In today's issue of the Michigan Daily there's a letter to the editor addressing inter-faith relationships, in response to an earlier article on the same subject.

I have no opinion on the matter, but I found the hypocrisy evident in the letter to the editor rather amusing, so I thought I'd share it with you.

First, the actual text of the letter:

To the Daily:

I would like to express my disagreement with Shakira Smiler's column Friday on interfaith dating (Guess who's coming to dinner, 03/21/2008). Smiler questioned why refusing to date someone of a different faith is different than discriminating against someone based on race. The answer is simply that value systems and beliefs can transcend skin color, but that's not necessarily true of religion.

Dating or marrying someone of another faith can lead to social isolation within your own community, a terrible situation for children and, according to some studies, higher divorce rates. While we all like a little variety in our dating lives, there are ways of learning and appreciating the values and convictions of others without becoming involved romantically.

Daniel Horwitz
Law School

Now, the same letter, but swapping all references to religion with references to race, and vice-versa (swapped words are highlighted):

To the Daily:

I would like to express my disagreement with Shakira Smiler's column Friday on interrace dating (Guess who's coming to dinner, 03/21/2008). Smiler questioned why refusing to date someone of a different race is different than discriminating against someone based on faith. The answer is simply that value systems and beliefs can transcend religion, but that's not necessarily true of skin color.

Dating or marrying someone of another race can lead to social isolation within your own community, a terrible situation for children and, according to some studies, higher divorce rates. While we all like a little variety in our dating lives, there are ways of learning and appreciating the values and convictions of others without becoming involved romantically.

I ask you, does the second reason make any less sense than the first? They both sound about the same to me.

For the past week, U of M's campus newspaper the Michigan Daily has had several stories about an offensive Facebook group started by MSA President Zack Yost. In today's letters to the editor several students expressed shock and dismay at both the MSA reps for being such tools, and the Daily for sensationalizing the story.

All right kiddies, gather around. I've been here for six years now, and apparently it's time I explained something to all of you. Many things change at U of M over the years, but there are some immutable constants upon which the university's community is founded:

1. The MSA is an ineffectual group of blowhards that waste countless reams of paper every so often to get elected to a governmental body that has no real power and does nothing more than meet every week to feel important, boost each other's egos, and boost up their resumes.
2. The Michigan Daily is a joke of a newspaper. It is good for three things and three things only: laughing at the constant plagiarism and poor editing, laughing at the ridiculous crime reports, and doing the crossword/sudoku during class. If you want to read real news, go get a real newspaper. Or, if you're not living in 1990, go look on the internet.

The fact that the president of MSA has turned out to be a total jackass shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody. The fact that the Daily is blowing the whole thing totally out of proportion to try and fill their pages with something approaching actual news also should not come as a surprise to anybody. You kids aren't nearly cynical enough to be college students.

Well, Facebook, you've finally done it. I've put up with your increasingly noisy, unattractive, and cluttered design for a while now, but today I finally decided I'd had enough. Facebook Apps are a terrible idea. Not a new opinion, I know, but apparently you're not getting the message. They are big, ugly, cluttered, and obnoxious. They constantly send me messages and invites, notices, and messages about crap I don't care about.

There's a reason I've avoided MySpace like the plague for all these years: Normal Person + Network of Friends + HTML = Bleeding Eyes. It seems related to the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. Let's call it the Screen Vomit Corollary. At first, it was a phenomenon restricted to GeoCities, AngelFire, and AOL websites. Then it spawned MySpace. Now it's reached its poorly designed and crudely animated tentacles into Facebook.

So am I leaving the Facebook? No. I'm weak. But, I am doing the next-best thing: using it for free. I've downloaded a Greasemonkey script which removes not only all 3rd-party apps, but also removes all advertising. No more per-view revenue from this user, no siree-bob! The logical course would be to abandon the Facebook. Unfortunately, the power of its network is too great. So, for now, I must sit and wait for the inevitable emergence of a Better Way to do social networking, and the great migration that will undoubtedly follow.

I mean, seriously guys, between this and the whole privacy thing, you're digging your own grave here! Come on!

I need to get this off my chest right now. I was just watching a show, Eureka, on SciFi, where they had to restart a man's heart. So, they break out the defibrillator. Okay, first of all: this is supposed to be set in a town full of crazy super-geniuses with ultra-high-tech toys. The best they have is a defibrillator? Please. Secondly - and this is what really gets me - after two shocks, they stop defibrillating, and start performing CPR. And then his heart starts beating again.

Hollywood, listen up. I'm sick and tired of seeing you get this wrong:

1. CPR can't restart a person's heart! All it does is keep the blood flowing until someone can do something more effective. (Like, oh, I don't know, use a defibrillator! Idiots.)
2. If you're really doing CPR correctly, you should be breaking ribs. This wussy bounce up and down on the guy's chest crap doesn't cut it. You want to pretend CPR is more effective than it is, for dramatic license? Fine. At least have the decency to break some bones while you're at it.

I swear, if I see one more medical drama, or cop show, or anything, where CPR restarts a person's heart, I'm going to write a letter. That's right, you heard me! Don't think I'm bluffing!

I'm currently sitting in the Media Union trying to do some work. Just a few minutes ago, some idiot tried walking through the emergency fire exit doors. I happen to be sitting directly below the alarm. He is not my favorite person in the world right now.

College of Engineering students*, I have a message for you. If you walk up to a door, and it has a big sign that says "DOOR ALARMED. EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY.", don't walk through it! It really, really makes me sad that someday this guy is going to be building systems that will probably destroy lives.

Now, I know, we all make mistakes. However, I'd like to think that an engineering student at a top engineering school has learned to master the art of paying attention to big fucking signs on doors. It's really not that hard.

* I'm only assuming he's an engineering student. On this part of north campus, the only options are going to be engineer, art student, or music student. He wasn't carrying one of those huge portfolios, so that rules out art. There aren't any practice rooms in the building, so that rules out music. Plus, he was disheveled, his hygiene wasn't great, and he was Asian. That pretty much screams engineer.

I hate AT&T. Specifically, I hate them because their customer service blows. I've had issues with them before, but just now I had an especially fun little run-in. You see, my internet bill is due on the 10th. So, I thought I'd log in to the online account manager and pay it, like I did the last two bills. So I go to the website that their "you bill is due" email pointed me to, and I log in. It directs me to a generic error page. Now, this in itself isn't too bad. I figure I did something wrong, so I hit the back button. It doesn't work. Okay, so I decide I'll just log out and try again. There's no logout link. Okay, so I'll try and follow some of the links on the error page. They all redirect to the same error page. At this point, I'm getting a little peeved.

Finally, I go in and clear out my browser's cookies for att.com, which acts as a manual logout. I try again in IE7, thinking that perhaps it's a Firefox compatibility issue. No dice, same problems.

At this point I decide that something must be wrong with their site, so I decide to write them an email. I get moderately worried when it takes me 3 clicks to get to the form to write an email, and even more so when I see that they actually limit the amount of characters you have to write your complaint. Still, no worries, I get my message in well under the limit, give them a bunch of contact info, including my cell phone number, and hit "send". It comes back and tells me that my cell phone number "cannot be found". I find this a little confusing, since it's right there on the page. I know it exists, because somebody called me yesterday. Finally, I say screw it, and just don't give them the cell phone number.

Oh, and before I forget, the reason I have to pay the bill online is because they stopped sending me paper bills, despite my never telling them to do so, and the "still send me paper bills" option being checked online last time I could log on.

I hate AT&T

So Michigan's email system is down. Again. This has been happening at least once a day for the past few months. When I try to refresh my inbox, I get this message:

Which can be roughly translated to:

I hate you too, ITCS.

One of my AIM friend's current away message:

here

It's a paradox! She's both away and here! Gaaah!

(head explodes)

...

As you can see, I find this amusing to no end. Clearly something is wrong with me.

I'm thinking about making a sign. A big sign, that says in big block letters:

If these damn kids sitting across from me don't stop making out, I'm going to have to splash them with cold water or something. I mean come on, they're in the middle of the freaking media union!

I think What I really need is a cane, so I can swing it at them and yell "Damn kids!"

Well, I arrived in Seattle yesterday. The apartment this summer is nice. It's smaller than last year's, but very chic. I'll probably post some pictures later. It's also got A/C, which is very nice.

However, there is one thing I don't like: the shower. I spent about an hour this morning trying to figure out how to use the damn thing. Before you laugh, though, apparently I'm not the only one who's had this problem with the kind of shower I've got. The top result on ask.com for "How do I turn on the shower?" is a page on how to use it.