ihath

Ihath People say and do many things, if we live by what people tell us or think of us then we wont be really living. From your comments on my blog and from your stories, I have realised a great strength in you, and though I dont know you, I admire your person that comes through your writings. You have advised me many times, and I fully appreciate it cuz I know it comes from the heart and not out of malice. So ignore those ignorant Pigs and just be Ihath......    

Schizophrenic, paranoiac, psychotic, terms I repeatedly heard bouncing back and forth, used by some idiots so often without even the least hint of self consciousness,

I have been through ALL THAT Ihath;
Similar personal dilemma;
And I damn know how you feel;

Some are so outrageously inconsiderate and totally forgetful of some ill-fated around suffering in silence, enduring real dilemmas inflicted by such indiscriminate illness that strikes out of the blue anywhere or anytime

Trust me Ihath, your brother, if harmful, then it’s owing to his illness, but those undeclared psychos need lock up so as spare others their wicked evil nature    

People call you evil? I can't even imagine what is wrong with the mind of a person that would call you evil from anything that you have written here.

My dear, you are brilliant, funny, and a very talented writer. I have not read a single post by you that hasn't either inspired me in some way, or made me laugh at your delicious sense of satire and irony.

As for your brother, I am truly and honestly sorry for him and your family and can only hope and pray that some day, some way, he is freed from his terrible condition, and can join you all, once again, in laughter and light.

As for what drug to take. I'd suggest heroin, as it did a truly fantastic job of destroying my aunt's life, and of course, seriously hurt our own. She became hopelessly addicted upon the death of her husband some 20 years ago, and has been in and out of every rehab in the area, to no avail. She has never met my wife of 20 years, or our children, who are now nearly all grown up, but I still hold out hope that one day, she'll get well, and can someday become part of the family again.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful razor sharp wit, and refreshingly real sense of humor with the rest of us.

God's Blessings,

- Steve -    

Definitely crystal meth. Fast addiction, very hard to shake, vile physical results, high-powered paranoia. Also easy to get and cheap. Locally produced, too! :p

Stockholm Syndrome? That's the identification of a captive with his/her captors, taking on their viewpoint and siding with them as an unconscious survival tactic.
Probably as a result of your marriage to an Israeli Palestinian. :D    

yo Ihaaaaath,,, have you seen Donnie Darko? check it out if you haven't.    

im curious as to how canadians treat you. are they freaked out when they hear you're an arab muslim? do they treat you any different? after seeing so many muslims cut off heads and blow themselves up to please their "god" i would be pretty freaked out too. never know when a muslim will walk into a mcdonalds, then declare a jihad when their order takes longer than 4 mins.    

well if you want to throw your life down the gutter and bring along as many people as you can with you I recommend heroin or crack. If you wanna do it more slowly; cocaine. Now if you want to end up psychotic experiment with large doses of LSD.

you can also start smoking and become a raging alcoholic.... would end up having the same effect but without the illegal touch to it

hmmmm
it sucks that a person cannot voice his/her opinion without someone else resorting to name calling or offering advice on how to do it. Maybe the internet is the one suffering from a sort of highly contagious dicease that mentally reduces adults to children

Javier    

I find myself in a familiar position. For some reason, many people, especially friends visiting from overseas, seem to think that I must be an expert on drugs. I try to dissuade them, usually fruitlessly. People think there is some benefit to be derived from blowing up the house of their mind.

Ihath, I am sorry to hear about your brother. May his suffering grow less.    

Well, I have a few suggestions of what you can tell Abdullah, though they pretty much run along the lins of what Dick Cheney says to Senators he doesn't like.

Your success is good, and I wish you well on it and future success in your book writing.

I don't know what it's like to have a schizophrenic family member, though both sides of my family suffer from depression, but I doubt that is really comparable. I can only offer hugs to you which I imagine you prefer them to advice.

I also don't get where you could be deemed to have Stockholm syndrome as you faced heat from some anti-war folks in Vancouver for condemning Sadaam, and I say good for you, for that makes you more credible and independent-minded.

Don't fret over a few guys like Josh Scholar or some otehrs who attack you, as a search on technocrati may show other conservatives who may not always agree with you, but absolutely love you.

Now, as for drugs, the simplest is the best. Good old fashioned alchohol (and being from New Orleans I know how easy it is to abuse, as my father's family is loaded with them). Boose may not be as imaginative as cocaine, LSD, heroine, or mushrooms, but its easy to get and legal, too.

Anonymous> I know the McDonald's thing was a joke, but I doubt that scenario as a really devout muslim would eat at McDonald's for halal reasons, and one who would abuse jihad woudl find McDonald's a symbol of globalization to be attacked for different reasons. I would love to see a retail store declare a jihad on prices, though :)

F in Amsterdam> I understand your comments as people assume I like to drink and have alchohol induced fun, because I'm both from New Orleans and an Irish Catholic from my mom's side (New Orleans French from my dad's side). Instead I would prefer to read a book than go to a party, which does not fit the New Orleans stereotype :)    

thomas, sadly i wasnt joking about mcdonalds. i dont find anything funny about people being found with their severed head in garbage bags. however, i am curious as to how canadians deal with these muslim arab people. i wonder if ihath has ever been subjected to racism because her fellow religious brothers are cutting off heads in iraq and killing children in russia, etc. it sure seems like the iraqi arabs have a lot of enemies since they've killed or kidnapped americans, british, french, italians, russians, koreans, kuwaitis, jews, egyptians, japanese, kurds, nepalese, etc etc. its nice to see these animals dancing with their guns in the air after someone had their head cut off though. yeah, i want to be a muslim.    

Yeah! It is safe to go to MacDonalds in the US again. Cat Stevens was denied entry to the US. All Americans should be able to sleep safe tonight.    

Well there are several things not funny about the Cat Stevens thing. First is what if he were a real terrorist on a watch list that got through and on the plane. Somebody needs faster computer software.

Second, is the fact that the guy knows he has been "banned" in the USA, and thinks he's above the law and come watzing in because he wants to. I hope they lock him up and throw away the key. If he doesn't like the way the things are done in the USA, he can run for congress like everyone else, but he needs to get a clue.    

"Second, is the fact that the guy knows he has been "banned" in the USA"

yes, I bet everyone that has been detained by the watch list knows they were on the watch list on the first place.....

wait a sec, wasn't even senator Kennedy detained by one of those airplane lists designed to keep the US safe?

another thing I find amusing is how easily you condem muslims for the behavior of the few. After all there are probably almost a million muslims around the world. Why don't you also condem christians that behave even worse than muslim terrorists...

anyhow try to keep your biased political world views out of a post about the suffering endured by people with mental disorders and their families/friends

Javier    

Javier,
There are 1.3 billion muslims in the world. And thank you for the thoughtful post.    

yeah that Cat Stevens is one scary guy. i tell ya...watch out. he might re-re-release "peace train" once the US tries to attack another country.    

Anonymous #1> First of all, I am an American, though my girlfriend is a Newfie. I doubt Canadians ahve any real problems with Arab Muslims or Turkish Muslims, Chinese Muslims (primarily Uighurs), African Muslims, Muslims from Southeatsern Asia, European Muslims from the Balkans, Native American Muslims (which there are a few), or Indian Muslims (from India) but some Canadians are Islamaphobic, as are some Americans, some Greeks, and probably anyone.

The people who behead "infidels" and kill in the name of God (whether one call Him Allah, Buddha, Yahweh, Steve) is pretty despicable, but that isn't a reason to brand an entire faith. If Islam si so bad, then why did prominent neo-conservative Intellectual Stephen Schwartz convert to Islam?

Personally I notice an odder reaction when an American meets an Arab Christian, as we often think all Arabs are muslim. I've met a few Arab Christians and Muslims who were wonderful folks and solid Republicans. I also knew a girl in my fraternity (it was a coed business fraternity) who's dad was Syrian so she was technically Muslim and one fo her best friends was a Conservative Jew who was also in the Fraternity.

As for victims of extremism, a number of victims are Muslim, including Kurds, Kuwaitis, Egyptians (though a few of the Egyptians may also be Coptic Christians..which are a pretty neat faith, too), and as for Nepal, what happened as awful and the repsonse of attacking a Mosque in Kathmandu was also reprehensible.

Javier> As far as Ted Kennedy being a threat to the US...I can only smirk over that one...as he's one of my favorite political targets, but I take pot shots at Buchanan to even it out :)    

I don’t care if someone is a muslim or a pink elephant; if they are on a watch list, they need to be stopped, because that’s what I pay the government to do. The laws are for everybody. If he thinks there has been a mistake, then he can use the system to appeal it or clear it up, just like the rest of us.


I said nothing about Islam being muslim; you simply made an assumption, so perhaps you should reevaluation your own personal bias and manners before you dump on someone else.    

"I said nothing about Islam being muslim"

huh?!
what the....

Muslim - a believer or follower of Islam

I don't get it. Where you talking about muslims or arabs or what when you made the McDonalds post? By your comments you seem to regard all/most muslims as terrorists even though the ones doing any terrorism are a very small percentage of this world community, their faith being Islam. And even then they claim to be doing it in the name of their faith even though most of the people sharing said faith denounce their actions as erroneous/evil/not representative of Islam


Ihath,
errata - switched an m for a b. Wanted to say billion...
hehe
my mistake

Javier    

Javier,

Cat Stevens=Yusuf Islam, not muslim, not Islam.

I was responding to something sarcastic that ihath posted about Americans sleeping safe and being able to go to MacDonalds because Cat Stevens had been deported. All right, I had a bad day, and I was being crankly; otherwise I would have let it pass.

I think the law is there for a reason, and it should apply to all people. Stevens doesn't seem the least bit dangerous to me, but that is not my decision to make.

You reached the conclusion that I think all muslims are terrorists or that I was dumping on a Muslim. There could be nothing further from the truth. I could care less what God people worship, or don't for that matter.    

so much hated for americans on this site. what a surprise that it all seems to come from canadians. wasnt it not too long ago that ihath declared that she gives no opinions? is there even one post that doesnt have something against americans or a comment showing hatred for americans? canadians can have cat stevens for all i care. canadians can have all the terrorist muslims they want too as long as they keep the animals in the cages and dont let them cross the border.    

hmmm, old Cat S hey...

oh i've been smiling lately
thinking~about the good things to~come
and i believe it could be
something good has begun

now I’ve been crying lately
thinking about the world as it is
why must we go on hating
why can’t we live in bliss

cause out on the edge of darkness
there rides a peace train
oh peace train take this country
come take me home again    

Best of luck Ihath. Very much enjoy you sharing your thoughts. Your humor gives me a smile. Your intelligence and experience give me insight. Your history parallels a very good female friend of mine who was born in Damascus, grew up Kuwait City and now lives in Slovenia. I hope that you find as much success with your book as with your other life endeavors.

On the topic of discrimination. I live in a smallish beach town along Florida's northern Gulf Coast. I consider myself a middle of the road type of guy. To me this means in part that I do my best to listen to all sides of an issue and make compromises for the better good. Most likely it is people similar to me who will decide this upcoming election.

It is not rare in this town to see women in hijab, to go to a Doctor that practices Islam....a dentist....a business owner. A family in the mall tugging along several little girls all neatly dressed in hijab. Again, I live in a smallish city.

Among many artists that I enjoyed in the early 70's was Cat Stevens. I'll bet if I looked around in the attic I may still find some of his albums among the photos of long haired male friends, old girlfriends in bell bottom jeans...etc. I'm not going to frisbee his albums into the Gulf....but I do look at them differently. The same little innocent magic of his verse is no longer there. Cat is probably as dangerous as a house fly.....but,I don't think that I or the US gov should be apologizing for his entry denial. There was a time when this denial situation would be absurd. For the better part of Cat's life he was welcomed here.

When I pass this family tugging along the little girls in the mall, when my cart bumps into the lady wearing hijab in the grocery store, when at the stoplight I look over and a woman wearing hijab is sitting at the wheel. Among the many thoughts that pass through my mind is what a fantastic country this is. Canada as well..Ha..and the west in general. How wonderfully tolerant and accepting. The myriad of religions, ideologies...surely an example of each has found solace here. After smiling, even while smiling as our carts bump I wonder what she feels. I wonder if she feels a lack of innocence. I wonder if she can see the lack of innocence in me. I wonder that she does not throw down her hijab in disgust and scream "Enough", Enough". I don't think that I should apologize for this. And I'm not asking her to either.    

dear muddy

did you hear that the whole Cat thing was a spelling error? on the lighter side, it is safe for you to unearth and enjoy the innocence in those old records afterall. on the darker side (there always is one) imagine if he hadn't been famous...    

it would've been another diana ross fiasco...

on another note, Cocaine is easiest to OD on, if that's your thing, if not, mind-expanding drugs like LSD would do it, or you can always try Crystal Meth like the guy said..
Dear lady, do not listen to this Abdullah (which is MY real name) Arab males in particular have a tendancy to feel severely unsecure when challenged by a female.. simplest of examples:
do you know any arab man who is happily married to an arab woman taller than him?
do you know any arab man who is happily married to an arab woman who has better education?
do you know any arab man who is happily married to an arab woman who has a better job than him?
Sadly, we still want our wives to be of the simple 1+1=2 mentality, there are exceptions, but this is very common..
ARGH!    

Missplaced villianization is the point that I failed to make.

No matter how innocent, it's the image that has been tainted.

The further up the right side of the balance beam, the larger more dangerous the horns become. While moving down the left side, increasingly a halo begins to glow brighter and brighter.

It's those in the center that need to balance the ship...steering a course sometimes a little to the left..while at other times a bit more to the right.

Ihath, avoid the drugs. Tragically, extremes of reality are all you need. Great luck to you and your family

Moonshadow, Moonshadow......    

I am so impressed with all the advice I got from my readers about methods to ruin my life. I always know I could depend on the readers of this blog for good solid advice. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge about toxic substances.

For all of you sending me emails begging me to stay away from drugs. I assure you that when I said I would use drugs and try to ruin my life I was being sarcastic. I meant it as pure satire. I have never done drugs before, and when I say I haven't done drugs, I don't mean "I didn't inhale" like when bill clinton wasn't doing drugs, I mean I never touched that stuff, never come near it and don't hang around the people that do. And I assure you that I never will.

For all of you who adviced booze as a legal alternative. Being the good muslim girl that I used to be, I never touched alchohol and wouldn't allow it into my house until I reached 29. That is when I had my atheist awakening and decided to forget about religion, but even now, I drink maybe one or two classes of wine and then feel like I had enough.

About 2 months ago, Javier sent me an email to cheer me up since I was feeling a bit down and suggested that I have a glass of wine. My husband was out of town, it was friday evening and I was feeling down and I thought to myself "hey! I have never been drunk in my whole life". So I took Javier's advice and drank half a bottle of wine and felt dizzy afterwards. The next day I had a headache and didn't feel so good. So that is the extent of my experience with booze. I don't think I will ever do that again.

Yes, I always do the things that Javier tells me to. For example, he is the one that asked me to open the comments section to every ananymous and his dog and I did. So you can thank/blame him for that as well.    

I accept paypal, cash, and money order donations in lieu of a simple "thanks"...

send me enough money and I'll even open a blogger acount so you can close down the anonymous comments and keep out the riff-raff. But you have to admit the comments are more "interesting" than they used to be
:p

Javier    

Thank goodness you were joking. Weblogging has sent me into serious decline, i am not sure i can think of too many other ways to sink lower and was worried i hadn't come up with enough suggestions.    

This post has been removed by a blog administrator.    

This post has been removed by a blog administrator.    

Dear dear Emigre,
Weblogging is what you make of it. It can take you to the lowest decline or lift you to the highest hights. It is all a state of mind. It all depends on what you choose to click on or not click on. You can keep clicking for god, clicking for Bush or clicking for sports. I click for moments of silence and contemplation.    

freebase, no shots you smoke it.