Advice the Japanese give their own countrymen on how to handle the peculiarities of American culture.
“NOBODY IS IMPRESSED BY HOW MUCH YOU CAN DRINK. IN FACT, SHAME ON YOU. THEY HAVE FREE TIME ALL WEEK LONG! THEIR VENDING MACHINES ARE RIDICULOUSLY LIMITED AND DISHONEST. THEY TEND TO HORSE LAUGH, EVEN THE WOMEN. BUT DARN IT ALL, THEY’RE SO WEIRDLY OPTIMISTIC YOU JUST CAN’T STAY IRRITATED AT THEM.”
This is hilarious!! Oh man, Japan’s gonna be great.
“Male privilege is “I have a boyfriend” being the only thing that can actually stop someone from hitting on you because they respect another male-bodied person more than they respect your rejection/lack of interest.”
“This amazingly puts into one sentence what I have been attempting to explain to ex-boyfriends and friends (male and female) for years, mostly unsuccessfully. The idea that a woman should only be left alone if she is “taken” or “spoken for” (terms that make my brain twitch) completely removes the level of respect that should be expected toward that woman.”
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Great article. Men are not entitled to grab/touch/creep/assume as they please just because you are single, and I don’t want to mislead them into thinking that the only reason I am not welcoming their advances is because I am married. “No thanks” means “no thanks.” “Don’t touch” means “don’t touch.” It’s pretty simple, really…
How is this NOT the norm?? I never would have gotten away with rejecting what my Mama made. It didn’t matter if sauerkraut made me want to barf – I ate it, or I went hungry!
No wonder I don’t like most children these days. Entitled lil’ punks.
Mean Parent Confessions: My Kids Eat What I Serve or They Don’t Eat at All
“I’m sorry that this season has become about fights over manger scenes on public property, about complaining when clerks say, “Happy Holidays,” instead of “Merry Christmas,” about rampant commercialism and faux persecution.
I’m sorry that Christians in the United States can be so entitled when we’ve long enjoyed majority status, when we can be so blind to our own privilege…
It is ironic, really, because in the church calendar, the seasons of Advent and Christmas call us to reflect upon and celebrate what Christians believe was the most radical act of humility of all time – the incarnation…
The doctrine of the incarnation holds that the God of the universe, in his love for humanity, emptied himself of his power and became human, like us, in the form of Jesus…”
Great article to read in its entirety, regardless of your personal belief system.
“The only time mental illness dominates the national conversation is when something goes tragically wrong. But the dialogue doesn’t last. It gets buried under arguments about gun control, video game violence, and unheeded signs of trouble... ‘There are tragedies that happen every day in this country because people are untreated for mental illness. They end up in jails, in homeless shelters – and families are torn apart.’ … It frays bonds, breaks up marriages. It steals hope.”
Good read.
“My son is mentally ill, so listen up!” Putting the nation’s spotlight on mental illness…
“William & Mary is one of just two universities piloting a new program for the U.S. State Department that will help policy makers address pressing world issues.
Under the Diplomacy Lab program, faculty and student teams collaborate to tackle complex, real-world, diplomatic challenges.”
Man, I wish this program had been available when I was studying IR at W&M!! So cool!
William & Mary helps launch State Department’s Diplomacy Lab
This is How You Say Goodbye: A Daughter’s Memoir
“A razor-sharp memoir in which a young woman travels to Cambodia, Stockholm, and Paris to overcome the legacy of her difficult and charismatic father.”
My blast-from-the-past roommate at Oxford wrote a book! It’s a compelling, witty, and emotional memoir/travelogue about coming to terms with her father’s death from AIDS when she was a child. I would highly recommend if you are looking for a good and thoughtful read this fall!
Depressing and bleak, but helpful article…
Honestly, my first reaction after hearing about the chemical weapons attack and the prospect of a US strike in Syria was a sinking sensation in my gut. Like everyone else, I’m sick of intervention, sick of war, and want to focus more inward than outward.
At the same time, I recognize the magnitude of what has happened. You can’t make laws that forbid the use of chemical weapons and then refuse to take action when someone breaks that law. Not only does it make us look weak – and thus threaten the balance of power – but it also puts the entire world at risk. If we turn a blind eye once, we’ll turn a blind eye again, so what’s to stop someone who wants to slaughter thousands of innocents by such horrific means?
Ugh – I wish the world would stop being so crazy. And I hope that if we do strike, we can simply make our point, handicap Assad’s means, and let that be it. I’d like to keep Chuck (and our other men and women at arms) home a while.
Wildflowers & Whimsy 