I don't know if they're going to want me here. I'm listening to some poor woman go through spelling hoops to indicate which of the similarly sounding me-alikes she's talking about. She's having the most confusion.

Noah Feldman says we should thank upper-class white Protestants for the fact that the US now has such diversity in the elite. Or something. Honestly, I've read this twice, and I'm still not quite sure what he's trying to say. [link]

I'm pretty sure it's that our innate superiority is proven by the fact that we graciously ceded our strangle-hold on the power of this country. And by "our," I mean people who are superficially similar to me but in no way my actual ancestors. My Protestant ancestors were lower-class; my upper-class ancestors were Catholic.

~jobma for ita.

not sure why my mom arriving has led to me being an anxiety attack on legs. Maybe because I know mac has someone here that he feels safe with and has no other place to be. Maybe because it means the move in 16 days is really really real. Maybe because with someone else looking at it all I can see is all that is NOT done at my place. GAH!

The Protestant governing elite must also bear its own share of responsibility for slavery and racial discrimination. Yet, after the ideals of meritocratic inclusion gained a foothold, progress was remarkably steady and smooth.

You see, it's because the white Protestant elite were the cause of the vast majority of systemic discrimination in this country that they should also get credit for ending it! I mean, things are all perfectly equal now, right? We've got a black President and two chicks on the Supreme Court! Progress COMPLETE.

Ha HA! I can totally get USAir miles for my Lufthansa flights! Good job keeping all of my boarding passes, which I need to mail them.

Well, who else has the wisdom and leadership to stop oppressing all those people who weren't fit to govern themselves anyway?

In the words of a straight male WASP college classmate of mine, possibly in a class called Ethnicity, but definitely in some pinko commie Liberal Arts class: "It was my people who made this country great!" He almost got killed right on the spot.

ION, I found a caterpillar in the caldo verde tonight that I'd made with the remaining CSA greens for this week. I love that our farmer doesn't spray anything on his crops, but OTOH, pesticides do tend to get rid of, um, pests.

(And I'm sure it was a perfectly non-poisonous and edible caterpillar and was probably an indication that these greens were grown in a healthy sustainable environment blah blah bugs-are-good-for-the-earth-cakes. But I still did not want to eat it.)

I'm still trying to figure out what that part at the end about Ralph Lauren means. The clothes that are mostly associated with the Ivy League are mostly designed by Jewish designers, and therefore ... what?