Iria Vasquez-Paez
Bio
I have a B.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State. Can people please donate? I'm very low-income. I need to start an escape the Ferengi plan.
Stories (411)
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Statistical Data on Pagans
Pagans are varied in sizes, shapes, and colors. There are more of us now-than-ever-before, as right-wing Christians are becoming the minority in these modern times. A 2008 Pew Forum survey included New Age believers as well as neopagans, between 200,000 and 1-million, or 0.1% to 0.5% of the population. We pagans come in all sorts packages, too, with every pagan having a theology of their own depending on what they are studying. There are quite a few pagan belief systems this article will explore today. Wicca began in 1964 through Raymond Buckland, who got initiated at Gardener’s Isle of Man to gain initiation. There are other branches of Wicca, such as Gardenarian Wicca, Alexandrian Wicca, which refers to ancient Alexandria not Alex Sanders, the founder. There are more branches of neo-paganism. I practice with my clothes on, however, and I’m not necessarily Wiccan but an eclectic solitary who does go to a coven on occasion. I’ve hung out with reclaiming pagans on occasion during a pagan 12-step recovery group.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Futurism
The Nazi T4 Program
This was a program of mass euthanasia targeted at disabled people of all kinds, just because they had a disability and were viewed as unfit. In modern times, disabled people are paid sub-minimum wage on the job, depending on how functional they are, which is similar to the equal work for women problem. So if you are female and disabled in some way you get paid less. Eugenicists called disabled people “life unworthy of life,” which in a modern context seems horrible. Before they started on the Jewish people, the Nazis went after disabled people to perfect their mass genocide plan. The term “t4” was named after the physical address of the program, in Berlin, Tiergartenstrasse 4.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in The Swamp
The Georgia Guidestones
The creepy part about this whole exercise in writing an article was that I could not find a single stock photo of the Georgia Guidestones until I found one quite by accident. This bizarre interlude where I spent this morning searching for usable stock photography took me an hour to find the right picture. It was deliberate I suppose, on the NWO’s part that I had to pay for stock photography. Touché. The Georgia Guidestones were built in 1980, about a year before I came along, in 1981. I’m writing about this to inform others on exactly what the elite’s plans are for us little people. Nobody knows who put the monument up there or why according to Wired.com’s article (https://www.wired.com/2009/04/ff-guidestones/?currentPage=all).
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in The Swamp
Don’t Say Rude Things About People Who Take Medication
To start off a conversation with someone you haven’t seen in years by saying “Oye loca” is plain rude. This means “Hey listen, crazy.” Oh I’m sorry, I finally have my hereditary illness under control. The person who did this was a family member and that is who I’m ranting about. It took me years to find the right meds that treat both bipolar 1 and schizophrenia, hence my diagnosis of schizoaffective. I finally got a chance to see a real psychiatrist, and not someone that makes you wait a lot just because I can talk about more esoteric subjects with them. Are you scared of me for the fact I have gained self-confidence and I practice witchcraft?
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Psyche
Adjusting to American Culture
The United States is an incredibly diverse culture where it is different in every city or for that matter — every state. Americans are a diverse lot, where mixed-race people abound. We are beset with racial and economic tensions from the haves and the have nots, as some judge our economic situation as being similar to a Third World Country since we have to pay for health care. The United States can be hard for many to adjust to, in particular when somebody is asked: “How are you?” when the answer is expected to be “fine, thanks.” American television doesn’t help new immigrants adjust to the daily grind.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Wander
The Scientific Method Vs. Pseudoscience in Archaeology
Real science demands inquiry, skepticism, and ability to prove theories using a hypothesis. Believing in pseudoscience can cause great harm to the mind. There is much logic used in the acquirement and interpretation of data. A theory is a systematic explanation that can reinterpret existing data so that new predictions can be made about new data. Using hypothesis becomes a matter of testing statements about something, which is linked to our broader understanding of the past. Archaeologists are interested in how people lived in the past through the study of gravesites featuring objects buried with the dead.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Futurism
Health Care Crisis Update
The disaster that is the American health care system is hard to fix. There is no simple solution. We are digging our own grave daily. Your health care is dependent on your ability to work or the ability of a parent to work. Working out a vision is all well and good but we need to do something about what we currently have to deal with. What I’m reading is that Aetna was bought by CVS for $69 billion. Single payer has to be implemented in this incredibly rich company. Cigna and Anthem were about to merge in February 2017 along with rivals Aetna and Cigna who also wanted to merge but didn’t. The Justice Department blocked these massive, vertical mergers but they might have better luck if the merger is vertical.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in The Swamp
The Health Care Crisis: Will It Ever Be Resolved?
At this point with the current administration the way it is, I can honestly say I feel health care is a lost cause. If people want to pay up all the time, then by all means, quit fighting the good fight. Give up. Don’t fight. Pre-existing conditions need not be put back into the “even-disabled-people-need-insurance” clause. To gut Medicare at a time when people need it, this is wrong, if only because health care is a human right. To deny that right, well, it means that the planet is enjoying a rise in fascism from many other countries, not just the United States.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in The Swamp
Standard American Greetings
The usual way Americans say hello to each other is to ask “How are you?” with the answer being, “Fine, thanks.” To outsiders, this is strange since depending on where you come from, the greeting goes deeper than that, as in, to Thais, as reflected in the book Distant Mirrors: America as a Foreign Culture by Phillip R. Devita and James D. Armstrong, it means “Have you eaten?” (p. 69). In the United States, your personal life and your income are something to avoid talking about — but in other countries, not so much. Curiosity is extended to provide further means of discussion.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Wander
Equal Work for Equal Pay 2018
Women earn 80 cents for every man’s $1.00. This is still true in 2018. We are 200 years away from pay equality here. When women start complaining more about the pay gap is when we find that it can equalize. This is constant discrimination that women face daily in the workplace. When I started working, I became very aware of this discriminatory process. Pay disparity is everywhere around us, dependent on what career a person is working in. Women like E! News host Cat Sadler are becoming more aware of this gap every day because she left the network due to a pay gap she noticed between herself and her male co-host.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Viva
Alcoholism Treatment in Europe
In Europe, people do not do the total abstinence from drinking thing like we do in the United States. Our treatment programs focus on kicking alcohol permanently. In the United States, alcoholism is only tackled with the premise that total abstinence must be maintained. European health authorities are limited with the scope they treat the concept of controlled drinking with. However, there is a persistent idea that problem drinkers as well as full-blown alcoholics can learn to limit their consumption, rather than abstain permanently for life. Maintaining sobriety is hard for this reason, because many times, the abstainer faces temptation.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Proof
Occam’s Razor
Occam’s razor is a term attributed to William of Ockham (1287-1347), an English Franciscan friar, philosopher and early scientist, who took a vow of poverty, and who helped come up with a concept that is used in science today which determines that the fewest assumptions is the easiest. Scientists have changed the meaning of the term “Occam’s razor” throughout the centuries since it was first coined. Isaac Newton said of Occam’s razor that, “We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.” In other words, the simplest explanation rather than a complex explanation is always the better explanation.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Futurism
