Question of the Day
What was your favorite thing to collect as a kid? Stickers, action figures, Garbage Pail Kids cards, interesting pebbles, strays who needed a home, Barbies, leaves, tadpoles, Matchbox cars...
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Gun violence.]
"Dogs are nonjudgmental. They are loving. They are accepting of anyone."—Tim Hetzner, president of the Lutheran Church Charities, ten of whose K-9 Comfort Dogs were dispatched from the Chicago suburbs to Newtown, Conn., this weekend, to offer comfort to those grieving the shooting.
The comfort-dog initiative started in 2008 at Northern Illinois University after a gunman killed five students. A group of dog caretakers associated with Lutheran Church Charities traveled to campus in hopes of providing a distraction to the student community.The comfort dogs, each of whom "has a card with its name, Facebook page, Twitter account and email so those who meet the canine can keep in touch," serve as a bridge between people for those who want to talk but aren't sure how to reach out, and a source of quiet companionship to those who need to sit silently in their grief.
The trip was so successful that weeks later students petitioned university leaders to bring comfort dogs back to campus, Hetzner said.
The initiative has grown from a handful of dogs in the Chicago area to 60 dogs in six states, he said.
Since then, the dogs have traveled across the nation to comfort people in the aftermath of major tragedies like Hurricane Sandy and the tornado that hit Joplin, Mo.
On Monday, the dogs [were] with Sandy Hook students for after-school activities, Hetzner said.
"There are a lot of people that are hurting," he said.
Lutheran Church Charities staff members (from left to right) Tim Kurth, Dona Martin, Lynn Buhrke, and Tim Hetzner. K-9 Comfort dogs (from left to right) Zippy, Ruthie, Chewie, and Luther before leaving for Newtown, Conn. [Photo via.][H/T to Shaker Stephanie.]
What am I doing with my life? What are you doing with your life? What are all the Not-James Francos doing with our stupid lives full of sleep and aging?
What—did you think James Franco wasn't going to take time off from doing every single other thing ever, all of them, ALL OF THE THINGS, to publish a book of poetry? You're so weird.
Not content with conquering the acting world, the musical world, the directing world and the art world, James Franco is continuing his bid for world domination with the news that he is set to publish his first poetry book.Note: James Franco has already published a short story collection in a bid to take over the publishing world. JUST FOR THE FRANCO RECORD.
Ideally suited to the world of poetry – he has an Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, and played Allen Ginsberg in the film Howl – Franco has been signed by small Minnesota publisher Graywolf Press for his debut collection, Directing Herbert White. The poems will be published in April 2014.That is one month before my 40th birthday. Thanks, James Franco!
Graywolf poetry editor Jeffrey Shotts described Franco's poetry as "a series of portraits of American successes and failures from within Hollywood … But they are also smart and highly aware notes of caution of what can happen when the filmed self becomes fixed and duplicated, while the ongoing self must continue living and watching."Coming soon to a Kindle near you. Because James Franco.
...Franco also published his first poetry chapbook, Strongest of the Litter, earlier this autumn. Described as "thoroughly beautiful and spare", the poems "have the texture of contending angles", according to their publisher Hollyridge Press. "I'm a raging Kowalski whose/ Temper can be measured by/ How little I can give./ How abusive my reticence," writes Franco.
[H/T to Shaker Beth_in_Mpls.]
Gentle and Kind
[Content Note: The linked story is about a man who lives near by Sandy Hook Elementary School, who helped six children on the day of the shooting. There are photographs at the link of the man in emotional turmoil, which may be upsetting.]
Neighbor Took Six Young Survivors into His Home. I'm not even going to excerpt it, because it can't be broken into pieces.
What a lovely man, and what a heartbreaking story. I am continually struck by the contrast of human depravity and human decency being juxtaposed in Newtown. How is it possible that we humans are capable of each?
That's rhetorical.
The heart, it never stops breaking.
RIP Laurier LaPierre
Laurier LaPierre, the broadcast journalist and academic who also served as Canada's first openly gay Senator, has died at 83. He was a long-time activist with Egale and an outspoken supporter of First Nations causes. As a journalist on the news program This Hour Has Seven Days he became a media icon; he also played a then-controversial role in the debate over ending the death penalty:
It was being touched by emotion that famously led to LaPierre’s firing from the CBC, and the end of This Hour. In an interview with the mother of Stephen Truscott, a 14-year-old facing a death sentence for murder, he wiped tears from his eyes while noting a bill to abolish the death penalty was before Parliament. The CBC’s president cited it as evidence he was unprofessional, and the show was soon cancelled.Among other causes he supported in his long and varied career, LaPierre was especially vocal in his support for expanding the hate crimes definition to include sexual orientation.
But it had made its mark. “This put CBC television into the major leagues,” said Ian Morrison, spokesman for the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. “It was an exciting thing to watch – fearless, gutsy.”
[Note: If there are less flattering things to be said about LaPierre, they have been excluded because I am unaware of them, not as the result of any deliberate intent to whitewash his life. Please feel welcome to comment on the entirety of his work and life in this thread.]
Today in Gun Reform (or the Lack Thereof)
CNN: Dick's Sporting Goods Suspends Sale of Certain Semi-Automatic After Shooting. Apparently no one at Dick's Sporting Goods knew that semi-automatic rifles could be used to kill lots of people very quickly until just recently. Ahem.
HuffPo: Sandy Hook Shooting Sparks Gun Sales Surge. Of course it did. I don't know about you, but I am increasingly concerned about being killed by some gun-toting fuckbrain with fantasies of heroic vigilantism who mistakes a French loaf for a sawed-off shotgun at the grocer than I am by someone who intends to kill a bunch of strangers.
Politico: Republican Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell (R-Va.) Says It's "Time to Have a Discussion" About Arming School Officials. Yep. Just another excellent idea from the brain trust known as the Republican Party.
TPM: Tennessee Considers Training and Arming Schoolteachers to Protect Against Shootings. Again: Perfect.
(Aside: I know it's SO SHOCKING that the gun lobby would talk out both sides of its mouth, but "keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill" and "arm teachers" effectively means that no one with psychological disabilities can become an educator. Another solid idea from the Great Ideas Team! Because kids with psychological disabilities never benefit from having teachers who can tell them, "I understand, because I'M LIKE YOU.")
New York Post: Adam Lanza's Weapons.
Has technology rendered the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution obsolete?When the New York Post is a voice of reason, we have officially derailed as a nation.
That is, has the application of modern military design to civilian firearms produced a class of weapons too dangerous to be in general circulation?
We say: Yes.
...Weapons designed expressly to kill human beings, and then modified (wink wink) to meet the federal machine-gun ban, have no legitimate place in American society.
Time to get rid of them.
Daily Dose of Cute
"Tastes like chicken!"
I know that is not true, because if her nose really did taste like chicken, every last one of the furry residents of Shakes Manor would be practically sitting on her head trying to get at her nose, like they do when I eat chicken.
I don't know how Zelda would even begin to try to sit on her own head, but if her nose tasted like chicken, I'm sure I'd find out.
This is so the worst thing you're going to read all day.
[Content Note: Guns; violence; sexism; racism; gender essentialism.]
Christy Wampole in the New York Times: Guns and the Decline of the Young Man.
I'm hard-pressed to pick what is the worst passage in this piece, but I've narrowed it down to three solid contenders:
I believe that it is indicative of a sort of infection spreading in our collective brain, one that whispers to the American subconscious: "The young men are in decline." They were once our heroes, our young and shining fathers, our sweet brothers, our tireless athletes, our fearless warriors, the brains of our institutions, the makers of our wares, the movers of our world. In the Western imagination, the valiance of symbolically charged figures like Homer's Ulysses or the Knights of the Round Table remained unquestioned since their conception. However, as centuries progressed and stable categories faltered, the hero figure faces increasing precarity. Even if we consider the 20th century alone, we see this shift from World War II, when the categories of good and evil were firm, to later conflicts like the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, involving a disparity between what the government believed to be right and what much of the civilian population did. Does the heroic young man still make sense today, or has his value already been depleted?
The angry white man has usurped the angry black man. [Bonus Garbage Points to the New York Times for using that as the pull quote.]
For those of us who belong to a demographic that is doing increasingly better, a trained empathic reflex toward those we know to be losing for our gains could lead to a more deferential attitude on our part and could constitute an invitation for them to stay with us.Wow, right?
This article is what happens when you don't understand (or don't care about) the difference between "maleness" and "male privilege." When you treat gender parity like a zero-sum game. When you wax nostalgic for a history that never existed. When you carefully elide how the kyriarchy has robbed privileged men of both a way to define themselves that is neither oppressor nor oppressed and the unquenchable hunger for self-improvement that doesn't reside in the bellies of the privileged who are assured they are the Norm, the ideal to which marginalized people aspire.
The problem is not that we have failed to empathize with privileged young white (straight, cis, middle class) men. The problem is that have built a culture around not expecting them to empathize with anyone else.
[H/T to Shaker Amy. See also: Echidne.]
Today in Rape Culture
[Content Note for linked story: Sexual violence, including descriptions of primary violations and secondary traumas; victim-blaming; slut-shaming; abundant rape culture narrative and behaviors.]
There is this story in the New York Times about a teenage girl who was exploited and sexually assaulted by members of a high school football team, who dragged her unconscious body to multiple parties where multiple people saw her being assaulted, took pictures of her, and failed to intervene in any way.
The community then, naturally, rallied around the "decent young men" who did that to her. Not everyone. But enough. Their coach was willing to testify on their behalf, about what good boys they are.
The victim's mother is quoted in the piece: "What those boys did was disgusting, disgusting, and for people to stand up for them, that's disgusting, too."
Yes.
I've gotten a bunch of emails about this story, so here is a thread to discuss it. I can't say anything that I haven't already said in every conceivable way literally hundreds of time before.
I am heartbroken. I am angry. And I am all in.
In The News
[Content note: anti-choice legislation, guns, gun violence]
News and Other Bits:
Want to see a picture of Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg? Of course you do!
How about some pictures of The Monkees meeting Frank Zappa?
Manos: The Hands of Fate: The Video Game. Obviously.
"Michael Douglas was a wonderful kisser." — Matt Damon.
Helena City Commissioners unanimously passed an ordinance prohibiting discrimination in housing, employment and many kinds of public accommodation based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
An 11-year-old from Michigan went fishing for crayfish and hooked a mastodon instead. Neat!
Here are five states where it's harder to get an abortion than it is to get a gun.
Vin Diesel is bald, so he will be starring in a new Kojak movie obviously.
The NRA has deactivated their Facebook page. Of course.
Neil Finn wrote a song about Hobbits. The world is complete now.
Speaking of Hobbits, check this shit out: Green Dragon Pub opens in New Zealand.
Emo Phillips has a website. The internet is a weird place.
The United States Postal Service has created a specific post office box for Newtown, allowing well-wishers to send letters, care packages and drawings to survivors.
Instagram Claims Ownership of Your Photos
Declan McCullagh at CNET: Instagram says it now has the right to sell your photos.
Instagram said today that it has the perpetual right to sell users' photographs without payment or notification, a dramatic policy shift that quickly sparked a public outcry.McCullagh recalls when Yahoo tried to pull a similar stunt with Geocities content (for all of you who don't remember Geocities, it was like Tumblr but with midi files of "Greensleeves"), and immediately had to back down because of the totally legitimate and totally predictable outrage from their users.
The new intellectual property policy, which takes effect on January 16, comes three months after Facebook completed its acquisition of the popular photo-sharing site. Unless Instagram users delete their accounts before the January deadline, they cannot opt out.
Under the new policy, Facebook claims the perpetual right to license all public Instagram photos to companies or any other organization, including for advertising purposes, which would effectively transform the Web site into the world's largest stock photo agency. One irked Twitter user quipped that "Instagram is now the new iStockPhoto, except they won't have to pay you anything to use your images."
"It's asking people to agree to unspecified future commercial use of their photos," says Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "That makes it challenging for someone to give informed consent to that deal."
...The PopPhoto.com photography site summarized the situation by saying: "The service itself is still a fun one, but that's a lot of red marks that have shown up over the past couple weeks. Many shooters -- even the casual ones -- probably aren't that excited to have a giant corporation out there selling their photos without being paid or even notified about it."
...It's true, of course, that Facebook may not intend to monetize the photos taken by Instagram users, and that lawyers often draft overly broad language to permit future business opportunities that may never arise. But on the other hand, there's no obvious language that would prohibit Facebook from taking those steps, and the company's silence in the face of questions today hasn't helped.
CNET will update the linked post if and when Facebook responds to their request for clarification and/or comment.
RIP Senator Daniel Inouye
Democratic Senator from Hawaii Daniel Inouye, who was a decorated World War II combat veteran, the first the first Japanese American elected to the US Congress, a fervent advocate for his home state, a key figure in the Watergate and Iran-Contra investigations, and the second longest serving senator in history, died yesterday at age 88.
He has been in the Senate for so long, I can't imagine it without him.
Senators of both parties took to the chamber floor Monday to mourn his death, and President Barack Obama described Inouye as "a true American hero."It can't be overstated how important Inouye's election and continued presence in Congress was for Hawaii. Not only because he was a maestro at earmarking money for his home state, but also because he became an Asian American leader for the islands at a time when Hawaii's populations of color had been disempowered by a white ruling class. His visibility—and his championing of the Apology Resolution—was crucial for native Hawaiians (although nationalist Hawaiians have objections to the Resolution, so it was not universally well received).
"In Washington, he worked to strengthen our military, forge bipartisan consensus, and hold those of us in government accountable to the people we were elected to serve," Obama said in a statement. "But it was his incredible bravery during World War II -- including one heroic effort that cost him his arm but earned him the Medal of Honor -- that made Danny not just a colleague and a mentor, but someone revered by all of us lucky enough to know him. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Inouye family."
Vice President Joe Biden, who served alongside Inouye in the Senate, recalled his "moral bravery" in the body. "He was one of the most honorable men I ever met in my life, and one of the best friends you could hope for. He was honest, and fiercely loyal, and I trusted him absolutely."
Fellow Hawaiian Daniel Akaka choked up as he said, "It is very difficult for me to rise today with a heavy heart to bid aloha, aloha to my good friend, colleague and brother.
"Tomorrow will be the first day since Hawaii became a state in 1959 that Dan Inouye will not be representing us in Congress. Every child born in Hawaii will learn of Dan Inouye, a man who changed the islands forever." [CNN.]
According to his office, Inouye's last word was "Aloha."
The New York Times' obit is here. The Washington Post's obit is here.
[Note: If there are less flattering things to be said about Inouye, they have been excluded because I am unaware of them, not as the result of any deliberate intent to whitewash his life. Please feel welcome to comment on the entirety of his work and life in this thread.]
Top Five
Here is your topic: Top Five Worst Holiday Foods. (Not necessarily end-of-year holidays. Anytime holidays.) Go!
Please feel welcome to share stories about why your Top Five picks are what they are, though a straight-up list is fine, too. Please refrain from negatively auditing other people's lists, because judgment discourages participation.
Quote of the Day
[Content Note: Guns; violence.]
"Had George Zimmerman been at the front door instead of some mechanical card reader those children would still be alive."—Tea Party Nation leader and Worst Person in the World Judson Phillips, suggesting that George Zimmerman, the vigilante who murdered teenager Trayvon Martin, would have saved lives had he been guarding the door at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Yeah, not for nothing, Phillips, but your boy Zimmerman is the analogue to Adam Lanza here on Planet Reality, not Trayvon Martin, who was himself an innocent kid gunned down by a dirtbag.
Photos of the Day
First Lady Michelle Obama reads a Christmas story at the Children's Medical Center on December 14, as her dog Bo sits on her lap and 5-year-olds AJ Murray (left) and Jordyn Akyoko (right) sit at her sides:
Film Corner: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Does anyone want to talk about The Hobbit?
Iain and I saw it with our friends A & M this weekend, and we loved it so much. Now, granted, one of the first things Iain and I ever spoke about was Tolkien, and our first movie date ever was The Fellowship of the Rings, so: 1. We are nerdz (breaking news!); and 2. This was always going to be special to us unless it was terrible. And it was definitely not terrible.
I should also tell you that I have a 12-inch vinyl record with storybook of the old Rankin-Bass animated feature, to which I used to listen over and over and over on my Scooby-Doo record player until I could say and sing the entire thing from memory. And I also had a Hobbit coloring book out of which my mother had to tear the Gollum page because Gollum terrified me so!
What I'm saying is: I love The Hobbit. A lot. Which I want to make clear so that you have the full context when I say that I loved this movie so much.
I won't completely nerd out about every little thing I loved about it, because I would be here all day and no one would read it. I will only say three things:
1. The casting was great, especially Martin Freeman as Bilbo. He was SO great!
2. I couldn't discern any difference at all re: the different frame rate, even trying to look for it. I realize some people might just be more sensitive to that than others.
3. [spoiler warning!] The scene where Bilbo tells Thorin that he's continuing with them because he's got a home and they don't and he wants to help them reclaim their home in whatever way he can...? OMG. If I were a hobbit, my name would be Blubbo Baggins.
Discuss.
