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[16 Sep 2005|08:38am] |
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www.nature.com/horizion/livingfrontier/index.html
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| She said, "I can't take this place, I'm leavin' you behind." |
[18 Dec 2004|08:07pm] |
& She said, "I can't take this town, I'm leavin' you tonght."
I've had this journal, more or less, three years. Usually, I can't stand a change; however, I detest most of the past three years worth of entries more.
Fresh start.
http://www.blurty.com/users/_flashback/
Add it.
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| MORE CRAP FOR JOURNALISM |
[16 Dec 2004|01:30pm] |
Palestine: In 1948, the UN created the state of Israel. 1 Surrounding Arab countries were furious, as were the Muslim inhabitants of what is now Israel. The governments of the neighboring countries ordered their fellow Muslims to vacate the land so that they could freely attack the new country. But those states were never able to wrest power from the Israelis. Nor were the surrounding countries willing to take in the resultant refugees. Two major wars later, Israel had expanded its borders to include Judea and Samaria (a.k.a. the West Bank). This incorporates much of the ancient country of Canaan, which religious Jews believe that God gave to them. Meanwhile, most fundamentalist Muslims believe that Allah intends the entire Middle East to be Muslim. Thus began a decades-long presence in Palestinian lands by the Israeli army. The Palestinians call it an occupation; the Israelis call it a disputed territory. Although a trading of land for peace has worked successfully in other cases -- notably Egypt -- it has proven to be an elusive goal between the Palestinians and Israelis.
The Palestine National Authority -- a quasi-governmental agency in the West Bank and Gaza -- planned Infitada II, a popular uprising, to start in the fall of 2000. A visit by Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was considered a provocative act by the Palestinians and used to trigger their uprising. Infitada II is often portrayed in the media as a two-sided conflict between Palestinians and Israelis; between Muslims and Jews. That may be overly simplistic. On the Palestinian side, there are many groups, each with a different agenda. They range from exterminating every Jew in Israel, to coexisting with Israel. On the Israeli side, there are at least three politically powerful groups: the settlers who are illegally living in Palestinian land, small religious political parties which have traditionally held the balance of power in the government, and secular Israelis who are in the majority. With perhaps a half dozen different groups involved in the conflict, resolution has proven impossible.
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[09 Dec 2004|01:46pm] |
Amendment I to the constitution states that “Congress must not interfere with freedom of religion, speech… [and] shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Yet many still offer a rebuttal to the Constitution of the United States, concerning the increasingly infused relationship of religion and politics, saying that this country was founded on “Christian ideals.” Granted, the latter is seemingly an argument-crushing statement; too bad it isn’t true.
America was first colonized by the religiously oppressed Pilgrims and Puritans, who made their government and fundamental Christian beliefs almost indistinguishable. Technically, America was “founded by the various Indian tribes that came along the Bering Strait in Russia and through Mexico – so why aren’t Americans polytheistic? The government that exists today was actually founded by a group of differently pious people – most of which were Deist. (A religion that believes in the existence of a remote, unknowable divine being, usually male, who created the universe, but has not been involved with it since.)
Furthermore, only a handful of the “founding fathers” were strict Christians. “I have examined all of the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and myth. Millions of innocent men women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites,” said Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State in the George Washington administration, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the 3rd President of the United States.
Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black best expressed the purpose and function of the Establishment Clause (the part of the First Amendment dealing with religion) when he said that it rests "on the belief that a union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion." Some Americans reject this saying, promoting the idea that the government should endorse the religious values of certain members of the community to the exclusion of others. In fact, such violations of the separation of church and state take place with disturbing frequency in American government, at local, state and Federal levels. Recent incidents include the following:
An Alabama judge regularly opens his court sessions with a Christian prayer. In addition, he has refused to remove a plaque containing the Ten Commandments from his courtroom wall. Alabama Governor Fob James has threatened to call in the Alabama National Guard to prevent the plaque's removal.
The Board of Aldermen of a Connecticut city has opened its sessions with a prayer that beseeches citizens to "elect Christian men and women to office so that those who serve will be accountable . . . to the teachings of Jesus Christ…".
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[04 Dec 2004|09:36pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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ready&willing |
] |
| [ |
music |
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let's go, go go |
] |
Every weekend I'm in a perpetual mood of "all dressed up and no where to go."
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| Uncool... |
[03 Dec 2004|06:59pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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compelled to go out anyway |
] |
| [ |
music |
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MILES APART - yellowcard |
] |
My hott date canceled on me.
&Oh man was it hot.
And I failed my chemistry test today.
So lame.
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| IGNORE -- research for journalism |
[02 Dec 2004|12:54pm] |
http://www.religioustolerance.org/us_rel1.htm
76.5% of American adults are Christian (52% Protestant; 24.5% Catholic).
14.1% do not follow any organized religion; they are Agnostics, Atheists, Humanists, Secularists, or have no religious affiliation.
1.3% are Jewish.
0.5% are Muslim, followers of Islam.
0.5% are Buddhist.
0.4% are Hindu.
0.3% are Unitarian Universalist.
0.1% are Neopagan (Druids, Pagans, Wiccans, etc)
There are many more small religions, each of whom are followed by fewer than 0.1% of American adults.
According to the ARIS survey, in the United States, 76.5% of adults identified themselves as Christians during early 2001. 2 This number is dropping almost one percentage point per year. There has also been a drop in the percentage of American adults who attend religious services regularly. It has gone from 49% in 1991 to 36% in 1996. Reduction in attendance is a worldwide phenomenon among industrialized countries. The US is believed to have the highest attendance rates; Canada has about 20%; Australia, England and the rest of Europe are 10% or less. The general trend is downwards as societies become more secular.
These numbers are almost always taken from public opinion polls, in which people are asked how often they attended church or other religious service during the previous month. Until recently, it was assumed that people tell the truth when asked this type of question. A second way of estimating these numbers is to take a small geographical area (e.g. a county) and actually count the number of attendees. This has been done in some counties in the U.S. and Canada. They show church attendance at about half the above figures. It seems that people often tell the pollsters what they think that they should be doing, not what they actually do.
Only rarely are people polled about the importance that religion plays in their life. It is simple to identify oneself as following a particular religion. But that term covers both the devout, sincere believer and the nominal adherent. One source 5 described the results of a 1993 in-depth survey of about 4,000 American adults. They concluded that:
30% are totally secular in outlook
29% are barely or nominally religious
22% are modestly religious
19% regularly practice their religion.
The Barna web site contains an interesting analysis of the unchurched by age, education, marital status, etc. Some of the more interesting data include:
17% are an Atheist or Agnostic.
22% believe that the Bible is inerrant.
40% of adults aged 18 to 29 are unchurched.
47% believe that Jesus engaged in sinful behavior while on earth.
49% reject the God of the Bible (perfect, present, omnipotent, omniscient, creator of the universe).
67% say that Satan is not a living being but a symbol of evil.
&&
http://sepwww.stanford.edu/sep/josman/culture/sep.html
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| She's got the power, now... |
[29 Nov 2004|08:37pm] |
All things considered, today was the best day in a long time.
I was crowned the new Opinion Entertainment editor for the newspaper. When they asked me, I paued in shock. "That'd be awesome," I finally got out; trying to be nonchalant. On the inside, I was doing a little something like this:
&*%@*%IBSG!K!543!!*&^*#&%)_!!!.
So yeah, it was pretty good.
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| have a nice life must be the phrase of the month. |
[27 Nov 2004|05:16pm] |
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when it rains it pours. it all seems to be going down the drain, again. i'm only happy when it rains. &then I can't stand it, standing neck deep.
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[26 Nov 2004|11:23pm] |
Dear Santa,
For Christmas, I would like a "posse." Thank you.
Sincerely,
Megan Wilson
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| Ode to Maria Jose Contreras |
[25 Nov 2004|12:21pm] |
IF THERE WAS AN AWARD FOR THE COOLEST PERSON ALIVE...
MARIA WOULD SO WIN.
I went over to her house because she was lonely. And only a person like her would have extra canvases, and paints and junk. And only going over to her house would I play with a train set and legos and listen to the old old Backstreet Boy CD. Also, her dad makes the best sandwiches ever. Ev-er.
OH MAN. IT WAS COOL. IT ALMOST MAKES ME NOT CARE SHE THAT SHE MADE ME LISTEN TO HILLARY DUFF.
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| "Love" rhymes with "hideous car wreck" |
[21 Nov 2004|10:10pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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waiting for party-confirming call |
] |
| [ |
music |
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WE'RE ALL TO BLAME - sum 41 |
] |
Oh man. Alex moving on without me, disregarding me as a person, trampling all over the promises he ever made, forgetting what the word "nice" was, becoming well versed in the language of "asshole," and deciding to fall in love with the girl he said he'd always just be "really good friends with" was like the best diet ever. I've lost 8 pounds.
[ EDIT ]Oh. And he joined the Air Force with his new lover. Lovely, yes? [/ EDIT ]
My parents were genuinely concerned because I wasn't eating except for dinner. Saturday morning, however, I sat at the computer chatting on AIM and watching music videos with the carton of mint chocolate chip in my lap, taking it on -- one spoonful at a time.
"Megan. I think this is how you can tell you've reached an all time low," my dad said. We shared a laugh. Looking down at the carton of ice cream, I felt like I was in some sort of awesome movie about my sub-par life. That'd be so cool.
I want to go out partying and be the "bad ass seductress" that I know I'm too "hopeless romantic" to be.
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[18 Nov 2004|10:21pm] |
Please let me clarify;
Were my body and soul not enough for you? --
now you own my sanity too.
What was once in love is now in debt,
&my heart still hasn't recieved the reality check
There's a larger supply,
than there is demand
leaving me with excess baggage,
overwhelming inventory -- all done by hand
Drudging through a romantic recession
indulgent coercion, at your discretion
&I'm left attempting to crawl from my own distruction
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[18 Nov 2004|07:49pm] |
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And you can't cover that with makeup...
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| threatened by my own admission |
[15 Nov 2004|11:12pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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helpless |
] |
| [ |
music |
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no doubt |
] |
The graveyard of my irreconcilable romance contains the skeletons of the memories of what once was [upon a time], now overgrown and abandoned by him in the deepest of apathy. Forgotten so easily, he's got a new attendee. He's moved on &I'm sinking in my own regrets and apologies.
Ashamed, used up and broken, I prune the overrun and dying weeds with bitter tears streaming down; a product so ugly has come out of something so beautiful.
"Have a nice life," he said virulently, treading confidently over promises entombed in the ground under his feet.
This is the end; I'm left abandoned among the corpses of our mistakes and triumphs. Left with intangible put downs & pick up lines sprouting from the ground like forget-me-not's.
< continued upon consciousness >
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[14 Nov 2004|10:44pm] |
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WHAT?
I'M HOME AND IT'S COLD AND I CAN SEE MY BREATH.
I'M ALL, "WTF."
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| 5am... |
[08 Nov 2004|05:32am] |
Its so weird waking up when its as pitch black as when you went to sleep.
I'm going on four hours, and I've got a five hour flight.
Dear Hawaiian Airlines,
Please play a good in-flight movie.
Signed,
Megan
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| HAWAII OR BUST |
[07 Nov 2004|11:30pm] |
It's so surreal that I'm still telling myself "no way," like I'll wake up and go to school as normal. I've been waiting forever for this & thought I'd never really go.
But, at this time tomorrow I'll be here:
The Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki, Oahu. (Then, I'm off to Maui)
I was thinking all day about writing something [concerning Hawaii], but I was too busy running around preparing and having book therapy at Barnes & Noble. I must have read at least one page of about a hundred books. Every one seemed to bore me after that, so I left empty handed -- but fulfilled.
And now I've run out of clever things to say. I'll write a bunch and take pictures to make up for the void.
Ah man, I need this so bad.
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excited
