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Heaven and Hell on Earth (every LJ needs a pretentious title)

16th July, 2009. 7:25 pm. Well that's just...great

Oh, for fuck's sake! Fail, Vancouver Women's Health Collective, massive fail. Like our fair city didn't already have a reputation for specializing in feminist spaces that are downright hostile to the wrong kind of woman.

Is VWHC associated with Vancouver Rape Relief, does anybody know? I kind of hope so, because I don't like to think of one city hosting two entirely separate non-profit groups which are transphobic as all hell while espousing a feminist philosophy.

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5th July, 2009. 6:27 pm.

Spoilers for last night's episode of Kings behind the cut:

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4th July, 2009. 12:24 am. reflexive patriotic insults of my Yank f-listers

I understand that our neighbours to the south have some minor anniversary thing happening tomorrow. In honour of that (you LOSERS, you gave up the right to have a queen, and a governor-general, and send athletes to the Commonwealth Games, and stuff like that. Bet you feel pretty dumb now, huh? We have Elizabeth fucking Saxe Coburg und Gotha on our money, you just have dead presidents on yours. And our money is colour coded, just for added speshulness) In honour of that, I present a classic quote from the movie Dazed and Confused:

Okay guys, one more thing, this summer when you're being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don't forget what you're celebrating, and that's the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn't want to pay their taxes.

Happy Independence Days, you traitors to the Crown.

P.S. Canadian troops burned down the White House in the War of 1812, thank you very much. Okay, fine, so they had to retreat right after but they still burned it down. So there. We're speshuller than you, and OUR national holiday comes before yours, which just goes to show we're better than you.

Um, enjoy the fireworks, you renegades.

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1st July, 2009. 5:44 pm.

Happy Canada Day, y'all. Stealing from [info]kerrikins, some Cana-trivia to celebrate:

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Saw "Easy Virtue" and dear heavens, Jessica Biel can actually ACT. This I didn't know before. Also, yet another movie that makes smoking cigarettes look ridiculously erotic. I bloody hate the smell of them, and am thus totally anti-smoking in real life, but movies aren't Smell-o-Vision, so it looks cool. Finally, that was Nick from "My Family" as the manservant, right? I kept expecting Zoe Wanamaker to wander in and look irritated.

In other news, I know it's just a cliche to say that the most homophobic people are really closet cases, but sometimes that conclusion is just TOO easy. Link gakked from various places on my flist. And really, when you're writing a serious opinion piece that bears a remarkable resemblance to an article from The Onion, do yourself a favour and just come out already. Not only would you be happier, I'm sure your wife would appreciate the chance to find a new guy who doesn't consider het sex to be an inadequate substitute for the good stuff (and is actually aware of the existence of the clitoris).

[info]rivkat wrote an awesome Smallville fic called Repent at Leisure. It starts off a little slow, but once it starts getting hysterically funny, it never lets up.

And Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote an excellently thinky piece called Race, Superstition and Marriage Equality. Please to be reading. Link gakked from...somewhere on my flist.

To finish off with something depressing, well, that's just....great.

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14th June, 2009. 10:49 am. Post of (mostly) grievances

Whole-hearted recommendation for David Meltzer's recently published book First Peoples in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age America. I haven't quite finished it yet, but so far it's EXCELLENT. And if anybody was following the MammothFail mess (which mercifully seems to be dying down a bit. Possibly the pro authors involved have been instructed to keep their damn mouths shut by their agents), highly, HIGHLY relevant book. Meltzer is one of those scholars who can actually write comprehensibly to a general audience without dumbing down the content (not a universal trait, sadly). Plus, he's very open about his own biases and flat-out says when something's controversial, even when it's his own pet theory. He's kinda like Stephen Oppenheimer that way. Except, you know, Meltzer is an American archeologist and Oppenheimer's a British geneticist. But, um, they're both anglophone white guys with German surnames?

Tangent: I never quite forgave Jared Diamond for presenting his Clovis theories as gospel truth rather than highly controversial in "Guns, Germs, and Steel" (which is why I'm not providing a link to buy the damn book, but WILL provide a link to a handy Internet debunking). Oppenheimer and Meltzer fall into the category of academics who have a definite opinion (and Oppenheimer especially can be quite...acidic in his polite, deadly rebukes of fellow scholars for being in his opinion stubborn/Eurocentric/racist/just plain stupid). Where was I? Oppenheimer and Meltzer do at any rate play fair with the reader re: supporting/conflicting evidence while still managing to convey that they believe they're right right right and the opposing view(s) is (are) wrong wrong wrong.

So, um, apparently Iran is having itself a wee revolution.

[info]jonquil has an excellent summary of the Obama White House's bullshit homophobic defense of DOMA with links to commentary by an actual lawyer. You know, as opposed to a pissed-off civvie. I'm not even American and I'm pissed off. Don't even get me started on DADT.

TransGriot and Feministe on the murder of transwoman Lateisha Green, and the total lack of news coverage her killer's trial is receiving. Bearing in mind that her killer is expected to use the "trans panic" defense, same as Angela Zapata's killer.

[info]cereta's post On Rape and Men (Oh yes, I'm going there) has already been linked all over the damn LJ-sphere, but what the hell? I'm already collecting a bunch of serious/depressing links, may as well throw this one in.

On a lighter note, a hilarious xkcd comic strip that manages to simultaneously skewer both Twilight fandom and 4chan culture (though I think 4chan comes off worse). [info]useroxoniensis> has a terrific, hilarious, cracky Gilmore Girls/Supernatural/Buffy crossover called I'm Not Ifrit of the Dark. And [info]inlovewithnight wrote a FABULOUS short story called This is What Will Be. It manages to create a Star Wars/BSG crossover that is plausible and chilling. Because really, what WOULD Leoben do if he found himself in the Star Wars universe?

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10th June, 2009. 8:05 pm.

It's fascinating how the murderers of George Tiller (the ob/gyn) and Steven Tyrone Johns (the security guard) have yet to be referred to as terrorists in the media coverage. Or at least they haven't been referred to that way in any coverage I've seen (please prove me wrong if you've seen/read otherwise. I don't enjoy being this cynical). These were politically motivated assassinations. It would appear that your crime will only be (correctly) referred to as a terroristic act if you are brown. If you're a white guy who's culturally Christian and you open fire inside a place of worship or a museum, the worst that will be said is that you're a gunman or a killer. {Please note that I have no idea of the level of religious involvement of either Scott Roeder or James von Brunn. But on an ethnic and cultural level, they both seem to be Christians.}

I don't believe in the death penalty, so I'm not advocating that these men be killed. But it would be really, REALLY nice if they were charged with bias crimes as well as homicide. Charges of terrorism would presumably be too much to hope for. As far as I can recall, the last white guy to get called a terrorist was Timothy McVeigh, and that was a long time ago. James Adkisson wasn't (you know the OTHER recent church shooting).

Link here to The Anchoress blog on Steven Tyrone Johns: Holocaust hero. {Yeah, yeah, okay I'll admit the link veers towards maudlin at times, but if there were ever a time that maudlin-ness were allowed...}

As of yet I haven't found links that would allow well-wishers to donate to help Officer Johns' family, or to pass along condolences. If I do find either, I will edit the post.

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31st May, 2009. 7:21 pm.

A nice lukewarm bath is a wonderful thing on a too-damn-hot Sunday afternoon. As is Indian take-out because it's also too damn hot to cook. The grocery shopping portion of the festivities was less wonderful, but groceries must be got. The Wild Beast is not enjoying this heat. Neither am I, for that matter, but at least I don't have a fur coat that can't be unzipped. I wonder what he'd do to me if I tried to cut off all his fur...

Donated to Planned Parenthood USA in memory of George Tiller, which made me feel better. Yeah, I know I'm not in the US, but it was one of the links [info]kellyhk put up in her post about his assassination. And I took the option whereby the acknowledgments would be sent to his clinic, which hopefully means his family will hear about it eventually.

I am halfway through Season 1 of Friday Night Lights and am enjoying it more than I would've expected. I mean, okay, it's a soap opera, but it's actually GOOD at the soapy stuff. And as characters go, Tami Taylor is made of win (as is Tyra Collette. Of course, in terms of personality, Tyra and Tami are kind of similar. It's possible I have a type). I still have absolutely no understanding of football as a game, however. And most of the "teen" actors are really MUCH too old to be plausible as high school students. The guy who plays Matt Saracen looks like a child molester next to little Julie Taylor, who's supposed to be the same age as him but is the only "teenager" in the cast who actually looks like one. If he's supposed to be 15, he needs a closer shave. You don't typically see that much five o'clock shadow on a 15 year old boy. On a more serious note, I'm not especially thrilled with some of the racial subtext in the show.

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31st May, 2009. 11:30 am. Pro-life: I do not think that word means what you think it means

Well, fuck. R.I.P. Dr. Tiller.

Edited to add: [info]kellyhk on my f-list has a much more articulate response than I do. Also links. And she's an M.D., so this kind of hits her where she lives.

19th May, 2009. 1:01 am.

Insomnia sucks. Epecially drugged up insomnia where you're exhausted from the sleeping pills but STILL can't sleep. [Public notice: this is not a sympathy post, so if anybody makes a supportive comment, I will totally bring down the banhammer on them]

Hope my fellow Canucks had a glorious Victoria Day long weekend. Mine was great until the Monday downpour. Which of course I had ot go out in.

Have met Wee Brother's new girlfriend, and she's very sweet. Her brand of Christianity is a little (or possibly a lot, we didn't discuss theology over dinner) too fundamentalist for my liking, but what can you do? Oh, and the nickname Wee Brother (he's 6'2" but I get to call him wee because I remember when I was five and he was this 8 pound squalling lobster whose umbilical cord I didn't have enough oomph to cut through - although I made a valiant attempt. Um, I think I've lost track of this sentence. ANYWAY, Wee Brother is 6'2", girlfriend is 5'2", possibly 5'1". They're like a sight gag. Other than the religiosity, though, I'd say she seems really nice, and he'd better not screw this one up. Only in a supportive way, of course. I may feel differently when Brother gets aaround to telling her about the queer thing, but as of right now, I like her. And I'm getting to the point where I'd really like to buy cute little gender-neutral organic cotton non-sweatshop baby outfits for a niece or nephew.

The world's most tolerant Rottweiler is featured here (watch with the sound on, the commentary's cute). Also, the world's most tolerant Husky (though in this case mute the sound. Ah, YouTube: haven for the sleep deprived since.....a really long time.

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15th May, 2009. 4:41 am. Mammothfail

For those of my flisters who are both fans of science fiction/fantasy (visual or text) and also people of colour, please to be considering leaving a brief comment at the comm [info]deadbrowalking. It'll take you ten seconds.

Note to the well-meaning white allies on my flist: not to be posting in solidarity, please. Not on this particular post, anyway.

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