My rear view mirror fell off. We stuck it back on with a sticky pad thing from Halfords, which worked for a while, but now it just falls off all the time. I phoned my garage and they said that they have some glues but there wasn't really a good permanent solution - so wtf, I have to drive this van for the next 5 years with a wobbly RVM? Surely not.
Also, I don't even know what dome lights are? Fortunately I rarely ever need AC.
Really? I can't believe there's no good fix for that!
Dome lights are just the lights that come on when you open the door. The overhead lights.
There is a special glue to put the rear view mirror back on. It takes less than five dollars and five minutes to do it right.
Also, at daycare the toddlers have somehow been conditioned to freak the fuck out when see any sort of bug. Spontaneously Hawaiian Punch started wailing "FLY! FLY!" and freaking out over insects.
Now it's generalized to bathtime: every little fleck of dirt in the water makes her howl and say "FLY! FLY!" and wail and try to climb out of the bathtub. Know what there is a lot of? Flecks of dirt in a bathtub. Jesus christ.
Know what there is a lot of?
Dodgy fast food, expensive coffee, and pissed-off white people.
1: Clean the mount and the back of the mirror carefully with something that does not leave a residue, like isopropyl alcohol. Then goober up the back of the mirror with epoxy and shove it firmly into place. I assume you can find something equivalent to JB Weld on knifecrime island. It's a two part epoxy that's ubiquitous in automotive stores in the US, and it works very well for all manner of things. If you don't clean the surfaces the epoxy sticks to the loosely attached crud, which then falls off, so don't skip that step.
This is not a difficult problem, and if your mechanic tells you it is he or she is incompetent or deliberately doing a bad job to keep you coming back.
You are a different sort of person than I am if nonstop beeping isn't automatically first on the "most annoying" list.
5,9: The epoxy, however, requires certain temperatuire to set. This can be a problem if you're living in Atlanta without access to off-street parking and it's summer. I imagine this is not alison's problem.
And look, I tried to clean the windshield properly. Eventually it worked out alright.
9: Last year, I had the mirror fall (after 15 years I can't complain). The glue came in a kit with an alcohol wipe and a razor blade.
No, the garage are generally honest and competent, which is why I was so surprised at this. It's a fucking two a penny Transit van, so I assumed they would say, oh yes, here's the Ford glue, job done. But perhaps not.
I have googled since and found Loctite glass glue which people say works, so I might have another go before Tuesday, which is when I was going to go to the garage. I've found reports that using Araldite, which is a 2 part epoxy, can cause the windscreen to crack?
The glue came in a kit with an alcohol wipe and a razor blade.
That's handy: get high first, clean the skin to avoid infection, and then end it all.
10
You are a different sort of person than I am if nonstop beeping isn't automatically first on the "most annoying" list.
Ditto.
Agreed. The non-stop beeping would probably make me follow the course of action suggested in 14.
Oh and ditto to the annoying beeping too.
I think we just call the interior lights the interior lights.
13: Loctite ought to work. The things to watch out for are keeping the surfaces clean and scraping off bumpy bits left over from previous repairs so you maximize contact area. I hope you're able to get this sorted out.
These worries about annoying beeps remind me of how my dad dealt with the "buckle your seat belt" buzzer when they first appeared. He pulled out the belt to stop the buzz, tied a knot in the belt to keep it from retracting, and the cut the belt above the knot to avoid having the belt flop around.
This isn't the only thing reminding me of this, but I am so fucking glad I don't have to commute by car anymore.
The beeping can be mostly drowned out by the radio and ambient noise of going 60 mph. But I hear phantom beeping now when I'm not in the car. It's weird.
The visor is probably the worst, since daylight savings means that I'm now commuting during sunrise and sunset. I've got a big floppy brimmed hat to wear in the car, but I worry that it impedes too much of my vision.
The heater and AC only on full blast also helps drown out the beeping.
The AC/heater problem would be the worst for me. I could get over the beeping. I'm really good at tuning out noises. It drives my husband crazy because we have a bird that will shriek and I'm so used to it that I don't even hear him anymore. So I never fix the problem.
25: Shake 'n Bake and a lie for the kids?
So I never fix the problem.
An alcohol wipe and razor blade will do the trick, I bet.
You'd waste a perfectly good budgie?
It drives my husband crazy because we have a bird that will shriek and I'm so used to it that I don't even hear him anymore. So I never fix the problem send the problem away to live on a farm in the country.
The beeping would drive me utterly mental. Contra LizSpigot, high pitched noises are among the most annoying things imaginable.* The key-ignition beep would be like driving around with a Daily Mail reader in the car. Either I'd go, or it would.
* I have reasonably good hearing, and it's usually me that hears the phantom noises that no-one else does. Switch-mode PSUs, cathode-ray tubes resonating, etc.
28: In these times of fiscally austerity, as painful as they may be, we must accept the necessity of severe budgie cuts.
It's not that high-pitched. It's rather gentle and easily drowned out.
Generally noises get under my skin worse than anything else. The squeal of bus brakes makes me viscerally angry. But this, really, you guys are over-imagining it.
33
Well you're the one hearing phantom beeps.
I hope you're able to get this sorted out.
Aw, I'm feeling touched by your concern! Will buy Loctite tomorrow and report back.
I am so fucking glad I don't have to commute by car anymore.
I'm usually glad I don't have to commute at all. But - I now have a bike! C bought it for me last weekend as an early birthday present - got it on eBay and I'm very pleased with it. I have borrowed Kid A's bike a couple of times recently to remind myself what to do, and used mine properly today for the first time.
But this, really, you guys are over-imagining it.
I can't imagine how over-thinking it could be possible. If it sounds like any key-in-ignition beep I've ever heard, it would give me a migraine and/or make me irate.
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Aung San Suu Kyi has been freed.
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I now have 36 going through my head preceded by "we are the goon squad and we're coming to town."
You are a different sort of person than I am if nonstop beeping isn't automatically first on the "most annoying" list.
I was on a bus between facilities on Rikers Island Monday evening with something or other beeping nonstop and the beeping was more annoying than, well, being on a rickety bus on Rikers Island after dark on a Monday.
Hey, heebie. I have an idea. Why don't you get these things fixed?
43: Isn't the answer on unfogged in all instances "because then what would we talk about?"
How clever and useful my suggestion was.
Putting up with horrible car problems for too long is closely associated with adulthood in my perception.
Why don't you get these things fixed?
1. I'm basically incompetent.
2. I never got a new mechanic when I moved from Austin and so the place I usually go is about an hour away in the opposite direction from where I work, and only open during weekday business hours, so for the past five years my plan has been to save up my problems and take the car in between semesters. Or, see #1.
3. I finally asked some local friends where they take their volvo and they gave me their guy'd name and then he was elected to city council so he's busy until later this week, at which point I'm hoping to overcome #1.
Also I do carpool, but this past week I've overslept past the carpool time more often than not.
re: 47
But as an academic don't you have some free time you can use for this sort of thing? It's one of the compensations, no? You don't necessarily work shorter hours [and maybe even quite a bit more] than the average person but you have some flexibility. Or is your college very different from those I'm familiar with?
I commute about 2.5-3 hours a day, by car. It sucks. The minute something's wrong with the car, I take it to get fixed, though, as I fear the expense and/or inconvenience of leaving it too long.
Or is your college very different from those I'm familiar with?
Probably, in that my main responsibilities are teaching. So I teach four classes a semester, and have lots of office hours and appointments with students. That plus committee meetings, of which we probably have a normal amount, keeps me on campus pretty much 8-5. (And when it is flexible, I can get out or arrive by an hour or so, but the old mechanic on the far side of Austin is about 1 1/2 hours from Heebie U, and during rush hour, so probably more like 2+. Jammies works up in Austin, but on the close side of things.)
I commute about 2.5-3 hours a day, by car.
Holy crap. That does suck.
49.last: If that is common, it would explain the stabbing, Tory-voting, Katy Perry-stealing that has come to plague your island.
50 last. Uncommon but not that rare. The only unusual part is that ttaM does it in reverse. Plenty of people come that far into London, because it makes sense financially.
Mrs y used to know a guy who commuted daily 180 miles in each direction. Now that's unusual.
No, he worked in an office - not very good at his job, you'll be shocked to learn. He left the house at 5:30 every morning and got home after 9:00. I've no idea why.
I read the title of this post to mean that the state of Texas was commuting the sentences of all those who had been sentenced to torture, reducing their sentences to sentences of . . . non-torture, I suppose . . . and then this sentence was found guilty of second-degree run-on and felony overuse of the word 'sentence' and sentenced to dangle by its participle until it is dead.
Yeah, commuting in reverse means less traffic. I don't leave particularly early so it could be worse. I leave around 9 and get home before 8. I choose to work a bit later so I miss the worst of the traffic at both ends. Driving a lot doesn't help the misanthropy, though.
I thought ttaM meant there and back.
Lots of people C knows commute (what I consider) crazy distances to Oxford. ttaM is not alone, or even extreme.
Yeah, there and back. It's between 60 and 90 minutes each way.
I always assumed that commuting for an hour and a half was one of those things that train-centric Europeans view as bizarre US habits that they would rather die than have to endure, but that doesn't really seem to be the case, looking back on things.
It takes me forty five minutes to get from my door to the office, but I have to park, bring child into pre-school, see whatever he wanted to show me before I go, drive some more, park, walk a bit over a mile (I got tired of paying for parking), stop for a bagel sandwich (I'm spending my parking savings), and then go to work.
Nah, lots of people travel a lot for work these days. And a surprising amount do a weekly commute - stay somewhere to work, then go home at weekends. A friend of mine lives in Leeds, but her partner works in Slough. There's clearly no way she's leaving her nice life in Leeds to live in Slough, so she puts up with not having him around so much.
The sort of thing we find really bizarre is the 10 hour drives for Thanksgiving and so on. My parents moved 4 hours away and that's "oh wow, sooooo far away - do you ever see them?"
I can get the train. Takes about the same time. It's more expensive though, and at least once a week there'll be some horrendous fuck up and the journey will take 4 hours.
Britain has an ineptly partly privatised rail network so it's both expensive and shit by European standards. Another neo-liberal gift to the nation.
But, if you took the train, you'd get to read or something, no?
Re: 64
Yes, but it is an extra 150 quid a month, and the semi-regular 4 hour journey from hell really isn't an exaggeration, unfortunately. And thinking about it, driving is still a bit quicker even allowing for traffic.
64 - yeah, C gets the train. (15 minute walk to the station, 25 minute train journey, 10 minute bike ride.) He likes it because it means he can work more.
That's real money there, ttaM. Yikes.
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OT bleg: Is there something like a Keynesian economics for dummies type of blog post. Somebody (a Canadian) was talking to me about the unsustainability of the MA economy and then said, "Look at what they're having to do in England.
I want something that explains why long term debt above a certain percentage of GDP is bad but that cutting spending in a recession is bad.
None of this, the U.S. used to make things, we can't afford to run deficits now.
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Completely OT piggybacking bleg:
What's the nicest, most idiomatic thing to say when I check out at the Mexican grocery store? I can just say "gracias" of course, but is there something witty I can add to that?
Related: What's the snidest thing I can say to the Israeli 20-somethings who staff all the Mall of America kiosks during the Xmas buying season? I went with a curt "shalom" when I was there recently, but surely modern Hebrew has something more cutting. I mean it to sting.
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I always assumed that commuting for an hour and a half was one of those things that train-centric Europeans view as bizarre US habits that they would rather die than have to endure, but that doesn't really seem to be the case, looking back on things.
I thought so, too.
If I drive alone, it takes me about 25-30 minutes door to door. Carpooling and dropping off Hawaiian Punch or picking her each adds 15-20 minutes.
Also, my carpoolmates are horrendously incapable of determining the quickest route to work. There are a couple of different routes you could take at the beginning and end, and depending on whose house we're at, and inevitably they pick the worst one.
When we're cutting it really close to the deadline to pick up Hawaiian Punch, or me getting to class, it makes me really tense and edgy. I don't get how you can't optimize your route after years and years and years.
I can just say "gracias" of course, but is there something witty I can add to that?
Not if you don't know Spanish.
My first car lacked a gas gauge, dashboard lights, heat, and a rear bumper. Amazing that it was legal to drive that. Other cars kept far away because of the posts sticking out where the bumper was supposed to be mounted and the "FARM USE" painted on it in day-glo orange. I did eventually get some glow-in-the-dark paint to paint on the speedometer needle so that I could tell how fast I was going at night.
My current car just doesn't run - as a result of my not trying to move it for two years. Oops.
What's the snidest thing I can say to the Israeli 20-somethings who staff all the Mall of America kiosks during the Xmas buying season?
"You're staff at a kiosk at the Mall of America." Too cruel?
74: They're really obnoxious, and none of them have work permits, and they're all so full of themselves. Maybe I'll just start going up to them and saying "When you go back home to your little Euro-American colony in the Levant, you'd better join Gush Shalom or Yesh Gvul, or I will consider you a hypocrite of the worst order. Good day, sir! [or madam]"
My old car didn't have a working speedometer for a couple of years. I drove about the speed most of traffic was doing, and figured that was unlikely to get me pulled over.
75: then introduce yourself as "Hi, Immigration and Customs Enforcement! Having a nice day?"
I had a car with no working gas gauge. That was a inconvenient. I never did run out of gas because I always remembered to reset the trip odometer when I got fuel.
Since this thread appears not to be on topic at all...from the department of What on Earth?
This is from someone who was arrested for "unlawful assembly" (!!) in Oakland during the protests over the verdict in the Oscar Grant case:
After we were searched and relinquished our shoelaces, we had to give urine samples so they could do pregnancy tests on them, as prenatal care is required for pregnant inmates, so anyone who was pregnant would have to be moved to a different facility. The police told one woman that she was pregnant, only to let her have a panic attack before laughing in her face because they had been "joking" (lying) the first time.
Mandatory pregnancy tests for people who have been arrested? Is this a common thing?
Leaving aside the short prison sentence and the continuing creepiness of Taser & Co., leaving aside the ongoing power struggle between police officers and residents, do we really have immediate mandatory pregnancy tests upon arrest in this country? I mean, I can dream up some reasons that someone might have thought this was a good idea, but...boggle.
79: Reminds me of the time I was forced to relinquish my glasses when arrested. There's a lot of those policies that they only remember when it's leftwing demonstrators they're processing.
75: I'd be tempted to put some postcards on a clipboard and stop by and try to get them to sign letters to Congress about immigration reform, talking to them earnestly about how scary and dangerous it is to live in the US without status. But I think sexism would work in my favor; they'd think I was a dumb liberal do-gooder.
68:For Instance although this is a column.
He argues about deficit spending several times a week, using Ireland as a perfect example. (Austerity lowered output, reducing ability to deleverage)
I have a big difference with DeLong, Krugman, and other mild deficit hawks, believing you can essentially print and spend until inflation/interest rates make you stop. But the two have been making the Keynesian argument for two years.
It's like, okay, I get it, they're workers, I'm a worker, we're all exploited, yadda yadda yadda. But if they happen to get caught & deported (unlikely -- how much money does ICE have for enforcement against Israelis?) they'll just be banned for 5 years, and next winter they'll fuck off to Goa or Australia or Spain or wherever and probably have an even better time than they did here. What happens to you if you're a Palestinian caught working illegally in Tel Aviv (assuming that you managed to pull that off somehow)? Nothing nice, I would imagine. Sigh.
Oh, and to 69: If you just want to be chatty, you can say "Que tenga un buen día," (sometimes just "Que tenga buen día,") aka "Have a nice day."
If you want something funnier or more personal, I think you kind of have to know the people, at least a little tiny bit. Have you had any conversation with them? Do they listen to music by any artists you recognize? Do you know what state in Mexico they are from or if they are soccer fans of a particular team or player?
There's expressions of soldiarity, but I think those would come off a bit strange if you don't know them. You can't really say "¡Estamos en la lucha!" to a stranger, or at least I sure wouldn't.
85: I just need to start learning Spanish. I feel like it's already more of a second language to me than Russian ever was, just based on the quasi-immersion of living in a neighborhood with such a large plurality of Spanish-speakers (there's also lots of Ecuadorians around here, but most of the businesses are Mexican-owned and staffed.) A lot of the folx around here are from Morelos, but not all of them by any means.
I'm trying to decide what the maximum tolerable commute would be, because I've been investigating/fantasizing about options for places to live and possible commutes depending on where I end up moving next year. An hour by train is more acceptable than an hour by car, I think. A couple of places I might go involve something like a 90-minute to two-hour train ride between the prospective place of employment and the nearest major urban area, so I think I'd want to try to locate somewhere in the middle, though the towns in between seem... unappealing. One very plausible-looking scenario has me moving to a real city and commuting 20 minutes by train to a suburb, though; I'm pretty excited about that prospect....
84: I get you, but the trouble is that lax enforcement of immigration laws isn't in itself a bad thing, no matter whether the people it helps follow the golden rule. It would be better if we applied either lenity or strictness consistently across races and national origins, but reciprocity still probably isn't the applicable principle.
(Browser doesn't recognize the word "lenity".)
I second Witt's 85. Que tenga buen dia will suggest to people that you know more Spanish than you do.
If you expect to see them the next time you are in the store then "hasta la proxima" or "hasta luego" are both good.
I used to hope that I would never use my Spanish exclusively in service interactions, but that's looking more and more the case. I got some use out of it when I went down the port researching cruise ships, but most of the people I spoke to knew better English than my Spanish.
I got some use out of it when I went down the port researching cruise ships
¿Qué mal es un barco lleno de olor a mierda?
||This Soros was a Nazi collaborator who aided the Holocaust thing is seriously pissing me off, to the point of violent thoughts when reading the comments on some site with lots of right wingers.>|
Also this car has a broken odometer. But it broke about six or seven years ago, so.
My car doesn't have valve stems in the tires. I use hand whittled pieces of cork.
Since this thread appears not to be on topic at all...from the department of What on Earth?
I contest this, at least at comment 79.
On the other hand, I don't care when everyone goes off topic. I'm just saying this was inaccurate.
My car doesn't even have hands.
My car has two horse power, unless one of them runs away.
Just fix the beeping key-in-ignition thing, Heebie! Everybody refuses to ride in your car unless it stops.
Everybody refuses to ride in your car unless it stops.
Except Hawaiian Punch!
My car writes "Who's the Boss" fan fiction.
68
I want something that explains why long term debt above a certain percentage of GDP is bad but that cutting spending in a recession is bad.
Debt is dangerous because you may be asked to repay it at an unexpected and inconvenient time.
The idea behind contracyclic government spending is simple enough. Unregulated market economies seem somewhat unstable being prone to boom/bust cycles in which positive feedbacks magnify expansions or contractions (some economists deny this but I choose to believe my lying eyes). Since these cycles can be destructive it is natural to look for ways of stablizing the system by adding negative feedbacks to dampen expansions and contractions. Hence the idea that governments should run surpluses during booms and deficits during busts. Cutting government spending in a recession on the other hand will act as a positive feedback deepening the slump.
This idea may work better in theory than practice and is not really practical for individual states in any case.
Mass transit commuting is good for Spanish reading comprehension. I've found I've picked up a bunch of passive knowledge just from reading Spanish language ads and public service stuff.
Except Hawaiian Punch!
One can only speculate about what kind of music she's going to love when she grows up.
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Just bought plane tickets for myself and my son for the annual Christmas trip to see my parents in the Twin Cities. Any interest from the contingent there in drinks on the 22nd or 23rd of December?
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Everybody refuses to ride in your car unless it stops.
It's good transportation, but the brakes aren't so hot.
106: It drives me nuts just to think about it.
I drove a 1978, 1981 (?) Volvo for a while with a manual choke, and the starter position on the ignition didn't work, so there was a starter button on the dashboard as a bypass. We reasoned that nobody would be stealing this car, since it took a particular skill set just to drive it.
Needless to say, it had no air conditioning, and I'm pretty sure the heat sported either an On or an Off position. Great car! Handsome! Worked totally fine.
107: I bet there are tens of thousands of Swedes, currently aged 45 to 70, with the skills to steal it.
83
He argues about deficit spending several times a week, using Ireland as a perfect example. (Austerity lowered output, reducing ability to deleverage)
I think Ireland is a bad example because they have limited options. It is hard to keep spending when you are broke and no one will lend you any more money. It appears a corrupt ruling clique drove the country off a cliff.
104: I would totally be up for it. Current X-mas plans include a Waifs & Strays dinner on the 24th, followed by "Chr/sthmas at Pa/mer's" our new annual drinking tradition, then dim sum and a movie on the 25th. No current plans for either the 22nd or 23rd. Sadly, I don't manage a licensed on-sale beverage establishment anymore, but there are others that I'm familiar with. Grumpy's downtown is one place where I've got connections.
74: we have similar Israelis running kiosks in the mall near my office. Good lord are they obnoxious, and they bother me every day with aggressive offers of cheap sunglasses or whatever.
I guess this could be read as trolling this particular blog, but IMO Volvos are really just not very good cars, and are largely cruising on a US reputation for reliabilty built up in the 1970s.
Surprisingly (to me) NYC was the place I've worked where people seemed to have the longest commute times (admittedly all by train, but still). I mean, it takes a really long time -- 1.5 hours or so -- to get in from so many of the nearby suburbs, and I had a coworker with about a 2.5 hour each way commute in from Jersey, which didn't seem that uncommon. My subway commute was about 40 minutes.
Currently, my commute is 25 minutes by car, through some pretty heavy traffic; most people I work with seem to have between a 15 and 45 min commute, all by car, from a very wide range of locations. I can't think of anyone I know who does more than an hour, though I'm sure they're out there.
104, 110:
I'd probably be up for it, though I leave town on the 24th. Many good places for dirnks, though it depends on what you're hankering for.
Though.
Speaking of "though" my idiom makes me want to treat it as a more every-day-use version of "however" or "still" as interjections and stick it at the end of sentences. When I write this down, though, it seems clearly wrong - some sort of perversion of the original meaning of the term, or at best to be waving at some other clause that actually sepcifies why the this thing is in spite of the that thing or even what the that thing is.
Thoughts, more languagey people?
I had a car with no working gas gauge. That was a inconvenient. I never did run out of gas
My '73 Bug was like that. I ran out of gas a few times, including twice on this bridge.
I read the title of this post to mean that the state of Texas was commuting the sentences of all those who had been sentenced to torture, reducing their sentences to sentences of . . . non-torture, I suppose
I actually had the same initial reaction; my thought process was along the lines of, "Wow, but Texas *never* commutes any sentences ... although, I guess even they might, for *torture*, wait, since when are they sentencing people to--oh, I'm stupid."
Speaking of which, I actually wish Texas or some state *would* decide to pass a law authorizing waterboarding, just so it would get injunction'd and we'd have some contemporary case-law reminding folks that, yes, it is torture, and it is illegal, unless you're a member of the ruling class, in which case laws don't apply to you.
I know I know I'm getting dangerously close to Bob-style heighten-the-contradictions, but sigh. That Lithwick article Parsimon linked to awhile back is depressing as hell.
Related: What's the snidest thing I can say to the Israeli 20-somethings who staff all the Mall of America kiosks during the Xmas buying season? I went with a curt "shalom" when I was there recently, but surely modern Hebrew has something more cutting. I mean it to sting.
Wait, Seriously? Unless I'm reading this wrong for tone or missing some background, I'd say go to google translate, English to Hebrew, and enter "I know nothing about you as an individual but I'm lobbing my political convictions at you in a totalizing way that I'd find repugnant if someone else did it toward a member of any other ethnic group, pace the analogy ban, especially if that person focused on, seriously?, the lack of work permits," and then just say that to them.
Then say "tisha echad echad" because that's "nine one one." They're going to have beaten the shit out of you at this point is the thing.
114 Much as I like the phrase "the that thing" I'm not totally sure what you're asking. I'd dismiss concerns about "perversion of the original meaning" because "original meaning" seems dismissable, though.
119: I'm not sure what I'm asking either, it just felt wrongish. I suspect it's just the difference between what seems proper in everyday speech versus written prose.
118: This was my feeling too. I have friends who are white South Africans and are some of the most wonderfully people I know, I've also met white South Africans who are insufferable assholes. It seems stupid to get mad at the second group of people for being white South Africans, rather than for being assholes or racists.
118: IMO, it's an interesting question. Jewish Israeli citizens are compelled by their government to engage in what could arguably be called evil. I'm not sure what moral obligation this incurs on the part of the individual.
114: "Though" at the end of a sentence just like "however" doesn't stand out as wrong to me. I don't think I'd use it in a formal piece of writing, though.
It's at the beginning of a sentence where standalone "though" looks bad to me.
118, 121, 122: I thought Natti was referring to the very different treatment given to the large sets of One! of! Us! (white, [effectively] European) undocumented workers (Irish, Israelis, etc.) and the scary, brown demonzied ones. I've certainly heard people go off about the Messicans taking Amurrican jobs, who just loved loved loved all the cute Irish girls waiting on them at their local, and took a small, petty pleasure in explaining to them that there were more undocumented Irish folks in the greater NYC area than Mexicans (in the early to mid 90s, at least).
122: sure, but for all you know, the kids at the kiosks are Peace Now protesters at home. More importantly, the idea that being an asshole to them is in any sense a productive enterprise--which would be crucial for the usual obligations of civility to be overridden--is entirely lacking.
I was maybe trolling a little bit, but as foolishmortal points out, we're talking about members of an army of occupation here. They serve their time keeping the boot on the neck of the Palestinians, then their parents pay for them to fuck off somewhere for a year or two. These particular ones are flown in, put up somewhere, and given several thousand dollars, tax-free, to hang out an be obnoxious at me. It's true, what with the krav maga and all, that I probably don't want to antagonize them that much, I've never served in the army. Killing isn't my idea of fun.
As far as I'm concerned, the average Israeli is somewhat more politically repugnant than the average Klansman. That includes Labor supporters.
Well, perhaps the best tactic is just to walk around asking them what their personal political affiliations are back home. My best guess is that they're all going to cop out and say they're not political, but moving train /= neutral and all that.
They serve their time keeping the boot on the neck of the Palestinians, then their parents pay for them to fuck off somewhere for a year or two. These particular ones are flown in, put up somewhere, and given several thousand dollars, tax-free, to hang out an be obnoxious at me.
You can tell all that from the fact that they're staffing mall kiosks?
I bet they're all circumcised, too. YUCK.
My buddies didn't die face-down in the muck in 'Nam I've got friends, people I've considered my comrades for two decades, facing serious charges and jail time just for talking to Palestinian and Colombian activists. So yeah, excuse me if I don't take the objective view that privileges decorum and politeness over saying what you feel.
As far as I'm concerned, the average Israeli is somewhat more politically repugnant than the average Klansman. That includes Labor supporters.
As opposed to the average American or Iranian or Russian or Chinese person? (I mean, ever try having a conversation with Russians about the Caucasus? Fun times.) Shit like this is why so many people who are otherwise sympathetic want nothing to do with the organized pro-Palestinian movement.
117.last: For the record, it wasn't me who linked to that; must have been someone else.
I was maybe trolling a little bit, but as foolishmortal points out, we're talking about members of an army of occupation here.
Do you have the same reaction to seeing American 18-year old off-duty soldiers--who, after all, are affirmatively volunteering to serve in an army of occupation?
It's really crucial to keep in mind the distinction between blameworthiness and wrongfulness, and not to underestimate the power of nationalism & state-backed propaganda. Part of the tragedy of the situation is that it causes even otherwise normal people, on both sides, to go along with grave moral evil. 18-yr-old Israelis ought not to serve, sure; but we should also acknowledge that, given the context, it would take a fairly unusual degree of independence & self-confidence to refuse.
For christ's sake, think about how even the fairly free-thinking crowd here got all "o noooes, a jury's job is to judge the facts, not the law, even if the law is unjust!!11!" at the thought of such a minor act of lèse majesté as jury-nullification/perjury-in-the-service-thereof.
I loved it when I was abroad and everyone saw me as a symbol of America--fat, midwestern, ignorant, racist, Christian, homophobic, xenophobic, and illiterate--until I sufficiently apologized for being myself and made amends by swearing by my political allegiances and education. I really owed it to every train operator, gas station attendant, grocery clerk, passing cyclist... It seemed fair.
What TKM said. Look, maybe it is a good idea to engage in a discussion of politics with them. But just going up and being an asshole is unjustified and pointless; and part of why it's unjustified is precisely that it's pointless. Public shaming just doesn't work that way; for it to have even outward, self-censoring effects, it needs to be seen as the expression of a shared or at least dominant communal ethos, one that the target can't dismiss as the judgement of outsiders. In the case at hand, the effect is overwhelmingly more likely to be, "Americans are assholes" than "I guess I should reconsider my stance on matters of my homeland's national security!" And if you look at Israeli public opinion trends over the last decade, you see that increased international condemnation has not let to increased domestic critique of the occupation, but rather the reverse--an increasingly inward-looking, "nobody else understands" public sphere. (Note: based on half-remembered Things I Read On The Internet.)
135 is right. And the snide "shalom" probably does not come off as a deeply felt condemnation of Palestinians that fills the young target with shame at his nation's misdeeds, but instead, I'm guessing it sounds like you're a typical anti-semite reminding some kid that it's CHRISTmastime. Mission accomplished?
deeply felt condemnation of the treatment of Palestinians
Avoiding the Mall of America would be a good idea in this and any case.
Natilo, what are you doing going into that Mall, anyway?
One has to exercise freedom of speech in the most symbolically meaningful place and situation one can find.
136: More likely -- silly American knows one word of Hebrew and is very proud of that.
"As-Salāmu `Alaykum" might get across more exactly the kind of confrontational asshole you are trying to be. Still, I recommend against this kind of political action, for all the reasons given above.
Texas Commuting Torture: Ends Cowboys' Season Early
145: The Body Ritual Shop is my favorite.
When I lived in California I commuted 40 minutes by car each way to get to work. We chose to live far away from work because the Valley is boring and our house was on the ocean. Coming from New England where only millionaires get houses on the ocean, I couldn't pass up the chance. But when we moved to Utah, we chose a place only a few miles from work. It's much nicer to have a short commute, although it makes it much easier to work on the weekends because you can just stop by work at any time.
147: I made a similar trade-off when I moved just outside the city, figuring to enjoy the abundance of trees, the deer and the bunnies in the yard, and the extensive network of streams and waterways out here. But my (car) commute is 30 minutes each way, and I'd gladly swap it for a 15-minute one again.
30 minutes seems to be the extent of my tolerance, though I'll find out soon enough, as my workplace is moving to a location that I think will entail something more like a 45-minute commute. Something may have to give, but at the moment I'm avoiding thinking about it.
148: That's a pretty reasonable threshold. My husband's commute was even worse than mine and he was a lot more tired from being in the car all the time. One big factor is also the quality of the commute. Gridlock traffic in the Bay Area is Hell. Driving 30 miles in the country would be better.
The choice was very easy in Utah. Here, there is Salt Lake City, which is a real city with restaurants and grocery stores and independent movie theaters and then there is everything else. Outside of SLC there is lots of grassland with isolated towns that contain crap restaurants and ugly houses. Also, it's very difficult to find things that are open outside of SLC on Sunday, especially restaurants with vegetarian options. When I go on birding trips on Sunday, it's Subway for lunch or nothing.
One big factor is also the quality of the commute.
Absolutely. My new commute will probably involve multi-lane highway driving at 60+ mph for a good 30 minutes of it, which I dread. At least the current commute is at a relatively sedate pace (I think I hit 50 mph once for a 4 or 5 mile stretch).
I hear you about the boringness of the 'burbs. What I get in trade for the deer and the streams is crappy restaurants and so on, yep. I feel like I've had enough of this, and had been in mind to move closer in to the city again, but oh noes: the workplace is moving further out. I'm honestly not sure what I'll do; but this isn't happening until mid-2012, so I have a bit of time.
"A former actor of Stanislavskij's Moscow Theater told me how at his audition he was asked by the famous director to make forty differen tmessages from the phrase Segognja vecerom (This evening), by diversifying its expressive tint. He made a list of some forty eomtional situations, then emitted the given phrase in accordance with each of these situations, which his audience had to recognize only from the changes in the sound shape of the same two words."
-Roman Jakobson Linguistics and Poetics
So who knows what all you can fit into "shalom."
But what TKM says is quite correct. I know I never quite engaged with the issue, despite my bold and controversial stance that oppression is bad, because of the tone of compulsory undifferentiated rage that seemed to come with the territory. The rhetoric tends to feel not anti-Semitic per se because it's directed against a Jewish nation (which is of course answerable and not immune on account of religion or history), but suffused with that familiar flavor of demonization that's generally a warning sign when it's directed at anyone.
I've got friends, people I've considered my comrades for two decades, facing serious charges and jail time just for talking to Palestinian and Colombian activists. So yeah, excuse me if I don't take the objective view that privileges decorum and politeness over saying what you feel.
This is bullshit on so many levels. First of all, as you seem to recognize but not adjust for, its exactly the same move as saying, "Look, some of my close friends are serving in Iraq right now and they are getting shot at by Iraqis. So excuse me if I don't care what happens to your precious 'civilians.'" Second, your friends, and I know or have known some of them as well, are being imporsoned by the US government, not the middle class Israelis working at the MOA.
Also, what everybody else said.
On commuting, when I was living in Atlanta it was listed as third worst in the US for commute time (behind Miami and I think LA). Apparently it's moved up in the world. The last year we were there, my wife had a job in the northern suburbs and commuted 45 minutes to an hour each way, and that was against traffic and including stretches in which she and the rest of traffic drove 75-80 mph.
And New York isn't even among the top ten in spite of having the largest population of any metro area in the country. Density and mass transit, not only good for the environment and for the quality of life of those who like urban areas, but also with some benefits for the suburbanites as well.
Ok, Natlio's position is totally unsustainable and wrong. On the other hand, And this would be true if they were pro-Palestinian peace activists, oh man are those kiosk guys annoying.
Can someone clarify who "those kiosk guys" are, who are apparently so common in both southern California and Minnesota that the local residents all have stereotypes about them and are annoyed by them in the same way?
They are guys who work at kiosks, Ned. You know, the kiosk guys.
A kiosk is kind of like the place that sells Orange Julius, except that it probably doesn't have any plumbing and it is in the middle of the walkway instead of beside it. Also, Orange Julius might not exist anymore. I haven't seen one in ages.
160: Then you haven't been to the Monmouth Mall in beautiful Eatontown, NJ! (Seriously, that may well be the last Orange Julius on earth.)
160: Orange Julius is part of Dairy Queen now, so, by extension, part of Berkshire Hathaway. The kiosks in question are the kind that just sell dry goods and cosmetics for the most part. A few years ago, the seasonal ones, and some of the others, all started being staffed by young, undocumented Israelis.
Anyway, I watched the first 45 minutes of Romper Stomper, so after getting to see lots of neo-Nazis beaten up, I am somewhat mollified. Also, I watched the clip of the occupation of Tory headquarters via Lenin's Tomb, and that also made me happy.
161: I have never been to any mall in New Jersey. Lest you think I'm getting airs, I will admit to having been to the Trump Taj Mahal.
Apparently Orange Julius is some sort of orange juice drink chain ruined by the diseasephobes. Once upon a time any suburban lad or lass who so wished could have themselves orange juice and raw egg whipped into a refreshing frothy concoction. But no more, now it's weighed down by bananas.
164: They really were refreshingly frothy. But also malt-y. It's too bad about the salmonella or whatever.
I know I never quite engaged with the issue, despite my bold and controversial stance that oppression is bad, because of the tone of compulsory undifferentiated rage that seemed to come with the territory.
Reminds me of all those earnest people back in 2002-03 explaining that they would be willing to consider war on Iraq was bad, if not for the strident tone of the anti-war movement.
But just going up and being an asshole is unjustified and pointless
Way to undermine someone's entire strategy of political activism there.
166: In my book there's a substantial difference between strident and hateful.
there's an orange julius right here on orchard road in narnia. my mom was astonished and had to get one. we each drank about 2/3 before ditching it. and then I saw an undocumented bangladeshi worker building a kiosk, using his t-shirt as a HEPA filter.
169: You should have given him a lecture about the plight of the Palestinians.
WTF is an orange julius? I'm thinking Groucho Marx with a fake tan?
"an undocumented bangladeshi worker building a kiosk" is the new five dollars.
what kind of music she's going to love when she grows up
I had Superchunk's new album on this weekend while Keegan and I were watching football, and he got interested and copied it onto his iPod, then asked if I had any more of their albums. I pulled out some CDs off the shelf and realized that their first album came out 20 years ago. Twenty years!
Now I just feel old.
171: http://www.orangejulius.com
171: Actually it goes back to 1920s LA and has gone through several permutations.
Moby, there are a few in the Pittsburgh area, mostly associated with Dairy Queens, but it looks like there is an unalloyed one at Century III mall.
175: That makes sense, because I thought the Century III mall was closed a few years ago.
It's no a full-size pitch.
Frankly, I am getting past making all of these fine distinctions. Republicans, Tories, EDL, BNP, UKIP, FBI, CIA, UDA, IDF, BJP, US Army, KKK, Tea Party, Likud -- whatever. It's all the same. Nationalist capitalists are ascendant. There is no "left", not in Israel, not here, not anywhere. All that remains for the future is to watch them consolidate into one totality. Measured against that, middle-class civility just a sick joke.
Hard choice. I like mayo, so probably.
Mayo is the essence of middle-class civility.
180 => 178.
Mayo with a capital "M" is a county in western Ireland. I'm sure they're all as polite as can be.
And, unless they've fixed it up since I was last there, the Century III Mall is a very good place to ponder the future of a consumerist society in an era of increasing income disparity. It's also a nice place to take somebody who has lived in the area for a long time. They take joy in being able to say, "That's where Gimbels was."
There is no "left", not in Israel, not here, not anywhere
Yeah there is.
Apparently, if you're in a real hurry, you can take a left on to Fifth Avenue right in front of me even when I have the right of way, there isn't a single car behind me, and you have ten more seconds on the green light.
166 What it reminds me of is people being assholes to random people from Arab countries in the name of feminism and religious tolerance.
If you take the time to get to know people, even people from other cultures, you'll see that you'll be able to find a person-specific reason for being an asshole to somebody.
Moby prefers his assholery to be artisanal and handcrafted.
179: I used to say something like that to my mom when she tried to teach me manners. "We're all going to die! What difference does it make if I say, 'Thank you'?"
She would then ask me how soon I wanted to die.
In the last three cars I've had, the beeper which warns you you left the key in is a little plastic box about 1.5" cubed that plugs into a socket under the dash. I couldn't actually see under there but I located it by touch (it vibrates when it's beeping) and pulled it out of the socket so as to stop the racket when the door is open. If you decide to do this, please don't blame me when you lock your keys in the car.
You could compensate for potentially risky advice by giving a counteracting piece of conventional and boring, but useful advice.
For example: You can pull out the buzzer but first check to see that your tires are properly inflated, have sufficient tread (especially with winter coming), and don't show any signs of uneven wear.
I've got friends, people I've considered my comrades for two decades, facing serious charges and jail time just for talking to Palestinian and Colombian activists.
I seriously doubt this is true, but await a link.
I've never served in the army. Killing isn't my idea of fun.
Ah, that explains your frequently-expressed opposition to any form of violent protest.
193.1: Natilo is telling the truth, actually. The FBI has been very busy in arresting activists of all sorts in MN lately. Here's a link -- MN peace activists arrested on dodge "material support for terrorism" charges. But instead of meeting with FARC and Hezbollah, they met with the Palestinian Women's Commission and Colombian union officials.
I used to say something like that to my mom when she tried to teach me manners. "We're all going to die! What difference does it make if I say, 'Thank you'?"
I love that you lived pretty much exactly a scene from Annie Hall. (Wait, maybe Radio Days...)
195: Really? That was another of my completely fictional anecdotes. I didn't think I was ripping off Woody Allen. I do recall a vaguely similar moment in Annie Hall (when young Alvy finds out the sun is destined eventually to burn out(?)). I haven't seen Radio Days.
Oh I don't think you were ripping off Woody Allen, either. I just think there's a sensibility in common! I'm thinking of the "the universe is expanding" scene, but I got all vermischt for a minute and thought I remembered the frustrated maternal response coming from Julie Kavner, who's the mother in Radio Days (and not Annie Hall, because she was like 20 in 1973.)
Mostly I just thought what you wrote was funny.
197: Thanks! I appreciate praise!
I guess my whole peep-schtick is a Woody Allen rip-off. Then again my actual real-life personality probably is too. It's kind of sad to think about.
You know, when I first read the post headline I thought that the State of Texas was commuting the sentence of a prisoner who had somehow or other been tortured. Scary what passes for normal these days.
198: It's kind of sad to think about.
Go watch Duck Soup. It'll cheer you right up.
194: your link, which you say describes "MN peace activists arrested on dodge "material support for terrorism" charges", in fact links to a story describing search warrants being executed; no one actually seems to have been arrested.
When asked for comment on the raids, FBI spokesman Steve Warfield declined, telling the Minnesota Independent only that the raids were part of an ongoing investigation by the Joint Terrorism Task Force into "material support for terrorism," that no arrests were made, and that raids were also made in Chicago and elsewhere in the United States.
200: Ha!
Does anybody remember the SNL skit about this syndrome?
199: pwned by 56 & 116. Just thought you should know.
201: I thought they'd been arrested since (and may have been for all I know). In any event, they're being fucked with and threatened by the FBI, and threatened with serious charges that have serious penalties. He's not making it up.
203. You expect me to read all this shit for possible pwnage? It's Monday morning ferchrissakes!
204: well, not wanting to be an arse about it, but if he says "I've got friends facing serious charges and jail time just for talking to Palestinian and Colombian activists" and it turns out that no one has actually been arrested at all, then he actually is making it up.
If he means "I've got friends, people I've considered my comrades for two decades, being harassed by the authorities just for talking to Palestinian and Colombian activists" then that's (sadly) entirely credible. But it's a different statement.
I thought they'd been arrested since (and may have been for all I know).
They haven't. At least, not according to their website.
206: Well if by "harassed" you mean "subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury, where they will likely be held in contempt for refusing to testify, and thus spend up to 18 months in jail" as well as "there's an active investigation by the FBI attempting to find some kind of proof that they did something which meets the very low bar for 'materially supporting a foreign terrorist organization'", then yes, they're "only" being harassed.
193: Ah, that explains your frequently-expressed opposition to any form of violent protest.
What, you're McMegan now? Again, if by "violent protest" you mean "a bank window in an unoccupied building got broken" then yeah, guilty as charged. Or if you mean "the cops showed up, armed and armored, and started marching towards a bunch of unarmed demonstrators, and somebody threw an empty plastic water bottle at them" yeah, okay, I'm reeeeally into violence. I'm always going to stand for the freedom of oppressed peoples to fight back and defend themselves against their oppressors. If you can't see that there's a qualitative and quantitative difference between that and joining the Air Force so that you can drop 10,000 lb bombs on some Pakistani village from 20,000 ft, well, I'm not sure what the point of arguing with you is. For every Bonnot or Ravachol on my side, there are 100,000 violent dupes on yours.
209: I think by "violent protest" he meant "IRA bombings".
You know, it's funny, when I go to radical meetings, I'm always the one who's arguing that there's a huge group of people out there who get it, and just because they're middle-class and not politically active, that doesn't mean that we don't have things in common with them. But then I talk to you all here, or at CT, and I really have to wonder.
To dsquared: Where, where is the left? Maybe it's a little bit different in Blighty, but over here there's nothing like a "left" in the sense that there was 50 years ago. The discourse has shifted so far to the right that you're lucky to engage 1 person in 100 on a single issue. Even most of the people in trade unions don't actually support unions, and if they do, they want to make them all craft unions. Environmentalists? Just as likely to be mouth-frothing anti-immigration bigots as anyone else. Feminists? There's a few feminists of color who seem alright, but white feminism has been in the pocket of the corporations for a generation at this point. Advocates for civil rights? A big chunk of them are now internet libertarians, and the nationalists have been making big gains there too.
210: Oh, right, forgot it was marching season. As I said a few days ago, most of the PIRA's actions over its existence were not things I'm personally in support of. I don't see the point of bombing civilian, non-government, non-corporate targets. What does that ever get you? And the whole knee-capping street-level heroin dealers stuff is just bullshit. I can sympathize with where they were coming from, and why many of them felt it was necessary to go in that direction, but unfortunately, as we have seen, it just allowed the UK government to coopt them completely, so why bother? Same with Weatherman, SLA, RAF, Red Brigades etc. Some good tactics occasionally, but strategically they were all hampered by authoritarian ideologies and a bunch of crazy people (none crazier than the SLA of course. Man, those folx were off the hook!)
Once again, I've said this a million times here, but I'll repeat it: Political violence is political violence. Using those pejoratives like "terrorism" just marks you out as a dupe in my book. I don't like violence, I wish it were never necessary, but there are cases where it is justified as the lesser evil. If you can't make that distinction, go sit and meditate somewhere.
But then I talk to you all here, or at CT, and I really have to wonder.
They are manning the barricades over at this CT thread.
Regarding kiosk Israelis, I think it's natural that, if you want to enforce some kind of collective responsibility on people for the behavior of their government, you're going to get pushback from American citizens.
Me, I feel guilty about the actions of my government, so I'm right there with you on judging people like me for it.