Mitch Hurwitz “halfway through” writing Arrested Development movie script

I really enjoyed this series of brief videos about philosophers. They’re informative, funny and concise. Here’s the one about Descartes (some language NSFW):

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHihkRwisbE)

(more videos if you click through to youtube)

I unfortunately haven’t been able to spend quite as much of my time following current events as I’d like to. In addition to working a lot, I’ve reallocated a lot of my news reading (and blog-writing) time to trying to learn Italian.

Anyway, sometimes I run into a news story that I should have known more about and think to myself “Wow, the media seems to be acting like this is an actual issue, surely it can’t be.” For example, when I first heard about the immigration law in Arizona, I assumed it was some loon state senator proposing something crazy that would be dismissed out-of-hand by any mainstream politician or commentator. Clearly, I was horribly wrong.

The same thing happened with the recent controversy surrounding the proposed mosque and community center a few blocks from ground zero in Manhattan. This seems like a zoning, land use and first amendment issue to me, but as is already clear, I’m wrong about a lot of things. I feel a bit silly wasting my time on something this obvious, but there are so many fish in this barrel that it’s time to start shooting.

First, let’s look at this apparently non-kidding statement from Newt Gingrich, which starts with this gem:

There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia. The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.

Yes, apparently he believes we should be modeling our religious liberties after Saudi Arabia. And since when is expecting rights explicitly granted to you in the constitution equated to demanding “weakness and submission”? The First Amendment seems quite unambiguous on this subject:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Saying that there’s a large zone of Manhattan where mosques aren’t allowed seems to violate the “free exercise” part.

The Anti-Defamation League released a statement on the issue:

However, there are understandably strong passions and keen sensitivities surrounding the World Trade Center site. We are ever mindful of the tragedy which befell our nation there, the pain we all still feel – and especially the anguish of the families and friends of those who were killed on September 11, 2001.

The controversy which has emerged regarding the building of an Islamic Center at this location is counterproductive to the healing process. Therefore, under these unique circumstances, we believe the City of New York would be better served if an alternative location could be found.

(My emphasis) Basically, it’s saying, yes, these freedoms are important, but some issues and places are just to sensitive, and we shouldn’t upset/offend people. This argument reminds me a lot of one I’d heard before: Muslims outraged by cartoons of Mohammed.

I worry that I’m creating a straw man here, so I should clarify a bit. Those who oppose the mosque are generally being pretty vague about what they think should actually happen. If you read the ADL statement, it doesn’t say “the government shouldn’t allow this”, it just says that it “is not right”. Whom are they trying to convince here? As far as I can tell, they are either trying to convince the mosque’s organizers to change their minds or they are requesting that this plan be blocked on the basis of religion at some level of government. I’m objecting to the latter, not the former.

The name of the mosque and community center is “Cordoba House”, which Gingrich seizes upon:

It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.

Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to “symbolize interfaith cooperation” when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest.

I haven’t talked with any Islamists about this, let alone “every Islamist in the world”, but I was in Cordoba last Summer and visited the mosque. When I first got to the city, I was confused by people who kept referring to the mosque as mesquita catedral (“mosque cathedral”), only to discover that it’s basically a cathedral within a mosque. Here’s a picture I took while there, with the mosque part starting on the right:

From the mosque looking in to the cathedral:

A brief history of the site:
It was originally a Christian Visigoth church. After the Islamic conquest, the church was bought and built into a mosque and expanded over two centuries. When Cordoba was conquered by the Catholic Kings, it was re-purposed and they added the nave of a cathedral as well as a chapel to its interior.

At the height of Islamic Spain, Cordoba was a regional political, cultural and religious capital (with the mosque being one of the largest in the world at the time). Despite this, the religious freedom in Cordoba was much greater under Islamic rule than Catholic (the Moors were slightly less “inquisitive”). From wikipedia:

In spite of the restrictions placed upon the Jews as dhimmis, life under Muslim rule was one of great opportunity in comparison to that under prior Christian Visigoths, as testified by the influx of Jews from abroad. To Jews throughout the Christian and Muslim worlds, Iberia was seen as a land of relative tolerance and opportunity. Following initial Arab victories, and especially with the establishment of Umayyad rule by Abd-ar-Rahman I in 755, the native Jewish community was joined by Jews from the rest of Europe, as well as from Arab territories, from Morocco to Babylon (Assis, p. 12; Sarna, p. 324). Thus the Sephardim found themselves enriched culturally, intellectually, and religiously by the commingling of diverse Jewish traditions.

Cordoba isn’t a perfect picture of religious tolerance, but at its best, it was a good model.

Islamists want to portray the US as being in a war against Islam. Let’s stop acting like they’re right.

The political narrative from the primaries:
“Voters are very, very angry, so only expect between 90 and 95 percent of Congress to be reelected.”
-Alex Pareene, Salon.com

Another song I heard through pandora and then wondered why I hadn’t heard it earlier: “The High Road” by Broken Bells. Broken Bells consists of James Mercer (from The Shins) and Danger Mouse. The combination isn’t one I’d expect, but I like it a lot, especially in this song.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mkr19RSG6k)

“Long Distance Call” by Phoenix, from their 2006 album It’s Never Been Like That:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9oJdToVkFM)

I think it’s pretty catchy.

I haven’t written about android on this blog at all in the past, though I’d like to start doing so because a bunch of my friends are on android phones now. Anyway, if you’re considering android coming from an iphone, I thought that this comparison was overall quite accurate.

A few notes on some of the issues brought up in that post:
- Taking the battery out of the N1 is not hard. I have no idea what he’s talking about.
- The android browser is called “Browser” instead of “Chrome” because it’s not based on Chrome. They could have just as accurately called it Safari. (Of course, that’s changing with the latest release since they added Chrome’s javascript engine) Also: most phone users have never heard of Chrome and wouldn’t know what it was.
- The rollerball (or any directional controls on an android device) is primarily for navigating text more precisely than you could with just the touchscreen. A lot of reviewers seem to miss this… maybe it only becomes clear after a lot of use.

Bill Maher’s material is very hit-or-miss.. he’s often too acerbic for me, but this segment from a few weeks ago was excellent.

(Some language not safe for work or for people who get offended)

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39d1fHRHrM4)

A couple of my favorite quotes from that:
“Our culture isn’t just different from one that makes death threats to cartoonists, it’s better.”

“The western world needs to make it clear: some things about our culture are not negotiable and can’t change. And one of them is freedom of speech. Separation of church and state is another. Women are allowed to work here and you can’t beat them: not negotiable. This is how we roll. This is why our system is better, and if you don’t get that and you still want to kill someone over a stupid cartoon, please make it Garfield.”

When comparing cultures, it can sometimes be very easy to slip in to moral relativism and just accept just about anything (a “peculiar institution”, for example), but it’s important to draw the line somewhere. I think Maher’s list here, though certainly incomplete, is pretty easy to get behind.

“When I was growing up ‘elitism’ was a word sneered from the lips of the Left, now it is sneered from the lips of the Right. The sneering was ugly then and it is ugly now. Knowledge, science, understanding, literacy and curiosity are absolute goods and to hell with anyone who tries to follow that American habit here and attempts to construct a discourse in which only a despised liberal elite are interested in science, the arts, history and ideas. Such wickedness reminds one of those who opposed Education For All at the end of the nineteenth century. All knowledge should be free and available and all people should be encouraged to acquire it. It will not necessarily lead to liberalism, but it will lead to understanding and a desire for openness and decent, non-tribalist exchanges of the kind that can only enrich our democracy.”

(source)

My favorite political ad in a long time. It has everything:
- Excessive, aggressive editing
- Majestic music
- Bickering with opponent about stolen yard signs
- Discussion of opponent’s facebook posts
- Gun that seems to appear out of nowhere (but clearly validates the candidate’s Republican credentials)

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU7fhIO7DG0)