sundries

[rm]

So, I am thinking, a pair of eye-glasses to replace my snapped cat-eyes ones and a pair of square-ish wire-rims with those transitions lenses so I can have prescription sunglasses on the cruise. Y/Y?

From the Department of WTF BBC: Should homosexuals be executed? I'm having a hard time cogently responding to this, but the very short version: you just apologized to Alan Turing, who, btw, helped save your asses in WWII. Doesn't that tell you the damn answer?

keori gives us an amazingly detailed overview of the history of impact of DADT.

Fela's Women.

Have now seen all the abstracts for Bristol.

I was weirdly and freakishly charmed by Stephen Colbert rapping with Alicia Keys last night.

More reaction to and fallout from the Chartrand mess: here and here. This is about a lot more than pseudonyms; it's about how you get paid better if you talk about how much women suck and how women on the Internet literally pay the price for all that casual vitriol from men fictive and not.

Design the next NYC condom package.

In India a call has gone out for volunteers to marry sex-workers to get them out of the biz (via catdancerz). This one's complicated and interesting.

About being a marginalized person and the expectation that you be willing to educate others about it in a way that considers their feelings, often more than your own. via i_am_schizo

Offered without my internal commentary: Looking young may mean living longer. via 00goddess on Twitter

Okay, so who exactly on the flist is going to Gallifrey One this year? I've actually lost track. Why do I need to know? Inappropriate trinket planning, of course.

Tomorrow Patty leaves for Ohio. This is *frowny face*. I will work and write like mad to catch up on everything (hi, Werewolves; hi Virtual Season; hi, ConSweet), and then when she returns on Jan 1, we get ready for the cruise!

Okay, actually, my book is back-ordered EVERYWHERE. I'm expecting the major e-tailers to get it in in time for Christmas shipping, but at this point am just not sure. I do have a decent stock of books in my house though, so if you want one and you're in the US and you need if for the holidays $14 via Paypal (sorry kids, I'm more than Amazon, list is $14.95) and I'll pick up the shipping and packing. Email or PM if interested.

Comments

[iamradar.livejournal.com]

I'll be attending Gallifrey.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

So, I am thinking, a pair of eye-glasses to replace my snapped cat-eyes ones and a pair of square-ish wire-rims with those transitions lenses so I can have prescription sunglasses on the cruise. Y/Y?

YYY. You might even be able to benefit from a b.o.g.o.f. deal with that sort of combination.

/eta: I'll be at Gally, but you knew that (I'll be on the Flight of Cosplay).

[rm.livejournal.com]

Well, I have insurance credit towards it (only $70) and I usually actually do quite well at a lot of cheapy places, so I'm not that worried about it.

I used to wear wire-rims all the time, and then they got hideously unfasionable, and mine were always oval not rectangleish, but I think they'll be snazzy with my whole man thing.

And poor, poor Virgin America. Actually poor, poor Barnaby. I'm sort of plotting against him.

Gally Roll Call!

[gement.livejournal.com]

gement, arjache

[marchek.livejournal.com]

Hehehe. Feel free to include me on your plotting.

[rm.livejournal.com]

thought you might feel that way ;)

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

For realz.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd go with Transitions if you have a minor correction.

I have major correction with progresive multifocals so transition lenses don't work for me. My last few pairs have been small colored metal that come with integrated sunglasses. The sunglass piece is magnetized that 'clip' (for lack of a better term) on so you can't even tell that its an overlay. I currently have Takumi, but my previous ones were Harley Davidson.

Not as easy as Transition lenses but probably the next best thing.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

And here's us all thinking the BBC was run by the gay mafia...

That's just so weird. I almost can't even get pissed off about it because it's so utterly out of character for the Beeb I can't even compute it as anything but the most ridiculous, enormous mistake by someone who's about to get massively fired, or that those Have Your Say questions must generated by a computer or a trained monkey (which would very much explain the usual quality of debate there).

I can't find it now, so hopefully it's been taken down and burnt, and the monkey given a thorough spanking.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Alas, brewsternorth gives us a link in comments.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Nope, it's still there, but for how long, one wonders?

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Oh. Dear.

Well, they've made it weaselier and then closed it, I suppose that's something. Hopefully it won't survive the night.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

I'm actually not outraged about the BBC thing. Of course I believe that no one's civil rights should be up for debate. But right now, the bill to execute gay people really is up for debate in the Ugandan parliament. And discussion of it is taking place in an atmosphere of fear and repression. Uganda's civil rights record in general is not exactly exemplary, and the bill has provisions that I suspect are meant to make people afraid to speak out against it--it makes talking about homosexuality illegal and it requires people to turn in anyone they think might be gay or face charges of abetting. I think what the BBC was trying to do was create a forum in which people in Uganda could speak out in anonymity and without fear of reprisals.

The BBC could have handled it better. But I think it's too easy for a westerner like me to stand back and say "No, this should not be a matter for debate!" when the debate is already happening and people's lives are at risk. The BBC is international, not subject to the Ugandan government, and as such it can provide one relatively safe space for people to oppose the bill.

[rm.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that the way the BBC handled it actual broke British law about hate speech. Hopefully the Brits reading this can speak to that.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

How the fuckity-fuck-fuck can this be a debate!?!?!
I'm fairly speechless I dunno what to write!

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

- Y/Y.

- Perhaps we should fire back with "I don't know, should journalists be executed?" I declare fuckery.

- I have all kinds of reservations about the DSS sex worker marriage thing. It's the sort of thing that looks like a good idea on paper in a society that's functionally patriarchal, and I don't doubt that some of the men who've volunteered have good intentions, but the potential for going from one point of exploitation to another is so overtly there that I worry. OTOH, seeing a religious leader reaching out and treating sex workers like human beings and wanting to help those who aren't in a position to help themselves is good.

- Writing my thing about the antho debate makes this blog post about educating others very timely, yes.

- Congrats on your book being back-ordered! It's a drag, but it's a nice kind of drag on some level...

[rm.livejournal.com]

re: book -- I just wish it would happen at like 8pm on the 24th, not on the 16th!

re: sex workers -- it also opens up the discussion on AIDS there and potentially de-stigmatizes it on some level, so that's an interesting factor too.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Re: de-stigmatization of HIV/AIDS, that's kind of fantastic too. Because, again, it's something that the religious community has become known for, mostly because of how noisy the Catholic Church gets in the third world.

Overall, I'm having a lot of trouble fully getting my head around DSS in a practical way, mostly because I am not from there, and only understand the culture in a vague, outsider perspective. It's the practical application that's going to make or break the whole initiative.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's high on the list of "I am not qualified to comment on this at all" but I thought it was worth reading.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

pretty sure i'm out on gallifrey, just don't have the $$ for it :(
but oh so jealous of everyone going!

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

I just realized how super vague my first paragraph was. Religion = known for stigmatizing. Not that this is news, but I am compelled to tidy up. Twitch.

Also, in answer to something in an entirely different post*, still planning on Gally pending airline tix. I keep getting the financial cockblock right when I get ready to buy. Grr.

*iz not amused*

--
* Boy, I am not winning for detail-oriented today.

[rm.livejournal.com]

The rats are making you dizzy.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

It's possible that they did; IANAL, UK or otherwise, and I wouldn't know the details of hate speech laws.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think if someone had put that much thought into it, they could have also come up with a way to frame the question that didn't just invite hundreds of people to say "Yes!" It's like the internets equivalent of pinning up a sign on your arse saying KICK ME.

Re the legal situation, the law prohibits "inciting hatred" - certainly, albeit unwittingly, they've provided a platform for that (and violated their own TOS which forbids homophobic comments - wow, someone did not think this through). I'm sure it was down to naivety not malice, and I'm sure they'd argue it was a rhetorical question, but it wasn't framed as one, so I would say there's certainly a case for complaint if not conviction. They've reworded the header question now, and though they haven't removed "Should homosexuals be executed?", they've shifted it to make the context clearer, which improves it slightly. It's still highly unfortunately worded, though.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

It's closing week making me dizzy. NO MORE. NO MORE.