Many thanks to _yggdrasil for posting this! Transform Columbus Day Alliance.

From _yggdrasil ginmar, and others on my friendslist:

So all I have to do is be an artiste, and that gives me a free pass to do anything! I can drug and rape a child, and I'll still get a bunch of actors and directors circling the wagons. Good to know!!

Keeping an eye on that list and feeling sick over it. I mean, Tilda Swinton? Terry Gilliam? Come on, you guys. There's a part of me still hoping that tomorrow I'll wake up and see that list was all a huge badly-planned practical joke. But yeah, figure the odds.

On the good side, Kevin Smith and Greg Grunberg have apparently come out and said that oh by the way, no, they are not going to throw their support behind a child rapist and longtime fugitive. Much love for them. Though how low is the damn bar in this society when it almost seems a revolutionary thing for those guys to speak out against a guy who was 44 when he attacked a 13 year old?

*sigh*

I'm going to go eat more ice cream and pretend I live on Mars or something.


ETA: How much do I love Kate Harding? Thiiiiiiiis much.

ETA 2: No, really. Love.

Not a bad way to start the day, with the news that this scumbag might finally get what he's been running from for decades.

Though I would like to point out, media, that it was not a "sex case" Polanski was finally arrested for. It was a rape case. Thank you.

Okay, technically I know she's not a kid anymore, but this is just horrifying:

Mackenzie Phillips's Father is a Gigantic Tool

I am replacing the AP's headline with a more accurate one. Because the guy hooked her on drugs when she was a child and then raped her repeatedly. There is a better headline for that than one including the words "had sex with her dad". For the millionth time, sex and rape are not interchangeable terms. Goddamn stupid media.

On the Front Lines with Larry Gelbart

Off to watch a few episodes now. RIP.

You see this headline-- "Sam & Ruby unlikely pairing a match made in music" and do a double-take.

The article itself is interesting, though; now I'm kinda curious about their music.

I really, really wish these misogynistic assholes would just kill themselves instead of taking innocent women down with them.

ETA: For a great dissection of this insanely creepy 'trend' and victim-blaming and why the media is never going to link all these shootings together ((everybody now: "Because the media sucks!!")) see this one:

Imagine, if you will, the male victim of a crime being described as attractive or having a bubbly personality, or having his outfit described in excruciating and yet somehow sickening detail----"The bubbly brunet accountant was noted by his friends for his affection for the nightlife, and liked to dress to impress when he went on these clubhopping outings. The night he met his death (death as a lover, how poetic!), he was wearing tight spandex pants, say his friends, multiple gold chains, and a polyester leopard print shirt for a Seventies night at the disco party."

And Cereta hits the nail on the head

I haven't been able to read all the comments yet, but the essay is a good one.

Why is it when I go to Yahoo.com, their Main Feature Headline News box is on President Obama swatting at a fly?

I hereby declare the mainstream news media officially dead.

Dr. George Tiller was murdered going into church this morning. Not linking to the news article, because of course they can't tell a story without an image of his body being wheeled away.

For those of you who don't know, Tiller was a doctor in Wichita, KS who provided late-term abortions. He was one of the few doctors in the country who would actually do that. For his dedication to his patients, for daring to help women who were in a heartbreaking situation, Tiller was threatened, sued, and usually wore a bulletproof vest after a previous attempt on his life. Now he's gone.

I live a few hours away from Wichita, and I just know there are people around here who are going to be glad this happened. They will call themselves pro-life as they cheer on the death of a man.

Maggie Stiefvater has a great piece about writing and using negativity and rejection to your advantage.

I'm still learning how to do this, honestly . . . most days I can see publishing stories and go, "Oh wow how cool for them!", but there are still too many of the days when I see that and look at the stuff on my computer and think, "Why isn't any of it good enough?"

Which I logically know is not the case. It's not that my (or our, for the manymany things I've written with Kath) stuff isn't good, it's just that it's a matter of timing. Sooner or later we'll send the right project off to the right people.

It's been weird, going from a schedule where I worked early mornings and Chris worked late afternoon and evening, giving me hours every day to write, to staying home with Kaylee and feeling like I can't even keep up with the housework, let alone my writing. But I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it-- I play with Kaylee and get laundry and dishes done and always keep a notebook nearby so I can scribble notes. Then when Chris gets home from work I transcribe the notes I wrote that day, and when he gets time off he spends part of it taking Kaylee out of the house, so I have a several-hour stretch to get editing or large chunks of writing done.

Also, I've self-published before, and if it comes to that I have no problem with doing it again. Which doesn't mean that I'm never sending anything off to publishers again, of course. :-) I would love to actually make a living doing this, but it's just that my goal, really, is less being able to make a living off it and more having a physical copy of my books out there so I can point them out to anyone who might be interested. If that makes sense.

Shit like this? So not helping my mood. There is no damn excuse in the world for describing the rape of a toddler as a 'sex case'. The constant minimization of sexual assault, up to and including the use of the word 'sex' instead of 'rape'-- thus implying a consensual encounter-- when talking about a toddler, is exactly why I have no use whatsoever for the mainstream media. I mean, what the hell is going through their heads? "Ooooh, if I use the word sex we might get more hits/higher ratings?" Or is it not even a conscious decision anymore? No, no. Their job is to be aware of their damn words; this has happened too many times for me to think it's just people being temporarily ignorant. I want to smack all of them with the largest book I own until they understand what 'journalistic integrity' means. If they even care about that anymore. I doubt that they do.

Ugh. I think I'm just going to hole myself off and avoid any mention of the news for the rest of the day. Possibly week or month. Best to just go read some Dresden Files and then get some writing done.

I will return when I feel better. And/or when I'm seriously drunk.

Namely, the fact that some reprehensible media outlets have decided to print a picture of the poor woman that was taken shortly after she was beaten.

Now, if she'd chosen to put this out here herself, as a "does this look like a 'little argument' or a 'spat' to you?" thing, no problem. But instead it seems like it was leaked, and as such I have no use whatsoever for any paper or blog that thinks they should go ahead and print or repost this. It's an invasion of privacy and also just a scummy thing to do.

In conclusion, the Quote of the Day at Shakespeare's Sister.