– Went birdwatching this morning. Saw common grebes, wood ducks, mallards, a female belted kingfisher (the females have the brown breastband), and an American goldfinch.
– Almost wiped out on bike due to convergence of SUV, maintenance cart, pothole and me on small area at same time.
– Exam tonight in EMT class. Apparently only two-thirds of the population is allergic to the oil on poison ivy plants.
– Then, Megabus to Chi-town at seven tomorrow morning!
– Did two ambulance ride-alongs for my EMT class. It was fun. Transported a 495-pound heap of woman. Talked to a psych patient who just wanted some love. Transported a baby who had choked but turned out to be fine.
– Got a free road bike from my instructor’s partner. Fuck yeah!
– Got me my vaccinations for India, including Japanese encephalitis, despite the risk of allergy.
This morning I got out of the shower and turned on MPR’s “Midmorning” (a nice morning routine) and heard a very bizzare conversation. The host was interviewing two or three twentysomething Muslim women who live in the Twin Cities and who follow traditional Islam. It was utter relativism on display – the show sounded as if the guests were from a Puritanical era of some sectors of the early United States. Over the course of only half an hour these three young American women revealed that alcohol is to be avoided at all times, they believe homosexuality is unacceptable, that touching between sexes is forbidden to avoid “inappropriate relations,” that they cover up at all times to maintain modesty, that they didn’t go to prom because it is not permitted, that men can marry outside the religion but they cannot (and they think that’s fine); and they went on for a minute or two about how nice it would be to have sex-segregated beaches in Minnesota. It was almost like conservative Christians from the 18th century were on the show!
I say “almost” because if the guests were such time-traveling religgies, then they would be subject to ridicule. Their repugnant beliefs on homosexuality and the “place of the woman” are counter to all of MPR’s past coverage. But somehow these religiously demented Muslims are given a warm discussion of their beliefs without any objection from the host or from the callers, with no perspective on what we’d say if religiously demented Christians were on the show instead. Why?
~Isaac
pseudoisaac 