Currently Reading: _The Origin of Satan_ by Elaine Pagels

Oh, this is a fascinating book, laying out the evolution over time in the course of multiple gospels (each written later and later from the events they described) of the rhetoric used in deflecting blame for the Crucifixion from Rome to Jews in a region suffering from a Jewish rebellion against Rome, where there were political reasons for wanting such deflection, and the concurrent development of the idea of 'satan', of Hebrew origin, from an angel placed by God as an obstacle to someone, to an adversary of God's.

Genuinely fascinating.  I really like Elaine Pagels' writing, I felt the same way about her book _The Gnostic Gospels_, which I read a few years ago.

Now, I'm not a scholar of Christianity, so I don't know how much about the timeline of writing the gospels is taught to the typical Christian, but I had always assumed that the gospels were stories of people with first-person experience, so I tend to be astounded over the fact that that isn't true.

I'm not done yet, but I just had to stop and write about it anyway.

Various and Sundry

My brief for an appellate case before the First Circuit Court of Appeals is due in about 5 weeks. Yikes!

My Legal Research & Writing II class has started.  This is my fifth year teaching legal research & writing here, and every year I notice how I bring my own legal writing game up a notch during this semester-long course.  Every time.  I think possibly the most important lesson I have to teach as a (legal) writer is: be self-aware.  If you're not self-aware, you can never improve.

My article for the New England Law Review on immigration implications of the Supreme Court's decision overturning the Defense of Marriage Act is still in the editorial process.

My short story "District Court Station" - conceived of while on the air with Jordan Rich of WBZ Radio several years ago - is awaiting its fate at Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.  We shall see if they pick it up!

"Rewarding Mediocrity", the Fox News Way

Some idiot opined on Fox News recently (thank you Crooks & Liars for watching it for me) that raising the minimum wage rewards mediocrity.

Mediocrity is a very American term, don't you think? It expresses disapproval for being adequate, or ordinary. I consider it very American because it encapsulates the American Dream, of excelling from humble origins - basically, becoming extraordinary from ordinary stuff - via hard work and gumption, by sneering at those who have "failed" to become extraordinary.

Newsflash: most of us are ordinary ('of no special interest or quality, commonplace'). In order for there to be uncommon, of special quality, more than adequate, there must also be common. Ordinary. Adequate. Mediocre.

Minimum wage is a protection for the average, ordinary, common, everyday, worker. It's not a reward, it's a guarantee of "enough" to live on. The average worker should not have to work 60+ hour weeks. That's why we have 40-hour work weeks. The average worker should not have to work more than 8 hours a day without additional compensation. That's why we have overtime. The average worker should not have to work a second job on top of their full-time job merely to survive. That's why we have minimum wage. To protect the average worker.

If you, personally, are a special snowflake, more power to you. Statistically speaking: you're not.

Renaissance Woman

The curse of being multi-talented (no false modesty here, neighbors): no matter what you do, someone always says "what a shame you're wasting [some other talent]." Sigh.

Book Review: Cobweb Bride, By Vera Nazarian

Cobweb Bride, By Vera Nazarian

This is the first of the Cobweb Bride Trilogy, by Vera Nazarian, published by Norilana Books. The book gets off to a slow start, I found I wasn't absorbed until over 100 pages in. On at least one occasion I found myself thinking I was reading something better suited to the screen than a novel - there wasn't enough meat to characters' thoughts. More depth would have helped.

Once closer to the climax of this story, things took off, and I felt like characters had depth, and individual meaning.

Very interesting concept, uneven execution. I will read the next in the trilogy, definitely - I do want to know what happens next.

'Recalculating'

An interview with Sylvia Boorstein was rebroadcast on NPR this morning for Mother's Day. She tells this story about observing how no matter how many times she misses her turn, her GPS in her car never gets mad at her. It just says, "recalculating", and keeps giving her new directions. Here's a quote from the interview on NPR's On Being with Krista Tippet:

I've never said it in a public audience, but I just thought about it recently. I decided that — I'll find out soon if this is a good analogy — but I was thinking about the GPS in my car. It never gets annoyed at me. If I make a mistake, it says, "Recalculating." And then it tells me to make the soonest left turn and go back. I thought to myself, you know, I should write a book and call it "Recalculating" because I think that that's what we're doing all the time.

And no matter how many times I don't make that turn, it will continue to say, "Recalculating." The tone of voice will stay the same.

This isn't the first time I've heard this anecdote or a variation of it, and it causes me endless amusement that this persistent 'recalculating' can evoke discussion of infinite kindness or deity.
When I was working at Alpine Electronics Research, we had quite a lot of fun brainstorming (but not inserting) additions to those very GPS systems that would lose their temper at you if you made too many wrong turns!

It doesn't invalidate any of the observations or anything - it's just an anecdote that is a bit different for me than for others.

Book Review: Amity & Sorrow, by Peggy Riley

Damn, this is a good book. Hard to read, in some ways, because it's the story of two girls and their mother, who fled the (literally) burning temple of their cult, ran as far as the mother could take them, and washed up somewhere in Oklahoma. Because the story is told from the inside - the education of the girls doesn't include reading, for example, so clearly their lives and backgrounds are dramatically different from that of the average reader - the story of the history of the cult, the polygamous family that it constituted, unfolds from their perspective, slowly. Hard to read, because they believe so hard, and that belief is fundamentally corrupted at its very heart, and you know it reading from the outside.

Anyway, damn.  Good book. Very good book.

Today's Feminist Commentary

Upon reading I Blame the Patriarchy on Steubenville, I offer what should be, but aren't, Frequently Answered Questions:

Q: What makes a man a rapist?
A: The belief it's OK to visit sex upon a woman without taking her desires into account.

Q: What does patriarchy teach men (and, coincidentally, women)?
A: That men's desires to visit sex upon a woman are the only desires that matter.

Cool! "Science for Adults"

Otona no Kagaku (Science for Adults) is a magazine + science project line popular in Japan.  I just think it's so darn cool.

http://www.jbox.com/product/GAK036 - gramaphone project.

http://www.jbox.com/product/GAK035 - steam engine project.

http://www.jbox.com/product/GAK003 - robot project.

Sometimes I really wish I lived in Japan.  Not because I'm dying to do one of these projects (although I think any of them would be way cool fun to do), but because American attitudes toward science, math, and technology are so dismissive and generally hateful.  

I always remember how dismissive someone was in one of my college math class "discussion" sections (as opposed to the actual lecture) when I jumped up to work a problem on the board, because I was excited to do it (I also had the wrong solution!), like it was wrong to be excited about math.  It was my major, asshole!  (Double major, physics w/a concentration in astrophysics and mathematics.  And I shouldn't have been made to feel defensive about it, dammit.)

20 years later and I'm still angered by that moment, whether it was shut-me-up b/c math isn't supposed to be cool, or shut-me-up people aren't supposed to be passionate and engaged, or shut-me-up because I am female.  (Not that America has a lock on the latter, to be sure.  I'd sure hate to be pigeonholed as an "office lady" in a Japanese company.)

Anyways, popular science is a wonderful thing.

There are Days

There are days when I am tempted to become a beauty blogger (in part so I can sing the praises of Besame Cosmetics - love their lipsticks and their crimson cream rouge is wonderful, wonderful stuff), but overall I'm sure it would require me to break my cardinal rule of No Photos Online.

You know, I've been online since what, 1991?  And I've managed to keep the number of photos of me down to about 5, and nearly all are professional in one way or another (whether they are about writer Sidra, or lawyer Sidra, or whatever).

Why have I bothered?  Well, plenty of reasons, but first and foremost, I'm a feminist, and when I say "I don't appreciate being policed or having my appearance made a point of argument," what I really mean is "this world is so stupid that we actually gauge the merits of people's ideas based on their looks".  That's like the "I have an owl, your argument is invalid" memes.  And I object so strongly to that idiocy that I will not enable it.

Dying to decide what kind of person I must be based on my looks?  Well, your loss, if you've never met me in person. Consider reading me instead.  Trying to divine my character or capability based on a headshot is stupid.

Over a Month Since a Post

Chalk it up to the flu.

Link of Note: Revival of nearly extinct Yurok language is a success story

Last fall, Eureka High became the fifth and largest school in Northern California to launch a Yurok-language program, marking the latest victory in a Native American language revitalization program widely lauded as the most successful in the state.
At last count, there were more than 300 basic Yurok speakers, 60 with intermediate skills, 37 who are advanced and 17 who are considered conversationally fluent.

This is damn cool.

Otherwise, I've lost 30 pounds and am mostly keeping it off, had my photo taken for professional purposes and didn't immediately hate it (obvious corollary there), and have really enjoyed several books recently, in addition to sending the first few Clockwork Century books by Cherie Priest to my nephew for his birthday which I think HE will enjoy greatly, and...well, I guess that's about it.

Oh, and there's a couple feet of snow out there, but if you've been paying any attention to newscasters in the United States at all, you'd know that already.

Emily Barker - Wallender theme

So, thanks to Wallender w/Kenneth Branagh, I'm now hooked on Emily Barker, and quite thankful for it.  A small selection of her work is available for download on iTunes, enough to call a self-assembled album if you like.  Good stuff.

Now it Feels Like Christmas

The requisite meltdown by young person - overstimulated chemically and experientially - has occurred.

It's been a pleasant Christmas.  I found time to do a little yoga today, which is particularly good since I won't have acupuncture this week.  I could feel myself calming and becoming more centered during certain poses.  Bonus - worked kinks out from sleeping on foldout couch!

And now, some work.

10 Arguments Gun Advocates Make

Ten Arguments Gun Advocates Make, and Why They're Wrong

As an attorney, the one that catches my attention the most is the following:

6. The Constitution says I have a right to own guns.
Yes it does, but for some reason gun advocates think that the right to bear arms is the only constitutional right that is virtually without limit. You have the right to practice your religion, but not if your religion involves human sacrifice. You have the right to free speech, but you can still be prosecuted for incitement or conspiracy, and you can be sued for libel. Every right is subject to limitation when it begins to threaten others, and the Supreme Court has affirmed that even though there is an individual right to gun ownership, the government can put reasonable restrictions on that right.
And we all know that if this shooter turns out to have a Muslim name, plenty of Americans, including plenty of gun owners, will be more than happy to give up all kinds of rights in the name of fighting terrorism. Have the government read my email? Have my cell phone company turn over my call records? Check which books I'm taking out of the library? Make me take my shoes off before getting on a plane, just because some idiot tried to blow up his sneakers? Sure, do what you've got to do. But don't make it harder to buy thousands of rounds of ammunition, because if we couldn't do that we'd no longer be free.

Aside from the sarcasm towards the end, it's a really valid point.

Snow in D.C.!

It's snowing right now - so, a little White Christmas, which is always nice.

For everyone else travelling as this year draws to a close, here is Frigga's blessing for Odin:  Unharmed go forth, unharmed return, unharmed safe home.