Did you read Amar Chitra Katha?
Consistency as hobgoblin...or not!
Seth sent me info that I now share with you.

I'm harried today, writing this application and filling out that financial aid paperwork so as I can go to Russia and keep getting money from the government that I perhaps deserve less than the kids down the street who go to Berkeley High School. The type of thought that makes me think Seth has a point, about government and all.

I spent the massive majority (definitely not a silent one!) of my weekend with my family. No one makes chai like my mom. Er, no one makes chai as my mom does.

As we passed through the Valley of the Windmills (near Livermore, CA) yesterday, my sister and I discussed how ominous they looked. We settled on "sinister," though "pernicious" was also discussed. "No, pernicious is evil that's hard to get rid of," I said. "Like corruption in India." The (until last week) defense minister of India, George Fernandes, has been implicated in a bribery scandal -- he didn't take any bribes, but his underlings did.

George Fernandes? I didn't know there were high-up Hispanics in India. Note also that the leader of the oposition party in India was born and raised in Italy, and is really only powerful because she married into the long-ruling family of the country. Indians still kill outcastes who try to get educations, yet ethnic non-Indians are okey-dokey in the highest offices in the land. Sigh. I hate inconsistency. And this isn't just a breaking of a "foolish consistency," so don't quote Emerson at me.

When I was younger, I read part of "Self-Reliance" and thought that Emerson had written: "A foolish consistency is the *hemoglobin* of little minds." I thought it performed a useful function for those small-minded people! Oxygen, iron circulation, that sort of thing! And maybe I was right, figuratively.

Consistency. Which reminds me: Seth's updates! He told me that:

• A story exists that Kurt Godel called the U.S. Constitution internally inconsistent, and thus refused to become a citizen.
• Few or no science fiction stories of which Seth is aware) contain descriptions of political systems on Earth dominated by extraterrestrials. However, the short story "The Limits of Trooghaft" is an allegory of domination; Troogs master Earth and eat humans until protests arise, beginning with a Troog student.
• "Corporations can't vote because they aren't citizens; not all persons are citizens." As well, the census counts only "natural persons" (humans).

Thank you, Seth. You get a cookie.

A shout-out: Anyone out there ever read "Amar Chitra Katha" comic books? They are and were comics that presented Hindu mythology and Indian culture/history in a children-friendly format. I have at least a hundred, probably, including the Mahabharata -- all 42 issues! AND the "Bhagavad-Gita" special!

Poll: My favorite Indian mythological artifact

• Mahabharata
• Ramayana
• Casteism

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Originally published by Sumana Harihareswara at http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/3/19/112033/302