"I haven’t figured out whether cracking open your computer, attaching it to an Underwood typewriter, then inserting it into a combination Victorian mantel clock/desk and calling it “The Nagy Magical-Movable-Type Pixello-Dynamotronic Computational Engine” is some sort of daft wit or evidence of a pedantry bordering on the pathological. " - Steampunk'd, Or Humbug by Design, design writer Randy Nakamura takes a look at the Steampunk phenomenon.
posted by Artw on Jul 23, 2008 - 115 comments

The backlash against design. Are you Anti-fluff or Anti-stuff?
posted by hydrophonic on Jan 12, 2007 - 82 comments

Alhamdullah. "I do say that freedom is the Almighty's gift to every person," the president replied. "I also condition it by saying freedom is not America's gift to the world. It's much greater than that, of course. And I believe we worship the same god." Apparently, this is causing no small amount of controversy in the Christian God-believing circles. I was always under the impression that it was commonly accepted that Jews, Christians, and Muslims were all working for the same Guy. So, Bush finally says something that's not completely stupid, and he gets all kind of hell for it. Great.
posted by majcher on Nov 24, 2003 - 55 comments

Ashleigh Banfield was recently "demoted." "Coincidentally," this came after her public comments about coverage of the war in Iraq. I have thought about her in the past, but never as an ideologue, and certainly not as a journalist on the level of Maria Bartiromo. It is shocking that her career might be a casualty of war. Thoughts about this fallen soldier, as a journalist, or as a hot little firecracker?
posted by son_of_minya on May 5, 2003 - 33 comments

Dixie Chicks Pulled from Air After Bashing Bush Dude, these Texas people didn't find criticism of the president unpatriotic when Bill Clinton was president. They thought it was a sacred duty...Apparently country stations in Texas and elsewhere are pulling Dixie Chicks albums because their lead singer, while on an overseas tour, criticized Bush, saying she was ashamed to be from the state as him. People who want to criticize the critics of the critical comments are supporting the Chicks by buying their albums and requesting their songs. I never thought I'd buy a Dixie Chicks album, but that's what I'm going to do tonight, and I'm paying full price!
posted by jengod on Mar 14, 2003 - 82 comments

A restaurant's advertisement runs during a special on gay weddings, which causes a christian conservative group to mention said restaurant in a story on their web site, which might alienate some of the restaurant's patrons. So the restaurant tells the AP that the advertisement was not meant for that programming, and that the restaurant only supports "non-controversial" programming, which brings the ire of an even bigger minority group. Applebee's just can't seem to win when it comes to courting the non-mainstream market.
posted by benjh on Oct 3, 2002 - 24 comments

"They went to Afghanistan to fight Americans, and they ended up fighting their fellow Muslims" A backlash is rising against religious leaders in Pakistan who sent youths to their deaths with the fervor of jihad. As the Afghan Taliban supporters defect to the victorious rebels, Pakistani and other foreign Taliban fighters are left to die in the trenches in a war that is not theirs against an enemy different from the one they hate.
posted by mischief on Dec 3, 2001 - 13 comments

Indian school children being harrased. Does anyone have info on taking legal action against someone that threatens you, harasses you or harms you?
posted by m2bcubed on Sep 20, 2001 - 12 comments

Anti-Arab violence going in Australia: It's not just in the US - In Brisbane, a schoolbus packed with Islamic children was damaged by stones and bottles and there had been abusive calls to mosques. In Perth a mosque was defiled with human faeces and obscenities were shouted from a car doing wheelies in its carpark. The Australian Arabic Council today said a hotline for people to report racist attacks had been swamped by calls. Unconfirmed attacks included children being physically harmed and racially vilified at school. Muslum women being spat on and had their veils pulled off.
posted by Jase_B on Sep 13, 2001 - 22 comments

Racism rears its ugly head in subtle ways. In this apparently eyewitness account of what happened aboard flight 93, the terrorists are referred to as "Arab terrorists" not once but twice. Was the second one even necessary? Was the first one necessary? And you wonder why shit like this happens...
posted by mathowie on Sep 12, 2001 - 60 comments

Can we learn not to hate? Anti-Arab graffiti in Chicago.
posted by aladfar on Sep 12, 2001 - 14 comments

The AYBABTU backlash continues. Is the blogging community (surely most responsible for perpetuating the meme) just a bunch of Nathan Barleys?
posted by ecvgi on Feb 26, 2001 - 39 comments