Tea Kettle

Good afternoon.

It's been a pretty lazy day for me. I slept in to 9:30am, watched Ranma 1/2 while eating breakfast ("A Woman's Love is War! The Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge!") then drove downtown, walked six blocks, saw a minor car accident, walked past some relaxed looking guys, one of whom was saying, "I didn't think I hit him that hard," ate an enormous burrito, bought a coffee, got back in my car, and drove to the grocery store.

Colouring for twelve hours yesterday, I consequently listened to twelve hours of The Howard Stern Show. I listen to the show for comedy, not for Stern's political opinions, which usually aren't very well formed. I've found his holding forth on how he feels building the "Ground Zero Mosque" is a bad idea when considering the feelings of New Yorkers to be tedious. Stern lives and works in New York, was broadcasting on 9/11, while I live on the other side of the country, so I especially don't feel equipped to talk about how he or other New Yorkers ought to feel. Though personally I'm less inclined nowadays to see religion as inherently destructive. I think religion is just often a convenient excuse for man's violent instincts, and the 9/11 hijackers oughtn't to be associated with Islam any more than any Christian murderous asshole. It's hard to see anything especially sinister about the so-called mosque, actually a community centre, and it would seem to be a positive thing for Muslim New Yorkers. It's hard for me to feel uneasy about any place with a food court.

George Takei, who frequently sits in on the Stern Show, had an interesting perspective a few weeks ago, saying he understood Stern's uneasiness, but that the protests against the community centre were reminiscent to him of attitudes in America that led to he and his family being forced to live in internment camps during World War II. So the news about a pastor planning to burn copies of the Qur'an to-morrow wasn't entirely surprising to me, though the backlash he received from nearly every prominent corner of American discourse was a bit heartening. It's nice to see America has improved somewhat in the past sixty years. And I'd like to congratulate media circulation for this. Maybe even Star Trek. I think there's actually a keener sense of shame now for divisive public actions and statements.

Anyway, I think I'll go find another lazy activity. Remember, new Venia's Travels to-day.