"After more than 1,300 years of living and intermarrying in China, Hui Muslims — who number about 10.5 million, less than 1% of China's population — have adjusted by becoming culturally and linguistically Chinese. They even made their version of Islam accessible to Confucians and Daoists — trying to show it as inherently Chinese and not a foreign influence — by adopting spiritual concepts and terms found in ancient Chinese philosophy to explain Islamic precepts.... The dome removal campaign has met with limited public resistance.... The Hui Muslims, for the most part, have accommodated the ever-changing cultural pressures around them. Yusuf, the Muslim owner of a store near the Dongguan Mosque [said]... 'Everything changes from one era to another. During Chairman Mao's time, they tore down all our mosques. Then they built them up. Now they are tearing them down again! Just follow whatever political slogan the country is yelling at the time.... To the average person, Chinese style, Arabic style... we don't care! Our faith does not exist in our buildings. It lies in our heart,' he says, thumping his chest emphatically."
NPR reports.
October 25, 2021
"But the recommendations — even those approved unanimously — mask significant dissent and disquiet among those advisers about the need for booster shots in the United States."
"In interviews last week, several advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and to the Food and Drug Administration said data show that, with the exception of adults over age 65, the vast majority of Americans are already well protected against severe illness and do not need booster shots.
All the advisers felt that they were obligated to make difficult choices, based on sparse research, in the middle of a public health emergency. But some said they felt compelled to vote for the shots because of the way the federal agencies framed the questions that they were asked to consider. Other committee experts said that they wanted to avoid confusing the public further by dissenting, or that they voted according to their views of the evidence and were simply overruled."
In straining to maintain authority, the experts undermine their authority. There is too much pressure to present a united front and to give one clear message to people. It's practical, but only short-term practical. When we see that scientists don't stay true to science, we will regard them as part of a propaganda machine. In the future, we won't listen. I wonder how bad did it get before the NYT decided it needed to publish this article. There's been so much fear about saying anything disruptive about vaccines.
"When gay men and lesbians come up, I say, 'Where do you stand on the word "queer"?' The young people are like, 'I love it.' It’s their word. I hate it."
"I read an interview with this woman, and she identifies as queer because she’s tall. People who identify as queer because they feel 'other'? Everybody does at some point in their life. It’s just the rebranding. No one asked me about it. There was not a vote. So now I identify as a straight man. Whatever you identify as, people have to respect that, right? I identify as a straight man because the word 'straight' doesn’t change. I just want some stability.... I’d rather say I’m homosexual than queer. It’s completely strictly generational. That’s what people my age were called, you know? But that’s not the part of it that bothers me. It’s just the rebranding. That’s why now I’m a straight man. And you know what?... I’m going to be a really good spokesperson for straight men too. We’ve been maligned for too long, and we’ve had it. We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore."
Said David Sedaris, quoted in "David Sedaris Knows What You’ll Laugh at When No One Is Judging" (NYT).
Said David Sedaris, quoted in "David Sedaris Knows What You’ll Laugh at When No One Is Judging" (NYT).
That interview is so full of quotable stuff, it's hard for me to stop, but I'll stop there.
"Atlanta is still seething that Major League Baseball stripped the All-Star Game away from their beloved city this summer."
"Well, politics or not, there’s absolutely nothing MLB can do to stop Atlanta now.
Atlanta will host the World Series for the first time since 1999."
It's hard even to remember what offense Georgia committed that deserved the punishment imposed. Something un-woke? Something about voting regulations implying racism? Whatever... so now those terrible people are triumphing, and I don't think they're going to give up singing that doltish "Indian" tune while doing "the tomahawk chop."
The only alternative is another Southern city, those cheaters in Texas.
Ah, baseball is boring, all the Northerners sniff.
"Alec Baldwin was rehearsing a scene that involved pointing a revolver 'towards the camera lens'... when the gun... suddenly went off and killed the cinematographer, according to the film’s director..."
That's the most exculpatory narrative, "quoted in an affidavit released Sunday night," the NYT reports.
The Times doesn't link to the affidavit, so I'm puzzling over whether it's the director's affidavit and thus his sworn statement or whether it's someone else's affidavit that quotes something the director (Joel Souza) said more casually.
The account by Mr. Souza explained why Mr. Baldwin had been pointing the gun at the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins....
Not completely. I wish the NYT wouldn't look like it's trying to help Baldwin. Please say only exactly what you know. Souza said something, but we don't know it's true. He's an interested party. And "towards the camera" isn't even the same as "at the camera," let alone "at the cinematographer." If it was "at the camera," wouldn't it hit the lens?
J.D. Vance is trending on Twitter this morning, because of the Ohio Senate candidates debate.
I'll just embed one tweet, because it led to a conversation that made me laugh aloud:
The JD Vance vs Josh Mandel contest for Emperor of Crazytown is absolutely gonna end up in flames. Hope it takes down the rest of the GQP with it. pic.twitter.com/mEcxxIwKUr
— Rob in Hawai`i, PhD 🌴 (@rvaughan_hawaii) October 25, 2021
ME: "Hope it takes down the rest of the GQP with it" — that's what it says, "GQP." I don't know what the Q is supposed to be. Grand Queer Party? That's how I see "Q"? What else could it be, Gentlemen's Quarterly Party?
MEADE: QAnon.
ME, laughing: That never crossed my mind.
For more tweets on J.D. Vance and his inflammatory, Trumpesque quotes — and Mandel's effort at topping him — here's the Twitter page.
My Twitter feed serves up a strange run of male humor.
Suddenly, I get this:
I know Crosby's only passing something else along, and it's from an account that presents a female identity, but I'm counting that as Crosby's humor, replete with the casualness of masturbation and second-hand jokes.
"You can believe him, because he's done it before" — Obama's pitch for McAuliffe.
I've cued this to start when Obama starts, but the first 5 minutes is introductions and instructions on how to vote. There's some byplay about how wives tell their husbands what to do: Michelle would say something obscene if Obama said he wanted to run for office again after being out of office, which is McAuliffe's predicament, and Obama doesn't know what Doris might have said to Terry.
All the signs say "Terry," by the way. He's become one of those first-name guys, like Bernie.
The repeated line — "You can believe him, because he's done it before" — depends on the voters' perception that things went well when McAuliffe was governor and are going well under Northam — "Northram," as Obama calls him.
It's an anti-change argument from a rhetorician who built his career on the abstraction "change." Obama portrays Virginia as in the middle of a process of "movin' forward" and needing to decide whether to keep going or whether "to go backwards": "We can plunge right back into the misguided policies and the divisiveness and the negligence."
"This parasite detaches the fish's tongue, attaches itself to the fish's mouth, and becomes its tongue."
"The parasite then feeds on the fish's mucus. It also happens to be the only known case where a parasite functionally replaces a host's organ."
From "The tongue-eating louse does exactly what its name suggests" (NPR).
From "The tongue-eating louse does exactly what its name suggests" (NPR).
This tongue-eating louse is a good metaphor. You know the kind of people who would like to detach other people's tongue and become their tongue. And the way they feast on mucus.
October 24, 2021
"After a morning of red boxes and paperwork, meetings and phone calls with courtiers, she walks her dogs, usually after lunch, and still rides regularly..."
"... though she no longer heads out in very cold or wet weather. Her collection of more than 100 budgerigars, which she keeps in an aviary near her private apartments at Windsor, are an enjoyable diversion and horse racing — either watching it on television, attending a meeting or studying the form — is still a big part of her life.
We may never know what, if anything, is wrong with the Queen beyond fatigue. The palace draws the line at giving a 'running commentary' on her health. Why stay so busy? Because, says a royal source who knows her well, 'she doesn’t want to be reminded of her age in any way.'"
From "Busy social life and late-night TV left Queen ‘knackered’" (London Times).
From "Busy social life and late-night TV left Queen ‘knackered’" (London Times).
100 budgerigars!
"'We’ve created a self-sustaining society, and our freedom is dangerous for the system,' said Aleksandr A. Komogortsev, 46, a disciple who was a police officer in Moscow for 11 years..."
"... before moving to one of the biggest villages three years ago. 'We have shown how it is possible to live outside the system,' he said, gushing over a breakfast of salad and potato dumplings about how fulfilling it was to work with his hands. Tanya Denisova, 68, a follower since 1999, said the church was focused on God’s judgment, not politics. She moved to the village in 2001, after divorcing her husband, who did not want to join the church. 'We came here to get away from politics,' she said.... Each village where followers live, like Ms. Denisova’s Petropavlovka, functions as a 'united family'.... For many of the believers, their leader’s arrest, combined with the coronavirus pandemic, is a sign that Judgment Day approaches. Others said they felt his arrest was the fulfillment of a prophecy, comparing their teacher’s plight with that of Jesus more than 2,000 years ago. Stanislav M. Kazakov, the head of a small private school in the village of Cheremshanka, said.... 'They thought we would fall apart without him.... But in the past year, we have returned to the kind of community that holds each other together.'"
From "Long Arm of Russian Law Reaches Obscure Siberian Church/The arrest of the leader of a small religious group reveals that Russian repression reaches even to the depths of the Siberian forest" (NYT).
From "Long Arm of Russian Law Reaches Obscure Siberian Church/The arrest of the leader of a small religious group reveals that Russian repression reaches even to the depths of the Siberian forest" (NYT).
And let me stress that the photographs, by Mary Gelman, are truly captivating. There is an unworldly beauty. One has the caption, "Amalia Protasov hugging a unicorn balloon in her room in Abode of Dawn."
Obama — stumping for McAuliffe — asserts that Republicans are not trying to win with ideas.
ADDED: Are Democrats trying to win with ideas? Obama is saying Republicans should put their ideas up against the Democrat's ideas, and let the people compare the ideas and pick what they like. I'm irritated by the assertion that McAuliffe's opponent isn't talking about ideas and McAuliffe supposedly is. But I do like the idea of calmly and clearly showing people the ideas and letting us choose. This is something I talked about in my first year of blogging, in a post called "Mysterious personal reaction to Dick Cheney."Obama claims Republicans are “trying to rig elections” pic.twitter.com/SVl5o4uAtl
— Jewish Deplorable (@TrumpJew2) October 24, 2021
Aaron Rodgers vs. cancel culture.
"Back when I first got into the league and I grew up watching it, I feel like trash talk was a little more normalized. You didn’t have to apologize if you said something to offend a few people.... If you don’t like it, that’s fine. That’s your prerogative.... There is this culture that exists that gets off, I think, on shrinking people, keeping them small, keeping them in a box, quieting them through cancelation or demeaning comments. I stand behind what I do. I like to speak the truth. I’m not a part of this woke cancel culture that gets off on trying to silence people all the time." (Link.)
Aaron Rodgers throws shade on "woke cancel culture":
— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) October 21, 2021
“There is this culture that exists that gets off on shrinking people...quieting them,” Rodgers says. "I like to speak the truth. I’m not a part of this woke cancel culture that gets off on trying to silence people." pic.twitter.com/hkWxU2AqXM
"We have not even to risk the adventure alone for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known... we have only to follow the thread of the hero path."
"And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a God. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outwards, we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.”
Wrote Joseph Campbell, in a popular "hero's path" quote that is printed on the wall of the Soho gallery showing "The Journey Home’ a Hunter Biden Solo Exhibition," visible in photographs at "Hunter Biden’s wife seen at SoHo gallery as controversial art show opens" (NY Post).
The gallery wall contained a quote from author Joseph Campbell’s book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” about the hero’s adventure in mythology. Campbell, a literature professor at Sarah Lawrence College in Westchester, coined the phrase “Follow your bliss.”
Here's the Wikipedia entry on Campbell's famous book so you can refresh your memory of this thing you must have learned at one point in your life (I know I did, 50 years ago). Campbell looked at the stories of Osiris, Prometheus, the Buddha, Moses, Mohammed, and Jesus and decided that they were enough alike that they could be boiled down into what he called "the monomyth" (or "hero's journey"):
Yeah, this needs fact-checking.
Biden flashed the white power sign
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) October 22, 2021
.. omg pic.twitter.com/URPZhcUFGo
Reuters Fact-Check is on the job:
A hand gesture U.S. president Joe Biden made during a CNN town hall in Baltimore on Oct. 21 was in reference to corporations not paying taxes. Some social media users are isolating a screenshot of the moment from this context to claim it resembles a white supremacist symbol.Could somebody fact check whether Reuters has a sense of humor? It's pretty obvious that this humor is intended to mock all the other accusations that the "OK" sign is a white power expression.
Reuters should not insinuate that the gesture is taken out of context to be deceptive. The context, laboriously stated in the fact check, is perfectly evident from the words printed on screen!
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