(no subject)

* There was a particularly brutal earthquake in Turkey over the weekend, which I missed. They are still pulling people from the rubble, and many survivors are homeless. It's one of the poorest regions in Turkey. As usual, I suggest sending money to Doctors without Boarders or red Cross/Red Crescent if you want to help.

* There is a 20 million ton debris island from the Japanese tsunami headed toward the US. At least it is not radioactive, which was enough of a worry for them to send people to check. Something still needs to be done, but it genuinely could have been so much worse.

* It's so nice to see the President out and about arguing fiercely for sane economic policy. Let's hope it's not to late.

* Props to the DNC for using a clip of Romney cheering on foreclosures in a thirty second anti-Romney ad. Folks need to see this sort of thing before they vote.

* Mitt Romney's out telling the lie that his tax plan will lower rather than dramatically raise taxes for the poor and middle class. I say lie because I don't see how he can not know that his numbers don't add up.

* Despite the President being obviously brighter and better educated than any of the Republican candidates, Gov. Perry is now demanding to see Obama's grades. This is clearly more courting of the racist vote as it looks like code for a belief that an African American man can't possibly earn all his academic honors despite all the evidence that he really did earn everything. He's also claiming this and the birther questions he's raising are for "fun." Stirring up this kind of ugly racist shit doesn't look fun to me; it looks like deliberately poisoning the political atmosphere and validating the fanatical racists and making them look mainstream. It's the opposite of responsible and outright bad for the country.

* Apparently, Rick Perry is also for a "flat tax," which like Cain's and Romney's is designed to lower taxes even further for the wealthy and raise them for everyone else, but I have not seen the numbers yet, so I can't tell how bad it is compared to the other disastrous plans. honestly, given how hard he's playing for the racist vote, I have trouble seeing him playing well outside of white supremacist circles at this point, and even with them his single digits in republican only polls, so I'm not taking him that seriously.

* When Pat Robertson is your party's voice of reason, begging you to tone it down, You have a serious problem. Republicans now have that problem.

* The trial has started for yet another fundamentalist child murder, this time in the county below mine. They beat her to death because god and their Church told them to. Just like the previous fundamentalist child murder, it's a white couple who adopted African children and then beat them over and over to break their spirit. I think the people who wrote To Train Up a child are pretty fucking evil. I don't use the word evil lightly, but I honestly can't understand how a person could beat a child they claimed to love to death with sticks. I dealt with some pretty obnoxious kids in the course of my teaching career, and I was never once tempted to beat one to death, and those were full sized teenagers, (Yes, every middle school teacher has been tempted to duct tape a kid to a chair at some point or another, but nearly all of us refrain, what with it being very much the wrong thing to do), not some helpless elementary aged kid. I honestly can't imagine hitting a kid half my size.

* They are now officially recommending anti-cancer vaccine for young boys as well as girls. Those of us who've been keeping an eye on the HPV vaccines studies are not surprised as it's been unofficially recommended for some time now. The two vaccines are good against several forms of cancer of the throat, mouth, anus, and genitals, and is an all around good idea regardless of the sex or sexes a boy ends up interested in when he grows up. The vaccines work better if they are given before exposure, and the people least likely to be able to clear the infection on their own are teens and young adults, hence the importance of vaccinating early, and why they generally don't bother doing older adults.

* I know nothing about Pete Kremen's personal life, but he seems so creepy in his political commercial, that if I met him in person, I'd likely edge away, keeping my eyes on him just in case, and avoid being in a room alone with him. I decided to vote against him for policy reasons before the commercial started airing, but now that I've seen him, I doubly glad. *shudder* I am wondering if I'm the only one responding to his add like that, if not, he has done himself no favour.

* I have heard about the Amber Cole case. I do not see how anyone with a conscience could watch an underage girl being victimized by a bunch of bullies who filmed her without her knowledge in a sexual act in order to internationally shame her. It's creepy, inappropriate, and every adult watching is engaging in pedophilia. May I add, eew. I'm glad the boys have been arrested. I'm sorry this violation of her privacy will likely follow her all her life, and really there is no sentence the boys can serve as rotten as her having future employers googling her and getting kiddie porn filmed and posted against her will.

I wish the young woman all the best, and I think that the boys involved and the adults watching and engaging in shaming her are the ones we should be shaming as a society, not her.

* Yesterday's bad news round up is an important reminder of how incredibly lucky I am to be able to wander around with my trans knotwork shirt in comparative safety. I wish more people had that sort of safety.

* I think things like this are a human rights violation. Of course she belongs in a female facility: http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2011/10/jovanie-saldana-update.html

* A majority of people in New Hampshire are against repealing marriage equality, so of course the bigots are claiming majority support and using photoshopped pictures of an Obama rally from the last presidential election from another state to prove popular support. Of course. If their cause is so just, why do they have to lie? If their arguments are so strong that they justify repealing civil rights from a persecuted group, why don't they rely on them instead of trickery?

* Re: violent tweets. I am against threatening or encouraging the killing of politicians. Yes, that goes for "jokes" about killing sarah Palin as it does when it's threats from Sarah Palin or Arizona rivals against Gabby Gifford. stay classy, folks, and don't sink to their level. It's simply not okay, no matter who is doing it.

* I got a call for more paperwork today as I was getting ready for the doctor. This is just exhausting. I just want to know if we can move or not.

* The second half of the cool thing on Asian Media I linked to a while back: http://arsmarginal.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/representation-in-media-asian-media-part-ii-fist-of-fury-the-connection-with-the-social-justice/

I remember how Fists of Fury blew me away the first time I saw it. I'd never seen something that political in a martial arts film and so pertinent to the times.

* Teaching and the free Market: http://drewnomicon.blogspot.com/2011/10/101611-post.html

* This gets into some pretty interesting territory for a book review: http://slatebreakers.com/2011/10/20/review-the-good-the-bad-and-the-barbie-by-tanya-lee-stone/

* This is beautiful: http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/11867696656/il-leone-this-piece-this-piece-what-you-are

* The phrase "ball popper" should not be in conjunction with "Playschool." Just saying.

* Halloween cake: http://cakewrecks.squarespace.com/home/2011/10/23/sunday-treats-halloween.html

* This made me smile; http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/1016512.html

* Zombie vs. Baby; http://www.howtobeadad.com/2011/1582/zombie-baby

* John Stewert's take on a bunch of political news in the first segment is spot on: http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/mon-october-24-2011-kevin-clash?xrs=share_copy

* The Clutch:

* Submitted without comment, Just trust me, watch through to the cowboy bit: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45041240#45041240

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(no subject)

* There was a particularly brutal earthquake in Turkey over the weekend, which I missed. They are still pulling people from the rubble, and many survivors are homeless. It's one of the poorest regions in Turkey. As usual, I suggest sending money to Doctors without Boarders or red Cross/Red Crescent if you want to help.

* There is a 20 million ton debris island from the Japanese tsunami headed toward the US. At least it is not radioactive, which was enough of a worry for them to send people to check. Something still needs to be done, but it genuinely could have been so much worse.

* It's so nice to see the President out and about arguing fiercely for sane economic policy. Let's hope it's not to late.

* Props to the DNC for using a clip of Romney cheering on foreclosures in a thirty second anti-Romney ad. Folks need to see this sort of thing before they vote.

* Mitt Romney's out telling the lie that his tax plan will lower rather than dramatically raise taxes for the poor and middle class. I say lie because I don't see how he can not know that his numbers don't add up.

* Despite the President being obviously brighter and better educated than any of the Republican candidates, Gov. Perry is now demanding to see Obama's grades. This is clearly more courting of the racist vote as it looks like code for a belief that an African American man can't possibly earn all his academic honors despite all the evidence that he really did earn everything. He's also claiming this and the birther questions he's raising are for "fun." Stirring up this kind of ugly racist shit doesn't look fun to me; it looks like deliberately poisoning the political atmosphere and validating the fanatical racists and making them look mainstream. It's the opposite of responsible and outright bad for the country.

* Apparently, Rick Perry is also for a "flat tax," which like Cain's and Romney's is designed to lower taxes even further for the wealthy and raise them for everyone else, but I have not seen the numbers yet, so I can't tell how bad it is compared to the other disastrous plans. honestly, given how hard he's playing for the racist vote, I have trouble seeing him playing well outside of white supremacist circles at this point, and even with them his single digits in republican only polls, so I'm not taking him that seriously.

* When Pat Robertson is your party's voice of reason, begging you to tone it down, You have a serious problem. Republicans now have that problem.

* The trial has started for yet another fundamentalist child murder, this time in the county below mine. They beat her to death because god and their Church told them to. Just like the previous fundamentalist child murder, it's a white couple who adopted African children and then beat them over and over to break their spirit. I think the people who wrote To Train Up a child are pretty fucking evil. I don't use the word evil lightly, but I honestly can't understand how a person could beat a child they claimed to love to death with sticks. I dealt with some pretty obnoxious kids in the course of my teaching career, and I was never once tempted to beat one to death, and those were full sized teenagers, (Yes, every middle school teacher has been tempted to duct tape a kid to a chair at some point or another, but nearly all of us refrain, what with it being very much the wrong thing to do), not some helpless elementary aged kid. I honestly can't imagine hitting a kid half my size.

* They are now officially recommending anti-cancer vaccine for young boys as well as girls. Those of us who've been keeping an eye on the HPV vaccines studies are not surprised as it's been unofficially recommended for some time now. The two vaccines are good against several forms of cancer of the throat, mouth, anus, and genitals, and is an all around good idea regardless of the sex or sexes a boy ends up interested in when he grows up. The vaccines work better if they are given before exposure, and the people least likely to be able to clear the infection on their own are teens and young adults, hence the importance of vaccinating early, and why they generally don't bother doing older adults.

* I know nothing about Pete Kremen's personal life, but he seems so creepy in his political commercial, that if I met him in person, I'd likely edge away, keeping my eyes on him just in case, and avoid being in a room alone with him. I decided to vote against him for policy reasons before the commercial started airing, but now that I've seen him, I doubly glad. *shudder* I am wondering if I'm the only one responding to his add like that, if not, he has done himself no favour.

* I have heard about the Amber Cole case. I do not see how anyone with a conscience could watch an underage girl being victimized by a bunch of bullies who filmed her without her knowledge in a sexual act in order to internationally shame her. It's creepy, inappropriate, and every adult watching is engaging in pedophilia. May I add, eew. I'm glad the boys have been arrested. I'm sorry this violation of her privacy will likely follow her all her life, and really there is no sentence the boys can serve as rotten as her having future employers googling her and getting kiddie porn filmed and posted against her will.

I wish the young woman all the best, and I think that the boys involved and the adults watching and engaging in shaming her are the ones we should be shaming as a society, not her.

* Yesterday's bad news round up is an important reminder of how incredibly lucky I am to be able to wander around with my trans knotwork shirt in comparative safety. I wish more people had that sort of safety.

* I think things like this are a human rights violation. Of course she belongs in a female facility: http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2011/10/jovanie-saldana-update.html

* A majority of people in New Hampshire are against repealing marriage equality, so of course the bigots are claiming majority support and using photoshopped pictures of an Obama rally from the last presidential election from another state to prove popular support. Of course. If their cause is so just, why do they have to lie? If their arguments are so strong that they justify repealing civil rights from a persecuted group, why don't they rely on them instead of trickery?

* Re: violent tweets. I am against threatening or encouraging the killing of politicians. Yes, that goes for "jokes" about killing sarah Palin as it does when it's threats from Sarah Palin or Arizona rivals against Gabby Gifford. stay classy, folks, and don't sink to their level. It's simply not okay, no matter who is doing it.

* I got a call for more paperwork today as I was getting ready for the doctor. This is just exhausting. I just want to know if we can move or not.

* The second half of the cool thing on Asian Media I linked to a while back: http://arsmarginal.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/representation-in-media-asian-media-part-ii-fist-of-fury-the-connection-with-the-social-justice/

I remember how Fists of Fury blew me away the first time I saw it. I'd never seen something that political in a martial arts film and so pertinent to the times.

* Teaching and the free Market: http://drewnomicon.blogspot.com/2011/10/101611-post.html

* This gets into some pretty interesting territory for a book review: http://slatebreakers.com/2011/10/20/review-the-good-the-bad-and-the-barbie-by-tanya-lee-stone/

* This is beautiful: http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/11867696656/il-leone-this-piece-this-piece-what-you-are

* The phrase "ball popper" should not be in conjunction with "Playschool." Just saying.

* Halloween cake: http://cakewrecks.squarespace.com/home/2011/10/23/sunday-treats-halloween.html

* This made me smile; http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/1016512.html

* Zombie vs. Baby; http://www.howtobeadad.com/2011/1582/zombie-baby

* John Stewert's take on a bunch of political news in the first segment is spot on: http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/mon-october-24-2011-kevin-clash?xrs=share_copy

* The Clutch:

* Submitted without comment, Just trust me, watch through to the cowboy bit: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45041240#45041240

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy