Due to Donald Trump being removed from virtually all social media platforms, people on the political left and right have begun to question if this was an affront to his First Amendment rights, specifically, the right to free speech.
I’m not American but in the past I have marveled at how much Americans are taught about their Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Currently, I’m marveling how much they have forgotten.
Freedom of expression is also an international human right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). There was talk of the U.S. …
A list of common, bizarre, funny, misguided but definitely toxic and unhealthy ideas about romance.
Below is a list of common, bizarre, funny, misguided but definitely toxic and unhealthy ideas about romance. Some of these were from me, some from others. But if you see something you currently believe in on this list, perhaps reconsider your position.
Maybe you will continue to believe in that thought, but putting it to the test won’t hurt, right?
1. Men and women cannot just be friends.
This one crept into the 30s but was a major highlight throughout my 20s. I’ve heard various explanations as to why this is true, but mine was that if one were to meet someone and really hit it off, sooner or later an attraction will manifest itself in at least one of the two people. …
What does it mean to want something?
What does it mean to want something? It means that you lack something and you have the desire for that thing. For example, I could be hungry and so I want some food to eat. If I don’t eat, my body will be in pain.
Is it the same for emotional desires? Yes, that seems to be the case. Because when you feel disconnected to others or that you’re not doing worthwhile work or that some other emotional desire isn’t being met, you feel pain too. …
There are very few songs that are truly at the apex of their genre, or in other words, iconic AF. For nu metal, Papa Roach’s “Last Resort” is one of those songs that cannot not be played at your local rave because:
1. Everybody knows it,
2. Everybody demands it because,
3. Everybody knows all the lyrics and,
4. Wants to embarrass themselves rapping to it.
Whether it was the unedited LP version, the censored version or the other censored version, A.K.A. the “squeaky clean version.” You know the one. “Don’t give a… if I… my arm… would you even care if I…” Lyrical gold, I tell you. …
“I can’t see anything I don’t like about you.” — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I need to make it abundantly clear: there is no such thing as “The One.”
As a matter of fact, if you’re honest with yourself, you’ve called more than one person the one. Therefore, you either don’t know how to decipher the one when you see them, or you’re looking for something that doesn’t exist.
Fortunately for you, it’s the latter. You may think that based on your dating history, you need to choose people better. …
“When you know what a man wants you know who he is, and how to move him.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
When all is said and done, I think people largely have good intentions. I think people prefer to have win-win situations for the most part. But I do not think that some people are equipped to meet their needs in ways that benefit everyone involved.
Nowhere is this more insidious than when one uses love and affection to get love and affection. What exactly does this look like? …
If you open the booklet of the 1998 Soulfly debut album, you’ll see that Max Cavalera made a dedication to a number of people, but most notably to Dana Wells, his stepson.
He wrote, “‘Bleed’ and ‘First Commandment’ are dedicated to the people involved in the murder of Dana Wells and the cover-up of his death. You know who you are. Judgement is coming.”
And when you look at the art work of the CD, you see a heart with wings over a lotus flower with the words, “In Loving Memory Dana.” …
In her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown wrote, “When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice.”
Brown is certainly right but we’ve all been there, haven’t we? When someone does something that we dislike, when they pass their place with us or when they overstep our boundaries, we lash out like angry and perhaps scared dogs.
We feel as though we’re at risk and must protect ourselves from this other person, organization or institution from harming us. …
1. You are not in control
There is precious little that anyone can honestly say that they govern. I lost my connection to others at a time when everything was still in germination for me. That one thing changed the course of my life forever.
So while I was doing what I needed to do to gain control and security, I wasn’t even aware that what I really wanted was oneness with others and life itself.
The pandemic and subsequent quarantine forced me to re-evaluate the notion that I was okay being alone and that the minor bouts of loneliness I felt in the past were normal. …
Despite Serj Tankian and John Dolmayan’s public beef over the latter’s political leanings, despite Tankian and Daron Malakian’s statements against one another’s desire and motivations to create another album, System of a Down came together to record two brand new songs in support of the Artsakh troops fighting against Azerbaijan and Turkey in 2020.
It got me thinking. Why and how did the members of System of a Down get into politics and activism? And since it became clear that not all of the members see eye to eye on politics, I wanted to know who believed what and why.
And while politics may be the least sexy thing about music much less life, we have to acknowledge that it is largely due to politics that System even exists, why they wrote the ground-breaking songs that they did and the fact that they opened the eyes of a lot of us growing up on the evils of the world. …
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