An Architect's Mysticism

Taipei 101 [picture] is Taiwan's tallest building. It was designed by C Y Lee. Here are some quotations from the English-language page of the architect's website:

A living building is the information space where life can be found.

Life exists within the space.

The information of space is then the information of life.

Space is the body of the building.

The building is therefore the space, the information, and the life.

metaphorically speaking, as they strive to rid the world of 'misogyny'

see previous post and the article and comments section here

a question I emailed to DAG

Hello Mr. Green,

I want to ask you a hypothetical question:

Alongside others, we are chatting into the wee hours at a hotel bar. At 4AM, you and I amble into the elevator, unaccompanied.

I then say to you:

Don't take this the wrong way, but I find you very interesting and I would like to talk more. Would you like to come to my hotel room for coffee?

You issue a brusque No--and I get off the lift, wishing you sweet dreams.

Arriving at your room, you get on the telephone with a trusted friend. Your friend asks if Gavin Sullivan said anything offensive in your presence.

Your reply?

peace,

Gavin Sullivan
Eden Prairie

Click on this link and scroll to 4:30 for her description

**

{Rebecca Watson - Wikipedia entry}

Sorry, Monsieur Strauss-Kahn

[a snippet from an email I sent to a friend, informing him of my updated viewpoint concerning DSK]

I haven't read MoDo on DSK, but we gringos would appear to have a bit of fessin' up to do. I mean, we were congratulating ourselves at how 'the stereotype had been reversed' and the worldly French were in fact sexist neanderthals while we had taken sincere interest in female plight, etc.--and then we learned that she's a person who has a history of fabricating rape claims and may even have been a hotel prostitute [and let's cut the sheet: that does damage her credibility]. We are dishonest with ourselves if we say 'maybe she's a fraud and he did it anyway'. I mean, if there is evidence that M. Strauss-Kahn raped the woman, independent of her own unreliable testimony, I am happy that it be reviewed. But if there is no evidence for such an interpretation, then he should be released and we should wish him good day, and make clear no aspersion should be drawn from his detainment.

***

7/19/11 update:

Okay...so the hooker reports appear also to be unreliable. My main point remains: If there is evidence of a crime, charge him. If there is no evidence of a crime, then close the books. The accuser's credibility has to be of considerable importance. We further note that our recent Jeff-Feckeish practice of taking stands on criminal prosecutions prior to their adjudication hasn't proved fruitful.

If you're willing to serve as one of the volunteer readers, an RSVP-email would be much-appreciated--though not required:

gavin6@gmail.com

No--the event is not church-sponsored

Rutgers Law School confirms Zerlina Maxwell is a student in the class of 2013. Her claim to have matriculated in 2008 and to have taken only one short break along the way remains unexplained--and prompted my curiosity.

Zerlina Maxwell links

http://facebook.com/ZerlinaM

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/zerlina-maxwell/11/b7b/945

http://twitter.com/#!/zerlinamaxwell

http://www.netrootsnation.org/node/1710

http://www.netrootsnation.org/speakers?uid=18069

http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/2010/07/16/domestic_violence

http://theloop21.com/users/zerlina-l-maxwell

[main blogpost]

Big Deal on Madonna Street - "I soliti ignoti" - 1958

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Deal_on_Madonna_Street

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052216/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhTR_Ng2DKg

used not in the phony, Jeff Feckian sense--but seriously

In late April 2011, Kelly Pieklo commented on my blog.

I responded briefly here and more lengthily here.

Several Documents

1. Jeff Fecke's Open Letter to Gavin Sullivan

2. My response to Fecke's Open Letter

with one conceivable exception, later noted

 

It Was Frightening

eclipsing Hegemommy's--briefly--in its mindless fanaticism

irrelevantly--

and somewhat funnily--I rarely see Wikipedia this bad:

Helen and Sam did the best they could do to promote a sense of togetherness in the family, and they made sure their children to had a chance to participate in the some sorts of things as they did as kids

My Encounter With YCRBYCH

YCRBYCH, a set on Flickr.

Jeff Fecke on the Web

http://twitter.com/#!/jkfecke

http://moderateleft.com/

http://fecke.tumblr.com/

Dear Elizabeth:

In October 1984 I harmed you. I can scarcely begin to understand the degree to which, in your eyes, my behaviour has affected you in its wake. Still, I stand prepared to hear from you about just how, and in what ways you've been affected; and to begin to set right the wrong I've done, in any way you see fit. Most sincerely yours, Will Beebe

In this post I will assume the reader has read Dear Rapist… in full.

Perhaps one of the reasons the White House only now did the reveal on the president’s birth certificate was to allow enough time for these people to more deeply invest in this idiotic talking point.

We--Fecke and Pieklo's readers--have to pretend it's nothing but a coincidence that their moral assessments operate in lockstep with their political priorities. You're not allowed to say that's weird.

The Pieklo-Fecke ur-value

"Others are required to take our moralistic and character judgements at face value."

http://www.swmetroteaparty.com/

As I mind-read the crowd, I think a portion here might claim the group to be non-religious--but one cannot seriously assert this: I've heard two impassioned Jesus-Christ peons in a row--with apparent 100% participation. If you want your group to be credibly non-religious, you would need to send an open message to meeting participants: We will not engage in group prayer specific to any one religion, from this moment forward.

Rep. Jenifer Loon, similarly, often addresses the public as families--a formulation against which citizens would, in a more perfect union, push back [as the 'unwitting' quality of its dissing-the-unfamilyed looks nakedly insincere].

Jeff Fecke's post--cached here, said:

Crazy Cold Way Down There

By Jeff Fecke | March 31, 2011

I don’t even know what to say about this. I’m going to have to write something. But the level of evil here is breathtaking:

On December 23, 2010, [Bei Bei] Shuai, a 34-year-old pregnant woman who was suffering from a major depressive disorder, attempted to take her own life. Friends found her in time and persuaded her to get help. Six days later, Shuai underwent cesarean surgery and delivered a premature newborn girl who, tragically, died four days later.

On March 14, 2011, Shuai was arrested, jailed, and charged with murder and attempted feticide. Had Shuai, who is being represented by National Advocates for Pregnant Women and local attorneys, not been pregnant when she attempted suicide, she would not have been charged with any crime at all.

As someone who’s suffered depression and attempted suicide, I can tell you that this is as profoundly evil as anything I can imagine.

I’m gonna go eat, and cry about where this country is heading these days. For your listening enjoyment, the incomparable Laura Nyro.

Prof. Jessica Pieklo on the web

http://twitter.com/Hegemommy

http://www.hegemommy.com/

http://www.care2.com/causes/author/jessmasonp/

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/womenontheverge

http://womenontheverge.net/m/news/view/-Member-Spotlight-hegemommy-

http://law.hamline.edu/Newssummary.aspx?id=1536&terms=pieklo

Prof. Pieklo has acknowledged suffering from depression--the same psychiatric malady, she has said, which took her mother's life.

See:

http://twitter.com/Hegemommy/status/55069859855351808

Here is a screenshot of Prof. Pieklo's deleted tweet:

Here is Prof. Pieklo's tweet in text form:

Hegemommy: MT @completelydark: Standing w/ @johnmoe on depression. It took my Mom & it came standard w/my brain kit too// same here

upon her words

munchkin

even one of ultra-humble munchkinhood

protecting that individual's identity--I select a gendered pronoun at random

to hop onto the rhetorical bandwagon

My idiosyncratic sampling of the local hyperpartisan leftosphere...

Jessica Pieklo and here
http://twitter.com/hegemommy/

Jeff Fecke
http://twitter.com/jkfecke/

Robin Marty
http://twitter.com/robinmarty/

Jeff Rosenberg
http://twitter.com/jeffrosenberg/

for public employees, in the present context

your cunning linguist ironically blends meanings 2a and 2b.

put another way, Christians traditionally have loved Jesus in part because He relieved them of the guilt they would otherwise bear. In contemplating their debt to Christ, Christians have traditionally pondered their utter abjection in His hypothetical absence--so to speak.

and I'm a Mass-attending Catholic atheist, as I think y'all are aware

I share the Megan McArdle-Will Wilkinson skepticism, on the public employee unions.

"I can tell you that Gavin’s actions toward Jessica should make him a pariah"

I have never once in my life stalked anyone--and am incensed by Fecke's oafish indolence, in lobbing his various ungentlemanly, moronic charges.

In his astoundingly stupid attack piece, Fecke says I 'published' Prof. Pieklo's course syllabus.

This is inaccurate: Prof. Pieklo--or Hamline--published it.

I make no apology for referring readers to relevant, on-point publicly-available information--and consider it absurd for Fecke to seek to stigmatize the discussion of publicly-available information.

In my blogpost I was asking Fecke to contact Prof. Pieklo--to condemn her for her irresponsible charge. The only reason I linked to Prof. Pieklo's syllabus was to provide Fecke with Pieklo's contact email address.

Fecke claims to see my inner motivation for linking to Pieklo's publication: To force her into a conversation with me against her will. (Huh?)

Prof. Pieklo has directed strong accusations against me: It is true that I believe people lobbing strong charges should defend them, that much is true, though I can't see how linking to her syllabus would matter--or constitute 'putting pressure' on Pieklo.

**

For clarity, my paragraphs above respond to Fecke's statement here:

But when you start publishing Jessica’s course syllabus online in an effort to force her into a conversation that you want to have — and that she has made clear that she doesn’t — you’re crossing the line from troll to stalker. That is, yes, misogynist, dear Gavin. (If you can’t understand why pointing out the employer of a woman is not just misogynist, but McCarthyite, my point is proven more.) And it makes you someone I have absolutely, positively no interest in ever hearing from or dealing with again.

In other words, Fecke clearly knows zilch about his blogpost's subject. (To put forth one example: Few right-wing blogs supported John Marty for Governor--and then supported Margaret Anderson Kelliher in the primary!)

I'm not complaining of being ignored, of course--I'm complaining about her evidence-free suggestion that my criticism of her public statements constitutes misogyny.

Hamline Law syllabi are published here--and, as Jeff Fecke should have been aware--not published by me.

(When I publish stuff the URL isn't going to be law.hamline.edu!)

Fecke stupidly implies that calling attention to Pieklo's publications constitutes abuse. Pshaw!

in this instance, meaning Jeff Rosenberg

Better here

i.e. illegitimate participants within the marketplace of ideas, people whose chirping needn't be acknowledged

Which is simply to acknowledge, of other participants, that their community involvement is welcome and that they are not viewed as morally substandard.

No admiration is required. Note also that this principle--making our 'default setting' to acknowledge the good citizenship of our neighbors--has an entirely respectable pedigree and isn't in fact weird, as Pieklo, Fecke and Rosenberg all implicitly assert.

finding a person or an idea which doesn't meet your criteria and then bashing them for it

and hence, I have argued that Jeff Fecke and Jessica Pieklo garner more community esteem than they should

munchkin-level

[speaking of myself, at least]

perhaps not coincidentally--on the same Care2 website where local feminists Prof. Pieklo and Robin Marty appear

until I'm finished with this first point, that is

Pieklo has made the assertion repeatedly--here and here, for example.

I have responded by returning Pieklo's charge of dishonor--though unlike the Hamline professor, I feel obligated to present my case to a candid suburb--that's why I've stated my criticisms of her plainly, for all to review. At no point could I ask the public to accept my accusation sight-unseen--in Prof. Pieklo's preferred manner.

or 'two dozen assertions'--size matters not

Jared Loughner's posting, quoted:

Why Rape?

…there are Rape victims that are under the influence of a substance. The drinking is leading them to rape. The loneliness will bring you to depression. Being alone for a very long time will inevitably lead you to rape.

[source]

within his own blog's comments section

within his own blog's comments section

I'm happy to clarify, should anything here be confusing or insufficiently argued, assuming you've read my previous Pieklo-related posts.

Feel free to email. If not-for-publication, please put NFP in the subject line and I will respect it, whether from friend or foe.

Should any person emerge willing to take Prof. Pieklo's side--in epistolary dialogue--I will happily accept.

cleaned up a bit here--see Phoenix Woman for earlier, messier edit

**

Caveat: I have since learned that the Mercury Rising blog suffers from execrable ethics--and will rewrite reader comments so as to deceive readers and defame forum participants. Comments appearing under my name, at Mercury Rising, may not be of my authorship.

Learn more at facebook - Search for

women on the verge

She has an introductory video on her group's main page, there.

See http://womenontheverge.net/blogs/entry/Done-Being-Quiet

If she edited it, alas--I guess I failed to get a screen-capture. In any case: What would happen if a male Hamline professor participated in a tiny online political community in which his closest associate gaily suggested genital mutilation--as punishment to polite critics? That professor would be unemployed within 24 hours. Prof. Pieklo does same--and receives not a peep of criticism. I object.

me

as Pieklo has been saying--with obvious reference to me--on Twitter, on her blogs and on her 'national' radio program

despite self-delusion's frequent temptations, toward which one also seeks dynamic confrontation

Women on the Verge Radio Program

This is today's episode [scroll to 20:43 for Prof. Pieklo's pity party] of what is billed a national [internet] radio program.

Prof. Jessica Pieklo appears on the program, apparently, as a regular panelist, within the attempted more-feminist-than-The View format.

This is the shows main website.

oops - his head was already shaved at the time of the outrage

Loughner does not appear to have had any coherent partisan motivation, though it seems plausibly non-coincidental that the event occurred in Arizona, the nation's most gun-crazed state.

While his ideology appears incoherent, Sarah Palin certainly used the wrong word in calling him apolitical. (One can have unhinged views which are nonetheless political, i.e.) It appears to me, Walter, that your posting on this topic might be accomplished with greater brevity--and quite non-controversially: "Tea Partiers don't deserve blame for the shooting." (In this we agree.)

Sarah Palin has put forward the formulation that--to paraphrase--'the criminal alone is responsible', and no one else should be called out. Like you, I reject blaming anyone baselessly--though I'm a bit hesitant to categorically rule out, say, Arizona's fanatical gun culture, as having played some role. Let me put the question another way--so that you can help dispel my confusion:

What if a politically-active liberal Democrat committed a similar act, and the victim was a conservative Republican? Would you actually respond by saying 'Democrats--and the Dem Party--should be held blameless in the crime?'

Affiliational groups, whether voluntary or involuntary, are funny things. Most of us accept it as reasonable that the dishonorable conduct of our family members somehow reflects upon our own reputation--and their successes seem to justifiably elevate our own status.

Other affiliational groupings also have this same oddity--which has the socially-beneficial effect of making us all intensely concerned with the thoughts and behaviors of our teammates.

among Catholics, during homilies

among American Catholics

and on a bad day i might ask you to tell the story as lengthily as possible

To be both redundant and to say the same thing twice.

well, that is a bit sanctimonious, I will now admit

alleged

yes--of course I am asserting a personal conjecture

to sketch a political cartoon with words

a reasonable person might surmise from reports

the moderate-progressive, thus far victorious faction--supporters of Superintendent Melissa Krull

that came to a head with the school board's decision to adopt a wide-ranging educational restructuring

ranked spiritually

Eden Prairie School Board Accountability

You can find it, gentle reader:

The Facebook group is:

Eden Prairie School Board Accountability

a label selected solely for its predicted ability to amuse Sheila Kihne