Feb 19, 2012
Jaltum commented on An Expected Foe of Gay Marriage, and an Unexpected Ally of Gay Marriage.
Uh... @21, what is it about this post that makes you think it's "all good" between Cheney and Paul Constant now? His choice of metaphor describes an irredeemable monster with the blood of millions on his hands, who nevertheless, when forced to choose between protecting his child and serving his dark master, finds that he still has the tiniest shred of conscience left in his undead cyborg heart.. That makes it an excellent description of Cheney crossing party lines to defend gay marriage, and doesn't in any way imply that Cheney is forgiven for blowing up Alderaan.
Feb 17, 2012
Jaltum commented on Vagina Is For Probers.
@144 No, that's a dumb argument for this situation. You are just spamming anarchist boilerplate, and incidentally handing out false equivalences left and right.
As many, many people have pointed out, the refusal to include a medical necessity amendment underlines that the purpose of this law is to force medical procedures on "bad" people, as punishment, not treatment. It doesn't matter if their side is "right" about abortion or not.
If someone tried to pass a law defining homophobia as a mental illness, with the result that if you dislike gay people you are required to have a mental health screening to prove you aren't at risk to gay-bash someone, I wouldn't support that either, because it's a serious overreach and violates some of the basic principles that separate real democratic processes from the fevered imaginary version of your dumb anarchist fantasies or dumb Republican theocratic fantasies.
As many, many people have pointed out, the refusal to include a medical necessity amendment underlines that the purpose of this law is to force medical procedures on "bad" people, as punishment, not treatment. It doesn't matter if their side is "right" about abortion or not.
If someone tried to pass a law defining homophobia as a mental illness, with the result that if you dislike gay people you are required to have a mental health screening to prove you aren't at risk to gay-bash someone, I wouldn't support that either, because it's a serious overreach and violates some of the basic principles that separate real democratic processes from the fevered imaginary version of your dumb anarchist fantasies or dumb Republican theocratic fantasies.
Feb 17, 2012
Jaltum commented on Chimerica Today: World Language.
Educated Chinese universally speak English, even if they have never left the country, and will insist on using it if they are dealing with someone who can speak English--even if that person can speak Chinese. They enjoy showing off their proficiency, and will claw at any chance for English practice, on the flip side. There's a huge expatriate job market in teaching English to Chinese of all ages. It's a mark of status and distinction.
And I am using "educated" broadly--a high school-educated person from one of the major coastal cities usually has a shaky but usable command of English. I've had Chinese cabbies strike up conversations in English and try to persuade me to be their study partner--I help them improve their English, they help me improve my Chinese. It's pretty routine to address someone in Chinese and be answered in English. (Often with flattery for having learned Chinese.)
China has spent 50 years gearing its education system to inculcate English as the language of "modernity" and technology, and that attitude has been impressed on them for much longer by the lingering effect of colonialism. English will survive Western hegemony just as Latin far outlived the Roman Empire. The idea that there is or will be soon a desperate need for Westerners who speak Chinese is a phantom of people who understand that China is on its way to displacing us as a major world power but aren't capable of understanding that China isn't just a different US on the other side of an ocean.
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And I am using "educated" broadly--a high school-educated person from one of the major coastal cities usually has a shaky but usable command of English. I've had Chinese cabbies strike up conversations in English and try to persuade me to be their study partner--I help them improve their English, they help me improve my Chinese. It's pretty routine to address someone in Chinese and be answered in English. (Often with flattery for having learned Chinese.)
China has spent 50 years gearing its education system to inculcate English as the language of "modernity" and technology, and that attitude has been impressed on them for much longer by the lingering effect of colonialism. English will survive Western hegemony just as Latin far outlived the Roman Empire. The idea that there is or will be soon a desperate need for Westerners who speak Chinese is a phantom of people who understand that China is on its way to displacing us as a major world power but aren't capable of understanding that China isn't just a different US on the other side of an ocean.
Nov 24, 2011
Jaltum commented on Chimerica Today: Sad New China; Happy Old China.
Uh, Charles, you realize one of those two Chinas is a largely fictional one presented through the lens of white imperialism and Orientalism, right? I mean, it's a BLATANTLY racist passage, comparing Asian religion to a puppet show.
Chinese culture has been geared towards education as a means to advance not only yourself but all the family line depending on you for... pretty much ever. Learning languages just for kicks is a pursuit of the idle rich, not the hungry and desperate.
(Also, for the record, I am an American who got his degree in a language for the love of it and now has a deeply shitty job due to being virtually unemployable, so, you know.)
Chinese culture has been geared towards education as a means to advance not only yourself but all the family line depending on you for... pretty much ever. Learning languages just for kicks is a pursuit of the idle rich, not the hungry and desperate.
(Also, for the record, I am an American who got his degree in a language for the love of it and now has a deeply shitty job due to being virtually unemployable, so, you know.)
Oct 3, 2010
Jaltum commented on It Gets Better: A Theological Response.
@17 "The vast majority of the world's anti-gay feelings, teachings, and actions stem from religion."
One-third of the world's population is Chinese, and the anti-gay sentiment there is widespread--outside of the incredibly tiny urban populations it's damn near universal, and even there there's certainly no Chinese Ellen Degeneres--and that intolerance is totally unrelated to religion. One-third of the world's population.
I would have no beef with this post/thread if people would stop saying "the world" or "reality" when they mean "The West."
One-third of the world's population is Chinese, and the anti-gay sentiment there is widespread--outside of the incredibly tiny urban populations it's damn near universal, and even there there's certainly no Chinese Ellen Degeneres--and that intolerance is totally unrelated to religion. One-third of the world's population.
I would have no beef with this post/thread if people would stop saying "the world" or "reality" when they mean "The West."
Oct 3, 2010
Jaltum commented on It Gets Better: A Theological Response.
Sorry, made an error; this:
"Certainly a great deal of religious violence and bullying in the United States either stems from religious upbringing or carries a fig leaf of religious justification--but not all violence and bullying, and AMERICA is not REALITY. "
should be
"Certainly a great deal of homophobic violence and bullying in the United States either stems from religious upbringing or carries a fig leaf of religious justification--but not all such violence and bullying, and AMERICA is not REALITY. "
"Certainly a great deal of religious violence and bullying in the United States either stems from religious upbringing or carries a fig leaf of religious justification--but not all violence and bullying, and AMERICA is not REALITY. "
should be
"Certainly a great deal of homophobic violence and bullying in the United States either stems from religious upbringing or carries a fig leaf of religious justification--but not all such violence and bullying, and AMERICA is not REALITY. "
Oct 3, 2010
Jaltum commented on It Gets Better: A Theological Response.
Of course the church has a responsibility to purge its own internal homophobia. But this statement:
"Anti-gay bullying is a theological issue because it has a theological base. I find it difficult to believe that even those among us with a vibrant imagination can muster the creative energy to picture a reality in which anti-gay violence and bullying exist without the anti-gay religious messages that support them."
Is frankly ignorant.
We don't have to imagine a reality where anti-gay violence can exist without religious backing; we live in that reality. Certainly a great deal of religious violence and bullying in the United States either stems from religious upbringing or carries a fig leaf of religious justification--but not all violence and bullying, and AMERICA is not REALITY.
If Professor Sprinkles still equates Christian culture with American culture and American culture with reality, then he still has a long way to go before he's in a position to reform anything.
"Anti-gay bullying is a theological issue because it has a theological base. I find it difficult to believe that even those among us with a vibrant imagination can muster the creative energy to picture a reality in which anti-gay violence and bullying exist without the anti-gay religious messages that support them."
Is frankly ignorant.
We don't have to imagine a reality where anti-gay violence can exist without religious backing; we live in that reality. Certainly a great deal of religious violence and bullying in the United States either stems from religious upbringing or carries a fig leaf of religious justification--but not all violence and bullying, and AMERICA is not REALITY.
If Professor Sprinkles still equates Christian culture with American culture and American culture with reality, then he still has a long way to go before he's in a position to reform anything.
Oct 3, 2010
Jaltum commented on It Gets Better: A Theological Response.
This is wishful thinking. Gay-bashing atheists exist; most bigots don't have well-thought out consistent philosophies. Religion is a frequent justification for the fear and ignorance that really underlie the behavior, but it's neither necessary or sufficient.
Case in point: China.
Case in point: China.
Jul 16, 2010
Jaltum commented on SL Letter of the Day: Haven't You Done Enough?.
The key detail was the way she described the email--"After he left I wrote him a very long, very explicit email detailing how I felt about him, how much I had learned from him and celebrated our time together. I was very graphic about what he had done for me sexually and emotionally."
She recapped the entire relationship. She made sure it repeated details he surely already knew.
It was meant to be read by the wife from the start. The minute I read that description I knew where the story was going.
She recapped the entire relationship. She made sure it repeated details he surely already knew.
It was meant to be read by the wife from the start. The minute I read that description I knew where the story was going.
Jul 15, 2009
Jaltum commented on Kabei: Our Mother: Japan's Moral Minefield.
Brendan, the first paragraph betrays an incredibly shallow and US-centric attitude towards WW2. The Japanese committed genocidal atrocities on POWs and civilians alike during WW2--the rape of Nanjing, which wiped an ancient city off the map not with bombs but house by house and person by person; the medical experimentation camps in China and Korea; the famous Death March that slaughtered American and Filipeno troops by the thousands.
Japanese civilians were no less complicit than the average German civilian (leaving out concentration camp guards, etc) and are complicit now in a widespread cultural attempt to pretend it never happened, and teach a fictionalized version of their history, both to their own children and to the world.
(Also, Japanese goals in WW2 were never about 'taking on' the US, like some kind of supervillain; it was about dominating the Asian mainland. Even as losers of a war with the West, it was far from lunatic to assume they would be able to walk away from the negotiating table with a much large foothold on Korea and China. And they were fighting China a full decade before the US got involved, so the order of "The US, then China, then Russia" is particularly asinine.)
If the first paragraph is the impression of WW2 Kabei left you with, then I have trouble seeing it as anything but propaganda, which may not affect its artistic merit but seems relevant to any review.
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Japanese civilians were no less complicit than the average German civilian (leaving out concentration camp guards, etc) and are complicit now in a widespread cultural attempt to pretend it never happened, and teach a fictionalized version of their history, both to their own children and to the world.
(Also, Japanese goals in WW2 were never about 'taking on' the US, like some kind of supervillain; it was about dominating the Asian mainland. Even as losers of a war with the West, it was far from lunatic to assume they would be able to walk away from the negotiating table with a much large foothold on Korea and China. And they were fighting China a full decade before the US got involved, so the order of "The US, then China, then Russia" is particularly asinine.)
If the first paragraph is the impression of WW2 Kabei left you with, then I have trouble seeing it as anything but propaganda, which may not affect its artistic merit but seems relevant to any review.
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