tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15935045.post5472910943626376017..comments2024-01-19T02:23:51.665-06:00Comments on Journal Wunelle: Layover In Dubaiwstachourhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12447198404608861357noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15935045.post-84965145471753204512011-10-21T17:36:06.240-05:002011-10-21T17:36:06.240-05:00I'm ambivalent about the heat. You spend your ...I'm ambivalent about the heat. You spend your time in air conditioned comfort usually, but I suspect one acclimates over time. When I started working out of Louisville (10 years ago now) I was floored by the heat, but I quickly came to like it. Is the cold I have more and more trouble with. <br /><br />The status of women in Dubai is most unsettling to my sensibilities (tho surely nothing like it is for a western woman). And there are obviously places in the Muslim world--Saudi Arabia, say-- which can make a body hate men en masse. But I wonder what the reality is for a woman in Dubai. (Now that I think of it, I don't know hat I've seen any women driving in Dubai. Hmmm....)wstachourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12447198404608861357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15935045.post-17564771731665354062011-10-20T13:48:05.586-05:002011-10-20T13:48:05.586-05:00I can't bring myself to visit a country where ...I can't bring myself to visit a country where its laws could subjugate me, where I would have to wear what someone else tells me, where I couldn't speak my mind and do as I please. Also, I can't take extreme heat. :-)VVhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08751403913379728345noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15935045.post-10221248106838267082011-10-16T10:44:47.589-05:002011-10-16T10:44:47.589-05:00And too bad about Shermer. I've only read a li...And too bad about Shermer. I've only read a little of him, but it seems silly to criticize OWS very strongly when the whole world is kind of circling the drain. I haven't read any of his comments, but I'd be quite turned off by too vigorous a thrashing of the young movement (with which I am in full sympathy).wstachourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12447198404608861357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15935045.post-65113939288382227232011-10-16T10:42:14.662-05:002011-10-16T10:42:14.662-05:00I find I'm quite torn by him. I'm continui...I find I'm quite torn by him. I'm continuing to read Death of the Liberal Class, and so much of what he has to say seems powerfully correct and slightly dangerous. I find myself again overwhelming my iPad with highlighted passages that number in the hundreds. He's like the Hitch in that he speaks at times like a cannon going off--his criticism is uncompromising and at times incendiary. Often <br /><br />But he often segues his discussion into religious territory--in completely non-sequitur fashion, it seems to me--bringing a bunch of muddle when he was doing so well without. And yet, these moments do not lessen the power of the rest of his arguments, except perhaps to make me wonder if I'm being led astray by him as I feel he is led astray by his devotion to imaginary friends. <br /><br />I'd love to know what your impressions of Liberal Class are. Or whatever else of him you read / see.wstachourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12447198404608861357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15935045.post-56999755954574889132011-10-16T02:51:59.597-05:002011-10-16T02:51:59.597-05:00It's obvious to me that I need to read some He...It's obvious to me that I need to read some Hedges. I've given up completely agreeing with any author any more ... and maybe that's for the best. <br /><br />I've been a Michael Shermer admirer for a few years but lately he's been pissing me off because of his libertarianism and his completely missing the point of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Out of hand he dismisses the protesters as coffee-drinking iPad owning slackers. For someone who is normally a well-thought out skeptic, he has been resorting to ad hominem attacks no different than another other right wing hack.<br /><br />So, apparently, seemingly intelligent people can completely miss the fucking boat on some things while imparting some wisdom on others. And maybe that's the point: each of us has to put the data we receive into our own moral compasses (I'm surely mixing some metaphors here ... sorry) and figure out our own way.dbackdadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10700991588554336491noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15935045.post-44528932072233871072011-10-15T17:32:35.950-05:002011-10-15T17:32:35.950-05:00A very interesting comment, and one which I was ju...A very interesting comment, and one which I was just ruminating on. I saw a Chris Hedges clip where he was talking about our cultural loss of empathy. He said that trying to understand other people and to care about them--especially those who oppose us--has become at best a sign of weakness and at worst a kind of treason. And he thinks this opposition lies at the core of our indoctrination to be a country engaged in constant warfare; the "other" must be hated and hunted, both of which require a detachment from and ignorance of their humanity.<br /><br />He seems to go wacky when he gets to religion, but there is a touch of Christopher Hitchens in him when he talks of social and political issues.wstachourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12447198404608861357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15935045.post-11754274960918683302011-10-15T15:01:35.127-05:002011-10-15T15:01:35.127-05:00" ... the more I see, the more I come to thin...<i>" ... the more I see, the more I come to think that people are people are everywhere. The great bulk of our lives is consumed in things which we all recognize and understand."</i> -- Indeed. But at least you make the effort. Because of lack of experience or exposure to different cultures, many Americans assume those cultures are vastly different. And that makes it easier to kill those people or to at least be blase when those people die. If we understood that people everywhere have similar concerns, we might not be so indifferent.dbackdadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10700991588554336491noreply@blogger.com