Hit the nail on the head!

File under: Political Schtuff
Posted at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Memage

Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair - just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with the picture.

Continued...

File under: Memes
Posted at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Miscellany

A handful of things:

- the panel I mentioned got canceled due to lack of attendance. Sigh. My 15 minutes of fame, deleted! Woe is me.

- Mistress Matisse on words and the GOP campaign. Beautiful.

- If I see one more person equate dislike of Sarah Palin with sexism, I may punch somebody. If she were a man who held the same positions I'd hold him in just as much contempt, so it's not sexism that makes me dislike her. It's principle. I don't like people of any gender who tout the ideas she does. She loses extra points for her abuse of the English language (see Matisse's piece above) -- which also has nothing to do with her gender.

- I got the final dose of my rabies vaccine last week and will be handling bats this weekend for the first time! I'll also be getting the equipment and some basic training so I can be on call to pick up injured bats. WOO HOO!

File under: Linkage
Posted at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Rock Band 2!

So. Antwon and I took a vacation last week.

Rock Band 2 came out last Sunday (9/14).

If you think these two items are connected... you are correct. The process went something like this: "Hey, we haven't taken vacation since our honeymoon. We could plan a roadtrip, but we're feeling pretty stressed out and burned out. Hey, how about we just take a week off and hide in the apartment? Awesome. Oh, and Rock Band 2 comes out 9/14..."

Rock Band 2 is awesome. It is made more awesome by the insanity we went through to get a copy at midnight on 9/14.

Continued...

File under: Geekiness
Posted at 02:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Big shock here, I know...

Obama and McCain's tax plans stack up interestingly, especially given McCain's campaign's statements that Obama wants to raise everyone's taxes. Unless everyone makes a couple million a year, that's a total lie. Obama is making his biggest cuts for the lowest 60%, the people McCain cuts taxes the least for. Grr.

File under: Political Schtuff
Posted at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Publishing panel

Check it out! I'm going to be speaking on a panel about publishing! I'm looking forward to meeting the other speakers, and I think it will be a nifty evening. There are still spaces, so if you're interested, register and come check it out!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

WHAT?! This is why politics makes me FROTH AT THE MOUTH

Palin's home town charged rape victims for evidence kits. It was the only town in Alaska to complain when the state government passed a law mandating that police departments pay for the kits (which cost $1,200 each).

Palin now claims she's against the practice of charging victims, but the police chief who spoke out against the new law (and for charging victims) was the one she handpicked when she fired the old police chief upon taking office.

One more reason to be apoplectically against Palin. WTF. "Oh, sorry you were raped. Please pay us $1,200 for the evidence kit needed to convict your assailant."

*headdesk*

File under: Political Schtuff
Posted at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Rabies Vaccination: Dose 1

I love bats. LOVE. Lovelovelove. They're awesome. Adorable. Useful (some bats in my area eat up to a thousand mosquitoes in a single hour when feeding!). So I decided I wanted to do bat rehabilitation someday -- that's where people bring you injured bats and you nurse 'em back to health and set 'em free again.

Well. A few weeks ago, I went to a bat day at the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum and met a couple bat rehabbers, and they told me they really need someone in the Santa Clara area who can do rehabbing, and that it's easy to learn -- I don't even need to take formal classes or anything!

But I have to have a rabies preventative vaccine to handle the bats.

Continued...

File under: Bats
Posted at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Oh no they *didn't*! Actually, yes, they did.

Naamah sums it up. I am reprinting everything she posted to make sure y'all see it. PLEASE ACT. My own actions are below the cut.

I'm really tired of making this post.

For all y'all who thought, "Well, I'll do something when it becomes official," it has become official, and it is time to get off your fucking ass:

The Bush administration officially proposes conscience rule for doctors who don't want to do their fucking jobs.

Not just doctors, but anyone from the anesthesiologist to the scalpel-scrubber, could also opt out. Anyone could walk away at any time from a woman who is simply trying to live her life the way she thinks most wise.

Clinics that receive government funds would have to abide by this rule, and could not fire someone for not doing their job, even if they are the only person in a hundred miles who could do it. Even if it is the only abortion-providing facility in the state.

There are no provisions for assisting women who have been denied -- none. No statement that a doctor must help the woman find another doctor who will help her. No offers to help with transportation, should a woman need to go to a different city to get help. Nothing. We get nothing. We are their patients and we are not only being put behind our employees' consciences, we are being left with nothing as recourse.

"Nothing in the new regulation in any way changes a patient's right to any legal procedure," [Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt] said, noting that a patient could go to another provider.

No, you fucking idiot, it doesn't change my right to do it, but it is going to mean that thousands upon thousands of women are not going to be able to do it.

You don't have to make a thing illegal to make it impossible to fucking get, and that is the effect this is going to have. That should scare the shit out of every single one of you who values their ability to do as they wish with their bodies.

This is the rule. Not the draft, the actual rule that will go into effect if we do not act to stop it and act now.

The rule goes into effect in 30 days.

We have one month to stop this.

Do something.

Planned Parenthood is fighting this as hard as they can. Make a donation here.

Write to your legislator, telling them you oppose the rule, and asking them to fight it.

The public is encouraged to comment on this. You can send your comments to consciencecomment@hhs.gov. Make sure to use “provider conscience regulation" as the subject line. All comments will be published for public viewing. So, maybe don't swear or include personal information you don't want available to the public. There are other ways to contact them as well. They are listed
on page two of this document.

It does not matter how articulate you are. It does not matter that you are a man, or not political, or too busy, or whatever. What matters is that we speak out now so that our voices, the voice of reason, is heard. If they pass this abominable rule, do not let it be because you sat by and said nothing. Now is the time to go dig up all the comments you left on his blog and send them in.

Go and do something. Goddammit. Go!

This is me on my knees, begging. Please, even if every other woman you know means nothing to you, do it for me.

Continued...

File under: Political Schtuff
Posted at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

The Dark Knight Hilarity

GNN Interviews The Joker. If you haven't seen it, go check it out. Hilarious comedy sketch video thing. I think my favorite part is Batman and Joker going back and forth, all, "You suck!" "No, you suck!" (Props to Dylan for the link, omg)

Also amusing: DrrrtyDJ69's Batman and Joker PSA vids. I've only watched a couple but they make my brain hurt. In a good way.

File under: Linkage
Posted at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

More on Dr. Horrible. Contains Spoilers. And swearing.

OK, I finally watched it. It's online here.

Classic Whedon.

Continued...

File under: Geekiness
Posted at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

Dr. Horrible

After reading this I am kind of annoyed that I didn't catch Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog while it was free. I don't want to pay money to watch Joss 'The Bastard' Whedon be all bastardly yet again. Sigh. For fuck's sake, Joss, you don't have to kill someone in every goddamn story.

Maybe I can rent the DVD from Netflix when it comes out or something. Or borrow it from one of my many Whedon-fan friends. :)

The post I linked above does a good job of starting to explain why I find Whedon's work so infuriating. Check out the comments as well.

File under: Geekiness
Posted at 04:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

GRAH.

OK, I've been letting this sit until I could write a coherent post about it. I am still not at that point.

So.

Please read this and this (both by the marvelous Naamah) and then take action here. The feds are trying to classify hormonal birth control methods as abortifactants -- which would make them illegal in the event that Roe v. Wade got overturned. Neve rmind that some women take the Pill for reasons other than contraception, never mind that hormonal birth control prevents implantation and without implantation there is no abortion possible because without implantation you are not pregnant. Worse, it sounds like this rule would let "crisis pregnancy centers" (which will bully, lie, and generally mess with you to prevent you from getting contraception or abortion services or information) get federal funds to operate! GRR. SUCH BULLSHIT! EALASAID SMASH!

I am still a fervent Obama supporter in spite of his bullshit comments on abortion (also linked by Naamah in her posts). Even with his "oh, mental health isn't a real reason to get a late-term abortion" schtick he is still way better on the subject than McCain. Obama is smart enough to know that "mental health" issues around pregnancy are why Andrea Yates killed her five children, for example (postpartum psychosis is real, people. Look into it). I think Obama was pandering to the Christian magazine he was being interviewed by when he said that shit. Yes pandering sucks, but I knew when I first became a supporter of the man that he was a politician. I'm not so much of an idealist to believe that one can get elected without at least a little pandering.

ETA: Naamah has a wonderful para-by-para analysis of the HHS memo thingie here. Go. Read. Your blood will boil. I know mine did. I think it's time to bust out the stationary and write a few handwritten letters to various representatives.

File under: Feminism, Political Schtuff
Posted at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Privilege meme

Yay, a meme!

Continued...

File under: Memes
Posted at 01:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Argh!

Oh, good grief.

I have apparently been crap at actually checking for unpublished comments lately. My humble apologies to everyone who has commented lately whose comments haven't shown up! Y'all are whitelisted now, and should be able to comment without my approval (provided you keep using the same email addresses, anyway).

So embarrassing. Sorry, y'all!

File under: Site Stuff
Posted at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)