Link Anthology 1/18/2009, with a bonus meme

[keilexandra]

* I have not a lot to say about the Great Cultural Appropriation Debate of DOOM, as oyceter so aptly named it. rilina has a nice links round-up, to which I will add truepenny's excellent post. I'm truly on the fence about this one, as I can see both sides--I think Bear failed to take her character beyond token, but I also respect her inclusion of the character as a person. Maybe I'm just too cynical to be offended? I don't know and my brain is kind of broken right now (for unrelated reasons); there's only so much I can multi-task and an affirmative action debate on a different forum has used up all of my Argument Energy.

* hawkwing_lb on being Irish. This particular part hit home with me:

I can speak in English, but in Irish I am mute.

I have no ear for it. I have no tongue for it. In my mouth it becomes clunky and without music, full of awkward solecisms and embarrassed pauses.

* tithenai on Gaza and the Palestinian perspective. As I said in her comments, I really don't know enough to make a judgment either way--and I'm not hiding a pro-Israeli stance behind that, either, because I had the classic don't-give-a-shit Asian upbringing.

* Via afuna, Dreamwidth Studios is working on a radical fork of the LJ source, founded by synecdochic on the small-business ethic. I have great hopes.

* An insightful discussion of ebooks from a blog-site with the coolest name ever.

* On utility monopolies. This, folks, is why I'm socialist and proud of it (well, other than being Canadian and not understanding why Americans hate socialism so much).

* Apple has taken iTunes DRM-free, with a catch--each file is embedded with the purchaser's name and email address. Given that they haven't exactly disclosed this distribution of information, I am unenthused. I wonder how long it will take for someone to come out with a program to strip the identifying information. And, does this information stay with the file if you convert to mp3? I wasn't aware that mp3s had that kind of secret-info capability.


Finally, that book meme going around the flist again--I just happen to have the BEST BOOK EVAR sitting closest. Really.

Grab the book nearest you. Right now. Turn to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post that sentence along with these instructions in your LiveJournal. Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

But what was important to me, when I read the Gospels, was less what Jesus said about God or a possible life after death (indeed, he said relatively little on the subject) than what he said about humanity and life on earth.

'Tis The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality by André Comte-Sponville, of course. (Okay, I did cheat a tiny bit by not counting a partial sentence at the top of the page, because this sentence was so much cooler than the other possibility.)

Comments

[tithenai.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for linking. And wait, you're Canadian? Whoo! YAY CANADA! May I ask where from? Have I already asked this and forgotten the answer? If so, please forgive me. I haven't had enough tea today.

[keilexandra]

Heh, the short history of my life: born in China, raised and lived in Newfoundland for five years (naturalized citizen), have now spent the majority of my life in the U.S. We won't even get into my messed-up linguistic history.

[tithenai.livejournal.com]

Messed-up linguistic histories are kind of a thing with me. *beams* I would so love if you had a bit of the Newfoundland errr!

[keilexandra]

Heh, if I've picked up any of the Newfie accent it'd be entirely by accident--sadly I can't detect any discernable trace, although it may (probably does) exist unconsciously.

random Irish person

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that link. I feel the same uneasiness and identify with the blogger - I have so much ambivalence about my own country and people, and the language thing leads me to believe we are a race who has gotten lost.

Found you via various links on the Debate of Doom. Christ you were getting an awful lot of stick.

Re: random Irish person

[keilexandra]

Indeed, I often suffer from the fallacy of lumping all white people into a great Majority Group, when in reality they are just as diverse as POC. Irish (and Catholic and Jewish) is, I think, an example of former-minority within the supposed majority.

I've been trying to de-escalate my part in the Debate of DOOM; I have a lot to think about and certainly I've made mistakes along the way. But there are some sticking points that don't go away no matter how much I ponder. Ah well.

Re: random Irish person

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Just stick up a paypal button and every time someone wants to have a rant, tell them they have to put a dollar in the poorbox first :-)

Some interesting stuff for sure, but it really would do your head in after a while, I think.

I can spot a fellow Irish person at 100 yards in a foreign country, but I wouldn't expect the same from a non-Irish person or someone from a different cross-section of humanity. My boyfriend was in Eindhoven and a Chinese guy asked him was he Dutch and he said "no, Irish" and the Chinese guy said he couldn't tell the difference one way or the other!

But for me the ultimate "white guys all looking the same" moment has to be watching Band of Brothers. I defy anyone to be able to figure out who the hell is who in that show (apart from Damian Lewis - who is hot!)