MODERN IFIGENIA

I have traveled quite a bit in my life, and one of the things I have learned over time is that the only people who take pride in their "heritage's" purported knack for drinking are people with alcohol addiction. The story goes something like this: Don't you think you have had enough to drink? Are you kidding me? I am Irish, this is what we do! Are you kidding me? I am German, this is what we do! Are you kidding me? I am Argentinian, this is what we do! Are you kidding me? I am Mexican, this is what we do! Are you kidding me? I am Chinese, this is what we do! Are you kidding me? I am Indian, this is what we do! Are you kidding me? I am French, this is what we do! Are you kidding me? I am Italian, this is what we do! Are you kidding me? I am Jamaican this is what we do!

Yesterday the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) made what are essentially two positions, but many are conflating into one. In Trump v. International Refugee Assistance Project , SCOTUS agreed to first, grant certiorari and hear whether the Muslim Ban issued earlier this year is legal and second to partially lift the injunction from the lower courts. Because the procedure is a little bit complicated, people have many things confused. So here are some clarifications: 1. The initial (Executive Order) ban was for a period of 90 days to allow the government to develop new rules. 2. The countries covered are Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Syria, Yemen and Lybia 3. The initial ban exclusively targeted Muslims 4. A second ban was drafted to cure some of the legal problems found in the initial ban 5. The second ban covers EVERYONE from those six countries regardless of faith 6. Both the Fourth and the Ninth Circuits issued injunctions preventing the implementation of these Executive O...

Them: I really think we need to improve the way we vet immigrants Me: What provisions would you strengthen/add? Them: I haven't read past the first talking point

"I know it's 2017 and all, but whether in the East or the West, women still have to choose between being O-Lan and Lotus"

In 2005, economist Thomas Friedman wrote that the world, for economic purposes, was flat. In other words, that technological advances were such that a guy in Afghanistan could compete with a woman in Iceland for the dollars of a tweenager in Canada (my poor attempt at illustrating his point). If you haven't read the book by now, go read it to make the writing of this blog entry easier for me. I now argue that perhaps, barriers to entry into tyranny have been removed and when it comes to torture and extrajudicial killings, the world is also flat. Today, the thought crossed my mind that maybe, the same way economies have flattened, so have cultural and political values. I came to this conclusion because I saw several governmental entities engage in torture with impunity, but noticed that only some have been called out for that torture, while others weren't. I have also seen that extra-judicial killings happen regularly in the U.S. without being called extra-judicial killings; ...

White male: Why do you always date Turkish men, you should give white men a chance. Overweight woman: Let me put it this way, a white guy sees me fat and tells me how pretty I'd be if I were to lose weight; a Turkish man sees me fat and thinks that I must love baklava and brings me baklava. If you were me, who would you date?

I just ran into this old article which reminded me of something I read a few weeks ago. That more recent article (which I can't find because I am aging disgracefully) talked jokingly about how Americans eat too much fast food. The article was not substantive, but American commenters were very upset because Europeans don't understand convenience. The argument was that Americans eat fast food frequently because it is convenient to their lifestyle. Which made me realize just how much the American worker has embraced their employers' needs as their own...while their employers simultaneously fight against the needs of their workers, even for things as simple as a living wage. Let's be clear: Americans eat fast food because their employers give them very limited time to eat. This creates two problems: 1. Americans eat unhealthy food that is readily available and filled with empty calories and 2. Americans spend more money on that less nutritious food to increase their ...