Odracirys

Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri is somebody whom I only learned of recently, but has definitely become one of my greatest heroes. According to his Wikipedia article: "[He] was a blind Arab philosopher, poet, and writer.  He was a controversial rationalist of his time, attacking the dogmas of religion and rejecting the claim that Islam or any other religion possessed the truths they claimed and considered the speech of prophets as a lie (literally, 'forgery') and 'impossible' to be true. He was equally sarcastic towards the religions of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. According to the poet Sa'di of Shiraz, he was a strict Vegetarian who argued for animal rights." "He rejected claims of any divine revelation. His creed was that of a philosopher and ascetic, for whom reason provides a moral guide, and virtue is its own reward." "Al-Maarri's fundamental pessimism is expressed in his anti-natalist recommendation that no children should be begotten, s...

Whenever a Muslim brings up the Crusades, I have to laugh to myself.  Christians have done horrible things, including in later crusades against Constantinople and the Cathars in particular.  However, get this.  The Islamic State militants said, "Safety for you crusaders is something you can only wish for" right before butchering Egyptian Christians. It seems that many Muslims haven't taken a single history class.  If they had, they would have known that Christians existed in Egypt for 400 years before Islam.  (Heck, they were even around to murder Hypatia, perhaps the last major ancient female philosopher.)  It was the Muslims who were the "Crusaders"...yet almost nobody will admit to this.  Muslims instigated a merciless war against Christian Egyptians until they were overcome and under Islamic domination.  They did this to people across the world, from Spain to India...massacring any who resisted.  They tried to destroy the Byzaintine Em...

You have probably already heard that Kayla Mueller, an American captive of the Islamic State, is dead.  I would just like to give some of my opinions about the matter. Firstly, it is not known how she died.  The Islamic State claims that she died in a Jordanian airstrike.  The US government denies this.  However, we must realize that it doesn't matter what killed her.  It was 100% the fault of the Islamic State. The Islamic State is of course attempting to breed hostility between Jordan and the United States in order to bring a reprieve from further airstrikes which are hurting the despicable militant group.  I say that we should support Jordan's strikes on ISIL, no matter if hostages die or not.  Why?  Besides trying to drive a wedge between the US and Jordan, we also know what the fate of hostages is under ISIL.  The Islamic State has shown us time after time.  They have shot themselves in the foot.  When you know that th...

My mindset appears to be in a void where few other minds venture.  Knowing people with similar mindsets on Google+ is comforting, but I am still aware that my way of thinking is extremely rare. You see, in many ways, I am a super-liberal.  I am a vegetarian, an environmentalist, and an atheist, among other things.  I support marriage equality and of course women's equality.  So far, so good.  However, there are some things that mark me as very different from many liberals.  I call things as I see them.  I am objective and do not tailor my response to somebody based on that person's race, sex, or class.  I glorify mockery when it is warranted.  I am respectful towards things that are not worthy of ridicule, but I am not politically correct simply for the sake of it. I am definitely not on the conservative side of the spectrum, but there are times when I agree with some conservatives over some liberals.  And the kinds of liberals who a...

For a while now, I have been wanting to correct some things I said on one of  's posts a while back on Google+.  Most of what I said in the comments of that post were correct, and I stand by them, but the following is something I would like to revise.  I wrote the following to Heather and  : "Many Japanese people actually admire American students, because they can (both regulation-wise and culturally) ask questions.  In Japan, teachers prepare full lectures (which is probably what a lot of that time is used for) and basically just read the lesson out, and the students take notes.  It is rote memorization.  They are excellent at it, and if it involves memorization (including of math concepts), they can beat nearly anyone else in the world.  However, if they are asked to go outside the script, they stumble.  For example, ask what year a war started, and they will know it (for the test, at least...then forget later on), but ask why the war ...

Muslim perpetrators of the most heinous crimes you can imagine love their victim mentalities, and hold onto their delusions of victim-hood at all costs. This can be seen in nearly every fanatic Muslim's words and interactions.  We can go over numerous examples, but since it is fresh in my memory, let me use the example of the Islamist murderer in the Sydney Hostage Crisis at the Lindt Chocolate Cafe.  I will not use his name to give him more notoriety, but you can look him up if you need to.  While raping and murdering right and left, he never for a moment thought that he might be the perpetrator instead of the victim.  It was always the evil West against poor him. This is a man who sought political asylum in Australia in 1996 and was granted asylum by a welcoming and tolerant people.  (It is not clear if the Australian authorities knew that he fled Iran because he stole $200,000 from customers.)  Upon arriving in Australia, he became a Sunni "spiritual...

If someone comes across my Google+ page or my blog and only views one of my posts, that person could determine from that post that I am a tree-hugging liberal, an über-nationalist, or a supporter of foreign dictatorial regimes, among other things.  The reason for this is that I call things as I see them.  80% of the time, I may support one group, but I may not support them that other 20% of the time when I think they're wrong.  I try to be as objective as possible.  My views sometimes confuse those around me, but the thing to remember is that I am consistent with what I believe to be the best position based on the evidence I have at hand, instead of merely latching on to one group and mindlessly accepting every position they advocate. You may remember my recent posts, " Propaganda in the West " and " More Propaganda in the West ".  Those were both about how the United States is messing things up and actively trying to create enemies out of nations that ar...