Where in the World?

Listening to: Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode

Mood: Happy

Today is not the day that I discovered Blogger’s stat features. I have been occasionally throwing an eye around there for quite some time. 

As of late, this has especially fascinated me. I’ve found out that I have readers from Latvia (!), Malaysia, Iran, Russia, Romania (!!), Slovenia (seriously?!), Turkey, China, The Netherlands (holla back Dutch folks!), France, Nepal (!), Ukraine, Brazil, and Laos (again, really?!)

All I can say is wow folks. I appreciate every single last one of you. Please, please, please come back often. I’ll do my best to continue providing you with entertaining reading. I also love comments, so let ‘em fly people. There are convenient following options also if you want me all up in your email inbox or RSS feeder. All of my goodness delivered to your (virtual) doorstep. The email following instructions are on the left, the RSS subscription at the bottom of the page.

I have some options for those who want to read something different. I regularly keep 6 blogs. Some get written in more than others, but the content is all different. Check out the links below for more of my content.

Politics: While I don’t get around to blogging here nearly enough to suit my taste – I feel that some of these articles are my best. Since I grew up in the US, but live in India, both will be included:

http://becky-politicalrants.blogspot.in/

My take on a mommy blog:

http://guardingthecouches.blogspot.in/

Life in India – good fun with pictures:

http://followingthemasala.blogspot.in/

My main blog with life musings:

http://beckyispassingthrough.blogspot.in/

For all things related to marriage and all of its tomfoolery (there may be posts about sex, you’ve been warned):

http://beckysballandchain.blogspot.in/

Thanks for reading!

Becky

From the Archives: What We say Goes – Conversations on US power in a Changing World - Noam Chomsky.

A caveat about this archive - this was a long time ago, I'm not sure I'm still so excited about Chomsky. Agree with him, hell yes, but not quite so big of a fan.

 

 

Listening To: Scooby Do

Mood: Happy

Rolling the book train right along, I’d like to move on to some Chomsky. I have recently become a huge fan of Noam Chomsky’s political commentaries. This book did not disappoint. Chomsky does a fantastic job of examining the power structure and government in the United States and how it affects worldwide relations without resorting to bitterness or cynicism. Chomsky always has a way of encouraging people to use their own heads and examine the reality of things rather than just accepting how they are. I love reading interviews with Chomsky because he calls things how he sees them, even with the person interviewing him. If he doesn’t agree, he politely, but firmly, disagrees. Right then and there. He takes on most of the important issues of today.

Verdict: I love Chomsky. If you need any type of perspective on the US and the world today, this is a great place to start. If you have any illusions on how the US works in relation to the rest of the world, Chomsky will relieve you of them. Read it!

 

Becky

From the Archives: I am America (And so can You!) - Steven Colbert

Listening to: Still more Scooby Do

Mood: Happy

So I’m a big fan of Mr. Steven Colbert. In fact, I’ve been going through withdrawal symptoms lately with the writers’ strike, but that’s a different blog altogether. He made a big deal out of the book that he wrote and endlessly (and indeed shamelessly) plugged his book on his show, so I decided to pick it up at the library when I saw it. Mr. Colbert, I know I am not a true patriot because I use libraries. Sorry about that, but that’s how I roll.

I was a bit disappointed by this book. Steven wrote the book with a whole list of other people. He added his style, viral name, and image to the book, but I was left wondering how much he actually wrote.  It’s a bit heavy on Steven’s style, and borrows a lot from his show. It’s also a little fragmented if you read all of the side notes in with the text, like I did.  I know most of us don't look to Mr. Colbert for brain science expertise, but still. This book is just fine if you want a shot of humor and irony, ala Steven Colbert, but don’t expect him to say anything different from what you’ve heard on his show.

Becky

From the Archives: God is not Great - Christopher Hutchins

Mood: Content   

Listening to: Scooby Do

In the interest of returning to some-what rational posts rather than just emotionaly driven ones, I decided to blog on a couple books I have been reading for the past few weeks.

As you may or may not know, I'm an atheist. I have been for a few years now. However, I was brought up in a decently traditional Dutch reformed Christian family. I had seen Christopher Hutchins previously on Jon Stewart hawking his book and have been wanting to read it ever since.

This book was interesting for a few reasons. As an atheist, I am often puzzled at the motivation that people have for so staunchly sticking to their religions. This book investigated it in detail. While the title indicates an attack on "God", Hutchins pretty much skewers organized religions (mostly western, but also eastern) as well. He brings up some very interesting points for those who are familiar with religion, the bible, the Quran, and the Talmud. He examines how religion has influenced society and the power structure.

On a negative note, Hutchins is negative to the point of being vitriolic. He comes off as both defensive and scornful of anything at all relgious. He even goes after Mother Theresa, Ghandi, and the Dalai Lama. It's a little hard to read past the scorn to the logical rebuttals of religions and God at times.

Over all, I found the book very interesting and logical, even if he was a little angry about it in the process. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you are already an atheist. Even if you are, you will probably still find it a little offensive. I found the attacks on Mother Theresa, Ghandi, and the Dalai Lama a little much. I'm all for the dissection of organized religion and a patriarchal, power hungry god. Not so much for people who have done a great deal for humanity and happen to be associated with a religion. As Hutchins himself mentions, good deeds are not intrinsically tied to religion. It's possible to separate the people and the deeds from the religions they represented.

Verdict: Read it if you're an atheist and want to examine the need for religion in the masses and all the negative influences that religion and god have had on society. Keep and open mind and try to see past the negativity.

Happy New Year to everyone. May you continue to find happiness.
Have a good week.
Becky

From the Archives: Ghetto Nation - Cora Daniels

I'm starting a new series here. The Archives are blog posts that I wrote while I was still blogging in Yahoo 360. Those were the good old days! Anyway, enjoy.

Listening to: Kuch Tu Hua Hai – Kal Ho Na Ho Sound Track

Mood: Tired

I recently finished reading a book that caught my eye at my local library titled Ghetto Nation.  This book caught my eye because I am always trying to understand the sociological motivations behind some of the actions of different kinds of people. I grew up in a largely white suburb about an hour south of Chicago. My town was right next to Kankakee Illinois, which happens to be a very low income area, and dangerous in some places. I was pretty well insulated from some of these realities when I was little. When I turned 19, I moved out of my mom’s house and into Kankakee, because that was what I could afford working at a Subway restaurant. This was right about the time when hip hop and rap exploded onto the popular music scene. I got a full on lesson in “ghetto-oligy”, and fell head long into being ghetto myself.  I have to admit, I picked up this book because I knew that on some level I would identify with much of what the author was saying. I have long since moved out of the ghetto of Kankakee. I have lost any and all street cred that I had and have moved on to a different lifestyle. I no longer identify with this as strongly as I used to. It always did, and indeed still does, puzzle me why certain economic classes choose to spend their money in certain manner and make decisions in a certain way.

The author makes some very good points in this book. Our culture has moved towards a ghetto state of mind and being ghetto stretches across all class lines and distinctions. I did feel that this book was a little broad though and had a few agendas that weren’t true to the title. The author happens to be a black woman from Brooklyn. I felt that while she was pushing the point about ghetto being a national problem, or stretching across economical lines, she overly focused on the black demographic of ghetto people. Perhaps it was just what she identified with most strongly, but with ghetto being a national problem, it goes WAY beyond that. I found it hard as a ghetto white girl to identify with her definition of ghetto.  I also felt that the author missed a lot of what developed the ghetto mentality, instead choosing to focus on bad parenting factors and insufficient schooling as a major cause. I feel that the causes, and indeed effects, of ghetto thinking reach way beyond what the author has covered. I also felt that if you hadn’t spent some time in a truly ghetto place, you would miss many of the references the author uses and miss why she things ghettoness is such a problem. Which I totally agree with by the way.  I thought the author had a hard time deciding whether she was ghetto or not and how proud to be that she was or wasn’t. This was kind of a main point of the book, but how can you tout the evils of ghettoness when you can’t decide if you are or aren’t? And are proud of how much you are or aren’t?

Verdict: If you are interested in the ghetto culture that seems to be taking over the country, you will probably enjoy this book. It really helps to have an inside understanding of true ghetto culture (Meaning you aren’t a white person from a small Midwestern town. I don’t care what you think, you just don’t really get it). 

Becky