Broadway Burqa

Billboard at 52nd Street and Broadway in New York City

I usually like Megyn Kelly, who has a program called The Kelly File over at Fox News. I think she is very smart, and often amuses, and surprises, her hosts with her original twists on their commentaries.

In her show a couple of days ago, her lame duck panel all say that the billboard I've posted "doesn't offend" them. One tries to fine-tune it saying that he doesn't have a problem with an American soldier marrying a Muslim woman, but that this full-gear Islamic garb is what bothers him. I.e. the "moderate vs. extremist" debate which should have long been resolved by now.

Kelly tries to bring in the "radicalized," i.e. "extremist" argument in, but she doesn't go far enough. She could have interrupted one of the speakers to make her point, but she didn't, and I can only conclude that she mostly agrees with them.

Muslims themselves have told us in as many words that the Koran is what they follow. A "modern" Muslim woman, wearing the latest from Chanel, will at some point have to confront the Koran. And this usually happens with her children. Whether they grow up in Iran or Canada, these offspring at some point have to accept or reject (there is no middle ground) Islam, even as their mothers disguise their true feelings with Western fashion.

In my mall in Mississauga (Ontario), I see more and more young women, in their early twenties, walking around in groups wearing the head-covering (for now). They try to "modernize" it - accessorize would be a better word - with make up and tight jeans, but they are only one garment away from the full-body garb that Kelly's panel seems to abhor.

Of course, the panelists point is that they don't want to be "racist." But their "tolerance" is only inviting intolerance. Muslims have no choice but to be Muslims. Their Koran mandates it.

Some notes:
- The billboard was rejected initially by the advertising company.
- The couple on the billboard is a "real life" American soldier and his Muslim wife. The wife apparently wore the full Muslim clothing for the advertisement. But this proves my point that under every "modern, Western" Muslim woman is a Koran-following Muslim woman.

Below is the panel on the billboard, at The Kelly File:

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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Charley Harper's Menagerie

Western Tanager
Bright as a circus poster on a weatherbeaten barn, the Western Tanager looks like a highly embarrassed goldfinch. No tree-top Caruso, he sings for his own enjoyment, telling of far-flung solitudes and the carefree existence, while his wife does the chores. When he visits your fruit orchard, remember that he eats mostly insects, ornaments Christmas trees in July, commemorates in color the autumn leaf, and is what you can say something is not as yellow as.
[From Charley Harper Prints page: Captions and Puns]

Charley Harper, often dismissed as an "illustrator," is a proficient artist. Wikipedia describes his as an "American Modernist artist."

Harper refines this "modernist" label as "minimal realism" as:

When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe.

His "modernist" description is too vague, and what Harper was attempting was not "modernism" but a picture "without trimming or unutilized parts" where "the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe."

His whimsical world captures, despite his best intentions I'm sure, some of that movement (chaos, as he calls it) of life, and especially the life of birds. We can see, and feel, his barn owl in flight, startled by something (Harper?) and ready to pounce on the small animal (a barn mouse?) that would feed him and his family. Or the barn swallow, preening and mocking (the barn owl?) in its gloriously red plumage, ignoring the poor, industrious insect above it for a later rendezvous for a meal. Or a blue jay furiously bathing in a calm stream with unperturbed fish which are more cautious of bathing hawks or eagles than neurotic blue birds. Harper's pictures are delightfully detailed, despite their apparent simplicity. And he is as fascinated with the mundane robin as with the exotic anhinga.



The Western Tanager (Piranga ludoviciana) is:

...a medium-sized American songbird. Formerly placed in the tanager family (Thraupidae), it and other members of its genus are now classified in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae).[2] The species's plumage and vocalizations are similar to other members of the cardinal family.

Adults have pale stout pointed bills, yellow underparts and light wing bars. Adult males have a bright red face and a yellow nape, shoulder, and rump, with black upper back, wings, and tail; in non-breeding plumage the head has no more than a reddish cast and the body has an olive tinge. Females have a yellow head and are olive on the back, with dark wings and tail.

The song of disconnected short phrases suggests an American Robin's but is hoarser and rather monotonous. The call is described as "pit-er-ick". [Source: Wikipedia]

Video of song of the Western Tanager
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Well-Perfumed

Bon Chic Bottle. The Max Azria signiature logo is the two Bs in mirror image.
The bottle's lid is designed with the logo in mind, but looking like the open petals of a flower.

Bon Chic Bon Genre, or BCBG (Bé Cé Bé Gé) is a French term for "preppy." But it doesn't have the sophomoric, college student, connotations behind its name. It really just means well styled, and well mannered.

The fashion designer Max Azria, of BCBG Max Azria, has been releasing a series of BCBG perfumes, created by perfumer Stephen Nilsen. The first of the BCBGs was called BCBG (initials only), and came in a pretty pink bottle with a rose-like lid. He then broke down the BCBG, and released a yellow-bottled Bon Chic in 2012, and a purple Bon Genre in 2013.

I've tried all three (through the generous "sample" bottles provided at Sephora), and I find Bon Chic the most successful (although all three are good).

Here are the notes for Bon Chic:

Top: Mango, Pear, Rasberry
Middle: Violet, Pink Peony, Orange Blossom
Base: Vanilla, Musk

A tiny Eau de Parfum bottle (0.25 fl. oz) is $20. The Sephora shop assistant told me that this was as long as quantities last. These small bottles were initially designed as promotional bottles at department stores during the holidays.

There is nothing overwhelming about this perfume. I think putting in the delicate raspberry scent, rather than the stronger strawberry, was a clever move by the designer to maintain the lightness of the scent.

I don't smell any strong "woodsy" scent either, although I think it is masked by the vanilla and the musk, which I think give a warm and unobtrusive dry down. The top "fruity" scents are take over by the floral middle notes. This gives the perfume an initial burst of cheery fruits, which then give way to the sweet and floral middle notes supported by the delicate base notes.

All the perfume sites I found gave copied and pasted versions of some original (and I'm not sure where its origins are). But here is one cheerful reviewer who writes:

This is feminine and summery -in a really good way! I was pleasantly surprised by the complex sweetness of this. My first thoughts on this were apple and mimosa with a touch of powder. Then there's a smokey quality to this perfume that balances the sweetness ( I'm not the best at detecting notes.. albeit this is my humble description :). It is sweet but not unsophisticated.

The dry down is very pleasant, soft, and sensual. Unfortunately, it doesn't stick around for a very long time :(. Maybe several hours, which isn't terrible, but at the end of the day it's barely there. But, all in all I was very pleased with this scent and I think it's the best of the BCBG Fragrances. Would repurchase!

I don't agree with her about the short scent span of the perfume.I sprayed mine on a scarf to test its longevity, and I still detect a light, sweet, floral scent even after about a week.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Fighting for My Perfume and Coffee in Multi-Culti Canada

Indian wedding in Toronto

I went to the Max Azria store in the mall here in Mississauga, and found a bottle of Bon Chic. I asked the shop assistant what were its notes. This Indian shop assistant clearly didn't know, but stalled for time waiting for another assistant to finish with a customer. While waiting, I asked her about the bottle sizes, since there was a tiny one in a gift package. Again, she didn't know.

So I just took matters in my own hands, and took out the small bottle to see the contents underneath. No information there. So I turned the box upside down, and found what I needed. The bottle was the same size as the bottle on sale at Sephora.

I put the small bottle on the stand, not bothering to replace it in the box, and left the store.

The Mississauga Mall, that is being renovated with a plethora of high-end stores, is filled with such Indian and Chinese shop assistants, who have very little idea about the fashion, perfume and style the stores are selling. I think they are hired to "represent" the large influx of Chinese and Indians in the city, in the past couple of decades. Now, rather than being "new" immigrants, they are merely immigrants. They have infiltrated many institutions in the city, including important, governmental ones, and these leaders have much say about how their "people" are represented in the city.

I do see a large number of Indians and Chinese walking the mall's hallways. But, I don't think they are the real shoppers. From the various news and magazine articles I could find on the mall, many of the patrons are from nearby towns, of mostly wealthy white residents. The mall was refurbished and renovated to attract such high-end clientele.

The only reason I talked to this BCBG representative was because she was standing so close to the merchandise, I thought she might have found a way to give me the information I wanted. Usually, I bypass these multi-culti attendants, or I look for a white attendant. If the white attendant doesn't have all the information, she usually has something useful to say.

Non-whites in Canada are changing the culture if only by not preserving it (destroying it and replacing it with their own cultures is a well-documented phenomenon).

A non-white shop assistant who has no clue about BCBG, and doesn't understand the volume measurements of a perfume bottle, and cannot tell the difference between Eau de Parfum and Eau de Toilette, simply has a slot that has opened up for her, and her group, to press in further and replace our culture with her own culture and cultural items.

This new wave of immigrants looks like it's well-integrated, without any accent, and with all the superficial adaptations, but the serious things like their ancestral culture are never forgotten. Chinese look like they've adapted well, with the women easily marrying white men. But, the home life of these white-men-marrying Chinese women will always be infused with their cultural background.

And now coffee.

I like Starbucks coffee, and will find it where ever I am, rather than buy something else. Right beside the bus depot (which takes me periodically to Toronto) is a small Starbucks. I went early one morning and asked for Pike. The coffee machines (both!) were empty, and I said I would wait (two seconds, as the sales girl told me). I waited for abut five minutes, which was fine. When the coffee was ready, it was so weak, I would have been better off going to some fast-food chain to get a cup. The "coffee maker" was an Indian women with a strong accent. She couldn't even make a Starbucks coffee (measure the water? what a concept!). I was going to get the manager to deal with this, but I had no time. I took a mental note of the woman, to report her later on.

These non-white immigrants, (first, second and even third, so clearly all generations of these immigrants) have come to an established, cultivated, civilized place, with an enviable culture. A good cup of coffee is easy to find, and beautiful perfumes are being continuously created. They showed up to take advantage of all this, but at the same time instilling their past (and abandoned) culture into the mix. Theirs is winning. And we are suffering because of that. How long before they destroy everything and we are left with replicas of the places they left behind?

It may be too late, but I will fight for my perfumes and my coffee.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Computer Glitch

I am working on my image postings. It looks like I have reached my bandwidth limit for image posting. I have subscribed to another image posting site, and will update all those "empty" images as soon as I can.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Comments on "Sin is Enacted Atheism"

Artist: Cima da Conegliano, c. 1459 – 1517
Title: God the Father
Date: c. 1510-17
Possible location: Courtauld Gallery, London

[It is hard to find an actual painting, but these sources at least display prints:
Wikipedia; Fine Art America; and Courtauld Prints]

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Kristor Lawson, over at the Orthosphere, has written an article he's titled: Sin is Enacted Atheism. It is an interesting discussion, but I have a few rebuttals which I've posted below.

Kristor Lawson: Thinking about God can be extremely hard when I feel really bad about how sinful I’ve been. When I’ve done something wrong, or want to, I want to avoid thinking about God. Because if I do, I shall see what a disgusting worm I am. And no one wants to face that.

It’s easy to see why shame would make me want to avoid God when I have sinned.

Kidist Paulos Asrat: Here is where Kristor Lawson starts out wrong with his classification of himself as a "disgusting worm" when avoiding thinking about God when he has sinned. He is unecessarily vicious towards himself.

KL: The hardest thing of all to admit in our hearts about God is that because his beauty is infinite, even our worst sins are to him infinitely tiny.

KPA: Our sins may be tiny in the scope of our universe, but God sees our sins as clearly as he sees the largest and greatest endeavors by other humans. This is the paradox of God: He will hear our softest whispers as clearly as the loudest of calls. In fact, our whispers, done in humility and beseachment, may be heard first, and clearest, in God's universe.

And I truly believe that God sees us in love, not in deprecation. Otherwise he becomes the forceful, vengeful, humiliating god of the Muslims, and other non-Christian religions.

KL: Whether we know it or not, and whether or not we admit the fact to ourselves, his overwhelming power washes over our sins the way that a great wave washes over the filth a fly has left in the sand of the beach. So, no matter how bad we have been, we can turn to him and he will wash over us, cleanse and refresh us completely.

KPA: Christ came to SAVE us ALL, if we accept his message. He died on the cross for us, because he loved us, and not because he thought we were vile sinners like the filthy fly that Kristor describes below. His death on the cross shows that he loves even the filthy sinner, for whom he died in order to redeem.

KL: And so we avoid turning our minds in its direction, or toward God and the agony of his glory.

KPA: I'm not sure what Lawson is trying to say here. That we are in agony in seeing, following, his glory? I think that's what he's saying. Why not simply joyful? Lawson sounds like those masochistic Christians who wear hair shirts in order to feel the presence of God. But they are more sincere. They wear their shirts in true penance (of whatever sins they have committed), and are not saying they are in agony as though to reach God with their verbal anguish.

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KPA: Lawson's article gets better about half way through. Perhaps it is because he focuses his thesis on God, rather than what a terrible human being he is, or is likely to be.

KL: ...if I really believed in God, and understood him, how could I bring myself to sin – indeed, how could the notion even occur to me? Doesn’t the presence of God in our hearts drive out sin? So, if I am sinning, doesn’t that mean that I have not very much God in my heart?

If my understanding of God is correct, if I really understand what “God” means – not as a philosophical proposition, so much as a concrete proposal for how I should constitute myself from one moment to the next, what I should consider, think, say and do – then won’t the beauty and power of that knowledge drive out all competing considerations? God is *infinitely* beautiful. Nothing else even registers, compared to him. If I really turned and accepted even that bare notion, how could I sin?

KPA: I quibble with his dismissal of God as a philosophical proposition. God is not merely a writer of rules, he encompasses our understanding and wisdom of life. His treatise is infinite, and infinitely detailed. Starting from when he first presented himself to the Jewish people, we have analyzed, speculated, discussed, preached and in the end, hopefully believed his message.

If we don't give ourselves this human capacity to "argue" even with God, then our God becomes like the dogmatic and dictatorial god of the Muslims, who are mandated to hear and obey. God has given us free will, words that have taken generations of writers and philosophers to define, and still we're not that close to defining them. God's closest prophets are those who initially disagreed with him, and through their errors and suffering, finally believed in him. God, in his kindness and love, wants us to love him foremost, not fear him. But, as we love him, and allow him to love us, we begin to see his greatness, and we build an awe for him, which is a better word than fear. We begin to realize that we are in the presence of God.

KL: And since the love of God is generated irresistibly by the vision of God, by the apprehension of his beauty, my sin indicates that I have not yet properly apprehended him. I have somehow erred in my apprehension.

KPA: This is well put, I think. The Old Testament talks of the beauty of God, and God's love of beauty. To apprehend God in his beauty is also to apprehend his creation in beauty. And Lawson concludes that if we refuse to actually see him, or see his beauty, then we are not seeing him (or wish not to see him). In either case, we are living a life of sin.

KL: We cannot correct the error of our apprehension that enables our sin...except by turning to face him, opening our eyes and our hearts and letting him in. But because we err, we cannot see where to find him unless we are already facing him – in which case, we are not erring in the first place! So, we are stuck fast in the Sin against the Holy Spirit, the one unforgivable sin that prevents our acceptance of redemption, and therefore effects its rejection.

KPA: And God sent us his son Jesus in order that those who do not see him (either through stuborness or through ignorance) be able to finally see him, in order not to be condemned eternally as sinners. Seeing God, as well as understanding God, makes us true believers.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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Update

I had put a health alert in my New Year's post where I said:

- I went through a couple of health scares, and so far, they have been resolved.

This didn't sound definitive, and it wasn't. My great team of (Canadian) doctors gave me a clean bill of health last week at my appointment, where I went after I received an "alert" call to see my family doctor. I don't want to get into details, but I have had family members with colon cancer, and pre-colon cancer diagnoses. I was in the "pre" category. Now, that is no longer a problem.

This is the best news of the New Year for me, and I can now resume, without anything hindering my thoughts, my various projects. As my family doctor said, when I asked her if I could travel to New York for Christmas, that my "super-active" personality would not follow her recommendations of "rest" anyway, and there's no reason for me not to travel.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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