Sunday Morning Reading Material (Fourth Sunday in August)
This week’s theme seems to be labor. So!
Welcome to Sunday! Today is either the first day of the week, or the last, depending on what type of calendar. The Romans (who gave us the term “Kalendae”), had 10 days in their weeks. I hope that useless information will help you win pub trivia/
In the past week, “Doctor” Laura taught us that we have a First Amendment right to corporate sponsorship, the religious tolerance controversy raged o, and the Australians held an election. Parliament is now hung– fortunately not hanged. The pun is dirty, not sad.
In other news: I got a job. It’s a short, 71 day consulting gig. Yay for paid employment!
Gayle is going to start us off with a bracing riff on bad writing and privileged, lazy, thinking. If you haven’t added her to your RSS feed, you really, really should.
Courtney Stoker tears it up with a great article on cosplay. I’m in the cosplay community; even so, I found this article a good read. Indeed: I wish she’d had an extra 5000 or so for this piece.
Ashelia at Hellmode tells us how competitive she is. Lady gets fierce, past the point where it’s fun for her. I’ve never been like that: my own neurosis lay in the other direction…
In a triumph of special interest politics over market forces and common sense, San Francisco will still not be charging for Sunday Parking. As a tax payer who doesn’t own a car, this is a transfer of wealth from me to car owners. Fuckers.
I’m a pedestrian, not a bicyclist, if you were wondering. I mention this, because San Franciscans who don’t own cars tend to own bikes. In fact, we love them. I tend to think that bicyclists are more dangerous than motorists, though obviously motorists are more catastrophically bad than cyclists.
White flight happens inner city, as well as intra-city. My own family started out in North Beach before moving to the Excelsior. Coincidentally, this was when China Town was “encroaching” on the “Italian” neighborhood. Anyway, the Italians in North Beach are still trying to keep the Chinese out. Also: the Excelsior is now Chinese and Filipino.
Speaking of Italians, and Europeans in general: tipping is American, not European.
Want to see how labor is exploited? Straight from the power-holder’s mouth, into the ears of the powerless. Don’t be that artist.
It seems it’s ok to pay women less than men. I find it hilarious that the Chamber of Commerce can wield the phrase “fetish for money” as if it were an accusation.
Shirley Sherrod and the NAACP reconciled. In the process, she compares the Tea Party to the KKK. It’s kind of vicious, but the comparison seems fair.
Here’s how to do integration correctly. A big, awesome, country– like America– should be able to bend a bit to help people fully participate in our civic traditions.
Without doing some moral equivalence, Winston Churchill did things that were at least as bad as Stalin. It’s an ugly story.
How to become an American Citizen, in one flowchart.
Bowser Testing, and Live Tweeting
A real, working, mini cannon!
