GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

CHARLIE HEBDO COVER, WHOSE FREE SPEECH IS IT ANYWAY?

Icheoku asks is the latest cover of Charlie Hebdo magazine indeed an exercise of free speech or is it an unneeded offensive provocation of the Muslim world, whose Mohamed, they do not want anyone to have or depict his likeness in any form including cartoon? If indeed the publishers of the magazine acted under their assumed freedom of speech right, what freedom then does those Mohammedans, who don't want it published or opposed to any likeness or image of their prophet being made known, enjoy?  Icheoku queries don't these Muslims have a right to at least some privacy to their belief that their Mohammed should not to be so "defamed" by a representation which might not actually be an actual Mohammed's likeness or image, but which is reproduced anyway as what he looked like? 

icheoku says if only religion and religious beliefs are rational, but they are not; so anybody religious dogma should as a matter of respect be deferred to including what the Muslims consider sacrilege, mocking or painting their prophet Mohammed. Therefore let us ponder whether or not carrying forward with making a caricature of someone, whom a religious faith holds in such awe and reverence as to frown at any of his representation, is not by itself, a hate speech and actually inciting? Icheoku admonishes that since the over one billion people, the world over, strongly denounce the depicting of their Mohamed in any form, be it cartoon or otherwise, their wish should have been respected and at worst, treated as a public safety concern issue and decision. The world would not be capitulating to the extreme right wing of the Islamist terrorists by abstaining from that which the Muslim world consider and deem as disparaging to their religious head and in also very insulting to their religious belief. Like other prohibited free speeches such as shouting fire in a crowded theater or falsely raising an alarm that would compromise public safety, the authorities in France and the Charlie Hebdo organization, should have deferred to this religious interest of the Muslim world and leave their prophet alone and desist from further cartooning him. 

Icheoku is not advocating a surrender or capitulation to the heinous murders that took place in Paris or that is continually taking place in Northeastern Nigeria or in Pakistan or in Afghanistan or in Canada or in America or in Spain or in India and in all such other countries which these Islamist nihilists have torched their mayhem, but that the world find a more accommodating way to move everyone forward towards possibly finding a lasting peace between the two civilizations. One thing with conflict resolution is that each side must be prepared to make sacrifices and if not depicting their Mohamed would make us free from their incessant attacks, let us thus so sacrifice our right to free speech their Mohammed's likeness or cartoon image. Icheoku recalls when President Obama was depicted in a cartoon as a monkey with extended earlobes which many African Americans did not find funny; not because it is not in the authors right to free speech a caricature of the president, but that certain boundaries considered discomforting should be respected. So let us all in the spirit of give and take, geared towards a more peaceful world, see how we can voluntarily self-censor our free speech rights as needed sacrifice to stop all these madness that leads to needless bloodshed and wanton loss of lives including damage to properties. 

Icheoku says someones' free speech might be derogatory to another's sensibility; and just like a redneck has the free speech right to call President Obama a NIGGER, but doing so is offensive to black Americans including the president and is not and should not be tolerated, regardless. Would anyone say that former Iranian President Ahmadinejad being a Holocaust denier does not fall within such his freedom of speech right ambit to have an opinion different from the universally held? But such is not a good commentary, especially to the ears of the survivors of that man's great inhumanity to fellow man which is akin to slavery, admitted blacks are not as vocalized as the other victims of inhumanity.  Therefore since what is good for the gander is also good for the goose, let us all approach the issue of freedom of speech evenly and apply our unrestricted right to free speech across the board and not be very selective in so doing. If it is not okay to call blacks NIGGER, whites HICK or Jews HYMIE and not be branded  racist, anti-Jew, anti-Semitic, then it should not be okay to confront a tenet of a religion and expect not to be branded anti-Muslim/Islam; except of course we have all reached the conclusion in our narrative that all Muslims should be held accountable for the transgressions of the few of them that wrought this evil terrorism. Until then, may some good heads prevail and may we find a road-map towards a lasting peace on earth. Like Rodney King once said, 'why can't we all just get along together'; and may his words help resolve these religious problems and in that way those who died in Paris may not have died in vain. Icheoku says 'Je Suis Charlie' and asks are you Charlie; as even Prophet Mohammed declares he is also Charlie!

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