Category: Kephen’s Commentary
A myriad of articles on my opinions about current events and controversial topics.
Posted on September 20, 2018
by Kephen
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My name is Kephen Merancis and there’s really no easy way to start the conversation that we need to have. It takes a lot of courage to break the wall of silence that stigma builds. It takes at least a little bit of hope…
Category: All, Depression and Suicide, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Behavioral Health, Bi-polar Disorder, Depression, MCRD, Mental Health, Mental Illness, San Diego, Suicide Awareness, Suicide Prevention, USMC
Posted on June 9, 2018
by Kephen
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To be Acknowledged as Existing 7,432 Americans will wake up today to what will be their last day alive, most of whom will not know this ahead of time. According to the American mortality rate published in 2016 by the National Center for Health…
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Appreciation, Awareness, Friends, Friendship, Gratitude, Lessons on Living, Love, Loved Ones, Positive Influence, Thich Nhat Hanh, What Matters
Posted on March 19, 2018
by Kephen
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The Inexplicable Have you ever stopped to think for a moment how incredibly rare your existence actually is? The odds that you would ever come into being are literally on average a million to one. That’s literally a 0.000001% chance that you would be…
Category: All, Human Condition, In Loving Memory, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Existence, Inspiration, Mindfulness, Rarity of Life, Truth, Value of Life
Posted on March 19, 2018
by Kephen
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How To Research Your Family Ancestry So you’ve decided that you want to research your family ancestry, but you don’t know where to begin. Genealogy, the study of family ancestry, is both immensely rewarding and incredibly time consuming. For most people, the time required…
Category: All, Human Condition, In Loving Memory, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Advice For Beginners, Building A Family Tree, Family History, Family Research, Genealogy, How To, Inspiration, Learn About Your Ancestors
Posted on February 7, 2018
by Kephen
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Ben Tre: Keep The Loneliness Warm I hold my face in my two hands. No, I am not crying. I hold my face in my two hands to keep the loneliness warm two hands protecting, two hands nourishing, two hands preventing my soul from…
Category: All, Atheism, Religion and Spirituality, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, PoliticsTags: *See All Posts, Ben Tre, Bombing of Ben Tre, Buddhism, Buddhist Monk, Da Nang, Destruction of Ben Tre, Facts, Ho Chi Minh City, Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, PBS, Politics, Public Broadcasting Service, Saigon, Self-Immolation, Southern Vietnam, The Vietnam War, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thich Quang Duc, Viet Cong, Vietnam War
Posted on January 30, 2018
by Kephen
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What the Story of Hiro-Kala Teaches Us If you’re not familiar with Hiro-Kala, I’ll give you a brief glimpse. He is a Marvel Comic Universe fictional character created by Greg Pak and Ron Garney, appearing from 2008 through 2011 in such series as Skaar:…
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Axeman Bone, Bruce Banner, Caiera, Galactus, Hiro-Kala, Hulk's Dark Son, Incredible Hulk, Marvel Comics, Sakaar, Skaar, Skaar's Evil Twin, The Story of Hiro-Kala, Who is Hiro-Kala?
Posted on December 24, 2017
by Kephen
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When A Parent Dies Sometimes we avoid things we don’t want to accept or acknowledge as true, a futile attempt to hold onto the bliss of unknowing. Days after my mom passed away last year, I sat down and wrote about what I was…
Category: All, Atheism, Religion and Spirituality, Human Condition, In Loving Memory, Kephen's CommentaryTags: *See All Posts, Closure, Dealing With Loss, Death, Dying, In Loving Memory, In Memoriam, Loss, Loss of Loved Ones, Remembering, When A Parent Dies, When Mom Died
Posted on December 13, 2017
by Kephen
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The Passenger: Commentaries on the Nature of Consciousness What is consciousness? It is defined as a subjective experience, an awareness of self or one’s surroundings and the ability to react to it. Right now, as you are reading this, there is someone inside your…
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Buddhism, Callosotomy, Christof Koch, Corpus Callosum, Daniel Dennett, David Chalmers, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Emergent Property, Gregory Matloff, John Wheeler, Left Hemisphere, Multiple Personality Disorder, Nature of Consciousness, Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Philosophy, Physics, Right Hemisphere, Roger Penrose, Sam Harris, Split-Brain Theory
Posted on December 9, 2017
by Kephen
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“The mind withers and the soul may fade, but the heart will always beat in sync with the one who carries it.” – Colin Madsen February 18, 1991 – April 04, 2016 His Light Carries On: The Life, the Loss, and the Love of…
Category: All, In Loving Memory, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Abduction, Adventurer, American Medical Examiners, Arshan, Buryatia, Cerebral Wayfarer, Closure, Colin Madsen, Compassion, Death, Evidence, Facts, His Light Carries On, In Loving Memory, In Memoriam, Inspiration, Irkutsk, Justice, Loss, Loss of Loved Ones, Loving Kindness, Murder Case, Nature, Peace, Remembering, Russia, Russian Investigation, Siberia, Torture, Truth, Tunka National Park, Unsolved Murder, Violent Interrogation
Posted on October 10, 2017
by Kephen
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The Macrocosm Perspective Siddhartha Gautama taught that in order to see what matters we must first remove the ego from the equation. Nothing rips apart my ego or sense of self more than the Universe. The above photo is a compilation of the center…
Category: All, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, TechnologyTags: *See All Posts, Andromeda Galaxy, Betelgeuse, Black Holes, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Dark Energy, Density, Earth, Ego, Eta Carinae, Event Horizon, Facts, Fun, Gravity, Hubble Space Telescope, IK Pegasi, Interstellar, Laws of Physics, Light Years, Mass, Matter, Milky Way Galaxy, Proxima Centauri, Red Dwarf, Science, Singularity, Sirius, Space, Spitzer Space Telescope, Stars, Sun, Supermassive, Supernova, Universe, Virgo Supercluster, Void
Posted on September 9, 2017
by Kephen
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“The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established… It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one…
Category: All, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, PoliticsTags: *See All Posts, America, Confirmation Bias, Constitution, Continental Congress, Divided States, Facts, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Identity Politics, National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, Nationalism, Oath of Enlistment, Opinion, Police Brutality, Politics, Roland Fryer Jr., Silo Effect, The Washington Post, Truth, United States Marine Corps
Posted on August 24, 2017
by Kephen
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Identity Politics and the Slow Death of the American Moral Landscape I used to watch Fox News, and then I switched to CNN, and then I stopped watching network channels for daily news and commentary because they are all so heavily biased towards the…
Category: All, Kephen's Commentary, PoliticsTags: *See All Posts, Abortion, America, American Dream, Belief, Compromise, Confirmation Bias, Conservative, Counter-Evidence, Democrat, Divided States, Division, Donald Trump, Ego, Emotions, Evidence, Facts, FMRI, Identity Politics, Immigration, In-Group, Left, Left-Wing, Liberal, Moral Landscape, Neurology, News Media, Opinion, Out-Group, Political Duality, Political Party, Politically Bias, Politics, Republican, Right, Right-Wing, Selfish, Silo Effect, Social Media, Tribalism, Truth
Posted on May 12, 2017
by Kephen
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The Algorithm Specs Behind Facebook’s “People You May Know” Suggestions We’ve all seen it, that horizontal scroll pane in our Facebook news feed titled People You May Know. I’ve always found it odd why it would list people I have no mutual friends with….
Category: All, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, TechnologyTags: *See All Posts, Algorithm, Facebook, GPS Location, IP Address, Mutual Friends, Online Privacy, Online Stalking, People You May Know
Posted on May 12, 2017
by Kephen
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The Darkest Corners of the Cyber World:Sexual Predation and Exploitation Sexual predation and exploitation is the topic of this article, more specifically it’s about catfish who use social media and social apps to seduce and trick young men and women into sending naked photos…
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, TechnologyTags: *See All Posts, Apps, Baiting, Catfish, Facebook, FaceTime, Instagram, Kik, MeetMe, Omegle, Online Safety, Parenting Advice, Sextortion, Sexual Exploitation, Sexual Predation, Sexual Predator, Snapchat, Social Applications, Social Media Sites, Straight Baiting
Posted on February 13, 2017
by Kephen
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Photo credit: Mike Blake/Reuters The Wall, Illegal Immigration, and the U.S. – Mexican Border The U.S. and Mexican border is 1,954 miles long. As of last year the U.S. only had enough border patrol agents to securely patrol half the border. In 2004, then…
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, PoliticsTags: *See All Posts, Arizona, Asylum, Bluebird Pass, Brooks County, Central America, Colombia, Customs and Border Protection, Darien Gap, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Detention Centers, Donald Trump, El Salvador, FARC, Green Card, Guatemala, Gulf Cartel, Honduras, Human Rights, Illegal Immigrants, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Immigration Court, Immigration Reform, Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, Mexico, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Panama, Pima County, Politics, President Trump, Rio Grande, Secure Fence Act, Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca, Sonoran Desert, South America, Texas, The Devil's Highway, The Wall, Truth, Tuscon, U.S. and Mexican Border, U.S. Border Patrol, Visa, Yuma
Posted on October 8, 2011
by Kephen
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October 8, 2011 I was talking to a friend of mine this past week about how fear and misunderstanding lead to a negative impact on minority groups. About how inequality and ignorance still run rampant in our society and about how those things are…
Category: All, Atheism, Religion and Spirituality, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, PoliticsTags: *See All Posts, Atheism, Equality, Human Rights, Lessons on Living, Politics, Religion, Truth, Wisdom
Posted on July 4, 2010
by Kephen
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July 4, 2010 Execution is vengeance. It always has been and always will be. There is no justice in execution. People allow their emotions to over take them, they are blinded by retribution and revert to a primal state of mind. Having said that…
Category: Kephen’s Commentary
A myriad of articles on my opinions about current events and controversial topics.
Out of the Darkness
Posted on September 20, 2018 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
My name is Kephen Merancis and there’s really no easy way to start the conversation that we need to have. It takes a lot of courage to break the wall of silence that stigma builds. It takes at least a little bit of hope…
Category: All, Depression and Suicide, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Behavioral Health, Bi-polar Disorder, Depression, MCRD, Mental Health, Mental Illness, San Diego, Suicide Awareness, Suicide Prevention, USMC
To Be Acknowledged As Existing
Posted on June 9, 2018 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
To be Acknowledged as Existing 7,432 Americans will wake up today to what will be their last day alive, most of whom will not know this ahead of time. According to the American mortality rate published in 2016 by the National Center for Health…
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Appreciation, Awareness, Friends, Friendship, Gratitude, Lessons on Living, Love, Loved Ones, Positive Influence, Thich Nhat Hanh, What Matters
The Inexplicable
Posted on March 19, 2018 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
The Inexplicable Have you ever stopped to think for a moment how incredibly rare your existence actually is? The odds that you would ever come into being are literally on average a million to one. That’s literally a 0.000001% chance that you would be…
Category: All, Human Condition, In Loving Memory, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Existence, Inspiration, Mindfulness, Rarity of Life, Truth, Value of Life
How To Research Your Family Ancestry
Posted on March 19, 2018 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
How To Research Your Family Ancestry So you’ve decided that you want to research your family ancestry, but you don’t know where to begin. Genealogy, the study of family ancestry, is both immensely rewarding and incredibly time consuming. For most people, the time required…
Category: All, Human Condition, In Loving Memory, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Advice For Beginners, Building A Family Tree, Family History, Family Research, Genealogy, How To, Inspiration, Learn About Your Ancestors
Ben Tre: Keep the Loneliness Warm
Posted on February 7, 2018 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
Ben Tre: Keep The Loneliness Warm I hold my face in my two hands. No, I am not crying. I hold my face in my two hands to keep the loneliness warm two hands protecting, two hands nourishing, two hands preventing my soul from…
Category: All, Atheism, Religion and Spirituality, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, PoliticsTags: *See All Posts, Ben Tre, Bombing of Ben Tre, Buddhism, Buddhist Monk, Da Nang, Destruction of Ben Tre, Facts, Ho Chi Minh City, Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, PBS, Politics, Public Broadcasting Service, Saigon, Self-Immolation, Southern Vietnam, The Vietnam War, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thich Quang Duc, Viet Cong, Vietnam War
What the Story of Hiro-Kala Teaches Us
Posted on January 30, 2018 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
What the Story of Hiro-Kala Teaches Us If you’re not familiar with Hiro-Kala, I’ll give you a brief glimpse. He is a Marvel Comic Universe fictional character created by Greg Pak and Ron Garney, appearing from 2008 through 2011 in such series as Skaar:…
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Axeman Bone, Bruce Banner, Caiera, Galactus, Hiro-Kala, Hulk's Dark Son, Incredible Hulk, Marvel Comics, Sakaar, Skaar, Skaar's Evil Twin, The Story of Hiro-Kala, Who is Hiro-Kala?
When A Parent Dies
Posted on December 24, 2017 by Kephen
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When A Parent Dies Sometimes we avoid things we don’t want to accept or acknowledge as true, a futile attempt to hold onto the bliss of unknowing. Days after my mom passed away last year, I sat down and wrote about what I was…
Category: All, Atheism, Religion and Spirituality, Human Condition, In Loving Memory, Kephen's CommentaryTags: *See All Posts, Closure, Dealing With Loss, Death, Dying, In Loving Memory, In Memoriam, Loss, Loss of Loved Ones, Remembering, When A Parent Dies, When Mom Died
The Passenger
Posted on December 13, 2017 by Kephen
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The Passenger: Commentaries on the Nature of Consciousness What is consciousness? It is defined as a subjective experience, an awareness of self or one’s surroundings and the ability to react to it. Right now, as you are reading this, there is someone inside your…
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Buddhism, Callosotomy, Christof Koch, Corpus Callosum, Daniel Dennett, David Chalmers, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Emergent Property, Gregory Matloff, John Wheeler, Left Hemisphere, Multiple Personality Disorder, Nature of Consciousness, Neuroscience, Panpsychism, Philosophy, Physics, Right Hemisphere, Roger Penrose, Sam Harris, Split-Brain Theory
His Light Carries On
Posted on December 9, 2017 by Kephen
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“The mind withers and the soul may fade, but the heart will always beat in sync with the one who carries it.” – Colin Madsen February 18, 1991 – April 04, 2016 His Light Carries On: The Life, the Loss, and the Love of…
Category: All, In Loving Memory, Kephen's Commentary, MiscellaneousTags: *See All Posts, Abduction, Adventurer, American Medical Examiners, Arshan, Buryatia, Cerebral Wayfarer, Closure, Colin Madsen, Compassion, Death, Evidence, Facts, His Light Carries On, In Loving Memory, In Memoriam, Inspiration, Irkutsk, Justice, Loss, Loss of Loved Ones, Loving Kindness, Murder Case, Nature, Peace, Remembering, Russia, Russian Investigation, Siberia, Torture, Truth, Tunka National Park, Unsolved Murder, Violent Interrogation
The Macrocosm Perspective
Posted on October 10, 2017 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
The Macrocosm Perspective Siddhartha Gautama taught that in order to see what matters we must first remove the ego from the equation. Nothing rips apart my ego or sense of self more than the Universe. The above photo is a compilation of the center…
Category: All, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, TechnologyTags: *See All Posts, Andromeda Galaxy, Betelgeuse, Black Holes, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Dark Energy, Density, Earth, Ego, Eta Carinae, Event Horizon, Facts, Fun, Gravity, Hubble Space Telescope, IK Pegasi, Interstellar, Laws of Physics, Light Years, Mass, Matter, Milky Way Galaxy, Proxima Centauri, Red Dwarf, Science, Singularity, Sirius, Space, Spitzer Space Telescope, Stars, Sun, Supermassive, Supernova, Universe, Virgo Supercluster, Void
Nationalism and Police Brutality: The Deafening Sound of Ignorance
Posted on September 9, 2017 by Kephen
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“The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established… It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one…
Category: All, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, PoliticsTags: *See All Posts, America, Confirmation Bias, Constitution, Continental Congress, Divided States, Facts, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Identity Politics, National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, Nationalism, Oath of Enlistment, Opinion, Police Brutality, Politics, Roland Fryer Jr., Silo Effect, The Washington Post, Truth, United States Marine Corps
Identity Politics and the Slow Death of the American Moral Landscape
Posted on August 24, 2017 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
Identity Politics and the Slow Death of the American Moral Landscape I used to watch Fox News, and then I switched to CNN, and then I stopped watching network channels for daily news and commentary because they are all so heavily biased towards the…
Category: All, Kephen's Commentary, PoliticsTags: *See All Posts, Abortion, America, American Dream, Belief, Compromise, Confirmation Bias, Conservative, Counter-Evidence, Democrat, Divided States, Division, Donald Trump, Ego, Emotions, Evidence, Facts, FMRI, Identity Politics, Immigration, In-Group, Left, Left-Wing, Liberal, Moral Landscape, Neurology, News Media, Opinion, Out-Group, Political Duality, Political Party, Politically Bias, Politics, Republican, Right, Right-Wing, Selfish, Silo Effect, Social Media, Tribalism, Truth
The Algorithm Specs Behind Facebook’s “People You May Know” Suggestions
Posted on May 12, 2017 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
The Algorithm Specs Behind Facebook’s “People You May Know” Suggestions We’ve all seen it, that horizontal scroll pane in our Facebook news feed titled People You May Know. I’ve always found it odd why it would list people I have no mutual friends with….
Category: All, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, TechnologyTags: *See All Posts, Algorithm, Facebook, GPS Location, IP Address, Mutual Friends, Online Privacy, Online Stalking, People You May Know
The Darkest Corners of the Cyber World: Sexual Predation and Exploitation
Posted on May 12, 2017 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
The Darkest Corners of the Cyber World:Sexual Predation and Exploitation Sexual predation and exploitation is the topic of this article, more specifically it’s about catfish who use social media and social apps to seduce and trick young men and women into sending naked photos…
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, TechnologyTags: *See All Posts, Apps, Baiting, Catfish, Facebook, FaceTime, Instagram, Kik, MeetMe, Omegle, Online Safety, Parenting Advice, Sextortion, Sexual Exploitation, Sexual Predation, Sexual Predator, Snapchat, Social Applications, Social Media Sites, Straight Baiting
The Wall, Illegal Immigration, and the U.S. – Mexican Border
Posted on February 13, 2017 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
Photo credit: Mike Blake/Reuters The Wall, Illegal Immigration, and the U.S. – Mexican Border The U.S. and Mexican border is 1,954 miles long. As of last year the U.S. only had enough border patrol agents to securely patrol half the border. In 2004, then…
Category: All, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, PoliticsTags: *See All Posts, Arizona, Asylum, Bluebird Pass, Brooks County, Central America, Colombia, Customs and Border Protection, Darien Gap, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Detention Centers, Donald Trump, El Salvador, FARC, Green Card, Guatemala, Gulf Cartel, Honduras, Human Rights, Illegal Immigrants, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Immigration Court, Immigration Reform, Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, Mexico, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Panama, Pima County, Politics, President Trump, Rio Grande, Secure Fence Act, Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca, Sonoran Desert, South America, Texas, The Devil's Highway, The Wall, Truth, Tuscon, U.S. and Mexican Border, U.S. Border Patrol, Visa, Yuma
Lemmings and Other Things
Posted on October 8, 2011 by Kephen
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October 8, 2011 I was talking to a friend of mine this past week about how fear and misunderstanding lead to a negative impact on minority groups. About how inequality and ignorance still run rampant in our society and about how those things are…
Category: All, Atheism, Religion and Spirituality, Human Condition, Kephen's Commentary, Miscellaneous, PoliticsTags: *See All Posts, Atheism, Equality, Human Rights, Lessons on Living, Politics, Religion, Truth, Wisdom
Execution
Posted on July 4, 2010 by Kephen
Leave a Comment
July 4, 2010 Execution is vengeance. It always has been and always will be. There is no justice in execution. People allow their emotions to over take them, they are blinded by retribution and revert to a primal state of mind. Having said that…
Category: All, Kephen's CommentaryTags: *See All Posts, Death, Ethics, Execution, Human Rights, Morals
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In Search of Self
https://merancis.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/in-search-of-self1.mp4Everywhere You Go, There You Are
https://merancis.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/everywhere-you-go-there-you-are1.mp4No Arrival, No Destination, Just Being
https://merancis.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/no-arrival-no-destination-just-being.mp4The Starry Night
https://merancis.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/the-starry-night.mp4A Portal to My Mind
https://merancis.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/a-portal-to-my-mind.mp4My Heart in the Sun
https://merancis.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/my-heart-in-the-sun.mp4Sol Invictus