Why do I read Salon letters?
(It's Cary Tenis's column. The person asking for advice says there's an Orthodox Jewish family that lives in her building, and on Shabbos, their guests, who can't use the intercom, will come into the building when other tenants are opening the door. She thinks this is a security risk, and wants to know what to do. Many many of the comments have been talking about "pushy Jews," and also assuming that all Orthodox Jews are Chasids. And the hole-in-a-sheet thing was mentioned only about twenty comments in.)
I went to wikipedia to see if there was backup, and found this
Betty Kane's Bat-Girl was primarily interested in vigilantism in order to develop a relationship with the original Robin, Dick Grayson, as her introduction into publication was a deliberate attempt to avoid further allegations of homosexuality that Seduction of the Innocent presented to the public. Depicted as the niece of Batwoman, Bat-Girl had developed a crush on Robin after arriving in Gotham City and decided to fashion her own superhero persona based on Robin's costume. Her appearance in comic books primarily displayed her character attempting to develop a romantic relationship with Robin, despite his embarrassment or lack of interest (emphasis mine)
because that's not the way a gay man would react at all. @@
Oh, and the person writing the original letter felt the need to state that she was writing "As a feminist, an atheist and a secular Jew."
(By the way, why don't people ever use the phrase "secular Christian" to identify people who come from a Christian background and still do stuff like Christmas trees and Easter dinner without really thinking about the theological parts of it? It seems like it would be a useful term, but I've almost never heard it.)
I'm getting into a bit of "Someone is WRONG on the internet!" syndrome here. (Just hit a bunch of letters claiming that the letter-writer can't just go talk to her neighbor, because Orthodox men aren't allowed to talk to women, and if he's seen talking to her, someone will report him to his rabbi.)
And now there are a bunch of "Well, those Jews are nuts! Here's another crazy Jewish custom!" letters.
I do not particularly like people today.
And now there are a bunch of "Well, those Jews are nuts! Here's another crazy Jewish custom!" letters.
Oh, for the love of god.
No good can come from reading Salon letters! Or, well, Salon.
No good can come from reading Salon letters! Or, well, Salon.
Glenn Greenwald is awesome and godlike, and polices his own letters column fairly vigorously...but about the rest of Salon, that is unfortunately correct.
Step away, Hil. Far, far away.
Step away from the crazy. Try some simple distraction [link]
