Greatest Country In the World?

I'm sad for an American who thinks they live in a great country, or even a decent country. The only time you would be a better country is if you were compared to a country less than first world. I have nothing against American citizens, but I do have a problem when they are taught to believe in fallacies, and when they are taught to take pride in something deplorable. The fact is, as an everyday person your life would be so much better in ANY other first world country, and it almost makes me sick that a lot of Americans don't know this. Your country is adamant on keeping you fat and stupid while they take everything from you. And they can and will continue to do this because it is them who keep you uneducated enough to be able to sing "land of the free" when, compared to others, you are far from free. America would be great to live in if you are rich. But what if something happens to you? Even just getting pregnant could ruin you financially for the rest of your life. You are always going to be stupider than others if you don't independently educate yourself on the vast amount of subjects the American education system won't teach you. (i.e. simple geography) The thing I hate the most about the American system is that they have all the funds, power and means necessary to make their country the best, as they claim, and yet they don't. They continue to poverize their citizens, they tax you on your money winnings? How is that even fair in the least? They send your children to go die in unnecessary wars, and then try and convince you that they are doing some kind of service to their country when they are not. They have damaged all relationships with other nations and everyone is just itching for them to show the right amount of venerability to take them down. China is already pretty much there. You have too many people who are technically in poverty for you to say you treat your citizens decently. How much does it cost you to break a leg? Get a stitch? Even just go to get a check-up? What other country could deny a person visibly in need because their paper work doesn't check out? You brag that you have the best Universities, but how many average American citizens could even qualify to get in? Not many. Most of all, even the most proud Americans wouldn't be able to justify the poor treatment and services they receive, and I feel for you. If I were American I wouldn't want to leave; I'd want to make it better. But there is only so much you can do with a country rich with corruption in their history. Canada has got it, France gets it, England, Japan, Switzerland, Denmark, the list goes on and on. What do you think it would take for even the proudest American to give up and just decide to immigrate?

Sorry, That Degree's Expired

I'm 20 years old, I've graduated high school. I want to go to college, and I will, but I have no idea what I want to do!
I know I'm not the only one, but I feel like such an idle loser for not already being in college when my friends are going into their third years while I haven't even applied. Is this normal? Why am I so scared to start school?
Right now, I want to go into Interior Design because it's fun, creative and I'm good at it. But I'm really good at putting together rooms on the Sims, but school requires me to draw everything, and I'm not a very practised artist. I feel like if I go to school before I heavily improve my drawing speed and quality, I'll just get run over by all these fantastic designers who have a one-up on me because they can draw.
Another weird reason why I'm putting off school; I'm scared of how much time out of my twenties it will take. I need at least 5 years to become a licenced Interior Designer, and by that time I want to start having a family. I feel like I'm gonna end up spending 4-7 years in school only to graduate, have kids and then stay at home. What's the point of getting a degree if you're not even sure if you want to start working until your kids are in school? Would it make my degree less relevant if I don't start my career until years and years after my graduation? It would, however, save time if I got my degree now, rather than waiting until later and having to spend more years not making money when there are kids at home. I'm just having a really hard time finding any information on whether or not there's an expiry date on an unused degree. I don't want to graduate and then be told by the time I'm ready to work that there have been a bunch of changes and my license to design is no longer eligible, and then I'll just have to go back to school anyways. I don't know whether or not I'll get any answer at all, but I'm just putting it out there. I'm sure there are others who are in the same situation as I am; there has to be! ...right?

Big is Dangerous

We all see the appeal of fast food; it’s fast, yummy and cheap. But what we don’t want (hopefully) is to get fat. Or so you’d think! Maybe I’m a little bias because I’ve never been overweight, but how can you let yourself get past the 300-pound mark without thinking, damn!? For most, being fat is a conscious decision, whether desired or not, and it’s usually their own fault, but for a lot it’s not, and there are a lot of cases where it is the parent over-feeding their child, who has no choice or say in the matter at all.

Apart from being teased because of your size, being fat has a lot more negatives that go with it. There’s the burden of being in constant pain because your body isn’t supposed to be lugging that much weight around all the time. You’re much more uncomfortable more often than others, and you begin to realize that you’re even getting too big to fit into the world around you. Now they have obese people who have to pay for two plane seats, because they can’t fit in one, and some airlines won’t let you fly at all if you’re too big. I have family members who are big enough to be considered obese, all the way to morbidly obese, so I know it’s much harder to get out of it than to get into it, but I really have a problem with people who defend being fat, and the way that people feel about addressing it.
Why is it that it’s far more acceptable to go up to a smoker and tell them smoking is bad for them and they should quit, but it’s not okay to go up to a fat person and say it’s bad for them, they should lose weight? I know it’s embarrassing to be called out on your size, sometimes downright hurtful, but in most cases you can’t deny that your concerned peers may have a point. The new Harry Potter theme park has a ride with a weight limit of just over 320 pounds, and they were getting complaints from people for not considering how this could hinder certain people’s experience. I’m sorry but, if you’re anything other than a sumo wrestler, you should NOT be over 320 pounds! Better yet, you shouldn’t be at theme parks going on rides if you’re fat enough to break it and put everyone else in danger. If you were that size, would you not be embarrassed? What the hell are they thinking, saying they should make things more morbidly obese friendly? Um, HELLO! It’s a lot less money and hardship for every normal sized person if you just lost weight. I mean, even a person considered fat would think being over 320 pounds is really pushing the limits of your health. Now, being overweight is the leading cause of deaths in North America, beating out smoking related deaths, and a scientific study concluded that being dangerously fat has the same health implications of smoking a pack a day.
I don’t have anything against fat people other than a disagreement with their choice of lifestyle, but I also know that a lot of fat people don’t want to be fat. What I can’t stand are the people that they allow to go on television saying, ‘big is beautiful.’ They wouldn’t allow people to go on talk shows saying smoking is cool in this day and age, so why can you promote being fat? And why aren’t these parents who are making their children fat getting in trouble? If you saw a mother buying her adolescent child a pack of cigarettes, would you not say something, or at least be utterly appalled? I truly believe it’s a form of child abuse and should be punishable by the law, however mild the penalty. Like, when you commit a crime due to anger and they make you go to anger management classes, you should have to go to an exercise and nutrition education class if you’re caught with an obese child. If I had the power to make it a law, I would have it so that children have to exercise at school enough for the fat kids to lose weight, and if the teacher notices that the child isn’t losing the weight they should be after a certain amount of time, they should be able to report the parents to the police. I mean, it’s the #1 killer in the continent! You are seriously killing your child, however slowly, but you are; there’s no other way to say it. You might as well blow a whole packs worth of cigarette smoke into the child’s room while they sleep. What is the point of having children if you’re going to negatively predetermine the rest of their lives? Shouldn’t you do everything in your power to make sure your child is happy, healthy and successful? Even employers don’t want to hire fat people because they assume they’re lazy. Is that fair to your child? I find it disgusting. You set them up so they have bad eating habits, and then they’re very distressed through their adulthood because they have to lose weight, and a lot of them can’t! Trust me, I’ve seen it, and it’s not fair. So, I think they should really address the dangers of being overweight a lot more, and if it takes making theme parks with weight limits to motivate people, than so be. Caving in and making things “fat-friendly” is just promoting the idea that it’s okay to be fat when it really isn’t.

Burning Books

The Dove World Outreach Center, based in Gainesville, Fla., announced plans to burn copies of the Qur’an on church grounds to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Obviously, this triggered protests and hundreds of Afghans rallied against the United States and called for President Obama’s death. Although the church was denied a permit to host a bonfire, they’ve vowed to proceed with the burning, and are distributing shirts around with the caption: ‘Islam is of the Devil’

I almost feel like I can leave it at that; I don’t even need to comment on the absolute stupidity of these people. One point I want to make is that it is completely idiotic and arrogant to believe that the terrorist attacks were due to religious beliefs, but it’s a whole other level of stupidity to think that everyone associated with the Qur’an are associated with terrorism.
Like the group of teachers who burned Harry Potter books and later admitted to never reading any of the books, these ‘God-fearing’ believers are just embarrassing themselves with rash actions due to lack of knowledge. How about we look at Christianity the way they are looking at the Muslim religion. How many serial killers claim to be doing the work of God? How many lunatics are adamant on their ability to talk to God? In that way, how many irreversible crimes have been committed in the name of God? How many wars throughout history started over religious clashes? If you took a tally of how many crimes were in the name of God in America, and how many crimes were in the name of Allah in America, than for every one Qur’an burnt, one million Bibles should be set ablaze as well.
The fact is, after the terrorist attacks, guess who was doing a lot more terrorising in supposed “revenge”? CHRISTIANS. There were more terrorist attacks than ever, and the victims were always Muslim. What kind of idiot thinks that way? Well, they read this book and believed it and so do you, therefore you should be held accountable for their crimes. Not only that, we will forever suspect you of terrorising us, so just to be sure, we’ll keep terrorising you before that can happen. Not only does this solve nothing, it prolongs the issue and angers people into going against you when they otherwise wouldn’t have. If this is supposed to be a statement, what kind of statement is it? I’m pretty sure the Bible says that only God can judge, and I think that applies when you openly claim an entire religion to be of the Devil. Does it mean those who seek a higher power are evil if that higher power isn’t the same as yours? Does it make everyone look at your religion and see you are just as capable of hate and prejudice, but even worse since you stoop to that level after claiming it happened to you? When was the last time ‘an eye for an eye’ was ever appropriate to use, especially when you bring in members of the community to participate? Honestly, I don’t agree with the Qur’an, and I don’t agree with what some people do in the name of Allah. But I also don’t agree with the Bible, that tells us to have slaves and to stone our disobedient children, and I don’t even need examples when I say I don’t agree with the crimes committed in the name of God. I don’t believe that the solution is simply a matter of switching to the right religion as much as I believe that religion itself is probably the most destructive thing that has ever happened to mankind. And after they burn those Qur’ans, do they think it isn’t just adding fuel to the fire? Do they think that they aren’t advertising a war to go on some more, instead of using their brains and being the bigger person? It’s thinking like this that keeps wars going, that keeps people dying, promotes segregation, and keeps intelligent people like me angry everyday they read the news.

Raging Hormones

Isn’t it weird how greatly our raging hormones can take hold of us and spiral us down a path we never would have approached had we been in our right mind? I find it extremely interesting, especially since I’ve been a victim of my hormones on many different occasions. Right now, I think I’m going through a stage that’s just confusing the shit out of me. For over a month now, all I can think of are babies. For no reason, just one day I got infatuated with the idea of a cute little baby.
I don’t want a baby, not now at least. I already have a dog and even he would be impossible for me to take care of if my boyfriend wasn’t co-parenting, which I guess goes for babies too. Actually, there is no doubt in my mind that I am completely not ready to even think of having babies for at least another couple of years. But, that hasn’t stopped my obsession. All of a sudden, I’m noticing babies everywhere, and I can’t even stop myself from cooing at their cuteness. I’ve never felt this way before, it’s like my logical brain completely shuts down for a moment, that I’ve actually been having internal fights with myself. I’ll be thinking of babies, and then all the sudden I switch on and go, “What the hell are you thinking? Are you crazy?” in which I respond, “Probably.” It got so bad that one month my period was late I was secretly wishing that I was pregnant, even though I knew I couldn’t be! I wasted money on pregnancy tests even, pretending that I’m devastated when really, I was hoping by some miracle it’d come out positive and my excuse would just be, “whoops, guess we have to have a baby now!” I’ve been trying to figure out what it means; is it because my body is at its most fertile? Is it because I’m in a steady relationship and my mind is automatically jumping to the next step? I’m not sure, but I’m not succumbing to it. It also made me realise, maybe I’m not the only one. Maybe that’s why some people too young find becoming a mom attractive, and actually go through with the pregnancy until they give birth and realise…shit. 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom have become my new favourite shows throughout this whole weird ordeal, and I made a point to watch every single episode, as well as go searching for any other baby related entertainment. I guess it gives me the baby fix I yearn for without actually having to give birth. It’s the weirdest thing because I realise how weird it is, but I can’t stop. I feel like I need to be around a baby or just hug a baby or something. Ah, the bane of being a female. Of course, I can’t wait to have children, but I want to be able to support them fully, not bring them into my living paycheck-to-paycheck life. I feel sort of frustrated that I’m wasting time thinking of babies that won’t come any time soon, but at the same time, it gives me that time to think and plan and make a logical decision instead of just…getting pregnant. So, my solution to the problem was to buy a notebook, and devote it too all of my baby thoughts. If I ever begin to think of them, I bring it out and write it down. It works! I’m happy to say, my obsession has subsided to just a stage of my life I’ll be excited for when the time comes, and my boyfriend is very relieved I’ve stopped planning our future children.

Atheists Aren't What You Think

I never considered myself a religion, but I also never considered myself an Atheist until just recently, basically because I thought being an Atheist meant you didn’t believe in a God. I always knew I didn’t believe in God, but I was not bold enough to say there is nothing like even a magnetic outside force or spirit - simply because I don’t know. That was the thing that always made me shun religion; I didn’t know, but what I did know, was that they didn’t know either. Being an Atheist, to me, just means that I recognize everything you tell me to believe in has no validity. Until you can prove to me something’s true, I won’t believe it. And if I can effectively find evidence to contradict your every claim, I’m not convinced.
As a child, I was baptised as a Protestant –Christian and I went to church on Sundays regularly for about five years. God and Jesus were basically never brought up in the house, so I only heard of them through church. This could be why I thought it was totally ridiculous, but now I think I was just a smart kid. I would always find it funny when adults spoke of Jesus like fact, such as “Jesus loves you”, and as a little kid I thought, why are these adults talking about a story character like he’s real? I found it to be almost lunacy, but I knew if I sang “This Land Is My Land” I’d get cupcakes at the end. So, I went along with it, just trying not to laugh at the stupidity of it all. I know now that my mom also doesn’t believe in the Bible, so we weren’t in church long. We stopped going before I started grade school, and religion never came up, really, until I talked my mom into letting me go to a Catholic high school, just so I could be with friends. What an eye-opener. I’ve heard of crazy-devotes, and I’d see the apparent “healers” on T.V., but I never knew how subtly but strongly this religion dictated everyone’s lives. I thought I was in the Twilight Zone when I heard them say during the morning announcements, “Remember, it’s a sin to have sex before marriage. You will go to hell.” And I thought it was a ridiculous waste of time when we had to spend our Religion classes filling out sheets with questions like, “I know Jesus loves me because…?” I mean, I was sixteen! To me, this wasn’t education at all; it was a joke. We had school masses that I efficiently skipped, so religion just stayed a vague joke to me, until I had to study the bible. That was when I got a real shock. The first thing I remember thinking was: people actually believe this? Maybe it was because I was forced into it, but I became a smart-mouth that bought up gaps in everything. And, it’s hard to respect your teacher when you know that on the subject she’s teaching, you are vastly more informed. So, I began to challenge everything. I don’t know the entire Bible word for word, scripture by scripture, but I know enough to know I will NEVER follow any religion, just because I have more common sense than that. I’m a happy, good person. I don’t hurt people or steal things, and guess what? I’ve learned nothing through the Bible and God other than being able to separate fact from fiction, and I can say confidently that the Bible is most definitely fiction. All you have to do is read it, which I’m surprised to say, not a lot of Christians or Catholics do, and just knowing certain phrases by heart doesn’t count. If you were even minimally educated, you would recognize that. I don’t disagree with going to church and having a sense of community, or even praying if you really believe in it, but to read the Bible and from that say its contents are true, you have to be one hell of an idiot.

Wow, You're From Africa?

I’ve wanted to do an article on this for a while, but felt if I wasn’t careful, I might come off as a bit…racist. But I can assure you I’m no racist as I’m extremely mixed with black as well as various European backgrounds, so if you saw me you’d see… I’m not white; just wanted to make that clear before I go into what I wanna say.

African-American is a term I very much disagree with. Obviously, I don’t disagree that you can come from Africa into America, but it’s never really used like that, is it? Now, African-American is what black Americans want to be called, because apparently saying they’re black is offensive. Really? Saying someone is black is just as offensive as saying someone is white. It’s not completely accurate, but sometimes can’t be helped. Even in police reports, when they describe a sought-after criminal, the terms they use are white and black! Why? Because it’s the easiest way, other than light-skinned or dark-skinned, but that too can be confusing because sometimes light-skinned means a lighter shade of black. What’s so wrong with saying black and white when we know now that it’s just a way to describe physical features and not to belittle a group of certain people because of their skin colour. It can be used to do so, but why would you get offended if you overheard me saying you’re black or have dark-skin, in appropriate context, if you do? Do you want to be white? Or purple? I don’t get it.

But even though I disagree with some people’s sensitivity, I wouldn’t mind so much if they came up with an alternative that was actually accurate. You can’t say you’re African-American if you haven’t actually come from Africa in you lifetime. If that were so, EVERYBODY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD would have to call themselves African-American or African-Italian or even African-Chinese, because the entire human race came from Africa. Maybe not in their lifetimes, but their ancestors did, without a doubt. So what makes you so different that you can call yourselves something so inaccurate and have people refer to you as such because it’s “proper”? I’m sorry to say this, but it just makes you and all the people who go along and label themselves as African-Americans look stupid, and to someone who DOES have black family members, it’s insulting! If I were America, I’d be much, much more offended, which is what I don’t understand. The term African-American was adopted because it refers to the black people who were taken from Africa and brought into the States as slaves. The same people who fought their whole lives for freedom and equality. To be an American equal to all the white Americans, right? So they could go to their schools, and their stores and churchs and not be treated differently because of the colour of their skin, but just to be treated as an American. If you were born and raised in the United States and refer to yourself as African-American, shame on you! Trust me, if your ancestors were alive to see it, they’d say the same thing! It’s almost like you want to be set back to those times, like you want to keep bringing up slavery as a way white people “oppress” you. The thing I hate to hear the most is “it’s because I’m black.” I think that is total bullshit if I’ve ever heard of bullshit. Greatness knows no colour. People are people. Stereotypes make no sense until you provoke them. I do not understand how the States can be the most behind with accepting diversity and progressing out of racism out of all the first world countries, when they were the first to have immigrants! How can there still be segregation there when there are almost as many black people as there are whites, and in a lot of states, the black people greatly outnumber white people. I think until the so-called African-Americans can get off their high horse and realize they deserve to be called Americans as much as a lighter-skinned citizens, they’ll never progress and, whether they see it or not, they will be the ones advertising to everyone else that they are lesser Americans, and will continue to insult all the black people in the States who aren’t eligible to get on the Maury show.