Today’s Track(s)

Well, this addition of “Today’s Track” is full of “guilty pleasure songs”. First up is David Guetta with “Sexy Chick” (though that’s the censored/”radio-friendly” title), and funny how the chorus of the song talks about “not being disrespectful”, given the uncensored title. Interesting, I guess to some, the 5-letter term for a woman is *not* disrespectful? As I said, this is truly a “guilty pleasure song” if there ever was one. I’m telling you, I’m starting to think I’m really lost, I mean, really and truly lost.

Next up, since the beginning of the David Guetta song kinda reminded me of it, is Kid Cudi and “Day ‘n’ Nite”… I can’t even find words to even comment any further… As I said, I’m lost…

And next is Clipse and “I’m Good”…

And so as to redeem myself, the next song is from an album that my husband has been raving about for the past few weeks now, ever since I found it on Amazon’s mp3 site. The song is from the Malian singer Kandia Kouyate, and the song is called Douwawou (sorry if spelling is wrong).

So there you have it, “Today’s Track” for Thursday 10/29/2009. I need tomake this a regular blog feature, but sometimes it’s hard for me to stay on a set schedule, so will just do it when I think of it I guess.

Take care all and enjoy.

More Search Term Fun

Assalamu alaikum, I haven’t done any search term fun in a loooong time! So, without further adieux…

“yahya jammeh youtube”

Yahya Jammeh’s on Youtube, now this I gotta see, or not… I’ve never put the terms “Yahya Jammeh” into the Youtube search engine but perhaps on a boring day when or if I have nothing else better to do, I might try that.

“sex clips jammeh”

Oh Goodness! I’m not sure whether to fall out of my chair with laughter or hold my nose in disgust! Or both! If Yahya Jammeh has a sex tape (on youtube) oh God help us all! And where the Heck was the Freedom Newspaper with the scoop on this!? Who’da thunk, that Yahya Jammeh was in the same league as R. Kelly, and all the others with sex tapes that I can’t think of right now. And who in their right mind would make a sex tape anyway, yuck! If Yahya Jammeh truly indeed has a sex tape then his title of “Sheikh” should be stripped from him by the Supreme Islamic Council (or is it the Islamic Supreme Council) heretofore, forthwith, without further delay, and all of that good stuff. But moving right along…

“does akon drink”

Heck if I know, go ask him or is peeps, or is wif(ves). I probably get more visits to my blog from the term “Akon” than probably anything else, excluding “Gambia” and “Yahya Jammeh”.

“ginny easterly”

Who is she? Definitely not me…

“howto cook a lion”

Huh? Wonder if they were looking for that post I did a long time ago on Kola Boof, where she supposedly went to a Senegalese restaurant in, where was it, Morocco, because they supposedly were teh only ones who knew how to cook lion’s meat? (do Senegalese eat lion?)

“akon doesn’t drink”

Well, that’s good to know, but you gotta drink some time, I mean, your body needs water doesn’t it? Just don’t indulge in the intoxicating liquid…

And that’s all for today, come back some other time, and I’ll try to remember to do this more often. And keep the interesting search terms coming, I get a kick out of them, even if I don’t post about them as often as I probably should.

Busta Rhymes, T-Pain, Akon and Swissbeatz Recite Qur’an in Arab Money Remix – UPDATED

Assalamu alaikum, leaving the original post below as is…

And I listened to the song, and a couple points, firstly, “Bismillahi rahmanir Raheem, Alhamdulillah rabil alamin”? And you’re talking about what? Women and gettin’ money from what I could understand. And I’m not sure if it’s the tajwid / pronunciation that’s really that bad, or the fact that the vocoder is distorting it? And did Akon really say “comin’ out of Africa, just ask Tarzan”? Uh, OK, how ignorant is that? Probably about as ignorant and stereotypical as the rhymes about Ben-Ladin and the Taliban. I think the “Tarzan” quip caught me off guard, though. I was prepared for “oh my gosh, they’re reciting Qur’an”, etc., but yelling out “tarzan” and then Senegal, after that, and I’m thinkin, “uh so whatcha sayin’”? I’m sure that many Africans have enough trouble with the Tarzan stereotype without having Akon (while yelling out “Senegal”) to set them back about 50 years by once again reviving it. And Akon’s pronunciation of “Bismillah” as “bisimillah”, got my attention, I’ve heard other West Africans pronounce it that way too. But his “Tarzan” line seems well, wrong on so many levels, and a whole post could be written on just this one line alone, methinks, makes me wonder what he really thinks of his own people?

A Commentor on MR’s blog said something about talking to these brothers, that maybe if they could get them into a room and talk to them, that they’d change their minds? I’m not so sure. If they had any respect for Islam and the Qur’an at all, they’d perhaps not have done this in the first place. But Allah alone knows best. It’s one thing to use Islamic references, or references to Muslim religious figures in your music (and speaking of Senegal, many Senegalese artists do do this), however, this is not done with any modicom of respect or adab in the case of this “song”. I can’t even see how these “Islamic” references in this song have anything to do with the topics rapped about in the song. Except to further perpetuate the stereotype of “Arab money”.

And now I feel all yucky, like I’ve done something wrong, like the time I snuck and listened to that 2 live crew tape I wasn’t supposed to be listening to lol. I feel the need to make wudu or ghusl or something. Or perhaps listen to a “real” recitation of the Qur’an.

Assalamu alaikum, from MRs Blog.

And no, I’ve not listened to this yet. I’m not sure if I have the stomach too at this point. The original “Arab money” was bad enough. And based on some of the comments that have been left so far, listening to a bunch of “sorta kinda maybe Muslims” (except when there’s drugs, alcohol, women, etc. around), recite Quran with terrible tajwid, and thereby completely disrespecting it, well, that just isn’t my cup of tea.

We can all talk about this “being good dawah”, whatever! I’m not sure what’s worse, Muslims like this, who use our religion as a prop to sell more records or to otherwise boost themselves, or non-Muslims out-and-out disrespecting the mushaf of the Qur’an itself.

And funny how if these were non-Muslims, we’d be all up in arms, there’d be protests around the country, perhaps around the world, CAIR would perhaps come out with the ubiquitous press release about how offensive this is, calling for sensitivity training for the non-Muslims involved. However, because these are so-called “Muslims”, we want to make excuses for them (which isn’t always such a bad thing in and of itself), and call this “dawah”. Where is the sensitivity training for these guys, who, we’d have thought, should have known better?

And making excuses for our brothers and sisters in Islam isn’t a bad thing, of course, it is quite meritorious actually, however, would we be so quick to make allowances for these guys, say, if they weren’t famous hip hop artists, idolized by Muslims and non-Muslims alike? I’m just sayin’…

Thanks Mo…

… for reviving an old post that quite truthfully, I’m embarrassed about.  Which is, of course, the risk you take when you blog about something (er obsess
over it) and forget to delete it later…

*sigh*  Usually when I get a comment from a post that is like ages old, 99% of the time it’s a spam comment.  “Mo”’s comment does not appear to be so.

Commenting on the Akon topic…GHaving met the brother I tottally disagree with your point of view….

Well, perhaps if I’d met him, I’d think differently, but all I have to go on is, I guess what some would call the “evil Western Media” (because we all know that’s who’s fault it really is) tells us. That and his interviews/song lyrics, etc., etc., etc. I know that people have a public image and a private one. I’ve often wondered if anyone who really *knew* him, I mean, *really* knew him, not the “yeah I met him once and he was cool” know, I’m talking about the “first thing in the morning” know, the funky ain’t brushed his teeth yet know, the ain’t showered yet know. I mean, the people that *really* know him, if they happened on this blog, would they tell me I’m wrong. I’m not saying that you’re wrong, but “meeting a brother once” ain’t the same as really knowing him, and you’ve got about as much to go on as I do. He still makes raunchy songs, that I can’t play in front of my step daughter, and he’s not a good role model for practicing Muslims to follow, sorry. Perhaps even he knows that which is why he maybe hides his Islam and if that’s the case I can understand that. Perhaps if I “met him once” I’d think differently, perhaps would come here and say, “yeah he’s a nice brother”, but all I have to go on is the “public image”, becuase I just don’t know him like that, not like a friend or family member would.

you are entitled to your opinion

Thank you and I express it freely and often, even if it means putting my foot/feet in my mouth most of the time. My mouth has tended to get me into trouble, but try as I might, my tongue is a weakness I continue to struggle with, may Allah help me in this.

but dont discrimenate another muslim brother or anyone for that matter.

Discriminate? Who said anything about “discriminating”? *Rubs head* *Confused* Not to mention the fact that you mis-spelled the word, do you even know what “discriminate” actually means? I didn’t know that offensive lyrics and conduct by a supposed “proud Muslim” (more on that later) was “discrimination”. Must have missed that in the dictionary or our US civil rights law. Best be careful lest a discrimination lawsuit falls in my lap. But I’d think a blind Muslim woman would know something more about discrimination, or at least the real definition/incidence of it, having actually faced it myself, than someone who wrote the grand ode to women everywhere “I Wanna Love You”, (expletive changed so as not to offend). I’m not saying Akon’s not faced discrimination, what I’m saying is that by me pointing out certain things, that is not “discriminating”.

Akon is a Proud mslim”

I’ll take your word for it, as you’ve supposedly “met the brother”, and Allah knows best, so being that it’s Ramadan, perhaps he’s a proud Muslim, but why do you only hear of it publicly when he’s talking about, uh, er, “polygamy”? Did we see any beautiful newspaper articles about “Akon’s commitment to his religion” as you tend to see with famous Muslims this time of year? I’m being serious, because if there is one, I’d like to see it. Perhaps if you submit pics of Akon having iftar, or something, I’d post them. But how would you know, if having only met the brother once, whether or not he is a “proud Muslim”, and “proud Muslims” aren’t necessarily striving to be good Muslims. Just ask Faheem Rasheed Najm. I do’t want to question anyone’s Islam, but when reading articles, detailing “who is Muslim and who is not”, I think it’s OK to say that perhaps people who are Muslim in the industry may not be the best role models regarding the practice of Islam. The lyrics of some purportedly Muslim artists are just on example of this. However, this doesn’t take away from the fact that they are struggling, heck, I’m struggling.

yet you only see the fault in him,

Yeah, perhaps you’re right (unless you actually read my blog, which maybe you only stumbled on this one article), but if you’d actually read my blog, you’d see that perhaps I’ve got differing degrees of dislike, or admiration, or regret, or whatever the case, depending on how I’m feeling, or how many times I’ve listened to “Mama Africa”, you did read where I said that song would almost cause me to forgive him of his, well, “faults”, didn’t you? But I guess not, ’cause you choose to go diggin’ in the blog crates, pull out this one post and hand-slap me (’cause you supposedly have met / know this brother) and command me to “not discriminate” or otherwise correct my post. I’m sure there is a lot of good in him, I just don’t know enough to write about it. And unfortunately, it’s the bad that sticks out.

Take a look around your muslim neibhorhood

Mr. Mo, I don’t know what kind of “neighborhood” you live in, or how things are there in Australia where you live, but here in the US, we generally don’t have “Muslim neighborhoods”. I could find a lot of fault in any neighborhood I chose to take a look at… Muslim or not…

and search for fault im sure you will find more than Akon.

Actually, to be honest, I’d rather search for fault in my own self and try to correct that. And I’m working on it, I really am… Search for Akon using the search feature on my blog, if you are so inclined, and you’ll see my angst (embarrassing though it may be) on this issue.

and being of Lebanese African descent and living in Australia it is not easy growing up in Western Culture and not doing the rong thing.

Yes, I’m a Muslim convert and I can relate to you on that… But does it make it right? That is what I wanna know… I can listen to Lupe Fiasco (another commercially successful Muslim artist, though not as much as Akon), and everyone knows he’s Muslim, and by all acounts, a fairly observant one at that. He’s probably not perfect, and I’m sure if I wanted to find fault, I could, but I won’t. But this all started first, when I had a sister-in-law who loved Akon’s music, and “I Wanna Love You” came out, and that was just too much for me! That and the whole public “polygamy” bruhaha. But perhaps being a “proud Muslim” doesn’t sell as many records. It’s not easy being a Muslim in the West, but in this world, it’s not easy being a Muslim anywhere, unless, of course, you live on a mountain somewhere with no TV, no Internet, no media, and no distractions. I’ve not met a lot of “famous people” but I can safely say that meeting people isn’t the same as actually knowing them, and saying you’re a proud Muslim, African, blind person, dog lover, etc., doesn’t a proud whatever make! Akon’s lyrics offend me, I’m sorry if that offends you! I wish he’d put out more positive fare. Because he’s on the list of artists that I won’t let my stepdaughter listen to, “bust it baby” was bad enough! And if it’s so “hard for Muslims” out here in the West, why should Akon put out music that would make it harder for us trying to raise pious Muslim children?

“Proud Muslim” whatever! Perhaps he is, perhaps he’s struggling just like the rest of us! And May Allah have mercy on him, May his Ramadan be a blessed and happy one! But I still don’t like his lyrics! Sorry!

And I wish his conduct/lyrics would be more becoming of a “proud Muslim” or what we think a “proud Muslim” should be. Perhaps if I actually *knew* Akon, I’d think differently, or perhaps I’d ask him “why do you write/producer/sing this awful stuff”? But I’ll never get that chance. I’m sure Akon is a “nice person” and all of that, and I’m sure that in 1, 2 or 5 years from now, I’ll come back and read all of this and shudder in horror at my silliness, pettiness, obsessiveness, etc., and in the last ten days of Ramadan no less. And I’ll wish I’d not said any of this. Perhaps he’s doing something that would increase his rank even above me on Yaum-al-qiyama, and I’m sittin’ here thinking I’m all better than him because, well, just because “I’m not like him”. He could be making dhikr, reading Qur’an, etc., for all I know, and what am I doing? Talking about him… Allahu Akbar! I’m just sayin’. You could be wright Mo, you really could be. But I don’t choose to look for others’ faults, thank you very much. I’m too busy with my own, one of them being focusing on certain things that just plain get under my skin! And perhaps “Muslims in the industry” get put up on pedestals so that “normal everyday Muslims” like myself and sit here and knock them down. nothing I hate worse than being told what to say, what to think, on my own blog.

I guess it’s also a bit hypocritical to say that I’m too busy focusing on my own faults, yet I’ve just wasted time on this and other post, detailing the seeming faults of another person. I’m not perfect, and perhaps if I want people to understand that in me and give me the benefit of the doubt, then I should do the same for Akon, T-Pain and others. However, it’s a little hard to do thta when you have purported Muslims, who you’d think would no better, putting out songs like “I’m In Love with a Stripper” or “Bartender” or “I Wanna Love You”, etc. That is what makes it so glaring to me, so obvious, so hard to ignore. Perhaps it’s the difference between a public struggle, i.e., putting out music, and a private struggle, i.e. trying not to listen to said music. And it frustrates me that I could hear a T-Pain or Akon song, know it’s just so entirely wrong on so many levels, whether Muslim or not, and feel myself wanting to bob my head or sing along or, worse, dance to it or turn it up! I’m just being honest!

Perhaps because their struggles, public or not, tie in so much with my own, is why they bother me so, maybe that’s it. Maybe if I had them to my house for an iftar, or over for tea / ataya, we could have a discussion, one Muslim to another, as struggling people on the Sirat al-Mustaqeen, where I could say, do you understand, oh Muslim brothers, how your words, actions, lyrics, songs, hurt and offend me as your Muslim sister. And how it makes it harder for me to raise pious Muslim children, or how it makes it hard as a Muslim to avoid the haram and seek the good?

I’m sure T-Pain and Akon are perfectly nice brothers, minus the offending songs, perhaps they’d respect me as a hijabi Muslim woman. Allah alone knows best. I wish them both the best in this life and in the next. I wish them a belated Ramadan and an Eid Mubarak in advance.

And the same to all of my loyal readers who’ve made it this far through my latest diatribe. You guys are wonderful, the commenters and the lurkers. Thanks for reading and continue to enjoy, Inshallah.

In Case I Wasn’t Clear … But I thought I Was…

Assalamu alaikum, received the following comment in my comments today.

It seems so silly that people should be upset that he lied about being not enough of a criminal. He lied, but his apparent offense is that he did not cheat and steal ENOUGH. So I don’t think that quite puts him with the “corporate bigwigs”.
The main element of this whole story is its absurdity. It needs to be laughed off more than anything.
He will be the next Milli Vanilli Ice.

Firstly, I’m not mad that the guy didn’t actually spend 4.5 years in jail, I mean, come on! I can’t even say that I’m “mad” about it! Heck, I’m not the one that’s gotta look at myself in the mirror, or sleep at night, or well, answer to God for the fact that I’m a perpetual liar.

Perhaps comparing Akon’s lying to the “corporate bigwigs” may have been somewhat of a stretch, but both types of dishonesty illustrate how hard work, integrity, talent, good character, etc., mean nothing anymore!

Let’s try to bring a more apt comparison, as I’ve been thinking about this! Vanilla Ice pretty much gets run out of town because everyone finds out that his backstory wasn’t what we were led to believe it was. Milli Vanilli gets disgraced on live TV was it? Because they, well, lip synched to theri songs. The same with Ashley Simpson on Saturday Night live. And what happened? You never heard from these artists again, or at least, they pretty much faded into obscurity.

Now the thing is, Why should Akon be any different? You’ve got a guy who’s built his whole career on this lie! All of his albums pretty much run the same theme, and his music label is called “konvict Music” for God’s sake! If Ashley Simpson, Vanilla Ice, and Milly Vanilli get run out of town because they’ve been found to be “less than real” why shouldn’t it be any different with Akon?

Oh, because “all artists are doing it”. because “artists are like actors, they’re like characters in a movie”? Huh, now that’s a new one for me!

I think it’s one thing to keep some aspects of your life private, and I can understand a little embellishment, however, the perpetual lying about it, that is to me what the problem is. I understand that most “gangsta rappers” don’t live half of the life they claim to be living when they’re rapping”, which makes the kind of crap they’re putting out even more angering and sad! And what of the fact that some people may have found his story inspiring and may have drawn strength from that (oh but they’re a busta for “believing everything you hear”). What about that? As I said before, why couldn’t he have just taken what he really had and worked with that?

Let me try to break it down for anyone who doesn’t understand! It ain’t just about Akon! It’s about someone who felt he had to make up a criminal past in order to get my street cred, and who made that fake past the foundation of his career. And you have a society who thinks that’s cool. If Akon would have instead went to college, and went back to Senegal to be a teacher or a doctor or something like that, some in the “gangsta hip hop community” would probably say he wasn’t “real enough”, he’d not have gotten near the respect in some corners. However, he lies about running a car theft ring, likes about spending years in prison and we say “wow, how cool!”
Because ya know, actually doing some good in the world, getting down in the trenches, down in the dirt, working hard, lifting up yourself and others, the “hard way”, that ain’t glamorous!

What does appear to be “cool” and “glamorous” is being in prison, stealing, robbing, murder, going to strip clubs, having a lot of “bling bling”, having a lot of owmen, perhaps a lot of baby mams, etc. And as a fan of hip hop music, this makes me angry! I have always been angered by the various uses of the many derogatory terms describing women, and various body parts and sexual acts! In a lot of hip hop recordings, women are nothing but objects, to be used and discarded once they’ve fulfilled their usefulness. Men are, well, supposed to be violent, non-caring,
unless you’re talking about their money and possessions, and they’re not real men unless they’ve killed someone or done time in the pen. This latest “scandal” is justa symptom of a bigger problem!

As I said before, honesty, integrity, good judgment, good character, moral values, etc., in many subsets of our culture and society mean nothing anymore! Which is why people will continue to make excuses for Akon, and other artists’ behavior, calling it “an act”, saying it’s “entertainment”, etc.! Whatever. Entertainment for me is not listening to types of music that degrade me as a woman, and a human being. I’d like to know how many of these artists treat the women in their lives? How do they treat their mothers, daughters, wives, “baby mamas”, grandmothers, friends, etc.?

I just give up! I think I’ve explained myself as much as I can without seeming obsessive about the whole issue. So if you don’t get what I’m saying, you’re just never gonna get what I’m saying!

My Braille Display Is Back!

Assalamu alaikum, I thought I’d posted a news story about the 5.4 earthquake that could be felt in many parts of the Midwest Friday morning (the epicenter of which was somewhere in Illinois). I thought I’d clicked on “publish” and then I left the room and came back and just went to some other website, only discovering that my post, well, hadn’t posted, and I was just too lazy to go back and get it.

At any rate, my Focus 40 refreshable Braille display came back yesterday from Freedom Scientific, where it was getting some much needed repairs, considering that I’d went to plug it in last week, and half of the dots, the ones on the right half of the display, were no longer showing up.

The best way I could describe it would be like if your monitor goes out, or at least part of it anyway. But my Braille display, which had needed to be sent in for service anyway, as the dots had been getting weaker anyway, was of no use to me and I had to send it in for repairs. It was kind of like a car you have, that you know needs work but you can’t afford it, or you’re too lazy to take it into the repair shop to get it fixed or tuned up. And then the car completely breaks down and you have to take it into the shop after all, and the problem is worse than the initial problem that you held off on getting fixed in the first place.

So anyway, Alhamdulillah that the Braille display is back, and the dots are so scrip! I’m just looking at them going “wow!”, which is not a good thing to do when you’re at work, looking at Braille dots and just spacing out in amazement!

Anyway, am still pondering over Akon’s well, uh, “con”, and I know there’s a more reflective/philosophical post somewhere, I just can’t get it to come out! Something along the lines of, “well, we shoulda known” or “well, I coulda told you that, somethin’ just wasn’t right about that guy”.

However, it’s easy to say “yeah I told you so” after the fact of something like this! What is sad is that we’ve got to such a state in our culture that one has to lie, and to lie about how much jail time they got (and instead of making it less than actual, it’s more!), that you have to make yourself out to be more “bad” than you really are, to get any respect, I mean, have we really sunk that low! That someone feels the need to make up a criminal past!

And this is someone who is purportedly? a Muslim? It’s one thing to be in the music business struggling and rapping or singing about those struggles. But to actively lie and/or exaggerate aspects of your past? That bothers me! And given his past shinanigans this just doesn’t surprise me! Not one bit! But we’ll see what happens, we’ll see if he becomes another Vanilla Ice (another one who faked up his past), or if he will just become more “infamous” and sell even more of his raunchy records.

This whole thing has left me feeling sad and perplexed about how far we’ve descended into, well, the depths of something that’s just lacking any kind of morals. And we dont’ care about the *real* issues. Whether it’s Akon lying about his past, or the ABC anchors of that farce of a debate they had the other night (let’s talk about Jeremiah Wright just one more time and not talk about the fact that Iraq is going nowhere fast, the economy is awful, etc., no we wanna just talk about issues that don’t affect anyone else but us ’cause we care about them), our country is just stagnating and well, things just seem different.

I mean, when you’re in your early thirties and find yourself saying how bad things have gotten, I mean, I sound like a grandma or something. Akon is just in the same camp as all the corporate bigwigs who lie, cheat and steal money from the working people and the poor, and just like the corporate bigwigs, Akon isn’t really going to suffer for this. He’ll just put out another sorry “sorry blame it on me” kinda single and people will just forget about it and fall in love with him all over again (“oh he just has such nice hooks, we just don’t care about his character I mean, what’s that got to do with his music”).

Perhaps I’m frustrated that it seems as though in this world anyway, the “good guys” never wins, it’s always the poor, the disenfranchised, the voiceless, who suffer the most. Now what that has to do with Akon lying about his past I’ve not quite sorted out, but perhaps it’s because of the men I come across in my line of work who are trying desperately to make a new start, who’d rather put their criminal past behind them, and here’s Akon making up a criminal past in order to sell more records! And I just see that as a slap in the face to these men.

Perhaps I should just leave all of this really quite trivial stuff alone and leave it with God. I mean, I know for sure there are more important things to be worrying over, more productive things I could be doing with my time.

Anyway, I’ve just been feeling a since of powerlessness, and I think it started with the hearing of that interview with the woman in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and her horrific story. And I’m just tired. This world is just crazy, and messed up, and all of that, and it seems like it will never end and yet, it will all be gone in a blink of an eye, yet we won’t realize it until it happens.

I’m reminded of when I would see someone doing something wrong as a child, I’d say something like “she’s slamming the door” or “he’s writing on the wall” and some adult, a houseparent, teacher, or family member would say something to me like “you worry about you and I’ll deal with … ” and insert the name of the offending person here. Perhaps that’s what I should do, worry about Ginny and do the best to make sure that I’m not among those who are liars, hypocrites, and all of the characteristics I loathe, yet probably have displayed (sadly) myself a time or two.

Akon’s Con Job – April 16, 2008

Assalamu alaikum, I know I said to myself that I’d never blog about Akon again, but I just couldn’t resist this! You just can’t make these things up! What is it about all that is in the dark will come out in the light? May Allah guide him! Perhaps this will lead him to just come clean and tell the truth! For the truth shall set you free.