(no subject)

* Two more journalists were killed in the shelling of Homs yesterday. Two other journalists were seriously wounded. They both need surgery, which isn't possible what with the shortages and the government firing on hospitals and clinics. They need evacuation desperately, but the Syrian government claims that they, like all the other wounded, unarmed civilians are secretly armed terrorists. They don't seem to care that the footage gives the lie to the bullshit the Syrian government is shoveling, and are out victim blaming in the press. There was a march today in horror of all the brave journalists who've died in the last year trying to show the world the truth, including Syrian Rami al-Sayed. I'm getting confused reports about things Turkey is either doing or planning to do to help the Syrian people, but nothing definitive, beyond Turkey saying they weren't okay with large scale refugee influx or disruption near their border. There is reason to think this is why Aleppo is relatively untouched by government violence, while cities further south are being hit. Russia and China keep backing the murderous government, which makes intervention messy. It's all so fucking heartbreaking and too awful to capture in words.

* The House and senate in Maryland both passed marriage Equality. The governor is likely to sign it into law there next week.

* A Federal Judge ruled DOMA unconstitutional. "The court finds that DOMA, as applied to Ms. Golinski, violates her right to equal protection of the law … without substantial justification or rational basis." I'm expecting this to go to the supreme Court, honestly, so I'm not celebrating just yet.

* I see romney was hunting santorum in the debate. It's a little scary that they are now ganging up on santorm for being too reasonable. It's laugh or cry, really.

* I managed to do most of the things needing doing in my bedroom today. I still have a smaller batch of sorting/tidying to do, but things are much better. I also dealt with a bunch of housework and bits and bobs like hanging the new shower curtain. You've likely already noticed I finished the BPAL cataloging and reviewing. Progress! I still got crap for sleep. The interruptions I most resent were 1. the twice weekly harassment from people claiming to be my credit card company trying to sell me services I don't want and don't trust. The robot always claims this is the last call, but it never is and 2. two separate calls from Medicare prescription plan telling me that we won the yearly battle to keep all my prescriptions covered despite cost cutting measures that always try to convince me to go off key medications. why I needed to be told this by both a live human and a robot that needed me to hit buttons in sequence when half awake to get through their voicemail maze to find out what the human had already just called to tell me I don't know. Sigh. Sleep will suck tomorrow as I have both a Doctor's appointment and Squirrel and I might be going to see a movie.

* I am still fascinated by people gendering me. The day I went to Goodwill, I was approached by a beggar, who's pitch started with "Ma'am." she got a little closer, did a horrified/embarrassed double take, then started again with no honorific, just in case. Wednesday, dressed in essentially the same outfit (identical trousers, a different, but similar black tee shirt) it was Ma'am at the bank and Sir at the theater, though everyone turned to stare at me when I went to the loo. (It's always a little alarming when a row of people at the sinks give one a shocked look. I carried on as if nothing odd was happening). I wish there was some socially polite way to do a survey to find out why people pick one over the other. Either way, I figure I'm successfully bowling down the center of the lane if I'm this hard to parse for random folks.

* I am reading Centuries Ago and Very Fast. I can tell my response is going to be complicated already. It really makes me think of il_volpe, I think because there is a touch of Scarpia about it. It's doing all these complicated things with history, and sex, and relationships. I'm struggling with words to explain what it's doing exactly. Maybe history through gay eyes and some very specific angles with graphic sex and relationships all mixed up to make an interesting salad? It manages to be specific and human scale while simultaneously being sweeping and epic. Seriously, so hard to explain and all the bits are still moving about in my head. Weirdly, my bedtime saga I tell myself the last year of so is eerily like this.

* I've been watching Princess Bride again. Yes, I still have a serious crush on Inigo Montoya. Also on Mandy Patinkin, yes, even now he's wrinkly. I once got to see him sing Che in an Evita revival. Mmmmmm... Mandy....

* Bizarre overblown Republican claims about Obama with no basis in reality: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-february-22-2012/indecision-2012---president-evil

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(no subject)

* Two more journalists were killed in the shelling of Homs yesterday. Two other journalists were seriously wounded. They both need surgery, which isn't possible what with the shortages and the government firing on hospitals and clinics. They need evacuation desperately, but the Syrian government claims that they, like all the other wounded, unarmed civilians are secretly armed terrorists. They don't seem to care that the footage gives the lie to the bullshit the Syrian government is shoveling, and are out victim blaming in the press. there was a march today in horror of all the brave journalists who've died in the last year trying to show the world the truth, including Syrian Rami al-Sayed. I'm getting confused reports about things Turkey is either doing or planning to do to help the Syrian people, but nothing definitive, beyond Turkey saying they weren't okay with large scale refugee influx or disruption near their border. There is reason to think this is why Aleppo is relatively untouched by government violence, while cities further south are being hit. Russia and China keep backing the murderous government, which makes intervention messy. It's all so fucking heartbreaking and too awful to capture in words.

* The House and senate in Maryland both passed marriage Equality. The governor is likely to sign it into law there next week.

* A Federal Judge ruled DOMA unconstitutional. "The court finds that DOMA, as applied to Ms. Golinski, violates her right to equal protection of the law … without substantial justification or rational basis." I'm expecting this to go to the supreme Court, honestly, so I'm not celebrating just yet.

* I see romney was hunting santorum in the debate. It's a little scary that they are now ganging up on santorm for being too reasonable. It's laugh or cry, really.

* I managed to do most of the things needing doing in my bedroom today. I still have a smaller batch of sorting/tidying to do, but things are much better. I also dealt with a bunch of housework and bits and bobs like hanging the new shower curtain. You've likely already noticed I finished the BPAL cataloging and reviewing. Progress! I still got crap for sleep. The interruptions I most resent were 1. the twice weekly harassment from people claiming to be my credit card company trying to sell me services I don't want and don't trust. The robot always claims this is the last call, but it never is and 2. two separate calls from Medicare prescription plan telling me that we won the yearly battle to keep all my prescriptions covered despite cost cutting measures that always try to convince me to go off key medications. why I needed to be told this by both a live human and a robot that needed me to hit buttons in sequence when half awake to get through their voicemail maze to find out what the human had already just called to tell me I don't know. Sigh. Sleep will suck tomorrow as I have both a Doctor's appointment and Squirrel and I might be going to see a movie.

* I am still fascinated by people gendering me. The day I went to Goodwill, I was approached by a beggar, who's pitch started with "Ma'am." she got a little closer, did a horrified/embarrassed double take, then started again with no honorific, just in case. Wednesday, dressed in essentially the same outfit (identical trousers, a different, but similar black tee shirt) it was Ma'am at the bank and Sir at the theater, though everyone turned to stare at me when I went to the loo. (It's always a little alarming when a row of people at the sinks give one a shocked look. I carried on as if nothing odd was happening). I wish there was some socially polite way to do a survey to find out why people pick one over the other. Either way, I figure I'm successfully bowling down the center of the lane if I'm this hard to parse for random folks.

* I am reading Centuries Ago and Very Fast. I can tell my response is going to be complicated already. It really makes me think of il_volpe, I think because there is a touch of Scarpia about it. It's doing all these complicated things with history, and sex, and relationships. I'm struggling with words to explain what it's doing exactly. Maybe history through gay eyes and some very specific angles with graphic sex and relationships all mixed up to make an interesting salad? It manages to be specific and human scale while simultaneously being sweeping and epic. Seriously, so hard to explain and all the bits are still moving about in my head. Weirdly, my bedtime saga I tell myself the last year of so is eerily like this.

* I've been watching Princess Bride again. Yes, I still have a serious crush on Inigo Montoya. Also on Mandy Patinkin, yes, even now he's wrinkly. I once got to see him sing Che in an Evita revival. Mmmmmm... Mandy....

* Bizarre overblown Republican claims about Obama with no basis in reality: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-february-22-2012/indecision-2012---president-evil

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(no subject)

* I don't know if you remember that thing where it turned out the NYPD was illegally tracking/spying on citizens of Middle eastern decent despite them not being suspected of specific wrong doing? It turns out the NYPD was also spying on folks in Pennsylvania at the University of Pennsylvania, and at Yale, along with fourteen other universities. Despite that not only being illegal spying, but well out of their jurisdiction. Mayorbloomberg wants you to know it's okay because illegal spying on innocent citizens totally is keeping the whole country safe. Which is his job as Mayor of New York. Obviously. Riiiiight. How come it makes me feel less safe then? Also, I am surprised that NYPD have all this extra time and money to waste. Are there no actual crimes they could be investigating, like all this illegal spying, for example? If not, maybe the NYPD really does need downsizing.

* Mitt Romney is still pushing a tax plan to cut social security and medicare to pay for even more tax cuts for the wealthiest. He is now claiming this is siding with the 99% against the 1%. If so, I have serious questions about his ability to do basic math. I can only conclude he is deliberately lying like a rug.

* In more time traveling Obama new. According to Lou Dobbs, the president went back in time to force Mary Norton to write The Brrowers in the early fifties and Dr. Seuss to write the Lorax in 1971 so as to indoctrinate children who would later become voters so as to get them to support his Presidential agenda. Okay, he did not use the phrase time travel, but how else could the president influence the writing of the borrowers back before he was born. Similarly, how else could the future president make Dr. seuss do anything when he was a ten year old, let alone imagine that it would somehow help him when he would be running for reelection in 2012.

* Also in time travelling Obama news, the President went back to the Bush presidency and forced then President Bush to appoint some of Bush's cronies to the board of the US Export-Import bank, so that later, they could loan money to Brazil to promote US exports to that Country. FOX "news" is not overtly mentioning "time travel" or "mind control," but again, how else could he be responsible for the decisions of Bush appointees whith whom he had no contact? Yet FOX is blaming President Obama, and I can't see how else it would make sense.

* Sanat alerted me to this protest against a transphobic editorial in New Zealand: http://feastoffun.com/topics/politics-activism/2012/02/23/queer-activists-respond-to-transphobic-opinion-piece-in-nz-newspaper/

* I only had a couple of hours sleep, and I'm going to gi back to bed.

* I dreamed that they were trying to do a Glee knockoff in a school like season 4 of the Wire. It was... hard to describe, really, but interesting.

* In retrospect, the star anise in an Omen of Good Fortune is a touch weirder than I initially thought.

* This book looks cool: http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/425250.html

* Wow, the Virginia government mandated forced non-consensual vaginal probe thing got weird and convoluted while I was looking away. Frankly, you need the detail for it to make anysence, so I'm going to give you a clip instead of trying to summarize: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46506815

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* And then Thursday they amended it so that it required gestational age, which means they still require a vaginal probe unless the woman wants to wait until an external ultrasound can be done. It's still not medically necessary and incredibly intrusive. The new law requires the doctor to prove he did the medically unnecessary procedure.

* I meant to rant about this back when it broke that they were still doing this, but I got distracted by everything else going on. Stephen Colbert on Mormons practice of non-consensual baptism of Holocaust victims: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/409086/february-23-2012/posthumous-mormon-baptism

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(no subject)

* I don't know if you remember that thing where it turned out the NYPD was illegally tracking/spying on citizens of Middle eastern decent despite them not being suspected of specific wrong doing? It turns out the NYPD was also spying on folks in Pennsylvania at the University of Pennsylvania, and at Yale, along with fourteen other universities. Despite that not only being illegal spying, but well out of their jurisdiction. Mayorbloomberg wants you to know it's okay because illegal spying on innocent citizens totally is keeping the whole country safe. Which is his job as Mayor of New York. Obviously. Riiiiight. How come it makes me feel less safe then? Also, I am surprised that NYPD have all this extra time and money to waste. Are there no actual crimes they could be investigating, like all this illegal spying, for example? If not, maybe the NYPD really does need downsizing.

* Mitt Romney is still pushing a tax plan to cut social security and medicare to pay for even more tax cuts for the wealthiest. He is now claiming this is siding with the 99% against the 1%. If so, I have serious questions about his ability to do basic math. I can only conclude he is deliberately lying like a rug.

* In more time traveling Obama new. According to Lou Dobbs, the president went back in time to force Mary Norton to write The Brrowers in the early fifties and Dr. Seuss to write the Lorax in 1971 so as to indoctrinate children who would later become voters so as to get them to support his Presidential agenda. Okay, he did not use the phrase time travel, but how else could the president influence the writing of the borrowers back before he was born. Similarly, how else could the future president make Dr. seuss do anything when he was a ten year old, let alone imagine that it would somehow help him when he would be running for reelection in 2012.

* Also in time travelling Obama news, the President went back to the Bush presidency and forced then President Bush to appoint some of Bush's cronies to the board of the US Export-Import bank, so that later, they could loan money to Brazil to promote US exports to that Country. FOX "news" is not overtly mentioning "time travel" or "mind control," but again, how else could he be responsible for the decisions of Bush appointees whith whom he had no contact? Yet FOX is blaming President Obama, and I can't see how else it would make sense.

* Sanat alerted me to this protest against a transphobic editorial in New Zealand: http://feastoffun.com/topics/politics-activism/2012/02/23/queer-activists-respond-to-transphobic-opinion-piece-in-nz-newspaper/

* I only had a couple of hours sleep, and I'm going to gi back to bed.

* I dreamed that they were trying to do a Glee knockoff in a school like season 4 of the Wire. It was... hard to describe, really, but interesting.

* In retrospect, the star anise in an Omen of Good Fortune is a touch weirder than I initially thought.

* This book looks cool: http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/425250.html

* Wow, the Virginia government mandated forced non-consensual vaginal probe thing got weird and convoluted while I was looking away. Frankly, you need the detail for it to make anysence, so I'm going to give you a clip instead of trying to summarize: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46506815

( Embed: )

* And then Thursday they amended it so that it required gestational age, which means they still require a vaginal probe unless the woman wants to wait until an external ultrasound can be done. It's still not medically necessary and incredibly intrusive. The new law requires the doctor to prove he did the medically unnecessary procedure.

* I meant to rant about this back when it broke that they were still doing this, but I got distracted by everything else going on. Stephen Colbert on Mormons practice of non-consensual baptism of Holocaust victims: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/409086/february-23-2012/posthumous-mormon-baptism

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