Tag: Religious Taboos

Closing Thought–20Jun17

Update:  The first tropical storm approaches the coast where I live…not predicted to be a strong storm but will get a bunch of rain and some wind…we should be safe from any major damage….this time.

Speaking of the “first”…….

Have you guys ever read a story or report that made you sit up and ask…..WTF?

Well, I read one that made me ask that question and shake my head….

It appears that some cultures still hang on the old belief of the purity of the woman they are about to marry…..yes I am talking about that virginity thing.

A story out of Tunisia about a procedure that is being done to solve that problem for some women……hymenoplasty.

In Tunisia, young women are expected to be virgins when they marry, leading to a growing trade in hymen reconstruction surgery.

Yasmine (not her real name) looks nervous. She’s biting her nails and checks her mobile phone constantly.

“I consider this to be deception and I’m really worried,” she says.

We’re on the fourth floor of a private clinic in Tunis – the gynaecology service. Around us in the pink waiting room, other women wait patiently to be seen.

Yasmine confides in me that she is having a hymenoplasty, a short procedure that promises to reconstruct her virginity surgically.

Source: The Tunisian women who want to be virgins again – BBC News

Personally, I do not understand this fixation on virginity….but then I do not have to worry about it.

What happens if the news gets out of which doctors are doing this….will there be a religious backlash?

What about the women themselves?  If found out will they be safe?

Wave bye bye….time for me to shut it down for the day….back tomorrow with more stuff….chuq

OMG! It’s Kosher!

Saturday and a day of rest and reflection…..my granddaughter is putting together a podcast and she and I will talk about my time in the Army…..gonna be a radio star…..

Before I start I need to report some sad news……..news that few Americans will pay attention to….news that should NEVER be ignored.

A 22-year-old soldier born in Boston who was on his first deployment to Syria died Friday from injuries suffered in a vehicle rollover, the Army announced Saturday.

Army Specialist Etienne Jules Murphy, of Snellville, Ga., was assigned to Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia.

Murphy,a married father of two young sons, was in a nontactical vehicle when the rollover occurred in Al-Hasakah in northern Syria, according to statements from the Army and Department of Defense.

IST extends our deepest sympathies to this brave soldier’s family.

Food!  Everything is better with bacon!  Hell I could eat a bowling ball with enough bacon.

A good type is applewood smoked thick cut…but let’s admit it….does it really matter as long as it is BACON?

You know some religions have these food restrictions……Jews cannot eat shell fish or pork….but wait they may have been screwing themselves out of something as good tasting as bacon…..but having this restriction…..

I know…..HUH?

Have Jews been depriving themselves of bacon for no reason? A group of biblical scholars makes the argument in Haaretz that the Book of Leviticus, the third in the Old Testament that lays down various laws dictating how Jewish people should live, wasn’t actually meant for the laity. Rather, they contend, it was meant for the priests of the Temple, though historically only Chapter 21 has been interpreted as applying to only priests, including a ban on ritual scarring and tattoos. The other rules have long been extended to everyone of the Jewish faith, including the decree that only meat from an “animal that has a cloven hoof that is completely split into double hooves, and which brings up its cud” was ritually clean enough for consumption, per Vice’s Munchies.

Many aspects of the Book of Leviticus have long confounded scholars, including whether it was Moses who compiled the book, and when it was first composed—some say 3,500 years ago, others say far more recently, possibly in the fifth century BC. The current argument is that the entire book was originally written for priests, but somewhere during Babylonian captivity someone extended the rules in Leviticus to everyone as a means of unifying the exiled, and setting them apart from those of other religions around them, reports Vice. So this ban on bacon, for instance, encouraged “the enthusiastic self-perception that [Jews] were all priests in the new Temple of God, the world,” one scholar says.

A Kosher BLT?  They can now eat a descent breakfast.

Damn!  Now I need a BLT!

Please have some relaxation and some family time….enjoy your weekend….Peace, Love and a BLT….chuq

Why Is Sex A “Dirty” Word?

A lazy Sunday and one day left before back to work doing what I like best….research and writing……

Today I would like to talk about just about everyone’s favorite pass time….SEX!

And there are those that opposed to the very idea of having sex…..(what’s up with that?)

Some say the word SEX is a dirty word….and then there are those that think the act of sex for pleasure is a sin……so with all that said where did all these convoluted ideas about sex originate?

Since today is Sunday…I am glad you asked……

The Catholic Church is obsessed with sex. Even if you’re secular you’re not immune from its noxious ideas

Source: Sex for “mere pleasure”? Shame on you! — 15 sexual hang-ups we can blame on the Catholic Church – Salon.com

Surely there are a wealth of opinions on this……let them fly….we are waiting to see what is what……

Make Way For The Morality Police

We all have seen the reports out of the Middle East about the “morality police”…..those little pricks that prance around deciding if what you do is moral or not…..

They are scoffed, laughed at and totally looked down upon…..but there is not a issue solely in the Middle East that is mocked more….the very thought of a “Morality Police”…….an absurd reality, right?

If some of the religious d/bags have their way then we could see a “morality police” in this country……think not?

Welcome to the America of the Religious Right!

Read on!

 

Morality Police.

Demoted Catholic cardinal blames “feminized” church for priest pedophilia – Salon.com

We have all heard the stories of pedophilia among some in the church…..and there has been a wealth of jokes along those lines as well…..but I have heard few within the church really address this crime……

Read this and comment….please I would like to everyone’s opinion.

 

Demoted Catholic cardinal blames “feminized” church for priest pedophilia – Salon.com.

Backing Up Without The Warning Sounds

I do not usually post on religious stuff because I really do not care…religion has been used to suppress more human activity than just about any other issue…..but yesterday the Pope made history and yes it was notable.

The whole world was thrilled when the Pope came out and addressed same sex marriage…there was a rush to pat him on the back….few stop to think about what he said is NOT binding in any way….

Guess what the day after his ground breaking statement and the Catholics have hit the reverse gear…..

(Newser) – The Vatican made waves this week with a seemingly more open stance toward gay and divorced people—but now, Catholic officials are pulling back from Monday’s statement amid a backlash from conservatives, CNN reports. The Vatican’s earlier comment that “homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community” isn’t its official stance, it emphasized in a follow-up statement yesterday; instead, it’s simply part of a “working document.” Even as it seeks a more welcoming approach to the issue, the church doesn’t want to give “the impression of a positive evaluation” of same-sex relationships.

“The same care was advised with regard to cohabitation,” the Vatican added, following comments that called for acknowledgment of the “positive” elements of unmarried couples living together. Monday’s comments reflect issues to be debated at the synod ahead of a final statement, leaders say, as per the Independent. One cardinal blasted Monday’s comments as “irredeemable,” CNN notes. “It’s not what we’re saying at all,” says South Africa’s Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier. But liberal Catholics still see a breakthrough: “Regardless of the fact that this is a working document, it is still significant in that it reveals a strong current of affirmative attitudes at high levels in the church towards lesbians and gay people,” says a leader of the New Ways Ministry.

This is what I expected when I heard the Pope’s statement……as usual with anything religious their concern was too good to be true…..

The Devil Made Them Do It!

Yep, I am staying on the religion thingy for today….enjoy for it may be a long time before I do any other posts on the subject…..

As I have said many times I do not care what a person believes or chooses to worship……that is a decision between the person and their God or lack there of……there are batshit crazies in all religions….I mean look at the “Christina” group Westboro Baptist Church….worthless individuals from the get go…..and then there are those crazies that handle snakes to prove their devotion…sorry but if God demands that he can kiss my butt…..basically there are crazies and SOBs in every religion.  I read an interesting piece the other day……now I gotta hear what my readers think of this situation…..

A Ten Commandments monument has stood outside Oklahoma’s Capitol building since 2012, and a New York-based group would like to see it joined by another statue, so that “people of all ages may sit on the lap of Satan.” That’s right: The Satanic Temple yesterday formally submitted its application to the panel that oversees the Capitol grounds, and that application includes an artist’s rendering, reports the AP. The group is proposing a 7-foot statue of Baphomet, a horned goat-headed figure sitting on a pentagram-adorned throne with two smiling children next to him, which it believes will “serve as a beacon calling for compassion and empathy among all living creatures,” Raw Story reports. “By accepting our offer, the good people of Oklahoma City will have the opportunity to show that they espouse the basic freedoms spelled out in the Constitution,” the crowdfunding campaign reads. So could the statue—which doubles as a chair—really happen? Oklahoma late last month enacted a temporary ban on new monuments outside the Capitol building, but a rep for the group maintains it entered its submission before the ban was filed, so it should still count, reports the Verge. As for funding, more than $17,000 has been raised for the project on Indiegogo as of this writing, with 11 days left to reach the group’s $20,000 goal. Oklahoma’s is not the first Ten Commandments monument to inspire protest.

I know what the gut reaction from the faithful will be…it is all too predictable….but if you will think about it….let me have your reaction to the situation, please.

Birth Control In The Biblical Sense

I will break protocol today and post on religion….I do not debate or post on religion because it is an emotional issue that people can only think with their heart…..am I religious?  I guess…I have my beliefs and they are just that….MY BELIEFS!  And you have yours and personally I do not care what you believe.

In recent days I have read a couple of articles dealing with religion that I thought worthy of my attention and think that my readers may appreciate them….

There is a massive debate, if we can call it that, going on in this country about abortion and birth control….some say that birth control is immoral and we know what they say about abortions now don’t we?

It seems that there is a reference in the Bible on birth control….or shall we call it contraception?

(Newser) – If there’s one thing we’ve learned from all the controversy surrounding ObamaCare, it’s that the Bible is against birth control—right? Actually, not so much, writes Elissa Strauss in Salon. In truth, the Bible makes “both direct references and thinly veiled allusions to women using contraception.” Consider Esther, who became queen after marrying the Persian King Ahasuerus and ended up saving the Jews from a plot to have them killed. She, and all of the king’s potential wives, were required to anoint themselves with myrrh oil for a year. That’s a long time if it was just being used as a beauty treatment, but it was also used as an abortifacient and contraceptive at the time, suggesting its use may have “allowed Esther, who wielded power through her beauty and ability to seduce, to take control of her reproductive system.”

Similarly, the “long, sexy, romantic poem” contained in the Song of Songs makes many references to gardens, which some have argued could be a reference to myrrh and other plants that were used as contraceptives. It certainly seems the couple in the song is having sex for enjoyment, rather than to “be fruitful and multiply,” Strauss points out. Then there’s the ritual described in Numbers, in which a man is allowed to administer an abortifacient concoction to his wife if he suspects she’s been unfaithful. Even the story of Onan, who was punished for “spilling his seed on the ground,” is misinterpreted—God was angry he didn’t carry out his duty to his brother’s widow, not that he wasted his sperm, according to many biblical commentators. Strauss’ full column is worth a read.

Okay, if one is the religious sort I amy sure this will get their attention and invoke their ire…..

Can One Be Too Handsome?

A question I have often pondered while staring amorously at my reflection in the early hours of the morning…….it is a good question and bear with me and I will explain why I ask…..

Have you heard about Saudi Arabia?  You know the country where women are not allowed to drive or talk to the opposite sec or even vote……the country that has a religious police that makes sure that one acts in a respectfully religious way……you have heard of them, right?  From the country that brought us beheading…….

Well it seems that a man can be “too handsome” for his own good…….

Three Emiratis have been forcibly removed from an annual culture festival in Saudi Arabia and sent back to the UAE after it was suggested that women might find them irresistible.

The delegates from the UAE were at the Jenadrivah Heritage and Culture Festival in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, when religious police officers stormed the stand and evicted the men because “they are too handsome,” according to the Arabic language newspaper Elaph.

“A festival official said the three Emiratis were taken out on the grounds they are too handsome and that the Commission [for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices] members feared female visitors could fall for them,” Elaph reported.

Elaph said the festival’s management took swift action to deport the trio back to Abu Dhabi, capital of the Emirates.

Saudi Arabia is a deeply religious and ultraconservative society that forbids women from interacting with unrelated males and refuses to accord them the same rights as men.

These people just get more ridiculous by the year……..where will they draw the line on absurdity?

The one good point is that I shall never be deported for being “too handsome”……..

Is This What We Are Fighting For?

We are in Afghanistan for almost 10 years and things are NOT going so well…….we fight…we die…and this is what we are there for….

A man and a woman who allegedly had an adulterous affair have been stoned and killed in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz.

The punishment happened in a crowded bazaar on Sunday in the Taliban-controlled village of Mullah Quli.

The Taliban asked the villagers to attend the stoning through an announcement on loudspeakers in the mosque, two witnesses from Mullah Quli told the BBC.

“There was a big crowd of people,” one said.

“The Taliban made the women wear black clothes and the men were made to stand. The Taliban started throwing stones. We were also asked to throw stones. After a while, the Taliban left. The woman was dead but the man was still alive.

The Taliban operates a shadow government, consisting of judges, tax collectors, district governors and commanders, in several parts of Kunduz, he adds.

the Taliban were seeking to create and exploit a power vacuum, and some are urging the government and the ostensibly pro-government Council of Ulema (religious scholars) to take a stronger stance against extremism.  So far that has been a hollow dream….

Remind me again why we are in the country……and how our presence there will change things for the people for the better…….