Today in history

August 28, 1955: Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy, allegedly whistles at the wife of a white grocer, whose store Till had stopped in to buy some candy, in Money, MS. That night, Till is dragged from his home, beaten and shot. His body was tied to a heavy piece of metal with barbed wire and dropped in a river. Three days later his body was found. His face was too distorted from the beating and he could only be identified by a ring he wore.

August 28, 1963: Hundreds of thousands of Americans descend on Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march is organized by a coalition of religious, civil rights, and labor organizations. In front of at least 200,000 people, a man named Martin Luther King, Jr. makes a speech about his dreams of equality and peace and freedom. This man was an ordained minister and held a Ph.D. in theology and had already had his house bombed by white supremacists, been stabbed in the chest, been repeatedly arrested, and had his phone tapped by the FBI. In October 1964 he would become the youngest person to ever be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

August 28, 2010: Thousands of Americans descend on Washington, D.C. for the "Restoring Honor" march. The march is led primarily by Glenn Beck, who has stated his goal as to "reclaim the Civil Rights movement." Beck is a talk-show host with both a nationally-syndicated radio show and a TV show on Fox News; in the past year he made an estimated $32 million dollars from his shows, speaking engagements, and profits from several books. After graduating high school, Beck got into radio, initially as a morning DJ. His higher education consists of one class at Yale University. He holds an honorary doctorate from Liberty University, an Evangelical Christian university founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell.

One of these things is not like the others, I think.

Some points about the "Ground Zero mosque"

1. There is already a mosque using that space for Muslim prayer. Really. They're right there, in the exact location all the fuss is about. Praying. So the whole 'debate' is incredibly inane.

2. It is also not at Ground Zero, it is two blocks away. Manhattan is a very small, very dense island; nothing on Manhattan can truly be a significant distance from anything else. A brief look at Google Maps reveals the the following businesses are an equivalent distance or closer from the site of the former WTC towers: a law firm, a dental office, an Amish market, a sailboat charter business, two health clubs, several hotels, a dozen or so cafes and restaurants including a Starbucks and McDonalds, a Payless Shoe Source, Staples, and a post office. Hallowed ground, indeed.

3. It's not a mosque. It's a community center. There will be a space for prayer (which, again IS ALREADY HAPPENING AT THAT EXACT SITE). There will be an auditorium and meeting room. There will be a swimming pool and basketball courts. In short, it will look a hell of a lot like a YMCA or JCC. Know what it will most likely be used for? Meetings and presentations and swim classes and basketball games and things like that .

4. The fact that A) there are already Muslims praying right there and B) there's any demand at all for this center indicates that there is already a significant Muslim population in Manhattan. Know what else supports this theory? It's fucking New York City. Pick a demographic, any demographic, and there's a significant chunk living there*. Get over it.

*Possible exception: the Amish.

Engrish

I saw an offer online a while ago for a free pedometer in exchange for my email address, and I figured why the hell not, since I'm someone who walks a fair bit, I might as well attach some numbers to my walking to nerd over. I then forgot all about it, so I was pleasantly surprised to get something other than junk in the mail today, in the form of a shiny new made-in-China plastic gadget.

It came with a little sheet of instructions, which is highly necessary for a device with all of two buttons and one function (the two buttons let you scroll between a display of steps, calories burned, or distance in miles or km, and the second button resets it). For an incredibly cheap made-in-China plastic gadget, the instructions are surprisingly well-written. Obviously there was some cut-rate translation involved, but they're usable. There are a few gems: "When changing the battery, please call the expert [er?], or maybe cause damage" is kind of charming, actually, because it's arguably true - call an "expert", or maybe you'll cause damage! Most of the page is like that - the grammar and word choice is a little odd, but it works.

And then at the very end, I'm treated to this: "Breakable does not drop and wet."

...So close! It's literally the last sentence(ish) on the sheet. They were six words away from a more-or-less acceptable English instruction sheet, and then I guess the guy who knows English best took off early or something. I suppose it's possibly true, that breakable does not drop and wet, but...

Well, okay then.

I have absolutely no way to describe this, so I'm just going to put a link that you should click right here: http://www.denverpost.com/election2010/ci_15673894