• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

When we show up, we win.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Republicans in disarray!

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Civil Rights / LGBTQ Rights / Gay Rights are Human Rights / Be Careful What You Wish For, Asshole

Be Careful What You Wish For, Asshole

by Betty Cracker|  November 5, 201512:12 pm| 92 Comments

This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights, Assholes

FacebookTweetEmail

Remember Dharun Ravi, the heartless prick who set up a webcam in his Rutgers dorm room to spy on his gay roommate a few years back? The roommate, Tyler Clementi, jumped off the GW bridge after Ravi invited people to view the webcam feed and humiliated Clementi on social media.

The case and subsequent trial sparked a national furor about cyber-bullying. Ravi was convicted of multiple felonies. He could have received up to 10 years in the clink and deportation to India.

The judge gave him an extraordinarily light sentence instead: 30 days in jail, a few years on probation, community service and a recommendation that he retain his green card. If he had any sense or grace, Ravi would have been grateful for that break and slunk off quietly.

But he’s evidently an arrogant, entitled jerk who’s still stinging from the slap on the wrist he received:

Stephen Altman, Ravi’s lawyer, revealed Ravi’s desire for a fresh trial after Clementi’s mother Jane, in a moving interview in The Daily Beast yesterday, said she would not want New Jersey’s appellate court to reduce or strike down Ravi’s original conviction.

Maybe he’ll get a new trial, which would drag the family of his victim through their horrible ordeal all over again. If so, I hope he’s convicted on all counts a second time and that the next judge gives him real jail time and then throws his ass out of the country upon his release. Asshole.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Good news everybody
Next Post: Nutpicking Can Be Fun… »

Reader Interactions

92Comments

  1. 1.

    Paul in KY

    November 5, 2015 at 12:15 pm

    Hope what you hope happens, Betty. That was a vile thing to do.

  2. 2.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 12:15 pm

    Weird, why is there an image for this article on the FP and no image on this page? Weird.

    Also, gross person is gross.

  3. 3.

    BGinCHI

    November 5, 2015 at 12:18 pm

    Countdown until he has a position in Christie’s cabinet.

    Also, maybe “diplomacy” means something different in Likud’s Hebrew:

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/netanyahu-ran-baratz

  4. 4.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 12:18 pm

    I don’t get this, why does he want a retrial? He got off with a light sentence, what is he hoping to achieve?

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    November 5, 2015 at 12:18 pm

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Click the little pencil icon to see the image.

  6. 6.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 12:20 pm

    @BGinCHI: If he is a citizen now, I can see a future career as a GOP media star and/or politician. Since there is little difference between the two these days.

  7. 7.

    Woodrow/asim

    November 5, 2015 at 12:20 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Not Guilty — likely so he can not be one of the poor saps who have to carry a conviction on their record, and thus hurt job prospects.

  8. 8.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 12:21 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Well, that’s a new one for sure.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    November 5, 2015 at 12:22 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Full exoneration, I guess. I followed the trial closely, and from what I read about Ravi, this doesn’t really surprise me. His dad is a wealthy tech hotshot, and in addition to being squicked out by the prospect of a gay roommate, Ravi was also horrified by having to live with someone from a middle class background. He sounds like an arrogant prick through and through.

  10. 10.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 12:23 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: I guess it’s just complete and utter arrogance. Also rich enough to keep rolling the dice.

  11. 11.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 12:27 pm

    @Betty Cracker: For some Indian parents their children, especially sons can do no wrong. They are willfully blind to any shortcomings of the male progeny. They may also be in a bubble where they hang out socially with other extremely orthodox Indians. If I remember correctly wasn’t there a parade of Indian character witnesses attesting to what a great kid this Ravi person was. It was utterly tone deaf and stupid.

  12. 12.

    Hal

    November 5, 2015 at 12:27 pm

    Does a new trial means a potentially harsher sentence? Seems like a roll of the dice you wouldn’t want to take if given the choice.

    And speaking of gay rights, I listened to On Point on NPR today about the Houston gay rights initiative and one of the guests, Ed Whelan went on and on about men dressing as women to sexually assault girls in bathrooms and unisex toilets. I’ve never heard a guest talk so much about toilets. Smarmily dismissive of transgender people, he kept referring, to “boys who think they’re girls” and constant repeat of his predator males posing as women fantasy. Sorry, I meant concern.

    http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/11/05/houston-hero-vote-lgbt-civil-rights

  13. 13.

    Punchy

    November 5, 2015 at 12:31 pm

    the next judge gives him real jail time

    Wait…this can happen? He can serve his time, then upon retrial be forced to serve more time? Did not know that’s how the system worked, but of couse, I’m only a Pretend Lawyer.

  14. 14.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 12:32 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: I have a friend who is Indian (Christian–her family got out some years back and now it looks like the right decision) and refuses to date Indian guys because of the way her male cousins were treating lower caste Indian girls and bragging about it. She lost her virginity before she got married, too. It’s all good because she got her green card and can get any job she wants.

  15. 15.

    Dork

    November 5, 2015 at 12:33 pm

    Countdown until he has a position in Christie’s cabinet.

    So you’re saying he’s a bearclaw?

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    November 5, 2015 at 12:34 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Yep, there was a parade of witnesses as you described. I did have some sympathy for Ravi’s mother. She seemed like a nice woman, and of course she doesn’t see her precious son as the monstrous asshole he is.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    November 5, 2015 at 12:36 pm

    @Punchy: I’m not even a pretend lawyer, so I don’t know. Maybe one of the real ones will enlighten us. You can’t swing a cat around here without hitting a barrister.

  18. 18.

    benw

    November 5, 2015 at 12:37 pm

    @Hal: the article BC linked seemed to imply that because the NJ “bias intimidation” laws have changed, this guy might have an easier time getting “not guilty” a second time through. So not just a complete re-roll of the dice. And it also pointed out that the state atty is already petitioning the same appeals judge who is considering the retrial for a harsher sentence. So from Ravi’s POV, there might be several decent reasons to ask for a retrial.

    “jumping off the gw bridge sorry” What a sad, terrible thing.

  19. 19.

    MattF

    November 5, 2015 at 12:37 pm

    So, he believes he didn’t do anything illegal… Fine, try him again. No objection from this quarter.

  20. 20.

    Peale

    November 5, 2015 at 12:38 pm

    O.K. I think the article is rather confusing.

    revealed Ravi’s desire for a fresh trial after Clementi’s mother Jane, in a moving interview in The Daily Beast yesterday,

    Makes it appear that what triggered the desire for a retrial was the “moving interview” which doesn’t make sense, unless he’s somehow arguing that moving interviews after trials somehow taint the verdict.

    While I had sympathy for the Cleminti family, if the law under which Ravi was convicted was overturned by the court, I can see going through the trial again. It’s not going to “clear his name”, though. He could end up convicted of something else.

  21. 21.

    shell

    November 5, 2015 at 12:39 pm

    Sadly, assholes are suprisingly blind to their own assholishness, and just keep on going. I hear Kim Davis is trying to get her (its not even a conviction) what-ever you call those couple days she spent in the slammer, exonerated.

  22. 22.

    Paul in KY

    November 5, 2015 at 12:39 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: IMO, some high-caste & rich Indians can be/feel more entitled than our Bush clan (for example).

    Same goes for some European aristos.

  23. 23.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 12:40 pm

    @Hal: Same shit in Florida when the Miami reps were pushing a “trans can’t use the bathroom” bill. Florida doesn’t protect GLBT rights so there was already this case where a trans woman couldn’t use the restroom at her community college. The organization refused to identify a single toilet she could use. That’s the reality, and these soft-Bircher toilet paranoids ARE the oppression they see in the world.

    Seems like with trans banned out of the shitter it only encourages the peekers and the videographers, as multiple prosecutions have gone through in North Central Floriduhhh of Florida Men who were taping women urinating and changing their feminine napkins.

    The whole thing kills me. The last great civilization to have multi use public toilets didn’t have separate men’s and women’s rooms and didn’t have stall doors. Romans wore a lot of skirts, though, so I doubt there was a lot of ogling going on. Just learned they apparently used cloth rags and chucked them in the sewer, not sponge as TP as previously claimed. Since their sewers were superior to ours apparently this did not cause all the toilets to back up. /sort of kidding //our sewer lines get clogged because of kinks to keep the swamp gas out, trufax

  24. 24.

    Paul in KY

    November 5, 2015 at 12:41 pm

    @Punchy: The Indians I work with (all fine people), every female (no matter how young looking) is married. From the ones I have talked to, it is very rare for an unmarried Indian woman to come to US for a job.

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    November 5, 2015 at 12:41 pm

    Get that popcorn!

    ……………………

    A.G. Kane keeps releasing raunchy emails

    By Marc Levy, The Associated Press
    POSTED: 11/05/15, 5:47 AM EST | UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO

    Facing criminal charges, relieved of her law license and threatened with removal by the Legislature, Pennsylvania’s attorney general seems to have decided that if she has to go, she’s going to take others down with her.

    Since all three branches of state government began moving against her over the past year, Kathleen Kane has released hundreds of sexually explicit or otherwise crude emails that had been sent or received by current or former public officials on their government accounts.

    The tangled scandal has led to the downfall of a state environmental secretary and shamed a state police commissioner, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice and several former top officials in the attorney general’s office. Another high-court justice resigned after newspapers disclosed his involvement.

    Kane has threatened to release more, and the state Capitol is ablaze with speculation about whose emails may be next in the drip-drip-drip of disclosures.

    http://www.dailylocal.com/general-news/20151105/ag-kane-keeps-releasing-raunchy-emails

  26. 26.

    The Other Chuck

    November 5, 2015 at 12:43 pm

    I think some appropriate vigilante justice visited on Ravi would be to follow him everywhere he goes with a camera and webcast it.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    November 5, 2015 at 12:44 pm

    @Peale: You’re right — the article could be clearer. I took that to mean that the lawyer spoke to the reporter after the article was published to say that instead of just attempting to get the convictions under the changed statute reduced (and there were multiple convictions), they wanted to retry the whole thing, for all of the charges.

  28. 28.

    The Other Chuck

    November 5, 2015 at 12:46 pm

    Ravi does realize he’s going to get a second trial in the court of public opinion, no? Naw, on second thought, self-awareness is probably something he doesn’t have a whole lot of.

  29. 29.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 12:46 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: I remember you talking about this woman. Do you know what part of India her family is from.
    To buy her story about intimidation because of religion, I need some more background. In India caste considerations trump religion. Missionary evangelicals who work in India’s tribal regions have been targeted yes but there are states like Goa and Kerala have a sizable minority of Christians and the Christians in those state are pretty powerful. The upper castes who converted to Christianity in these states look down upon the lower caste Christian converts, call them bread Christians or rice Christians.

    Have you read Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things? She highlights this divide well.
    (>30%)

    Also, caste divisions in India are not binary. I don’t know who said this but any statement you make about India the opposite is also true.

    ETA: Dinesh D’souza is a good example of the type of privileged Indian Christians I speak of.

  30. 30.

    Peale

    November 5, 2015 at 12:46 pm

    @Punchy: Not certain how it works either. Let’s say the state had three levels of crime for food poisoning. The highest level gets you life in prison, the middle level gets you 30 days and the lowest a $500 fine. If the court finds that second degree food poisoning is unconstitutional, I guess if the defendants in all the middle level cases could demand retrial. But they might end up spending life in prison if they do so if the state decides to recharge them with the higher level crime.

  31. 31.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 12:50 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Mumbai.

  32. 32.

    Punchy

    November 5, 2015 at 12:53 pm

    @Paul in KY: In addition, I think they almost never get divorced. My brown friends have noted that they all know very disfunctional Indian marriages, but in every case divorce isnt even considered. I get the feeling an Indian marriage is extremely patriarchal, and the women get shit on quite often.

  33. 33.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 12:54 pm

    Schrodinger’s Cat, her father thought the family was in danger to the point that he told her, her sister, and her mother to hide on the floor so they could not be seen in the house during an outbreak of religious violence that wasn’t originally, or nominally, aimed at Christians. Her sister married and now lives in the States and she (my friend) has spent the better part of 20 years here, most of them in Florida, with no plans to return. Her father and mother travel a lot for business; when I met them, they were living on the outskirts of London.

  34. 34.

    Corner Stone

    November 5, 2015 at 12:55 pm

    Well that seems a tad unfortunate:

    in Assholes, Gay Rights are Human Rights

  35. 35.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 12:57 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: I am skeptical of her claims, I know Bombay very well. My family is originally from Mumbai, we go back centuries. Goan Christians are pretty sizable minority in the older areas of Bombay like South Bombay, Bandra and Versova, which were old fishing villages. Bombay now Mumbai, has plenty of churches and schools run by Catholics.

    ETA: I replied before reading your response. Was her father referring to the 1990-91 riots following the demolition of Babri Masjid? In that case I am sorry, that was a pretty terrifying time. Muslims were the targets and I can see how a non Hindi could find those riots chilling. India’s right wing parties are terrible.

  36. 36.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 12:57 pm

    @Punchy: My friend is a very unusual woman (and a feminist). She married an Indian guy from South America and after he became more and more abusive, she plotted, and planned, and one day she dropped the hammer and divorced his ass. And grabbed that green card on the way out. But she’d already dealt with horribly disappointing her mother a couple of times over by that point.

  37. 37.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 12:57 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Well, she was scared for her life, she’s my friend, and I chose to believe her. Believe what you want.

    ps: not that it matters, but my friend is a Protestant

  38. 38.

    Kay

    November 5, 2015 at 12:58 pm

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Miami reps were pushing a “trans can’t use the bathroom” bill.

    It’s one of those things where I feel completely out of step with My Fellow Americans. When I first heard that was the objection I thought it was a joke, that liberals were making fun of an objection some fringe conservative raised. There’s nothing stopping violent criminals from entering womens bathrooms now, no matter how they’re dressed, or even what gender they are. There’s no guard outside the door. It’s not like they “get away with it” if they attack someone in a bathroom if they’re carrying a purse.

  39. 39.

    Nate Dawg

    November 5, 2015 at 12:59 pm

    WTF is wrong with people. It’s almost as if the no-quarter political mindset has been exported to everyone’s everyday lives, and there is no room left for humility, regret, and common fucking decency.

  40. 40.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 1:03 pm

    @Kay: Absolutely. But they bring up this notion every time there is a GLBT human rights ordnance or anything of the sort.

  41. 41.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 1:03 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: I wrote before I read your response, I have added a post script to it.

  42. 42.

    satby

    November 5, 2015 at 1:04 pm

    @Corner Stone: LOL, good catch!

    For some reason after all the moaning I went to watch this again.

    Seems apropos to so much of the angst around here :)

  43. 43.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 1:06 pm

    @Schrodinger, maybe there is a misunderstanding when I throw this story out. It’s not really why she landed in the US (having no choice as a minor). I’m sure like many Indian families there is an aspect of going where the opportunities are. It was why she stayed. Your “isolated incident” is her formative experience. Coming to a country where Christians could practice openly and without fear made a big impression on her.

  44. 44.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 1:07 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: That timeframe sounds about right. Yes, that’s likely it.

  45. 45.

    Calouste

    November 5, 2015 at 1:08 pm

    @Punchy: Arranged marriages are not rare among Indians, maybe not even uncommon, even among Indians living abroad.

  46. 46.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 1:14 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: The right wing Shiv Sena is pretty vile. Having said that, Christians can and have practiced freely in Mumbai. Mumbai has several old magnificent churches built by the Portuguese which predate this country and people worship in to this date. Like this one in Bandra.

    BTW the Portuguese were absolutely horrible to the locals, and destroyed a significant portion of the Buddhist and Hindu caves just outside Bombay at the Elephanta island.

    ETA: Most Christians in Bombay are Roman Catholic, while the ones in Kerala are Syrian Orthodox.

  47. 47.

    Chris

    November 5, 2015 at 1:15 pm

    @Paul in KY:

    Unfortunately, class prejudice is a very universal thing.

  48. 48.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 1:16 pm

    @Calouste: True, I arranged my own marriage! It took my husband’s family over 10 years to accept it. Our families hail from different regions in India and speak different languages.

  49. 49.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 1:19 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Seems like if Wikipedia is to be believed, more groups than that were involved in the destruction of the mosque, which was planned 10 months in advance, maybe even high governmental officials — and followed with dubious archeology “proving” that the demolishers were in the right. It seems as though Babri Masjid is a trauma that India has yet to heal from.

  50. 50.

    Keith G

    November 5, 2015 at 1:20 pm

    Speaking speaking of mother fucking rats, notice that Donald Rumsfeld is now returning fire on his former boss.

    @TPM: Donald Rumsfeld slams George H.W. Bush: He’s “getting up in years” http://bit.ly/1LSjT3G

  51. 51.

    Another Holocene Human

    November 5, 2015 at 1:20 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Syrian Orthodox, interesting! My wife’s best friend is a Syrian Roman Catholic. The Syrians have one of the oldest Catholic liturgies.

  52. 52.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 1:20 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: AFAIK the site remains disputed and no temple has been built there.
    India hasn’t healed from the trauma of British rule and the ensuing partition, forget the events in the early 90s.

  53. 53.

    Betty Cracker

    November 5, 2015 at 1:29 pm

    @Keith G: Whereas Rumsfeld is a spring chicken ambulatory turd in his 80s! Fuck the whole sorry ass Bush clan for unleashing that arrogant, incompetent ninny on the planet.

  54. 54.

    satby

    November 5, 2015 at 1:34 pm

    Is it just me or is this joint starting to look much closer to the former configuration?

  55. 55.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 1:36 pm

    @Another Holocene Human: I am not sure what exactly you are referring to. Babri Masjid was a totally manufactured issue by the Sangh Parivar, BJP (Modi’s party) is the political arm of RSS. That said I wouldn’t be surprised if there actually was a temple where the mosque once stood.
    By large the Muslim rulers of northern and central India and their Hindu subjects lived in relative harmony but there were times when that harmony frayed. There have been instances of the Muslim rulers doing what ISIS is doing in Palmyra today, or what the Taliban did to the Buddhas, destroying idols etc.

  56. 56.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 1:37 pm

    @satby: Except for the ugliness at the top.

  57. 57.

    Amir Khalid

    November 5, 2015 at 1:38 pm

    @satby:
    I remember that the last site redesign wound up looking not very different from the version immediately before it. So there’s precedent.

  58. 58.

    Paul in KY

    November 5, 2015 at 1:38 pm

    @Punchy: Think you are correct, although I would like Schrodinger’s Cat to weigh in. Most of these marriages are ‘strategic’ and somewhat like marriages between aristocratic houses in the Middle Ages. Love is definitely not part of the equation. Hopefully love will occur, but that is not why the marriage was made.

  59. 59.

    Felanius Kootea

    November 5, 2015 at 1:40 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: I have a friend whose family is from Kerala and I’d always assumed they converted to Christianity during British rule. Then one day, her father gave me a history dating back to St. Paul visiting India and the origins of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Syria. He said their family was Christian before there was a British Empire. I was blown away.

    She’s close friends with another woman who is Ethiopian Orthodox and they sometimes attend each other’s church services. They say some elements of the services are similar.

  60. 60.

    Nate Dawg

    November 5, 2015 at 1:45 pm

    I love the Recent Posts list on the Front Page. Lets a user click to an older thread without scrolling down. Also, I didn’t know about f.lux and am an insomniac, so learning about that amazing app through this process is a nice perk.

  61. 61.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 1:49 pm

    @Paul in KY: Yes you are right. If you go against tradition there is a heavy price to pay, as in isolation/cold shoulder from your family. I am speaking from personal experience here. My husband’s family is very traditional and orthodox from Southern India, my family is as I said above from Mumbai and nowhere as observant and religious. It took a long time for my MIL to accept me and forgive me for stealing her golden boy.

  62. 62.

    NonyNony

    November 5, 2015 at 1:52 pm

    I can’t imagine how over-entitled and stupid this guy must be to think that getting a new trial would be a good idea when he got off so lightly in the first one. Does he think his lawyers are that much better now or something?

    @Nate Dawg: I installed an app similar to f.lux on my tablet two days ago and have had the two best nights of sleep I’ve had in months. I thought my poor sleep was being caused by stress or by undiagnosed sleep apnea or something. If it turns out that it’s because I’ve been reading e-books before going to bed instead of paper books I’m going to be really annoyed at myself.

  63. 63.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 1:56 pm

    @Felanius Kootea: The British tried not to mess around with religion and “save” people. They learned their lesson during the so called Sepoy Mutiny. They also saw what happened to the Portuguese when they tried forcibly converting people.

    India’s religious diversity is astounding, every religion under the sun has been practiced here for millennia.

  64. 64.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    November 5, 2015 at 2:04 pm

    @Another Holocene Human:

    The peekers and videographers don’t care if it’s a unisex bathroom — they just caught yet another one here in CA who planted a camera in a Starbucks bathroom. They just edit out the ones they don’t find attractive.

    Unfortunately, it’s the creepy peeper perverts who are making it difficult for transgender people to make their bathroom argument. Telling ciswomen who already feel unsafe that it’s totally okay to let people who may have penises into their bathroom because we totally pinky-swear they won’t be creepy perverts isn’t very reassuring, especially since, let’s face it, the creepy perverts probably ARE going to try and make that claim, because they’re asshole creepy perverts.

    I’m starting to think that a better angle to approach it from is to say everyone should have a secure bathroom where they can feel safe. Make them like Japan, where every stall has a full locking door and a changing table. Say that every public bathroom that’s a single room with a locking door must be designated as unisex (small restaurants already have to do this if they only have one bathroom).

    Discounting ciswomen’s justified fears of being spied in the bathroom is not the best way to get these kinds of laws passed. Just sayin’.

  65. 65.

    Johnny Dollar

    November 5, 2015 at 2:05 pm

    Argument that Ravi didn’t really get off lightly the first time (although he is still an a-hole):

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/22/justice-dharun-ravi-lenient-30-day-sentence

  66. 66.

    SteveinSC

    November 5, 2015 at 2:08 pm

    @Punchy: Increase the sentence?Hmm–I believe there was a story in the Devils of Loudon that a priest René Sophier was caught in flagrente delicto on the church floor with one of his parishioners and was sentenced to the gallows. Upon appeal to the Parlement of Paris, he was instead burned at the stake.

  67. 67.

    satby

    November 5, 2015 at 2:17 pm

    Woo-Hoo! OT but I just had a client land a job!
    Ironic, as I requested to just be a coach, not a job developer anymore. But yay!
    Placing disabled people in jobs is harder than I expected.

  68. 68.

    Nate Dawg

    November 5, 2015 at 2:17 pm

    @NonyNony: Yah I can’t definitively say that the f.lux is working, but I have really noticed my body tiring in a normal way around bedtime (midnight) rather than the usual constant level of alertness throughout the wee hours that I normally experience as I lay in bed reading on my tablet and/or phone. FWIW, previously, I would make good progress in a novel, maybe even finish it, for hours, and now, I’m falling asleep 1 or 2 chapters in. Pretty cool.

  69. 69.

    satby

    November 5, 2015 at 2:18 pm

    @Amir Khalid: I love the classics, as I’ve often said, and as my Harvey clip earlier shows.

  70. 70.

    Paul in KY

    November 5, 2015 at 2:22 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: I’m sure you are a great catch! Your husband is a lucky man.

  71. 71.

    Paul in KY

    November 5, 2015 at 2:23 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Good points there, Mnemosyne.

  72. 72.

    Paul in KY

    November 5, 2015 at 2:24 pm

    @satby: Congrats, satby! I’m sure your client is thrilled as well.

  73. 73.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 2:33 pm

    @Paul in KY:Thanks! His mother eventually came around to that point of view, but it took time!

    ETA: Mr Kitteh had to deal with my dad, that was no picnic either. My dad would fit right on Balloon Juice his sarcasm is needle-sharp and funny.

  74. 74.

    glory b

    November 5, 2015 at 2:52 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Yes, I have a relative whose husband is half Moroccan/Jewish and half Indian/Jewish.

    Until I met him, I never thought of Judaism being practiced in India. I understand that the current population of Jewish Indians is now vanishingly small.

  75. 75.

    burnspbesq

    November 5, 2015 at 2:59 pm

    If this idiot wants to risk a re-trial, and the possibility of several years in Rahway, by all means let him go for it. What he did was despicable, and there is plenty of evidence.

  76. 76.

    gene108

    November 5, 2015 at 3:02 pm

    @Hal:

    And speaking of gay rights, I listened to On Point on NPR today about the Houston gay rights initiative and one of the guests, Ed Whelan went on and on about men dressing as women to sexually assault girls in bathrooms and unisex toilets. I’ve never heard a guest talk so much about toilets. Smarmily dismissive of transgender people, he kept referring, to “boys who think they’re girls” and constant repeat of his predator males posing as women fantasy. Sorry, I meant concern.

    If men wanted to dress up as girls to sexually assault girls, why do they need an anti-discrimination law to do this? The law wouldn’t protect their right to go to the wrong bathroom and/or sexually assault girls.

  77. 77.

    gene108

    November 5, 2015 at 3:05 pm

    @Another Holocene Human:

    I have a friend who is Indian (Christian–her family got out some years back and now it looks like the right decision) and refuses to date Indian guys because of the way her male cousins were treating lower caste Indian girls and bragging about it.

    How insanely secluded to you have to be to pick up caste differences (1) growing up in the USA, where they do not matter and (2) being Christian, which is a religion that does not have them.

    Something’s off with her friends.

  78. 78.

    gogol's wife

    November 5, 2015 at 3:14 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    You may be gone, but: a member of my immediate family saw Hamilton last night, and apparently it did not disappoint. I might have to get my a** in gear and try to get tickets.

  79. 79.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    November 5, 2015 at 3:16 pm

    @Felanius Kootea: The legend, which it almost certainly is, is the Apostle Thomas visiting India, not Paul. Christianity in India is regardless quite ancient, and the Christians there prior to the Portuguese arrival were either Syrian Orthodox (monophysites-not that they were ethnically Syrian, but in communion with the monophysite Patriarch of Antioch) or Nestorian (i.e. the Assyrian Church of the East). Its all confusing and I haven’t read up on it in ages. There’s also a smalll Syrian rite protestant church in communion with the Anglicans, and the Churches of North and South India, which are mainline Protestant in their orientation.

  80. 80.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 3:33 pm

    @Amanda in the South Bay: I think you are right. I have heard the legend about St Thomas too.

  81. 81.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 3:36 pm

    I have been told by my Goan friends that they were either Saraswat Brahmins or Chitpavan Brahmins before their conversion to Christianity and how they were better than the low caste maka pao (give me bread) Christians. These friends grew up in India though, not the US.

  82. 82.

    Luthe

    November 5, 2015 at 3:37 pm

    Oh for fucks’ sake, this asshole again? Just what Rutgers needs: a rehash of this circus. It’s not like there was any parking in downtown New Brunswick anyway. /2010-2012 Rutgers student

  83. 83.

    Gin & Tonic

    November 5, 2015 at 4:09 pm

    @burnspbesq: the possibility of several years in Rahway

    I think he’d learn more about life from several years in Rahway than he has apparently learned thus far.

  84. 84.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    November 5, 2015 at 4:16 pm

    @gogol’s wife:

    If you’re within reach, I would do it. The NY Times review had a line that was something like, I’m usually reluctant to tell my readers to mortgage their house and sell their children just to get tickets to a Broadway show, but in this case …

    It may be slightly easier to get tickets on the nights that Lin-Manuel (the writer and star) isn’t performing, and the substitute is someone he hand-picked, so he should be good.

  85. 85.

    Felanius Kootea

    November 5, 2015 at 4:26 pm

    @Amanda in the South Bay: Oops – you’re right, my fault, he did say Doubting Thomas. Still fascinating though even if it is a legend. I honestly had never thought about non-European influenced Christianity before my chat with him.

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    November 5, 2015 at 4:33 pm

    @Felanius Kootea:

    Although the Roman Catholic Church likes to put on airs, there are several sects in the Middle East that are much older. IIRC, Coptic (Egyptian) Christians are generally acknowledged as the oldest Christian sect.

  87. 87.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    November 5, 2015 at 4:34 pm

    @Felanius Kootea: Yeah there are lots of places with extremely ancient Christianity-Armenia and Ethiopia first and foremost, but with Ethiopia there’s a lot of pious legend (esp about the Ark of the Covenant and the supposed [not really] connections with ancient Israel) that gullible Westerners take in like candy.

  88. 88.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 5:01 pm

    @glory b: There are two Jewish groups in India, one in Mumbai, they speak Marathi and call themselves Bene Israel Jews and there is another group in Kochi, formerly Cochin in Kerala. Many Indian Jews have immigrated to Israel exercising their right of return. There are synagogues in Bombay dating from 1700s.

  89. 89.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    November 5, 2015 at 6:42 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): That’s not very accurate at all. Most ancient episcopal sees (and the Roman see is itself quite ancient, regardless of later claims of Papal primacy) claim apostolic founding. Its purely legendary, for example, that St Mark was the first bishop of Alexandria. Though James the brother of Jesus was probably the first leader of Christians in Jerusalem. And the Coptic Church per se only existed after the 5th century Council of Chalcedon.

  90. 90.

    yodecat

    November 5, 2015 at 7:38 pm

    @Keith G: Those guys are like mad dogs.

  91. 91.

    J R in WV

    November 5, 2015 at 10:14 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    When we started replacing IBM mainframe applications with windows/networked applications, we hired a guy, Piyush, from India. After a few months working closely together (we shared a tiny cube) I learned that he was of a Hindi family, and his wife was from a Muslim family.

    They had to leave India for America to live together. She joined our software team not too much later, and he helped her over the hard parts. They are out on the west coast now.

    The same kind of thing happens here of course, perhaps less difficult and not as common, but it is everywhere. Hatred and fear of the other!

    I enjoy your sharing of Indian culture, so please keep that up! And cats, too!

    Best wishes,

    JR

  92. 92.

    schrodinger's cat

    November 5, 2015 at 11:05 pm

    @J R in WV: Thanks! Not to be pedantic, but the religion is Hindu and the language is Hindi. Well, Piyush could be a Hindi speaking Hindu!

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • VFX Lurker on Arizona In The Crosshairs (Apr 17, 2024 @ 3:14pm)
  • emjayay on Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Fading Neom Dreams (Apr 17, 2024 @ 3:14pm)
  • Old School on Arizona In The Crosshairs (Apr 17, 2024 @ 3:14pm)
  • Melancholy Jaques on Arizona In The Crosshairs (Apr 17, 2024 @ 3:13pm)
  • Melancholy Jaques on Wednesday Morning Open Thread: The GOP Insists There Will Be Blood Impeachment (Apr 17, 2024 @ 3:12pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!