in which I send you somewhere else...

I have a lot of opinions, but I also know that I tend to get...impassioned about them. So often as not I simply point to something and say "this, this bothers me, does it bother you?"

Thankfully, in times like that, Jim Hines often comes through with a reasoned, dispassionate discussion that nails that bother, exactly.

...this is a Muslim country. It is also a Jewish country. It is an atheist country. It is a country of Quakers and a country of Mormons, a country of Catholics and a country of Baptists. (Even, I have no doubt, a country of Jedi.) from "An Open Letter to Elizabeth Moon."


EtA: and I finally managed to sum up & boil down my reaction, in a response to someone elsewhere: E pluribus unum is "Out of many, one," not "out of many, the same."


[aside: I like Elizabeth a great deal, and I respect her, too, thereby proving that yes you can wildly disagree and still think someone's not Teh Debil's Own]

Under the heading "deeply surreal..."

I was watching tv when I heard something outside, what sounded like a voice through a loudspeaker -- but not a party-type speaker, an Official Emergency Alert voice loudspeaker. And flashing lights; several cop cars, and a truck, moving slow.

"Please go inside immediately... to avoid exposure to the pesticide, please go inside immediately and remain there until the truck has passed..."


Oh, right. I saw the announcement on NYC's twitterfeed: They're spraying for mosquitoes, to reduce the possibility of West Nile Virus.


Or...so they SAY....