sundries

[rm]

Police say dozens of people watched as girl was gang raped. That should make you angry enough. But then the article goes on to give us this charming sentence, "The victim had drank a large amount of alcohol by the time the assault began, police said" which is relevant how, exactly? Grrrrr. (ETA: see comments for the very good point that if she was drunk it's harder to argue she consented to the rape; also be aware that comments have a discussion of victim-blaming).

keori (why aren't you reading keori? I link you people over there often enough) talks about the latest series of outrages and asinine remarks in the struggle to get rid of DADT. You see, apparently, LGBT people might be capable of doing some military jobs, but not others.

To everyone who helped out deza with money, advice, good thoughts and signal boosting: thank you! Overnight the needed funds were raised.

roadnotes just pointed to this amazing article about Terri White who was one of the amazing singers at the now closed Rose's Turn. I don't even know what to say, just read the article.

For runaways sex buys survival.

German-ism of the day: "it's raining cats and ducks." Why yes, it is.

Tempest Prognosticator -- it's a machine... made out of leeches!

I emailed someone asking if I could use a photo of theirs for a mock-up cover for ConSweet just to put on my NaNo page and all. Don't know that I'll hear back, but it's a fun thought.

Since we're not _in_ NaNo yet, I'm trying not to feel too guilty about my editing instinct that has kicked in. I know all the things I have to do to fix the first chapter (which is at the moment a series of cracky emails between various characters, but it's a lot to take in all at once), so I'm going to try to do that before NaNo starts and then just write through and fix later.

I am glad I am doing this story for NaNo. It needs out of my system. It surprises me sometimes all the ways in which I am capable of being suffused with melancholy. I'd been trying to keep that melancholy out of ConSweet, but I think I have to run with it, because I think it's how I make Evan be something other than an asshole, which is pretty critical.

If you want to add me as a buddy on the NaNo site, I'm there under Racheline, since that is, rather absurdly, my name.

Castle offered some meta fannish goodness last night. Also, Nathan Fillion dressed as Mal = always hot. And, referencing a story most of you don't know, Nathan Fillion = always the best footnote EVER.

Also, I have seen photos from Hub3, and I am still laughing.

Finally, why is LJ such a slow piece of shit today?

Comments

[rednwhiterose.livejournal.com]

Finally, why is LJ such a slow piece of shit today?

I'm glad to know it's not just me. :O)

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

why is LJ such a slow piece of shit today?

status is whining (maybe that should be 'bleating') that it's experiencing higher-than-normal load. From where, I'd love to know.

[rednwhiterose.livejournal.com]

Jack's pants?

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I am considering doing that harlequin romance/Torchwood in argentina dream as my paultry nano participation. Except I know very well I don't have time/energy to actually participate so I dunno.

Still, WW2 through 1950s queer love story from a dream? Remains tempting.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Well, I would be pleased beyond pleased if you did. Even if it was just a little novelette project instead. 10,000 - 20,000 words on this would be pretty happy making too.

[frodo-esque.livejournal.com]

Police say dozens of people watched as girl was gang raped. That should make you angry enough. But then the article goes on to give us this charming sentence, "The victim had drank a large amount of alcohol by the time the assault began, police said" which is relevant how, exactly? Grrrrr.

Was horrified enough to make a passionate post in response to this. Think I may be too sensitive to handle it right now.

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

I wasn't horrified so much as infuriated. My fingers were literally twitching to kill those scum.

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

That gang-rape story made me *sick* when I saw it myself earlier this morning. But I don't have a problem with mentioning that the girl had been trashed.

You're seeing it as the journalist implying the victim was in some way at fault; I'm seeing it as a relevant circumstance. When a man is reported to have been mugged in a dark alley, nobody's implying that the man even slightly deserved to be mugged because he entered the dark alley.

On the other hand, it's a data point to avoid dark alleys. Or excessive drinking.

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

...excessive incautious drinking, anyway. Excessive drinking with trusted, reliable friends around or in a 100%-safe place, is fun and should not be avoided. ;)

[rm.livejournal.com]

The idea that being a "good girl" will always prevent rape is a fallacy. And an offensive one.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

The story about the 15 year old who was gang raped is absolutely frightening. There but for the Grace of God...

There are at least two incidents that I was involved in as a 15-16 year old where I was waiting after dark at school for my ride to show...

**shudder**

It's kind of crazy how things that happened 25 years ago can be brought back so vividly and so easily by a news story.

I hope they get the bastards....

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

I was as disgusted by the number of people who just let it happen. Who didn't even *call the damn cops.*

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

But then the article goes on to give us this charming sentence...

My morning paper did much the same - mentioning that she'd been met by friends and gotten drunk.

Glad I wasn't alone in shrieking "What has THAT got to do with it?" at the paper this AM...

[rm.livejournal.com]

hughcasey actually makes a good point about it below.

[hughcasey.livejournal.com]

"But then the article goes on to give us this charming sentence, "The victim had drank a large amount of alcohol by the time the assault began, police said" which is relevant how, exactly?"

It is relevant because, if she was intoxicated, she was legally unable to consent. This means that the defense cannot claim that she consented. So it is relevant to the case, and it is relevant in favor of the young woman.

Of course, not everyone will choose to see it that way, but that it because many people are stupid. :-\

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ah, good point! Wow, that shows you how pissed off and fed up with crap I am. I totally missed that.

[gallo-de-pelea.livejournal.com]

That news story doesn't surprise me at all, and I desperately wish it did.

[nysidra.livejournal.com]

I added you. ^_^

[jendaby.livejournal.com]

I am really upset by the fact that people could just stand by and watch a girl get assaulted like that. It's inhuman! One thing the sex ed classes in my schools never covered was rape. I wish that we had been taught about acquaintance rape, and that everyone had been told point blank what it was and that it was wrong. Of course, huge numbers of schools never provide ANY education about sex other than "your period and you" type stuff.

Regardless, the way that victims and survivors are treated in this country really needs to be overhauled, and I hope that they catch all of the perpetrators.


I have added you on NaNo. :)

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I wish that the general classes on life-the-universe-and-everything at school had flagged up the pervasive nature of rape culture.

[marcmagus]

On a happier note, last night's Castle also depicted people taking what seemed on first viewing [although I haven't gone back with a critical eye] to be entirely reasonable and appropriate actions with respect to the topic of teenage girls, alcohol, parties, and parenting.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

I'd have to agree there -- Castle telling his daughter it's okay to call and he won't be angry meant that she did call, instead of staying in a risky situation. Even if Alexis is astonishingly mature for her age, it was important that she knew she had a safe haven; mature kids still do dumb things when they're scared.

(I admit it. When he walked out as Mal, I about died.)

[gallo-de-pelea.livejournal.com]

I can't believe it took me this long to clue in that the episode was named "Vampire Weekend." Hee.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

Re: the bystanders...

Events like these confirm my observation that when you are a teenage girl, somebody has to be dead or pregnant first before adults will listen to about something.

Folks act like shit like this only started happening yesterday. 20 years ago I had two assholes following me down a school hallway between classes, tripping me grabbing me, etc. Nobody in that hallway did shit. Mom rang up the school, and the two assholes were dealt with, but Junior and Senior High school were an ongoing crapfest of me having to put up with this shit, and clueless adults tuning me out. Hell, my own dad seemed to be more upset at my anger than the fact that one of his kids didn't feel safe at school.

Did I forget to mention that the above incident happened in broad daylight, in front of a whole bunch of people, and in an effort to get creeps to leave me alone, dressed as unattractively as possible? Yeah, all that adive they give girls and young women? Horseshit!

At least with stuff like this ending up on online social networks, it will become harder and harder for adults to blow off shit like this.

[phaetonschariot.livejournal.com]

We have school uniforms in my country but at times I've noticed that dressing unattractively is in itself (in their minds, not reality) apparently an invitation to comment and pay attention.

Hell, school violence isn't even a new thing - the biggest number of deaths in a school attack by a sole disgruntled person was in the first half of the 20th century. Granted, it was done by an adult, but we consistently tell kids "oh, just ignore it" and "kids will be kids" (which inevitably becomes "boys will be boys" as they get older) and then act surprised when this sort of thing happens. It's like, one of the comments on one of the many awesome feminist blogs I was reading a few weeks ago, as a child her father and uncle often tickled her and wouldn't stop when she told them to, because it was just a game and all, right? And then you send her off to college and expect her to know where the line is in other people respecting her body.

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

Castle was definitely fantastic, especially the opening two minutes :D

Now, I need to watch Firefly again :D

[timelady.livejournal.com]

Sad thing is something similar happened around here to that first article you commented on. Girl got murdered and there were multiple people (mostly employees of a hotel) who noticed the girl getting choked and no one did anything to help her. video clip from one of our local news networks of the article

[missdeanna.livejournal.com]

I'll add you on NaNo. I'm DancingMaenid over there. I'm not on there much, and I'm not sure how seriously I'm going to take it this year, but I've decided to try again despite my best logic.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Yup...much as I hate it when news reporters throw in seemingly irrelevant details without clarifying their relation to the story, the fact that this particular reporter did not attempt to draw their own conclusions from the victim's alcohol consumption keeps it well within the limits of responsible journalism. The fact that the victim consumed alcohol means that even if she had given her consent (which I'm guessing she didn't), it would have been given while she was in an altered state of mind, thus rendering her incapable of giving consent with sound mind...for legal purposes. If there were additional mind-altering drugs found in her body, or if it can be proved that she was pressured to drink before the incident, that should only make the perpetrators' sentences harsher, or at least strengthen the case against them. ONE WOULD HOPE.

It does horrify me that people WITNESSED IT HAPPENING and did nothing. I'm guessing it's that psychological phenomenon where a whole bunch of people witness a crime, but each of them assumes someone else is going to do something about it and none of them end up taking civic responsibility. It's an awful fact of human nature that I wish did not exist. People are SICK.

dadt

[kargashina.livejournal.com]

thanks for the link..
so fucking true and ridiculous.. I almost lost one fellow marine in bootcamp when her gf's letter wasn't generic enough and someone read it.., i did lose another in MOS training who trusted the wrong people, had a guy in my unit try and get a new guy kicked out by by sending him gay porn in boot(not even knowing he was bi, just to be an ass) luckily he just proved himself to be an ass..

just my sample.. and all these were scary competent people.. dadt is causing us to lose too many good people for no good reason..

i was always paranoid about it.. me going in was one more reason my gf and i split..she couldn't handle having to be in the closet too.