sundries

[rm]

I did not wake up with any bizarreness in the middle of the night last night. I also had rice with terriyaki sauce for dinner, which Patty had to make because I have not yet mastered rice, because anything else seemed too challenging. On the other hand, now I am cured.

Yay, thing that was fucked up with new lease is now unfucked up. Although management company person on speaker phone, with music playing, filing your nails (yes, I could hear the emery board), you completely suck.

There was also an incident this morning involving city inspectors and a caulking gun.

Stanley Fish on plagiarism. It is, of course, Stanley Fish, which is to say, argue amongst yourselves.

The Ebell Club, a woman's social club in Los Angeles was founded at the end of the 19th century to provide a substitute for university education to women who were usually denied such opportunities because of school policies and family financial priorities. Keeping the club going in a time of broader opportunities, however, is a challenge.

Diagnosing appendicitis.

Fed up flight attendant makes one hell of an exit. Who wants to bet his story gets optioned for a movie deal?

Oyster battle: they can help clean polluted waters, but gov't agencies worry that means tainted seafood will reach consumers.

In the weirdest, least comprehensible event in the saga of the downtown Islamic cultural center is the proposal by an anti-gay media personality of opening a gay bar catering to Muslims next to it.

Meanwhile, the MTA has approved this really offensive ad with images of the planes flying into the WTC that opposes said Islamic cultural center.

Everything I hear about Torchwood S4 is making me so excited. Yesterday's big news, at least in my book, is that it will be taking place 2 years after the events of CoE. We're not sure if that means Ianto and Steven's deaths, or when Jack takes off from earth six months later. But it's a really compelling amount of time to me either way, in terms of where Jack's head is going to be, and is really a random piece of info I've felt those of us who want to be writing speculative S4 fic really, really need. I am all over this detail. ALL OVER IT.

Last night on Buffy: It's the apocalypse sex episode! Hey, own your tropes. Also, jeez, how is Spike the only grownup around? And really, King ARthur? The sword in the stone, really? What's most ridiculous is the degree to which it works, at least in the moment of watching.

Tonight, White Collar and Covert Affairs.

Comments

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Some people *believe* that it was done in the name of "Islam" because they don't have enough exposure to Islam to have been innoculated against this idea.

If someone had claimed to have done it in the name of Christianity, most people would roll their eyes and say, "idiot extremist".

If someone had claimed to have done it in the name of feminism, would that merit doing away with all women's groups in a certain radius?

The answer to this wrongful bias is to have the Islamic center there to educate people. To keep that Islamic center away is to pander to the irrational bias.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I can only agree that having an Islamic center to educate is an excellent idea. I just think that the location is not the best choice. The noise created by it's presence there - right or wrong - would block out the signal that it's trying to send. Saying to not put it in one particular block out of all of Manhattan is better than saying no don't do it at all. It may be pandering to bias, but I think it would be better to look at the long term goal of eradicating that bias than the short term.

Again, my opinion.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

That's really the place where it *should* be. Anywhere else, and we're pretty much engaging in the Douglas Adams "oh, what do you mean you didn't know your house was going to be demolished, it was POSTED!" scenario. Only those in the know will go to some other place, the very people who needed the education will never see it, smug in their satisfaction at having chased away "those damned terrorists".

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I suggested once putting it in Times square. It would be infinitely more useful than the Disney store.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Useful, but not lucrative. Who'd pay the rent there?

Frankly, I'm hoping that putting it by the WTC site leads to various people making the pilgrimage and then having a place to decompress and process their feelings about Islam.