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

[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.

[malle-babbe.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.

Tell me about it! Probably because they presume that their target will be too embarrassed to cuss him out or get help afterwards...

Are you talking about the Bath School Disaster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster)? Yeah, when I first read about that, after the WTF passed, I realized that crazy-ass cranks go waaaaay back in this country. Of course, I am totally expecting some Glenn Beck fanboy to do something like this in the next few years.

[idunn.livejournal.com]

Holy shit. How did I not know about the Bath School disaster? I've never heard anyone mention it before.