(no subject)

* This is a joke, right? http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=70334

* Boosting the Signal: http://evilandi.livejournal.com/222445.html?mode=reply&style=mine

* I not only scored my bit of ribbon (I hate going to Joann's for small purchases as there is no express lane and it means half an hour or more of waiting in lines to but my stupid .43 cents worth of ribbon, but I went), but KMart actually had two shirts like I'd been wanting in my size and they'd restocked the underwear.

* Someone tried the "cut in front of the disabled person in line as disabled folk don't count as people" thing and the postman actually politely, but firmly told her that that wasn't the line and he was taking me first. O.o I didn't even have time to frame my strategy for dealing with the line cutter and it was sorted. (This line cutting thing is a common problem if you are disabled, since social consensus is common manners related to things like queuing, personal space, and not knocking people over only apply to the able bodied. It's normally considered okay to cut ahead of people, step on them, trip them, etc. if they are not able bodied. Logic would suggest the opposite, but manners have nothing to do with how real people act.) She looked genuinely surprised to be called on it, but she complied.

* The boy cats are conspiring to be extra destructive and high maintenance tonight. Argh!

* FOX "news" picked up a weekly World News item about LAPD jet packs. For my readers, abroad, the Weekly World news is a super market tabloid that runs articles like "I married bigfoot" and "The Ghost of Elvis fathered my baby." They are big on doctored photoes and fictional articles of a sensationalist nature. That FOX picked up a piece of there's and ran with it as news, gives you an idea of the network's creditability. fact checking is your friend, FOX.

* (RM found) More on that avatar porn; http://rollick.livejournal.com/837201.html

* I am impressed with Mr. Meek's political positions as stated on the news this evening. I wish him luck in the wild three way race going on in Florida. it's ashame thhat mr. Rubio and Mr. Christ are getting all the air time.

* This evening, I sipped tea, munched ginger thins, and ran a Wonderland/Alchemy themed Seeking.

* sparkindarkness has something important to say: http://sparkindarkness.livejournal.com/363484.html?style=mine

I was lucky enough to be teaching in districts with strong administrators and lots of support for teacher attempts to stop bullying. I was also lucky enough to have been teaching in a state and county where I was allowed to protect my kids from specifically anti-LGBTQ bullying, and where I was allowed to legally intervene where there was anti-gay language and gender presentation issues. Plenty of places, that's illegal and teachers can loose jobs and licenses just for protecting their students. "Neutrality policies" towards LGBTQ issues tend to gag teachers and prevent them from standing between their kids and a hostile classroom environment. Silence from teachers gets read as consent. Silence isn't good enough. Of course bullying in general needs to be addressed, but you don't have districts and states where teachers are legally prohibited from stopping sexual harassment, for example. It doesn't mean there aren't other types of bullying out there, and it doesn't mean that administrators who don't create a proactive culture in their schools don't need to shape up or be replaced, it doesn't mean more teachers shouldn't speak up, it doesn't mean we don't need good anti-bullying programs that give kids strategies not platitudes. (I've seen good and useless anti-bullying programs both out in the schools). We need all that stuff, but the thing is? Those other things are needing fixing on a school by school grass roots basis. The prohibition on helping LGBTQ kids survive school needs organizing to over turn, often on the state level.

Yes, I know it's not a new issue, but for once, the media's actually paying attention, so let's use that momentum to make things better.

* (neo_prodigy found), "KKK to Rally for Antigay Student": http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/10/06/KKK_to_Rally_for_Antigay_Student/

(no subject)

* This is a joke, right? http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=70334

* Boosting the Signal: http://evilandi.livejournal.com/222445.html?mode=reply&style=mine

* I not only scored my bit of ribbon (I hate going to Joann's for small purchases as there is no express lane and it means half an hour or more of waiting in lines to but my stupid .43 cents worth of ribbon, but I went), but KMart actually had two shirts like I'd been wanting in my size and they'd restocked the underwear.

* Someone tried the "cut in front of the disabled person in line as disabled folk don't count as people" thing and the postman actually politely, but firmly told her that that wasn't the line and he was taking me first. O.o I didn't even have time to frame my strategy for dealing with the line cutter and it was sorted. (This line cutting thing is a common problem if you are disabled, since social consensus is common manners related to things like queuing, personal space, and not knocking people over only apply to the able bodied. It's normally considered okay to cut ahead of people, step on them, trip them, etc. if they are not able bodied. Logic would suggest the opposite, but manners have nothing to do with how real people act.) She looked genuinely surprised to be called on it, but she complied.

* The boy cats are conspiring to be extra destructive and high maintenance tonight. Argh!

* FOX "news" picked up a weekly World News item about LAPD jet packs. For my readers, abroad, the Weekly World news is a super market tabloid that runs articles like "I married bigfoot" and "The Ghost of Elvis fathered my baby." They are big on doctored photoes and fictional articles of a sensationalist nature. That FOX picked up a piece of there's and ran with it as news, gives you an idea of the network's creditability. fact checking is your friend, FOX.

* (RM found) More on that avatar porn; http://rollick.livejournal.com/837201.html

* I am impressed with Mr. Meek's political positions as stated on the news this evening. I wish him luck in the wild three way race going on in Florida. it's ashame thhat mr. Rubio and Mr. Christ are getting all the air time.

* This evening, I sipped tea, munched ginger thins, and ran a Wonderland/Alchemy themed Seeking.

* sparkindarkness has something important to say: http://sparkindarkness.livejournal.com/363484.html?style=mine

I was lucky enough to be teaching in districts with strong administrators and lots of support for teacher attempts to stop bullying. I was also lucky enough to have been teaching in a state and county where I was allowed to protect my kids from specifically anti-LGBTQ bullying, and where I was allowed to legally intervene where there was anti-gay language and gender presentation issues. Plenty of places, that's illegal and teachers can loose jobs and licenses just for protecting their students. "Neutrality policies" towards LGBTQ issues tend to gag teachers and prevent them from standing between their kids and a hostile classroom environment. Silence from teachers gets read as consent. Silence isn't good enough. Of course bullying in general needs to be addressed, but you don't have districts and states where teachers are legally prohibited from stopping sexual harassment, for example. It doesn't mean there aren't other types of bullying out there, and it doesn't mean that administrators who don't create a proactive culture in their schools don't need to shape up or be replaced, it doesn't mean more teachers shouldn't speak up, it doesn't mean we don't need good anti-bullying programs that give kids strategies not platitudes. (I've seen good and useless anti-bullying programs both out in the schools). We need all that stuff, but the thing is? Those other things are needing fixing on a school by school grass roots basis. The prohibition on helping LGBTQ kids survive school needs organizing to over turn, often on the state level.

Yes, I know it's not a new issue, but for once, the media's actually paying attention, so let's use that momentum to make things better.

* (neo_prodigy found), "KKK to Rally for Antigay Student": http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/10/06/KKK_to_Rally_for_Antigay_Student/

* The man who's house they let burn in Tennessee points out that his tax money helped pay for the fire truck. his dogs and cat burned to death. He and his neighbor both offered to pay on the spot if they'd just putout the fire. the man who ordered the firemen to let his house burn didn't even interrupt his golf game a couple of miles away. The fire chief there has begged them to just do a tax to pay for fire service like they do elsewhere that would cover every one. I keep thinking about the horses that burned to death in another fire down there because their owner hadn't paid the fee. It seems to me that this sort of thing is fundamentally wrong, that people should stand and watch animals burn to death, to watch a house or barn go up in smoke. In the old days, this lead to whole blocks and even cities burning.

Glen beck and the national Review applaud this. It looks like evil to me.

* (RM found) Jim DeMint goes after sexually active single teachers and Gay teachers. Asshole: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/05/demint-no-gays-unwed-moms-in-the-classroom/

Freedom of religion does not mean you get to impose your religion on others. It means every one gets to chose for themselves without government interference. The government firing people for not being fundamentalist Christians does not sound like freedom of religion to me. Requiring celibacy of teachers is bullshit, and it has not turned out so well for the catholic church. Teachers have a right to a sex life with other adults on their own time. Also, most places have a teacher shortage, as it requires a lot of continuing college education for which you can't get financial aid to stay certified, it's hard work, and it's poorly paid compared to other jobs requiring the same amount of college. Where are they planning to get all these celibate teachers to replace the ones with adult sex lives on their own time? Also, why the hell should legal activities pursued in leisure time make one ineligible for employment? How is it "small government" to be individually policing the personal lives of every single female teacher, as he proposes?

* (RM found), "Antigay Attacks Reported at Stonewall and in Chelsea": http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/nyregion/05stonewall.html?_r=1

* What with the clown scandal in Delaware, I think this election could have been written by Douglas Addams...

* Today, waiting for my flu shot, I met a guy almost exactly my age (he was a few months older), who looked like a decades older Tom Savini and who was end stage with cirrhosis, chronic pneumonia and a bunch of other things. What the hell do you say in a situation like that? His benefits were worse than mine as he got that "spin down" thing that means he has to pay for a lot of his own meds. (I was scared I'd get caught with that last spring, but it worked out for me). The poor fucker was trying to get some morphine because he needed to pack all his stuff and me out of where he was living by the end of the week, and the pain from his arthritis was making that not possible. My age, almost exactly. Looked seventy or eighty from the alcoholism. I wouldn't be surprised if his arthritis is AS, like mine, but I didn't ask. There's a reason arthritis and alcoholism go hand in hand so often.

* I know people are mocking Luke Perry over this outfit, but I'd totally dress like that if I could afford to: http://gofugyourself.celebuzz.com/assets_c/2010/10/wenn3035606-thumb-420x610.jpg