I took the Belief-O-Matic quiz, which I enjoy taking once in a while.

My results under the top 5 are a little surprising since my "spiritual" journey has basically brought me to the conclusion that, haha, I have no "spirit". Also the fac

01. Secular Humanism (100%) - No surprise, kind of a given.
02. Unitarian Universalism (94%) - I suppose it's something to consider if I ever feel like having a community
03. Liberal Quakers (79%) - I know a few Quakers. Sure, Jesus was a nice guy! ;)
04. Nontheist (70%) - Only 70% percent... well, Agnosticism is basically "might, might not", the atheism is the life-style.
05. Neo-Pagan (69%) - Indeed for a time, I considered this as a path... it was not to be. I think it has more to do with laziness than anything else...
( The other 22 )

Crossposted to http://eumelia.dreamwidth.org/442950.html. There are comments over there.

Currently, circulating the Israeli (and Hebrew speaking, obviously) Left leaning blogosphere a story of rape is being told.

The woman in question, who bravely wrote her story, in her full name, regarding the crime against her body.
The author, Eshkar Eldan Cohen, published her story on the social commentary website and magazine "Ha'Oketz" (העוקץ - The Sting) that focuses on the intersection of non-Ashkenazi Jewish ethnicities (Mizrahi, Sephardi, Ethiopian), the occupation and class disparity.

The perpetrator is a known personality in the Left milieu.
He committed this rape twenty years ago.
He is a known harasser. From the descriptions, I feel that I know of him, but that's not what I want to talk about.

The article by Cohen has over thirty comments (not a lot, but quite a few for a site of that nature and an article of this kind) and one of the recurring themes in many of the comments were:
"Why didn't you go to the police" and "Why don't you tell us his name"

Those two things are what I want to talk about.

The very question (and it's variations) "Why didn't you go to the police/press charges/tell someone/etc." is victim blaming.
Yeah really, it is.
By saying that she should have said something places all the responsibility on her, especially when the incident, as most of them are, are without violence that leaves bruises. Force doesn't have to entail physical restraint and doesn't have to leave marks upon the body.

This guy was a personality back then, as such, he was probably held in high regard, spoken about as a "good guy", creative, "nice", wouldn't hurt anyone.

The social imperative that we're taught about remaining silent when it comes to rape and sexual assault is far more powerful than the abstract notion of justice.
The shame of losing bodily integrity, of knowing that the history of who came before the rapist is somehow relevant (it isn't) and the knowledge that because rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment are a spectrum of what is considered a woman's worth in society.

Which is not much.

When you request the identity of the perpetrator, when the person who was victimised refrained from giving it in the first place you're being obtuse at best and completely disrespectful of someone's right to privacy at worst.
She didn't give the name for a reason.
The main reason is that it would be libel.
Because other than her story (and a few other people, maybe), there is no proof that he actually did it.

There are far more rape victims than there are rapists, because rapists are repeat offenders and they rely on the silence and social shame that comes with the crime.
Usually, they're quite convinced they didn't rape anyone. They were doing what comes naturally.
Taking what is their due.

This is what a rape culture looks like.

This story is circulating in Hebrew, as mentioned, but as an Israeli blogger who writes primarily in English I decided I had to write about it. This is happening now and should be known, all the time.

Because silence is violence. Speak up. Shame is one of the most destructive emotions in existence and it should be eradicated where we are able to do so.

Crossposted to http://eumelia.dreamwidth.org/442803.html. You can see that there are comments. If you'd rather comment there please do.

I've finished importing my LJ to DW, with it came all the people on my f-list (what it known as a "reading list" or r-list(?) on DW).

So... if you have a DW account and would like us to be readers both on LJ and on DW (I love symmetry) place add me!

Ta!

Crossposted to http://eumelia.dreamwidth.org/442621.html. You can see that there are comments. If you'd rather comment there please do.

I've decided that I'll not be renewing my paid account, but I'm not going to give up on LJ completely.

As there are still quite a few months until that my paid accounts expires, at which time I'll be most likely give funds to DW, I've decided to start moving my entries to my DW account eumelia (I'm glad I got the same user name :)

At the moment my primary journal is my LJ, simply because the critical mass of people I have there is far greater.

However, seeing as migration is a slow process, there's no time like the present to begin and over the next few weeks and months I hope to at the very least make my presence at DW.

Regardless, I'm not giving up on my LJ. My DW is going to get a bit more love now, though.

Crossposted to http://eumelia.dreamwidth.org/1695.html. You can see that there are comments. If you'd rather comment there please do.

Directly continuing from my previous post, the persecution of those pesky Human Rights orgs and those who speak in criticism of Israel continues.

My initial comparison to The Crucible was not unwarranted and I wonder how long before a(n) unofficial committee to investigate un-Patriotic acts against the Jewish State is put together and made public.

Naomi Hazan (alternate spelling "Chazan") has been fired from The Jerusalem Post the daily Israeli English language News paper where she wrote a column. According to the Ha'aretz article regarding this turn of events, that Doron Horovitz, The JP's editor in cheif, declined from commenting about this very "sudden" decision.
The same article, titled "Amid row over contentious ad, Jerusalem Post fires Naomi Chazan of New Israel Fund", goes on to talk about the "Im Tirzu":

Im Tirtzu is trying to cast itself as a centrist movement, refusing to explicitly state an alliance to any party, Left or Right. However, a Haaretz probe found that the influential forces behind the movement make no secret of their rightist political loyalties. Financially, Im Tirtzu is supported by a foundation that has contributed to radical right-wing organizations such as the Women in Green; Pastor John Hagee, the head of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) which contributed to Im Tirtzu, has been implicated in the past by a number of anti-Semitic statements.

[...]

The main channel for donations to Im Tirtzu is the Central Fund of Israel. In addition to Women in Green and Im Tirtzu, it supports Honenu, an organization sponsoring legal defence to radical right-wing activists in trouble with the law. Honenu boasts of financially supporting the families of the Bat Ayin underground, convicted for trying to bomb a girls' school in East Jerusalem in 2002; of Ami Popper, who shot four Palestinian labourers during the first intifada; Yishai Schlissel, an ultra-Orthodox man who stabbed participants in a Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem in 2005; and Haggai Amir, brother of Yitzhak Rabin's assassin Yigal Amir. Im Tirtzu's Web site asks donations to be sent through the American foundation.

[...]

Meanwhile, the Hebrew news Web site Walla! revealed this week that one of the donors to Im Tirtzu is CUFI, Christians United for Israel, led by evangelist preacher John Hagee. CUFI's Web site stated it had given Im Tirtzu $100,000.

Hagee achieved notoriety in 2008, when saying that Hitler carried out the will of God, to return the Jews to Israel in accordance with the biblical promise.

Emphasis by me.

I find the fact that Israel gets funds and support from Christian groups that want to exist for the sole purpose of believing that through it we'll be annihilated... a tad disturbing, to say the very least.

The Knesset (our Parliament) has caught wind of this very ugly media shit storm and are going to be setting up an investigation committee that will check the "New Israel Fund"'s donors... not, you'll note, "Im Tirtzu"'s or "The Central Fund of Israel".
Those pesky human rights activists and organisations, questioning policies and disseminating information that pertains to Israel's character.
"Im Tirzu" are basically calling into question the right to free speech and whether it's legitimate to question anything the IDF and Israel does - all this in relation to the Goldstone Report, but it's so much deeper than that.

It's wrong to call for a proper investigation regarding excessive force, but inciting a media storm and publishing an ad in which Antisemitic iconography is employed is fine and dandy.

In other ways this country is going down the toilet - as though the Occupation and the violence that floods our society due to it wasn't enough, of which the above are direct examples - The minister of transportation said he was in favour gender segregated buses ("Kosher Buses" as they're called) is the segregation was, I'm not kidding, voluntary.
If you are a woman and you happen to get onto a gender segregated bus (which aren't marked to make them distinguishable from "regular" buses) then you will be either shamed into getting to the back, forcibly removed from the bus or simply, you know, told to wait.
Yes, well, of course it affects the women, who according to Jewish orthodoxy are filthy, impure and human enough to be mothers and workers in order to support the men who study Torah, Mishna and what-ever-the-fuck day in and day out in Yeshivas.

The phenomenon of gender segregated buses has spread beyond Jerusalem and to other cities which have large populations of Ultra-Orthodox, like Bnei Brak and Petach Tikva (both of which are 5-10 minutes away from liberal Tel-Aviv) issue as the Ultra-Orthodox who demand that buses be kosher for "modesty" because men and women are not supposed to be in contact with each other.

Yeah.

Of course, Israel's main problem is its image.
Who knew.

I don't.

Last week I wrote about the new testimonials from Breaking the Silence, which garnered no comments on the entry itself.

I suppose it can be a bit overwhelming to talk about. Or simply not interesting for most. I don't know what to say really, it could just be a boring topic.

Yes, we know, Occupation Bad, Liberty Good, move along.

The thing is this isn't a given. Until four years ago, I was sure I understood the reality of where I lived and I was sorely misinformed, or in denial, depends what period of time we're speaking of.

Over the past years, as I grew more informed and actually took the time to understand the reality of what it means to be an Occupier, along with seeing through the veneer of democracy we supposedly live in (it's not a democracy when one group is privileged by law above all others), it seems that I've radicalised.

I suppose that's true, I've always irritated family, some friends and acquaintances with being vocal over the notion that all people are, in fact, human. Going to university has enabled me to articulate my points in a far more coherent and lucid way - rather than simply rant and point while saying: "But, but... you're doing bad things!".

But what bothers me the most is the Antisemitism (actual vile Jew hatred - disguised as anti-Zionism - from outsiders and internalised from other Jewish people - disguised as criticism of critics) I've encountered ever since being "out" regarding my politics.

I've written before about how the entire notion of "self-hating Jews" is Antisemitic, seeing as by declaring that one Jew is better than another, you [editorial] are saying that there is a Jewish Essence that some Jews have more than others, or something insipid as that.
By conflating a loyalty to a nation state (Israel) and belonging to a diverse ethnic, religious and cultural group (Judaism), you make it impossible to criticise the very real problems that exist within both those categories.
If I, as an Israeli, cannot criticise the policies of my own country for fear of being called "Bad Jew" what kind of protection against Antisemitism does living in the Jewish state accord me?
Or when Alan Dershowitz accuses Judge Richard Goldstone of betraying the Jewish people?
Carte Blanche for persecution, you say?

I speak of this now, because last week a smear campaign against The New Israel Fund (one of the largest social justice organisations in Israel) brought about by a neo-Zionist group called "Im Tirzu" (אם תרצו - If You Will It), which I'm not linking to as I'd rather not give a proto-fascist group more traffic than necessary.

The campaign included this "lovely" picture: ( Cut for size and because it's disgusting )
Picture depicts a caricature of Naomi Hazan (as Naomi Goldstone-Hazan) who is the current chairperson of the "New Israel Fund" with a horn on her head that bears the initials of the org. Below the picture there is text that reads: "FACT! Without the New Israel Fund, there could be no Goldstone Report, and Israel would not be facing international accusations of war crimes".

"Im Tirzu" are a vile reactionary bunch. I've encountered them more than once on my campus (university campus' are where they generally operate because they are bastions of anti/post-Zionis/Israel Hating/Loony Left Politics). They wear t-shirts depicting Theodore Herzl, Moshe Dayan, Menahem Begin and Golda Meir.
They call themselves politically centre.
A bigger bunch of racist chauvinists you'll be hard pressed to find.

Not only do they get venerated by the local press, I heard one of the activists speak on the radio regaling accusations of "delusion", "self-hatred", "victim blaming" (Israel being the only victim to be found), "anti-democratic" and the radio jockey was going along with it!
I fairly sure I burst a blood vessel somewhere.

One of the fine things of living in a democracy is that the state is not infallible. That the institutions that run it and are run by it can be scrutinised and spoken about critically.

When NGO's that try to promote equality and challenge the inequity of ethnocentric, militaristic and chauvinist Israel are under attack and accused of the very things they stand against and tactics used by our "enemies" are copied by the so-called "defenders" of Zionism, what exactly are we supposed to find agreeable about a nationalistic, supremacist and Antisemitic organisation? Accusing those who defend human rights and/or criticise the state as being enemies of the state sounds like The Crucible.

I'll conclude by saying that Umberto Eco defined 14 characteristics of Eternal, or Ur-Fascism, some of them being:

4. The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism.

In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge. For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason.

5. Besides, disagreement is a sign of diversity.

Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.

Dear, dear me.

Gone a second time and back with more insight and a bunch of icons.

Where to begin? And can I ever end.

Let me first say, the clothes. My god, the clothes.

Friends, I want to be a dandy.
I want to wear Tweed and braces and waistcoats and a bowler and a cravat! The clothes seemed to be hyped up versions of themselves. Feh, the whole movie was a hyped up version of Sherlock Holmes and was faithful to the books in many ways - though departed in many many others.

( This is a bit long. Just a bit )

One of the most lauded attributes the IDF uses to promote itself as an enlightened and ultimately is the egalitarian treatment between female and male soldiers.

This is bullshit, but it is an image that it quite convincingly manages to throw around - persuading us that through service social equality is gained - yeah.

Combat units in which female integration have supposedly worked the best are the border patrol units. Many women serve at the check points and in the units that patrol the West Bank.

I've blogged about Breaking The Silence (BTS) before, which is an NGO that collects testimonials from soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories and publish it for public knowledge and consumption.
Obviously, they and other organisations critical of the IDF are quietly persecuted and spoken about in the most Antisemitic and anti-Humane terms I've ever heard - "Self-hating", "deluded", "bleeding hearts", "self-destructive".
As though loyalty to the IDF is the litmus of being loyal to the notion that our lives are worth something.

Any way.

BTS published on Friday the 29th of January (yesterday) a new testimony booklet. This one is testimonials of female soldiers.

"A female combat soldier needs to prove more…a female soldier who beats up others is a serious fighter…when I arrived there was another female there with me, she was there before me…everyone spoke of how impressive she is because she humiliates Arabs without any problem. That was the indicator. You have to see her, the way she humiliates, the way she slaps them, wow, she really slapped that guy."

This is a quote from the article (which is problematic and essentialist. Then again, it's YNET) and a woman in this "feminist" army needs to prove she's as good as any man.
She must be violent towards the population the army is policing.

I always find it hair raising when I hear women who serve in the IDF call themselves feminists. It is a kind of feminism. A feminism that only focuses on her own career trying to gain the privilege allotted only to men in that position.

Not too long ago, I had a class in which the discussion of whether the use of the word "feminist" wasn't shooting ourselves in the foot because of the negative connotation.
It's an old and tried debate in my opinion, so I won't regale you on what was said - but one classmate said that as a reserve pilot she refused to consider her gender when she put on her uniform and flew - then, she was just a pilot.

Related though tangential, I have a friend who participates in sexist jokes in her workplace in order to have an environment that she isn't considered a stick in the mud and "one of those" women. Yeah.

Back to the IDF.
Female soldiers in order to show and prove that they are as good as any man, have to be "worse" than their male fellow soldiers.
Prove she's got the "balls", so to speak.

All the people who give testimony to BTS bear witness to the Occupation from the vantage point of those who actively perpetrate it. These soldiers are the nuts and bolts of the Occupation and they come back into "civilian society" with this baggage.
People wonder why Israel can't let go of trauma.
We're all infected with PTSD.

The testimonies are hard to read. They were harder for me to read than previous ones by men, because alas, I am socialised to view men as violent. And women who are violent are aberrant.
Not the case.
So very much not the fucking case.

If this is the meaning of an egalitarian army and this is the means through which Israeli Jewish women gain more power later in life, then the very basic notion of a human being is, is utterly, completely and foundationally twisted in the hegemonic Israeli mind.

Here are the links to the PDF file of the testimonials: In Hebrew and in English.

And I freakin' loved it!

OMG! So cool! The music, the action, the flirtations! So awesome!

Now f-listers who have seen it: rec me the fics! where can I get good quality icons?!

I shall write a long detailed review over the next few days!

You discover that Howard Zinn passed away.

Well.

I suppose it's time to read his book, right?

Edited to add 29.01.09: Dude, J.D. Salinger died as well.

Is this supposed to be the year of Authors Dying? I'll keep my eyes open.

Yes, I'm doing it!

The most comprehensive linkage of the meme is here!

Chromatic Castings of The New Doctor Who (9th and 10th) and Torchwood (Series 1-2)!

( Under The Cut )

And last, but certainly not least!

Gina Torres as Captain Jack Harkenss!

Well, Yes, my Cardiff is full of beautiful women.

LiveJournal, Malware, Interstitial Advertising and You.

Wow.

I'm seriously, seriously unamused.

I don't know.

I have an account on DW: eumelia, but I've been on LJ for five years now.
I have communities that I like.
Peeps I enjoy reading that aren't mirrored.

I know, I know I can still keep this account and move to making the DW a primary one.

*sigh*

Well, my paid account expires in May. I can see what happens then, right?

A group I've joined called Academic Bi, from their profile: Academic_bi is an international mailing list for discussion, exchanging information and ideas about topics related to bisexual theory, queer theory and the academic study of bisexuality/pansexuality/fluidity and omnisexuality of course :)

People are making introductions!

And a little funny thing for the more classically minded queers among us, courtesy of my big brother:

The one that amuses me the most is the term
"metrosexual". It's supposed to refer to a hip,
urban (METROpolitan) guy who dresses well
and can handle being "just friends" with women.
But "metropolitan" comes from "mother city,"
with the "metro-" part being "mother."
Making metrosexuals, well, rather Oedipal.

Funny!

When I think about various discussions I've had with my parents regarding my political alignment (re: The Loony Left), I think about the fact that a former uni classmate of mine (who studied Psychology) said that they're probably sublimating their hostility regarding my queer factor onto my politics.

It's an interesting thought, one I wouldn't disregard, as it makes sense. Seeing as both my political alignment and me being not strictly straight are viewed by my parents as a rebellious phase.

Though honestly, having been "officially" out to my immediate family for nearly five years now¹, you'd think the whole "phase" thing would be taken as, you know, my life.
Alas.

Seeing that I'm now on Semester break and my first exam is only this coming Sunday (as in, not today, yays) I had time.
I had time to watch a twenty seven minute video about Coming Out With Mom from a YouTube channel called The Beaver Bunch, which are a bunch of American LGBTQ peeps talking about what it's like to be LGBTQ and disseminating information.
Things I generally find none too shabby.
I've watched a few of the shorter videos... it's all very American, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the issues do not really correspond with my experiences.

In any event, that video I watched irritated me throughout. Because constantly, constantly there was this emphasis on time.
When you come out give your parents time.
Time to realise you're the same person you always were.
Time to realise what they hoped for you (that fantasy of who you are in their head) is not what they thought.
Time to learn mourn the life they thought you were going to have.

In the video one of "Beaver's" - Michel(le?) - is sitting with her mother and they're answering questions from viewers about coming out.

I was irritated by the closeness that I saw between them. Obviously, I was completely and utterly jealous.
Not because Michel(le?)'s mother had reached an acceptance with the fact that her daughter is gay, but the fact that they even shared that closeness. ( Read Moar F-List... Read Moar! )

Within three months of being enlisted into the IDF I put on something like 5 kg.
I had cried, tears rolled down my face, as I told my mother I had jock itch because my thighs were rubbing together, along with the very ill-fitting uniform.
I didn't wear clothes in my proper size for the two years that I served.

Food in the IDF is disgusting.

I was not vegetarian at the time, but I pretended to be, because the processed tofu schnitzels looked more appetizing and less likely to give me salmonella than the "regular" food.

Having done kitchen duty like a champ, I can tell you, the cooks are over worked, it's an yucky job, you have to deal with teenaged girls being grossed out by things (being a young aunt cured me of viewing leftover food as gross) that they've seen people eat and, well, dealing with the fact that despite having the most "practical" power (they're the wheelers and dealers of the army) they're in fact the lowest echelon of military jobs.

Yeah, the food was gross. We comforted ourselves by going to buy chocolate, biscuits, chocolate-chip cookies, crackers and cheese...

Yeah, it was good times in the barracks.

Is it any surprise girls (who do not do combat, which most of us do not) put on, on average, 10 kg of weight throughout our two year run.

I got thinking about because I saw this News article.
It made me guffaw. That's another way of saying LOL.

The IDF is going to cut out of its menu in the canteens (i.e. the cafeteria where you get your food for free) the fattening pastry foods - mainly Bourekas and rogalach - which have been traditional foods found in meetings, unit gatherings and, as mentioned, the canteens.

Nothing like promoting more resentment in the ranks!

I mean, I understand the need and want to promote "good health" which is a real oxymoron in the military - I cannot tell you how many yeast infections I had during my service because the trousers I wore five days a week was basically spun plastic.

Also, Doctors generally do not believe soldiers who come to the infirmary, their initial thought is that you are there to get sick-leave, which are days off not docked from your regular holidays.

You basically have to be dying in order to get treatment - or be at the emergency room with an actual bodily trauma.

Yeah, "good health".

Food is a big deal in the army.
It's something we arrange our time around - two hour lunch breaks are not unheard of, hell, unless I had something extremely pressing to do I could spend more time faffing around looking for chocolate and drinking seven cups of coffee a day (which was my average, I was up to ten cups a day at some point... withdrawal was a bitch after I was discharged).

Food was my comfort. Mainly because the food presented to us in the canteens was just so bad. Any other food was great and much of it was eaten.

I've spoken about the uniform before, so I don't need to tell you about the gendered aspect of it, but I remember how one day, I felt cramps, it wasn't that time of the month, so I went to the bathroom, opened my belt and instant relief.
Yeah, my belt had been pressing into me.
You can imagine what I did next.
I cried like the big baby I am/was.

Looking back, I can't say I felt bad about putting on the weight. It was something I didn't consciously think about - I mean, I hated myself for being "fat", but I was never ever willing to give up food that made me feel good.

That period of my life was full of half-assed attempts at weight loss.
"Weight Watchers" is a nightmare, as though we don't get judged enough in our lives.
Eating smaller portions got me eating more instead of less.
I got into shouting matches with my mother over my weight and what I was willing to do, or not do, in order to "control myself".

Yeah, food was a battle ground.

I don't know how much I eat today. I know that over the past few months I've lost weight, which worried me for a while, because weight loss has become something I associate with trauma and I still don't know what has caused me to become even smaller than I was.

Food in the IDF was part of what got me through it. Take outs, cakes, biscuits, the gatherings... *sigh* good times.
But they made my plastic pants split at the seam.

I'm glad it's over, never to return.

At times, it seemed to never end. I was even about to sign up for more - I was insane and full of fear of the outside world at the time - so when that fell through I suddenly had two weeks left of service.
The relief (and the weight loss that commenced simply because I was happy to be outside that framework) was unbelievable.

Related but off tangent; I don't know if Kung Fu is for me. I was in the best shape of my life while I was in those classes, but I didn't know how to protect myself, which pretty much negates the purpose...

As mentioned, I'm now thin, but very out of shape. I'm a slob, I don't exercise, I should, but I don't - I need to maלe the decision to go back to martial arts, but I need to want it and at the moment... I don't.

I had to get up obscenely early this morning, because I had a class at 8:30 (yay! no more waking up at 6 am in order to catch the train!).

Opposite me in the booth, a really pretty girl (as in young woman, my age-ish, probably a little younger) began to put on her face.
When I say "face", I mean it.

The art of putting on make up is one I'd never really mastered, I'm lucky if I remember to pluck and tidy up my curly eye brows. But watching her, I was so impressed by the whole process of it.

She started with blush. Compared to me, she had a dark completion, and from a pretty cocoa it suddenly became bronze. I had my sunglasses on, so she couldn't see me watch her, but I couldn't stop looking.

It was simply a gorgeous process to behold.

After she finished with the blush, she took out silvery-white eye-shadow, her big brown eyes suddenly looked huge and watery. As though they were shining from the inside. She took out her mascara and her lashes framed her eye, her eye lids looked like a flower petals.

She finished off by adding just a touch of red, cherry chap-stick, to her lips, creating a dark contra to the sparkle of her eyes.

She fluffed her hair and was about to pick up the news paper when I removed my glasses and looked straight at her;
"Before you start reading, I just wanted to say that you're really beautiful and the whole process you did was gorgeous as well. I know this sounds weird, but I just had to tell you" I said.

She looked shocked for a moment (well, strangers on a train aren't supposed to talk about your make-up!), but then she grinned at me, her mouth stretching, her eyes crinkled and she said though her huge smile: "Thank you so much".

Two people had a good start to the day.

I just thought I'd share and tell this, because it's so rare that we acknowledge all the hard work we put into being in public, showing a face to the world. Make-up or not, it's worth noting and talking about.

*weeps*

The thing that frustrates me the most about all this, is that I will watch it.

I would have watched a UK based Season 4 sans Ianto without feeling any qualms.

If it does in fact produce episodes in America I will watch it. Very likely with something a kin to fangrrl enthusiasm.

I fear though, that FOX will take all that is good about Tochwood - the relationship stuff (which was weird and complicated and not at all clear cut as to what everyone felt towards one another), the queer sexuality, the dark character arcs (Cyberwoman made people laugh? Seriously?!) and, well, UK sensibility.
Welsh sensibility.
That understated equanimity that comes from being so elegantly arrogant it gets you into tight spots just so you can ingeniously get out of them!

Tell me, did James Bond have to move to the CIA in order to be the coolest man alive?
He did not!
Why does Torchwood, created out of the Doctor's stupidity and hubris, have to move across the pond in order to be "significant" to entertainment?

Yeah, I'm an Anglophile, I fully admit that, perhaps it comes from being a colonialist myself.

Britannica is no less authentic entertainment than Americana.

That, and I hate FOX.

They will make Jack into a womaniser rather than the equal opportunity flirt/shagger that he is!

*stomps foot!*

Yes more on the Slash Debate. Yes, more.

I'm rapping my fingers at the screen here, getting irritated by the reiteration, upon reiteration that I'm seeing.

I've read the latest metafandom and linkspam and once again, I'm seeing cluelessness, carelessness, privilege and more identity erasure.

Stop it. Just, stop.
( Cut for length, seriously )

I'm in the Library and I read this.

I really needed to stop myself from screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO", like Kirk screamed "KHAAAAAAAAAN".

No.
Just.
No.

D:

Fox readying U.S. version of 'Torchwood'

Exclusive: Huge news for sci-fi fans: Fox is developing a stateside version of the U.K. hit series “Torchwood.”

The project is from BBC Worldwide Prods., with original series creator Russell Davies writing the script.

A more straight-faced spinoff of “Doctor Who,” “Torchwood” is about a covert group that investigates and fights alien activity. Two series aired domestically on BBC America as well as last year’s well reviewed stand-alone miniseries, “Children of Earth,” which broke all ratings records for the network. (If you're a fan of serious sci fi such as "Battlestar Galatica" and haven't seen "Children of Earth," rent it. You don't need to know anything about the series. And I know the previews for "Torchwood" can look silly. Trust me, it's terrific. Like "24" with aliens).

Unlike U.S. adaptations that have gone awry, “Torchwood” fans can take comfort that the original producing team is on board. In addition to Davies, exec producers include Davies’ producing partner Julie Gardner (former head of drama at BBC Wales for the show’s first season) and Jane Tranter (another BBC vet, now exec VP programming and production at BBC Worldwide Prods. in the U.S.).

Also, some of the current cast — most likely John Barrowman, who plays the immortal Capt. Jack Harkness — might star if Fox orders “Torchwood” to pilot.

As for the new show’s plot, the U.S. version will contain a global story line compared to the more localized sensibility of the first two BBC seasons.

Tranter might try to reboot “Doctor Who” for U.S. audiences while departing “Doctor Who” star David Tennant stars in NBC’s pilot “Rex Is Not Your Lawyer.” “Torchwood” (which is an anagram of “Doctor Who”) debuted in 2006 on BBC 3 and set ratings records, then was moved to BBC 1. Russell also reinvented “Doctor Who” in 2003 and was writer-creator of the series “Queer as Folk.”

Oh my god, why?! WHY?!?!

*goes into a corner and cries*

Also, what does Tennant's pilot have anything to do with it? People he's moving on! Stop trying to suck him back in!