kimmy

To be honest, "banana" sounds pretty similar to "Oreo"... which I thought was pretty negative. What is "white on the inside" supposed to even mean? It sounds suspiciously similar to "when I look at you, I don't see color" on the chart of microaggression no-nos. For a long time my best friend was a Canadian-born girl of Chinese descent. I was as close to her family as I was to my own. I'd never say that to her. She was as Canadian as I am, but I would never have called her "white on the inside". That's appalling. -k

And to clarify, that was in terms of how often it happens, not how offensive it is. Sure it's stereotyping. Whether malice is intended or not. The inferred message is "your appearance makes me believe that you're a foreigner." Just as my experience with sales people often leads me to infer that the message "your appearance makes me assume that you know nothing about technology so I am going to talk to you like you're a toddler." I'm sure there's no malice intended, but that doesn't really make me feel better. Like, do you wander up to people offering them weight-loss advice and dieting tips as a conversation-starter or ice-breaker? Unless you're some kind of idiot or you're trying to get punched, I assume the answer is no. Because you know that's going to be received negatively, whether you're trying to be insulting or not. Ok, so here's some other things that might be received negatively by the person you're trying to have a conversation with. Perhaps it never occurred to you that saying these things might have negative connotations for the listener. But now that you've been informed, are you going to keep saying them? -k

You're assuming facts not in evidence, as they say on the lawyer shows. This brochure was circulated to a general audience of university employees, not just the political science department. You're suggesting that this advice wouldn't be necessary for a general audience because people already have the common sense to avoid such topics. But the whole point here is that these are things where people don't see the harm in saying because they don't see how they could cause offense. I never used to see the harm in asking "where are you from?" But when I was chatting with a couple of friends about their experiences, they both cited "where are you from?" as the #1 thing that white people say that pisses them off. For me, it was a harmless inquiry. For them, it was the implication that they're foreigners. One was Canadian born, the other had been in Canada since she was 2 years old; both were annoyed at the implication that they must be "from" somewhere else. I never meant to imply that, but once I understood the implication I stopped asking that. I'm very curious about this idea that it's not acceptable to be offended at some things. Under what circumstances is there a "legitimate right" to be offended? Is there a handbook or something? Recalling my earlier comments about being talked down to by salesmen, would you say my feelings were "legitimate" or "not legitimate"? Also curious why you feel it is important to provide people with this reassurance that if somebody was upset by something you said it's their fault for being unreasonable. -k

If the airline wants to accommodate these guys behind the scenes in a manner that's invisible to the rest of the passengers, I'm all for it. I can't see any reason not to. If it gets to the point where I am being asked to move, I'll do it, because I don't want to sit by somebody who's offended by my presence and to be honest I doubt it would be a big treat to sit by one of these guys anyway. However, I think maybe somebody -- either the religious mook or the airline-- should compensate me for this inconvenient and insulting turn of events. Upgrade me to first class, give me some cash, or give me a box of those airline-sized liquor bottles. But if arrangements can't be made, then these guys need to be removed from the plane and dealt with like anybody else who disrupts a flight. -k

Indian bands have resources available to do great things, given good leadership. Read about the Osoyoos Indian Band here in Kim Country. Sadly, a lot of bands seem to have leadership that is either corrupt or incompetent or both. Funneling more money into the hands of band councils that can't do their job properly is not the answer. -k

Many private prisons have been built with occupancy guarantees from governments. The government has to pay a cash penalty to the prison operator for each prison space that goes unused. -k

Why is having their own country a necessity? -k

How about that bridge language just be English, the language in which the vast majority of business is conducted in Canada anyway? -k

I prefer an official status for English because our laws need to be written down and English is the obvious choice, due to the overwhelming volume of existing legal material that already exists in English and the ubiquitous use of English in this country. I accept official status for French because we are stuck with it for historical reasons, and because Quebec's civil laws are recorded in French. I oppose adding to the number of official languages because it will only be a matter of time before some native lawbreaker demands a trial in Snake or criminal charges are thrown out because the police officer failed to serve the arrest in Blackfoot. -k

I don't see any suggestion that these topics are going to be pulled from the curriculum of classes where they're actually relevant. On the other hand, if you're a math professor, perhaps launching into a monolog about affirmative action isn't the best use of class time. If you're a professor you probably don't launch into tirades about politics or religion or abortion unless you're teaching a class where these topics are actually relevant. What's the harm in pointing out that there are other topics that might elicit similarly negative responses? If you're a professor or teaching assistant, wouldn't you *want* to be equipped with information like that? They're not suggesting for listeners to take offense at these things, they're pointing out to speakers that saying these kinds of things can inadvertently cause offense. Any time I go shopping for electronics products and interact with a salesman, they talk down to me as if I were a child. They attempt to explain features as if I were a 5 year old. I don't know if they do this because I am blonde or if they talk to all women like this. It's not a question of just choosing to not be insulted. It's insulting, period. I choose not to make a big deal about it because I know it's not intentional. For me, on the listening end of this interaction, what I get out of this is a consistently negative shopping experience, to the point that I no longer shop for electronics in person unless I need something in a hurry. Perhaps if these employees had some training in how to interact with people without insulting them, the retail stores would have more customers. I would think that if you went to salesmen and said "hey, here's some things that might unintentionally make potential customers feel negatively about you" they would consider that valuable advice. I would also think that most professors and TAs would appreciate receiving advice about stuff they could be saying to students that could cause unintended negative feelings. Because this isn't stuff where students are going to fly off the handle. It's stuff where the professor isn't going to receive any response until the end of the semester and they do the evaluation forms and he gets a bunch of feedback that says "this guy is a prick" and he's left wondering "what did I do wrong?" -k

How about we stick with English and French, and the First Nations can find some other way of keeping their languages alive. I recall that Welsh was on the brink of extinction at one point, and made an amazing recovery. Perhaps we could find out how that was done, and follow their example. -k

If there is such a thing as "womanspreading", I believe it would be defined as filling the seats next to you with your purse and shopping bags so that others can not sit there. I used to see this quite often when I rode public transit regularly, and found it just as obnoxious as "manspreading". I am sure it was equally deliberate as well. -k

Cereal boxes is hardly the point, Cheney. Translating our laws, as well as our future laws, into another official language is a task that would cost countless billions of dollars. Multiply that by 60-odd new official languages and the cost would be 60 countless billions. Add to that the requirement of providing government services in official languages. It's incalculably expensive and absurdly impractical. Surely their languages can be preserved without going to the astronomical expense of providing laws and government services in 60 obscure native languages. -k

Yeaaaaaah let's have 5 foot wide cereal boxes and 300 litre jugs of milk to fit all of those native languages on. This is the stupidest thing I've heard yet from our native friends, which is saying a lot. Good grief. WTF. -k

No, I'm pretty sure that everybody else got the key point and that you're the one wandering around in deep left field without a clue what's going on. You're so far away from the key point that I'm not even sure you're still on this planet, August. You're just wayyy out there. August, my hapless friend, did you miss the link in the opening post? It references repeated incidents where dumb-ass Haredi caused extensive delays to airplane flights because they refused to sit down and buckle in. This has nothing to do with people flying planes into skyscrapers, and has nothing to do with people feeling uncomfortable sitting next to Jews. It is about ultra-orthodox Jews making life miserable for everybody else by delaying the entire flight. They certainly were causing discomfort to the other passengers on the flight, because they were making everybody late while having a temper-tantrum and refusing to sit down until their demands were met. Perhaps they are honest, but they are also entitled and inconsiderate. -k

So apparently when Ramsay Bolton isn't terrorizing the North and skinning people alive, he's working on his career as a singer-songwriter. He's really awful! But everybody's afraid to tell him so, because they're afraid he'll mutilate them. "Reek? Reek! There you are! Come listen to my new song! I call it... Bang-Bang." "Well, Reek? What do you think?" "It's ... master, please..." "Reek? What is it? You should never be afraid to speak your mind to me. I value honesty!" "It's ..." "Yes, Reek...?" "It's ... lovely, master. It's lovely. Lovely." "Thank you, Reek. I am always glad to hear your opinion. I have another new song I'd like to play for you too--" "Nooooo, master, pleeeeease no more..." Even though he sucks, he's still not as terrible as that other Bolton brother, Michael. -k

What a retarded thread. If your legs are spread wide enough that you're taking up seating for 2 or 3 people while others are standing, you're being a prick. Knock it off. Your nuts aren't that big. -k

Most of us, as we are growing up, learn that some things we say make other people feel bad or angry even when we don't intend to. Often it was our parents who taught us these things. So along comes a university and points out for their staff that there are some other things that make people feel bad or angry without meaning to, things your parents probably didn't tell you about because they probably didn't have a lot of cross-cultural experience. And you guys are acting as if it's some kind of Orwellian brainwashing experiment. It's not. They're helping their staff be more aware of a more diverse student body. It completely baffles me that you guys are reacting as if this is some kind of assault upon white men or something. Good grief. Fortify yourselves, gentlemen. -k

I would expect it's pretty hard to gauge how many hours Greeks actually work. I gather Greece's "black economy" is almost unprecedented among developed nations. Bickering over whether their social programs are too generous misses the real problem, which is that these bozos don't know how to collect taxes on anything. -k

Book of Secrets is a great suggestion! I don't know why it didn't occur to me, as I was playing it just a few weeks ago. The "Prologue" from Book of Secrets gives me goosebumps. Her voice gives me chills. Mummer's Dance and Dante's Prayer are also great songs from Book of Secrets, as suggested above. Another of my favorite songs from the record is Night Ride. -k

I think last time Perry tried to base his campaign around appealing to the Tea Party idiots. They are numerous enough to make their chosen candidate a factor in the primary, but not numerous enough to win the nomination for their chosen candidate. And associating with these bozos would render a serious candidate unelectable. If Perry has realized that trying to use these morons to boost his campaign was a mistake, then good for him. Unfortunately that puts him in competition with better mainstream candidates too. Conversely, I can't help thinking that Trump's surge might be because the Tea Partyists are flocking to his banner. These guys are straight up mental. That's Alex Jones weapons-grade type crazy. -k

Another song that has been on my radio lately is "Ghosts" by Big Wreck. I just watched this cool live performance. "Suhr" is apparently a guitar manufacturer. This performance of Ghosts starts off with a funky bass solo, and has several extended guitar solos as well. I quite like it. Here is a guitarful performance of "Blown Wide Open" from the same concert. -k

That's pretty interesting about Lateralus and the Fibonacci stuff. There are some people who've rearranged the tracks on the record based on mathematical patterns, and re-recorded the tracks based on a 432Hz tuning, and all kinds of weird stuff. I am wondering if these guys are onto something, or just on something. -k

If you're like me, you hadn't heard the name "Godsmack" for a while, or if you had, you probably assumed they must be working at the same 7-11 as Limp Shiznit these days. Their hit "Voodoo" came out when I was still living in Ottawa, so it must have been in the late 1990s. They had a couple of other hits around that time. And I hadn't heard much of them since. Surprisingly, not only are Godsmack not working at a 7-11, but they're back on my radio with a song called "Something Different." The "phaser" guitar pedal gets quite a work-out here: From the Wa-Bac machine: -k

Several years back, when she was still very much into WBC, I saw a couple of videos where a flamboyantly gay Kansas City DJ came to the Phelps home to visit with Megan and her mom Shirley (who is probably the most visible of the WBC protestors, more or less the leader.) And it was completely the opposite of what you'd expect. The three of them chat and joke around like old friends. Like, there was palpable warmth and kindness, and you'd have never guessed that the two women were leaders of a notorious hate group. And at one point the DJ remarked on this, and Shirley says "Shawn, we don't hate you. We love you. It's God that hates you." I think she at some point said something along the lines of "if it was up to us, everybody would go to heaven." It was completely surreal, and seeing those videos changed how I see them. It became difficult to see them as simple bigots who use the Bible to justify their hate, because watching them interact with the extremely gay DJ, there just wasn't any hate, or even uncomfortableness. It jived with what she said in the interview when she disagreed with the claim that people bring their own prejudices to the scripture. Similarly what she said in the interview about having friends outside the church and the awkwardness of having the "but you think I'm going to hell" and "well, yes, but I still like you..." moment with them. -k