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.

Slacktivist is at it again (if you haven't read his essays about the Left Behind series, do so!), this time with a piece about a recent poll showing that 60% of Americans don't believe in evolution.

((I also really like this one.))

When I was growing up, this was something I talked about with mom and dad, but it was never any big controversy as far as either of them was concerned. I remember dad telling me that he believed the whole '7 days' thing was parable-speak, and that God created us and evolution is just the mechanism He used to do it.

Chris and I were both raised as Christians . . . he's still with it, while I'm agnostic. We've had several discussions about how to raise Kaylee with regards to religion. So far we're going with the 'attend church sometimes, have discussions afterwards, and if she doesn't show much interest don't force the issue'.

But the main attitude around here can be summed up by a former college classmate of mine. We were in science class, the book got to its section on evolution, and she says (ostensibly to me, but loudly enough for the teacher to hear), "I don't know why we even have to talk about this. I know I didn't come from any chimp!" and then she elbowed me and grinned like I was going to agree with her. I told her that wasn't how it worked, anyway. And the poor teacher; from the look on her face she'd just gotten an instant headache.

So, yeah. Lot of misinformation going on. Also, have I mentioned, Kansas?

Therefore, my trust in the school system is basically nil. And while I understand the very general basics, I'm far from an expert, so I'm getting to work on gathering information from people who're smarter than me. ;-) I've got those essays above, and we've got a couple of DVDs with various scientists discussing the issue, but I'm just wondering if any of you happen to have any books/movies/articles on evolution that you found particularly good? (bonus points if they're kid-friendly)

Thanks!!

The point? Here.

Jackson Rathbone? Waaaaay the hell over there.

Remember that little wish list of mine the other day?

omg

OMG

I want him and his family and his entire staff to be at my house right now so I can give them hugs.

((thanks for the links, ginmar!))

Okay, so, the "Santa Killer" case. My first thought was that one of those guys ringing bells on the street corner went bonkers. I suppose it was a small blessing that it was filed in the actual news instead of "Odd News" or "Weird Stories".

Because there is nothing odd or weird about this, it is far, far too normal. Not that you'd know it from the constant coverage of "Oh, he was so distraught!" and "Who could have seen this coming?"

Again, for a good take on that crap, go buy Gavin de Becker's book The Gift of Fear. You can get used copies really cheap at amazon.com; it's one of the best purchases I've ever made.

But as for this particular case? No, he was not 'distraught'. He was not some poor, poor man who was stressed about the holidays and his divorce and just snapped. He was a methodical, entitled, nasty guy who was pissed off about his 'property' trying to get away from him. It happens all the damn time. But instead we get "the Santa killer! Isn't that unusual and quirky? Similarities between this case and others? What are those?" and "Let's ignore the actual statistical patterns in child abuse and murder to focus on Caylee Anthony all. the. time." I mean, I understand the whole 'getting ratings by focusing on the unusual' thing, but there comes a point where focusing on the unusual to the exclusion of the actual patterns becomes irresponsible.

In conclusion, have a link to another rant:

"Domestic violence against women is an epidemic. But we don't care. Even when the horror of it smacks us in the face, we ignore it. We want to sensationalize the freak-show, carnival nature. We want to talk about SANTA committing a holiday massacre."

Would it be too much like wish fulfillment to say, "talking loudly and being obnoxious in movie theaters"? ;-)

Also, baby ocelot!!!! I'll be over here making high-pitched noises because OMG CUTE.

"Roman Polanski Requests Dismissal of Sex Charge"

Yeah, I just bet you'd like that to go away, jerk.

Also, note once again to news article writers: it is not "child-sex charge". What do we call sex with someone who is legally still a minor?

I'm just a little bit in love with this essay (trigger warning):

For instance, if a victim of false rape accusation was really treated like a victim of rape, then the accused man would be held responsible for it. He'd be asked why he was alone with her. He'd be lectured on everything he coulda woulda shoulda done differently, then or otherwise. He'd have his whole history dissected, looking for other women he might have annoyed, thus justifying this woman's annoyance. He'd be asked if he agreed to the rumour, or secretly liked it? He'd be pressured to drop the whole thing because it was a mistake, not really a serious allegation, she's not really the lying type (heck, she might even be called plucky), and is it really worth ruining her life over this?

Did you hear about the latest terrorist attack?

Probably not, because it was an attack on a mosque. Coincidentally (*eyeroll*), right after a ton of copies of "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" were sent to people's mailboxes. Thanks so much for the hateful propaganda, Clarion Fund! Way to go!

Y'know, one would think that after decades of people who're usually on that side of the political aisle complaining about how violence and especially icky icky sex on TV will be the downfall of society, that they would realize that maybe constant barrages of this kind of hateful crap really aren't good? Just possibly?

Of course, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for them to actually take responsibility for listeners taking action to go along with their constant nasty words.

Here's the worst quote, from the first article I read about it:

The room that the chemical was sprayed into was the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers.

I just . . . incoherent rage, seriously. Who does this shit?

Thankfully, none of the injuries sustained were fatal, but I still want to find whoever did this and lock them up in a very tiny room for the rest of their natural lives (and that's my gentler side talking).