Miss Cellaneous

I wish the guys at the gym would pull up their track-pants so I didn't have to see their ugly underwear when they sweat at the six-pack-machine in front of mine.

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Works sucks right now. On the plus side, today I booked a flight to London to spend a long weekend with kangeiko - and athena25, and solvent90, and queenspanky and wingsmith, if they're up for it! (Alas, ciderpress will be on holiday. Alas-just-for-me; I'm thrilled she's enjoying some long-deserved time-off, not to mention -away.)

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For you under that rock there, a revelation: Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work. Triggery, but all others, trust'n click.

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Pattern recognition: A dialogue on racism in fan communities. I'd say "mandatory reading," but folks bristle at being told what to do, myself very definitely included. So yet again, just a strong recommendation.

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I thought about grouping her post with the above, but I'm pretty sure that immediate notion reflected all too perfectly how we tend to group things that should not be shoved into one corner. ciderpress wrote a thoughtful, utterly thought-inspiring post about fandom...but in line with one of my pet theories, she's not writing about fandom but society, fandom being just a micro-cosm reflecting general issues that we wish we've cast off. Oh, we wish:

"We are politically, geographically, economically and religiously disparate. We are women and men, young and old, queer and straight, able-bodied and disabled, different shapes, sizes, heights, we grew up happy and sad, we are survivors and we are those who have never known that kind of terror. To some, fandom is a political movement in itself and to others, it's a hobby. To many of us, it's both because we, and the world, are complex like that; fandom is a solace, a shelter, a community, an expression of subversion, a space where we may find like-minded people to geek out about bands and shows and books and share a particular reading of media. Sometimes, out of this, individually and communally, we create art."

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Y'all Anglo(ish) peoples have a long history of integrating German words outlining complex concepts into your languages. May I offer fremdschämen, too? I do have an example in mind, which sparkymonster mentions in this post.

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Via Sociological Images, The Good Guide -



which lets you see which companies contribute to the Republican or Democratic party. God (and pretty much the rest of the world) knows I don't believe the Dems are sent down from heaven to save us all, but I really don't feel the need to let my money pay for crazy crap like abstinence-only education, the Iraq War, anti-health care propaganda, and other fun-fair activities the Republican party in the US come up with.

Vote with your dollar - populist, yes. Sensible? Very, very definitely.

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I have more bookmarks. But as I think YOU have no more time, I'll postpone more...posting.

As the White House and Congress continue debating how best to provide coverage to tens of millions of Americans currently without health insurance, a new study (PDF) is meant to offer a stark reminder of why lawmakers should continue to try. Researchers from Harvard Medical School say the lack of coverage can be tied to about 45,000 deaths a year in the United States — a toll that is greater than the number of people who die each year from kidney disease.

Here's the whole NYTimes article.

I love numbers. They don't go and make crazy-ass comparisons to Nazi Germany. Which, as you may imagine, doesn't sit well with me, in any context.

Speaking of the Health Insurance Reform in the US, here's a most worthwhile article from the Washington Post that I totally didn't photograph to re-post here, oh noes:

( 5 Myths about Health Care Around the World )

ETA: Or, you know, read the article online.

I never suffer lies and misrepresentation gladly, let alone ignorance. But in addition to that, as the only person in my family to easily have required more health system resources than I ever paid for (a lot more), I feel kinda strongly about this.

Scratch the 'kinda.'

GateFail

sheafrotherdon and dogeared have been covering GateFail: much-needed protests against a Stargate:90210Universe casting call and story arcs. Mmh, sexism, homophobia, and disrespect for people with disabilities: the Stargate PTB really want a taste of them all at once.

Here's the post that outlines the casting call issue; the story arc fail is showcased right here.

Cate's lj especially will give you the time-line, coverage, reactions from the wider blogosphere and civil rights groups.

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Disability

When it comes to disability, the links found in the posts above are helpful with regard to the more general issue.

For a personal perspective, however, you may wish check out synecdochic's recent entries: on just a day in her life, on help offered.

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The US Health Care Debate

selenak writes,

I've been following the American Health Care "debate" in varying degrees between being appalled and amused (with a sideline of "if this were fictional, critics would complain that the author has gone too far in satirizing Republicans - nobody in real life would behave in such a way, surely, there should be at least some sane conservatives in this story), until Sarah Palin came up with her "death panel" statement. At which point any trace of amusement vanished in favour of an urgent need to throw up. I've visited Auschwitz this year. Though even if I hadn't, I would still feel sick at this particular demagogery, which, if the Obama/Hitler signs are anything to go by, is eagerly adopted by a lot of her fellow party members.

The whole post is here.

kangeiko makes a few very good points with regard to ignorant comparisons to the British system.

There was at least one more, but I lost the tab.

(Related: Jesus Christ, what is wrong with the talk radio in Los Angeles? Can there possibly be any more whiny, propaganda-spewing, and flat-out lying conservative radio hosts? I THINK NOT.)

Via giandujakiss:

Obama - oh no you didn't.

See blog mood.

Congratulations, Barack Obama!

Alas, could only watch bits & pieces of the inauguration, on silent, in a pop-up window from Spiegel Online because - all too prosaic - I was attending an in-house computer class (Advanced Word Techniques for Complex Documents, if you really, really want to know).

Also - only slightly less earth-shattering - I have my computer back! And it works! \o/ A colleague gave it (not to mention me) a ride home: such a sweetie.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage approved by voters last month:

"Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification," Brown said in a statement.

In this context, darkrosetiger has a few words to say on Obama's choice of Rick Warren as speaker at his inauguration:

The sponsors of Proposition 8 asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to nullify the marriages of the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who exchanged vows before voters approved the ballot initiative that outlawed gay unions.

I'm sitting here at my desk in tears, because these fucking assholes can't even let me be happy with having made it in before Prop 8. No, they want to rip up my marriage license--and you know I'm not getting my $171 back!--and make it real clear that I'm just a fucking dyke who doesn't deserve to be happy or treated just like anyone else.

That's what Rick Warren is saying, although he makes it sound nice and not like the hateful bigotry that it is. And Obama is saying that telling me I'm not worthy of being a full citizen is just a "disagreement".

Hillary as the new Secretary of State? Be still, my ♥. ( Brief thoughts )

Also, speaking of Obama's new team, I can't quite get over the fact that "Rahm" means "cream" in German. Simple people, simple joys.

On the other hand, what is wrong with 52.5% of Californians?

How dumb, blind, or hateful at heart do you have to be to steal from fellow citizens the human right to form this more perfect union on the individual, private level?

I just. I don't understand.

1. YES WE CAN. Well done, America!

2. I'm home, finally, finally. The hospital released me, my father picked me up, and now I'm sitting in my mother's armchair watching CNN International with my leg put up & properly iced.

This morning, after waking up in the hospital bed at 6am?

I cried, but for the first time in weeks, they were tears of joy.

1. I forgot my newspaper in the office. & :-/ Good thing that for news about certain key issues, I have my flist:

"We don't believe in making it easy for low income women to get birth control, we're still arguing about abortions, and HEAVEN FORFEND we should teach comprehensive sex education in our schools, but we're on board for sterilizing low income women [...]"


2. We've heard a lot of talk about the upcoming US election & the choice -- oh hi thar irony! -- of Palin. Marianne Schnall has listened to a few female voices and repeated the question, what do women want? She got answers from the following:

Isabel Allende. Joan Blades. Eve Ensler. Melissa Etheridge. Gloria Feldt. Kim Gandy. Elizabeth Lesser. Courtney Martin. Kathy Najimy. Amy Richards. Deborah Siegel. Eleanor Smeal. Gloria Steinem. Loung Ung. Alice Walker. Jody Williams. Marie Wilson.


3. John Sheppard makes me happy. Or more precisely, this fellow fan on sheppard_daily made my evening after I came home late again. Click the image for a veritable John-a-palooza:



Now if only they were high-res. /image snob Also, the font is called "Local Girl Uneven." Yes, that cracks me up, in context.

( Thanks, OK Cupid, for telling me where I stand politically. )

Speaking of, kinda, for y'all my friends under them those rocks:

>>GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist?<<

Also, to spite the fact I have no time no more, I did make a few icons here & there. Mostly there.

Icons featuring ( John Sheppard, Joe Flanigan, and throw in one Rodney McKay )

Came home, took a shower, and am having a glass of wine with my usual goat's cheese on warm wholegrain rye bread, thinly cut. ::will always be a foodie::

Instead of telling me about my work (uneventful & somewhat tedious) or my hour in the fitness room with the other Mona (making us laugh, and also me ache pleasantly), I'll go share some accumulated links with you:

• selenak writes a detailled and thoughtful post about the new film about the RAF -- the German terrorist cells of the 70s -- and allows for a brief but piercing look at these times: Terrorists and their victims on film

• livredor, after rejecting the label for quite a while, shares with us her thoughts about sharing a planet with men: Fledgling Feminist.

• taraljc (incidentally my old roommate from WriterCon I), shares what we all have been waiting for. Well, fine, I have. Go for it: 101 Reasons To Love The Middleman.

• selenak again, with "a rare political post" and a thought that echoes mine: Every time I hear or read the phrase 'liberal media' in an American context I haven't watched the vid yet; her brief thoughts resonated with me, though. vaznetti, bear with me. & ;-)

• grimoire -- who else, right? -- gives us a link to NBC telling us what this show Life is all about. (The preview is a bit Crewes-focused when we all know I'm a Dani Reese girl, but hey.)

1. Over 200,000 people came to see and cheer for Barack Obama today in Berlin at the Siegessäule. It's been the topic du jour -- de la semaine, really -- and Spiegel Online has photo reports and several articles on this our 'Obamania' including the full text of the speech. Historical performance, or performance of history? Time, tell, you know the drill; I certainly hope so, and as a German, especially, I'm cautiously optimistic.

2. Knee hurts, but since it's been 24 days since the 2-for-1 rip-and-hairline-fracture accident (and since I hear bones need tough love), I'm starting to put weight on it again. ( ... )

3. Watched Juno and adored it. ( Juno the movie )

You might think I'm one day late, but I only now saw the link to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's speech, Beyond Vietnam in mirabile_dictu's LJ.

And besides, is one ever too late with certain reminders of the truth? About Iraq, about the US, about people who don't share Bush's skin colour.

( Beyond Vietnam )

Who says reading the flist isn't educational?

- jwaneeta links to the thing we have all been waiting for: BREAD WANK.

Hilarious, isn't it? Then again, the only time I ever got close to a vocal argument with witchsis, and also the only time family members raised their voices and stormed out of the room in a huff after our teenage years was when we we were in the kitchen together, baking or cooking: Srs bznss, indeed! It's fascinating to see so many people feeling so strongly about their recipes, methods, and ingredients--sure, yes, it's food, I'm a foodie, and all of us need that more than music or shows on tv...but still. Is it in part because we've grown so used to Doing It This Way (And No Other), since childhood if our parents taught us or since the eureka! moment at the stove if we're self-taught and proud of that?


- fishsanwitt links to a few articles about John McCain. I confess I don't know half as much about him as I know about the Democratic candidates, and that isn't the most extensive knowledge ever either, but I know just enough to be vaguely confused about friends of mine who tell me they consider him a bright politician and could imagine voting for him--Germans and US-Americans alike. And no, not talking about Republican/CDU-FDP voters: I mean the usual (US-)liberal, moderate crowd.

( Exerpts & links )

Earlier, an ljfriend asked for happy links. While I did find a German news site called good news too that informs us in a very nomen est omen way, it was a bit more challenging to find English-speaking sources of cheer. I did mention the time my father, upon my complaints, told me that back in the day, there used to be a magazine spreading nothing but positive news but that it was discontinued because people weren't interested, right? Right.

So. Seal babies, anyone? On to other topics:

Both livredor in an essay and redbird in a brief entry make good, interesting points about That Privilege Meme and how it's used.

( The privilege to ponder privilege. )

This Spiegel Online article picks up another topic I've been clandestinely fantasising about: Clinton or Obama? Why Not Both? I realise the great likelihood of a running mate as mainstream and Red State as possible, and it takes no imagination at all to envision the--possibly lethal--frenzy from the dark, seething underbelly of Republicana, but oh, it'd be so bold.

Also, this entry says a lot of what I have to say on the topic of Hilary Clinton and the hate-mongers trying to discredit her.

The Republican Primary candidates...as BtVS villains.

1. Verbatim from mmmchelle:

"The Campaign for America's Future has an ad urging members of Congress to override Bush's veto of funding for health care for poor children. Those of you not from the US are scratching your heads in amazement, aren't you? Not only did he veto it, but his reasoning is that it puts us on the slippery slope to socialized medicine. To paraphrase Stephen Colbert, if you give children health care when they're little, they'll grow up thinking they should be able to visit a doctor when they're sick.

The ad is brilliant. It has a child explaining how children will deny photo-ops to representatives who don't vote to override the veto.

Watch it here and then use CFA's site to send an email to your rep."

2. Add-on re: those muffins: ( the recipe. Also, an icon. )

* Don't use the "track messages" function on this new fave SGA story unless you really want to find 73 new messages in your inbox when you're just starting to kick back and relax and that time happens to be significantly after midnight.

* Do post if you have something on your mind before you either forget or lack time-slash-energy. I made this awesome Swiss? German? Austrian? *Vaguely Germanic* Kind of Tomato-Leek-Cheese Soup, and also Vegan Ginger Almond Coconut Muffins (no eggs, almost no flour, and no, I'm totally not vegan; I'm just vegan-curious) but never got around to my usual pics, thoughts, and recipe offers.

* Don't be like me and sink into a brief state of angry fugue upon the acquittal of Lt. Col. Jordan as all-too-representative of what happens when you're not a low-ranking soldier abusing but among the ones creating the hateful climate all the way up to Rumsfeld.

* Do tell if there are outwardly anti-gay male Republicans left who don't solicit other men in public toilets/airport bathrooms, please? I read my -- respectable, most lauded, and all around awesome -- newspaper all the way through today and, in a right-hand column, found out about the Representative from Idaho. (Corollary: Boy, those undercover cops are everywhere these days, and obviously lookin' mighty fine. Or maybe the term "agent provocateur" is more appropriate.)

* Don't tell me that Joe Flanigan could get any cuter if he tried. I won't believe you.

Hycropro...hopycris...no, wait, these days, it's easier to spell: Bob Allen.

Quoting mmmchelle, who shared these delightful news here in her LJ:

"Rep. Bob Allen of Florida was arrested for soliciting ( just what you immediately thought of, indeed )