Religious Tragedy

Religion has a way of strongly influencing one’s life. There are those great and wonderful morals that most people with common sense already practice (regardless of religion) and then there are those old beliefs that even I have never understood.

A vast majority of Christian faiths have always preached about the evils of sex and the always efficient method of abstinence that usually leads to either a variety of sexually transmitted diseases or the always difficult to hide pregnancy here and there.

But, what happens when an unmarried teenager or even a single older woman finds herself pregnant as a result of her culture’s failure to teach her about proper forms of protection because everyone believed that abstinence was the key?

Even worse, what happens when that woman or teenager has to make a choice? Should she keep the baby and face the possibility of being shunned by her parental unit for being a “whore” (believe me, it still happens) or should she be forced to run away shamefully from her home and never come back, out of the shame of bearing a child out of wedlock?

Disregard the possibility of abortion because having one of those will condemn you to "hell" even if you are carrying the spawn of your rapist. Heck, every Christian buddy from bible school and the adults around town will deem you a murderer.

These situations drove a woman to do something completely unnecessary and uncalled for, out of the fear brought upon her by her religion.

30 year old devout Catholic, Elizabeth Tevenan murdered her child and bled to death in the process. The woman claimed that she did not know about her pregnancy, but who the heck doesn’t notice that they have been carrying a live and kicking baby in their stomach for the past couple of months?

Upon giving birth to her baby in a downstairs bathroom, the shamed woman stuffed toilet paper into the baby’s mouth and pinched its nose to stop its breathing. Police, suspicious about the woman’s death, returned to the home and discovered the baby hidden underneath a pile of towels.

Elizabeth had been raised in a strictly religious household and there’s no doubt that she was fearful about the repercussions of having a child out of wedlock. As a result, these parents have not only lost a daughter, but a grandchild as well. But, at least they still have their values, don’t they?

News Article: Catholic woman who didn't know she was pregnant killed her baby after birth and then bled to death, inquest hears

Teenage Drunken Stupidity

When is the world going to learn that not all stupidity is rewarded?

A sixteen year old is currently suing her boarding school for allowing her to be a complete moron.

The student, who at the time happened to be heavily intoxicated, fell from her first floor window and is now permanently disabled.

She had been drinking in preparation for the school’s Valentine’s Ball and later failed a breathalyzer test that had her sent back to her room. Ten minutes later, she fell out of the window while leaning forward, damaging her spinal cord.

The school is being accused of failing to care for the student while knowing that she was under the influence of alcohol and for having windows that can actually open all the way.

The private institution currently allows students to drink beer, cider, and wine at social events that happen to be sanctioned by a house master or mistress and also has windows that open up to twelve inches.

Now, should the school be blamed for the stupidity of one of its students? I’m pretty sure that while the school may allow drinking at social events, the student got hammered before the event. Eye-witnesses have even said that the student was not able to walk properly on her own and was therefore sent back under the company of a fellow classmate.

Seriously. Even the average sixteen year old knows the consequences of heavy drinking and common sense tells us that if you can’t take more than two freakin’ steps without falling, then going off to a party isn’t such a great idea.

News Article: Student left permanently disabled in drunken fall sues school for £300,000

The Worthless Boyfriend

Every parent dreads the day in which their teenage daughter’s hormones begin to kick in and boys begin to flock around in search of their unsuspecting prey. Most of the time, these fearful parents won’t approve of the guy, but everyone knows that the rebellious teenager just won’t give a care in the world about what her worried parents have to say.

At this point, parents can either learn to accept the fact that the guy is there to stay or they can try to lay down the law and fail miserably as their daughter constantly undermines them by sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night.

One mother had something else in mind.

The woman, who clearly did not approve of her daughter’s taste in guys, took matters into her own hands and actually tried to kidnap her daughter’s boyfriend with help from a friend. The two women broke into the man’s house and proceeded to duct-tape him with plans of hauling him off and away to an undisclosed location in Northern California.

Now, while it is obvious that kidnapping your daughter’s boyfriend is a definite short-sighted idea, parents shouldn’t give up that easily. Even if you don’t have full control of who your daughter chooses to date, you can still be aware of who she’s dating. Otherwise, your daughter may turn out to be dating a complete and utter jerk like 24 year old Waqas Arshad.

Arshad was driving down the highway while intoxicated with his 17 year old girlfriend. As with most drunk driving incidents, he ended up in an accident as he crashed into a tree. The man was able to survive, but the girl was not as fortunate.

Even as his girlfriend sat there dying from injuries suffered as result of the crash, Arshad walked out of the car and made no effort to save her. Once emergency services arrived at the scene, he simply lied and told them that there was no one else inside the car, thus allowing the teenage girl to burn to death.

News Article: Mom Allegedly Duct-Taped Man

News Article: Mother of girl who burned to death in blazing car slams 'despicable' driver boyfriend who left her to die

Fool in Love

Rock star Meat Loaf said it best when he uttered the phrase “I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that.”

Everyone knows the usual story. The lower class girl meets the upper class boy; they both fall in love, and the upper class parents just don’t approve.

Usually, the boy has two options. He either continues living a sheltered life dependent of his parents’ wishes or he grows a pair and actually does something about it.

However, one 25 year old Egyptian man took it one step further.

The man, who was apparently old enough to take initiative but did not have the balls to do so, chopped off his member in an act of defiance.

The first thing that comes to mind in the wake of this latest act of stupidity is the obvious mental state of the man. No man in his right mind would take a knife and proceed to slice off his privates.

The next question is… how exactly does inflicting permanent damage upon yourself serve as a way to get back at anyone? If anything, the man, who has completely lost his member, will no longer be able to “make love” or have children.

Either way, the man in this story comes out as the clear loser.

While the man may not have had the balls, in theory, it is now safe to say that he doesn’t have the balls in general.

So, how far would you go for love?

News Article: Egyptian Man Cuts Off Penis for Love

Same-Sex Marriage

Like most young people living in California, I didn’t think much about Prop 8 back in November. The possibility of the mostly open-minded California voting to take away someone’s basic human rights never crossed my mind. Of course, like most people my age, I underestimated the power behind groups of people coming together in unison under one cause. I underestimated the power behind Christianity.

In the weeks leading up to the election, Christians began to gather as they went door to door around their neighborhoods warning people of the apocalypse that would come if people voted against Prop 8. One of these Christians even warned me about the outcome of not maintaining the sanctity of marriage as “God intended it to be,” between a man and a woman. Apparently, if same-sex marriage came to be, then people would eventually be marrying their dogs, and soon the whole world would be going to hell in a handbasket.

Sure, these people were supposedly preaching the word of their so-called “God,” but they were also effectively spreading their propaganda to those who were still undecided or just simply didn’t care about same-sex marriage. As a result, Prop 8, the ban on same-sex marriages passed by an approximate five percent of the votes.

At that point, I began to wonder if California was truly as open-minded as it made itself out to be, if not just another judgmental state that excused itself by having voted for Obama in the way that someone would say that they’re not racist because they attended a party along with other black people, even if they never even exchanged as much as a single glance with them.

However, there might be some hope out there after all. In what appears to be a historical first in America, an openly gay teenager has been voted Prom Queen by his peers. The Los Angeles area teenager won over the always judgmental high school crowd through an inspirational and truly thought provoking speech about gender equality in today’s world.

If a crowd of immature 17 year olds can see through their classmate’s sexual orientation, then who’s to say that the next election won’t bring in different results once these teenagers become official voters?

As far as the whole issue of gay marriage is concerned… how exactly does a gay person being able to make their love for their partner official affect you as a straight person or your existing relationship for that matter? That is what’s truly baffling about this whole situation.

News Article: Gay Male Voted Prom Queen in L.A.

Facebook Stops Fraud

Earlier this month I wrote about a man whose wedding plans fell short as a result of one short-sighted decision and his lack of knowledge of the power behind social networking sites: ‘Facebook Ruins Wedding’

Well, it appears that stupidity has triumphed once again on Facebook.

35 year old Claire Harborne had harbored the master plan during these tough economic times. Being a single mother, Harborne had received approximately £6,519 in housing benefits from authorities. The only problem with that was the fact that Harborne was living with her 8 year old daughter and her loving HUSBAND!

So, how did this master plan fall to shreds? The woman, or the “village idiot” as she refers to herself on her profile page, boasted about the fact that she was happily married on her Facebook page!

Seriously? If there’s one thing that criminals should know, it is that one should never post anything personal on a social networking site with the intent of keeping it private. Once it has been posted, it’s there to stay and open for the rest of the world to see.

News Article: 'Single' mother's £6,500 benefits con exposed after she announced marriage on Facebook and Friends Reunited

When in Doubt, Shove!

Ever seen one of those movies where a man threatens to jump off a bridge and off himself? How about witnessing such an event in person? Well, if you have, you would know that events such as these take up precious hours of the day and rarely does the man actually make the jump.

One Chinese man held up traffic in the city of Guangzhou, threatening to make the jump off of the Haizhu Bridge. As usual, five hours passed and the man still had not made the jump.

Another man, however, decided that enough was enough and proceeded to assist the would-be jumper by shoving him off of the bridge.

When questioned, 66 year old Lian Jiansheng said that he had pushed the man because he was being selfish in his actions and he was also taking too freakin’ long.

The fallen man, who was motivated by a $294,000 debt, now lies in a hospital bed with elbow and spine injuries, a hefty price to pay for something that could have been avoided had the man not been selfish and had he not pissed off the angry mob of drivers who were detained for five long hours.

Should Jiansheng be charged for doing something that everyone else wanted, but only he had the guts to do?

News Article: Man pushes would-be suicide jumper off bridge because he was taking too long