Alcoholics Anonymous

Last night I was watching a re-run of Penn&Teller (great show). They were going on about Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). I really liked the spin they put on the 12 steps. Couple of things stood out for me.

• AA claimed that Alcoholism was a disease - Alcoholism has never fit the criteria of a disease (not the current definition and neither any past definitions)
• 12 steps advocates - NOT taking responsibility for your actions. Real shame isn't it?
• AA has never adjusted, evaluated or re-evaluated their steps or service in the past however many years it has been
• AA itself has never done any research or has statistics to provide their success rates
• ONE research done in 1983 showed that people who go through AA - sucess rate 5%, people who don't go through it 5% - AA makes no difference!

Penn& Teller - They did have a point.

Here are the 12 steps and some commentary by a fellow blogger

#1) We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable.
We admitted that we had no self-control. We drank because we wanted to drink, and we wanted to drink more than we wanted to do anything else. Maybe diving into a bottle was better than actually dealing with stuff. Who cares? It was funner.
#2) Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Gave up our own will, in order to rely on an abstract. We looked to the heavens and decided that they were better than our own minds, because we were always juiced up, and our minds were a little imbalanced.
#3) Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
Completely threw our hands in the air, and stated that we are incapable of taking care of ourselves, so we should just let someone else take care of it. I don't trust anybody actually around me to help, so I believe that I'll let "God" do all the work. Let's all head over to the nearest church basement and let "God's chosen representative (tm)" tell us how to live our lives. "Just think of the stories we can get these people to tell, that is if they can remember any of them."
#4) Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Whose "morals"? Ours or someone elses?
#5) Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
I fucked up, and I told somebody else about it. They didn't beat me or call me bad names, so I guess it was a good thing. Who cares if it was a bus driver and a voice in my head that I told it to?
#6) Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
I am not perfect and that is unnacceptible! I must be perfect in the eyes of someone! Wait, I'll make someone up who thinks I'm okay!
#7) Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Oh crap! Now I actually have to ask the person I just made up to do, what I made him up for. What kind of crap is this?
#8) Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
First I'd like to recognize Mom. She went through labor to bring me into this world, so I am willing to watch Fahrenheit 9/11, 911 times to atone for the grievous pain I caused her.
#9) Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Obviously the F 9/11 thing won't work, as watching that "film" 911 times will only encourage him to make more. I could never do that to society.
#10) Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
"Socks, check. Shirt, Check. Clean underwear, Weeeeeeelllllllll...I'm wrong for not having clean underwear!" Someone hug me.
#11) Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
"Hey there dude. I know I just created you out of thin air 'n stuff, but can you tell me what you want me to do? Oh yeah, and make me do it too?"
#12) Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
"So stranger. I notice that you are imbibing a substance that I no longer partake of. Let me introduce you to the fellow that I "just made up". He's really groovy, and will fix all your problems. All you gotta do is ask him."

I say "Do it your Damn-Self". If you can't find any "real people" out there to help you out and give you the support that you need, you need to find some new friends and/or family.
If you don't want to quit, then you won't. If you do (no I mean really do) want to give it up, you will. It's just that simple. Make up your mind and do what you want to do.
One step. Much simpler.

VILARES

I just finished watching the vid magazine. A very kewl idea. And it was great that I could view it online. For a first try it was Ok, but could be better.

There were only a couple of ideas floating around. Too much repetition, and can't say much for the "ghostly" (or was is supposed to be 'heavenly') voice.

Cut back on the sarcasm and stick to facts , reporting and true journalism it would catch a far wider audience. And maybe interview someone with a some character for once!

after the rain...

When the smell of rain is fuller than the rain itself…
When one drops fall and then a thousand; when the first bolt divides the sky; when a clap resounds like the Hands of God; and the water on your lips fell from Heaven…
After the fury and the darkness will shine every color that eyes can see.
-Johnwiegly

I miss the Sanjaya feverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...........

Oh well, my only reason for watching the American Idol is gone. My ears are fine and I know that the little dude can't sing. But you have to agree, he did spice things up! One of my favourite past time became searching youtube for new stuff about him. Its just hilarious. "What the Buck", gives a pretty hilarious feedback on Idol, especially sanjaya. check it out if you get some time.

Meanwhile here is the Sanjaya Anthem

Who will pay the Blood Money?

Whatever Salah did, he did not desearve to be murdered.

In Islam, the family has a right to ask, the murderer be slain that way Salah was slain. Or if they have a forgiving heart, they can ask for the blood money. Since the body has been buried, lets get some justice and peace for the family. After all they are still living and breathing.

Instead of going on and on about the bloddy autopsy, lets make a move to get what the family desearves. Since Maldives doesn't have a "eye for and eye" law, perhaps they could still get the blood money.

The BIG QUESTION is, Who is going to pay it?
and who is going to try to find the asnwer to this question?

Photo : DO

The Lost Tomb of Jesus

When I first heard about it I thought, what the heck. Not another Holywood money maker. So I started reading about this whole thing everywhere and anywhere i could find. the critics vs the documentary makers. I didn't know what to think, so I took time to watch the whole thing.

they make a very compelling argument. Maybe they found the tomb who knows, but I foudn that they only did the DNA test for Mariamne (Mary Magdalene) and Jesus to find if they shared the same mother a bit suspicious. Alright they found that they were unrelated. But woudn't it have made more sense to check Jesus' DNA with his Mother Maria? (MARY). And since they found one labelled 'Judah son of Jesus' Why didn't they cross check it with Mariamne's? Woudn't their whole case have been proved if they had done the tests? Or if they didn't find enough Mitochondrial DNA to do the test, shoudn't they have mentioned it, so that as viewers we would know that atleast they tried?

The other issue for me was, if it is really the tomb of Jesus the Messiah, where does that leave the believers? No I am not talking about the Christian followers here, I am talking about the Muslims. after all He is our Messiah too. Was he taken up to heaven physically as well as spiritually? I don't know the answer to that, maybe one of you have it, if so feel free to educate me.

If you are interested in the tomb website here you go

Stop the Clash

Do your bit and sign the petition here

Homosexuality

when I started writing this morning, I began with the intention of proving that Homosexuality was related to the genes. But the more I read, the more I find that there is no such proof. Scientists have not been able to link Homosexuality with a specific gene. Here are some interesting stuff I found.

What the leading scientists say ....

American Psychological Association

"[M]any scientists share the view that sexual orientation is shaped for most people at an early age through complex interactions of biological, psychological and social factors."

The American Psychological Association's pamphlet, "Answers to Your Questions About Sexual Orientation and Homosexuality."

"Gay Brain" Researcher Simon LeVay

"At this point, the most widely held opinion [on causation of homosexuality] is that multiple factors play a role."

LeVay, Simon (1996). Queer Science, MIT Press.

Dennis McFadden, University of Texas neuroscientist

"Any human behavior is going to be the result of complex intermingling of genetics and environment. It would be astonishing if it were not true for homosexuality."

"Scientists Challenge Notion that Homosexuality's a Matter of Choice," The Charlotte Observer, August 9, 1998.

Sociologist Steven Goldberg

"I know of no one in the field who argues that homosexuality can be explained without reference to environmental factors."

Goldberg, Steven (1994). When Wish Replaces Thought: Why So Much of What You Believe is False. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books.

The following is a comment from Dean Hamer, whose research in 1993 started the whole thing about the gay gene

"Gay gene" researcher Dean Hamer was asked by Scientific American if homosexuality was rooted solely in biology. He replied:

"Absolutely not. From twin studies, we already know that half or more of the variability in sexual orientation is not inherited. Our studies try to pinpoint the genetic factors...not negate the psychosocial factors."

"New Evidence of a 'Gay Gene'," by Anastasia Toufexis, Time, November 13, 1995, vol. 146, Issue 20, p. 95.

This is the summary from chapter 9. My Genes Made Me Do It! - A Scientific Look at Sexual Orientation.
" We can confidently predict half a dozen linkages will be “discovered” between genes and behavior eachyear. But the important lesson is this: any linkages probably affect only a small proportion of people to a veryminor extent. The scientific community realizes that “our genes do not make us do it”. Hamer has always believedthat. To give him the last word: “There will never be a test that will say for certain whether a child will be gay.We know that for certain.”18 This means as clearly as anyone could state, that no-one is born gay. Proponents of the view that homosexuality has psychological and sociological explanations have no difficulty with the possibility of genetic linkages to homosexuality. Any genetic link to a physical characteristic that might heighten a person’s sense of gender nonconformity (the strongest known predictor of later homosexuality), could be held to be a contributing factor to later homosexuality. In a boy these might be, for example, genes related to slightness of build, lack of physical co-ordination (making a boy poor at sports), sensitivity. In a girl they might be factors like atypical physical strength, height, or weight. Links? Yes, butweak and indirect.

http://www.mygenes.co.nz/

TWIN STUDIES

Jones & Yarhouse (2000) re-calculated the pairwise concordance from the original data in Bailey’s paper. They find for identical twins (male or female) that if one has SSA the chances of the second one or co-twin having SSA are 11% for either gender - only 1 time in 9. Here is how the final (pairwise) concordances look:





In other words, it is the overwhelming norm that if one identical twin has SSA, the other usually doesn’t. Since identical twins have identical genes the conclusion is inescapable – we are mostly not born gay, and genes are not much responsible. This is not just a test for the influence of genes, but a test for the influence of any common factors before birth, common womb environment, for example. The effect shown in the figure includes all common factors before birth. Born gay? No. http://www.mygenes.co.nz/WilsonRahman.htm


You can find interesting links here if you want to read more scientific stuff relating to homosexuality

The Qur'an and Homosexuality

There are five references in the Qur'an which have been cited as referring to gay and lesbian behavior. Some obviously deal with effeminate men and "masculine women." The two main references to homosexual behavior are:

"We also sent Lut : He said to his people : "Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women: ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds." Qur'an 7:80-81

"What! Of all creatures do ye come unto the males, and leave the wives your Lord created for you? Nay, but ye are forward folk." Qur'an 26:165

Both references relate to gay sexual activities; lesbian practices are not mentioned in the Qur'an.

Make what you want to make of this, I am no religious scholar, but it seems pretty clear cut to me. (WINK)

The Hadith and homosexuality

(1) The Prophet (saws) said: (1) "Kill the one who sodomizes and the one who lets if be done to him." (Tirmidhi, a sahih (authentic) hadith)

(2) "May Allah curse him who does that Lot's people did." (Ibn Hibban, sahih (authentic))

(3) "Lesbianism by women is adultery between them." (Tabarani, sahih)"

Taken from the Reliance of the Traveller, transltaed by Nuh Ha Mim Keller, p 664-665.

And in different schools of islam . . .

The Hanafite school (currently seen mainly in South and Eastern Asia) teaches that no physical punishment is warranted.

The Hanabalites, (widely followed in the Arab world) teach that severe punishment is warranted.

The Sha'fi school of thought (also seen in the Arab world AND IN MALDIVES ) requires a minimum of 4 adult male witnesses before a person can be found guilty of a homosexual act.

If you want more on Qur'anic verses on this issue

Homosexuality and Athena

Sorry dudes and dudettes, I am unfortunately not homosexual nor bisexual. But, I do have friends who are if that counts.

I have nothing against or for homosexuals. For me they are just people like you and me. hmm maybe not you. but yeah you know what I mean. I don't see how people can take a moral high ground and point their fingers. Nobody is pure, everybody has their own things. Why worry about Homosexuals when you have your own stuff to deal with? I say let them be, let each us of be. Respect each other. If its not something you want to associate yourself with, them by all means go away, but don't you start chating the evils of homosexuality. They are not harming anyone.

LIVE AND LET LIVE ...

To all females out here

After five long years of heated debate, the Commission of Human Rights has approved the new International Symbol of Marriage:


A little something to make you smile .....













Sorry I just coudn't resist this, I wonder whether the Maldivian human rights commision would ever come up policies or atleast policy suggestions for the women who suffer from polygamous relationships. (Hamza - I didn't say polygamy as in marriages)

Image and caption happily borrowed from a mail I got from the themallplus.

Avaz

Bush in Bed with...