It Drags On

This summer is shaping up to be an especially boring one. Here's a song I listened to today while making hummus and pitas (which actually puffed up):



R.E.M. - 7 Chinese Bros.

Speaking of Chinese brothers, what's going on in China right now? In very broad, oversimplifying terms, it's dealing with a bit of "colonial stress," to put it lightly, I suppose. Beijing has apparently been accused of trying to "dilute Uighur influence" (the Uighurs are an ethnic group in Xinjiang province of China; they speak a Turkic language, are Muslims, and consider themselves to have more in common with Central Asian nations than with China) in a variety of ways. One includes the encouragement of a large number of Han Chinese (the ethnic majority in China) to move to Xinjiang province. Riots have historically been carried out by Uighurs wanting independence (among other things), which have gotten violent at times. This particular time, things did get violent. Han Chinese, who were outraged by the violence, responded with more violence, and so on. When asked about why these events are occurring, China responded by blocking the website you're currently reading.

What else...Michael Jackson's memorial service was today. I didn't watch, but based on what I heard and some of the Facebook statuses I saw, it looked more like the Grammys than someone's funeral. But hey, apparently that was the man's style, so I won't hate. It would be unfortunate, however, if his memorial were turned into a social/commercial event, but I suppose that was inevitable.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in an almost hilarious move, rubbed a little more salt in the wound by claiming that his election was "the most free election held anywhere in the world." Gosh, I just don't know whether to be outraged or chuckle heartily.

Speaking of Iran, the little diplomatic spats are worsening: Joe Biden's untimely and maybe slightly irresponsible comments about Israel bombing Iran and us doing nothing to stop them (I think I believe his intentions were good, but I just wouldn't have mentioned it at all) have pissed off Iran and now their Speaker of Parliament has said that it will blame the US for any Israeli attack on Iran. Well, that's so downright silly I don't even have any kind of witty response to it.

I want to shift again to maybe a more cultural observation now, because it's been a great deal of interest to me lately. Okay, maybe it's still slightly political. Feministing has a nice take on the whole stepping down of Sarah Palin thing that I found interesting.

I also found this simple pie chart at Sociological Images, which I kind of liked. It answers all the people who say Obama is a "socialist:"


So yeah, interesting stuff.