Open Thread: Scary Things

by hilzoy

Guess what? We are slowly creeping up on half a million visitors. We should be there within the hour, if trends hold. That's a scary thought.

I followed a few of the trackbacks to my Terri Schiavo post, and there seemed to be a bit of confusion as to my gender. (By confusion I mean that every one I checked who I don't already know, e.g. from their comments here, and who used a pronoun to describe me, thought I was a guy. One person segued directly from a post on "his" (my) arguments to the apparently undying question: Where are all the women bloggers?) So for the benefit of those who don't know, I thought I'd provide a tiny, subtle hint as to my gender, from Tild:

And if that's not scary enough. there's always this...

(Sorry; couldn't resist.)

One non-scary thing: there's a relatively new blog by someone called 'The Cunning Realist' that's worth checking out. He or she is conservative in what strikes me as a sort of von-like way, is very sharp, and very independent-minded.

Comments

[Francis]

as to the link, gak!

as to the hit count, it's just me and JeS lurking all day long.

and why doesn't ObsiWi appear in NZBear's ecosystem?

[Jay C]

Half a Mil!
Mazel Tov!

And if I claim it me that sent you over, do I win a prize?

[Phil]

Here's something scary, and laden with schadenfreude: A former top Boy Scout official, one of the ones who fought so hard to keep icky, icky gays and atheists out of the organization, was just arrested on child porn charges.

[David Sucher]

I know you were a "she" from the tone of patient common-sense.

[Platypus]

That sound you just heard was every guy who followed the second link crossing their legs.

BTW, I think I knew you were female even before I went looking for other stuff you had written. The only explanation I can think of for the apparently persistent misidentification is that when an English speaker sounds out your obviously non-English name and their brain tries to make English sense of the result they're likely to end up with hill-boy. Weak, I know, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

[xanax]

Hail, Sheblogger... Congrats on the 1/2 mil visitors; home a couple days early from adventures in brain surgery. The whole deal was hitch-free from A to Z. Feeling just fine & thanks for the positive energy.

[xanax]

Hail, Sheblogger... Congrats on the 1/2 mil visitors; home a couple days early from adventures in brain surgery. The whole deal was hitch-free from A to Z. Feeling just fine & thanks for the positive energy.

[Gary Farber]

"...half a million visitors."

Visitors, or page views? Not hardly the same thing, particularly given that every time one comments it's a new page view, which makes the ratio approximately five hundred to one for a number of people. Not to mention that every single time I've used multiple counters, they give different results.

Which is, of course, my way of saying "congratulations!"

:-)

[hilzoy]

Gary: visitors. (page views, as of this moment: 1,407,824.)

xanax: I can't tell you how glad I am. And I can't even imagine how glad you must be, seeing as how it was your brain and all.

I'm really, really happy.

[Barry Freed]

I knew you are a "she" too.

re. That horrible story you linked (there seems to be a rash of such stories emanating from Romania). I guess that's what happens when your girlfriend mistakenly uses an IED instead of her IUD.

OK, I could have pulled that off better but....

Gary Farber: Your comment in a post below about how JFK's funereal pissed you off because you couldn't watch your favorite TV shows reminded me of my childhood. During the Watergate hearings my normally apathetic and apolitical mother was riveted to the TV thus depriving me of my daily fix of the Flintstones (and the Banana Splits, and....)

[hilzoy]

Barry F: what would happen if she used an OED?

I was annoyed at RFK for getting shot on Saturday morning, briefly, before it hit me that this was a pretty ugly way to feel. (I had just turned 9, and was staying at a friend's house, which meant that I actually got to watch cartoons, which did not happen at our house. And they were all preempted.)

[Frank]

I know this is like so 5 minutes ago, but remember the group of Italians that got shot up a few days ago? There was some discussion about it here as I recall.

You missed what I think is the most significant fact about the car; the US has refused to let Italian investigators examine it.

Can anyone think of an innocent explanation for that?

"Almost concurrently with the COPACO report, the investigation by the Italian justice ministry suffered a humiliating setback. Public prosecutors in Rome sought to have the Toyota Corolla, in which the Italians were traveling when they came under attack, inspected. In question are the car's speed and the quantity and direction of the rounds fired into it. The Italian minister of justice, Roberto Castelli, had authorized two police analysts to travel to Baghdad. Almost on the point of departure, orders arrived from the Italian Embassy in Baghdad to abort the mission. The American authorities apparently opposed the inspection. "The Americans' refusal to permit investigators authorized by public prosecutors and the justice ministry to proceed is an alarming sign," said Letta. "It is a serious development, which evidences the scarce will to collaborate."

href="http://www.anti-imperialism.net/lai/texte.php?langue=3&section=BD&id=23654">link

[rilkefan]

Congrats, xanax.

So I was going to ask about carrot cake as wedding cake on an open thread but it's too late now. Instead, I'll ask about free or semi-free webhosts. My work page is invisible to spiders and I'd like my wedding page to be googlable.

[Frank]

Someday I'll figure out how to link.

linked text

[bob mcmanus]

"I was annoyed at RFK for getting shot on Saturday morning"

Quite probably the worst experience of my life. That may seem pretentious or something, but I consider myself incredibly lucky. No sudden deaths or tragedies. It is a bad thing when a 60-70+ yr old relative goes, but not a shock or tragedy. Never spent a night in a hospital, never had a broken bone. Life has been good, if not spectacular.

When JFK got shot, innocence died. In the summer of '68, for many of us, hope died.

[Jay Sundahl]

rilkefan,

Yahoo has Geocities for a conventional web page structure. I haven't used it in a while, so I don't claim recent knowledge.

Blogger has a quick and dirty interface for uploading pictures using Picasa 2 and Hello that I have been playing with. You would probably have fewer options than a web page but the price is right (free). Blog your wedding?

Jay

[rilkefan]

Hmm, the free yahoo page comes with ads. I feel mercenary enough putting up a registry as it is. Maybe the $5/mo page would do.

It turns out that photographers typically hold the wedding images for long periods of time - months to years - so no blogging.

[Jay Sundahl]

Rilkefan,

You aren't required to use the photography portion of Blogger, and they only advertize themselves (blogger) on the free blog unless you sign up for ads and ad revenue. It might act as a more intimate interface if you are discussing pre and post wedding stuff.

Besides, there are bound to be electronic snapshots from someone.

If photos are out then LiveJournal deserves a mention. It's more of a diary form and no ads. Photographs are tricky there though.
Jay

[JerryN]

hilzoy - ouch!!!

Anyway - had a conversation earlier this evening about drawing lines between generations. I'm at the tail-end of the boomer generation, but what seems to links us boomers is that we all had some clue in real time that JFK's assasination was a big deal. Your remark about RFK just kind of brought that into focus.

[hilzoy]

I was four when JFK died. I don't remember the actual event, but I do remember being at a memorial service with my mother. It was in a church, and I had never (as far as I know) been in a church before, but I had heard about churches, so I kept asking my mother, quite audibly: "When are they going to start singing??? She finally had to take me out. I remember having no idea what I had done wrong.

[rilkefan]

Ok, so I have a blog. Now all the stars can, without any fuss, start going out.

[felixrayman]

Billmon pointed this out, and like he said, I'll be joining him in hell with whoever wrote this for posting a link to it, but here's another new female-authored blog.

[Slartibartfast]

Pics of rilkefan on the 'net!

[Gary Farber]

"...when an English speaker sounds out your obviously non-English name...."

Please pardon me for smiling when reading this analysis as signed by someone whose "name" is "Platypus."

"Gary: visitors. (page views, as of this moment: 1,407,824.)"

Better yet. And here I'm happy with -- let's see -- "Today 2,379
This Week 7,205"

so far today.

"I was annoyed at RFK for getting shot on Saturday morning,"

RFK was shot after midnight, June 5th, 1968, which was a Wednesday. Possibly you mean JFK?

"I was four when JFK died."

Ah, yes, you did.

[rilkefan]

Also a link to some pics by rilkefan of his brother. Don't all get up at once.

[Gary Farber]

I'd ask if you know my (casual) friend who works at SLAC, if I didn't have a clue how many folks work there. (Alan Winston.)

Congrats on the nuptials; sweet picture.

[rilkefan]

Thanks, Gary. I'm a bit interested in what's going on at SSRL so I'll probably run into your friend one of these days.

[hilzoy]

Gary: now I have to go off and doubt my sanity, because I did mean RFK. I guess, on reflection, it could have been a weekday, since school would have been out. And, on further reflection, I don't recall so much a startled and horrified announcement as something preempting TV, so it could also have been -- his death? (too early in the morning, even given that I was on the east coast, right?) his funeral?

This is very spooky.

[crionna]

hilzoy, huh, I never even considered that you might be male. I just figured you for the fairer.

And congrats all on the milestone. I appreciate the place to play.

[Anarch]

hilzoy: I had something of the same experience in witnessing an assassination in my youth, that of Benigno Aquino. I was utterly, utterly convinced that I had seen him shot -- as in, I could actually visualize the scene and everything -- but it turns out that Ninoy wasn't killed on TV so those memories must false. I was watching TV all day (I think he was killed on a weekend) when he was killed so the wall-to-wall news coverage must have somehow sunk into my subconscious; if I'm not careful, I mistakenly use the wrong formulation when describing it.

[rilkefan]

Yes, too soon to be making jokes.

[Anarch]

rilkefan: Never.

[Edward]

Congrats on the blog, rilkefan! Does one need to create their own blog there to comment? When I tried to sign up it asked me for my blog name...I got confused...not a rarity.

[liberal japonicus]

rilkefan
Since you are using blogger, you may want to check out flickr.com, a photo upload service that links up with blogger really well. The best thing is that in flickr you can set up a special email address where you can email photos that that you can then direct to your blog (and you can write your blog post in flickr) Works really well with mobile phones with cameras (lots of them here in Japan, don't know if they are that common in the states) This blog post talks about how the blogger photographed a computer conference and uploaded the photos using flickr. I imagine your wedding guests are tech friendly folks, so have them bring their digital cameras and then upload them to your photostream.

[Jackmormon]

LJ,

Now that's a scary thing. What does the law about taking pictures of people and posting them on the internets look like?

Another thing I want to know. (I seem always to be asking questions on this blog.) Who posted the The Curse Engine in the reference section?

[liberal japonicus]

Jackmormon
I don't know about the law, but flickr has a way to give different levels of access to people (public, family and friends, private, I think) so a little thought can avoid those kinds of problems. I can't imagine that there is some blanket restriction, the person being photographed has to show some sort of damage.

I've used the blogger/flickr linkup to have my daughter 'blog' for my parents. She's 6, so it's just a sentence or two, but we can use my mobile phone to take pictures of things she wants to tell grandma about, which is really good since we can get together with them, at best, every two years. I think this underlines the fact that these technological advances aren't good or bad, it's just how they are used.

[kenB]

Re the curse engine, see here.

[Edward]

Gonna take advantage of the open thread to get a petty annoyance off my chest. Since all the hoopla in Krygystan heated up, I've been increasingly curious about our air base there. It was set up 19 miles north of the capital (Bishkek) and is called Ganci (after Peter Ganci, NYC fire chief who died in the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001).

It's main purpose is to serve the troops on the ground in Afghanistan, but it's played an nice bit part in annoying Russia as well (they set up their own base east of Bishkek in 2003 in response).

Like most of our bases in foreign countries, Ganci hires local people for certain jobs (and in Kyrgyzstan where unemployment is very high, that's highly appreciated) and the folks stationed there reach out and help the locals in what is probably a mixture of genuine kindness, a pleasant distraction, and self-interested PR work.

Because the Americans there are culturally different from the locals, there's also a great opportunity to learn about other ways of life for both sides.

Which brings me to my petty annoyance. I know this shouldn't bother me, but today I read the following:

While the base generally operates as an independent island, its isolation from Kyrgyzstan is not all-encompassing.

There are meetings between the base commander and officials from the nearby airport — the main point of entry and departure for civilian flights into Bishkek — several times a week, and the U.S. military says it makes efforts to reach out to the local community.

This weekend, children from a Kyrgyzstan orphanage are scheduled to visit for an Easter egg hunt. On a recent Kyrgyz holiday, soldiers got a chance to the national cuisine.

Now it's not like they invited the children to participate in a re-enactment of the Passion or anything or invited them to help themselves to the Easter ham, but still, even as secular as an Easter egg hunt is, and as much as I'm sure the children enjoyed the outing and the game, there's a part of me that can't help but think this was disrespectful. Adults enjoying a holiday meal as part of a cultural exchange is one thing. A steaming hot plate of Manty or Lahgmahn (despite being delcious) is hardly gonna confuse an American about their faith. But orphans, who most likely don't get the individual attention children living with their parents do, are much more impressionable.

Again, I know this is a trifling in the overall state of things, but it strikes me as careless, despite what I'm sure are only the best intentions.

[votermom]

Anarch, not only was Ninoy not shot on tv, there's no proof that Galman actually did shoot him. But there was the images of both Ninoy and Galman dead on the tarmac, iirc, so it's really easy for ones's mind to fill in the details. Most of the military escort was eventually imprisoned (double life sentences) for the assasination, but one of them claims that Danding Cojuanco, Cory's uncle, was the actual mastermind.

http://www.geocities.com/dapat_tapatt/whokilledninoy.html
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/nov/25/yehey/top_stories/20041125top11.html
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/aug/20/yehey/top_stories/20040820top5.html

[Slartibartfast]

but still, even as secular as an Easter egg hunt is

Pagan, actually...which, who knows what'll offend, these days?

[Edward]

Pagan, actually

I stand corrected.

who knows what'll offend, these days?

So why risk it?

I guess it's the fact that the kids are orphans that really bothered me. I see religion as a special gift passed from parents to children (by which I mean, I don't believe anyone has the right to intefere with the decision parents make about which religion, if any, to teach their children). And as such, something children look to their parents for reassurances about.

Without parents to intercede, it makes me uncomfortable for a religious holiday to be the occassion on which the US invites orphans over to have some fun. There are other opportunities (Halloween for apple bobbing, Thanksgiving for turkey and cranberry, or whatever) that would serve just as well as cultural exchanges without any of the prostelytizing potential of this.

[Slartibartfast]

Actually, there's more than a little dispute about the Easter egg hunt being a relic of ritual worship of Eostre, but the Eostre bunny is at least firmly entrenched in the mythology of the mythology, if you will.

[Bernard Yomtov]

Congratulations to both rilkefan and xanax on different, but happy, events.

[double-plus-ungood]

Wait. Hilzoy's a cowgirl? And Jes is British?

[Slartibartfast]

So why risk it?

Why risk anything? Look, you want to be inclusive; this is what inclusive looks like. Sharing your culture doesn't necessarily lead to indoctrination.

[Sebastian Holsclaw]

Why risk it? Because they are orphans in a very difficult country who probably get very few chances to get unmitigated fun in their lives. A large number of them will be dead soon, worrying about corrupting them with exposure to a fun little Easter tradition from America that is at least thrice removed from religious significance seems a bit much.

[Slartibartfast]

Please excuse my snark-ity tone, Edward. The point stands, but you didn't say anything to warrant the snark.

[Jay Sundahl]

Edward - Rilkefan's blog requires a blogger userid to comment. I think that's a default setting. You just need to register with blogger. I don't think you don't have to create a blog there. On the other hand you might become a successful blogger there:}

(too, I meant too.}

[Edward]

A large number of them will be dead soon, worrying about corrupting them with exposure to a fun little Easter tradition from America that is at least thrice removed from religious significance seems a bit much.

Wow...that's wrong to me on so many different levels.

Some may think that those who may die (and I don't see why you're suggesting a large number of them here...unless you're confusing the Tuberculosis center story with the Easter story, I don't think they're the same children) might benefit from some spiritual clarity, rather than the other way around.

If fun is the order of the day, and I'm all for that, why not do so without any religious associations at all? I mean, who's that particular date and time for, if not the Americans. A Spring Solstice Egg hunt the week before would serve the same purposes as far as the children are concerned. Besides, my guess is not all the US personnel at Ganci celebrate Easter either.

I know it must seem I've drawn this out to perhaps ridiculous lengths now, but when there's folks continually suggesting Islam is NOT a religion of peace, I think it behooves the US troops to stay one step ahead of any potential misunderstanding of what their mission is in a Muslim country.

[Sebastian Holsclaw]

Everything is susceptible to potential misunderstanding. If the soldiers were giving Bible lessons I would see your point. But so far as I can tell, they weren't.

[Anarch]

Anarch, not only was Ninoy not shot on tv, there's no proof that Galman actually did shoot him.

Oh, I know. My dad's a historian of the Philippines and he takes it as read that Ninoy was killed by someone else, probably military, on the orders of a more conventional high-up. [I think his money is on the order having come from Marcos himself, but I haven't talked to him about it in a while.] I just find that particular false memory so completely jarring that I can't write about it properly.

[st]

I dunno, Edward, my guess is that the Kyrgyz kids remember that day as the "Crazy American Egg-Rabbit Day." I certainly don't get the impression that Jesus was mentioned. I mean, I bet a billion whatevers that the "recent Kyrgyz holiday" where the troops sampled some of the "national cuisine" was Islamic or had some religious component (unless it was 31 August). Like it or not, Easter is an American cultural tradition, and sharing nonsacred elements of it is not necessarily an aggressive or proselytizing move.

[kenB]

I'd put the Easter egg hunt in pretty much the same category as Halloween apple-bobbing -- they're both secular traditions having nothing to do with the original religious significance of the day. In fact, our previous pastor refused to allow the social committee to stage an egg hunt on Easter for the little'uns, because he felt it detracted from the religious message.

[votermom]

Edward, I don't think it's wrong for kids to be exposed to different religions.

[Jesurgislac]

Again, I know this is a trifling in the overall state of things, but it strikes me as careless, despite what I'm sure are only the best intentions.

I agree. It does seem that the saving grace of second thought might have struck someone, and they could have staged the "Crazy American Egg-Rabbit Day" (I'm sure st is right and that's how the kids remember it) some other day than Easter itself.

[Slartibartfast]

Yes, having a Crazy American Egg-Rabbit Day on any random day of the year is what we Americans are all about, all right, and it's about damned time we let the world in on our little secret.

[Edward]

Edward, I don't think it's wrong for kids to be exposed to different religions.

OK, serve up the crow. I just checked with the expert and was told Easter is already widely understood and the tradition of painting eggs widely practiced by the Russian born citizens of Kyrgyzstan. The expert says he would not consider this an issue at all.

Chock it up to me being overly protective.

Carry on....

[Jesurgislac]

OK, serve up the crow. I just checked with the expert and was told Easter is already widely understood and the tradition of painting eggs widely practiced by the Russian born citizens of Kyrgyzstan. The expert says he would not consider this an issue at all.

Pass me a helping. Wait a minute, I'm vegetarian. Got any tofu crow?

Sorry.

[double-plus-ungood]

As it's an open thread...

Some ">http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2005/03/open_thread_sca.html"> eggs and coffee">http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2005/03/open_thread_sca.html">coffee with your ObsWi...

[votermom]

serve up the crow.

Would five and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie do? :)

[rilkefan]

Jes, how could you pass up "crowfu"?

Blogger just ate my first long post. Guess I'm an initiate now.

[chicago dyke]

scrolling down, as an atrios regular, let me say congrats on +500K visitors! i added this to my bookmark list after the K-fax discussion about worth blogs, and i've not been sorry. i sincerely hope that your 500K are unique visitors, or at least a lot of them are, with respect to the liberal blogosphere.

but thank you, for your lucid and interesting posts. from a lurker.

[Jackmormon]

Um, this is my first go at blogwhoring, but I figured that since this is an open thread and since Rilkefan did it first... here ya go. (winces)

[felixrayman]

Overheard in New York is one of those junk web sites you can't stop reading once you start. It is exactly what the name says, a blog of weird things overheard during a normal day in NYC. My recent fave:

Dude: If Terri Schiavo's head was filled with oil Dubya would drill into her skull himself.

[Edward]

Congrats Jackmormon!

I've added yours and Rilkefan's blogs to the Regular's blog roll. Thanks for the links!!!

[rilkefan]

Edward, I feel odd being called "regular".

You in particular should check out my latest, most recent post, though Jackmormon has actually interesting thoughtful things to say about stuff.

[Jackmormon]

(Blushes) Thanks.

[Glenn]

Nice site dude, I like the picture of ur cat. hehe

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