Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* Two days ago, a refugee boat full of African refugees from Eritrea and environs caught fire and sank of the coast of Italy. They've found more than 100 bodies, but 300 dead is considered a more realistic figure. They ran out of coffins on the island from which the rescue was launched.

* TW: Child rape, Incest, Rape Culture. Iran is considering passing a law to allow adult men to adopt prepubescent girls and then marry them at 12 or 13. There is understandably a great deal of alarm in the non-pedophile community in Iran and abroad, to the surprise of those backing the law Apparently, it never occurred to them that formalizing pedophilia a way that traps the girls forever might not go over well with decent human beings. Last I heard... I think it was yesterday? They'd decided to think it over a little longer in light of the outrage. I think it says some scary things about the law's backers that it never occurred to them that there'd be any objections.

* The Republicans have a history of expensive government shutdowns when their feefees get hurt. After all, which is more important ego stroking or the best interests of the country? Republican feefees obviously.:

( Embed: )

* Remember, it was Republicans who decided furloughing 86% of FEMA employees in the middle of Hurricane season. It was also their great idea to close down the CDC and their flu shoot program in flu season. Also, we don't need anyone overseeing food safety given how well industry self regulation works, so furloughing the FDA was an excellent idea. Remember the catastrophic flooding in Colorado? The agency that helps farmers rebuild their farm is closed and republicans are blocking emergency recovery funding as the people needing it are ordinary people who work for a living like farmers and ordinary home owners rather than rich people and they don't live in a bright red state. Remember the two year backlog on disabled veterans benefits? Well it was finally improving until the republicans furloughed most of the workers. Republicans hate disabled veterans so much they are not only increasing that massive backlog, but have completely closed the office that handles appeals and grievances.

Michelle Bachmann says "this is the happiest Republicans have been in a long time." This is what the Republicans are happy about. They aren't just cheering turfing kids out of preschool and denying children cancer treatments and starving pregnant women and refusing to pay active duty service members and first responders They are cheering all this other human misery they are causing too. This is what they are celebrating.

* If Republicans care so much about the children they are literally killing by stopping them getting cancer treatment, then they wouldn't have shut down the government in the first place. If they suddenly care so much about them now, they'd fund the government.

That thing where you list the things you will fund one by one and for how much? That's called a National Budget. It's that thing they refuse to pass even though it is their job to do that because refusing gets them everything they want, like the sequester cuts. A clean cr? That's still a Republican win as they get to keep the extreme austerity they are imposing on the country to hurt the economy. A clean cr IS a compromise in which they got 90% or so of what they wanted. They are throwing this tantrum to get the full 100%.

* "Top Ten Things Ted Cruz did to the NSA and other Security Agencies that Edward Snowden Couldn’t:" http://www.juancole.com/2013/10/security-agencies-snowden.html

* "The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science:" http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0075637

* "150 Years of Racism: Attitudes in the American South:" http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/10/02/150-years-of-racism-attitudes-in-the-american-south/

* Joy on Bullshit Mountain:

( Embed: )

* While I was out on Thursday's errands I spotted a couple potential venders for shelving so stopped in for quotes. I always ask for names if they are on commission so as to credit them if I purchase. The sales person in the second shop was a lady in late middle age in a very sharp business suit. I try not to flirt with women, especially in my age range, so as to prevent misunderstandings. She showed me her shelves and got me sizes and quotes. I'd written down her name, but as I turned I saw her nametag, and without thinking I said, "Oh! Rhea with and 'h', like the Goddess." Luckily, my whole obviously gay and business like thing prevented her thinking I was making a pass or a skeeve. I was genuinely worried she'd think I was a skeeve. She brightened, "There's a Goddess? Most people think it sounds like an ugly bird." Apparently she gets a lot of asshole comments about her name, and that she lived her whole life with people telling her it's ugly or a man's name. That thought haunts me. So on the way back to her post I told her about the her namesake Titan. She seemed really pleased to be able to say "like the Goddess" to future people hassling her about her name.

* In retrospect, some of my most emotionally satisfying costumes were simultaneously sexy and scary. ( Very TMI: ) I suppose it an atavistic predator response.

* I've been watching Sleepy Hollow, but struggling to put my reactions into words. This review of the 3rd episode expresses better than I could my feelings. (Warning: plot summary and spoilers): http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2013/10/sleepy-hollow-season-one-episode-three.html