short takes

[cellio]

Prior to receiving an invitation to one I had not heard the word "webinar", but I instantly understood what it meant. That's a good sign in new vocabulary. (Contrast with, for example, "blog".) Not that I'm eager to start talking about webinars (let alone holding them), but still.

This week's episode of 24 included a PSA saying, essentially, "not all muslims are terrorists". Well duh. If the show were one of those fake documentaries I could see something like that, but doesn't everyone understand that 24 is fiction? And anyway, it looks like that's going to become very, very obvious next week, unless the previews are very misleading.

Someone posted "flushing 101" posters in the restrooms at work. I first saw the poster in a stall where the previous occupant had not flushed. I hope that wasn't the person who posted the sign.

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Flushing 101

Important Guides To Living (http://homepage.mac.com/metahacker/igtl/roll/), volume 2. I'm tempted to post this in paper form every so often.

[sekhmets-song.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw that PSA while doing my workout this morning (24 is the perfect work out accompaniment: It even has a timer to let you know how far along you are). I nearly dropped a weight on my foot. How dumb do you have to be to not be able to tell the difference between a Fox program and reality (funny how that sometimes can apply to FoxNews, too)?
I have heard that there had been some complaints about choosing Muslims as terrorist for the show earlier in the season. Problem is that, right now, showing arabic (or Muslim) terrorists is like showing Russian spies in the '80s. It is the cultural reference point that we, the American audience share at the moment. I should hope this doesn't mean that that same American audience is going to assume that all arabs are terrorists. But, what were the producers going to do, make the terrorists Canadian? We'd all have trouble with that suspension of disbelief thing, in that case.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

The PSAs are part of the agreement settled on between the American Muslim Committee and Fox. The AMC complained because the series is showing what appears to be an integrated Muslim family who turn out to be terrorists.

As for people being smart enough to tell the difference between fact and fiction, well, a lot of Americans do take their impressions from the overall culture.

[amergina.livejournal.com]

There are two articles on Muslim Wakeup (http://muslimwakeup.com/) (a progressive Muslim site) about 24, today.

I don't assume people have brains, until they show that they do. There's plenty of group-think in America...