Random: November 2005 Archives

I just found out about this cool art show at UC Berkeley, featuring the work of a family friend who is a very talented painter and sculptor. Alas, it is at a gallery that is only open during the week, so only East Bay and/or nonworking people get to enjoy it. Which they should go do, because, like I said, it sounds and looks really cool.

From the artist's statement:

The image in the announcement is the back of one of a group of ceramic books with imaginary stories,
partially illustrated in bas-relief.  The fronts, spines, and pages are all very book-like.  All but one of them have titles which are either transliterated into Russian script, or translated into or from Italian, French, or Portuguese.

Though these books have no text, they have much in common with the objects they represent: each of them presents an image that is intended to be familiar, but just outside the direct realm of experience. Together they represent the notion that though communication through the written word is the primary mission of most books, the story is never the only thing they tell. 

Lesley spotted this peculiar holiday shelving arrangement last night as we were strolling around Target...Candles? Check. Menorah? Check. But...

Round-up weed killer?!?!? WTF??!?!

Some anecdotal evidence that the housing market may be tipping ever-so-slightly back towards the buyer: the postcard we just received from Coldwell Banker.

The pictures on the card are the normal stuff such mailings are made of — the photo of the house, a cheerful shot of the realtor.

The text, on the other hand...

CHARMING TRADITIONAL LISTED BY SCOTT!!!!

CALL SCOTT TO LIST & SELL YOUR HOME TODAY!!

CALL SCOTT FOR A FREE MARKET VALUE ANALYSIS!!

CALL SCOTT FOR A FREE "30 DAY" MARKETING PLAN!!

CALL SCOTT FOR A FREE PROFESSIONAL STAGING & RESULTS!!

CALL SCOTT FOR A FREE 1 YEAR SELLER'S HOME WARRANTY!!

CALL SCOTT TO LIST & SELL YOUR HOME TODAY!!

          $699,000         $699,000

 

 

 

SCOTT W_____     HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

LISTED BY SCOTT!!!! LISTED BY SCOTT!!!!

COMING SOON! COMING SOON!! COMING SOON!!

Not in the market myself, but I can just picture someone getting this card and scratching their head and saying to themselves, "Well, I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with the housing market right now... but on the other hand, Scott does sure use a lot of exclamation points! I'm in!"

Deep breath everybody... 

Jerome A Paris over at Daily Kos:

"The end justifies the means" is the most dangerous argument. When your end is God, or doctrinal purity, or black and white morality inspired by a Superior Being, you end up committing the worst crimes, as they are easily justified by a greater good in the future. When that greater good is in your afterlife, you end up - inevitably -with suicide bombers on one side, and torture and preemptive strikes on the other.

Religion and spirituality belong to the private sphere. If someone finds solace, peace, fulfillment in his/her beliefs and religious practice, that's great. If you find an anchor for your personal values and morality in religious doctrine, that's also a good thing. But religion is NOT THE ONLY SOURCE OF VALUES AND MORALITY.

Bring your values into the political debate, not their source. Do come into politics to promote your values and your morals. But please do not come into politics to get others to adopt the source of these values. That's totalitarian.

Quoth the dean of the "No Spin Sit and Spin Zone" himself, as reported by the Chronicle:

"You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium and I say, 'Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds,' " O'Reilly said Tuesday on his radio show as San Franciscans were approving the two measures. Perhaps, he didn't realize that he'd be speaking mostly to foreign tourists and suburbanites if he were standing in Union Square.

"Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead," O'Reilly went on. "And if al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."

Yo, Bill? Spin this! 

Vote against "Intelligent Design" advocates, get smited? So says Pat.

“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover. If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city. And don’t wonder why He hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for His help because he might not be there.”

Watch the video

For those who have been following the riots in France for the past two weeks, this column by Juan Cole might interest you.

A snippet:

I should begin by saying how much these events sadden me and fill me with anguish. I grew up in part in France (7 years of my childhood in two different periods) and have long been in love with the place, and the people. We visited this past June for a magical week. And, of course, I've been to Morocco and Tunisia and Senegal, and so have a sense of the other side in all this; I rather like all those places, too. How sad, to see all this violence and rancor. I hope Paris and France more generally can get through these tough times and begin working on the underlying problems soon. At this time of a crisis in globalization in the wake of the Cold War, we need Paris to be a dynamic exemplar of problem-solving on this front.

The French have determinedly avoided multiculturalism or affirmative action. They have insisted that everyone is French together and on a "color-blind" set of policies. "Color-blind" policies based on "merit" always seem to benefit some groups more than others, despite a rhetoric of equality and achievement. In order to resolve the problems they face, the French will have to come to terms with the multi-cultural character of contemporary society. And they will have to find ways of actively sharing jobs with minority populations, who often suffer from an unemployment rate as high as 40 percent (i.e. Iraq).

Reading the Salon.com advice column, I come across a query from a young man who is agonizing about whether or not to dump his nice-but-a-tad-racist girlfriend. The kicker (in bold)...

She's young (21) and grew up in a racist household, but at some point she has to take ownership for her opinions. I almost dumped her on the spot, but there's so much else about her that I adore and admire; she's a fascinating mishmash of conflicting traits -- she loves Bush but also thinks Noam Chomsky should run for president, for instance.

I'm sorry, if that's her strong point, the relationship is DOOMED. She's clearly not using her brain. DUMP HER NOW. Thankyouverymuch. (Apologies to the Noam Chomsky fans out there...)

The advice columnist is kinder than I am, though. He advises the young man to give things a go, but...

One final request: If you can't talk her out of her racist views, at least try to talk her out of majoring in broadcasting, OK?

Various random things!

Exhibit A: A friend's scary Halloween costume. She is dressed as Tom Cruise, and the ruler she is wielding sports a tiny picture of Katie Holmes. 

She says she spent the day at work occasionally jumping up and down and screaming "I LOVE THIS WOMAN!!!!!!!"

Not surprisingly, when it came time for the office costume contest, she won Scariest Costume, hands down. 

I saw another slightly scary sight today: ZipCar's promotion stunt in which passers-by were invited to "smash a gas-guzzler." (I'm sticking with CityCarShare.)

On a less scary note, it was very pretty in North Beach today.

My favorite cafe — Cafe Trieste

Yummy deli counter at Molinari's

A nice sunny day in North Beach

 

From UPI... note the part I bolded.

French riots underscore deeper problems

By ELIZABETH BRYANT

PARIS, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Six straight nights of clashes between French police and rioters in Paris-area housing projects are laying bare simmering discrimination and ethnic tensions lying just under the country's officially colorblind creed of liberty, equality and fraternity.

The riots have gone far beyond law-and-order tangles between youths hurling stones and Molotov cocktails and police responding with tear gas. Eighteen months before French presidential elections, they have taken on a raw political edge as they fuel partisan bickering and existing divisions within the ruling center-right Union for a Popular Movement party.

On Wednesday, French President Jacques Chirac waded into the fray for the first time, after keeping silent for nearly a week. At a ministerial meeting, Chirac appealed for firmness, but also for dialogue and respect in treating the largely ethnic North African-Muslim communities where the riots have taken place.

"We have to redouble our efforts to assure equal opportunities," Chirac added, touching on what activists say is a key root to the violence in communities where French citizens of immigrant origins remain second-class citizens in their own country.

The clashes began after two teenage boys were accidentally electrocuted last Thursday as they tried to scale a wall in the gritty, Paris suburb of Clichy-Sous-Bois. A public prosecutor said the boys believed police were chasing them. Police deny doing so.

Either way, the incident has sparked nightly riots that have since spread to other Paris-area suburbs. Helping fuel the riots has been the tough and controversial response of French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy -- who sparked outrage earlier this year by vowing to "clean out" another suburb rocked by ethnic violence -- blasted this week's rioters as "scum." His latest remarks have unleashed a tempest of indignation, with some of the shrillest criticism coming from opposition leftist lawmakers...

Sarkozy has since gone on the defensive, arguing that "scum" is not a vulgar word, and that he is a polite person.

The riots themselves are no laughing matter. France has a powder keg on their hands. You can't have your crown city ringed with slums filled with angry young people with no hope and expect things to go well. And believe me, in America, we know a thing or two about inner-city riots.