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Feb. 20th, 2012 01:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* Republicans are fighting the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, on the grounds that it's update would protect LGBTQ folk and add more visas for women being brutalized in other country and Republicans are strongly in favour of violence against LGBTQ folk as you can easily see in things like pro-bullying laws like the "neutrality" statues to protect bullies from any consequences for tormenting fellow students, and violence against women is a okay in the republican mind if the women being abused have accents, and if they have to hurt cis straight women born in this country to achieve those goals the women they sacrifice for it are totally worth it. After all they are currently trying to strip the right to make basic medical decisions like whether to take the pill for cysts away from women in general. The pervasive misogyny in the Republican party is spewing right now is making me furious.
* Rick "man on dog" Santorum wants you to know that "main line Protestantism has fallen out of Christianity as I see it," at least according to a speech he just gave. He also wants you to know that we should bar insurance from covering pre-natal care as now and then it leads to abortion. After all, all the mothers an infants harmed by denying them prenatal care of all types is worth it to take bodily autonomy away from women. Helping a fetus in distress by finding out what's wrong and treating it? Murder! Mother wants top know what sex the child is so they can settle on a name in advance? Murder! Mother in distress and we need to see how the fetus is doing? Murder! Remember, Rick Santorum doesn't care if babies are born unnecessarily damaged or whether the mother dies or is permanently harmed as long as he can impose his religious beliefs on every woman of child bearing age in this country. I am fascinated to see how this plays out in the upcoming news cycle.
* psybelle found, "Toys cannot hold protest because they are not citizens of Russia, officials rule:" http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/15/toys-protest-not-citizens-russia
* The list of things that are seriously fucked up about this plan for a performance is so long and exhausting that I am left speechless: http://thegoldenglamazon.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/stripper-talk-12-pushing-cultural-boundaries/
* Sparkindarkness responds to the CNN pundit's disgusting homophobic tweets urging violence against gay men: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/02/enough-again-why-are-people-still.html
* I hand scrubbed the carpets today as I've called in for the faucet needing fixing. I've packed up my ebay, did dishes and some tidying. There's a couple other things needing doing before sleep. The list of things needing doing tomorrow exhausts me in advance.
* I know most people forget the Spanish Flu unless it turns up in a period drama. As a life long epidemic watcher, I don't. (Neither does the CDC, for perfectly understandable reasons). I've seen too many photoed of whole families laid out for burial: grandparents, parents, five or six children all in a row. I've see too many photos of churches being used as hospitals and have too clear a grasp of numbers. It's why I take flu warnings seriously and part of why I think quarantines are important. It wasn't really Spanish in origin, of course. Like most influenza strains, the strain started in Asia, since it is in South East Asia, that chickens were first domesticated, where influenza first learned to jump species to humans and pigs, and where to this day, it mutates quickly from all that crossing between reservoirs. So why Spanish? WWI was rather distracting to Western media, so no one was paying much attention as it swept Westward with so many dead in it's wake. When it hit the Western powers most of them were still in media black out due to the War. Government censors quickly quashed any mention of the deadly spread, along with any warnings about precautions folks might have taken to stay safe. Spain was having other issues and as a result, no one censored reports of the horrible pathogen there. Since Spanish newspapers were the only ones carrying information about the disease and it's death toll, folks started calling it Spanish Flu, mistaking Spain for the origin. In my opinion, most period drama underestimates the devastation and the shock it was coming on the heels of so many other deaths. It tended to carry off the young and healthy, which made it worse in all the same ways the second wave of bubonic plague was added on top of a large portion of the young male population being dead or maimed by the war. I'm not sure art can convey the shock to individuals and the shape of society these two blows were to the countries and people involved. At the same time, one has to try to grasp it for what followed to make much sense.
* Dog Food of the ancient world: http://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2012/02/ancient-puppy-chow-dog-food-in-classical-greece.html
* Denny Upkins is going to Norwestcon! I doubt I'll have money to go, but so tempting! http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/1052065.html
* Walking Dead thought: it's been so long since T-Dog had any lines, let alone plot, I forgot he was in there.
* "Get off my 8-bit lawn:" http://cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com/392432.html
* Oh man, I'd feel the same way: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp02142012.shtml
* Snerk (NWS text only): http://metaquotes.livejournal.com/7562821.html?style=mine#cutid1
* Rick "man on dog" Santorum wants you to know that "main line Protestantism has fallen out of Christianity as I see it," at least according to a speech he just gave. He also wants you to know that we should bar insurance from covering pre-natal care as now and then it leads to abortion. After all, all the mothers an infants harmed by denying them prenatal care of all types is worth it to take bodily autonomy away from women. Helping a fetus in distress by finding out what's wrong and treating it? Murder! Mother wants top know what sex the child is so they can settle on a name in advance? Murder! Mother in distress and we need to see how the fetus is doing? Murder! Remember, Rick Santorum doesn't care if babies are born unnecessarily damaged or whether the mother dies or is permanently harmed as long as he can impose his religious beliefs on every woman of child bearing age in this country. I am fascinated to see how this plays out in the upcoming news cycle.
* psybelle found, "Toys cannot hold protest because they are not citizens of Russia, officials rule:" http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/15/toys-protest-not-citizens-russia
* The list of things that are seriously fucked up about this plan for a performance is so long and exhausting that I am left speechless: http://thegoldenglamazon.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/stripper-talk-12-pushing-cultural-boundaries/
* Sparkindarkness responds to the CNN pundit's disgusting homophobic tweets urging violence against gay men: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/02/enough-again-why-are-people-still.html
* I hand scrubbed the carpets today as I've called in for the faucet needing fixing. I've packed up my ebay, did dishes and some tidying. There's a couple other things needing doing before sleep. The list of things needing doing tomorrow exhausts me in advance.
* I know most people forget the Spanish Flu unless it turns up in a period drama. As a life long epidemic watcher, I don't. (Neither does the CDC, for perfectly understandable reasons). I've seen too many photoed of whole families laid out for burial: grandparents, parents, five or six children all in a row. I've see too many photos of churches being used as hospitals and have too clear a grasp of numbers. It's why I take flu warnings seriously and part of why I think quarantines are important. It wasn't really Spanish in origin, of course. Like most influenza strains, the strain started in Asia, since it is in South East Asia, that chickens were first domesticated, where influenza first learned to jump species to humans and pigs, and where to this day, it mutates quickly from all that crossing between reservoirs. So why Spanish? WWI was rather distracting to Western media, so no one was paying much attention as it swept Westward with so many dead in it's wake. When it hit the Western powers most of them were still in media black out due to the War. Government censors quickly quashed any mention of the deadly spread, along with any warnings about precautions folks might have taken to stay safe. Spain was having other issues and as a result, no one censored reports of the horrible pathogen there. Since Spanish newspapers were the only ones carrying information about the disease and it's death toll, folks started calling it Spanish Flu, mistaking Spain for the origin. In my opinion, most period drama underestimates the devastation and the shock it was coming on the heels of so many other deaths. It tended to carry off the young and healthy, which made it worse in all the same ways the second wave of bubonic plague was added on top of a large portion of the young male population being dead or maimed by the war. I'm not sure art can convey the shock to individuals and the shape of society these two blows were to the countries and people involved. At the same time, one has to try to grasp it for what followed to make much sense.
* Dog Food of the ancient world: http://www.wondersandmarvels.com/2012/02/ancient-puppy-chow-dog-food-in-classical-greece.html
* Denny Upkins is going to Norwestcon! I doubt I'll have money to go, but so tempting! http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/1052065.html
* Walking Dead thought: it's been so long since T-Dog had any lines, let alone plot, I forgot he was in there.
* "Get off my 8-bit lawn:" http://cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com/392432.html
* Oh man, I'd feel the same way: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp02142012.shtml
* Snerk (NWS text only): http://metaquotes.livejournal.com/7562821.html?style=mine#cutid1