Smooth by Default

“move on up, to your destination”

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:23:24 -0400

“move on up, to your destination”

"If you want to be a creative person, then you’re gonna have to be creative in how you put your..."

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:28:15 -0400

“If you want to be a creative person, then you’re gonna have to be creative in how you put your career together. There isn’t a path. Part of the creativity is making your path.”

- Alec Soth on creating a career in photography, and how he pays the rent today. Read our full interview here. (via stellablu)

"When I say be creative, I don’t mean that you should all go and become great painters and great..."

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:24:30 -0400

“When I say be creative, I don’t mean that you should all go and become great painters and great poets. I simply mean let your life be a painting, let your life be a poem.”

- Osho (via theglasschild)

misterand: Erykah Badu

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:11:23 -0400

misterand:

Erykah Badu

antithisandthat: I loved this quote. So I did something with...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:18:41 -0400

antithisandthat:

I loved this quote. So I did something with it.

queerandpresentdanger: TW for rape, sexual abuse,...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:13:50 -0400

queerandpresentdanger:

TW for rape, sexual abuse, torture
theneighbourhoodsuperhero:

The anguish is clear on the face of Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, who takes long pauses in an attempt to steady his tearful voice, as he recounts to the interviewer about how American interrogators repeatedly raped and tortured, or pretended to rape and torture, a woman in the cell next to him in an attempt to force him to falsely confess.

Begg’s eyes cloud over and he stares off into the distance as he relates how they manipulated his biggest fear, that his wife and children who were with him at the time of his arrest, were also imprisoned and in danger:

“I heard the cries of a woman (in the cell next to me) and an American voice shouting, ‘Spread your legs!’ and the woman is screaming and crying (as if she is being raped). Before I used to (always) ask the Americans about what happened to my wife and children since my arrest. They said ‘We don’t know,’ but at this time I didn’t ask because I was afraid of the answer. I thought my wife was in the cell.”

Begg was tortured and assaulted physically, mentally, psychologically, emotionally, and sexually as the American interrogators tried “breaking him down” in order to make him sign false confessions. Begg was released after three years spent in US custody without any charges held against him.

It is still not clear to this day whether the woman in the cell next to him was a fellow inmate also unjustly prisoned or an interrogator posing as a woman in distress.

It is known but hardly ever reported that the United States detains (Muslim) women who they “suspect” of being terrorists for no apparent reason, an example being Dr. Aafia Siddiqui (shown below in a picture of her taken while in US custody) who was abducted with her children by US intelligence.

After severe mistreatment in custody, during which she sustained a gunshot wound, Siddiqui was sentenced to 84 years in prison. Her young children who were with her when she was kidnapped and subsequently detained and interrogated have only recently been relocated. Siddiqui’s youngest son, who hadn’t even started walking yet, has disappeared since her kidnapping with no hint whatsoever of his whereabouts. Her older son has claimed that “the bloody body of his baby brother” was tossed to the side of the road by US soldiers when Siddiqui and her children were arrested. During her trial, Siddiqui was repeatedly removed from the court room for interrupting proceedings to scream out that her children had been tortured in front of her.

Four men who were imprisoned with Dr. Siddiqui in Bagram and who managed to escape reported in an interview:

“When they torture you, they threaten to sodomise you, they threaten to bring your wife and rape her in front of you and do other things to her. My words can never fully explain to you what happened during those interrogations.”

“Those American criminals think that they are the lords of human rights and that they are the callers for the freedom of the woman and her rescuers from oppression. There is a woman from Pakistan. She was put in solitary confinement for two full years in Bagram prison among more than 500 male prisoners and guards. She was treated the same way as the men were. This woman stayed there until she lost her mind, until she became insane, hitting the door and screaming day and night.”

"I don’t need someone to complete me, I need someone to make things a little bit better every now and..."

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:46:54 -0400

““I don’t need someone to complete me, I need someone to make things a little bit better every now and again.””

- Jon Richardson (via drug-fairy)

Photo

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 09:43:48 -0400

Photo

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 14:27:34 -0400

"Much has been said of the loneliness of wisdom, and how much the Truth seeker becomes a pilgrim..."

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 14:26:49 -0400

“Much has been said of the loneliness of wisdom, and how much the Truth seeker becomes a pilgrim wandering from star to star. To the ignorant, the wise man is lonely because he abides in distant heights of the mind. But the wise man himself does not feel lonely. Wisdom brings him nearer to life; closer to the heart of the world than the foolish man can ever be. Bookishness may lead to loneliness, and scholarship may end in a battle of beliefs, but the wise man gazing off into space sees not an emptiness, but a space full of life, truth, and law.”

- Manly P. Hall (via penniesinmyloafers)

nykeba: Dreadlocks are mans natural production. They come out...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 14:26:00 -0400

nykeba:

Dreadlocks are mans natural production. They come out of him naturally. They are part of man being himself, and that would be best for us all if men would just be themselves.

nykeba.com

spanishorchid: fessyfess: Audrey Hepburn spent many years in...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:22:54 -0400

spanishorchid:

fessyfess:

Audrey Hepburn spent many years in Africa helping the helpless. Yet all the pictures on Tumblr show her as a fashion icon. Fashion passes in a wink, compassion lasts forever.

"In the West we have a tendency to be profit-oriented, where everything is measured according to the..."

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:21:14 -0400

“In the West we have a tendency to be profit-oriented, where everything is measured according to the results and we get caught up in being more and more active to generate results. In the East — especially in India — I find that people are more content to just be, to just sit around under a banyan tree for half a day chatting to each other. We Westerners would probably call that wasting time. But there is value to it. Being with someone, listening without a clock and without anticipation of results, teaches us about love. The success of love is in the loving — it is not in the result of loving.”

- Mother Teresa (via awakeningapril)

"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are."

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:53:49 -0400

““It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.””

- E. E. Cummings (via bind-free)

the grass isn’t green(er) on the other side. just where...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:49:54 -0400

the grass isn’t green(er) on the other side. just where you water it

"Not everyone is okay with living like an open wound. But the thing about open wounds is that, well,..."

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:49:38 -0400

“Not everyone is okay with living like an open wound. But the thing about open wounds is that, well, you aren’t ignoring it. You’re healing; the fresh air can get to it. It’s honest. You aren’t hiding who you are. You aren’t rotting. People can give you advice on how to heal without scarring badly. But on the other hand there are some people who’ll feel uncomfortable around you. Some will even point and laugh. But we all have wounds.”

- Warsan Shire (via loveyourchaos)

dtl-green: #truth

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:43:25 -0400

dtl-green:

#truth

“what if art ruled the world?”

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:39:10 -0400

BatBond----20.12 Mtl-Que Canada

Kenny Random’s art in Padova, Italy www.kennyrandom.com

Traduction: "Their weapons. Our weapons." Armed forces & police forces VS. civilians & their cameras

Monster Graffiti by =Sch1itzie

Alejandra Guerrero and Christian Cisa - Berlin

Amazing 3D Street Art Lets Pedestrians Walk on Spider-Man’s Webs by Kurt Wenner

by Banksy

FtMuq

“what if art ruled the world?”

Evolution Of A Queen: hazeleyed1: fAiTH-fOOD-fASHiON: Every day I feel God telling...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:37:06 -0400

Evolution Of A Queen: hazeleyed1: fAiTH-fOOD-fASHiON: Every day I feel God telling...:

hazeleyed1:

fAiTH-fOOD-fASHiON: Every day I feel God telling me

faith-food-fashion:

simplyqwan:

youngblackandvegan:

“Where you are is exactly where you need to be. Right now. In this moment. You are enough.”

I remind myself over and over again.

Over

and

Over

and

…

blackandindependents: kingofreaks: This is incredible...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:31:04 -0400

blackandindependents:

kingofreaks:

This is incredible voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson and these are just some of the literally hundreds of characters he has given life to during his amazing career.

Sferiff Blubs - Gravity Falls

Temutai - Kung Fu Panada

Maurice - Penguins of Madagascar

Principal Lewis - American Dad

Dark Laser - Fairly Odd Parents

Captain Gantu - Lilo and Stitch

The Shredder - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Willem Viceroy III - Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja

Robert Hawkins - Static Shock