Mind Soup

MIND SOUP : For weeks now, a minute church by the name of "Dove World Outreach Center" in Gainesville, Florida, has been advertising for an event it calls "International Burn a Qur'an Day". Pastor Terry Jones is insisting to hold this "event" on September the 11th "to honor those killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington." He says the burning of the Qur'an will "send a message to violent Islamic extremists like al-Qaida, which carried out the attacks against the United States." The second day of Eid el-Fitr falls this year on the same day. As many world leaders and institutions, including the Vatican, US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and  others , have denounced this act, this pastor is insisting on carrying out this event. This is as much facts as I am willing to give about this issue. Below in ten points is my opinionated response. First of all, as a Muslim, I don...

Annahar's Hiyam al-Kosayfi Photo Credits: Youtube/AnnaharTV MIND SOUP : Journalist for the Lebanese daily Annahar, Hiyam al-Kosayfi, expressed her anger about being denied wine in a hotel restaurant in Down Town Beirut during Ramadan. This hotel which was "founded by a Maronite Christian and blessed with sacred water by a priest" has made it a policy not to serve any form of alcoholic beverages during the month of Ramadan, where Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset on food, drinks, and sex, and usually abide strictly to Islamic Law during this month. According to al-Kosayfi, she said the that waiter recommended a good bottle of wine, but then embarrassingly apologized and took back the wine glasses from the table after realizing the policy. The (Christian) writer and her crew made a fuss about this incident until a manager approached them and offered to serve them wine in blue tinted glasses, as not to alarm the Muslim customers who were having breakfast (iftar)...

In her radio show, Dr Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following response is an open letter to Dr. Laura, penned by a US resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative: Dear Dr. Laura: Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination ... End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them. 1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Me...

November 24 will mark the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species , one of the most influential books on biology ever written, and arguably the most controversial. One hundred and fifty years after Darwin made popular the idea that the diversity of life on planet Earth today descended (or ascended?) from lower life forms over millions of years, the general theory of evolution is still not accepted by vast numbers of people, to the chagrin of large numbers of evolutionary biologists.  Did all of life really descend from one-celled organisms that developed in primordial waters billions of years ago? Is that really what happened? If so, we should see plenty of evidence of it all around us, and there are significant numbers of scientists who argue that we indeed find just that. They argue that there are a sufficient number of transitional forms in the fossil record to support Darwin’s theory. They argue that natural selection, acting to preserve small...

Warm like summer bright startling it makes me uncertain unsafe and exposed I hate summer too much heat too much sweat queasy yellow who came up with it? such a perky color I hate perky yellow is evil if God likes yellow he would have made the sun blue and the sky yellow sunflower yellow gay smiling flowers chasing the yellow sun bananas are yellow an excuse for a fruit full of starchy starch like eating pounded rice with sugar urine is yellow makes me nauseous even angry reminds of diseases cowardice but yellow is so fresh they say don't you know I am only happy when I am depressed? I am only happy at night when the prancing sun is away and the moon is out? yellow makes people happy gives them confidence gives them warmth God I hate yellow! Mohammad Hijazi

On their way to get married, a young Catholic couple is involved in a fatal car accident. The couple find themselves sitting outside the Pearly Gates waiting for St. Peter to process them into Heaven . While waiting, they begin to wonder: Could they possibly get married in Heaven? When St. Peter showed up, they asked him. St. Peter said, 'I don't know. This is the first time anyone has asked. Let me go find out,' and he leaves. The couple sat and waited, and waited. Two months passed and the couple is still waiting. As they waited, they discussed that if they were allowed to get married in Heaven, what was the eternal aspect of it all. 'What if it doesn't work?' they wondered, 'Are we stuck together forever?' After yet another month, St. Peter finally returns, looking somewhat bedraggled. 'Yes,' he informs the couple, 'you can get married in Heaven.' 'Great!' said the couple, 'But we were just wondering, what if...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The world's oldest person, a woman who was born in 1894 and gained a measure of fame when she voted for Barack Obama for U.S. president, died on Friday at the age of 115. Gertrude Baines died peacefully in her sleep sometime between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time (1300 and 1400 GMT) at the Western Convalescent Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had spent the past decade of her life. "She's a very dignified lady," Emma Camanag, the hospital's administrator, told Reuters. "It has truly been a blessing and an honour for us to take care of her over the last 10 years and we will greatly miss her. It's just like we lost a relative." Baines had no living relatives, Camanag said, but was popular at the home and at her church, where she attended services every Sunday until she became too ill to leave her room. Camanag said parishioners at the church often visited Baines, who was born on April 6, 1894 in Shellman, Georgia, and became the ...

Albert Einstein

This post is dedicated to my family and my friends who I also consider them my second family. So... in two hours, I say good bye to the last of my teen years. I never thought it will be so emotional to grow up. It has never occurred to me that these two hours will be as hard as they actually are. I know I shouldn't be writing this, and study instead for my huge final tomorrow, but I don't really want to spend these last to hours studying. I just wish I was with my family right now. Tomorrow marks half of my youth. You do not realize this until you hit the mid-point, and sometimes you don't even realize this until its too late. Today marks the last day of my past, the last days for me as a ghost. Today marks the last day of me observing this world, and start taking action. These twenty years, I've been running from something, down a road that's leading nowhere. I am a ghost haunting a house, haunting your dreams, haunting my life. Its feels like a ship I'm sinkin...