Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* Donald Trump continues to insist that the 17 intelligence agencies that say Russia interfered in our elections are all lying, presumably on the advice of his Russian handlers, who were proved to be in con tact with his campaign staff during the run up to the election. After all, who is he going to believe, people with actual facts or the foreign agents who got him elected as to whether foreign agents got him elected. He also insists that the evidence doesn't exist, while refusing to look at intelligence briefings containing the evidence. Since he believes if he does not look at something that doesn't exist, it begs the question: Has the President elect achieved the developmental stage of Object Permanence? Does he understand as most toddlers do that when someone plays peekaboo with him they are still there and not actually disappeared? Because the evidence exists whether he refuses to look at it or not.

* "Obama doles out punishment to Putin's Russia:"

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* "The Nixonian ways of Donald Trump:"

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* "Trump and the truth:"

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* "Trump advisor: The wealthy can't be corrupt because they're wealthy:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-advisor-the-wealthy-cant-be-corrupt-because-theyre-wealthy#break

* "The foolish farce surrounding 'food-stamp fraud':" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-foolish-farce-surrounding-food-stamp-fraud

* "Trump is moving forward with plans to privatize veterans' care:" http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-moving-forward-plans-privatize-veterans-care#break

* "In New York, Activists Prepare Bystanders To Take Action Against Harassment:" http://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506583208/in-new-york-activists-prepare-bystanders-of-harassment-to-take-action?utm_source=tumblr.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2051

* "Democrats seek to reset Republican gerrymandering:"

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* "10 Times Carrie Fisher Helped Those With Mental Illness:" http://www.refinery29.com/2016/12/134173/carrie-fisher-twitter-fans-mental-illness?utm_source=tumblr.com&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=end&utm_campaign=h3

* "Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) Wrote Books and Had a Service Dog:" https://kpagination.wordpress.com/2016/12/27/carrie-fisher-princess-leia-wrote-books-and-had-a-service-dog/

* Today I my body was extra obnoxious. I did about half the paper bureaucracy stack The bits left are things like document hunts. It turns out my Mother's one obituary out of several that actually got uploaded is useless and my Father's never got transferred on line. I wasted more than an hour trying to find a way to get dates anyway not involving a pay wall or a fishing site. I'm pretty sure my Dad's clippings are upstairs in storage. They might as well be on the moon. My Mother's are around here somewhere. They were born in the same month and did a joint birthday so I never learned their birthdates, their birthday being celebrated as a moveable feast within the month of her birth. Apparently knowing mom's date of death and Dad's month and year of death is zero help on getting his exact death date or their birthdays. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I'm about to spend the weekend trying to figure out where her death folder is, aren't I? Which doesn't really help unless one of the documents lists his birth and death date too. Oh, and Pennsylvania's still sitting on my Birth certificate. It's well past a year now, fucking transphobes.

This on top of the usual periodic document hunt.

* I'm not 100% in agreement with all the points in here (Rogue One was less perfect and TFA less terrible than they paint them in my opinion), but I agree with a majority of it and they make some really good points. "Rogue One Succeeds Where The Force Awakens Fell Flat :" https://www.thefandomentals.com/rogue-one-succeeds-where-the-force-awakens-fell-flat/

* I fundamentally prefer characters who chose rather than are chosen. No wonder I took to Rogue One.

* TNG Rewatch, Season 5:

- The Outcast. I've talked and written about this episode a lot over the years, about how intensely it frustrated and infuriated and disappointed me, but this is the first time I've seen it since... I'm guessing in syndication at some point in the '90's so I'm tackling it again. This is the episode where they have an androgynous race, and instead of letting Riker date an Androgyne they have to make the character a woman so it can be safely heterosexual and not flip out the whiny fan boys. They could have had someone who represented people like me on TV and deliberately chickened out. They deliberately decided to make the only non-binary people I'd seen on TV transphobes, and thus oppressors while the cisfolk get to be the open minded good guys. (If you can see the problem here, you really aren't putting any thought into at all).

Fuck that. Fuck that so damned hard. I was sick of always being the villain in 1992. It is the 21st century and I am even more furious.

The thing is, it was so close to being good. There is the little scene where the character calls Riker on his pronoun use and he asks what pronoun to use. Riker mentions that "it" is rude. Unfortunately the character does not give him the gender neutral pronoun because, "it does not translate." So why not use the word from the native language? This is pretty damned good for 1992. I think this is part of why I felt so betrayed by how the episode plays out. There was the nice little scene with Riker and the pea soup and discussion of cultural differences, sex, gender, and social construction of gender roles, with the contrasting one on similar though non-soup related topics with Beverly Crusher. I actually think having the trans person asking the cis person uncomfortable questions about his personal genitals is a good way to make the awkwardness and inappropriateness weird for the cisfolk in the audience who might tend to do this to transfolk RL, again, especially in 1992 where pretty much all the real trans folk one saw on TV were sensationalized and frequently dehumanized on talk shows. I also appreciate Crusher and Troi calling Worf on his sexism and cultural chauvinism, and Worf eventually trying to make good even though Riker never knew what he had said. There was nothing wrong with the trans character coming out to Riker scene or the description of transphobic hate crimes, and Riker's clear condemnation of conversion therapy for trans folk as abusive and a violation of whatever you want to call the galactic equivalent of human rights is excellent. For the record, the person playing the trans woman acted the shit out of this and the plea for her humanity was a thing that needed saying. I just... the ending is so bad on so many levels.

Seriously, this could have been fucking brilliant (so many good things were in there), and they pissed all over it because the network was too timid to do this properly. I would have been happy with one character being trans (preferably a trans man so we still get a bi/pan Riker), but the non-binary characters not being villians, or with a non-binary love interest for an openly pansexual Riker and it being the inter species aspect creeping out the androgynes, but the way they picked to write it was right up there on worst ways to have the second half of the story run. To us back in 1992, it came off as managing to be biphobic (we didn't have the word "pansexual" yet, at least within my group of pre-world wide web friends, though that is the better word here, I think) and transphobic at the same time.

On a personal note, I was fully out androgyne with partners before this point (only sporadically out in other contexts. In 1992, I had never met another out binary person, and there was zero in the media. Trying to explain it could get exhausting at a time where there was nothing much in the way of resources, cultural awareness, and no web to look things up on. I'd heard of other people in other cultural contexts, but I'm about as white as you can get and those weren't my words to use. I'd picked androgyne for myself more than a decade previous because it was and is the best description, but I was doing it in a vacuum that is hard to explain to people born after 1990 or so. As a result, I only got into it with people who either needed to know or were people who had a reasonable chance of getting it. The number of people worth explaining to got significantly larger when I went back to college, and fully out in all contexts made sense later, but that's a whole other story), and my gorgeous cis-male partner was right in there ranting to our friends as loudly and furiously as I was. It's on my top five list of his finest relationship moments. (Right up there with the time he turned down an invitation to a wedding I was specifically disinvited to, telling them he was not going anywhere I was welcome. he didn't tell me for fear my feelings might be hurt, but his mom told me because she was proud of him and thought he ought to get credit. His mom was A+). Anyway, he got it without me having to explain it as was as disappointed and angry as I was.

- Cause and Effect. Another Groundhog Day episode. I do like that they take Crusher seriously. I know I've said this before, but I really appreciate that when female crew notice weird shit happening Picard never poopoos or gaslights them as often happens in reality. I have noticed that just generally they've really improved on the sexism since season one despite the occasional issues. I am also still confused as to why Data is allowed to play poker, given his special skills. (Same for Geordi, who can see the other side of the cards, but isn't doing it in this episode). Do they blow up the enterprise then take it back every season, or does it just feel that way?

- The First Duty. Still a very hard one to watch. Nicholas is very surface polish, the way we all were at my school. That seems appropriate, considering. This was the point the first time through that I really started wishing they'd been giving Wil Wheaton meatier things to do with Wesley, because this is so well acted. Up until this point he'd had a few decent episodes, but most of it was a writing issue, as I've said like a million times over the last two and a half decades. I am pretty sure that it was after this episode my friends and I started brain storming interesting things they could do with Wesley instead of the usual boring things the writers gave him, al of which were better in my opinion that the things they actually gave poor Mr. Wheaton to do before he was written off entirely. Seriously, the waste of it, to hire someone so brilliant in Stand By Me, who demonstrated over and over his skill by doing his level best with the material he was given, and they only gave him a handful of good scenes and a few decent episodes in the course of half a decade. (I know I keep harping on this for Mr. Wheaton and Ms. Sirtis, but at the time people really did act as if it was their fault the scripts for him, particularly in the first season and for her pretty much six out of seven years, were uneven and made really poor use of of their skills).

I still love the grounds keeper in this. I think every school has at least one. At mine we had two, a dish washer and a wood shop teacher.

- Cost of Living. Ugh. Another Lwaxana Troi episode. This holo program is even more annoying than she is. Mrs. Troi's when you get old you compromise speech was well acted and ouch.


*****

* Suicide Crisis numbers: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/153016816845/non-us-crisis-line-list

* Victim of a Hate Crime? Report to the police first, but also report here to help the SPLC track incidents: https://www.splcenter.org/reporthate

* Trans Relief Project: http://transrelief.com/

* "Donate to the SPLC:" https://donate.splcenter.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=463

* "A List of Pro-Women, Pro-Immigrant, Pro-Earth, Anti-Bigotry Organizations That Need Your Support:" http://jezebel.com/a-list-of-pro-women-pro-immigrant-pro-earth-anti-big-1788752078?rev=1478710019591&utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

* General Charities list to help groups being targeted in Trump's America: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/153111297079/charities-that-may-need-some-love-in-the-upcoming

* Where to donate to help Immigrants: http://colinfirth.tumblr.com/post/152963467726/carecen-la-center-for-community-change

* Ways to protest: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/174f0WBSVNSdcQ5_S6rWPGB3pNCsruyyM_ZRQ6QUhGmo/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true#

* More ways to protest "So here’s the deal:" http://the-cimmerians.tumblr.com/post/153516131819/so-heres-the-deal

* "10 ways we can help Standing Rock Indian Reservation.:" http://browngurlwfro.tumblr.com/post/153755459138/dooder-tooder-this-is-a-photo-my-friend-posted

* "List of Standing Rock Resources:" https://laughingacademy.tumblr.com/post/152671392633/list-of-standing-rock-resources

* "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

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

* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com

* I'm seeing lots of speculation about the Russian plane that went down in Sinai, but very little in the way of facts beyond the death toll. I refuse to speculate or embrace conspiracy theories and plan to wait for expert investigator reports before forming an opinion.

* There is catastrophic flooding in Yemen after they were hit by a tropical cyclone. Since this was not a thing that happens in Yemen and is likely yet another climate change effect, they had no counter measures or appropriate architectural modifications. All this on top of their brutal civil war and damaged infrastructure from aerial bombings and drone strikes.... It looks bad for ordinary people caught up in it.

* "We’re destroying our kids — for nothing: Too much homework, too many tests, too much needless pressure :" http://www.salon.com/2015/10/31/were_destroying_our_kids_for_nothing_too_much_homework_too_many_tests_too_much_needless_pressure/?utm_source=Tumblr&utm_medium=Tumblr%20Share&utm_campaign=Tumblr

* "This Woman's Response to a Perv Who Filmed Her on the Street Has to Be Seen to Be Believed:" http://mic.com/articles/127766/this-woman-s-response-to-a-perv-who-filmed-her-on-the-street-has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed?utm_source=policymicTBLR&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social

* "Same-Sex Couple Allegedly Jailed For Holding Hands In Grocery Store:" http://www.refinery29.com/2015/10/96652/same-sex-couple-jail-hawaii?utm_source=tumblr.com&utm_medium=post

* "Police shootings won't stop unless we address this problem no one is talking about:" http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/police-shootings-traffic-stops-excessive-fines

* "Tea Tuesdays: The Scottish Spy Who Stole China's Tea Empire:" http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/10/392116370/tea-tuesdays-the-scottish-spy-who-stole-chinas-tea-empire?sc=17&f=1032

* I just managed to injure myself eating toast!

* Re: Bones/Sleepy Hollow Crossover. I used to watch Bones. I bailed out just after the babies were born because I don't enjoy on the run because falsely accused plots. I still love the characters and am glad the show exists. One of the many things I have always liked about the show is that it is a rare example of a positive portrayal of an atheist in popular culture. Given the depth of the prejudice against atheist in our culture and the rarity of atheist characters in general, let alone show leads, representation is a big deal.

This crossover fucks that up royally. By putting Bones in the same universe as Sleepy hollow it makes Brennan objectively wrong in her atheism, rather than theism vs atheism being a matter of opinion as it is in the real world. Sleepy Hollow takes place in a world where demons and therefore god are objectively real. By crossing the streams, we are invited to laugh at Brennan's skepticism because in a Sleepy hollow universe atheism is not only wrong, it is dangerous.

Eeeew!

It was bad enough when they took back Brennan's childfree stance and gave her babies, since posative portrayals of childfree women are nearly non-existent, but they retconned that when the actor got pregnant. Now they are making Brennan flat out wrong in service of a crossover I'm doubting the fans of either show wanted, that fundamentally damages the barely science fictional setting of the Bones world. Bones takes place in an alternate universe where facial reconstruction is a reliable science instead of irreproducable art masquerading as science and one in which the FBI would for some reason allow a forensic tech with no law enforcement training into the field to partner with an agent chasing suspects and the like. These are the only science fictional elements in Bones and there were no supernatural element until this crossover. Bones up to this point was pretty good as far as realism. Now it takes place in a world of demons and monsters and Bones is deluded for believing only in things that are provable.

I am not an atheist, but as a Buddhist I benefit from society being more secular and as a queer person and a trans person, I have legitimate worry about the constant attempts by Christians to take away my civil rights and those of women on religious grounds. I want to live in a country where atheists aren't legally barred from office (as they are in a shocking number of states). I want to live in a country with freedom from religion. I am not a theist, and I support the atheist cause even though they generally do not approve of my belief system anymore than they do of theistic religions. I am furious that the one show I can think of that had a strongly atheist lead character now exists in a canonically theistic world in which god and the devil objectively exist.

* "A Girl, A Shoe, A Prince: The Endlessly Evolving Cinderella:" http://www.npr.org/sections/monkeysee/2015/03/13/392358854/a-girl-a-shoe-a-prince-the-endlessly-evolving-cinderella

* "Sunday Sweets Celebrates Dia De Los Muertos:" http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2015/11/1/sunday-sweets-celebrates-dia-de-los-muertos.html

* 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 to donate money to instead of seeing the racist Stonewall Movie that decided to portray a black trans woman activist as a cis white man. 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.com

* Armed men attacked a bus in Kenya, killing 28 people.

* MrBumblepants found. "Emily Thornberry, White Van Man and Rochester: who lost the working class?:" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11245808/Emily-Thornberry-White-Van-Man-and-Rochester-who-lost-the-working-class.html

* So there will be no justice for Mike Brown.

* MrBumblepants found. "Man Stabbed For Asking Someone to Stop Catcalling His Girlfriend:" http://jezebel.com/man-stabbed-for-asking-someone-to-stop-catcalling-his-g-1661435738?utm_campaign=socialfow_jezebel_twitter&utm_source=jezebel_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

* MrBumblepants found. "In The Hospital, There's No Such Thing As A Lesbian Knee:" http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/11/21/365469968/in-the-hospital-theres-no-such-thing-as-a-lesbian-knee

* Today I couldn't sleep. The main problem was that I was itching again. This may seem like a small thing, but there is no scratching it. The problem is the itching is deep below the surface, caused by small clusters of nerves coming back to life years after the surgeries that wounded them. it's the thing that happens if you've had surgery as often as I have. The power drill, didn't help, but the itch had stolen three or four hours of sleep before they came to change the vents. I had six things on my to do list, but I accomplished only four. I still don't have lung meds, as apparently they sent them back. *facepalm* My plan was to go get meds as my paperwork went through, theoretically lowering the cost to something I could scrape together, but they were gone, gone, gone. I hit the library. I was meant to forage, but the line was literally around the block and i hadn't enough spoons left for sitting on cold wet pavement in the rain for a couple of hours followed by trying to inch through the standing up bit. I did two more minor things. I think there is still Wednesday foraging, but I know they are closed Friday. If i were a proper adult, I'd have tried to find parking somewhere and done it anyway, I know. I came home to try to sleep for a bit instead, which plan Hector objected to, so what sleep I had was short and low quality.

The person who was over a week late paying for four partials finally settled this evening, so I must go out and mail their stuff today, no matter how tired I am and how much i hurt. *Sigh*

* Eeeew! "Letter to the editor in Lois Lane #27 (1961) has idea for how Superman can "thrash"& "punish" Lois with impunity":" https://twitter.com/superdames/status/535812376063639552

* Signal Boost: http://www.gofundme.com/warmkitty

* 1ish day, no bids. Ebay: BPAL: FOOTWORN STEPS LEADING INTO A DANK, SUFFOCATING CRYPT 2013 ATMOSPHERESPRAY: http://www.ebay.ph/itm/301397632159?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

* The Financial Situation continues Scary: http://www.gofundme.com/cuovws

* They think HIV crossed into the human population in the '20's in Kinshasa. At the time there was large scale population displacement and deforestation and they were using unsterilized needles for inoculations. Likely someone carried it in their blood stream from a remote area, and the health system spread it.

It sounded heartbreakingly like one of the early ebola outbreak where they infected a whole maternity ward by giving them vitamin shorts with unsterilized needles. One lady had brought it from a rural area.

I also kept thinking of the thousands of newborn infants infected at a hospital in the USSR in the '80's as they were reusing needles and the government insisted that the USSR had no HIV.

These things keep happening because of poverty, and deforestation, and poor decision making at the top.

* Turkey is sending ground troops against ISIL in the wake of ISIL bringing the war to the border and occasionally across.

ISIL beheaded a man for the crime of trying to bring clean water to people displaced by the Syrian Civil War.


* "This date in Obamacare hysteria: Oct. 3, 2013:"

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* "13 Texas abortion clinics close overnight:"

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* "IUD birth control targeted by anti-abortion Republican:"

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* They finally got around to sending professionals to start decontaminating the ebola infected apartment where they had been confining that family under armed guard even though they are not infectious and not helping them clean or even giving them advice for safe handling of infectious waste and confining them in the apartment with it makes it way more likely that they be infected if they weren't already because they the hospital didn't take the whole patient just came from a hot zone and is exhibiting symptoms thing seriously.... Anyway, the family has finally been moved to a private home because no where else would take them. People have been panicking pulling their kids out of school despite zero risk of ebola infection from that and people were "helpfully" spreading incorrect rumors about the man vomiting all over the apartment complex even though nothing like that happened. I am starting to worry about torches and pitchforks and the authorities in Texas are so not helping.

This is why the constant cuts to the CDC, hospital epidemic/disaster preparedness training/the public health system are a terrible idea. The hospital in Dallas had a computer system that wasn't working properly and the disaster/epidemic training there was fubar. It does not help that the Governor makes W look like a mental giant and is clearly not able to understand the public health briefings let alone make good decisions about them judging from his tumbling statement and the bad decisions state authorities have been making. I am very glad the CDC is stepping in, because I really do have faith in their competence and I've been very pleased with the Federal handling of the other cases.

Ebola is a terrible disease. At the same time, people panicking about it is currently way more dangerous in the US than the disease itself. I worry about the people spreading rumors to stir up ostracism of the family that has been exposed. I worry about the folks using the disease to whip up Nativist hatred of West African Immigrants for political gain and the danger of violent hate crimes that comes with that. I worry about people who are healthy and haven't been exposed clogging emergency rooms with their panic, and the wild suggestions I'm hearing from ignorant congress folk and pundits that will only harm people and not make anyone any safer.

Things that will make us safer? Education, rational decision making, proper funding for programs and training to improve our preparedness and public health system generally.

* For the millionth time CNN, scare mongering about the Dallas public schools is the opposite of helping. The three children were not contagious, so people demanding to know their names are creepy fuckers hoping to demonize children already undergoing trauma who may get sick in the future, but posed zero danger to their children. Reinforcing them in their demands for the school to breach privacy is irresponsible and endangers three innocent children who did nothing wrong.

* Greenwick found. "With Dry Taps and Toilets, California Drought Turns Desperate:" http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/us/california-drought-tulare-county.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1

* Greenwick found. "Federal government to investigate case of NC inmate who died of thirst:" http://www.wral.com/federal-government-to-investigate-case-of-nc-inmate-who-died-of-thirst/14039172/

* Greenwick found. "Prison bankers cash in on captive customers:" http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/09/30/15761/prison-bankers-cash-captive-customers

* "Nazca Lines of Kazakhstan: More Than 50 Geoglyphs Discovered:" http://www.livescience.com/47954-geoglyphs-discovered-in-kazakhstan.html

* "Ancient Chinese nomadic campsite unearthed:" http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/ancient-chinese-nomadic-campsite-unearthed/article6445129.ece

* "Buddhist artefacts discovered in Chebrolu:" http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Vijayawada/buddhist-artefacts-discovered-in-chebrolu/article6450273.ece

* "How the Vikings Saved Europe and Got a Terrible Reputation:" http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/17/how-the-vikings-saved-europe-and-got-a-terrible-reputation.html

I think this goes to far, but is a useful corrective to a vast bulk of things going the other way often on dumbious grounds.

* "Did the Vikings Get a Bum Rap?:" http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/09/140926-vikings-norse-raiding-berserkers-scandinavia-winroth/

* People tend to forget the genocide Charlemagne exacted on the Saxons. Context does matter.

* "Germs of Engagement:"

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* "A Million Ways to Die in the U.S.:"

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* "Deathpocalypse Now - Ebola in America - 50 States of Grave:"

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* "Jessica's Feminized Atmosphere:"

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* "How a Bill Becomes an Ad:"

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* "Highlights of the Values Voter Summit:"

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* "Muslims in the End Zone:"

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* Today I did all the things on the errand list and made veg with chard, an increasingly elaborate dish with an increasingly small proportion of chard. All the ebays have mailed out except the one waiting for payment. I have meds, food, and catfood. Next on the agenda? Bureaucracy.

* The post on slurs passed 7700 notes. O.o

* It is ebay time again:
BPAL: JOHNATHAN HARKER 2006 (LE, Halloweenie): http://www.ebay.com/itm/301337029112?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

* Fundraiser to Help Us Pay Back Rent and Insurance: http://www.gofundme.com/cuovws