One for the "Seriously?" file: There was an anti-war march in Duisburg, Germany last week. One couple who lived on the march route put an Israeli flag in their window, then went to stand across the street to watch the march. People marching started throwing stuff at the flag in the window -- first snowballs, then rocks. The police decided that the best way to calm the crowd would be to break into the apartment and take down the flag. [link]

It's such an interesting topic for your column, Jilli. Even with just the goth thing, there's such serious discrimination going on. That goth band I linked you to from the Christian commune, they came out to us and played a show for our kiddoes. Which they loved, of course. And they worked with our kids closely, both in music and just hanging out, and were generally awesome. But they were a last minute stand-in for a hippie band that was expected. They were a way better fit for our kids in the end, although I'm sure the roots band would have been fine.

But the part of the story I'm trying to get to is that we had arranged free housing for our whole group (the band, other musicians, visual artists, etc.) in exchange for teaching a workshop at a local private Christian boarding school. But when they heard that it was a goth band coming in, full makeup, they plotzed. They wouldn't even allow them on the campus. So we had to scramble for lodging, and when we were teaching over at the school, the goth guys had to just hang at the house. They were all, "It's not us, but if the parents got wind of it, they'd go nuts." It was ridiculous.

That school is ridiculous in a lot of things, although it's gotten some better since the crazy "I'm the wizard" director has left. But we were furious because they had caused their students to really miss out.

The other question is a toughie, for sure. ND's situation is even a little bit easier, because from most Christians' perspective, Satanism is specifically antagonistic to their belief, even moreso than atheism. So it's a rough one to navigate. (Not to make commentary on ND's experience or in any way to lessen what he went through. I'll be interested to see what you come up with in your article from his input.) I hope her friends have enough grace to see her as a valuable person, regardless of the difference in their beliefs.

One for the "Seriously?" file: There was an anti-war march in Duisburg, Germany last week. One couple who lived on the march route put an Israeli flag in their window, then went to stand across the street to watch the march. People marching started throwing stuff at the flag in the window -- first snowballs, then rocks. The police decided that the best way to calm the crowd would be to break into the apartment and take down the flag. [link]

Good thing Germany has no history of hating Jews, or that might be taken as problematic.

Oh, another thing about the concert today -- they had barriers up all around the reflecting pool, which I've never seen before for events like this -- I've been there for protests and for fireworks and a few other big crowd things, and never seen those barriers. I finally realized that they were probably there because of the ice -- the pool was frozen, but not really frozen all the way through, and I can easily imagine someone trying to get a better view by standing on the ice and ending up falling through.

Plus, all the usual counter-protesters were there in their usual spot by the lockkeeper's house. Telling us that we're all going to hell unless we turn away from Obama and turn toward Christ. Usually, I've seen people trying to engage them and shouting stuff back at them, but today, everyone just rolled their eyes and walked by.

The Communists who told me I was naive were on Constitution Ave, and some soldiers nearby were giving them this sort of "You have got to be kidding me" look. I stopped for a minute or so to listen to what one of them was saying, and then another woman stopped next to me, listened for a moment, and said to me something like, "Pretty amusing, coming from a New York Jew." The guy was definitely a New Yorker by his accent, and looked pretty stereotypically Jewish. The woman easily could have been, but I don't know. But she said it to me in a way that definitely seemed like it was meant as a sort of in-joke, so I'm wondering if and how she concluded that I was a New York Jew. I hadn't actually said anything yet at that point, so it couldn't have been my accent or anything I said, and my hat was covering up my hair which is usually the feature that makes people conclude that I'm Jewish.

Another guy who walked by the Communists listened for a second and then shouted back at them, "I love America and freedom of speech, even when I totally disagree with what you're saying."

So... I was arguing with D about Rick Warren (ftr, D doesn't support Warren, he only believes in trusting Obama). I went on line for fuel for my fire and I found out that the man who gave the invocation at tonight's concert is an openly gay episcopal bishop and (although HBO edited his words out of their broadcasts) I found a transcript of them here and I have to share.

Yeah, the invocation was actually the main reason I wanted to go. I ended up having to strain to hear it, because the speakers weren't really working too well and everyone was still milling around trying to find a place to see the screen, so thanks for the transcript link.

I'm not a fan of Rick Warren either, and I don't think just trusting Obama is the right response either (though I do trust Obama in a way I don't trust most other politicians), but engagement has to start somewhere. And we have to engage people like Warren, as abhorant as I find his views. Otherwise we're left with nothing but total war, with everyone abhoring everyone else. Refusing to engage that which we disagree with doesn't help anybody.

I agree that we need to engage people, even people like Warren, but not here, not like this. Giving someone who preaches hate and bigotry on his level prominence and tacit approval by including him in something as symbolically important as the inauguration is never going to seem anything but wrong to me.

Thank you for posting that, Laga. It was really, really lovely.

Giving someone ... his level prominence and tacit approval by including him in something as symbolically important as the inauguration is never going to seem anything but wrong to me.

My money says the exact same words are being spoken, by the far right, about the inclusion of Rev. Gene Robinson.