sundries

[rm]

Well, that's what we call a very exciting morning. Still freaking out. Thank god it's not during my five weeks in Europe, that would blow so hard.

Patty approaches the comps finish line. There will be much sleeping when she crosses it. I, however, have had at least one benefit from the matter, in that her research came upon a VERY useful quote for my work last night about burials and how they are about enacting and negotiating social relationships. So hey!

I currently possess an awesome secret plan for if Patty and I can manage to runaway to Amsterdam for a weekend while we're both in Europe this fall. Fingers crossed.

Okay, the Qu'ran burning may or may not be called off and Trump has offered to buy the building where the community center wants to build to stop it, but the owner of the building isn't taking the offer seriously (go you!) and right now the center is still on for that location.

People who don't suck: The Massachusetts Bible Society which will be donating two Qu'rans for each one burnt by the extremists in Florida to community centers, prisons, hospitals, shelters -- basically anywhere there may be Muslims without access to their holy text. via pecunium.

The memorial murals of 9/11. (Note: I do post 9/11 things every year, just as a warning for those who might find it triggery. There will be more tomorrow.)

The story of a Muslim woman, widowed by 9/11.

In other news, yesterday also saw DADT declared unconstitutional by a federal judge in CA, thanks to a lawsuit filed by the Log Cabin Republicans (I don't get their road, but it's a hard one to walk in the face of the current state of their party, so credit where credit is due). What happens next and how Obama's justice department will handle this is not only a big question, but a matter of potentially fascinating and heartbreaking political chess.

How effective will this past year's census be in counting gay couples?

Oh hey, an LJ friend has a rhyming picture book for kids out about a kid with two moms.

There is now a petition to tell Google "lesbian" and "bisexual" are not offensive search terms. Of course, the problem is broader than that, as someone discovered/pointed out that if you search on many words related to race and ethnicity (i.e., "Latina") you also get the same results again because of buckets of fetishizing porn.

pgdudda has more on the Roma expulsions in the EU and why they are a problem and making things worse. Small words. Super clear. Check it out.

The passive-agressive missives of NYC. I love this, considering we have had everything from pianos and mattresses to dog shit and tangerines left in the public halls of our building. Also, dear downstairs guy: if you ever saw the legs off a metal stool in the hallway after 10pm again, I am calling the cops on you, even if you are "almost done" (also, Patty will kick your ass).

And, to go back to my OH MY GOD moment of the morning, today requires obligatory musical theater news. Have some: Spiderman!

Finally, from the entire Internet: 100 British cats let loose in an Ikea turns out to be charming beyond words. The finished ad is amazing both as film and advertising. Thanks to airspaniel for the ad link.

Comments

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

From the mural article:

It’s surprising to find scattered among America’s poorest and most segregated neighborhoods murals projecting such raw expressions of patriotism.

I don't understand what's so surprising about this. Poor folk aren't patriots? I guess I just don't get the NYT.

Re: 9/11 - I leave commemorations to the folks who live in NYC, DC, and Stony Creek, and to the people who lost loved ones to the bombings. I am sad for the loss of life...but more sad for the loss of freedoms around the country in the aftermath. And sad, too, that my husband and Elder Monster aren't really safe any more, thanks to the fear-mongering that has taken place in the years since the bombings.

On 9/11/01, my husband was punched in the face by a customer at his place of employment, called a "fucking ragtop", and had his life threatened because "you people blew up fucking New York". Elder Monster was assaulted at school and called "sand nigger" and "dune coon". Neither had any clue at the time what had happened - neither retailers nor schools are in the habit of having the idiot box on - and

both are US citizens, born and raised

. My husband is of Syrian extraction, and his heritage shows in his face and Elder Monster's. (Younger Monster is pale as a sheet, but refuses to "pass". He'll cheerfully snarl at people talking about "fucking muck mucks" that he's a fucking muck muck himself, and tell them to shut the fuck up.)

I avoid the media on 9/11. I quietly mourn, but for different reasons than most people. What you as a New Yorker lost is

awful

. What we as a nation lost is sad and disgusting.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry your family had those experiences. I have friends here who had similar ones as well. I wrote a lot about this idea of During and After when it first happened, and I still believe this is During, because shit is still rippling out and wounding us from those events; we have not, because of the very types of things you cite, yet recovered.

And wow, NYTimes fail (I should really stop being surprised). I looked at the murals and didn't read the text. oi.

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there's ever going to be an After, with so many people

determined

to keep us at During? All of the hate and fear-mongering has given people permission to essentially BE the Ugly American that folks abroad speak so derisively of, and be PROUD of being the Ugly American.

I saw a lot of Americans Behaving Badly - mostly American military personnel! - when I lived in Germany in the 80s. It was embarrassing to admit that those people were my countrymen, and I apologized a lot for their existence. Now I see it right here at home, directed at our own citizens, and I'm not embarrassed any more. I'm PISSED THE FUCK OFF. It's all I can do to keep my hands to myself, to not reach out and grab these people by the throat and shake them as hard as I can and ask them what the fuck is wrong with them.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Wow. I learned two new anti-Muslim/Arab slurs from what you wrote. (I'm unsurprised by this on several counts, but I'm saddened on your family's behalf.)

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

We learn new ones all the time. It's amazing, what the ignorant can come up with sometimes.

I think my favorite, though, is "terrorist". People think it's OK to tell my husband terrorist jokes, or tell me right in front of him. It even happened at Lowe's once - and it was an EMPLOYEE! He asks my husband "What's the difference between a toddler and a terrorist? A terrorist wears his diaper on his head!!" To my American, Atheist husband, while we're just trying to buy some flowers for the gardens. *sigh*

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Is there an anti-Defamation group for Arabs/Muslims the way there is for Jews? Or maybe this is an ACLU thing. You didn't say whether you confronted the store management about this, but I can understand why you'd feel uncomfortable doing so, if you didn't.

AAAGH.

I've had experiences where I was the first well-educated non-white that some people had encountered, and evidently it seriously hurt their brains to deal with it. So they chose to just have double vision - what they believed, they believed, but me, I was "people" to them. (i.e. I was a real person, everyone else was a stereotype.)

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

I nearly jumped over the flower cart to get to the guy. I was ready to claw his eyes out, I was so pissed. Hubby grabbed me by the sweater and dragged me off down another aisle, muttering that it wasn't worth it, let it go.

I called the store manager the next morning anyway. Described the associate, manager knew exactly who I was talking about. Repeated the "joke". The manager gasped so loudly when I got to the punch line, he sucked the air out of MY room. I've never heard such profuse apologies for anything in the history of ever. He assured me that such was not Lowe's policy, and that the situation would be handled. I learned later from another associate that he had been called in immediately, read the riot act, and terminated. (I don't know that I'm happy about that. I would rather they sent him to sensitivity training, to at least try to educate him, but maybe they had tried that already. Some people can't be taught.)

I've had experiences where I was the first well-educated non-white that some people had encountered, and evidently it seriously hurt their brains to deal with it. So they chose to just have double vision - what they believed, they believed, but me, I was "people" to them. (i.e. I was a real person, everyone else was a stereotype.)

How frustrating! This sort of thing really gets my back up. In THIS century? People should be over that kind of nonsense. And yet, here we are, surrounded by idiots still.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

You are a *freakin' hero* for following through with that. The fact that the manager knew who it was, and had that strong a reaction - I'm going to guess interventions in the past that had no effect.

People aren't going to be over that kind of nonsense until their churches and communities stop teaching hate because it's lucrative and convenient for them. I'm so angry at the Rand/ReligiousRight/Republican axis of class warfare that I can't put my words together coherently.

[delux-vivens.livejournal.com]

It’s surprising to find scattered among America’s poorest and most segregated neighborhoods murals projecting such raw expressions of patriotism.

This kind of fuckery is why i no longer make an effort to read the nyt.