I assume this was another item on Obama’s ‘Rhymes-With-Bucket’ List.

Of course! If you’re interested in reading more, here’s a piece by Patrick Weil, one of the members of the commission (and a historian and political scientist who’s actually written a lot of thoughtful, nuanced scholarship on identity and immigration in France) defending their position.

Well, they wouldn’t, would they? Considering that most Muslims in France are from North Africa or West Africa, whereas the thawb and keffiyeh are common in the Arabian peninsula.

School calendars align with Christian holidays. Etc.

Hm. I think I partially disagree with that. Certainly the veil is visually arresting, and so people tend to focus on that. And yeah, comparing kuffis and veils makes a certain sense, given how tied up all this is to France’s issues with Islam.

Ugh. This shit is why I fucking hate the Pinterest/Pier 1/Au Bon Pain fantasy of France that Americans have.

...Um, most Muslims in France are French.

Eh. The ban on religious symbols was purposely written to be religion-neutral, but it was absolutely intended to specifically address the public debate around Muslim girls wearing veils to school.

Lastly I would say if women were indeed being forced to cover up by their spouses in order to go swimming how on earth is this going to help them? Surely this will just segregate them away from mainstream society even more.

But these laws weren’t passed because of an inflammatory public discourse around men swimming in thawbs (which aren’t even typically worn by French Muslims).

Right? As someone who lives in France (though I’m not there at the moment), I think we should be doing everything we can to encourage Muslim women to participate in public life. The burkini is already an encouraging sign of compromise to Western society.

That’s why putting them together for a live recap show would be so good! It’d air directly after, so you wouldn’t worry about spoilers, and it would be just like those fifteen minutes after the show ends where you sit around yelling “WHAT THE EFF JUST HAPPENED” at the screen — but now the tv would be yelling too!

I’d love for Leslie Jones and Retta to have a regular post-watch show where they recap their favorite programs.

It’s not a wrinkle. Traditions of modesty and coverage aren’t all religious; they’re largely cultural. A Moroccan woman wearing a singlet and shorts is no less Muslim than a Saudi woman in an abaya,

Necessary:

Another reason why the Greens are manifestly unqualified to be in power — their dearth of down-ticket candidates. Building a third party without starting at the lower rungs of the latter is impossible, and hitching your movement to a quixotic presidential bid every four years just shows you to be an unserious…

What a classy, lovely .... and completely savage speech, in light of this Hillary ad:

Is there a word for someone who’s a New York City townie? I’m not even living there right now, but I feel like there’s no other place I’m ever going to feel at home than where I was born, where my parents and grandparents were born. All eight of my great-grandparents stepped off the boat at Ellis Island and we’re…

The fans aren’t made explicitly aware of the original artist - they’re careful to choose people that are obscure, their work decades old, and only well known in specific artistic circles.

“Of course there’s a limit. That limit is when crosses the line from inspiration or allusion into derivative works or plagiarism.”