Mississippi burning......

NOTE: I have purposely avoided citing references in this article since I do not want to link to the Klan's website and increase their page rank any further. Please Google "Mississippi White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan" to verify information.

This post is the result of a piece of news I came across yesterday about the Mississippi White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan rallying before an Ole Miss game.I know you hear all the time that the Klan is irrelevant today and has lost its power and influence, but it hasn't completely died yet.

In the 60s, this very same cell of the Klan was responsible for the deaths of the three well known civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner. James Chaney was black but Schwerner known as the "Goatee" among the Klan members, was the most hated. He was a Jew who rallied for the cause of African Americans and was promoting registration to vote among Mississippi African Americans. He was hunted down and shot at close range. He was a very brave man. The Klan tried to murder him a number of times before he was finally shot down in Neshoba county, Mississippi. They were expecting him at the Mount Zion church in Longdale earlier and when he did not show up, killed all the black men and women they could lay hands on and burnt the church. On hearing this, Schwerner headed to Missisipi to investigate the incident and fell victim to the members of the Klan.

Today, the mastermind behind these cold-blooded murders, Edgar Ray Killen is 80 yrs old, has dodged prison a number of times and is receiving donations -donations for man slaughter, from the Mississippi White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan. Protected by the first amendment, The Klan openly runs a website, uses the term "negroes" and has the audacity to claim that the whites have a higher IQ than the blacks. There are other equally ridiculous and baseless claims the website makes but I am not going to waste my time and energy talking about them. I don't think they deserve any attention or importance. I also found proof on their website to establish that republicans are indeed stupid blood sucking racist leeches. These are the images the Klan proudly displays on its website.



Even today I see some incidents that remind me of this sad past. The black Harvard professor being arrested by a cop for entering his own house , the loud, angry racist statements at the Palin rallies and so on. And though the Klan was outnumbered by the protesters in Mississippi , I have to ask where the rest of the student body was. 250 from a university with 17,000 people? They were perhaps watching Ole Miss take it out on LSU in a game dominated by blacks. Isn't it ironic? While the aforementioned events bog me down, the comments the HuffPo article received from its numerous readers cheered me up and the faces of my friends that I see everyday at work gives me hope.

As I sit here sipping a warm cup of tea, curled on my couch writing this article, I am aware that my freedom is a result of the sacrifices made by those brave souls who lay down their lives so people like me can have a decent one. I salute you and pray you give us strength if we are ever called.

I mean.. come on!!!!

[All pictures taken from http://www.durangobill.com/Creationism.html]


I am EXTREMELY angry as I write this blog. I just watched a video of some women arguing about creationism and Darwinism on "The View" and it drove me NUTS!!!! Sherri and Elizabeth Hasselbeck are so fu****g ignorant, it is not even funny. These women do not believe in Darwin and think God created this world. I am willing to bet all my money on the fact that neither of these women truly understand Darwinism. They just believe in one book, "The Bible". And EVERYTHING else that contradicts this "sacred" writing is bullshit. Ask these women to describe what they think evolution is and they are going to stammer and stutter. They are a freaking disgrace to women and society. And the worst aspect of this is that, it is women like these that homeschool their kids. I am not against homeschooling but am mighty suspicious that most of these people have ulterior motives. Honestly, I felt like punching Elizabeth's and Sherri's face. I fail to comprehend how religion and science got so mixed up in this country. I do definitely understand the need for prayer and such. Sometimes when you feel out of control, it is comforting to know that there is a superior being that can handle the situation. But do these people actually believe that there is a guy up there sitting in the clouds making children??? That is scary s**t. I am from a so called "third world" country and in my "third world" country, if you hear people dissing science, trust me, you will be ostracized. People in India might do things that contradict science and most of them don't even understand that their actions imply that, but no one would ever, ever diss science. I am not saying one shouldn't question science, questioning itself is one of the most important aspects of science but so is research. There is a question and there is an answer, but THERE IS RESEARCH HAPPENING IN BETWEEN. You can't just pull stuff out of your ass and expect to convince people. Where is the evidence? These people will publish stuff in some unknown religious journal and will claim it is science. And then when you tell them the journal has no impact factor, they will say, "Ahh.. all these other journals are run by scientists who are together on a conspiracy and therefore don't count." My foot they don't count. One can virtually concoct any number of conspiracy theories to wriggle out of situations but it is people who don't have any facts to back their claim that will come up with such excuses. So please spare me. If I ever see one of these creationists stepping into my house again, I swear I am going to break their face.

Auto bailout

The only compelling reason would be to save the jobs of thousands of people. But workers losing their jobs seems inevitable anyway if these companies don't mend their ways. Time after time, we have been warned about global warming and the depleting oil resources. And what do these companies do? They churn more and more SUVs and minivans. Did they actually think people would continue to buy them despite the soaring gas prices? Now that all those hummers are in parking lots with huge "FOR SALE" signs printed on them, these automakers want a bailout. I fail to understand the logic behind some of the solutions suggested to cut US dependence on foreign oil. "Drill baby drill", "we need to ask Saudi Arabia to produce more oil". Why do right wingers have this notion that oil is a never-ending resource? Don't they see that no matter what they do, they are finally going to run out of oil and will be forced to move to alternate sources of energy? And why are they bent upon destroying other life forms before they destroy earth? It is not rocket science you know? When you run out of something, you switch to a better, viable option.

I hate the fact that oil prices are now at an all time low. I say, jack the prices up so high maybe 10$ a gallon so that these morons that drive SUVs and mini trucks are forced to sell their monstrosities. And then take the money away from oil companies and use that to build infrastructure. Good public transportation is what we need now. We also need to invest in technology that will help transmit energy generated by windmills and such. Transmitting and storing this energy seems to be the stumbling block.Apparently, North Dakota alone could supply one third of the country's energy if there were an efficient way to transport the energy to where it's needed.

According to Michael Moore, who drives a Chrysler(BTW, why is he driving a Chrysler? Shouldn't he be driving a hybrid? A quick Google search only comes up with Chrysler Aspen hybrid 2009, so I assume it is not out yet.),
you could buy ALL the common shares of stock in General Motors for less than $3 billion while they want $25 billion. Now that surely seems like a good deal! Even I, the dumbest person when it comes to money can see the gaping hole in this arrangement. But the dems give white-house an ultimatum. In my "expert" opinion, there needs to be a bailout. What we need to do is to bailout on the automakers as opposed to bail them out.

Am I an atheist?

It depends. I know for sure that I am not very comfortable being called an atheist.
a·the·ist Pronunciation Key - [ey-thee-ist]
–noun a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.
You are an atheist if you believe that God does not exist. My stand is similar to Bill Maher's. I just don't know and it is impossible to know. I guess by definition that makes me an agnostic. Being atheist is being sure of God's non-existence and that is not being humble or in fact scientific in some sense. In science I don't think you throw anything away unless you prove it wrong. I cannot throw any idea away unless I know for sure that it is faulty. How can anyone be sure?

I am a believer. How can I be one when I am an agnostic? Because, I believe that God is not a separate entity but that he/she resides in each one of us. To respect each other and have compassion for one another is to respect God. I don't think I believe that there is this supreme being that created all of us and continues to do so. But I do believe that there is something. I am not sure what it is. But I believe there is a thread that connects all of us that can be tapped. A thread of energy? Maybe, I don't know. Like I said, I am not sure. But I certainly detest following any sacred book in the name of God or religion. I believe in using my brain. I cannot live by something I do not comprehend. None of these books ever have any convincing answers anyway. Take The Bhagavat Gita for example. No matter how many times I read it, I still cannot convince myself that Arjuna did the right thing by killing his relatives.

I am also a non-believer. When I see innocent people being killed everyday, I question the existence of an almighty. Why is there so much suffering if there is an omnipotent being? Please don't give me this crap about karma and previous birth. Isn't God supposed to forgive? Isn't he supposed to love everyone, the evil-doers and the good alike? Why create miscreants and then punish them? Catastrophes make me believe that everything happens at random, there is no order. There is no karma, there is no afterlife and there is no selection process (here, I am NOT referring to Darwin's theory, I am referring to selection based on karma) that determines who dies and who lives. And if you still believe in this supreme being, I must say that he is rather cruel.

There is a fundamental difference between the fundamentalists and non-believers. Fundamentalists think that we should not use our brain. Why? Because according to their logic, we are imperfect beings created by a perfect almighty. So our thought process is imperfect, which leads to imperfect reasoning. So we should blindly follow what He has prescribed. I must say, I NEVER would have come up with this reasoning if not for my friend who enlightened me on why religious conservatives do not use their brains. To me this convoluted logic is absolutely ridiculous. I am not willing to live a life worrying about afterlife. I let my brain and sometimes my heart decide what is right or wrong.

Am I an atheist? You tell me. The following quotes sum up my belief.

We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God,
who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes. - Gene Roddenberry

I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence. - Doug McLeod

It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. - Mark Twain

I refuse to believe in a god who is the primary cause of conflict in the world, preaches racism, sexism, homophobia, and ignorance, and then sends me to hell if I’m ‘bad’. - Mike Fuhrman

If God created the world, then who created god? and who created whoever created god? So somewhere along the line something had to just be there. So why can’t we just skip the idea of god and go straight to earth? - Ryan Hanson

I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure -- that is all that agnosticism means. - Clarence Darrow

I have known many good people who did not believe in God. But I have never known a human being who was good who did not believe in people. [language slightly modified] -John Lovejoy Elliott

India's national language

Being an Indian residing in a foreign country, I am sick and tired of being asked why I don't speak Hindi. I am not really annoyed with non-Indians asking me this question, but mostly with 'North Indians' who go on and on about why everyone in India needs to learn Hindi. And their ill-informed reason that Hindi is our national language drives me crazy. Now, lets set the record straight once and for all. Hindi is NOT our national language and if that is your argument then tell me, should we all be learning all the 22 or so official languages? Utter bull crap. Oh, and "life will be a lot easier if you learn Hindi, you can communicate with people from other states." Oh really? Why don't you travel to the south for a change and try to converse in Hindi, lets see how far that takes you. If these people are half as patriotic as they claim, they should all learn one South Indian language (like someone suggested). Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are also part of India, just in case you didn't know. Those of you who still are in this dream world where everything Indian is Bollywood, please read this .

Women should work

I, like many of my friends, firmly believe that it is extremely important for a woman to be independent, she should contribute financially to a family. Some women choose to stay at home to take care of children and elders, I totally respect that but also think that at any given time, she should be prepared to go find a job if need be, she should have worked at some point in her life. Women are extremely talented and it is such a shame to let all that talent go waste. I have some friends who are smart and talented but are forced to stay home because their husbands don't find the necessity to send their wives to work. If the decision is jointly made by the couple there is no point of contention, but if it is the husband or the parents-in-law making the decision, it a totally different situation altogether and should be strongly opposed. We have but one life, and should try to achieve as much as possible in this short time. One thing I have noticed is that working mothers are able to instill a higher level of confidence in their female children. I definitely do not have any kind of research backing my statement, it is just a mere observation.

A love-hate relationship

Today was a very busy day, lots of work but I also had the opportunity to discuss religion with a very learned person. I complained to him "I just recently read this book about a religion and am appalled by the so called prophet who had all these wives, some as young as 13. He forced these women into 'holy' matrimony, how can so many people respect him? Beats me." As I uttered these sentences, the person who came to my mind was Lord Krishna! Lord Krishna did almost everything this prophet did, and yet, those actions never seemed blasphemous to me. But today, I question my religion, the religion I have been so fond of, the religion I knew had shortcomings, but I also thought possessed some redeeming qualities. But after this 2 hour discussion and reading some excerpts from Manusmriti, I must say, I am a bit ashamed. I definitely disagree with many of Hinduism's principles. If Hinduism procalims that all men are not equal, I don't need Hinduism anymore, if it has the audacity to state that God willed it that way, and if God indeed did, I am not sure I want that God either. I'd rather sin and not go to heaven then ill-treat fellow humans in the name of the almighty. Makes me wonder, how can we be so sure that these Gods we pray to, if they did exist, were indeed good beings?? Reading the satanic verses does make me wonder.

Prison conditions

I was watching this show on prisoners yesterday. It was eye-opening, the kind of torture these people are subjected to in prison is depressing. They are purposely kept in unsanitary conditions. I know that prisons are not meant to be comfortable. I realize convicts are not in prison for doing a good deed but for taking someone's life or property. But death sentences in general just don't seem right. How can we take a life to compensate for an already departed soul? How many times have we seen the blood covered cadaver of a terrorist and felt sorry for him? I can definitely say that no matter how cruel a life a person has lead, when I see his motionless body, tears run down my cheek. No one has the right to take another's life, irrespective of the kind of crime committed by him/her. In these prisons, prisoners are not allowed to read novels, they cannot write to their victims, they cannot play games like chess, they are not allowed to have romantic relationships with other inmates. It beats me to know that they are not allowed to do anything to improve their life. What is the point in putting them behind bars if the are not given an opportunity to better themselves? What annoys me most is that, most of those who claim to be 'pro life' are for capital punishment.