— 1 —

Positively sickened by this. So, people are smashing the windows of a Muslim family in Plano, Texas every night starting 6 weeks after they moved into their house. I am so sickened by the actions of the people doing this. I mean, what the [insert expletive of choice] is wrong with you idiots?!?!?!?!? Apparently, we’ve learned nothing from history at all.

I wish I lived in Plano so I could go help clean up the broken glass, start a GoFundMe campaign to replace the windows, and maybe even stand outside the house with other people to guard the family.

— 2 —

True faith. While Trump and his minions have been spewing dissension and hatred, Muslims in San Bernardino and across the country banded together to raise $100,000 for the victims of the shooting. It’s not surprising that they would do this — charity is one of the tenets of their faith. When I was taking my Islam class 14 years ago, we had dinner with the young adult group of a mosque in Detroit who was raising money and collecting toys for Toys for Tots. Christmas isn’t their holiday but they were helping out anyway.

Having spent time with various Muslim communities in Detroit and knowing the Muslims with whom I grew up, I would rather hang out with them any day of the week over some of the Christians I know and definitely over the people at the church where we worshiped in Detroit on that Sunday morning. Every mosque we visited was warm and welcoming to us, plying us with Turkish coffee and pastries even though they were in the middle of Ramadan and fasting. They asked us with interest about what we were doing and told us stories about their lives in the lands from which some of them came and about their lives as Muslims. The church we attended were very cold to us and talked openly about how they don’t want to engage in conversations with their Muslim neighbors.

— 3 —

For those who come here for the snark… The 2015 Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog is out. To be fair, the peppermint candy looks fabulous (one of my weaknesses is mint and chocolate) and I’d love the cookie cutters or the cookie press but… the rest of it caters to pretentiously rich people who have no understanding of what things actually cost in the real world and who have the money to throw away on this stuff.

— 4 —

Fibromyalgia memes. I saw this list of 44 memes that nail what it’s like to have fibromyalgia. My favorites are #7, #10, #13, #14, #19, #23, #25, #28 (OMG… THIS ONE!!!!), #36, #37 (I need this on a t-shirt), #38, #41, and #43. They also need one that says something along the lines of “No, I can’t just take some Tylenol. This is nerve pain.”

— 5 —

The Onion for Catholics. If you haven’t heard of Eye of the Tiber, it’s a satirical site like the Onion except that it’s about the Catholic Church. Example: Vatican To Project Microsoft Bubbles Screensaver Onto St. Peter’s Whenever Basilica Not In Use which pokes fun at the nature slideshow that was projected onto St. Peter’s Basilica a few nights ago. There’s a fabulous interview with the person behind it that I recommend reading.

— 6 —

Gift that keeps on giving. If you’re looking for the perfect gift for someone in your life who is into finance, social justice, and for whom it is hard to find a good present, consider a gift card for a a Kiva loan. You read through a bunch of profiles and pick one that speaks to you. That person is loaned $25 for their small business/personal improvement and they pay it back over time. Once it is paid back, you have the option of Kiva cutting you a check for the $25 or the option to re-loan it. I think I’ve made close to 20 Kiva loans and most of them are re-loans of the original $25. My day is seriously made every time I get an email saying that I have $25 in Kiva credit because that means I get to make another loan.

— 7 —

Another gift that keeps on giving. Kelly mentioned Heifer International in her post on gift giving that matters and Connected in Hope (which also inspired the above Quick Take). I highly recommend them as well. You buy an animal or shares of an animal and it gets donated to someone in the Third World along with the training for that animal/plant/livestock. The animal provides milk/fleece/eggs/whatever and the money from that pays for school fees or medicine or whatever the family needs in terms of living expenses. When they reproduce, the offspring is given to someone else to pass on the gift and to change the original recipients into donors, a change that gives them some pride and self-worth. In the last few years, they’ve also given people the option of contributing to basic needs in the way of things like water, nutrition, and stoves. I love them because they’re all about empowering people to get out of poverty. Their gift catalog is here.

For more Quick Takes, visit Anabelle, our guest hostess with the mostest, at Written By the Finger of God.