sundries

[rm]

I am on an airplane.

Something is up with my Mac. The little charging light isn't coming on on my plug all the time. So I'm running on battery power at the moment. But this comes and goes -- sometimes it works, but once it felt like the whole surface of the computer was slightly electrified. FUN. Oi.

That was horrifying. There was an ant on redstapler just now. ANT IN THE AIR.

No, you were not illiterate.

German homeschoolers granted asylum.

Thought on Ianto-related matters from Gally I forgot to mention: I am uncomfortable when people apply queer litmus tests to people, whether they be real or fictional. The only person Ianto Jones's sexuality represented was Ianto Jones's. I know some people really hate the "It's not men, it's Jack" line, and that's fine. But to me it was in keeping with the character and represents a valid individual sexuality, whether it was one he was moving through towards a stronger queer identity or because Ianto's just wired that way (i.e., mostly straight and always obsessive).

50% of Americans believe that the law should require a woman to change her name when she marries.

BNP candidate asserts that since women like sex, they aren't particularly troubled by rape.

Comments

[eac.livejournal.com]

50% of American women believe that the law should require a woman to change her name when she marries.

...

...what?

News is baffling sometimes. Often.

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

Agreed!

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

It sounds like what happens to my mac every now and then... I think it has to do with "exercising" the battery...

[rm.livejournal.com]

What do I do in response to this condition?

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I am completely baffled by that "I Was a Teenage Illiterate" article. I mean, whut? Is she saying that because she read Dostoyevsky rather than [insert ??? here] she counts as illiterate in any way shape or form? Does this make sense to someone?

[dsudis.livejournal.com]

I only made it halfway through the first page before I closed the tab. I am equally baffled at what her point was, apart from smugly name-dropping everything she did read while pretending mortification at not having read more.

[frakkin-addict.livejournal.com]

A lot of things caught my attention about this post. I have to say, I literally felt sick to my stomach that half of American woman think people should be forced to change their names when married.

I got married in Quebec, where woman are actually banned from changing their names when they get married. I'm not sure if 'banned' is the right word... basically, we just can't do it. All Quebec women legally retain their own name when married.

Just moved to the States and everyone keeps calling me Mrs. S, and I have to say, "Actually, I'm Ms. N." They look at me like I'm either crazy or 'living in sin.' Sheesh. Not that I care, but the thought that someone would actually force me to change my name sickens me. It's my name! I like it and I'm keeping it!

*shudders* Thanks for the reminder that we're not as far away from the 50's mentality as I'd hoped we were.

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

I got married in Quebec, where woman are actually banned from changing their names when they get married. I'm not sure if 'banned' is the right word... basically, we just can't do it. All Quebec women legally retain their own name when married.

That's actually really interesting. Why is that? Do you know how far that dates back, or if that's always been the law? They can't even apply for a name change petition? And if that's the case, whose name do children get?

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Re BNP Candidate. He should be forced to drop out of the race by his own party if necessary. How can they possible want someone like this to represent them?

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

Either that, or let him get anally raped and see if that feels like he's been force fed a beer.

[pocketmouse]

I always thought that line of Ianto's was just another lie, since that was part of the sequence of scenes about how Ianto's lied about his past and is terrible at communicating with his family and etc etc. I figured he was just twisting the truth again.

Your Mac isn't charging or just the light isn't coming on? Are you using the grounded plug or the ungrounded? I always use the grounded, and if it's not actually charging, I break the connection at the brick, and that usually fixes it. If it's just been doing it on the plane I'd assume that it's a voltage issue with the way the plane's battery distributes power, and it might need to be grounded to work properly. I'm not sure; I've never managed to fly on a plane that had outlets (near me, at least).

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

I didn't read as necessarily a conscious lie but certainly I took it as, well, this is the thing he said right then in that situation, cornered and uncertain, not as a definite objective truth. Plus he's Ianto, so of course it's just Jack, and before it was just Lisa, that's just who he is.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

Oh, that NYT article.

I guess I relate to it because of my paucity of knowledge re: the Western canon. But you're right, it's smug and the title is :/ :/ :/

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I don't think I can read the article about rape, I'm seeing far too much of that discourse locally and it is pissing me off. My bloody pressure can't take much more of this.

Re: Ianto's sexuality. I'm quite convinced that Jack isn't the only man he's been with, though it's likely he's the only man he's ever loved. As has been discussed here before - Ianto obsesses. A lot. It's what he does, it's how he feels. Besides, as pocketmouse said, he may have been lying about this as well, seeing as he a truth twister and likes to the way he narrates his life and not so much the narrative it actually goes through.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I agree with the possible lying liar who lies angle. I also think Ianto doesn't necessarily even notice when he's lying half the time at this point.

[ophymirage.livejournal.com]

Okay, despite the whiny pseudo-hipster specialness of illiterate-girl's column, I *do* get her point, because I went through a phase around 12 or so where I decided that I had been woefully underserved by my public school education, and proceeded to set up my own "read the classics" program to rectify this lack. Four Victorian novels, one summer.

And lo, the Lightbulb of Clueful Illumination turned on above my head, and I realized that a) it wasn't a requirement to like classics, and b) sometimes there were still books that were too difficult for me to read, and it was okay to wait on those. But up until that point I certainly felt culturally illiterate. Which is, of course, the better-considered phrase that she ought to have used.

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

Right, and I think somewhere along the line that bit of shorthand became so, well, shorthanded than she probably assumed everyone would know what she was talking about. But as someone else in the thread pointed out, that's disingenuous: the word "illiterate", unadorned, typically means "can't read".

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

I'm still ??? over how German homeschooling case, especially that it's being appealed by immigration.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

That's the case I can see both sides of.

No, homeschooling is not a crime, especially it sounded like one of those kids was being badly underserved and unprotected at his school.

On the other hand, the German gov't is not wrong about parallel societies. The Amish, for example, do not live in mainstream America. Parallelism (aka, "keeping our way of life") as part of pluralism is not a bad thing.

But! Closer to home and in a way that directly impacts me, there's a whole parallel segment of society that has been taught that evolution and feminism and minority rights and religious pluralism and more are BAD, and it's insulated itself by taking its kids out of public school, vacationing at places like the Creation Museum, and when the kids're ready for college, sending them to Bob Jones University. So when they grow up, they're going to have an entire political party telling them that THEY are the real Americans and anyone else is a traitor (Coulter), idiot (Beck), unAmerican (Bush, either), and a sneering elite (Palin)... and that moreover, if they really love their country and their family, it's their duty to "rescue" the country from anyone who doesn't share their values and beliefs, and block women's rights and minority rights and gay rights, etc., in the name of "preserving America" but which is instead attempting to take their version of society and overwriting mine.

And that isn't pluralism. It is a problem.

This doesn't mean that I don't think the German position is overreacting, but with their recent history and our current society... y'know? I do see their point whether I agree with it or not.

[coriander.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree with you about Ianto, and him just liking what he likes, regardless of the person's gender. (But then again, this is how I feel in my own life, so it's hard to know if I am applying some sort of my own feeling into a tv show.) :)

The name change thing... Wow. Require the change. I would understand holding a believe that they think it's the "right" thing to do, but require everyone??? Oh no no no no. I relished having the choice.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

I can't get that Evening Standard page to open but if that's a new story, it's the second time he - and I presume it's the same guy - has aired a variation on that particular view. He's vile, but honestly, the more the BNP demonstate out loud and in public how foul and objectionable their views are, the less credible and electable it makes them, so I say give them the rope.

[weirdodragoncat.livejournal.com]

ARGH!!! That BNP candidate link made me so rageful I couldn't even finish reading the article!

[sushis.livejournal.com]

re: statistic saying that 50% of women think women should be legally required to change their names when they married. I followed several links, and eventually ended up back at the original page, never finding a link to the study itself. Given that I haven't seen the source, or the actual questions asked, or info about the sample polled, I do not believe the statistic is valid. My guess is that either the question itself was misleading, the reporting of the story by the paper is way off, or the polling sample is far more conservative than average.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

It's a USA Today survey printed in the NY Daily News, I think there's a non-zero chance that there actually isn't a survey at all.

[virginhuntress.livejournal.com]

1. The article on illiteracy angered me in a way I didn't expect it to. I think it's mostly due to her use of the world "illiterate", or rather, should I say its misuse.

The article filled me with disgust at her pompous and overly self important self disgust, and wanted, for lack of a better way to put it, to hit her with a wooden spoon. (My preferred way to smack dumbasses is with a wooden spoon, just as a point of reference.)

I read Austen, Chaucer, and my favorite author (when I was 12) was Emily Bronte. Did this make me a book snob? No. Did this make me illiterate, because I had not read Tolstoy, Ayn Rand or the German transcendentalists? NOT BY A MILE. Growing up in one of the shittiest neighborhoods in Jersey City made me VERY aware of people who were ACTUALLY illiterate. To a point, my father is (his reading and writing skills are placed at around a sixth grade level due to a completely fucked up childhood school wise). I knew people who couldn't spell the STREET they lived on or couldn't write notes to their child's teachers because they never learned. This person? No. Asshole is the only word that comes up. She may not be as well read as her "socialite NY friends" but honestly, with all the books in the world, NO ONE who loves reading will ever be as well read as they would like, not even til the day we die.

::rant over::

2. FIFTY PERCENT? I'm sorry, I thought we were supposed to be making PROGRESS in this country, NOT GOING BACKWARDS. I'm getting married in a little over 6 months from now and am DISGUSTED at this. Who in the HELL is anyone else to tell me what I can and can't do with my name? It's sucks enough to have to justify to my other feminist friends (both male and female) why I AM changing my name. It's a CHOICE. I like the idea of a common household name, and have NO affinity to my own last name since my brother died (and never really knew my father).

However, this does not mean I get to tell any other woman on the PLANET what she should and shouldn't do with her life. I'm just... so friggin tired of the repressive conformist attitudes that I've seen left and right lately.

Edit: Pronoun fix, realized article writer was a woman.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

overly self important self disgust

That is a perfect turn of phrase. It takes a lot of vanity to presume that not being up on the classics is throwing the world off kilter, or that one's handwringing over the issue makes up for not sitting down and getting to work reading on the classics is not irritating others.

She sounds like the type of person who verbally flagellates herself or a week because she let her kid eat something with HFCS in it.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Re: Ianto's statement. I come at this from a different perspective, but Ianto's statement resonates true for me and my life. But I think it can certainly be read as him being in denial, or not always willing to acknowledge his feelings. I think that's what makes him so interesting -so much of him remains hidden from the viewer.

[autumnyte.livejournal.com]

You probably already tried this, but I thought I'd mention it just in case: when my Mac has the same issue with charging, a hard reboot usually resolves the problem for weeks if not months.

[ciel-vert.livejournal.com]

Clicking through to the link, the article about the name changing polled "Americans" not just American women, so your link text might be mis-leading. Not that it isn't a horrifying statistic either way, but it (unfortunately) makes more sense if it's just 50% of Americans, not American women.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Good catch my sleepy airplaneness didn't register. I've changed it.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

German homeschoolers granted asylum

They are now "free" to raise their children as ignorant fundys - the US continues to displease me.

50% of Americans believe that the law should require a woman to change her name when she marries.

I was initially horrified, but it's a USA Today survey, which are notoriously terrible, so that actual statistics could be (and likely are) very different indeed.

BNP candidate asserts that since women like sex, they aren't particularly troubled by rape.

Ick. At least that thug was loud enough about his idiocy to insure that almost no one will vote for him.

[gement.livejournal.com]

Re: survey, While it could still be deeply, deeply flawed in wording or sample bias, http://newsinfo.iu.edu/tips/page/normal/11558.html#7 says it was a real academic study. Sorry to say.

[marcmagus]

Was it a flying ant?

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

There is something so disingenuous about that NYT's illiteracy piece. BLAH.

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

Okay, I can't even click on that name change shit because that is something that infuriates me beyond belief. I have ALWAYS, ever since I was old enough to understand that it was possible, planned on keeping my name if I ever got married, and we could deal with how to name the children later. I'd consider changing my name if he'd hyphenate his as well, but that's as far as I've ever been willing to go.

As for the Mac thing, my plug does that occasionally; usually if I pop it out and pop it back in again and just make sure it's secure it'll work fine. I have a feeling it has to due with the magnetism.

[missdeanna.livejournal.com]

1: I'm torn on the whole homeschooling thing. One the one hand, I was homeschooled, and I believe in it as an option. On the other hand, some of the motivations people have for homeschooling make me very uncomfortable. Regardless, it's a little odd to see homeschooling used as an excuse to grant asylum in the U.S. when it's hardly considered an undeniable right here.

2: About Ianto, I can understand why people were disappointed by the line, and I was too, a little bit, but I agree with you on the idea of a queer litmus test. The line felt in character to me, and if that's how he viewed himself, there's nothing wrong with that. (I think the line was open to interpretation, but this holds true, regardless.)

3: The name-change thing boggles. And enrages. How could anyone think that forcing someone to change their name when they marry is a good thing?

[electricalgwen.livejournal.com]

I assume your Mac has a metal cover? When we lived in the UK my husband's almost always felt slightly electrified while plugged in; we assumed it had to do with the 220V supply, but maybe it can happen anytime. (I had a plastic-cover iBook at the time and it didn't do that in the same way.)

Not sure what to suggest, except to reassure you that his never actually caught fire or electrocuted us or short-circuited the hard drive or anything else sinister.

[exbentley]

Just popping by to say you should check the joins of your charger, since Mac laptop chargers tend to get a little fritzy after a while, especially where the cord meets the plug, and where it meets the converter.

If you wiggle it around a bit and find the charger itself is what's causing the flickering of the charge light, you might be able to tape it in place but I'd advice you get a new one, since it usually means loose wires and if they cross it can lead to minor explosions, power shorts, and severely screwing over your battery.