iconoclasts

These pilfered emails and documents that supposedly throw the ideas of anthropologic climate change and global warming out with the bath water really incite strong argument, especially ahead of the Copenhagen summit.  It seems to me to have heavy religious overtones, like Martin Luther nailing his ninety-five theses to the cathedral door, like a split between Catholicism and the Evangelics.  The climate-sceptics would underestimate and belittle the hand of man when it comes to screwing things up.  The adherents would cast aspersions on any pall of doubt in that regard.  Regardless of the truthiness to either side, I cannot see the harm in wanting to preserve habitat and fossil fuels for coming generations.  I'd no more want to have to visit a museum to see trees than to see Republicans or pandas.

hadj-podge and Swiss Miss

Sunday, against the advice of its government and the governments of the European Union, Swiss voters lent their support for a ban on the building of new minarets.  Now there are four mosques to compete with church steeples, but apparently no more.  I don't know what this move says about the constituency, but I understand that the intent of the passage was not to promote religious discrimination but to counter it, since some would argue that Islam has institutionalized gender inequalities, which go against Swiss law.  Elsewhere, there is controversy over head scarves in France and plans to build Europe's largest mosque in Koln, next to one of the largest cathedrals.  What I think is most interesting about this vote, however, is the attention given to the fact that Switzerland is bucking the recommendations of others.  I remember the fact that before 1918, not so long ago, the only democracies in Europe were France, Switzerland and tiny San Marino.  Every place else was a monarchy.

1. advent

Here is some of the festoonery. There is still stuff squirreled away in the basement somewhere that I plan to drag out before it's too late again. When we moved, I didn't think that I would be rummaging for decorations this soon, and alternately, I didn't think I would have already forgotten which random spots I tucked things in.

gratitude, don't give me no attitude

H and I spent the Thanksgiving day holiday with my parents and it was a wonderful kick off to the season. My mother had decked up the place with the santa claus clone army--usually there have been the turkey place-setting minders but there were too many of them, tucked away in a basket and it looked like a turkey massacree. It was really a fun time and inspired us to decorate our place in earnest.

telephony

Mostly I leave my handy on silent mode because I feel there's enough pervasive tinnynest for the universe to give back, but my ears lift up and listen whenever I hear some of the horrible ASCII chimes and ring-tones from ghosts of telephones past. It's a strange sort of recognition of familiarity, like seeing one has the same R2 unit. Incidentally, I believe the next hyped-up plague will be the droid-flu, H2D2.

nog

I could not drink wassailing wine all around but I think the only thing good about the annual increasing precedence of the Christmas season, making it a movable feast that comes earlier every year, is that one can find such drinks. The latest one is a spicy concoction called Glogg from Sweden, by the purveyors of all things Swedish and flat-pack.