in fact, i "became" muslim by accident. i was going to write a story about wearing hijab and being muslim in regional queensland. the more i researched about islam the more i appreciated it. i wore hijab in mackay for six months. that was a real experience inclusive of rocks being thrown at me and my car and being stopped in a roundabout by some people who tried to tear the scarf off my head. all of this with my three year old son in tow. i have a lot to contribute here and not much of it is about how dandy islam is. MY islam works for ME. that's all i care about. the very last thing i'll tolerate is coming to be amongst a group of people i feel truly are striving towards enlightenment and having shit slung at me. thank you for your support. (edited to remove my rude comment directed at one specific person in the forums, lest anyone else take offense. also, please note i am "muslim" because i'm considered "muslim" under "muslim law". i am not a deeply "religious" person and i hope that folks can learn to know me for who i am, not under a cloud of 'religion' because i like it here, i'm interested in plants. this place gives me enthusiasm to grow more and learn new things, not to mention to be amongst a lot of cool folks).