recent tracks:

Of Reunions and Racism

Not much on the latter, though, save that last night Summer and I went to see Crash at the cheap theater in East Providence, and it was at once thought-provoking and heavy-handed, but overall presented the complexity of race relations quite well (I thought). Don Cheadle must be interested in that sort of thing, given the subject matter of Crash and Hotel Rwanda.

Now for the former, well I ought to first mention that Dan and his friends Kun and Jean came up to Providence Saturday afternoon. Dan was sleep deprived as usual, as was Kun, but they made for good company, and we hung out and helped Jean move in. Plus, since Jean is here to stay and seems like good people, we have pledged to be friends. It's always nice to have friends.

Then Saturday night after minor flying delays Summer finally came in around 12:30 or so(!!!). Her bags were the last off the conveyor, but after that things went smoothly, I think the apartment passed her rigid inspection, and all was well. Then yesterday we went out and made another good-sized target run, aquiring more storage space for the bedroom, curtains to try to block the light directly outside the bedroom window, and various other necessities. Then we also hit up the grocery store and continued our first serious effort at making the apartment into home. It seems to be working well, and Summer is likely unpacking or getting better acquainted with the neighborhood right now as I try to kill time until Criminal Law, having done all the homework currently available to me. I might nevertheless have a bit to do once I'm home, but hopefully tonight should be another night mostly off.

Finally, here is an interesting article on the jihadist movement from the International Herald Tribune:

What can be done to counter jihadism? As a Muslim immigrant living in Europe, I wholeheartedly reject the idea of a "clash of civilizations." But it would be naïve to overlook the reality of an ongoing "war of ideas" - a struggle between global jihad and democratic peace as competing directions for the 21st century.

Instead of giving in to talk of a "clash of civilizations," what is needed is an alliance between Western supporters of democracy and enlightened Muslims against jihadist Islamists.

(Bassam Tibi is a professor at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and a professor-at-large at Cornell University. He is the author of Islam between Culture and Politics.")

More on this later; a bunch of commentary was lost and now it's time for class.