Troy

That was very spiritual of you LOL! I'm always begging the universe for something... a good woman, more money, the death of Facebook This and the rest of what you wrote is basically the idea behind The Secret. Have you read that book? Interestingly, I have never thought of it this way before, but I agree with he statement. Indeed it is no different than say social media. People tout the "power" of social, but that is because they have been trained to think that was by the social media marketers and they don't know anything else. Of course I prefer the Thines and Thous in the KIng James Version: Deuteronomy Chapter 20, verses 1 - 20 1 When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 2 And it shall be, when ye are come nigh unto the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people, 3 And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; 4 For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. 5 And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. 6 And what man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. 7 And what man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. 8 And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart. 9 And it shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people. 10 When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. 11 And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. 12 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: 13 And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: 14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. 15 Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. 16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: 17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: 18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God. 19 When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege: 20 Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.

Yes, everything including you question to me and the words I'm typing now. It is all deterministic. As @Delano said our sense of free will is an illusion -- a elaborate one to be sure. It is so complex, that to our simple minds it is indistinguishable from free will or randomness.

@Cynique you know if you throw a ball one can determine precisely where it will land given enought information about the weight of the ball, your strength, wind speed, angle of release, etc. It is a relatively minor calculation once you have all the info. Im suggesting, as Del implied, that even your very decision the throw the ball could be predetermined with enough information. The idea that you "decided" to throw the ball is an illusion. No different than the ball "deciding" to land on the ground after sailing through the air.

Yeah happens all the time. We used to think they were Gods, then aliens It was probably just a weather ballon...

This has to be true (I think) But this does not mean there is a reason for anything, and it means everything that happened or will happen could be determined provided we had the computational power.

This is really a follow up to a conversation that divereged from the inherent beauty of Black women to spirituality. Often we hear the phrase, "Everything happens for a reason." The phrase is bandied about so much it is a cliche; a catch-all, used in place of an actual explanation. No matter how bad the event: "Everything happens for a reason." Death of a child, genocide, a fender bender, lost keys, running into an old flame or meeting a new one; "Everything happens for a reason." Of course this means that the Universe, Zeus, Jehovah, or (insert your favorite deity) had a hand in it. Does anyone believe this? Does everything really happen for a reason? Why?

Thanks for the elucidation @NubianFellow I mostly ageee with what you wrote (though it is not sentiment I typically express publucally (save my closest friends who mostly feel the same way). I do not know about all the religions out there to be confident enough to make this statement. Surely there is some overlap with your definition of spirituality and some religion ou there, but again i dont know. @NubianFellow do you pray? Of course i don't mean in the conventional sense as to some mythical omniscient deity...

@NubianFellow (or anybody) what does "spirtuality" mean to you? While I get you reject religion in totality. Spirtuality implies a belief in a spirt or soul. Do you believe we have eternal non corporeal soul? Do you believe "we are all one?" Do you believe in a God. What hapoens after we die? While I don't follow a religion for the reasons you stated and more. I do believe there is more to our existence than what we can perceive, but that is probably nothing more than wishful thinking; a hope that after we kick the bucket that there is more than us just turning to dust... religion seems to be a more eloborate, ritualized manifestation of that same hope. That is why I don't come down as hard as you do on folks who follow a religion. Some people need the structure and certainly and my world view would provide little confort. Of course I draw a line and woukd come hard on religious folks who wanna force their relgion on others, which the leadership generally wants to do. The masses however just need something to believe in, to help them endure the often shitty existence here on Earth.

...yes he always does

@Delano @Chevdove not all cell phones use GPS in their navigqtion systems. Also did you actually read the article? It said unless you were in the extreme northen hemispheres the impact is negligible and that is assuming the magnetic field has any impact on cell phone nav systems -- and that is a big if. Clouds have no impact on the satellite systems or the earths magnetic field. Civillian system do not have same level of accuracy as milliarty systems. Maybe when we have self driving cars, but i assure your your cell phone is not nearly as precise as a military grade system. You should have asked your relative how the earth's magnetic field impacts your GPS system. Besides what does having an aerospace degree have do with it? I have a degree in electrical engineering which is actually more related to the subject. But you don't need a degree to understand the concepts. Since he said exactly what was in the article, please copy and o3aste the part that says cell phone GPS systems will malfunction because of the current state of the earths magnetic fields.... I'll wait.... It was just a coincidence your system failed when you heard the story.

I'm overwhelmed. Y'all may as well he speaking Greek. But i will print this out and try to understand what ya'll are talking about-- when I'm well rested.

Naw @Cynique, @Pioneer1was combining the words "Silly" with "Cynique" to get "Sillique," like "sillioneer" or "sillelano"

@Pioneer1 men are better at navigating than women (on average). Dependence on GPS only makes one's ability to navigate worse.

@Delano I was only on the project for a year and performed functional tests. I did not design the satellite system. The consumer navigation systems was decades way. So I don't know what the relationship between the the Earth's magnetic field and how Chevdove's navigation system works. I do know GPS systems do not function like compasses. The Earth's magnetic field is not part of the equation. Your position is determined by triangulating your position from multiple satellites (which incidentally Del time dilation needs to be factored in for accuracy). I strongly doubt the changing position of the Earth's magnetic north was the cause of your problem @Chevdove. I suspect it was either human error; crappy hardware or software; or an out of date map.

Thanks for sharing the info Dana: https://aalbc.com/events/index.php?st=Virginia#The+Hampton+University+Literary+Festival

...if there is a list of Black writers with more names list I've not seen it:

@NubianFellow I must say your views on race are fascinating. For a second I thought you were gonna bring up Yakub. The white race is something european people made up to distinquish themselves from Africans and has nothing to do with neanthedals. As far as who has a soul, or not, I'll leave that up to reglious folks to pass judgement. Maybe I'm operating with a different definition of "king and queen: than you are. There typically is one king in a given area. they sit on a throne and have subjects, who serve them. How can everybody be a king or queen? Now if you mean we should treat or revere each other as if we were all the highest level of royalty. I can get with that. Well that is my point; Sistas do have more important things to worry about, but hair, for many, is a huge priority. Maybe not for you, but for many women...

I read this review and immediately thought of @Pioneer1 "Professor Banks concentrates his book on interviews with middle class black women, who he says are the most likely to be unwed of any group in the country..." "Feminist leader Gloria Steinem knew just how to piss off and intimidate white men in power when she showed up in Newsweek, at the start of the Women’s Liberation Movement, with her “boyfriend,” the very dark, handsome, well-sculpted, black Olympic star Rafer Johnson."

Is a exhibition of greater evil an indication if supremacy? If i go into your home, club you to death while you slept, am i superior to you? But to your point, the whole notion that all Black people in the US are Kings and Queens is wishful thinking at best delusional at worse...if everone was a king or queen the terms would not distinguish us in any way or mean very much. That does not that diminish any of us, for we have unique characteristics that make us great in some way. Well i can't tell you what to claim but if you are like most African Americans you been here at least a few generations perhaps a couple hundred years and by definition are indegenous. But it is true your DNA did start in Africa. This also true of every soul on Earth. Aa far as hair is concerned I think I look better without it. But I'm sure this opinion is shaped the the larger culture. What escapes me is why some women reject the idea that they are HEAVILY influenced by marketers who drive the culture. It is a wonder Black women can maintain their sanity under such pressure. I think @NubianFellow's perspective is healtier, bt im nit about to advise women onbwhat to do with the

Well it is the voters that put him in power. In 2020 45 will win the popular vote -- especially if Kamala Harris is the Dem nominee.

You aint miss anything really. But if 45 continues to read what he is given, without going off script, manage to stay out of jail, continue to gerrymander democrats out of existance, and continue the use of Russian trolls. He has a very good shot in 2020.

Yes it is. I also rank Essence as the top Black-owned website.

Dude the employment situation is jacked up, Many have given up looking and are not counted in the unemployment figures, wages are shit and benefits are nonexistent. But that is not the point. This speech helps 45, will rally his base, and even get more people on board with him. Let me know what you thank after you've heard it. Abrams speech was fine, but did not directly address anything 45 said. The bit about her father walking in the freezing rain after giving his only coat to a homeless man was a bit much LOL! Her family only had one car -- poor baby how did they manage to survive!

Charcoal Joe: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley Publication Date: Jun 14, 2016 List Price: $26.95 (store prices may vary) Format: Hardcover Classification: Fiction Page Count: 320 ISBN13: 9780385539203 Imprint: Doubleday Publisher: Penguin Random House Parent Company: Bertelsmann and Pearson PLC Book Description: Walter Mosley’s indelible detective Easy Rawlins is back, with a new detective agency and a new mystery to solve. Picking up where his last adventures in Rose Gold left off in L.A. in the late 1960s, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins finds his life in transition. He’s ready—finally—to propose to his girlfriend, Bonnie Shay, and start a life together. And he’s taken the money he got from the Rose Gold case and, together with two partners, Saul Lynx and Tinsford “Whisper” Natly, has started a new detective agency. But, inevitably, a case gets in the way: Easy’s friend Mouse introduces him to Rufus Tyler, a very old man everyone calls Charcoal Joe. Joe’s friend’s son, Seymour (young, bright, top of his class in physics at Stanford), has been arrested and charged with the murder of a white man from Redondo Beach. Joe tells Easy he will pay and pay well to see this young man exonerated, but seeing as how Seymour literally was found standing over the man’s dead body at his cabin home, and considering the racially charged motives seemingly behind the murder, that might prove to be a tall order. Between his new company, a heart that should be broken but is not, a whole raft of new bad guys on his tail, and a bad odor that surrounds Charcoal Joe, Easy has his hands full, his horizons askew, and his life in shambles around his feet.

This is only the 2nd time I listened to 45 speak for more than 5 minutes. The other time was when he gave that press conference where his intern was assaulted. LOL If he is not thrown in jail first, I can easily see him winning, quite handily, in 2020. Man when he introduced those people he got out of jail, I almost forgot about the Central Park Five. Black unemployment the lowest in history -- wow! Stacey Abrams is gonna have he work cut out for her with the Democratic response.