sundries

[rm]

Last night we were assaulted by a mosquito. It was evil. It fucked up our sleep. We must destroy it and its sneaky evil minions.

20-hear high school reunion details released. If I buy the ticket early it's only $70. *snerk* They are, at least being accommodating about my food needs. I already feel in a weird tizzy about the whole thing considering the utterly batshit (and, frankly, kinda of awesome) entrance I made for the 10-year.

graduate_maria. You know the deal.

South Africa, gay marriage and the reality of race: whites and foreigners tout the progressiveness of the nation's legalization of same-sex marriage, while anti-gay violence, including "corrective rapes" against lesbians are still a major issue for the country's majority.

The ADL has downgraded the swastika as an antisemitic hate symbol. It seems it increasingly shows up in other types of hate crimes too and so for younger generations of perpetrators has less of a connection to the events surrounding the Holocaust.

Bollywood is awesome. You already knew that. The Inflation Witch song makes it more awesome.

Oh hey, adding the Inflation Witch story to this post made offensive Tea Party ads show up on my journal. Always interesting to see how the other side fears lives.

Patty mentioned this to me the other day, and we expressed our rage then. But I am reminded of it thanks to NYTimes coverage of it today: the MTA is proposing raising the subway rates again. I could live with the unlimited 30-day pass going from $89 to $104, but if they limit the amount of rides its good for? Well, then what's the fucking point? It's not like, in a city like New York, there's any other option. It's not like we can drive our fucking cars instead -- WE DON'T HAVE ANY. I hate the MTA with its corruption, inefficiency and constant blaming of the ridership. And I hate the way NYC is denied its fair share of funds to support our transit system from Albany and from DC, because people hate NYC so much it's bad for politicians to actually treat us fairly.

I will not comment on the latest offensive thing out of Elizabeth Hasslebeck's mouth. I will not comment on the latest offensive thing out of Elizabeth Hasslebeck's mouth. I will not comment on the latest offensive thing out of Elizabeth Hasslebeck's mouth. I will not comment on the latest offensive thing out of Elizabeth Hasslebeck's mouth.

Hey, just because I don't have kids and am not currently planing on having any, can we not assume I'm "child-free."

Now, granted, your consideration of others about your kids is awesome, as is your consideration of your kids about others (kids don't always want to be in adult spaces anymore than all adults welcome kids in all adult spaces), and I appreciate and welcome that. You are awesome, and if you are awesome, I'm sorry that some people are such assholes to you about the fact that hey, having kids was the best choice for you.

I'm gluten-free, because gluten causes me harm. Other people's reasonably behaved (in a kid-like way that, yes, is sometimes loud or crying) kids, unless they randomly, literally bite my ankles or have a meltdown on a plane (and what can you do about that, sometimes I feel like I'm going to have a meltdown on a plane too; kids melting down on planes, I stand with you in solidarity!) don't cause me harm. I don't need to deal with them like they're an allergen, and in most cases, neither does anyone else.

As a person without kids, who thinks kids are pretty okay but will say something to a parent if they don't tell their kid to stop smacking me on the subway (hello, Monday), I'd really like if people like me, you know, existed, as opposed to these caricatures that people fall into of "Parent who will beat you over the head with their child's car seat" and "child-free person whose freedom is destroyed every time they see a child from anything less than 500ft."

White Collar was just a competent, grown-up, elegant episode last night. Don't have a lot to say about it.

Actually, I don't have a lot to say about Covert Affairs either, other than oh, Auggie backstory, that's going to require some careful navigation. I hold my breath a lot watching this show because there's such a mess that can be made of so many things, but it continues to get better. Next week? Zurich!

Comments

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

It seems it increasingly shows up in other types of hate crimes too and so for younger generations of perpetrators has less of a connection to the events surrounding the Holocaust.

I have an incredibly weird and ambivalent reaction to that. On the one hand, I can definitely see where this shift comes from. When someone carved a swastika into my driveway a few years ago, my initial reaction was, "Did somebody mistake my pentagram for a Star of David again?" (Followed by a slightly freaked out and ultimately pointless call to the police, who did absolutely nothing except possibly log the call. They didn't even seem to want do that, despite my insistence that there should be a record in case anything else happened in our neighborhood.) It was pointed out to me then that most likely whatever bored and destructive kids did it probably have no idea what it means and just associate it with "badness."

That, of course, leads to the opposite side of the ambivalence. Because it is a symbol used to mean everything from "holy" to "good luck" in other parts of the world. There are a couple of pieces of Eastern jewelry that I own but will never wear because it's part of the symbolism, and even knowing the history and origins in that context, it just completely makes my skin crawl. (I should really find someone to pass them on to who wouldn't have that issue.) So there's part of me that would like to see it lose those horrible associations ... but expanding it to just general badness and hate isn't exactly a step in that direction either.

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

After poking at my thoughts on this off and on through the day, all I can do re-reading that comment is wince. Yes, those experiences shape the reaction I was trying to express, but they're not the point. At all.

It's disturbing that the reason the swastika is being downgraded as a specifically anti-Semitic symbol is because people seem to be forgetting how it was actually used or at least using it in harassing others who aren't Jewish. If it were some other reason, such as a widening awareness of other uses for it, that would be one thing. But this suggests that younger generations aren't as keenly aware of what that symbol was made to mean in what is still fairly recent history, just have some vague idea of it being associated with "badness" and hatred generally. And yet as the article goes on to say, there's been an increase in violent crimes against Jews. There's some connection there that the article never quite makes and that I'm not quite able to put a finger on other than to say that it's troubling.