Right, then.

[silveradept]

A pair of funnies - The insidious nature of LJ, and the inability of quantifying love.

Something not funny at all - baby found in the backseat of a car. The driver was DUI. Similarly, mother refuses to get her children rabies shots. Even though there were bats in the house that were very much around them.

Back to funny - I, for one, welcome out new insect overlords.

Scooter girls - proving that there are pin-ups for everything.

Drug defeats recall, but improves intuition. So you do learn a few things, even without remembering what you've already learned. Trusting your gut instinct is worth something, sometimes.

A T-shirt is apparently sufficient reason to prevent someone from boarding the plane. Well, it's more like the people who have bought into the lie that anything Middle-Eastern, including the Arabic script, is automatically a terrorist signal. Complaint, with the ACLU's assistance, has been filed. There is nowhere in the law that prevents a person from wearing a T-shirt on a plane that I know of. Wearing it in an airport was almost guaranteeing that the person would be pulled aside.

I'm really tired of the assumption that because some people who come from the Middle East and profess to follow the law of Mohammed are interested in the destruction of non-Muslim civilizations, that everyone who either comes from the Middle East or professes to follow Mohammed's law is in league with the extremists. Of course, it doesn't help that people who profess to follow Jesus's teachings but do nothing of the sort are the most visible face of the Christian religion. If both sides could rein in their extremists, I think the world would be a better place. Now, how do we go about doing that...?

Comments

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Ok, so now people are being censored based on their chosen attire? What the heck? I can understand to some degree telling the guy "hey, a few people are upset by your shirt. you might want to change it so you don't get confronted by them" or something...but to out and out tell him he HAS to change his shirt? I would think "Freedom of speech" covers what t-shirt you wear. Does that mean if i see someone wearing a T-shirt with a curse word on it that i can get them to take off their shirt?

Im' not sure you CAN reign in the extremists. I also don't know as if there will ever be a time when everyone will accept everyone regardless of your heritage. It's an unfortunate thing, but as soon as people start to accept people of Middle Eastern heritage, there will only be another group of people to hate/fear/discriminate against.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I wasn't going to comment on the baby in the car with the DUI mom, because well, I've seen it happen before. However, what disturbs me is that the child was wedged between items on the floor....WITH a carseat in the car. Hello, even in your intoxicated state, you ought to have known to strap your kid in. I know the police say they don't know if the child fell or had been placed there, but I'm inclined to say the child was placed there since he was so nicely wedged into place. Perhaps it was so that no one could see the child while she was driving drunk.


Some people are idiots and ought to have their reproductive systems taken away from them.

Almost more painful to me was that the mother is younger than me. Oi, I'm getting old.

[wanderingbhikkh.livejournal.com]

I believe there will be one united world...

...the very moment that New Stockholm, Luna, declares independence.

As for extremists, we need to talk to them on their own terms: We need to line up anyone who looks like an extremist against the wall, and shoot them. Twice. In the head. Then five more times. In the chest.

[silveradept]

Congratulations, you've spawned an entirely new generation of extremists, ones that don't look like extremists are twice as dedicated to destroying you and your government.

Your next edict?

[silveradept]

Censoring based on attire happens all the time. We call it "dress code" in polite circles such as school and work. And now, soon, each of us will have our own federally mandated dress code, complete with our easily-hackable RFID identification card. Don't you love your country now? (Nod, thoughtcriminal.)

Extremism may not be able to be reined in, but I suspect part of the problem is because certain peoples display their religion as a badge of honor and insist that their interpretation of the religion is infallibly right. And then they act accordingly. Which creates problems for the rest of the world.

Regarding children, did it not occur to said parent before they drank that they had their child with them? That would be a strong motivation for me not to drink at all, because I would hope that I love my child enough not to put them in such a dangerous situation. A parenting license might solve some problems, but it would create others... (namely, that I probably wouldn't pass until well into my 30s or 40s on financial grounds.)

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Dress codes at work and school kind of make sense. At school its to not distract the other students with your attire (like girls wearing supershort mini's and whathave you) and at woork, it's a matter of respect for your co-workers/boss/etc. What you wear in public though ought to be your own choice and no one else's. I'm NOT for this RFID card, either. There's talk of doing it in passports, too (i thikn you even linked to it) and all I can think is thank god my passport is good for 10 more years. Maybe by then it will be realized how DUMB an idea it is.

Right, but the problem with those people is that there appears to be no way of getting them to back down. There will alwas be religious zealots out there, whatever their religion...and I think it happens in ALL religions. I mean, I saw it happen within my own family several times over, I've seen it happen in other people's families...heck, I've gotten crap from friend's parents because I hve a "Jewish sounding" last name. Things like this don't go away overnight, and I think it will take another lifetime or so before people become more tolerant of others. I think World Peace is a long way off as long as crap like this is going on.

The problem with that, SA, is that you ARE responsible enough to know not to drink around your child. Some people just honestly don't know they shouldn't. My friends have a...gosh, their child I think is 5 by now...and they used to host drinking/hash parties at their apartment, "after the baby goes to sleep". Heck, the bedroom that became the kid's when she turned 3 started out as the "Smoking room" in the house....smoking of course which included Pot. This person was friends with the ex-roommate....the parent of the 3 yr old who used to entertain men and women in her bedroom that she shared with the child after he went to sleep, and who smuggeld Red Line pot (supposidly a stronger strain) across state lines in my car. The city of baltimore sure had a good idea when they were inplanting 15-17 yr old girls with the 7 year norplant.

As far as you, dear, you are Excellent with Children. I've seen you interact with the kids, and I know that someday you will make an amazing parent. I don't think income ought to have anything to do with it - lots of kids grow up without a lot of luxeries or having to save for important things, but they have the LOVE of their parents that make up for it, as opposed to the hild of the drunkard or crack head who doesn' get a chance at all beause what kind of life must they lead? I've seen in firsthand in my ex-roommate and my friend, and all I can do is feel sorry for the kids involved.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

But that's the problem, isn't it? You want to get rid of the extremisists, but by doing so, create a new sect of extremisists and the cycle just keeps on going.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

I also was appaled and yet also found it humerous that in that article, the gentleman was offerd an "I love NY" shirt and someone said "No, don't give him that" and said somethong about going from one extreme to another. Whats wrong with someone who is Middle Eastern wearing an I love NY shirt? It's not like the first shirt read "I hate new york".

[silveradept]

Because, while they're not smart enough to understand that the first amendment guarantees the man the right to wear his shirt, regardless of how uncomfortable it makes the sheep in the airport, they are smart enough to realize that putting him in an I love NY shirt would be the equivalent gesture of ramming a fist up his ass and performing a ventriloquism act. Most people with some brains would see that he'd be forced to make a statement wholly opposite to the one he was making (blind obedience and rah-rahing versus calculated thought and disagreement).

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

But his first shirt was nothing but a shirt about peace, wasn't it?

I really hope the ACLU nails it to the airline and the airport security for what they've done. Especially after the man pointd out he was able to wear whatever he wanted and they told him "people in the us don't understand constitutional rights" Buh? What?

[itsdavesblog.livejournal.com]

Apparently these people don't recall Cohen v. California (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=403&invol=15) (403 US 15, 1971) where the SCOTUS held it protected speech for a man to walk into a courthouse with a jacket reading "FUCK THE DRAFT."

Of course, the Barney Fifes in State College, Pa. arrested and later released (uncharged) a man wearing a shirt reading "FUCK PETROL."

I suspect that Mr Jarrar will be receiving a settlement cheque from JetBlue, sooner or later.


This sort of shit makes me sick. I think I already know the answer... but I wonder what the response would be if my pasty self was wearing the T-shirt?

It's not like the republicrats are much better, but for god's sake, the xenophobic Christofascists we have in office now have got to go!

:: steps off of soap box ::

[itsdavesblog.livejournal.com]

Sorry wanted to add the link (http://146.186.194.36/archive/2000/10/10-05-00tdc/10-05-00dnews-2.asp) to the State College story from the Penn State Daily Collegian

[itsdavesblog.livejournal.com]

Of course the NYC police don't have any problem ramming things up there (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abner_Louima)...

Where have the "good guys" gone?

[silveradept]

Canada, on a guess. Elsewhere, doing good work and hoping that nobody in the government notices. Certainly not to be found in the channels of power anymore.

[silveradept]

I agree - other people being uncomfortable with your message does not a crime make. The shirt isn't necessarily about peace - it's about, to some degree, the opposite of it, being active and not acquiescing.

As for the "constitutional rights" thing, the mistake is that people believe that what was written in the Constitution applies equally to all people in all ages at all times. The new ideology is that the Constitution protects when its convenient to do so - if the government requires something from you or does something to you that violates those rights in the name of national security, then you, as an American-loving patriot and not an al-Qaeda thoughtcriminal, will happily allow your rights to be raped.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

*nods* people everyday wear a shirt that someone finds offensive, or has a bunper sticker that someone else doesn't like...it's stupid to pinpoint one person because of what he looks like skin-tone wise.

While that may be true, and I completely agree with you that people tend to make the constitution convinient only when it works for them, we also have the ACLU that WILL continue to fight these situations. I *wish* I knew where my ACLU card was so I could say I'm a card-carrying member....

[silveradept]

It's stupid, but it's been the legacy of this country for a while now, first it was blacks and women, for a short while it was Asians and women, now it's Arabs and women. Maybe we'll finally manage to beat the racism part, and then we can work on teh sexism bit, too.

As for the ACLU, they do great work, but they can only be in so many places at once, and it requires someone reporting to them for them to take action. The ALA routinely says that for every one book challenge that ends up at its Office of Intellectual Freedom, five more go unreported. People have to be willing to be the ACLU of themselves, knowing their rights and exercising them.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

It's a nice thought, but I think sexism is here to stay. Ever since Christianity killed the Mother-right/Woman worshipping religions and decided Women must sumbit to men...we've been fighting ever since. (but yeah, did you know before Christianity when most people WERE pagan and druid that everything was controlled by the woman and it was the WOMEN who had teh freedom to sleep around if they wanted to?)

I think a lot of people are scared of the ACLU. I don't think a lot of people even know what the AClU stands for, or what they do.