Author: Aaron Weber

Spam Trends

Since last week I’ve been getting a lot of junk mail in German advocating, as nearly as I can tell, that Turkey should not be allowed into the EU, and reminding everyone of the Armenian genocide of 1915. The messages mix links to Der Spiegel and other reputable sources with links to the far-right NPD.

I honestly don’t have an opinion about Turkey’s membership in the EU, at least not a very informed one. But this sort of campaign strikes me as unseemly and likely to muddy the debate: if all opposition to Turkey is far-right xenophobia, then there won’t be any legitimate discussion of Turkey’s human rights record and civil procedures, much less the immigration effects of opening the borders.

Now that it’s warm out

Now that it’s warm out and I am riding the scooter and people are driving around with their windows down, I hear funny music with fun bass lines. Also I notice that a significant portion of the people in cars around me are smoking pot on the way in to work in the morning. I think this may explain the way people drive around here.

Gay gay gay gay

NYT Sunday Styles: Reality of Gay Marriage:

The reality of gay marriage in Massachusetts has left some young people susceptible to the same sorts of pressures families have always levied on unwed children. Not long after the courts made gay marriage possible, Alison Rheingold, 34, who lives north of Boston and has been with her partner for six and a half years, began receiving inquiries from relatives about a wedding they presumed would happen right away.

The article closes with a gay lawyer quoting a New Yorker cartoon on the subject, to the effect that why the hell would gay people want to get married. The line I think of, of course, is the line “of course I’m in favor of gay marriage. I’m a divorce lawyer.”

The Climate of Man

The New Yorker has published an excellent 3-part series on climate change called “The Climate of Man.” The first two parts are online now; the third should be showing up shortly. It’s chilling and freaky and it points to a Jared Diamond-like conclusion that humanity, and in particular the United States, have decided to totally ignore all warnings and drive the world into disaster and death.

Quite honestly, I’m looking forward to it. Most of these things are looking to happen, or start to happen, some time in my lifetime: we’ll see bigger hurricanes, encroaching desert, weird sea current changes, malaria spreading northwards… It’ll be exciting and I’ll get to be smug about it and say “I told you so.”

Whoo yeah!

Cho

Saturday night I saw Margaret Cho’s new show, Assassins. I think it’s a lot better than her previous show, “Revolution,” and possibly better than the previous “Notorious C.H.O.” Maybe it was because I saw it live, but her timing was great and she didn’t rely as much on mugging and long, drawn-out pauses the way she did in Revolution.

And the things she said about Laura Bush!

There was a group of annoying teenagers behind us, two or three girls and a couple boys, accompanied by the father of one of the girls, and halfway through the show, the grownup leaned to his daughter and whispered loudly you didn’t warn me.

Every Madman Has his Theme

The Spanish saying “cada loco con su tema” (literally, each madman with his theme), suggests that everyone has their own obsessions. So, to continue with the usual fare here, two links copied out of the Times: Gee, yet another article on how realtors are unethical, horrible people. And, whoo-hoo, an article about the dangers of foreign banks refusing to hold US currency as their reserves. (Note that the second item, like every article published on the subject, cites Nouriel Roubini as the proponent of the more pessimistic expert on currency markets– Brad DeLong seems to be an admirer and his arguments are pretty cogent to a layman, so I think he’s believable. Plus, funny names are a bonus in my book.)

Did Cassandra ever get tired of her Jeremiads?