Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* Look, I found the NYC Parks Department tweet about erections, no matter how small being banned in New York Parks as funny as everyone else did, but then I looked at the statue. I'm deeply uncomfortable with it. I have never been fond of attacks on politicians that involve nudity. Y'all know how deeply I dislike Sarah Palin and everything she stood for, but I really didn't like the sexualized attacks on her and things like the porn parody her own side was wanking to. Trump's actions and opinions are absolutely odious and should be the subject of ridicule of all kinds, but I am wildly uncomfortable with the body shaming aspect of this prank and particularly the depiction of him as a trans man. Trust me, we don't want him any more than we want Anne Coulter, who has been frequently been the subject of transmisogynitic attacks from the left. I do not know that the Anarchist collective making these statues was consciously aware of the transphobic aspect of what they were doing. I strongly suspect they were not thinking of us transfolk at all, but I look at those pictures and footage and I see the fat shaming and mocking of genitalia on a body that looks like the body of an awful lot of transmen, and I get queasy.

We on the left need to be better than this, folks. Let’s try to be.

* That's not a knife! THIS is a knife! "Man tries to rob store with sword; finds clerk also has a sword:" http://globalnews.ca/news/2169438/watch-man-tries-to-rob-store-with-sword-finds-clerk-also-has-a-sword/

* We could have named Tavy after Sonny the bitey baby in a series of Unfortunate Events, or stitch as in "Lilo and" for the destructive potential in the cute, tiny, package.

* We've now reached 12,943 notes on "historically Accurate Sexism" and have wandered into cool primary sources and Early Modern Women. It delights me that this thing is still trundling along. Someone chimed in on Medieval Islamic Women: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/149309033042/historically-authentic-sexism-in-fantasy-lets

* "Sunday Sweets For Summer Weddings:" http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2016/8/21/sunday-sweets-for-summer-weddings.html

* "23 Things That Definitely Happened In The Harry Potter Universe:" https://www.buzzfeed.com/andyneuenschwander/things-that-definitely-happened-in-the-harry-potter-unive?utm_term=.cjMRJ1XWn9#.dqMnKrglXe

* I was rewatching Black Sails and got to the Season Two Finale and kept thinking, "Fun with Flint and Vane!"

* In related news, I spotted enough things, that I likely will be doing a 1-3 retrospective at some point this fall. I never did first season properly and I spotted lots of details and parallels I missed.

* Wow, NBC fucked up the Rhythmic gymnastics finals. They preempted individual for random highlights of boring things I wasn't interested in, so I didn't get to see it at all. Then for the team final they decided to deliberately pick a camera angle so high and far away that for the most part the apparatus was invisible. You could see the hoops occasionally when they threw them high enough and Ukraine was all in black so it was slightly better, but for most colour schemes it was people doing oddly choreographed ballet with really strange arm movements. One couldn't even properly see the dancing for teams like Russia with particularly pale colour schemes. How do I know it was deliberate? Because they would tease us with tiny clips properly shot from the other two cameras they had set up in instant replay for some groups while they were waiting for the scores and would occasionally cut to them for a couple seconds during the routine. That means someone in the booth looked at the three camera angles: two of which allowed you to see faces, costumes, and apparatus, and decided that five blurs with pale legs and arms against pale background and no visible apparatus was the way to go. Imagine if they deliberate broadcast a basketball game shot on a professional network where you couldn't see the ball and it was from so far away you couldn't tell what the players are doing or why. I can only assume NBC made this choice as a big fuck you to athletes who just spent the last four years of their lives polishing those routines and to the fans who waited four years to finally get to see them.

Fuck, you, NBC! Seriously, you had ONE JOB, and this Olympics you consistently fucked it up with racist and sexist commentary, refusal to properly show non American athletes in things like men's gymnastics, and now, deliberately throwing away footage allowing people to actually see the competition in favour of footage so bad it made frustrating nonsense out of the whole thing. Fuck you, NBC. If you can't do this competently, let someone else do it who can!

* I'm not Crying; you're crying. "I wonder if, in superhero universes, the villains ever get contacted by those “Make a Wish Foundation” and similar people.:" http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/149357159992/beka-tiddalik-brosequartz-fireandwonder

* Louisiana is having a major flooding disaster, the worst disaster in this country since sandy. Want to help? http://thewightknight.tumblr.com/post/148963870683/the-lonely-one96-almalexiaslouisiana-is

* California is now an official disaster due to out of control fire made worse by the drought. https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation

* "How to help Flint, Michigan:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/how-help-flint-michigan

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com

* Donate to help refugees "UN Refugee Agency:" http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general

* Organizations helping with the refugee crisis: http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/128790538169/an-updated-list-of-organizations-to-donate-to-help

* A list of LGBTQA Charities: http://awkward0w1.tumblr.com/post/126399233673

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.comhttp://www.cnn.com/2016/07/28/asia/indonesia-drug-executions/