What a nightmare!

Minneapolis. Jeez.

As disasters go (and I'm sure if anyone actually read this, I'd start catching flak [by the way, newsies, "flak" is airborne shrapnel or excessive criticism, a "flack" is a hapless spokesperson for a celebrity] for my excessive pragmatism), the death toll is surprisingly low. It'll definitely be more than 4 by the time it's all said and done, but honestly, it could have been far worse.

As for the whys and wherefores, those will come out on their own, and there's no point in me speculating. I will say that I'm surprised by the number of quotes that go along this line: "It's just unthinkable that something this massive could fall down." Uhhhh. No. It's not unthinkable. Many engineers train for years thinking about that very question, and how to make it very unlikely, but it's still possible. Maybe, having gone to an engineering school, I'm more open to the possibility. When I was in college, the 1981 Hyatt Regency skywalk collapse (billed here as the largest U.S. structural failure) and the 1986 Challenger explosion were big engineering failures that still quieted a room when they came up. The public kind of forgets (it's interesting...this collapse has more in common with the Hyatt than 9/11, yet everyone's rushing to make the 9/11 comparisons), but I think that's becuase by and large, engineers are damned good at their jobs. Mistakes happen, materials fail, and sometimes, you don't catch them in time. This will get (more) politicized, and there will be (more) finger-pointing, and there will even be conspiracy nutjobs claiming that George W. Bush personally melted the bridge supports with a beam from space.

But it doesn't change the fact that at some point in the not-too-distant future, one of my recurring nightmares will probably haunt me. It's the one where I'm driving, with family or friends (sometimes in my underwear, just to add a little extra kick to the horror) usually to some incredibly distant place or over some incredibly difficult terrain, and the vehicle I'm driving plunges off of a bridge. Sometimes the bridge is incomplete, sometime it's in the process of being repaired and the remaining surface is ridiculously inadequate for my car, or what have you, but in the end, there's always that pitching-forward-falling-toward-the-water feeling.

Thank God I always wake up before that one finishes. My heart and prayers go out to the people who had to go through that in reality this week, and to their families...particularly the ones who won't be waking up again.

Kowtowing to Muslim sensibilities

I'm in no way a Gwen Stefani fan, but this article caught my eye, particular coming a day after reading this article by Christopher Hitchens. I find myself agreeing with Hitchens. Why should we worry about offending these folks? Your gods (God, Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, or Flying Spaghetti Monster) and prophets are sacred to you, not necessarily to me. I was raised Christian (Catholic, actually), but I like to feel that I retain my sense of humor. Ralphie May does a hilarious comedy bit about Jesus and marijuana, and I laugh every time I hear it. But then, I can distinguish between humor and hate. Many fundamental (insert religion here)'s seem to have had a humorectomy. Or worse, they're just hypocrites. It's always interesting to turn the hidden video onto the supposedly "devout". My dad was raised Southern Baptist in Tennessee (he converted to Catholic when he married my mom). He always told me that the Baptist kids did everything that the non-Baptist kids did...they just hid it better.

Now, I'll grant that for her own safety, Ms. Stefani should probably refrain from doing anything that will get her arrested in a foreign country. But really, if the downside is that people won't come to her show, who cares? Okay, plenty of people with a financial interest in the show may care, but in the end, the reason a Gwen Stefani show would play (and sell tickets) in Malaysia is because she's Gwen-freakin'-Stefani! She's exporting the particular look and sound of a specific part of American culture. To change her show to avoid pissing off people who are likely enjoined from listening to her music anyway is just stupid.

Put another way, Ms. Stefani is directly aiding those who would decide what Malaysians may enjoy and what Malaysians may see. If it were Fort Wayne, IN instead of Kuala Lumpur, would she cave?

Now, before you get the idea that I'm one of those who wants to be able to yell "Fuck!" in a preschool, I am not. There should be certain standards for public behavior and decency. By public, I mean freely and openly available. Cable is not public. Satellite radio is not public (unless you're blasting it out your windows while you go through the McDonald's drive-thru). A concert that you have to pay admission to is not public. If you drag your children to an R-rated movie, or to a Gwen Stefani concert, you have no leg to stand on. Part of adhering to a moral code is to deny yourself access to those voluntary parts of the greater society which do not subscribe to your morals. If you choose to view them, and then choose to become offended, I have ZERO sympathy for you or your cause.