Daily Puppeh & Kitteh
Friday Blogaround
Brought to you by Shaxco, makers of FilthTech brand Shit-in-a-can: Spray it all over the thread of your choice, and watch the fun begin! Hours of trolly entertainment in every tin!*
Quixotess: It's not a diet, it's lifestyle activism.
Tiger Beatdown: Acts of Contrition: Feminism, Privilege, and the Legacy of Mary Daly (a typically thorough and self-searching response to the passing of seriously problematic feminist Mary Daly)
Sociological Images: On Avatar, the Movie (spoiler warning; also has links to other interesting critique of the movie)
The Sexist: Explain the Hillary Clinton Nutcracker Joke
Mongoose Chronicles: Nobody Does Racist Like KFC
WitchWords: The Bizarro World of Anti-Gay Activists
Womanist Musings: Being Transgender in Prison Should Not Equal Torture
BC Holmes: Viktim (post about her most recent trip to Ayiti with an NGO)
Small Strokes Fell Big Oaks: Teaching Feminism: What Are Commercials Really Selling?
Motivated Grammar: Pronouncing 2010
The Pursuit of Harpyness: Women of the World, Put Out or Die in a Terrorist Attack
Feminazery: I’m Wearing a Silky Leopard-print Pushup Number with Apricot Lace Trim and Peepholes
Leave your links in comments...
* Also available in portable, airplane-friendly one-ounce squeeze tube, and The MegaBucket, a five-gallon drum with sprayer attachment. Not suitable for persons with empathy, compassion, or other reasons for anti-troll prejudice.
Taking Your Mace* And Going Home?
An open letter to the white cisgender hetero man** who is Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper:
Dear Sir,
It has come to my attention, as a voting Canadian, that you have once again suspended my democratic rights, by proroguing Parliament to avoid having to answer questions you didn't want to answer. I voted in the last election to have a voice in Ottawa, not to pay politicians for not working. I see no urgent need for the abrogation of my right to political expression, save that you don't want to lose power. Allow me please to say, "boo-hoo, wah-wah." If you can't keep a minority government running, then you don't have the confidence of Parliament, and should step down and call an election.
Yes, I understand that you would like to avoid being grilled over the role our troops have played in Afghanistan, and the horrid allegations of abuse and misprision in our name in that troubled country. My children also liked very much to try and avoid facing the responsibilities they had, but had to learn that when you take on a responsibility, it is yours until you are relieved of it.
No one has relieved you of responsibility for governing our country, sir. It is your responsibility - your solemn sworn duty - to have a government in place, working on new or amending old legislation, not to go swanning off to Florida or Cuba for a few months while the rest of us sweat to pay your salary.
Your behaviour is irresponsible and selfish, and grasping at power this way (don't think we don't know about the Senators you plan to appoint, free of review because Parliament isn't sitting, how convenient for you!) will only lead to a more thunderous defeat in the next election.
I suggest you consult with one Kim Campbell, left holding the bag for the historically impressively hated Conservatives by Brian Mulroney, and winning only two, yes TWO, seats in Parliament, down from a sitting majority. If you annoy us, you could be left looking for work as "former Prime Minister".
Or if my luck turns. Either way.
In the end, sir, let me put it succinctly:
Get your wooden ass back in your Parliamentary seat, and face your responsibilities. Are you an adult, or a child? Children evade their unpleasant tasks. We grown-ups know we have to do the unpleasant stuff too.
Which are you, sir? Which?
With contempt and abjuration,
CaitieCat
* The "mace" in the subject line refers to the ceremonial one, held by the Sergeant-at-arms in the House, and which is only brought into the House when it (the ouse) is sitting (i.e., in session).
** I have decided that all of my blog posts, from now on, will mention this kind of information about everyone I write about, not least to point out the absurdly othering and odious practice of only identifying people who vary from the "norm", Norm being a short-cut to saying "white cisgender hetero man". Let's see how it goes. I think it'll be eye-opening.
ETA: Shaker Vetiver dropped a couple of good links in comments:
How to find your MP
A Facebook group for anti-prorogation rallies across the country
Feel the Homomentum!
Portugal's parliament has passed a bill legalising same-sex marriage. When ratified, Portugal will become the sixth European country to make same-sex marriage legal.
More info here.
Radio Shakesville Call For Submissions
[I'm bumping this back up to the top for those who may have missed it yesterday. Keep those submissions coming!]
A while back I wrote a couple posts asking if any of you would be willing to contribute to a podcast made up solely of submissions from our community. The response, as a whole, was pretty positive.
Okay, so here's your chance. Send your original songs, karaoke recordings, audio collages, poems, rants, free jazz bass solos, whatever, to me via radioshakesville_at_yahoo_dot_com.
(Note, covers are cool too. Your work needn't be an original composition.)
Just FYI, I will only accept submission at the above email address. So if you've a link to your work, please send it to me (as opposed to just dropping it in comments.)
Also note, by submitting something to me, you're affirming it is your work. Don't send me some Mötley Crüe bootleg and tell me it's your band from high school. I mean, unless you're actually Nikki Sixx. In which case that would be okay, but I probably wouldn't include anyway. So don't bother, Nikki. Sorry.
And again, I'll listen to just about anything. I don't care if it's country or jazz or oboe sonatas or mash-ups or karaoke. (If you've listened to the show, you know it's all over the map, musically speaking.) Just submit something.
Question of the Day
What is your favorite piece of classical music?
This is on my mind, because I downloaded the Vienna Orchestra's 2010 New Year's Day concert last night and listened to it all night and on the way to work this morning. It has three of my favorite compositions: The Overture for "Die Fledermaus," "Radetzky March, Op. 228," and "An Der Schönen Blauen Donau." Prost!
It's A Fact!
Top five bounty hunters in the Star Wars universe (in descending order):
1. Bossk
2. IG-88
3. Greedo
4. Boba Fett
5. 4-LOM
(See also here, here, here and here.)
[Cross-posted.]
Community Note
Here is something you need to know about me: I care about this community and the people in it.
This is not a flippant statement. Its brevity does not subvert the enormity of its meaning.
It is also not a passive statement. I actively care about the people who spend time here, and I do the business of caring on-blog and off. I mentor Shakers just starting their own blogs and seeking advice; I commiserate with Shakers who are established bloggers and share ideas; I communicate privately, in email threads that can last for weeks, with Shakers who have lost a loved one, have lost a job, have suffered an injury or trauma, are going through a relationship crisis, are having surgery, have just come out, have just had a baby, have just gotten engaged, are considering an abortion, a divorce, self-harm, need advice or just a sympathetic ear on any one of a million different subjects. I have reviewed résumés and served as a reference. I have found local (to them) psychiatrists, victims' advocates, a gay-friendly wedding planner, a trans-friendly doctor, a tax attorney, plus-sized clothiers.
Caring about this community is not an abstract concept to me. It is concrete and it is personal and it is an active practice.
Here are some other things you need to know about me: I make mistakes. I feel shitty, really shitty, when I make a mistake that hurts someone in this community.
I convey all of the above as preface to this: Because I care about this community as I do, it is singularly infuriating and hurtful that I am repeatedly accused of acting in bad faith when I make a mistake. Or just do/say something with which someone disagrees. The overt accusations or veiled implications—deliberate or otherwise—of bad faith, deliberate cruelty, hidden agendas, indifference, etc. are profoundly demoralizing.
And I am demoralized.
I, and the other contributors, are axiomatically assumed by many Shakers to be acting in bad faith if we err (or even if we are perceived to have erred, but haven't), even as we are simultaneously expected never to err at all. Shakesville was founded by a person, and it is managed and nurtured by people. And the continual proclamations that "I can't believe this would happen at Shakesville, of all places!" every time I, or one of the contributors, makes a mistake, necessarily implies that perfection is expected of us, as if Shakesville is a magical kingdom created of pixie dust and not a virtual space made possible by the hard work of people who are flawed and fuck up just like any other people. Our charter specifically provides room for us—and everyone else to inhabits this space—to fail, as we inevitably will. If you won't support the provision of that room to fail, then you're not providing a safe space for us.
I understand the impulse to react viscerally to something one of us posted, especially if it's hurtful. And I also understand that no one thinks it should be a big deal if they comment before thinking, just this once. But you are not alone. And if only an infinitesimally small percentage of this readership reacts viscerally by making the accusation that I was deliberately hurtful, that still makes about 20 times every single day I am being told, on the blog and in my inbox, that I act in bad faith.
It is eminently possible to bring to my attention a mistake, or register a disagreement, without engaging in ad hominem attacks, using silencing tactics, jumping to unfounded conclusions about allegedly reprehensible motives, or in some other way accusing me of acting in bad faith. Failing explicit evidence I have acted to the contrary, I expect to be afforded the benefit of the doubt that I move and act in this space with good faith. I believe I have earned that after five years.
The other contributors have earned it, too.
We are here in good faith, and that is not an opinion and it is not up for debate. Those who make accusations to the contrary are fundamentally undermining the safe space for me and the other contributors. That is not to say that dissent is prohibited or that our mistakes should not be noted or that we don't expect to be held accountable if we have erred.
It is only to say that we are expected by this community to think extremely carefully about every post, every comment, every image, every link, every word we post (and we do), and I am asking that our readers who communicate with us hold themselves to the same standard.
And, you know, that's really just a fancy way of asking people to be a little nicer, a little more thoughtful. Which I don't think is a totally unreasonable request.
Moving forward, if and on the occasions that doesn't happen, threads will be closed. (Which, as an aside, is not an invitation to take the accusations of bad faith to my inbox.) Shakers who are rightfully angry that legitimate debate is then quashed should direct their anger in the appropriate direction—at the bullies who decided it was more important to be hurtful and undermine the safe space for the people who make this space possible, and not at me and the other mods who sometimes need to protect ourselves from unfounded accusations. This stuff takes a toll.
I am flatly not going to, I can't, continue to allow myself (or any other contributor) to be endlessly berated as someone who doesn't care about this space or the people in it anymore, or I'm going to flame out.
I'm taking the rest of the week off. See you Monday.
[Commenting Note: If you have the inclination to use this thread to provide examples of something I did once upon a time that makes you totally sure that I am acting in bad faith, you have seriously missed the point. And if this thread turns into a referendum on how much I suck, it will just be closed.]
Uh-Oh
For some reason, my formspring.me updates posted here rather than my own blog. I debated, but was uncomfortable leaving them up. Still, I wanted to apologize to the Shakers who took the time to share their answers to the questions, only to have them now deleted.
Question of the Day
What do you do when you can't sleep?
To pass the time, to help you get to sleep, or whatever... I usually turn the light back on and read until my eyelids get heavy. Granted, that can take quite some time.
Daily Kitteh and Puppeh
My sister adopted a seven-month-old cat on Sunday. He is a litter-mate of our niece and nephew's kitty, Oron.
Welcome to the family, Roland!
Roland had his first-ever vet visit this morning. The vet said to my sister, "That's a pretty sweet-lookin' cat!" Indeed.
Roland's signature "dozing with one eye open" attitude. I captured this nap after Dougie exhausted himself and Roland by dragging the stuffed monkey around the living room, tempting Roland to attack. These fast friends also like to nap together in a chair by the fire. It's only been four days, and they already have their rituals.
Next week, Roland is going back to his buddy the vet to "get tutored".
NQDTR Discussion Thread - M100111
Hiya, Shakers, time for another Discussion Thread for the Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report!
This is the thread in which you may offer congratulations or admiration for a teaspoon or teaspooner. If you're posting with just congrats or admiration, though, do take a moment and check the thread to see whether other people have said so a number of times already. Remember that no one is required to read here just because they posted over there, so there's no guarantee you'll get a response to a given comment.
The Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report - M100111
Time for another Teaspoon Report, brought to you by Shaxco, now introducing a new line of Shaxco™ brand Anal Millinery. Our celebrity spokesperson, Rush Limbaugh, says "Bigger asshats now, ask me how!"
Leave comments here that describe an act of teaspooning you encountered or committed. They don't have to be big, world-shaking acts; by definition, a teaspoon is a small thing, but enough of them together can empty the ocean.
If you would like to discuss the teaspoons here reported, or even offer congratulations or your admiration to a fellow Shaker, we ask that you do so over here in the Discussion Thread for today's NQDTR.
Shaker bgk has been kind enough to get a Twitter-pated version out there for you young twittersnappers (and by the way, get off my lawn, you meddling kids! *shakes cane*). You can find the details about the Tweetspoons project right here. That runs all the time, as far as I'm aware (*grumblenewtechnologygrumble*), and we encourage you to let other people know that there's at least one tweetstream talking about just going out and doing good things for the human species.
Teaspoons up, let's hear 'em, Shakers!
ô,ôP
More Random "Funny"
After stumbling across this, I've made a habit of looking at Yahoo's featured comic. Oddly, none of them are attributed or titled, so I've no idea what I am looking at. I don't know that having the title or artist responsible would help any. I wonder, sometimes, if it's the lack of context that makes these befuddling. Then again, as with the above, a lot of this stuff is just aggressively unfunny.
I sent the above to Liss this morning, as the cream in her proverbial coffee. She was as dumbfounded as I, replying:
I mean, it's literally the guy calling his car a traitor because it — what? — allowed itself to be fixed by a woman. Is she a woman he likes? Was he pretending to have a broken-down car to get her attention? Or is he just mad that she could do something he couldn't?I'm pretty sure I could post one of these up every day, that's how prevalent this dreck is in the funny papers.
It's completely dumb, either way.
The other thing I noticed was that comic strips seem to be divided up into three groups now: Second-rate Far Side knock offs, absurdism without Larson's wit and charm; unfunny, tired schtick, like the above; and "the classics," those zombified strips that have been around since forever (hey, in case you hadn't heard, Marmaduke is one big dog!) and are likely to shamble around until the Rapture.
As a kid, the comics page was the only part of the paper I'd read. Now I avoid it like a papercut.
[Cross-posted.]
