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Nov. 11th, 2012 12:11 am* Rachel Maddow tries to explain to jubilant Republicans that they actually lost because they haven't gotten the memo yet:
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* More Election Shenanigans:
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* Discussing the racist undertone to Republican rhetoric:
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* This explains some of the fundamental problems with previous attempts to make elections works better in the US:
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* "The horrors of calling a bigot a bigot!" http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/11/the-horrors-of-calling-bigot-bigot.html
* "Cameron "defends" us against an attack that isn't happening:" http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/11/cameron-defends-us-against-attack-that.html
* "The Dictionary is Not an Authority:" http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/11/the-dictionary-is-not-authority.html
* I know Stephen Colbert said the other night that if you are talking about Plato you are not going to get laid. As someone who spent two years as a philosophy monk at St. John's getting laid on a regular basis, trust me, that is so not true. In fact I selected one guy to tumble based specifically on his Seminar performance. (Alas, he wasn't nearly as interesting post coitally as his in class conversation led me to expect. Sigh. Sweet guy though). There was no shortage of fucking at philosophy school. Hell, I knew a guy who used Plato as part of his pick up line!
* The Jersey shore is pretty much constantly on my mind for obvious reasons. The company that makes the molasses paddles and what I consider the best salt water taffy in the world is based on the Jersey shore, though they luckily have branches on different boardwalks. It occurred to me that they could likely use business as a family owned business in the storm zone, assuming they still had a business. I called today and Cape May survived as I had hoped. They are in fact taking orders. If you have never actually had real salt water taffy (not the crappy supermarket brand stuff they sell out here, but the fresh hand made stuff) or molasses paddles, and are curious you can order them here: http://www.fudgekitchens.com/candy.html
* Anyway, what with me having been on the phone to Cape May, I was remembering the time we went there the Summer my Sister was born. My Aunt Grace and Uncle John, my parents, and mom side Grandparents rented a house for the week. It belonged to some family on vacation somewhere else and there were all these rules about what I could and couldn't touch. It was very crowded and I slept on a pallet on the floor. I was used to this as we were fairly poor and the air conditioner was in my parent's room. Despite my complete lack of jealousy and sibling rivalry to this point, the grown ups were still worried that my weirdly rational understanding that my medically fragile new born sister was going to get the bulk of the attention would crack. (It wouldn't. In retrospect it's an early indicator of my poly nature and my slightly limited emotional range. I compartmentalize my relationships so that my loving one person doesn't diminish my love for another. It's the same with family and friends as it would be with lovers. Jealousy is on the list of things I lack and therefore find vaguely alien). Any way, the idea was for various adults to take turns giving my mother a rest because my sister being premature and having some medical issues was a really tough baby and spent a lot of time crying inconsolably. (They would not detect her heart defect until she was twelve. She spent her childhood randomly feeling crappy for no reason any one could figure out. As a baby this translated into fussing and crying even when she was clean and fed.) The rest of the plan was to make sure I got a lot of attention time from various adults lest I feel left out. Aunt Grace had brought a bunch of pretty Disney storybooks to read. I spent a lot of time on the beach and along the line of shop fronts with various of my relatives, which suited me just fine. I made friends with some townies who 's parents were having a garage sale, and so had people to play with. For my, the iconic image of the vacation was the adult life sized Mr. Peanut, with which I had a strange fascination. To me it was like a character out of H. R. Puff'n stuff. It was a quieter sort of beach vacation than I was used to, being devoid of rides. (I love acceleration and centrifugal force, so I was a sucker for boardwalk rides). However, I loved floating over swells. I learned to body surf that summer, which must have been terrifying to the adults, me being not quite four. To their credit, they let me. It was the Summer I first tasted frozen yoghurt. To my little kid head it was confusing as it tasted nothing like I expected from being told the name. I watched the animatronic taffy makers and the sea gulls. I was fascinated with the varying properties of sand depending on how much water was mixed in and spent hours playing where sand met surf. We only went the once, but in my head, I still see Mr. Peanut standing where cement met sand waving forever at the sea gulls. I have no idea how the place has changed since the Summer of '73, but I'm glad it still exists in some form.
* I ended up going out to pick up my news meds today after all. I was going to hold off on trying the new one, but it was that or a flexeril and I promised to try it so... Yeah. I definitely oughtn't to drive on it as it creates sensory distortion. That wasn't on the side effect list, but with me and new meds, if something weird can happen it will. It seems to work fine as a pain pill, but does nothing for the muscle spasms that are and underlieing problem here. Sigh.
* "Portraying Bigotry:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2012/11/portraying-bigotry.html
For the record, I still like the way Bones handled transpobia several years ago. 1. They had Booth do and say ignorant and rude things and one my one the squints corrected or challenged him in character appropriate ways, so that by the time Angela calls him out towards the end, it's the geeks who look cool and Booth who looks like a socially inept jerk. It's very subtle at at first, and builds slowly. At the end, you see Booth modify his behavior. It felt very natural to the characters rather than after school specially, and at the same time was informative for a general audience. 2. The trans woman was not killed for any reason to do with her transness. I don't think I've ever seen that on a procedural. I like also that there wasn't victim blaming as there often is with trans murder victims both in fiction and reality. Contrast the crappy way Law and Order and Criminal Minds treat trans characters and the more subtle and dignified approach taken by Bones and the Listener stand out. Just saying.
* Greenwick found, best ever response to "Gays cause hurricanes" nonsense: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2781#comic
I want a big gay zepplin to exist!
* Moment of zen: http://dorktowerfeed.livejournal.com/343700.html
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* More Election Shenanigans:
( Embed: )
* Discussing the racist undertone to Republican rhetoric:
( Embed: )
* This explains some of the fundamental problems with previous attempts to make elections works better in the US:
( Embed: )
* "The horrors of calling a bigot a bigot!" http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/11/the-horrors-of-calling-bigot-bigot.html
* "Cameron "defends" us against an attack that isn't happening:" http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/11/cameron-defends-us-against-attack-that.html
* "The Dictionary is Not an Authority:" http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2012/11/the-dictionary-is-not-authority.html
* I know Stephen Colbert said the other night that if you are talking about Plato you are not going to get laid. As someone who spent two years as a philosophy monk at St. John's getting laid on a regular basis, trust me, that is so not true. In fact I selected one guy to tumble based specifically on his Seminar performance. (Alas, he wasn't nearly as interesting post coitally as his in class conversation led me to expect. Sigh. Sweet guy though). There was no shortage of fucking at philosophy school. Hell, I knew a guy who used Plato as part of his pick up line!
* The Jersey shore is pretty much constantly on my mind for obvious reasons. The company that makes the molasses paddles and what I consider the best salt water taffy in the world is based on the Jersey shore, though they luckily have branches on different boardwalks. It occurred to me that they could likely use business as a family owned business in the storm zone, assuming they still had a business. I called today and Cape May survived as I had hoped. They are in fact taking orders. If you have never actually had real salt water taffy (not the crappy supermarket brand stuff they sell out here, but the fresh hand made stuff) or molasses paddles, and are curious you can order them here: http://www.fudgekitchens.com/candy.html
* Anyway, what with me having been on the phone to Cape May, I was remembering the time we went there the Summer my Sister was born. My Aunt Grace and Uncle John, my parents, and mom side Grandparents rented a house for the week. It belonged to some family on vacation somewhere else and there were all these rules about what I could and couldn't touch. It was very crowded and I slept on a pallet on the floor. I was used to this as we were fairly poor and the air conditioner was in my parent's room. Despite my complete lack of jealousy and sibling rivalry to this point, the grown ups were still worried that my weirdly rational understanding that my medically fragile new born sister was going to get the bulk of the attention would crack. (It wouldn't. In retrospect it's an early indicator of my poly nature and my slightly limited emotional range. I compartmentalize my relationships so that my loving one person doesn't diminish my love for another. It's the same with family and friends as it would be with lovers. Jealousy is on the list of things I lack and therefore find vaguely alien). Any way, the idea was for various adults to take turns giving my mother a rest because my sister being premature and having some medical issues was a really tough baby and spent a lot of time crying inconsolably. (They would not detect her heart defect until she was twelve. She spent her childhood randomly feeling crappy for no reason any one could figure out. As a baby this translated into fussing and crying even when she was clean and fed.) The rest of the plan was to make sure I got a lot of attention time from various adults lest I feel left out. Aunt Grace had brought a bunch of pretty Disney storybooks to read. I spent a lot of time on the beach and along the line of shop fronts with various of my relatives, which suited me just fine. I made friends with some townies who 's parents were having a garage sale, and so had people to play with. For my, the iconic image of the vacation was the adult life sized Mr. Peanut, with which I had a strange fascination. To me it was like a character out of H. R. Puff'n stuff. It was a quieter sort of beach vacation than I was used to, being devoid of rides. (I love acceleration and centrifugal force, so I was a sucker for boardwalk rides). However, I loved floating over swells. I learned to body surf that summer, which must have been terrifying to the adults, me being not quite four. To their credit, they let me. It was the Summer I first tasted frozen yoghurt. To my little kid head it was confusing as it tasted nothing like I expected from being told the name. I watched the animatronic taffy makers and the sea gulls. I was fascinated with the varying properties of sand depending on how much water was mixed in and spent hours playing where sand met surf. We only went the once, but in my head, I still see Mr. Peanut standing where cement met sand waving forever at the sea gulls. I have no idea how the place has changed since the Summer of '73, but I'm glad it still exists in some form.
* I ended up going out to pick up my news meds today after all. I was going to hold off on trying the new one, but it was that or a flexeril and I promised to try it so... Yeah. I definitely oughtn't to drive on it as it creates sensory distortion. That wasn't on the side effect list, but with me and new meds, if something weird can happen it will. It seems to work fine as a pain pill, but does nothing for the muscle spasms that are and underlieing problem here. Sigh.
* "Portraying Bigotry:" http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2012/11/portraying-bigotry.html
For the record, I still like the way Bones handled transpobia several years ago. 1. They had Booth do and say ignorant and rude things and one my one the squints corrected or challenged him in character appropriate ways, so that by the time Angela calls him out towards the end, it's the geeks who look cool and Booth who looks like a socially inept jerk. It's very subtle at at first, and builds slowly. At the end, you see Booth modify his behavior. It felt very natural to the characters rather than after school specially, and at the same time was informative for a general audience. 2. The trans woman was not killed for any reason to do with her transness. I don't think I've ever seen that on a procedural. I like also that there wasn't victim blaming as there often is with trans murder victims both in fiction and reality. Contrast the crappy way Law and Order and Criminal Minds treat trans characters and the more subtle and dignified approach taken by Bones and the Listener stand out. Just saying.
* Greenwick found, best ever response to "Gays cause hurricanes" nonsense: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2781#comic
I want a big gay zepplin to exist!
* Moment of zen: http://dorktowerfeed.livejournal.com/343700.html