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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
A Reader
Published Letters: 78 Editor's Choice: 5
For TB:
Your isolating a trifling difference is usage in my Indonesian is telling. Assuming that your CV as posted on the University of Auckland website is correct, your research into Bahasa prokem and bahasa gaul (essentially "street" and "conversational" or "common" Indonesian) surely informs you that there are vastly different ways to speak a language that itself is largely cobbled together from Asian and European dialects over the centuries. With or without the emphatic "-pun," the sentence is clear.
What's more (and equally telling in your gloss), it's also clear I was speaking of fair-skinned foreigners in Indonesia, not the comparitively small fraction of "white" Muslims in the rest of the world. "Bule," as you know, Tim, commonly referring to foreigners, does not translate as "whitey," carrying not the racist tinge that you suggest. Shame on the way you're dealing your cards.
Given that you left Indonesia well before before the monetary crisis of 1997, it's understandable that from the comfortable remove of university tenure in one of the safest nations in the world, you may not be entirely aware of the vicious sectarian strife that has afflicted the country since. Parachuting in for the occasional lecture may not be providing you the most reliable perspective, particularly as that perspective is biased in favor of Islam.
As for sufism, we have some common acquaintances. They mention your Mormon roots, and that you eventually embraced sufism (an Islamic sect). Perhaps they are mistaken. Or perhaps you've left the embrace.
My goal in responding to your comments relating to Indonesia was to make the larger point that Islam apologists grasp at any straws they can in hopes of painting a gentler picture of a faith whose fundamentals, as it were, stand in direct opposition to modernity (political, sexual, economic, et al.). Using Indonesia as an example, where only a few bombs have gone off, and only a few nightclubs smashed to pieces, and only a few hundred people massacred in religion-inspired rioting, was a poor choice.
As a rule (as you'll see from my other posts on Salon), I don't respond to comments but to articles. So I'm pulling the plug here and have at it, if you wish.
As a reader of many of your other posts on various sites, I appreciate that we are generally fighting the same battles, though I regret not having a university salary paying in part for my shockingly non-standard use of Indonesian.
I was pleased to see the well-deserved laudatory references to Singapore Airlines at the end of this article. I was a million-mile flier on United before one too many geriatric witches ticked me off somewhere over the Pacific. SQ costs more but the service is so, so much better than any other carrier. And United miles (given their mutual Star Alliance memberships) work just as well on SQ...
Oh dear.
I'm with the guy on this one. Bad video porn has infected popular culture like unchecked crabgrass. From "racy" leather allusions on "Will & Grace" to 12-year-old boys on YouTube dancing barechested while rubbing their nipples, there's no escaping the naughty wave--a wave surfed expertly by the advertising agency echo chamber and its usual enablers in the mass media.
Yes, the entire nation is officially in on the S/M, B/D, W/S scene, so it's no surprise that the girlfriend insists on playing her assigned role with the boyfriend. Trouble is, the BF, perhaps wiser than his 30 years suggests, correctly finds his lover's behavior unoriginal, embarrassing, and witless. Cringing and erections tend not to mix.
By all means, LW, run, stilettos clacking, to the nearest Good Vibrations-like outlet nearest your subdivision and loiter long enough to meet your male counterpart, ditching that boring beige guy toot sweet. Hell, eleven months is practically a lifetime! Think of all the hot wax that went undripped! The safe-words that went un-moaned!
Meanwhile, the rest of us will soldier on making our boring love, enduring our boring orgasms, and living our boring lives outside the bedroom. What misery!
Patrick wrote:
"That's a sizable difference, unlike the parallel strips found at some airports -- and even those are difficult to confuse. For good measure, one aviation resource site describes Runway 26's surface as: "asphalt/concrete, in poor condition. CONCRETE IS SEVERELY CRACKED."
Yet other news reports assert that the runway was repaved last week, meaning it would NOT match descriptions available to the pilots, particularly key if they were unfamiliar with the airport.
Not enough by itself to explain the error, but surely the NTSB will name this as a contributing factor.
It's interesting to see how many responses to this article are from virgins, and of these, how the majority are mighty unhappy about their continued virginity. Also intriguing are the writers who had sex once, were traumatized in some way, and gave it up.
Is this psychological affliction uniquely American? Sure seems like it.
(Oh, and particular appreciation to the writer of, "I'm not a sociopath. I'm a democrat." Christ, I haven't laughed that hard in a month.)
Irwin was a bloody boor, a loud lout in short-shorts whose death deprives his daughter of a father and the world of nothing.
Just what was the purpose in posting this trashy little slice of "If it bleeds, it leads," VD?
So a self-righteous "consumer affairs" talking head from a local TV news station is pummeled by a thug. Yes? And?
Once again VD demonstrates its 13-year-old boy sensibilities, to the continuing detriment of Salon.
There's always a first step, and the obvious one here is to vote Democrat in November.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
