Open thread and linkfest #4

Shhhhh!  Be beery, beery qway-it.  I'm studying.  I am swamped in books and articles and two 50 page term papers that need to progress faster than they are so no more posting from me for awhile.  I just wanted to tiptoe in here for a sec and post an open thread and whisper some things in your ear. 

This made me smile.  Someone did an internet search for "what do you do when you look good but are too shy to approach the girl" and found this blog today.  Isn't that sweet?  I liked it.

Ok, since y'all aren't posting anything I've got a few links for you:

Robyn Blumner of the St. Pete Times has a great column today about judges who lack the spine to make laws actually mean something.

Ken over at Bring it On! has a great pro-choice post from a guy's perspective which I also think is an excellent example on how to be an ally to members of dispossessed groups.

Alison, who I am especially specially fond of for reminding me of a very dear long lost friend and for being a warm caring person in her own right, is leaving France after 13 years.  Go wish her bon voyage and good luck in her transition back to the U.S.

Hugo who always writes great posts I wish all the men in my life would read has another great post on accountability and why he won't complain about having to prove himself ok to work with kids and adolescent girls.

And probably the most moving thing I read all week is this post by kate from a cat and twenty.  It's very, very personal and I hope she doesn't mind that I link to it here.  For me, and I think for the author of this comment by educand, it's about that moment of devastation and despair about the world that then pushes you towards action. It's the moment of truth that cannot be ignored.  If you experience such a thing you cannot NOT act.  It will change your life.  It definitely changed mine.

Read or wrote anything really great this past week?  Post it here and I (and others) will check it out.

To close I'll leave you with a coupla thoughts.

One, a confession.  GIL and I read the NY Times (because the local paper here sux for anything other than city news).  We usually have to go to Starbux to buy it (which we hate) but lately the paper's been appearing at our neighbor's house.  Now before you judge us for taking it, two things: 1.) my neighbor is an elderly man who is ILLITERATE.  I know this because he's called me over before to read things to him.  2.) I think once when we had some extra cash I *think* we actually did subscribe to it so this could be our paper anyway.  I just don't remember whether we did that or just talked about it.  Now, it could belong to the house on the OTHER side of Elderly Illiterate Man.  I don't know those neighbors but it's not going to THEIR house, it's going to Elderly Illiterate Man.  What do you think?  Are we justified in taking it?

And two. I'm reading some stuff right now that really reaffirms my commitment to human rights but at the same time I'm really getting excited thinking about things like the history of ideas and epistemology (philosophy of knowledge) and I'm tempted to stay in school and get my doctorate in philosophy or something.  These things are not mutually exclusive.  A friend of a friend of mine says this kind of academic work is justification for the revolution.  What a great way to use white privilege!  Whisper it along with me... justification for the revolution...

 

Comments

[kate.d.]

hey, i don't mind the link at all. i welcome any and all thoughts on the matter, because in a way, it really is the deepest dilemma of my life. what to do with the knowledge that the world is a certain way, and i believe in no gods/goddesses/afterlife in order to assuage the pain of that knowledge.

i appreciate your comments, and they resonate with me. i'm going to try to formulate some posts in response to the interesting stuff that people noted in comments, but they might take me awhile!

and as to the newspaper- i can't argue about moral relativism so early in the morning :) let me get a cup of coffee in me, then i'll see if i can think it through! ok, maybe two cups...