Pioneer1

Troy I'm in no way suggesting that you go around town "checking" everyone who says the word. Especially Black people saying it. There's a time and place for everything. Plus, as I said I personally say it myself....quite often. I'm talking about one on one situations or more private conversations where people are interacting with me on a personal level and especially White people. Although I must admit that I've gotten so angry and fed up with the ignorant speech and behavior of some of our OWN people to the point where I HAVE risked physical confrontation and even THREATENED it if their foolishness continued. I really had to weigh my options logically. One such instance was years back when had just crossed the border in Canada and was waiting in Windsor to catch the train to Toronto and this one young brother just kept cussing and saying nigga-this and nigga-that and bragging about all the dirt he did. Ordinarily I would have tried my best to ignore it......but it's really hard to ignore IGNORE-ance because you want to confront it.....but 2 things forced me to say something: 1. We were in Canada and not only am I careful about what I say and do when I'm on foreign soil, but I'm also sensitive to how OTHER Black people behave in public because Black folks already have a reputation 2. I saw quite a few females waiting to board the same train to Toronto as us (me and other Black American men) and knowing how a lot of women are, we were concerned that if they saw this negro acting a fool he may ruin it for ALL the Black men on that train trying to get next to these women. I had to make a snap decision so I pulled the brother to the side and checked him about his behavior. Initially he tried to buck up about me minding my own business but halfway through the trip we were friends and I found out he wasn't NEARLY as gangsta as he portrayed himself to be but claimed that the "honeys" liked it. It's funny how HE thought being an ignorant "nigga" was a way to attract females and I thought it would do the very opposite. Cynique Last I heard there were 39 million black people in America. Yeah? Where did you hear THAT from....and WHEN did you last hear it?

If I could be so bold, I would actually amend that quote from Martin Luther "Da Kang" to say: "When slaves RECOGNIZE THEY ARE SLAVES, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery." I think we do have some leaders with us today who are just as bold and thorough as King. Minister Louis Farrakhan and Dr Umar Johnson are two that immediately come to mind. The problem...as I see it...isn't with the LEADERSHIP. The problem is with the MASSES. When the leaders do their job to relate information to that masses and TRY to stir them up and organize them.....but they refuse to follow directions.....there's not much the leaders can do. Most Black people instinctively KNOW much of what to do, but many still won't do it after being told repeatedly. As you pointed out, most of our people don't want to boycott coke or any other institution because they aren't prepared and in most cases don't even have the desire to give up anything. And even if they DID decide to with hold patronizing a particular business, Black people have so few REAL businesses today (meaning brick-n-mortar establishments that you can walk in and patronize) that most Black people even in mostly Black neighborhoods are STILL totally dependant on non-Blacks for their food, clothing, and shelter. I take you into a Black neighborhood in Detroit and out of 500 businesses, except for churches Black folks may own only 7 or 8. Usually a soulfood joint, a funeral home, a barbershop, weave shop, and few other mom-n-pop establishments. The rest are major White chains like discount clothing stores and fast food restaurants, coney islands ran by Albanians, liquor stores and gas stations ran by Arabs, beauty supply stores ran by Koreans, cheap motels ran by Indians, and cheap Chinese food joints. I used to get angry at all of these people coming in the hood making money off of us, until it was pointed out to me on more than one occasion that if they WEREN'T in the hood providing that service.....how many Black people would be able to? I didn't really have a response for that. There is no need to PUNISH other races for making money off of us. Rather we should focus on REWARDING ourselves by having the intelligence and discipline to start out own etablishments and institutions and entice people to come to US for what they need. We must remember that many of the older tactics for demanding legal and social justice that worked in the 60s and 70s no longer work today. The demographic is much too different. People were more religious oriented back in those days and you could appeal to their conscience or sense of morality and shame. Good luck trying to do that today. Police officers kill with the cameras rolling. Blacks boycott a company and that company will turn around and focus on Hispanics. All the major media outlets can expose a Republican in office abusing his authority, stealing, and lying...in full detail with all the facts lined up....and that Republican will simply call it all a lie and REFUSE to resign. He'll just try to wait it out until he thinks the media frenzy will die down. Even workers threatening to go on strike doesn't work as well because now so many companies have moved their operations overseas. The old tactics of shame, dishonor, or even with holding patronage doesn't work nearly as well as it used to. Del also made a good point about Trump trying to bring back FEUDALISM. Most people don't understand that this is the end result of unchecked capitalism. A plutocracy where a handful of wealthy people own and control everything in society. Ultra capitalists and feudalists desire a weak or non-existant government where all of the citizens are turned into "subjects" totally dependant on the business sector with no right to refuse.

Troy Apology accepted but perhaps I may have been reading what you said wrong myself so for THAT I apologize. It sounded to me like you were irritated at my question as if your vision was so obvious that any fool could have figured it out. Like I said in the alpha male thread, you can only get so much communicating online or through social media. You usually have to look at a person face to face to get the full gist of what they're trying to say and the spirit in which they're saying it. But I will tell you this much; selling books or opening a chain of Black-owned bookstores are activities, not a vision in my opinion. The underlying reason for those activities can reveal one's motivations and shed some clue to their vision. Interesting observation. It may not be YOUR vision but it would seem that if a person's goal or ultimate goal is to open up a chain of Black bookstores then it would indeed be THEIR vision. ......unless your idea of a "vision" is the END product or END goal while excluding the process to getting there. One of my visions is building a progressive Black community in Michigan. It doesn't really have an "end" goal but it is a continual process. 　 Del @Pioneer This is a discussion forum. Following your logic there is no need for you to post anywhere. Unless its explicitly stated as oppsed to the default setting of implicitly. At first i thought you were unaware of what you are saying. However you response to Troy about it being obvious and you thought he had a grander purpose. Is insulting and ungrateful because he is providing a Free to you forum. This is a monologue. Although you can try and turn it into a dialogue. OK.....seriously.... Bruh....is English your 3rd language or something? What the hell are you saying? Can you re-word it or better yet let the more articulate of the two Delano's RE-write this post in a way that can be understood? BTW..... Claiming that you're going to "ignore" somebody but then following them around taking little shots here and there isn't very "alpha male'ish".....lol.

I don't let White people use the word "nigga" around me....unless they're occasionally making a reference to it being used in another setting like a book or song. ....never did, even when I was younger. I was blessed to have a father who told me and showed me how to handle myself in society. You don't let White folks say or do certain things around you....that's just a straight up code or rule. They're constantly testing Black people to see who is stupid and who isn't. He told me this when I was a kid and the older I got the MORE and MORE I'd see by observation alone how right he was! Oh they'll try to sneak it in at the beginning and they look at you to see if you have any sense. If you don't have any sense or think it's "cool" the way they use it, they'll keep on doing it and go futher and further with it until they start bringing other White folks around and calling YOU a "nigger"....pronouncing the "r" on the end.... in front of them just to show out. As soon as they say it in front of me I don't act deaf.....I look at them and say: WHAT? Then I tell them straight up, "Hey my man. That shit ain't cool...no disrespect but you can't use that term around me. Find some other Black man to say it around....ok" 99% of the time that end it and they respect me greatly for it. The other 1% is when they just don't say anything else to me and try to avoid me, which is just as cool as far as I'm concerned....but even those who don't like that I checked them will not say it again in my presence. Now as strange as it may seem I WILL let a brown skinned Latino or even an Asian use the word if they're using it as a colloquial street term. Because I know they aren't "testing" but are actually trying to be down. But I rarely hear them using it, even the ones who are into Hiphop. If you think it's alright for young White people to casually use the word "nigga" then let a straight man casually use the word "bitch" or call a female that with a smile and see how quickly....and possibly violently...he's checked. A lot of Black youth are STUPID....that's why White youth can get away with saying the word around them. It has nothing to do with rap, culture, or anything else.....they're just taking advantage of those who are too stupid to know any better.

Troy, I'm suprised you gave any credibility to Aries' critique of Jordan Peele. In another thread you accused me of internalizing negative stereotypes of Black men, but here Aries basically makes Black men.....or "real niggaz" as he puts it....out to be shiftless, intellectually deprived, social outcasts with animal like instincts. 1. First of all lets deal with Aries and the way he looks and carries himself during the interview. What's up with the dark rings around his eyes looking like he's a crack head or bum? They have make up artists and Aries has been in Hollywood long enough to know how to properly present himself infront of the camera. And why can't he sit still and talk intelligently instead flopping all around and slouching lazily all over the place like someone who belongs in special education? 2. He makes a distinction between White people, Black people who can get along with them, and "real niggaz" who live somewhere in the ghetto. So Black people who know how to get along in society aren't "real" Black folks, but if you live in the 'hood and are socially marginalized from the greater society....that makes you more "Black"???? The man is sick! 3.He talks about how "real niggaz" can smell a fake or phoney as soon as they come around. Although I understand what he's saying and we can often pick up on Black people who aren't used to being around other Black people and have a White vibe about them......the way he puts it is totally fucked up. To stick his nose out and sniff like a damn animal and claim that's what "real niggaz" can do to sniff out the real is basically degrading Black people as savages or animals who rely on primitive instincts like sniffing and smelling to indentify who belongs and who does not. I'm sure he doesn't mean it that way but that's how it will come across to most people OUTSIDE of our community. 4. Finally, I hope people know that the "Vlad" of Vlad TV that Aries is being interviewed by is a White guy! So here's a negro getting infront of a White man dissing another Black man and freely using the word "nigga" with seemingly no thought about it. He's talking just as casual to this White man as if he's talking to another Black man with no sense of watching what he's saying or how he's saying it. Some of the garbage he's saying he obviously KNOWS better than to say and he tries to catch himself a few times from dissing....but goes ahead and does it anyway with no sense of control over his words. It goes right back to my complaint about how reckless so many of our people are around White people to the point that they no longer have any common sense. And as cool as Vlad may be, he has a history of fostering "beefs" among Black people on his shows. I've seen several instances where beefs have been started with dumb negroes just getting up and letting Vlad entice them or instigate them into saying something negative about another Black person and then an on-going beef is started. BTW..... I'm suprised at how Aries is dissing his former partner from Mad TV. Infact, he doesn't even mention them being together on that show during the entire interview. I looks to me like a little jealousy thing going on with Aries.

Now EVERYBODY wants to be an alpha male......lol. But remember, you can't have too many alpha males in society because they end up fighting eachother for the role of dominance. It's the proverbial "took many cooks in the kitchen" or "too many chiefs and not enough indians". I believe you CAN have more than one, indeed you NEED more than one alpha male in most organizations and in most communities in general because the men responsible for protecting and directing the community must have the aggressiveness and spontaneity that only alphas tend to possess. However it must also be understood that we need beta and gamma males who don't mind staying in the background following orders and being a force of stability in any organization or community. Infact, they should be the MAJORITY. And this is one of the problems I think the Black community in America suffers from.....every brother wants to be the king. One of the reasons I think Asians are so successful in this society is because so many of them seem to be so "gamma" or less aggressive and spontaneous. They tend to follow orders and do what society calls "the right thing" (go to school, study hard, go to work, work hard, get married, ect....). All it takes is one or two alphas among them to lead the way and the rest will just fall in line. With so many Black people....male and female.....we all want to be leaders or do our own thing. 40 years ago people were complaining that Black people were suffering from a lack of leadership, now it appear since the advent of youtube and facebook there are TOO MANY leaders! Del You stated that we were all Alpha Males. I was the first to acknowledge this fact. Because I am an intellectual alpha. I am sustain by ideas,. We are sentenced by our convictions. - Del Strachen SAY WHAT????? Man, you were the FIRST one to jump up and deny being alpha! Lol....remember saying: "Nah , I ain't an Alpha Male but I'll spar with them."

Troy Perhaps because both "Race" and "Alpha Male" are technical terms and are also used more loosely in colloquial settings. I see now it is that later usage which causes the most confusion. Both terms are used loosely, but both terms have actual definitions and genetically based realities. Just like race is originally based on the genetics of physical traits that express themselves phenotypically, the concept of Alpha male is based on the genetics of having a high testosterone level that expresses itself in dominance and aggression. I do agree however that the culture is aligned to create compliant worker bees and blind consumers. If that means eliminating the "Alpha Males," who would fight against compliance with the program, then I agree with you. Alpha males don't spend all day scrolling through their Instagram and Twitter feeds. Not only don't Alpha males spend all their time on social media, I suspect that social media was designed to BREAK or DISRUPT that socially dominant and extrovert spirit that exists among many alpha and socially successful people. Too much time with social media tends to make people withdrawn and shy and overly sensitive in the real world. You see young women walking around angry and looking at every woman they come across in a funny way and you wonder what's wrong with her......it's because she just got through fighting with a bunch of other girls on social media and now she subconsciously associates the girls she comes across in real life as being the girls she was fighting with on twitter or facebook. I had a conversation with a young man from Korea a few years back and he was proud to say that he working on his doctorate degree at 21 years old in some sort of computer designing program. I asked him did he have a girlfriend and he said YES, they've been dating for 4 months and it's all been ONLINE. Alpha males tend to be good at reading people by studying their faces and their expressions while interacting with them, and you can't learn that on social media.....only by dealing with people face to face.

　 　 Troy Are you asking because you have no clue? Did nothing I wrote in response to Cynique's post reveal anything to you? Indeed does my activities and behavior, as reflected on the website, over that last 20 years say nothing to you about my vision? Let me answer your question with a question. What do you think my vision is? Man, what's wrong with you. .....snapping at me. Did Del put a spell on YOU or something.....lol You haven't been the same since I got into it with him a few weeks ago....damn. Whatever he put on you, I might have to send for some medicine from Jamaica to get it off....lol. Anyway..... To be honest with you NO I hadn't read the response you gave to Cynque. I'm not in a habit of reading words intended for someone else. I do it from time to time as a reference but generally I don't have the time to go through every exchange that really isn't addressed to me. Infact, the only reason I read Del's post was because the word "vision" in it caught my attention and I like to think of myself as a visionary also. Your question. I mean....... It's obvious that you want to give authors a platform to display their works and after reading your post to Cynique your love of selling books helps me understand what you're trying to do even more. But I thought you maybe had an even GRANDER vision like setting up bookstores around the nation or establishing a major publishing institution. I'd like to see some brothers (and sisters) open up a CHAIN of book stores around the nation like Barnes and Noble but selling a greater variety of not just Black but "underground" books that have long been taken off the market by most White booksellers.

Dan My name is Dan, and I am an ignorant white fool. I am also a college student who enjoys writing fiction, even though I’m not the best at it. Over the past couple years, I’ve somehow managed to concoct a strange, rather idiotic scifi/fantasy novel whose major themes include race and inequality. It's 700 pages of ramblings on things I know nothing about Well, if you're an ignorant fool who isn't good at what he's doing..... The best advice to give you is to QUIT. Drop out, save yourself some money and a lot of debt....lol. As far as what type of demeanor you should portray your protagonist as possessing, I'm not sure but WHATEVER you choose just don't make him GAY. The movie Moonlight did enough celebrating and promoting gay Black masculinity to last 10 years without anyone else contributing. If you want a pretty good idea of how to portray a Black man who is angry and fed up with racism but doesn't want to appear "animalistic" or outrageous then get on youtube and watch some footage of Malcolm X speaking and doing interviews. Perhaps you could model your character's reaction to racism and the injustices he faces based on Malcolm's model of intelligently and articulately dismantling his opponents but in a non-threatening way that is admired by the audience. Make his character a member of a "debate team" at his school where he can express himself appropriately.

When I look at this current society, I don't see the most dominant alpha males being the most successful financially. I see a lot of "nerdy" types like Bill Gates or Forbes....men who may be smart but are clearly not very domineering or physically aggressive....enjoying a lot of finacial success in this current society. Now I'm not saying that their success is not deserved; nor am I saying that men who go around being vulgar and hurting people should be rich. But let us not say that the most dominant and aggressive men (the real definition of an alpha male) are the one's having the most success today. Clearly being physically aggressive and trying to "gangster" your way into success doesn't work in this society like it did....say....4000 years ago in the rainforest where it required more physical strength and courage to bring food home to the family. It has nothing to do with Black men being perceived as gorillas or savages. It's about a society that has been purposefully engineered from being a predominately blue collar one to a predominately white collar one. Designed to weed out masculine men who were able to accumulate wealth and take care of their families with factory jobs and skilled trades that didn't require a lot of education but took physical strength and elbow-grease....... And replace THEIR jobs with those that require an ever higher degree of education, and fill them with men who "know how to behave themselves" in the work place and not challenge authority. Besides more cell phones...instead of actually producing a tangible product, this new generation of worker accumulates his wealth primarily by inventing new ways for people to communicate with eachother or plays around with insurance, stocks, and other investments. I call it "revenge of the nerds".

I don't know but perhaps much of humanity was programmed for self-destruction as part of the Grand Intelligent Design all along, only to rebuild itself. Maybe each "age" or "world" is designed in a way that once the population reaches a certain limit and/or technology advances to a certain level....it implodes in on itself ending in a nuclear calamity only for a small sliver of humanity to survive and begin a new world all over again. Troy Not to change the subject of this thread but..... What is your vision...in detail?

I believe that this "world" or "system" which is based on Western hegimony has designed it so that aggressive, masculine, sexual/sensual men are seen as abnormal and dismissed by society. Aggressive men like Tupac Shakur or maybe even a Mike Tyson who in past ages would have been considered the "knights in shining armor" who were born to defend the society and would have been revered for their boldness and bravery by society.....are in this society considered socially deviant and are often locked up and even killed off. Meanwhile the weak, passive, feminine type male is often promoted as the ideal. They are welcomed in school, at work, and even in tight social circles as their presence is considered "non threatening". The system promotes the male who keeps his head down, does what he is told in school and at work, and shuffles on home to his wife. Compare most Asian men with most AfroAmerican and Latino men in this society. The differences in behavior are striking, and the differences in financial status is also just as striking. In the past, the dominant alpha male was usually the wealthiest with the most choices among the females and had plenty of offspring; today the dominant alpha male is often unmarried, can't hold a job, can't half take care of his children, and does his best to stay out of jail.

Cynique you talk about me worrying about white people thinking blacks are oversexed. Why do you worry about blacks saying nigga in front of white folks? More and more people are gettin tired of political correctness. Young folks call this "keepin it real". Because we instinctively knew that if we called eachother "nigga" around white people it won't be long before they start asking for permission to use the word too and demanding a reason why they shouldn't. We didn't articulate it in those words, but again.....instinctively we knew that frequently calling eachother nigga around White people will almost invite them to want to use the word to see if they could get away with it. A lot of our young people keep it real not out of honesty, but because they don't have enough sense and especially wisdom to know the importance of keeping certain things to themselves. I've heard young Black men at jobs talk about selling dope or being locked up while White people would stare at eachother and smirk. Meanwhile another young White male on one of those same jobs may have a METH LAB at his house along with all types of pornography and guns and you don't hear him uttering a word about it. You don't realize what he's into until the police bust him and he ends up on the news. It seem that a lot of White people....even in thier YOUTH.....have more common sense than a lot of our youth.

You know..... I have an opinion about this comment Del just made about Cynique's post to me. But I'm gonna wait and check out other people's reactions (or lack there of) to it before I respond with my own thoughts. Troy Pioneer, again the formula describes how much energy "has," it is not what matter "is." Two bananas = $1, that does not mean bananas "are" dollars. Get it? I'm not scientist but I believe your understanding of this equation is wrong. E=MC2 doesn't mean energy simply HAS accelerated mass or vice versa. In mathematics the equal sign (=) stands for the word "IS". It means that energy IS accelerated mass. Energy and matter....according to that formula....are the SAME but just in different forms. I did not ay thoughts are energy either. Thoughts require energy, be generated and sensed by the brain and sensed, but again that is not what they are. Wind powers a sailboat, but a sailboat is not wind. Right? OK. I guess I misunderstood what you said then. When you said, "The energy produced by the brain's activity, which includes our thoughts are not" I figured you were including thoughts with energy....not with "brain activity". However...... IF you don't consider thoughts to be energy, and you certainly don't consider them matter...then what DO you think thoughts are?

Cynique Who said thoughts are "matter"? I didn't. You refuse to acknowledge that there is a difference between the territory of the mind, and the environment of the physical world where vibrating energies have solidified. ??? I'm not sure how I could refuse to acknowledg it when I'M the one who told YOU: "Some would say...and I tend to BELIEVE....that the material world and so-called solid matter are just particles of energy vibrating at a much slower pace than those in the more spiritual realms and that's why they appear more solid." I've BEEN known that matter is just vibrating forms of energy that have slowed down to a more solid state! 　 　 The answer to the questions you posed should be obvious by the definitions but, since you apparently are not an abstract thinker they do not register with you. My memories are revived recollections of events that have already happened in the physical world and while I am recalling them they do not materialize into a scene that can be watched by an audience. They are not tangible. When different fragrances or aromas trigger flashbacks, my sense of smell does not magically transform what I have smelled into tangible entities or objects. When someone imagines or theorizes about something, until it is energized into fruition in the physical world for all to perceive, it exists in the intangible limbo of the abstract realm. But I wasn't talking about mere "memories". I was talking about DREAMS and FLASH BACKS.....both of these events are much stronger than mere memories. Unlike memories or even day dreams where the thoughts are more or less "abstract" as you say, in dreams you FEEL and HEAR and SEE. You hear your friend calling you to come and play and see them and feel the wind on your face as you run toward them. Clearly your senses are at work. If thoughts are not material then what are the sensory nerves picking up that allows you to FEEL, HEAR, and SEE the "thoughts" in your dreams? It's the same with flash backs. When soldiers and trauma victims are having flash backs they SMELL and HEAR the environment they formerly experienced years ago. You don't "smell" a mere thought or hear it. Yet they say they can smell and hear the environment just like they were back in it. What are they picking up on if thoughts are totally abstract with no material basis? Proceeding on your argument, i could dream I won the lottery and wake up a rich woman, something that wouldn't happen because my abstract dream existed only in my mind. Or, while remembering my wedding day, I would be holding a bouquet and standing next to my groom-to-be, something that would not be the case because my memories are the intangible remnants of the tangible past. I don't recall making an "argument"....... But perhaps in the dream world (realm of existence) if you won the lottery you WOULD be a rich woman! When you make up in THIS world you wouldn't be, but back in a certain "dimension" of the dream world you WOULD be. I've had many "mini-series" dreams where I would dream about something and a few weeks later do a continuation of the same dream as it played out further. Who's to say that the dream world isn't some sort of alternate reality? Troy Also why are you belaboring the point on thoughts being matter? The brain is matter. The energy produced by the brain's activity, which includes our thoughts are not We both agree that thoughts are energy. But let's take it a step further........ Didn't both you and Delano agree with the E-MC2 theory of Einstein? If energy is the same as accelerated mass/matter......then mass/matter must be slowed energy. Thus.... THOUGHTS=ENERGY=MATTER

It took me 10 minutes to research this and get to the bottom of it because of all the confusion about what Iguodalla said and what his intention was. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/andre-iguodala-10000-fine-do-what-master-say-comment_us_58c8020ce4b081a56def7af6 I believe he's of Nigerian descent and probably isn't quite as sensitive to inferences of Black atheletes being slaves to White management as most other Black Americans. I'm almost sure.....almost...that he meant it as some sort of off-the-cuff joke without thinking it all the way through. But I also think it's a generational issue. African or non-African......30 or 40 years ago NO Black person would have dared say some shit like THAT in public. They would have instinctively known better. It may sound like the cliche'ish thing for the older generation to say about the youth but it seems like most of the younger people today (under 30) lack basic common sense and the instictive social skills of past generations. Right after Iguodala made that comment about doing what the master says, he THEN started talking about "dumn niggas" to a reporter on television. Just no social instinct or filter....saying whatever pops up in his head. I remember as a kid growing up we called eachother "nigga" all day and all night but NEVER said it around White people. No one told us not to. We didn't even organize and make a decision among ourselves to not say it around them. We just INSTINCTIVELY knew not to say it around them and just followed the code. It seems that sometime after 1995 or perhaps 2000 many Black youth started losing common sense and the social instincts and "skills" that so many of us were known for that defined our coolness. I know white people who are retarded and others who are on drugs who STILL know better than to say certain things that so many Black youth are PROUD to get infront of a camera and say not caring who hears them or what consequences may come. 　

I've seen the film and I like it. It was a little "predictable" but over all I think it was well directed and the actors did a great job. I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet but I'll say.... I think it has pretty "deep" undertones about race relations in the United States. Most of the messages were not open, but they WERE a step above subliminal in a way that most Black people of average intelligence can relate to and grasp.

Cynique I see the definition up there....lol. But it still doesn't answer the question I posed to you. If thoughts are NOT matter then what are dreams and "flash backs" made of? Science tells us that images are made of light. What "light" is shining in one's brain to give us the images we have in dreams? Science also tells us that what we smell when we smell something are very minute particles of the matter before us. But when someone who was traumatized by war or a bad accident has a flash back often times they not only SEE but can SMELL the gunpoweder or burning building or the environment they were in years ago. The matter or concrete material they're smelling is no where around and it happened years ago....yet they're smelling SOMETHING. Troy @Pioneer1 can you answer the same questions? Those questions weren't meant for you to answer. They were rhetorical....examples of questions where there are truths to support BOTH sides of the argument. That was my point about climate change. But yes I can answer them: Like you, climate change I believe is a combination of man made AND natural occurances. Also like you I believe the gay lifestyle is a result of people who are indeed gay and decide to openly be who they are AND a culture that promotes the "metrosexual" male and "queer" lifestyle. But I believe in BOTH creation and evolution. Ofcourse things evolve and mutate with time BUT everything had to have a beginning or starting point somehere in time which means it had to be "created" or brought into existence from non-existence. Notice the word BELIEVE in all of my responses.

Perhaps.... I can't say you're wrong. But if ideas are NOT matter or mass....then what do you think the images in dreams and waking "flash backs" are composed of? I know they are in the mind. But what type of "substance" are those images, sounds, and even SMELLS that people who dream or have flash backs that are so vivid in the mind....what are they made of?

It's about balance and common sense. You can't trust everything "science" says either because different generations of scientists are constantly discovering different things and coming to differnt conclusions about the SAME things. At one point and time blood-letting or draining people's blood out of their bodies in order to release toxins and heal them was standard "science" at the time. Today most people see that treatment as ridiculous if not down right dangerous. Over 150 years ago "scientists" of the United States described a mental disorder called DRAPETOMANIA in which slaves who wanted to run off and leave their plantation were considered crazy as hell for doing so! Just like KNOWLEDGE evolves for the person, SCIENCE evolves for the contemporary scientific body.

Troy I HONESTLY did not post any type of response to any question about climate change until the previous one....lol. I was too focused on the subject at hand to go of on other tangents. Now I DO edit my posts after reading them in order to catch word mistakes or better make my points, but my edits are usually done within the first hour or two after the initial post. But regardless as to whether I edited my response or not, what about my CURRENT (lol) answer to the question? I don't let myself get suckered into these "hot" political questions where you're forced to be on one side or another? -Do you believe climate change is natural OR man-made? -Do you believe a gay lifestyle is environmental OR are they born that way? -Do you believe in evolution OR creation? In all of these questions and more, I've seen evidence that prove BOTH sides are correct to various degrees so to cancel out an entire side of the argument and take hold of just one staunch position make little sense to me.

Del based on the favt that yiu and Pioneer also don't see yourselves as Alpha Males It's not so much that I DON'T see myself as an alpha male, I said I don't see myself as a TOTALLY alpha male. In other words there are some aspects about my personality that aren't very alpha. There are some cases where I'd rather negotiate than engage in head-on conflict like so many alpha males enjoy. 　 Cynique I have changed my mind you are right anout the Alpha Male designation. Oh.... So now that I'M proud to be called an alpha male, now YOU wanna be an alpha male...lol.

I hear exactly what you're saying. Seeing isn't always believing. But if you are of normal psychology....meaning not mentally ill or intellectually deficient....and your mind is sober and not influenced by drugs or alcohol. Then USUALLY what you observe along with your judgement can give you a pretty accurate understanding of reality. If we went around being suspicious of EVERYTHING we experienced or observed how would most people be able to live their lives? You wake up....but should you get out of bed? Perhaps the floor is just an illusion and you end up falling through it. You go to take a shower....but should you REALLY grab for that soap and wash cloth (Black people use wash cloths with their soap....lol) ? It could be an illusion and the towel turns out to be the cat. However when it comes to dealing with people or institutions who have a HISTORY of deceptive behavior, that's when it's wise to be skeptical and not believe everything you see and hear from them just on face value. For example growing up in the city me and some of my friends would see something happen in the neighborhood and see the news crew out at the scene. Then later on we'd go back home and watch television to see if any of our pictures made it on the news and the story the achors gave was TOTALLY different from what we saw go down. They'd even put on witnesses giving statement in clips that were called "neighbors" who never even lived in the neighborhood!! We'd be like, "Man who is SHE??????" That's how you learn at an early age not to trust everything the media reports.

Cynique Ideas, per se, are not vibrating energy . I beg to differ. Ideas are thoughts....and thoughts are INDEED engery. There are some who believe that thoughts and ideas actually are MATERIAL in their composition but in another "realm" or "plane" such as the spiritual or astral. We know in our dreams...which are composed of thoughts......the objects of our perception seem almost as real and solid as objects of the waking reality whether its a food, a vehicle, or touching another human in the dream. Troy I recall you responding to my question about climate change. In fact I reacted to your response here. However. I do not see your response now. ??? Maaaan don't START that shit....lol. If I had left you a response THEN....then it would still be there NOW. You're so frustrated from your denial of race that now you're starting to HALLUCINATE. Seeing words that never existed and thinking I posted them....LMAO. But I hope you understand my point about having an EVEN skepticism concerning spiritual matters in general and the "near death experiences" in specific and how a lot of scientists who try to dismiss the idea can't be blindly trusted.

In English language, is it rude or insulting to call someone a colored person? Or a black person? Or maybe a person of color? Thanks for having the good sense to actually ASK these questions rather than just ASSUME them. I'm sure Troy and Delano have giving you a lot of information so I just want to chime in and give my 2 cents worth also....... In contemporary United States today, calling Black people "colored" is considered a bit insulting. It's almost as bad as calling them a "negro". In South Africa the word "colored" has a different connotation, but in the United States you shouldn't say it. However it IS acceptable to refer to Black, or some Latinos and Asians as people OF COLOR. COLORED = BAD OF COLOR = GOOD When it comes to calling someone "Black". It's usually not bad, but a lot of people who would technically be considered "Black" from outside of the United States from neighboring countries like Puerto Rico, Jamaica, or even parts of Africa may object to being called "Black".......so be careful. Usually calling AfroAmericans (or African Americans) Black is OK....usually.