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

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Actually, McVeigh wasn't uninfluenced by religion.

http://ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=15532

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I understand that. What I meant was being able to remove that factor and look at the whole picture outside of it. It's like saying " let's look at just the red blood cells. Ok now let's look at just the white blood cells." or in terms of listening to music isolating the drums and guitars and listening to just the vocals. Then turning the vocals off and listening to just the guitars.

Getting a feel for each component, and how it contibutes up the whole.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Thing is though - and I have a feeling we've had this conversation before - there's some things that just can't be plucked out of their context because it's the context that makes them meaningful. This goes especially in a case of an issue like this, where there's so much cultural, social, political and racial intersection - it's less like isolating a drumbeat (which can still stand on its own) and more like trying to start out studying a book by looking at only the vowels.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

The thing is , I'm an analyst. It's what I do.

Extract the cultural angle - how was this person raised, how were they taught by their parents/family? How did their school life effect them. What religion did they accept and how did they interpret it?

Extract the Social : What was their peer group like. What people did they ' hang out ' with, what was their influence on the person in question.

Extract the political : How did they vote, what party do they follow, how do they feel about the government and how it operates?

Then take all of these and make like a Venn diagram out of it. Look where they influence each other. Look for WHY they act/think/believe the way they do.

This is why I was dissecting the point of view of the people who object to the Mosque at ground zero , and/or are part of the offensive bus ad. why did they choose the symbols that they did, they are afraid, but what are they afraid of and why? Yes , yes a thousand times yes their points of view are " wrong " , but that's not a solution. Understanding why they think that way and undoing it is. Instead of just clubbing them to death , trying to understand why they feel the way they do. I come to understand why they feel the way they do - but that does not mean I agree with it. Unfortunately in the court of LJ it does, apparently.

I do this every day. Multiple times a day. I have learned to do this, and I'm good at it. I can remove my feelings from the process. When you are trying to crack the password to a hard drive full of KP you have to put aside the disgust and horror you feel and look at the person who put the lock in place. You have to understand them.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Well, the court of LJ may have misunderstood you because nothing in your discourse has suggested you think that they are wrong or that you've progressed passed the understanding and onto the undoing stage. I actually agree wholeheartedly understanding where people are coming from is a key part of engaging with them (and I haven't tried to club anyone to death, though you know anger isn't unjustified, especially where issues are personal for people) but there's a difference between understanding people and excusing them.

I can remove my feelings from the process.

You may be able to, but emotion - on both sides - is at the heart of an issue like this, which is why I'd respectfully submit tackling it like a data problem might not be as successful as you think it is.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I clearly said multiple times, that I do not expressly agree with it, but I understand it.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Again, with respect, in fact you haven't, or if you have, it's been lost itself in a signal to noise problem, because if you respond to people like they must just not understand the argument when they point out that it's flawed - that feels like a defence, so of course people will respond to that in turn. And speaking on a personal level, I've been responding to your analysis of the argument (which is indisputably your own) as much as the argument itself (which, okay, isn't), and it's that I've found as problematic as anything because I absolutely don't agree that you can seperate religious or cultural or racial bias from any statement as loaded - scuse the gun pun - as that one.