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Feb. 6th, 2012 04:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* China and Russia are blocking any UN action in Syria, despite the government mortar attack on Homs I mentioned... was it Friday? Anyway, Russia and China being in favour of internal genocide is no surprise to anyone paying attention. It's down to the Arab League, as I expected since Arab Spring hit Syria. It's sounding like there's a lively debate going on there, more lively than I was expecting, and it sounds like they might be looking to pressure the Syrian regime to let them negotiate a settlement. Wow! If that happens it will be a new and positive precedent. Seriously folks, if this happens start watching the skies for pigs. The fact that they are even considering doing this is fucking huge. If the pull it off.... It's a step towards a much better world.
Fingers crossed. This is the most hope I've had for Syria in my whole life. It may not work, but let's all hope it does.
* Thirteen Nations including Azerbaijan(!!), and Morocco(!!!) voted in favour of intervention in Syria, btw. That's the whole security council except China and Russia. It's no news that Western Nations are interested in intervention; it's huge that nations not normally big on intervention, and most especially two Muslim dominant nations. This also may not look like much, but trust me, it's a sign of sea change in the right direction.
Remember how I said last Spring that I had no idea what things would be like in a year? Yeah....
* As part of his plan to make birth control unavailable if he can't outlaw it outright, he has promised to eliminate Title X, a Nixon Era program that provides health care, including birth control and preventative medicine to women in poverty. This will disproportionally harm women in rural areas where it's already a struggle to get birth control and other health care due to the shortage of low income clinics outside of cities. Too bad if women have to die unnecessarily due to lack of screening and early treatment, Mitt Romney's religious principles will be forced on all those women against their will and that's the really important thing.
* Melissa Harris Perry has pointed out that the Susan B. Koman promotional material mostly only features white middle class women. It bothered her, but she mostly gave it a pass because the cause was good. To her, when they yanked money from PP, it was a way of saying that they are really only out to cure those white middle class women, not everybody else. It was a way of saying they really meant it, that only those women mattered.
I love her brain.
* Planned Parenthood raised 3 million dollars last week thanks to publicity over Susan B Koman going all right wing on them.
* It is expected there will be yet another budget battle at the end of the month, with republicans yet against threatening to shut down the government. I know they do this every other month. It's still an asshole thing to do.
* I hate when they put superheroes and other female action heroes in high heels. To be fair, I used to run in three inch spikes. By run, I mean nowhere near as fast as I did in my running shoes, nor anywhere near as far, and certainly not on a slope or a slippery surface. Even given that I know you can run a short distance not that fast in two inch spikes, I simply do not understand why a cat burgler, super hero, vampire killer etc., would choose them as part of a costume. (Same goes for corsets. they are more comfortable than they look thanks to the magic of back support, but you can't breath deeply, something you need to do if you are running and fighting. Fighting is fucking exhausting. I am looking at you, Anna Valerious of Von Helsing.) Also, as someone who spent a surprisingly large part of my childhood on roofs, the best shoe for running about silently on roofs is no shoe at all. Feet have decent traction, you can feel if a shingle breaks or is coming loose, and you can use your toes for gripping. If you can't be barefoot due to whether or fear of leaving prints, I'm guessing you'd want something as close to a foot as you can get, you know flexible with a thin, flat sole and lots of traction. Six inch spike heels are the opposite of that. No way would I jog across a forty five degree angle roof top in spikes, especially in rain or fog. *shudder* That's foolish on a level I'm not sure I can successfully convey, and I'm someone who used to nap up there with a couple Siamese cats, just saying.
What is this all about? Big_wired spotted the planned Cat Woman costume: http://big-wired.livejournal.com/276965.html
* Pirate metal: http://youtu.be/ggyC0FOzqHM
* OMG! Black Metal cooking show! ""The can is a formidible enemy!)": http://youtu.be/Jy2my_diH6A
Fingers crossed. This is the most hope I've had for Syria in my whole life. It may not work, but let's all hope it does.
* Thirteen Nations including Azerbaijan(!!), and Morocco(!!!) voted in favour of intervention in Syria, btw. That's the whole security council except China and Russia. It's no news that Western Nations are interested in intervention; it's huge that nations not normally big on intervention, and most especially two Muslim dominant nations. This also may not look like much, but trust me, it's a sign of sea change in the right direction.
Remember how I said last Spring that I had no idea what things would be like in a year? Yeah....
* As part of his plan to make birth control unavailable if he can't outlaw it outright, he has promised to eliminate Title X, a Nixon Era program that provides health care, including birth control and preventative medicine to women in poverty. This will disproportionally harm women in rural areas where it's already a struggle to get birth control and other health care due to the shortage of low income clinics outside of cities. Too bad if women have to die unnecessarily due to lack of screening and early treatment, Mitt Romney's religious principles will be forced on all those women against their will and that's the really important thing.
* Melissa Harris Perry has pointed out that the Susan B. Koman promotional material mostly only features white middle class women. It bothered her, but she mostly gave it a pass because the cause was good. To her, when they yanked money from PP, it was a way of saying that they are really only out to cure those white middle class women, not everybody else. It was a way of saying they really meant it, that only those women mattered.
I love her brain.
* Planned Parenthood raised 3 million dollars last week thanks to publicity over Susan B Koman going all right wing on them.
* It is expected there will be yet another budget battle at the end of the month, with republicans yet against threatening to shut down the government. I know they do this every other month. It's still an asshole thing to do.
* I hate when they put superheroes and other female action heroes in high heels. To be fair, I used to run in three inch spikes. By run, I mean nowhere near as fast as I did in my running shoes, nor anywhere near as far, and certainly not on a slope or a slippery surface. Even given that I know you can run a short distance not that fast in two inch spikes, I simply do not understand why a cat burgler, super hero, vampire killer etc., would choose them as part of a costume. (Same goes for corsets. they are more comfortable than they look thanks to the magic of back support, but you can't breath deeply, something you need to do if you are running and fighting. Fighting is fucking exhausting. I am looking at you, Anna Valerious of Von Helsing.) Also, as someone who spent a surprisingly large part of my childhood on roofs, the best shoe for running about silently on roofs is no shoe at all. Feet have decent traction, you can feel if a shingle breaks or is coming loose, and you can use your toes for gripping. If you can't be barefoot due to whether or fear of leaving prints, I'm guessing you'd want something as close to a foot as you can get, you know flexible with a thin, flat sole and lots of traction. Six inch spike heels are the opposite of that. No way would I jog across a forty five degree angle roof top in spikes, especially in rain or fog. *shudder* That's foolish on a level I'm not sure I can successfully convey, and I'm someone who used to nap up there with a couple Siamese cats, just saying.
What is this all about? Big_wired spotted the planned Cat Woman costume: http://big-wired.livejournal.com/276965.html
* Pirate metal: http://youtu.be/ggyC0FOzqHM
* OMG! Black Metal cooking show! ""The can is a formidible enemy!)": http://youtu.be/Jy2my_diH6A