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

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Yeah! White Collar and Covert Affairs!

Re: Torchwood S4 - would it be two years for Jack, or just for everyone else on Earth? I wonder if he might have been gone longer on his end (and I'm sure we won't know until later).

[rm.livejournal.com]

That's also the mystery question. I maintain they should make it longer for him, just to deal with the fact that botox can only do so much for JB, but on the other hand, I like the idea of it all being a bit emotionally sore for Jack still.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Agree on both counts. I don't think it would be a ridiculous amount of time for Jack. Dollars to doughnuts they won't say how long it's been for him and will leave it open.

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

The gay bar just baffles me. You'd think that anyone with enough money to invest in a downtown bar would be smart enough to think twice about flushing that much money down the drain to just be an enormous dick.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

So it goes like:
"We want to protect your city. We want to protect your city from the eeeeevil Muslims. Let us protect your city by putting up ads that induce PTSD flashbacks and exploit a massive tragedy in your recent history, because that is the best way to protect your city. USA! USA!"
?

Just checking.

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

Exactly. ::headdesk::

[sykii.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have a very hard time not vandalizing these if I see them out and about. How dare they?

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Those ads are in frighteningly poor taste. I'm not sure, but isn't Geller not from here? As far as I can tell, most New Yorkers are either for it (yay jobs!) or just don't care one way or another.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Out here in Colorado , some people liken the building of a Mosque at ground zero to building a gun range at Columbine high school. It's the only argument I've heard that addresses the issue without openly being labeled as a religious slam / anti Muslim / racist act and disregarded.

[rm.livejournal.com]

This. I almost said in the initial post. Because I will.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I think it's a disingenuous argument and one that is about somwhat more effectively veiled Islamiphobia, which in the US is often, but not exclusively, linked to racism, and this is absolutely, positively not a fight I wish to have in my journal.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I agree that the ad is triggery , but as a person who has PTSD I'm not entirely sure that a building displaying the symbol that the attackers gathered themselves behind is any less triggery.

Note that I'm being careful to say 'the symbol that the attackers gathered themselves behind', and not condemning the entire religion, etc.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

I don't know how it's polling, but the loudest opponents are definitely not from here. It's the same old thing-- New York is not part of Real America (and is in fact often shorthand for Not Real America) until it's politically expedient to claim it.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen a mosque? The only "symbol" that might be visible from the outside is a crescent moon.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly. As bethynyc points out, very few New Yorkers are totally opposed to Park51, and a good many more are in favor. The MTA risks outraging the many to avoid offending the few. Or possibly the one (with money).

[kalichan.livejournal.com]

Apologies to the people of Colorado, but no, that's not what it would be like at all. A more fair comparison would be like if they wanted to build a cathedral near the site of the Oklahoma City bombing... and people objected, because you know, Timothy McVeigh was Irish Catholic, and so that would be "disrespectful". Can you imagine anyone making that objection? No, right?

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Who wants to bet his story gets optioned for a movie deal?

If Law & Order don't get there first...

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Understood. I thought that the statement was unique in looking at it as comparing two tragedies, without the introduction of religion/Islam/racism. The people I've had talks with are definitely not Islamiphobic (personal friends of mine, who I share mutual friends with who practice Islam ... oddly enough in the hacker scene ). I understand the logic behind thinking that it could be thinly veiled Islamiphobia, but I like to think that it's also possible to not be Islamiphobia at all.

I like to think that I am not Islamiphobic , and that I can view acts of politically inspired mass killing ( McVeigh/9-11 ) external of religion. It's easy to point and say 'oh no you aren't' , but that's the way the world is these days.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

This is a good point.

[azurelunatic]

Knowing the number of people that I do who still flinch from crosses, I recognize that when one's entire experience with a religion/symbol thereof is a bad one, that exposure to it after that can be triggery. But it is possible, and even likely, that people would have other exposure to a religion/its symbols in a context that's at least neutral, and not everyone who has PTSD associated with that incident will have religious symbols as a trigger.

Whereas the image of the planes flying into the WTC is inherently triggery.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

I used to live next door to one on 97th St. The crescent moon is exactly what I was talking about. It's also featured in the ad. As I understand it the crescent moon / star is symbolic of the religion.

As I said in a later comment :

Personally, I'm far more afraid of the crucifix than I am of the crescent moon. That has more to do with my personal experience with the associated religion, and I understand how some people can stare at a crucifix and find faith , support and hope - but it just inspires fear in me.

I'm sure that some people have a similar reaction to the crescent moon / star.

[delchi.livejournal.com]

That's tricky territory, because what is a trigger to a person is as unique as the person in question. It's not so easy to dismiss what is a trigger to a person based on an external point of view. What may be a trigger to one person could be a common neutral object/symbol to another. There are people I know of who are triggered to 9/11 flashbacks by the smell of burning buildings, who can not even think of flying anymore. Just last month in a hotel room in Las Vegas with a wide panoramic view of the city, including the airport , a friend of mine commented that he felt a little scared watching the planes turning and banking thinking that one might head towards the hotel.

Personally, I'm far more afraid of the crucifix than I am of the crescent moon. That has more to do with my personal experience with the associated religion, and I understand how some people can stare at a crucifix and find faith , support and hope - but it just inspires fear in me.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Fed up flight attendant makes one hell of an exit. — My paternal grandfather and his eldest son were pilots for TWA, that uncle's wife was a flight attendant, and I really wish I had their e-mail addresses so I could forward that article. (I've sent it to my dad and brother, with a request that they do so.)

[trinker.livejournal.com]

The comparable scenario would be a "flight" school.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

Okay. Granted that, I absolutely guarantee you that *more* people in this city are triggered by the images of what happened that day.
So it does not make sense to put ads all over the subway (as you know, a stressful place full of angry, fearful people at the best of times) that feature both the crescent/star symbol and an image of the attack. It makes things worse for all of us, who are just going about our business. It perpetuates fear and hate, whatever the personal feelings and motivations of the people leading the movement.
And unlike a community center and place of worship, the ad campaign also provides no benefits to balance out its potential to ruin someone's day-- except the benefits it provides to politicians, of course.