Prices only go up in our version of the the "free" market

cartoon by payne

I told u so ... prices only go up in our version of the the "free" market
So the prices for gas have been priced at $140 per barrel in jordan and it took them like 10 days to actually price it at that after it hit that mark ... now after 18 trading session of falling petrol prices and it being at $123 (a 16% drop from the peak) we are told that they might think about lowering the price and fixing things if it hits $90 a barrel! &@ck#%% $#^! $u^& licking ^%$&* #%^&#%&^ #%#&%^ @#!#!@#
This concludes our short report of "you should've known betta!"
ENJOY!

Disturbia p.IV

haven't done this in a while and this one is different since its only one site !
go there for a dose of truly disturbing whispers -- http://www.commonties.com

sample 1:



Sample 2:



Sample 3:

The future of the internet, will you bend over please ?

This is what they are trying to do, kill off the free medium of expression that we all have and cherish. If you think "meh... this is canada its not going to affect me!" then you are wrong ! once the model is applied in one country, other ISP's will be slobbering to cash in. They already started that with mobile internet websites and soon they will embark on decimating the internet.
Stand up !

Source - Ipower



Extra Reading - Article by mike finch

ps. while this seems to be a hoax its still a viable future ...

Meh .....

"Obviously fighting against the Israeli's gives you the right and the backing to do whatever you want, and guarantees you a clean bill regardless of what you do. So by that logic it is perfectly fine for me to be peccant and the evilest being on earth as long as i promise that i do it for the sake of justice ? And people nod happily to that ?"

"You know how they tell you a cup is either half full or half empty ? I say bullshit ... the whole concept of the cup is an illusion for the masses to be fooled into thinking that there is any substance to what they are seeing at all ... in fact there is nothing. And the group that gets on my nerves the most are the ones that think although it's half full it is really full since it's bottomless cup of water."

"Moderates should really die, i suggest a mass seppuku it would be quite the spectacle.... reason.... well they are the wolf's in a sheep cloth, pandering around that they are centrist and peaceful people while allowing extremist of both sides to transgress.... worst kind are those damn religious moderates! "

" It must have been a very sinister guy that coined the term "blowjob", so that he can crack up every time a girl tries to blow his whistle"

ENJOY!

Should I have intervened ?

Yesterday on the way back from work, all bored out of my mind and just wanting to get home I sped out of the office trying to reach home and lay down on my bed as soon as possible. Coming up on the way in Rabyeh I cam across a Srilankian maid, as I assumed, she was signaling out a driving instructors car to stop. So I smiled at the fact she was doing that and thought she confused it with a taxi but wondered why the hell is she doing that in the middle of the street rather than on the side.

So it came my turn to pass her, and she signaled me down and that raised up a dozen questions in my mind at "what the hell is she doing?".Then I noticed an elderly man, in his late fifties I assume, he was standing around her holding her from the shoulder and seemed to be talking to her (rather than screaming) and trying to stop her. So I passed them but a part of me felt guilty so I parked a bit ahead and decided to observe. Things were escalating and it seemed like the man was getting impatient with her and more forceful in his request for her to come back with him. Then she started hitting him and although he tried to restrain himself, from what I saw, he did lash out a bit... at this point a younger guy, probably the guy's son, was heading towards them and things calmed down a bit so I decided to drive off.

The whole incident just made me think for a while about quite a few things and I tried to honestly recognize why I reacted to the whole thing by trying to avoid it.

So first observation was why did I first consider that she doesn't know the difference between a cad and a driving instructors car; that was because I perceived her a foreign made and I am biased to think that they will be less cultured and I consider maids to be less street smart than the rest.

Then it came the fact of why didn't I stop and help resolve it. The conclusion that I reached is a chain of thought whether moral or not it's how I came to do what I did, or didn't in this case.

The perception I have in my head is to side with the employer of the maid rather than the maid herself, that is purely based on my personal experience with maids. While I recognize the injustices that might befall them I still also can't distance myself from the crap the maids caused me and I had to put up with and the troubles they caused within my immediate family. So while she might be an honestly genuine victim the cost of verifying that and my skepticism were too high of a cost for the reward.

On the other hand the realization that, really it is non of my business to step in to resolve this did pain me to say the least. When I said the cost of verifying, I meant the fact that if I had stepped in it might have escalated the altercation and shifted the focus to me instead of her and I won't be glad about that since I know how volatile people in this country are when they see a stranger butting into their business. Thats beside the fact that there is a high probability that the maid erred them rather than what I would initially assume, that would put me in more heat in that case.

Thoughts about racism scantly skipped through my head at that point, would I have stopped if it wasn't a maid(someone who is more prone to be victimized). quickly the answer jolted in my brain with a resonating "NO, I wouldn't have even thought about it as much !". I usually don't like to involve myself into the troubles of two strangers and even people am familiar with since my experience is that they end up ganging up on you rather than appreciating the fact that you are trying to calm them down to rationalize the issue, so at an early age that was the rule whenever i observe something of that nature.
The only exceptions I have to that rule is when it involves a child or someone unable to stand to himself (for instance some of the special kids) . In that case it is irrelevant to me who wronged who, the child has a leeway not allowed to others.

So I guess inaction is what I found to be the best action, but is it the morally right thing to do ? and is it worth the risk and cost ? What would you have done ?

ENJOY!

* art by Spalenka

Viral pawnage

best I've seen in a while, click (or copy paste) the link

http://www.quieroverunfantasma.com/eng/

Enjoy!

An example of where Quranic Science might get you ?

OK, maybe its a bit uncalled for there, but the fact that he found a podium to honestly discuss things is what makes me more sure that not all voices/ideas should be entertained equally.
It's making me grind my teeth that am linking to a memri video, one of the most ultra zionistic unprofessional organizations that translate selectively for the only purpose of shedding light on Arabic ignorance and twisting things in Israeli favors but this video was just too much of a WTF moment to let it go unposted
I bet Galileo is turning like a maniac in his grave at the thought of people in the 21st century still arguing for the earth is flat idea. although I kind like having earth on a big giant turtle, it's cute eh ?



Just to be fair... he's not the only one to be arguing for such a hellish idea



ENJOY !

Hey muslims are Making headlines ...... AGAIN !!!

So Muslims are in the headlines of the Herald Tribune (shame seems we are moving down the scale now in media haute couture) . This time it is to remove a depiction of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) ... either go to Wiki or here (Close your eyes now I wouldn't want you to be "offended")

Can somebody please explain this to me ? we never went around banning and petitioning Britannica as far as I remember. Look if you ever want to be genuinely accepted in better light stop being so antagonistic about every single little thing. You want to recreate your image then recognize that you have to play according to the rules, it's like the 12th player on a football field cursing his mates for not passing the ball sheesh.

If there is anyone offended by seeing a picture that was drawn in the 13th century please tell me how you are offended by it. Now I draw, and I have always drawn characters and people thats what I enjoy drawing. So I remember the issue being brought up to me back when I was in school early on. For one, even as a child I thought it was absurd and irrelevant to our day and age. I am not gonna end up idolizing my drawings and praying to them ...

So here are the hadiths and the futwa on depictions , since Quran doesn't mention the issue;

الرسم له معنيان :
أحدهما رسم الصور ذوات الأرواح ، وهذا جاءت السنة بتحريمه ، فلا يجوز الرسم الذي هو رسم ذوات الأرواح ، لقول النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم في الحديث الصحيح : " كل مصوّر في النار " وقوله صلى الله عليه وسلم : " أشد الناس عذاباً يوم القيامة المصورون ، الذين يضاهئون بخلق الله " ، ولقوله صلى الله عليه وسلم : " إن أصحاب هذه الصور يعذبون يوم القيامة ويقال لهم : أحيوا ما خلقتم "

ولأنه صلى الله عليه وسلم لعن آكل الربا وموكله ، ولعن المصور ، فدل ذلك على تحريم التصوير ، وفسر العلماء ذلك بأنه تصوير ذوات الأرواح من الدواب والإنسان والطيور .

أما رسم ما لا روح فيه ـ وهو المعنى الثاني ـ فهذا لا حرج فيه كرسم الجبل والشجر والطائرة والسيارة وأشباه ذلك ، لا حرج فيه عند أهل العلم .

ويستثني من الرسم المحرم ما تدعو الضرورة إليه ، كرسم صور المجرمين حتى يعرفوا وحتى يمسكوا ، أو الصورة في حفيظة النفوس التي لا بد منها ولا يستطيع الحصول عليها إلا بذلك ، وهكذا ما تدعو الضرورة من سوى ذلك ، فإذا رأى ولي الأمر أن هذا الشيء مما تدعو الضرورة إلى تصويره ، لخطورته ، ولقصد سلامة المسلمين من شره حتى يعرف ، أو لأسباب أخرى فلا باس ، قال الله عز وجل : ( وَقَدْ فَصَّلَ لَكُمْ مَا حَرَّمَ عَلَيْكُمْ إِلَّا مَا اضْطُرِرْتُمْ إِلَيْهِ ) الأنعام 19/ 1

Translation:

visual depictions refers to two types:
The first type is referring to depictions of creatures with souls(all living creatures except for trees) and that is forbidden because of the prophet's(PBUH) saying "every depicter is in hell" , also quoted saying "[one of] the people most severely punished on judgment day are depicters, those who compete with god's creation". finally adding "the authors of those depictions are tortured on judgment day and are told: give life to your creations"

And because the prophet (PBUH) cursed the usury, her agents, and depicters. that points out that it is haram (forbidden). The people of knowledge explained that this prohibition applies to depictions of anything with a soul.

Depictions of the soulless is the second, that includes trees, mountains and other inanimate objects. There are no issues in this regard and it is permissible.

The exception to the depiction of creatures with souls is in cases where it is deemed necessary and helps in protecting the muslims from harm.

Reading the above, it is not particularly depictions of the prophet per se, although those are deemed extremely offensive. It is anything and everything that has a soul. (I wonder do viruses and bacteria have one ? and poor trees are singled out ... dammit, sunflowers look happy in the sun to me, they even lean forward to greet it )

So there you go, for anyone that ever took a photograph of his friends, drew a cartoon character or did anything that is loosely related to illustrating anything that would have a soul. I'll see you in hell for the remix !

ps. i picked depiction so it will include sculptures, drawings and photographs. even though its not a proper noun, so if anyone has a better word for it am welcoming suggestions. plus the translation is my own so if there are any mistakes please do point them out(I omitted some because i got bored).


ENJOY!

Hiding In Vulnerability, H.I.V.

It is nothing new to us to turn a blind eye to behaviors that we deem immoral and we even attest that those are not present in our cultures or societies and they are by-product of western and Zionist corruption of our youth and digressions from our holy religion of Islam that offers the solution to all these problems are the cause of all those problems.

From that it follows that we don't have extra marital sex relationships, sex workers are non existent, injection drug users are not our children, brothers or sisters, and we surely don't have men who have sex with men for that is a western thing you know.

The sad thing is that ignorance towards those behaviors and others converge in aiding the prevalence of HIV/AIDS. So its only natural that we consider HIV/AIDS prevention to be a fringe issue, and we even have the statistics to back this up. For according to the ministry of health, as of 2004, there have been 361 recorded cases of which 136 cases of Jordanians contracting the virus. Looking at those numbers you would think that they are doing a splendid job in prevention !

While major strides have been taken in the campaigns under taken since 2002 in this field, the major problems faced by those campaign are still the same. Some of the good things that they have implemented were mandatory testing of foreigners staying in the country for longer than a month, this has helped to limit the exposure of the increased traffic that crosses the country and limit the exposure to the virus through that means. The testing of blood donators and blood bank supplies to ensure that they are contamination free.
Also the establishment of the HIV/AIDS hotline does help in answering any questions or concerns that people might have.

Now these are all fine, but taking a look at their site I couldn't happen but to notice a few issues; for starters the website is out of date, its naming not the previous health minister but the one before him. The data on there is more than 3 years old, plus they tend to preach morally when it comes to the issue which is not the best way to go about it( men having sex with men, sex workers, prisoners and injection drug users aren't even mentioned) .


There might be an explosion of HIV cases because its seen that there is no need to do the preventive work and encourage people to do voluntary testing. There is a higher percentage of people who test out only because symptoms appeared which might take anywhere from a year to 10 to appear. That means that through that period they have been able to infect others along the way.


So one of the main things that should be established is to try to reach out to those high risk communities, to get their trust enough for them to be educated about preventive methods.
One thing that they have done to achieve this is through peer education program. There isn't any statistics to measure the success or failure of such programs but I can't truly understand how a program that preaches the moral high ground as a preventive method would be hugely popular among sex workers for instance.

The preventive methods suggested by the ministry of health are as follows (by the way, they are not even mentioned in the English version of the website) ;

• Abstaining from pre-marital and extra-marital sex and being committed to one uninfected partner (they do indicate its a sin from the religious point of view)
  
• Using a condom correctly (whats the point if i did your previous step ? )
  
• Verifying that blood transfusions are free of the virus (is there any indication to tell whether the blood has been tested or not ? especially in heamophelia cases ?)
  
• Using disposable needles (Do they provide any free needles ?)
  
• Disinfecting medical equipment in the proper manner (to layman like me how am i supposed to know if they are doing it or not ? )
  

Based on the preaching embedded here it is highly unlikely that the campaign had any meaningful penetration of high risk groups.
Some of the solutions that come to mind are as follows;

• Establishing true anonymous testing (i.e. random number are taken and no follow up from any governmental arms, yes they do that now invading all ethics of patient confidentiality) . preferably this initiative to be removed from the ministry of health.
• Provide pre-test and after-test counseling and sexual education to high risk groups and students, either through seminars or through providing materials to interested individuals to help reach out to high risk groups that is void of moral preaching since that will do more harm than good.
  
• Abstinence approach to sexual education has been proved to be impotent, leave that to religious leaders and teachers rather than health educators.
• establish support groups and family education to HIV positive individuals, for they are mostly having to suffer on their own. while currently they are forced to suffer alone in silence atleast some support of a fund and legislation against discrimination at the work place will help to provide better living standards to those who fell ill.
• The hotline should have regular advertisement and emphasis should be noted that none of the calls are monitored to insure that the people who need it the most, they are mostly the groups that are ostracized and persecuted, are able to reach it paranoia free.
  
• Testing of prisoners to limit the prevalence of the disease in prisons. Also to educate them.
• Educating the health staff to deal with cases confidentially and humanely, rather than stigmatize a patient who came to them looking for aid.
  

I wish they would establish a free anonymous testing days in order for people of those high risk groups to voluntarily go and get tested, and establish the habit of ongoing bi-annual testing in order to reduce the chances of any insurgence in HIV cases.
While the efforts of the ministry of health are commendable and admirable, the national stigma of the disease is far from overcome and treatment of HIV positives is far from what it is hoped to be.
Although they are provided with free access to anti biotic cocktails they don't have access to the latest and more effective drugs which help to keep the symptoms under control. Also due to moral objections & cost, access to medications such as PEP and PREP is not available. So we still have a lot more work to do as a community.




To get more information about testing and information regarding AIDS/HIV:

• Jordan Red Crescent: Safety first AIDS/HIV program
  
  Telephone: 06-4765660 Email: safetyfirst@cyberia.com.jo
• Ministry of health: National AIDS prevention program
  Telephone: Amman 06 - 5697933
  06 - 5673436
  Zarqa 05 - 3936060
  Madaba 05 - 3243008
  Jarash 02 - 6353545
  Balqah 05 - 3550752

ps. One thing to note, there is a high correlation between economic booms and prevalence of HIV cases due to the fact that travelers tend to be one group that spreads the virus and these are usually that come over for periods shorter than a month. They are the ones that are not getting screened and it is highly likely that they would engage in sexual acts, or drug related activities with the locals. I already made this incoherent article long enough even though i have alot more to talk about, hopefully i'll do that on another occasion.

pps. the pics either include the source on them or they are from ACT UP paris campaigns which i especially like.

Disturbia p.2

I think the idea is evident by now, so first up this time...


What a lovely lunch party !
in the European launch party for God of war II you could enjoy one of many activities by the denizens of nether years. some of the activities...

[you can] reach inside the goat’s still-warm carcass to eat offal from its stomach.

At the event, guests competed to see who could eat the most offal – procured elsewhere and intended to resemble the goat’s intestines – from its stomach.

They also threw knives at targets and pulled live snakes from a pit with their bare hands.

Topless girls added to the louche atmosphere by dipping grapes into guests’ mouths, while a male model portraying Kratos, the game’s warrior hero, handed out garlands"

Way to go sony, thats a truly ingenious "what the hell were they thinking moment ", that aside I want me one of 'em sheep skin overalls they look nice !


The latest alter boy coloring book !
Its not the thing that this is a coloring book distributed by the church to fight the pedophelia endemic they are suffering from but the fact that the pedophile gets to have his own smiley angel ! Serves them right for such a convoluted method of fighting it, targeting the victim instead of the perpetrator, I hope i get to see a pastor coloring that page in a church near you...

Golly Jesus what are you doing !
Here is a very intriguing painting by Lars Justinen of the Justinen Creative Group, now the funny thing is how many so called religious people can never really look beyond their egos and tend to stumble into the pit that they were warned about. Its disturbing because actually people are disturbed about it rather than just getting what it is trying to say (for that look at the link) .
Remember Judas ?



Who has the oil ?
And they ask why they are troubled in the middle east ... only if we weren't cursed.

I think someone discovered an earthly worm hole !
yeah click on it and see the license plate, evidently the guy came unscathed ... now what am really interested is whether he will participate in a Russian Rollete next!
What are we exactly waiting for ?
with how distressful the environmental problems when something comes along that promises an even cheaper alternative to coal(used to produce electricity still) and based on a technology that has been available for decades barely gets the backing while some are still living in the 70's thinking of starting their own nuclear facility... perfectly disturbing. check out the link for more info ...

Honorable mention: Bhutto's eyewitness account and pictures

Opening windows

Earlier on, Kinzi in a comment dropped a certain term... Johari window. At the time i never heard of the term and as usual it was on the list of things to read about (its an obscure list in my mind of random curious lil tid bit for instance the etymological root of arctic is arktos, the greek word for bear. back to the subject matter)

Now according to wiki;

A Johari window is a psychological tool created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955 in the United States, used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships. It is used primarily in self-help groups and corporate settings as a heuristic exercise.
When performing the exercise, the subject is given a list of 55 adjectives and picks five or six that they feel describe their own personality. Peers of the subject are then given the same list, and each pick five or six adjectives that describe the subject. These adjectives are then mapped onto a grid.

The grid is based on four quadrants based on who knows what, so you have stuff that others know about you and you don't know about your self (blindspot), others that you know about your self and others don't (facade). At first I thought it would be an interesting tool especially in teams to establish a common ground of familiarity between the team members and help then connect on a personal level which, in my opinion, helps a team operate more efficiently when you consider the other team memebers more than a 2-dimensional paper cut outs. Turns out that it also helps identify problem elements in an easy going exercise which sounds interesting.

OK so thats not exactly what I want to talk, but it served as the inspiration. Now if you notice there is a quadrant for secrets (things that you know but others don't) but what spun around in my head is that a secret is not problematic until a person you don't want to share your secret with knows about it.

After thinking about a bit more I tried to figure how would such a situation come about; First thing that came to mind is intuition and stumbling on them. For me its a big part since I do trust my intuition about things and it serves as an insight about the person am dealing with that won't be readily available otherwise. when it comes to its accuracy its relative but it always serves as an impetus for what follows.
Second thing that occurred to me, well the six degree of separation in Amman has been cut down in half. It is not that hard to learn about the life history of a person and his family in Amman, all you have to do is ask anyone. whats funny about that is usually you will be looking to gain as much information without raising any alarms.

The Third and last thing that occurred to me is to ask the person about what you are thinking about, the gutsy option. Usually i would say this is the most honest and better option out of all, since you don't have to beat around the bush.
The problem and the reactions that occur from it is what is problematic, people tend to not mind sharing their public information but as soon as you step on a private only topic a red flag will be raised. Since it will raise the question of how did you find out about it, rarely does intuition and stumbling upon them fly as a plausible answer since the person would have invested a great amount of energy in safe keeping that part. That usually starts to fester issues of mistrust.
Then the second logical path would be "why are you so interested in knowing that ? you want to black mail me or something?" which, I'd like to think, is rarely if ever the case. Non of us are really that important to be worth blackmailing.

So since the reaction will be mostly negative if you do go about the direct path the best way is to take the indirect one and drop hints about it candidly. Till the trust level reaches a certain point that he/she is willing to confide in you.
Though honestly if that level is never reached it really doesn't mean that you are not trust worthy, it might simply mean that somethings are better left off from the conversation.

I kind of lost my point along the way, the thing is that brought all this up is just how small Amman is and people by nature are curious. those two options combine for a lethal combination is that if you ever confide to anyone the news will travel like fire in august.
So happy secret safe keeping and enjoy life.

ps. nope don't think about that you know who you are :P muwahaha

Of monkey spheres and Gaia

You remember the first time you met a teacher of yours outside of the school walls. the flabbergasted sensation you felt that these people actually HAVE A LIFE and are not shoved into school lockers in the after hours ? (not my line ... from here but not creative enough to come up with my own point proving 2 liner)

The fact is we still do that no matter how old we get, beyond the few dozens of people that we interact with regularly the rest of humanity is reduced to one dimensional bit representation of labels. They are no longer human, they are our politicians, garbage men ...etc.
That served us well back in the day when we were solely dependent on the hundred or so people in our pocket of the community.

Abu khamees was having a hard time so I don't mind him raising his prices till he gets through with it, I better clean up that oil spill in the street before 2il hajeh 2um jom3a passes by on her way to market and hurts her self. those sentiments actually were common place, and even though we had rules and we were still tempted to break, them the repercussions of our actions had a tangible weight that will hinder us. They simply will hurt people that are real to us.

Alas, industrialization had to kick in, and the image of goody spewing machinery was forever ingrained in our psyche. people started adopting the motto of "it's non of my business" more and more and who can blame them. it is human nature to simplify our lives, and its certainly far easier to think of Nike the "nice" sneaker maker rather than the 21 year old Filipino single mother of 3 that gets paid 5 cents on the pair to make them.

That ability that we have developed to attempt to simplify infinitely complex matters is the bane of humanity, we are quick to jump the gun to paint the world in our adopted version of a 2 framed cartoon. It is far easier to paint every homosexual as a vile misguided fudgepacker, or to just judge every Jew as a stingy big nosed bigot who is bent on the subjugation of gentiles and specifically Arabs. We honestly can't be arsed to bother getting to know each one of them and make up our own opinion so we adopt the stereotype and go with it having faith in our monkey sphere's dogma. Even the mere mention or attempt, "god" forbid, of painting them in a more human picture is highly offensive to people.

So on comes the information age, it systematized the manipulation of people through the exploitation of our simplicity. Efficiently mobilizing hordes of yay sayers that will nod after you without a second of hesitance. For after all we placed our trust in those "holy grails" of the system for they have transgressed beyond our petty little mistakes and follies. "the president has sex ! how presidential of him", "foreign Zionist agents are behind every bad thing that happened to the Muslims, its for real I heard it on the Al-Jazeera". That schism of Us vs. Them will inevitably lead us to conflict, for we are no longer able to maintain our contact with in our sphere. whether we like it or not our modern lives depend on more people than we are able to comprehend.

On the other hand we developed an insatiable thirst for information, the societies of alienation drove us to want to connect on an emotional level to revered figures. who's at a better position to feed that addiction than our medias, they don't challenge us any more they just shove us full with what we want to hear and sensationalize on our emptiness. Or you can just run to the other side and actually try to check up on everyday people and what they are going through, like for example hearing the stories of rape victims in Sierra Leone, or Sarudzai Gumbo the kid that was found weighing only 36 pounds, disfigured by cancer and aids and left to rot not because of the neglect of her family but because her country failed her and many others like her. The world is riddled which such tragic bed time stories coming from Iraq, gaza, from home to the ends of the earth.

Albeit, they are just that stories. we feel our 5 minutes, if so, of sorrow and pity and move on in our rainbow bright reality that we are blessed with and go parading that we pulled a lever claiming that we have changed the world and did out part by participating in the charade we call the elections. After all I can't give up my "coach" bag just because some unlucky bastard happened to be abused while making it, anyways its their own ignorance that made them do that job in the first place anyways.

Time after time getting hit with such stories & attitudes might awake an archaic notion of empathy in us, but alas we feel helpless to do anything and we are left to spiral into our own helpless depression. Only to be caught back in the cycle, being told that the latest cure is the magic elixir that holds the key to our happiness .

Honestly speaking if the world and us as people "hold the course" we might usher in our extinction way before the prophesied Armageddon, hell we wouldn't even need any divine intervention to get to that point. the idea that we have been bestowed "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" is partly to blame for where we are now. The disposability of earth makes us care less of the footprints that we leave behind, for its non of our business. After all why should we hold any attachment or care for this earth if it is only a transient place in the greater plan of the universe. so a little global warming is just sensationalist mania for god has bigger plans, meh.

We don't have dominion over anything, we are just a small part of Gaia. Albeit the most damaging and selfish part, so far. As part of the biomass we hold it to our self and to our planet to wake up from this slumber of apathy, we are certainly not as helpless as we like to think. we have just grown accustomed to the leisure of our life that we forgot to look closely at where it has got us and the only thing we have been taught to do is to ask for more, more more more, more hate, more fighting, more food, more bling, bigger better stronger faster. Neglecting the effect of our debauchery on us as people and on our planet that has been generously harboring and trying to correct our ignorance and cope with.


I am not asking you to pray for Gaia, if you managed to make this far, am not asking you to worship her, and not asking you to be a hippie, or turn into a cynic tree hugger.
All am asking you is when you want to drop that wrapper in the street rather than holding to it till you reach the next bin is to think of what impact it might have on your surrounding(I used to do that thinking am creating a job and helping unemployment). when you buy the next buzz item at the store. think of who made it, where and what they might have been through. Never take the simple side of things and don't let anyone simplify it for you, read, learn and try. Try to not remain a pawn, shake off your shackles and stop fooling your self that you are removed from all the chaos going around you and try to make your impact. for no matter how small it is, even if is picking an anime instead of a disney movie just because their Modus operandi doesn't align with yours, then you are starting on the path no matter how silly that sounds.

For the times coming ahead of us are not going to be smooth sailing in any sense of the term, and if there is anything we can do about it we need to do it now. Drop your schadenfreude and adopt mudita.
Some might say am "bestowing my wisdom" on you, hell we all belong to varying species of hypocrites. So yes I am hypocritical in a sense, but am trying to find my path I'll let you know when I do. On the other hand don't take my word for it, or anyones for that matter, go and try to find things on your own and do what you think is right in your own heart.

Mount the Pixelated revolution

Poem by Anon

Counterfeit emotion
Thats what I thought for the longest I guess
Whirlpool of motion
Something stirred in me causing a mess

A moth drawn to the fire
Fluttering ever closer that it burns
Enjoying the pain of immolation
Bound to meet Icarus's fate in the end

Mesmerized by the affliction
Out of body experience is what I felt
Watching myself asunder
Unfamiliar blood blushing my veins

The abyss of devotion
This sense of attachment is what i don't get
Senseless belonging
The reciprocation of which i won't get

Egregious acceptance
My bosom is wide open for you to rape
Embracing expressions
Having you near me is all I necessitate

Serendipitous acquaintance
The stars must have been aligned when we met
Perpetual nebulousness
I wish I can see me through your heart so I can rest

Beleaguered by your strings I falter
In this game of fate I forfeit
Words on the tip of my tongue dissever
Your loss is a throe I won't tempt

Counterfeit emotion
I only wish that was it
Whirlpool of motion
Words have new meanings that I wish to forget

- Anon

sorry for the lack of proper posts lately can't really help it but atleast I happened to rediscover poetry lately.
ENJOY!

Consumerism at its best

For every single person walking through that door I see a Debt tag
Until you rive you cranium from your maximus you will succumb to
Conniving institutions instilling false righteousness
Killing individuality for the dream of acceptance
Tumescent shells trying to fill the void
Hallowing this mythology of
Evanescent Identities
Simulacrum chimeras of "As seen on TV"
Youthanasia of the mind
Stifling antithetical expectations
Trifling generation sucked up in the system
Enough of this debauchery
Mount the PixelatedRevolution

ENJOY!

but remember ...

ps. puzzles are back

A Poem by Anon

To Be ME

so many years in denial
its hard to see what is mine
peeking through the mental cloud
of what it means to be ME
seeing a glimpse here and there
ever denying what is there
It just can't be ME
for that can't be right
been brought up to be the same
just another rightous man
some who does and talks
just like others might
but that just can't be ME
So i took strides
ignoring demeaning eyes
and it hurt inside
just to be ME
looking and glaring
here and there
for a bright spot
that is already there
to rediscover ME
to heal ME
to find out what it means
TO BE ME

-Anon

Rules of engagement

I'm your friendly neighborhood commentator, seriously am the first to clap along to any
mainstream idea. I love to just express my accolades to all the conservative thoughts and posts that manage to come my way through the Jordanian blogosphere. For i think progress is just a trend that will pass and the idea and traditions that we have are not well known and adhered to enough so a smile is drawn upon my face every time i read some idea or post that reiterates what I have been hearing for the past two decades of my existence...

Since I try to be so nice when I comment and be perfectly PC with everyone, and I even comment with my name to help link to my blog and promote my ideas i thought to let you on some of the rules i don't adhere to when i actually get into a discussion. Not that i like to do that at all...

• I think it is well known by now religiously where I stand, so unless I am talking about religion (not something that religion has a view on since thats just about everything really) please don't bless your position with credibility based on your religious views. That usually bestows your logic with as much credibility as someone telling me that the reason we see thunder is that Zeus had a bad day and is angry so he's just throwing his anger spears down at us.

• When am discussing religion my main intent is to learn, so i will try to not do comparative examination of religions or trying to debunk it by quoting another religion that claims its the one and only truth. surprisingly theology is an interest of mine, and i like to always learn more about all Abrahamic religions so when am discussing a certain aspect of a religion am trying to see if my understanding matches that of a practitioner of that religion. don't attack me because of my other religious views

• As soon as you throw a personal insult or you try to undermine my logic in an utterly illogical manner to me that just means you lost the argument and i will usually not bother arguing any further or I might rarely throw it back at you

do i need to quote trolly here ??

• If I write a hearty & beefy comment that is not militant or aggressive and I don't get a reply that will translate to more than usual snide and Snarky remarks in the future

• I don't write fortune cookies' fortunes and i don't understand them. so gibberish talk that makes little to no sense to anyone but your self and claiming that you trumpeted me and doing your celebration is your right. I hold mine to LMAO

Case file: the existance of god

have the courage to answer in a logical way instead of just turning roles, I always discuss with you the E=MC2 theory, and I proof to you that if mass reached light speed then the time effect will be 0, and the mass will be infinite, keep this theory in mind, and you will know you and all other bloggers and posters, that Allah is faster that light speed, and then there is no impact for time over him, and he is infinite.

• Clappers and lets be friendly and peaceful crowd. I understand your stance, you are generic moderates and i actually like you, but when 2 people or more are discussing something its because they are trying to run their ideas (which they are generally proud off) against the wall and see if they break. It is not an act of aggression at all and shouldn't be taken personally so don't jump in and say why can't you all be friends and why are you arguing. face it life is not fair or friendly deal with it on your own time.

• When I spend time to write down some questions or inquiries I am actually interested in how you reply to them, I take personal insult when you overlook them totally am move on to other points without heeding them as much as a notice. It is even worse when you track back to a previous premise just because after reading that you found out that you might have been mistaken about your logic.

• I try as often as I can to admit my mistakes, so i would appreciate the same from the other party. don't hop over them or throw me some tinfoil theory about how the world is ruled by immoral scientist just to not admit that you made a mistake.

• Talking about conspiracy theories, I like to entertain them personally but i check in my tinfoil hat when i enter a discussion. so skip a lot of the common place theories that are holy in our region (yes am speaking of that one too, they are not behind every bad thing that ever happened to us)

• An apology might be just words but it can go a long way, apologize when you hurt someone wrongfully or without intention. It's not going to pop one of your balls, and I testify that mine are still intact.

• When discussing a specific point and when we have both agreed that there was an error about the initial premise of the argument, don't go about expanding the argument or digressing to a related topic. that always reminds me of when i used to play consoles and whenever I would lose a lot of games i would keep on asking for one more chance...

• I try to make my definitions clear(i know i mostly circumlocate normally hence the bold i try) so that there will be little doubt about what i am talking about, and i take care about what word i use to describe something since i believe in the nuances of a language. In this situation it is a capitol sin in my eyes to use an English word and an established western ideology and tell me that this specific English word has a localized meaning in Jordan that Arabs use that is in total contrast to the original definition.

Case File: definition of NeoLiberalism

In the Arab world, neo-liberal means fake liberal, the complementary political movement in the Arab world that exists to service the American neo-conservatism agenda..

• If i find an idea so ludicrous and unbelievably wrong, then yes am going to be sarcastic and a bit harsh. you have the right to hate me i can live with that.

Case File: consequences of drinking

How pretty is it to wake up and find that you've killed your own kids by driving while drunk? That you may put your country at risk by what you mouthed while drunk? That you may have gone to bed with your own sister while both of you were drunk?! And all of that does happen, a lot.

• If I disagree with you it doesn't mean I don't like you personally, i like to believe that i am a nice person contrary to what others say. you might hold a different perspective than might it doesn't detract from you as a person and neither should my position detract from my humanity the world is a colorful and vibrant place it would be too boring without that gradient so learn to appreciate it with an open mind.

• I don't believe in trends and am not a trendster, if some of my ideas are trendy i don't hold them to gloat their popularity and i won't drop them when they cease to be so. My ideas are who i am, they are a mirror to what i see in mind, just the same way i don't see my self getting chin implants because my chin isn't appealing to others i won't bandwagon on an idea to be popular with others. That doesn't mean that i won't change my position, it just means that the idea evolved based on new evidence.

Case File: lack of religion

Many are “Atheists as a fashion” ESPECIALLY in Jordan .

• I Am not a scholar, I don't hold degrees in half a dozen fields. when i want to have real life evidence I turn to statistic (and i am really careful to pick the least bias ones), now i understand the reality that statistic can be used to prove anything so i take care to see how these statistics where collected and that they are of a well established and recognized source. So you have no right to discredit scholars and experts with either your smudged case studies or *aghast* personal observation and experiences. I respect your personal observations and experience but they are personal and you can't generalize based solely on those especially when they contradict every scientifically accepted opinion or study. they hold peer reviews in statistics for a reason.
  

Case File: relevance of genetics in psychological disorders
poster:

Now explain something to me. If something is Genetic, how come a psychologist is making the claim that it's inherited! I haven't heard anyone inheriting depression so why this? Wouldn't this be actually Outside the psychological realm?

explanation of mine:

since one of the most common causes of psychological disorders is genetics, and that is the bases for the diathesis-stress, and genetics is the cause for the predisposition you have been talking about earlier but that is triggered by the environment and experience in the case of alcoholism.... [with alot more following that]

poster:

Genetics are becoming every one's coat hanger these days. Even Aids turned out to be genetic with some people having higher tendencies to have it more than other.
I think for modern science. Anything we can't explain, we attribute it back to genetics

• To all the gadflies and Galileo's, having an opinion against the mainstream or getting under people's skin and annoying them doesn't automatically translate into you being a genius with a brilliant and right idea. It just means you are a woo. so do your homework and stop being so stubborn and if you value your science then try reviewing the scientific method. As history has proven there aren't as many Galileo as is commonly claimed. plus its shameless boasting too.
  

Happy discussions everyone and I'll try my best to follow my rules am not asking anyone else to, just saying thats all

ENJOY!
ps. it was tougher than i thought to collect the case files, and don't object to me including them here since they are things that are available and a lot of us have passed by. If you don't like it don't claim it then.

Why is it that the majority of my readers are women ?

That question has been on my mind lately, as it was very evident to me that the majority of the people who read my posts and comment are women (except perhaps for observer & the occasional qwaider) , then it kind of hit me today when I came across a comment by enigma on ChiKapaPPi's post that went like:

LOL all we have to do is boycott the male blogs for a day and see what happens to them!!! I bet you they won’t get more than one or two comments!! yalla girls BOYCOTT THE MALE BLOGS!

and I thought to myself how true is that ?

Now really its so evident now, maybe I do have some other readers but am sure as hell never hear from.

So since I read that this afternoon I was trying to think of reasons, now one thing that came to mind first and for most is that women in the blogosphere when they read something that they like they let you know. Now some might say a "thank you" comment on a post doesn't add much to the conversation but it sure is nice as hell to read those after spending some time writing a post. It's such a rare event for me to come over a post where it was a guy posting such a comment.

Most of the posts that i see on daily bases are mainly light hearted posts, maybe the reason is that women are more in tuned with their emotional side and are able to express their emotions more freely. Or as I like to think of it that growing up as a man in this environment it wasn't one of the skills that we were encouraged to develop. So naturally when its a light hearted post when you go over it and read it as a man you might have something to say but most of the time you wouldn't since you feel like the way you parse those series of events or happening are particular to you and your comment will not add much substance to the conversation.

Which brings me to the next point, post something political and you will notice the testerones drawing their guns quicker than a jarhead in Falluja. Thats the other thing, guys love confrontation. nothing beats the sensation of being able to place your head a micrometer higher than your peers. It's the type of factual regituration than we excel at. To boost we get to express our opinion, which we are a bit on the narcissistic side when it comes towards how we feel about it.

So naturally the conversation devolves quickly into snark attacks and women steer quite clear of that quagmire.

Now one playground that we tend to meet at is the sexual and religious playing ground, which observer excels at capitalizing on something that I really like about his blog is that it melds the boundary between the two camps. Even there it is quite amusing to see how each behave, in that area especially while you would expect the V camp to be quite timid and shy they tend to be the more encompassing and accepting of new outlooks and ideas. On the other hand the T camp tends to be their same old self of "what I say is the right thing and there is no comprise about it. if you are not willing to bend backwards or shut up am going to start the insults". Now am not excluding myself from that saying since at certain posts and blogs i tend to be a big pain in the @$, and i draw a certain pleasure out of being a smart @$ especially when the blogger is a bit full of himself (yes, am thinking of one blog that I like the posts and the way he tackles things but his personality of being so high and righteous really irks me)
I only came across one case of that when it was a female blogger and she is a special case i think, a couple of screws got loose in her head and she holds a grudge against so i go and bother her every once in a while :P

Also one other thing I noticed about bloggerettes is that they are never content with a paper thin representation of anyone that they are curious about (I cross my heart i meant this in the most utterly benign way and even though stating it so bluntly might put me in a grey area i would prefer it rather than leaving it up to interpretation). They are actually genuinely interested in constructing a 3-d perspective of who that person is, and they tend to look at him more as a person than an faceless avatar. With guys i rarely feel that they are interested beyond that specific instance of interaction and although there might be previous interactions it doesn't hold much weight in consequent communication unless it caused a stark polarization...

Thats what occurs to me so far, maybe am just over analyzing and guys simply don't fancy anything am writing about.

would welcome any additional, or even counter points regarding this.

now for the puzzle of the day... perception

M N P O F I H Z S L H S L I
Y E D P O S T I U L D A L G
K X R E A D E R S G R G I E
Y T M E N T I O N R I H W I
M G X K N O I T P E C R E P

Hint: what am i going to talk about next

Marriage

Why is marriage the epitome of growing up ?
Growing up and after you have finished your education the next on the wish list of parents is that their son/daughter to get married and have a bunch of kids for them, thats how our parents grew up and thats how we were brought that.
After that you live happily ever after and rinse and repeat the cycle. It is a huge stigma in society if you reach a certain age and you didn't get married, or worse ! if you are married and feel you are not ready to have kids yet.

The way I see things is that marriage is for certain the partnership that we come in least prepared the deal with, all through life we are discouraged to polish the tools and means that will be most helpful to us during the major part of our life.

So our first experience living away from our comfortable nest is during marriage, that is usually one major obstacle that faces newly weds. They find it hard to comprehend how much tolerance and effort it takes to live with someone else, things are not always supposed to go your way. Thank "god" for our culture for it makes that part easier for men, atleast they don't have to deal with that part since things are supposed to go their way regardless. not just that but the wife should always be competing with the first women in that man's life, his mother.
So that comes with its fair share of problem creating potential.

We send partners on a quest to the unknown, armed with naivety and full of themselves to replicate two different environments rather than coming up with their own. each partner is meant to replicate the environment he grew up in, hence its only natural to except clash of the world from that, the probability of that happening increases exponentially with the proximity of one family over the other. Since the rope is being tugged in one way more so than the other it helps put pressure on that relationship and straining it to the point of fatigue. I find it one of the most beneficial experiences for newly weds to be as removed as possible from their own families it tends to paint the relationship with its own tint.

touching on relationships, most commonly and in the traditional sense, the two parties are expected to be virgins. both literally and in the sense that they never had a relationship that they strived to protect since they consider everything before tying the knot as a dispensable practice. So we have two people that essentially don't know how to deal with a sexual relationship which no matter how much of hypocritical society we have to face that its a totally different playing field than that platonic playground of youth. Ergo, the result is that we have a relationship that has living under one roof and mechanically procreating kids at its center rather than having a loving and intimate relationship at its center the way marriage (IMHO) should be.
Marriage is never considered a true and equal partnership, we were just not brought up that way. whether thats the right way or not is something I'll leave to better equipped people to decide, but am certainly of the belief that when you decide to intertwine your destiny with somebody else's both parties should have equal say on where, how, and when things should progress and no party should have a final say on things. Mutual agreement is the only way to make that destiny move forward rather than self destruct.

Traditional marriage tends to serve one of two purposes in my eyes (honestly am all for it actually) either its the easiest method to side step some of the problems that might show up if the relationship was allowed to bloom under normal circumstance, or that in our day and age those people haven't developed the proper social skills to be able to actually achieve that level of relationship on their own. both cases are guaranteed to cause problems in the future.

On the other hand its so commendable to marry at an early age, for me that serves a great hidden purpose in the case of women. when they are young they still trust the institutes and you have on your hands a lesser chance of rebellion, and as some people say you can mold her as your wish. Do we really need that child like mentality when facing life and its problem, the uncompromising attitude of children that either nag till they get what they want ?

So the final tools to make sure that those marriage golems remain in one piece is that we have to push them as much as possible to have kids, for if the marriage is meant to be broken that might give them a good reason to stay together, for they will be doing it for the kids. What a great loving environment for the kids to grow up in. We can also call upon divine intervention and decree to either not allow divorce or give the man a chance to try his luck a few more times since he might have picked a bad apple. too bad we don't protect the family or the women in either case whether its by dogma or law, for it is always their fault for not being obedient enough.

It shouldn't be that way ! Marriage is an evolutionary step in life, you can't skip steps. It should never be for everyone, but everyone should strive for it. To those who never find it are not to be outcasts of society for they might have been answering to a different calling. We are not just mechanically procreation machines, that shouldn't be a reason to marry someone. its called mating in the animal kingdom so why do we degrade marriage to that state! marriage should be a life building exercise where both parties put everything they have, all their baggage, on the table and honesty look forward to creating a better life.
Not to enforce the familial ego, not to please the elders, not to look acceptable in the eyes of society and its customs and religion BUT to enrich the partners lives and create a better reality for themselves for they only have each other and no one else should meddle in their business and how they carry on with their lives for they are starting a new tree.

Without that in mind, and with all the previously mentioned reasons no wonder that married life is always depicted as a miserable one. It is truly rare to find a couple that attest that they are in bliss, and most commonly it will be the married men giving the advice, half jokingly usually, to the bachelors to never get married and live their life like its supposed to be the eulogy of our life.
So you end up with broken home, adulterous partners who lead double and triple lives to please society, their partners and themselves with their happiness never fusing those three realities together.
May you all live happily ever after and choose wisely !

o jp[r yp gomf ,u [stymrt om ;ogr dppm gpt oyd ypp nptomh yp ,pbr pm gpt ,udr;g

Hint: transformations :D

Hello! my name is BamBam and I am an introvert

What is an introvert ?
in·tro·vert (ĭn'trə-vûrt', ĭn'trə-vûrt')
A term coined by Carl Jung to describe people who reflect inwards and are drained by being in a social activity and need time alone to recharge. Simply they get pleasure out of solitary activities, given a choice they prefer to sit down and think rather than chit-chat the day away.

Is there someone who just sits down and eats his meal silently without participating in the conversation, that every so often has a smirk on his face that creates an air of arrogance around him ? do you know someone who, to your bewilderment, can be tucked away in his own corner and still come out as the happiest person on this planet without any social interaction for days on end ? then chances are that person in an introvert, and he is most likely not arrogant he just can't help being amused by the utter nonsense that comes out of some people's mouths when it is detached to their brains (muahaha yeah i countered my point i know :P)

It is highly draining to sit down for hours and hours talking about absolutely nothing, that makes me cringe to no end. yes evidently I do hate family gatherings cause you always end up being asked the same bloody question with the same "I care" attitude from people who really are just trying to be nice for the sake of it. Then to be tormented by the same topics over and over for the rest of your life. Now socially that comes off as shy, anti-social, some even go to the extent of labeling introverts as being agoraphobic(fear of public spaces) or some other colorful assortment of disorders, in actuality introverts are not necessarily any of that, they just value silence in the absence of something worth saying, hence when an introvert speak it is better to shut up and listen.

All my gripes aside (and being an INTP I can be really anal & taciturn "sometimes"), the reason I had to sit down and have this talk with one's self is the series of activities that I was involved in the last couple of weeks which shed light on some sides of me that I was in denial about. The reason for those according to my deduction is that currently I created my world to minimize annoyance to the extent that now am vulnerable to annoyances to the extent that it polarizes the way I should act with the way I act, that in a way is the reason that I feel that am faking and acting out my social interactions rather than living them.

With the amount of choice we have nowadays no longer can we live in the same world as other, we think the world is getting smaller but in fact we fragmented the world to even smaller pieces were our perceptions are irreconcilable. Then we profess bafflement and bewilderment and how can others react the way they do towards things.

Slightly loosing you there in the previous 2 paragraphs ? let me bring you up to pace with an example. Being in school you might have been the only one with the interests that you have, for the sake of the example lets say you had an infatuation with fury cuddly teddy bears. So in the past you were forced to interact with others because you had no other option. So you were exposed enough to annoyance that you became immune to it to a certain extent, people then were watching the same shows and hearing the same news. Agreeing or disagreeing based on a single reality. When you wanted to reach out to other fury cuddly teddy bear lovers, you had to expend the effort, and most likely it would be vis-a-vis. Which made the joy of finding them that more real and enjoyable. You had to be more accepting and tolerant of your environment and taking people as is, with all their flows and imperfections.

Contrast that with the reality now, you are no longer the only fury cuddly teddy bear lover.
blast up your computer and you can reach out to plenty, who are exposed to media that is dedicated to fury cuddly teddy bear lovers which shapes their perception of the world based on that perspective. They naturally presume others to atleast have the basic understanding of the culture hence when communicating to outsiders they truncate years of integration which results into them having starkly different views about things. Also for convenience the majority of their communication with other cudbears (thats what fury cuddly teddy bear lovers call themselves) is based on text which detracts from the life of the conversation and aids misunderstanding (boy how sarcasm on paper is hard to achieve!) . So as a result they end up interacting with less people than they would have in the past. Because "they just don't understand".

So how does that tie in with being an introvert (an INTP one non the less) ? well a lot really, mainly the realization that I need to raise the level of noise in my life. I am not going to be "friendlier" or be a chatter box that never stops talking about thy self, and am probably not going to join into a small talk anytime soon.
What I will do is just get exposed, no longer shying away from places I consider to be "not my type", no longer shy away from groups where there might be some people I loathe. Just be around different people.

RAISE MY LEVEL OF TOLERANCE TO THE ANNOYING THINGS IN LIFE & BREAK THE BUBBLE

ENJOY!

ps. fury cuddly teddy bear lovers has some context and it is not purely random
pps. chats and IM's still rule and I love them for stripping the human out of the conversation, but will refrain when given the choice now *psyche*
ppps. I am not an emo.

The one and only truth

Well in light of reading about Mother Theresa being a total hypocrite (now before you start flaming me, I am just quoting her own words)
So since every religion is the one and only truth, and they all seem to be geographically centralized am going to play on an idea that was just ricocheting in my head for a while.

So lets see since they are all "the one and only truth", I am going to try to separate them using other metrics.

For the sure the one with the biggest number of followers stands the highest chance of being right ?

That should be fairly easy then I would be a Christian (2.1 billion), a roman catholic(1.05billion) in specific though being a Sunni Muslim(940 million) comes at a very close second. So the one with the largest number should do it, but how did it get to be so that they have the largest number of followers since it is really intriguing that it seemed like the missed a spot on the world map.
So it seems the major catalyst to the spread can be traced to the roman empire and Constantine's conversion, and having similarities to already established and popular religions (Mithraism, The cult of Dionysus to name a few) to help in the slow spread of the religion among the populace. During the persecution of the Christians they had to blend in and adopt a lot of the pagan holidays as their own in order to celebrate their religion unnoticed (Christmas and Easter to name a few). then came the establishment of the catholicism which centralized the governance and aided in the spread of the religion utilizing missionaries (with some not so "godly" practices).

So it seems that it took alot based on what is established in older religions, so ....

The oldest religion that is still recognizably followed today must be the truth, since it withstood the test of time.
Hmm so that would be Hinduism (1500 BC or 2500BC according to references compared to 1300BC for Judaism) , with 900 million that is certainly respectable. A long and established list of dualism of the matter and self, about a dozen deities and the longest running mythology of superheroes in pre-existing literature.
All that is dandy except for from previous interactions with Hindus they seem to be pretty private and unwelcoming about letting anyone into their sects , so I guess they are not that welcoming of newcomers. this evident that although it is one of the oldest religions it has remained well anchored around its birth place and not expanded beyond its local population.

Maybe the youngest religion will be more welcoming lets give that a shot. I'll make sure to thank them for exporting yoga along the way.

So the youngest most recognizable religion that would be ...
Baha'i faith (19th centurty), nope. Cai Dao (1926) don't know what that is but it doesn't qualify.
There we go Scientology (1952) , now lets see what it is about.... OK seems interesting, positive and negative energy, they are always on the look out for new members, hmmm i have to pay to move along their levels, thats fine sounds like donations to me. So far so goo..... wait xenu ? intergalactic confederacy, body thetans, am orginally the tortured spirit of an alien prisoner.
Aight i'll pass, but seriously even for a religion that is bloody weird.

So too many ppl didn't work, oldest didn't work youngest is just loony, what is left ... I could go by what is the fastest growing one but these seem to be either pure propoganda (Falun Gong), birth rates (Islam), or just because it became more socially acceptable (non-religious) . could go for the most complicated(Etruscan religion) but whats the point they are all dead and archaic.

Honestly coming back to reality it seems there is really little choice, as a matter of fact rarely it is when you ask an adherent to any religion do you get an answer that they choose it. the majority revert to what they are familiar with originally or some denomination to it. this is never truer than it is in Islam, the idea is that everyone is born "Muslim" so they are not converting but reverting. So since there is little choice and we frown about discrimination regarding things we have little choice about ( skin color, language, sexual orientation ... etc) why do we still consider religion out of that context and we vehemently despise others in opposing faction ?

In the end it is a solitary journey, so journey on ...

ENJOY
perhaps