Stuff in the news:

This is a Thing Worth Saying: Race hate is more than sticks and stones - with interesting meditation on the way 'free speech' is used to ensure the freedom of the majority to speak against the minority, and rarely the other way around.

On the other hand, there's this, in which a bunch of religious leaders from assorted faiths get together to speak out against anti-vilification laws. Apparently hate speech is only a problem if it directly incites violence. Because, y'know, having people treat you like a terrorist on the street is only a problem if they decide to beat you up for it. And obviously it's not a problem if, say, your application to build a school is repeatedly knocked back because people think you're obviously trying to train terrorists. It's not VIOLENCE, so it's clearly not dangerous.

... The strange thing about it is that several non-Judeao Christian religious leaders are also represented on the anti-villification panel. I suppose they're weighing up the grudging protection anti-vilification laws might provide against the knowledge that what *they* say is far more closely scrutinised than the words of any Christian leader. The number of people wanting Sheik Hilaly forcibly shut up far exceeds the numbers of people defending his right to free, if distasteful speech. Would there be the same outcry if the it were a protestant minister denouncing muslim women? I doubt it.

Speaking of which, exerpt from a submission by christian ministers to the council hearing at Camden [from the SMH]:

"Camden is increasingly becoming a multicultural community, but when one part of the community seeks to dominate the public space, as we have seen in Auburn, Bankstown, Lakemba and more recently Liverpool, the social impact is unacceptable," says the letter, which was read at the Quranic Society's appeal to the Land and Environment Court yesterday.

I don't have my RaceFail tabs with me, or I'd quote someone's eloquent analysis and draw comparisons, instead of just pointing and going BAD. But instead: *points and says "BAD"* It's a freaking school, people. Churches build them all the time!
Looks to me like one part of the community sure is seeking to dominate [keep dominating] public space, and it's not the Quranic Society...

ETA: And this is why I love the Uniting Church...

Today is a *special* day...

The kind of day in which I bought a copy of The Big Issue, because it had Viggo on the cover, and was idly flipping through it in the lift while two men had a conversation behind me.

The lift stopped at my floor and the doors opened. Inclining my head toward the button panel, while still reading, I said absently 'Thank you...' and got out.

Then realising what I'd done, I started giggling to myself, while the doors were still closing. I am now the girl who talks to elevators!

An offering at the Shrine of Web 2.0

Let us all take a moment to appreciate the awesomeness of the Intertubes, for they bring me the best People.

Exhibit A: niamh_sage. Careful calculation reveals that Niamh is now the oldest friend with whom I am in both regular and frequent contact (older IRL friends exist, but I tend to speak to them sporadically. Doesn't make them better or worse friends, but there you go). I have definitely known her for five years, and it could be up to seven, depending on how you define 'known' when you're both drifting around message boards.

[Now is as good a time as any to mention my failed attempt at Doing A Nice Thing For Cami (and Arni and Emrys): I tried to have a scrapbook circulated between RBers across the globe shortly before Emrys' birth, and it was supposed to arrive when he was a couple of months old with well-wishes. Only it got hidden about four times by Australia Post and then disappeared somewhere and by that time it was so late I gave up, and actually my feeling awful about having dragged people into this failed Plan is one of the reasons I didn't keep putting the energy into RB. BUT the point of fthis is that I tried to do something Nice! And, er, failed. But whatever.]

I remember, whenever it was that I actually started talking to Cami regularly on RB, feeling rather honoured because she was one of the Grown Ups and most of the rest of the commenters on my poetry thread were all teenagers like myself. In 2005 came LJ, and I think I was still feeling rather honoured by the fact that this Grown Up was commenting on my life and I was allowed to comment on hers... at some point I realised that Cami never actually grew up, and promptly dropped my delusions in that regard :P. I must still have some modicum of respect for her, though, since at odd intervals she's required to perform duty as The Person Of Whom You Ask Questions Which You Can't Ask Your Mother (no, not THOSE questions, that's what Trojie and Pads are for. The other ones, the Meaningful Life Questions). She bears up well under this onerous and sometimes strange task.

I have known Cami for at least five years, never laid eyes on her, and am not sick of her yet. This is more than you can say for many RL people. Let us have three cheers for the Intertubes!