Last night was a big mess when it came to be trying to deflect racism, homophobia and sexism.

I dunno what was in the air, but it was irritating.

I had to tell people to stop codifying Islam with "terrorism". I had to tell people that gay people in the States do not want "special rights" when it comes to same-sex marriage. I had to defend this "assimilationist" strategy - when I personally would like to see marriage abolished - because the "LGBT Community" isn't campaigning for separating the 1000+ rights automatically given with marriage and would rather just reproduce straight ideals - this is all coming from straight people by the way.
I had to tell people to stop using racial slurs when describing a black service person - and then went on to "Politically Correct" the language by instead of using racial slurs to say "African" in a very un-ambiguous way while looking at me in irritation.

Thank you for being an asshole.

Someone tried to convince themselves that going to a strip club wasn't contributing to the sex industry in the same way going to a prostitute.
I was shot down time after time when I tried to explain that the only thing you're doing by not going to a prostitute is not paying for sex with a prostitute. Going to a strip club is still contributing to the industry.

Then I'm told that some women chose to work in the sex industry.

I did not mention anything about who chooses to do what! Honestly, sex-work is real work! Just because I'd rather see it sans exploitation and sans human trafficking doesn't mean I am anti-sex work or anti-sex workers!

I think the main issue isn't the fact that women chose to do sex-work (and should be paid accordingly), but the fact that the sex-industry is so bloody duplicitous when it comes to what is legal and what isn't - more accurately, the law regarding the sex-industry is so duplicitous and because there is such a problem of comprehending the difference between legalisation (which often causes just as many problems as it being illegal) and decriminalisation.

Actual sex workers have better and more info on the subject.

All in all, it was an irritating evening in which my family and friends made me feel like a bloody fuddy-duddy, a Politically Correctness-Fiend and an anti pro-sex advocate!
Arrrgh!
But there's no doubt in anyone's mind that I'm pro-porn (which I am, though I'd rather, like other sections of the sex-industry, had a little more respect for its workers and consumers).

*sigh*

Such is the life of the pro-sex, anti-racist, queer feminist student of Literary Theory and Women's studies, I suppose.

I was sitting at the bus station minding my own business.

A man of about 50-55 comes towards me and asks if it's all right if he smokes. I thought it was very (see, overly, for the society we live in) polite of him to ask and said "sure".

This was quite obviously a ploy.

He begins to tell me a story.

"I just couldn't sit at the other bus station. There was a girl there; dressed far too revealingly for me, her chest hanging out and short pants".

I'm staring at him as though he's grown an extra head. Instead his beard, peyot, kipah (yarmulke/skull cap) and tzitzit become glaringly obvious props for his forthcoming tale and story.

In my head, I'm screaming: "Why? Why is this man talking to me and regaling to me this bullshit story!?"

He continues (sans my loud thoughts that this man is a religious nut): "I ask [the aforementioned girl] do you believe in G-d?"

In my mind: "Mercy!"

He tells her words: "'Yes' she says and I ask you [that is, me and the universe in general most likely] if she's have said 'yes, but I sin', I could live with that... But dressed the way she is... how can she say that!?".

Meanwhile, I'm trying to understand why this woman (if she indeed exists outside this man's narrative) engaged with this man, seeing as I was doing my best to Not Engage with this person and his irrational tirade about how this woman's dress somehow marks her heretic - obviously I'm the best audience ever! What with my long jeans, trainers, long-sleeved shirt and high necked top underneath it.
If only we were telepathic, nay?

He goes: "She tells me her beliefs are simple. How can creation be simple?!"

How I wished I had a desk on which to bash my head and his continuously!

Throughout this entire time I'm dying for a bus, any bus to arrive to take one of us away! I'm also silent, grimacing from time to time and keeping away from him as much as possible while not leaving the bus stop - I really did not feel safe enough to tell to STFU... perhaps if there was another person there I would have told him to stop bothering me... but *Gah*, the situation just really did not encourage aggressive-aggression and I went for body-language instead.

"Creation can't be simple" this man says, "I tell her [still this very-well-could-be-fictional-girl] 'that table? You see it? Someone designed it, yes?' she replied 'yes'. So no tell me G-d doesn't exist!"

I was ready to throw up on him. I had been feeling queasy regardless, but I could have blown chunks over this.

He continued with this line of talk and thought for a good ten minutes, in addition going on to inform me that the Bible predicted Swine 'flu (o_O) and that according to Rabbi What-ever-the-fuck 14,5-and something are going to die because that's the Gimatric interpretation of the Hebrew letters of Swine 'flu (which are שפעת חזירים).

I actaully breathed a sigh of relief when his bus arrived and he was out of my life.

It was just too odd. I don't think I'd ever been proselytised to before. Obviously him asking me if he could smoke was a ploy to start engaging me in conversation.
Good tactic.

I now have a funny anecdote about Jewish fundamentalists... who are so different from all the other ones you encounter in the street (much to our annoyance)

---

Off Topic, but related to the fact that I'm home and talking about this.
I'm feeling queasy and at the last minute decided not to go the talk tonight, because I'd rather not be sick in front of people.
I'm disappointed, but hopefully I'll be able to catch the DAM people at a later date during their visit in the region.

Wow, do I have some stuff to share.

Okay so I don't want to make this a huge links post and rant but damn! The weekend was just non-stop with the amount of WTF's that seemed to bleed into the News and I can't not share it with you dear readers.

I hope those of you who are more than just interested in the Occupation and Israeli policy in Palestine did not miss Professor Neve Gordon's Op-Ed in the LA Times: Boycott Israel: An Israeli comes to the painful conclusion that it's the only way to save his country, which came online on Thursday the 20th of August.

It's a whopper and a very important read.

However, it wouldn't be a News day if someone didn't condemn those filthy dirty anti-Zionist Jews with self-hate.
Have you ever notice that only other Zionists accuse us of hating ourselves. What's up with that?

On Friday, the Los Angeles Jewish Community began to mull over boycotting Ben-Gurion University is Israel, which is the Uni in which Prof. Gordon teaches Poli-Sci. Funny Diaspora reaction aside the really special moment and quote comes from the LA Israeli Consulate Mr. Yaakov (Yaki) Dayan:

"I believe that the definitive answer to anti-Zionist lecturers like Gordon is to set up a center for Zionist studies, which unfortunately does not exist in Israeli academia," [Dayan] continued. "This center would help dispel the lies disseminated by Gordon in the name of your university."

Oh my God, my eyes could not have rolled farther into my skull without giving me brain damage.
I just... *sigh*.
As I said, a very special moment.

That's not all. Oh no, not even close. There is more Israeli craziness in store.

Who hasn't heard of the controversial Swedish newspaper article accusing the IDF of murdering Palestinians in order to harvest their organs.
I gotta say, it smacks of hyperbole, but that's not my point.
As controversial as the article may be, I think the Israeli Government's reaction was just beyond out of proportion.
And defensive of course.
PM Netanyahu is set to request, nay, demand that the Swedish government condemn the article.

After the article was published, it would appear Israel did not appreciate the Swedish government's reaction... which was to be quiet about it.

On Friday, the Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Benny Dagan met with Deputy Foreign Minister of the Scandinavian country and urged his government to issue a denunciation of the article. Deputy Foreign Minister Frank Belfrage emphasized his country's freedom of speech and how it limits the ability of the government to respond to articles in the media.
[...]
A Netanyahu aide said that "Israel does not wish to infringe upon the freedom of the press in Sweden. However, as much as the Swedish press is entitled to freedom, the Swedish government should enjoy the freedom of denouncing such reports."

The desk is well acquainted with my head, because really, of a government is nosing into the media, it's no longer a free press.

The Swedish Jewish Community's reaction to this is pretty interesting; one of the head's of the community, Lena Posner, says that until Israel got involved, it was a non-issue:

Posner told Ynet, "The article was published here on Monday, but no one paid any attention to it. It wasn't a news report and was buried in the back pages of a tabloid. The writer is known to many of us as anti-Israel, and so it the entire paper. This is why no one took it seriously – until Israel got involved."

Read this one, it's pretty good and manages to show Lieberman as the paranoid maniac that he is because beyond accusing Sweden of Antisemitism and saying that this silence over the matter is equivalent to their silence during the Holocaust (Godwin! Hello!) - he's gone on to accuse Norway of promoting Antisemitism, here's why:

"I remember that in the Durban-II conference," Lieberman said, referring to last April's UN anti-racism summit which was criticized as allegedly biased against Israel. "The Norwegian representatives were among the few who didn't walk out, and today I realize it's not a coincidence. How low can you go?"

How low indeed.

So... anybody got any good jokes?

I don't get it.

Really, I don't.

I've been to the States and I didn't get it then. I've been reading up on the subject because the Interwebs are busting with the "health care" discussion.

My country has socialised medicine, we get the choice of four different HMO's, they compete with each other and have supervision and controlling rights over different hospitals.
There is a Health Basket that includes various kinds of medications that would have been unattainable for many people, but through prescription you can get your Insulin, your Xanax, your (practically) whatever you need for an affordable price.

We pay for this service along as well as for national security (so that in case we are unable to work we will still be able to afford health care) through our pay cheques or certificates if one is an independent.

Is it perfect? Hell, no. Most of the time, it is more aggravating than not.

However, this year due to an actual medical necessity I saw the health care system work and we actually got money back after the treatments my mother had to go through were done.

I understand that this sounds like luxury for some and it is. In Third World counties (not all) and in the United States.

That's really fucked up.

Also? Crazy Americans comparing Universal Healthcare to Nazi Policy, WHAT?!

Barney Frank says it better than me (via mizzpyx)


I mock.

That's what I have to say about this really, really redundant debate (it's a debate!!!).

Friends, Comrades and Lurkers.

Answer me this.

Who is the Prime Minister of Israel?

Thank you.

Ooooh, I love these morbid questions.
First, I'm donating all my organs to those in need.
Second, the rest of me can be donated to science and experimented on 'till the cows come home.
Third, I'd want to be cremated and have my ashes scatted over the Mediterranean. If I'm lucky enough to have people who will remember me I'd like to have a memorial plaque written somewhere that they could visit... or the place where my ashes are scattered, either way, whatever will bring them the most comfort.

I do not want to be buried in a cemetery, it's not the most ecological option and I'd rather be fish food than worm food.

The Israeli Socio-Political Satire show Eretz Nehedret - ארץ נהדרת - lit. Wonderful Country is probably one of the sharpest, most biting, satires on television today.
They are definitely up there (at least in my book) with "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report".

On this week's show they had a sketch of hip-hop Hasbarah (Hebrew for "explanation" and what is colloquially known as Israeli for describing the efforts of explaining Israeli government policies, and to promote Israel to the world at large)

The video is brilliant - but unfortunately cannot be embedded at this time, so I've put the direct link here and translated the lyrics which are a mixture of Hebrew and English (everything emphasised is me translating the Hebrew/Hebrish terms)
Link to Video: It's Time for a War Anthem.
( Lyrics under the cut )

Hilarious!
So biting and true!
Though, I acknowledge... it may only be funny for the Israelis and other Hebrew speakers here.

I just watched the Doctor Who 2008 Christmas special titled "The Next Doctor".

That means there will be spoilers! Beware!

It was... eh.

The villainess, Miss Ms. Mercy Hardigan, was boring and an Angry Woman who is Angry! At Men!
Lots of Men.
Has most brilliant mind there ever was!
Mwahahahahahahahahahaha!
Defeated by massive guilt trip.
Not so brilliant.

The Cybermen were uninteresting, like they usually are when there aren't any Daleks around.

Seriously, the Cyberman-Dalek exchange in "Doomsday" series two finale was one of the best ever! So hilarious.

( For your enjoyment: the entire brilliant scene of Dalek and Cyberman Extermination and Deletion! )

Aaaaaaanyway!

The Doctor - Tennant - was cute and dashing as always.
The "Next" Doctor - Morrisey - should... really keep to singing as he's truly a horrendous actor.
Rosita - yes, that was the name *gag* - was the pretty, cockney, token woman of colour... she of course had to rescued from danger and from prostitution... I'm feeling the forward sci-fi thinking here.

Oh Russel T. Davies why do you wound me thus!

Aargh!

As I was watching the episode on Ursula-the-laptop, my mother asked me why I was looking so glum and why was I cringing.

Dude.
It could have been so-so-soooooooooooooo much better!

The next Doctor Who special is called "Planet of the Dead".
It's either Zombies or Vampires.
Either of those options has to be better than this special.
I really hope Auntie Beeb doesn't SNAFU Tennant's final year as the Doctor.
It would leave me with a really sour taste in my mouth... I don't know anything about this new guy... Matt Smith... except that Steven Moffat (he who will be replacing current Executive Producer and main writer Russel T. Davies) has a crush on his coiffure.

Man... I mean, compared to "A Christmas Invasion", "Voyage of the Damned" and "A Runaway Bride", "The Next Doctor" was just unoriginal, predictable and just plain... eh.
I'm tempted to say Pareveh - which means neither Milk nor Meat as related to Kosher laws and is colloquial in Israeli Hebrew as bland, boring and neither here nor there.
So yeah.
Pareveh.

Edited To Add: Via hemlock_sholes and violachic.
The Alternative Doctor Who Christmas Special:
( Trek Through Time )

Is it funny, or sad that there's an Ayn Rand Club for Philosophy Students at my Uni and they're spamming the entire Humanities student body's email.
The first meeting is next Wedesnday.

Do I go and mock?
Or do I avoid the proto-fascist crazies?

Help me out dear friends.

I'm just... who would have thought? Randians on campus, and they could be anyone. Cooo! Maybe I should go and scope in order to know who to avoid for the rest of my academic career.
When I was a teenager I was a Randian, read all her books, felt that I was Smarter and More Capable than Thou... loved "The Selfish Ideal".
Then I finished adolescence.
Like may things Randinism is a phase.
How can people, students of high theory, philosophy and such actually consider this woman to be anything other than a stylish author!?
Digressing over.

So? Should I stay or should I go? *duh-na-na-na-naa*

Gakked from sabotabby, creatd by realcdaae

#01 Under what circumstances would you be willing to attempt to assassinate the political leader of your country?
The last assassination in my country made things a whole lot worse, so I'm a bit iffy about that method of regime change. But if theocracy is established and those who aren't Jewish men are by law going to be considered less than human… well, desperate times.

#02 Who do you think would make a better US president: Hitler or Stalin? (You can't say neither... in this world it's illegal for you to not vote)
Stalin. His purges were a wee bit more rational… in the over all philosophical sense I think.

#03 If you had to bomb one city, anywhere in the world, which would you pick? (Picking none is not an option for this question.)
Jerusalem.
Problem solved.
( Click to be shocked, amazed and generally flabbergasted )

Now that's what I call a controversy!

Eight hours and I'm out.

Yes, that job I got last week, the Boss fired me.

After eight hours experience and I've been made redundant.

I'm not really too concerned, this wasn't my bread and butter after all, but seriously, this a wee bit strange.
I'm obviously not up to the standard of a minimum wage, shop-grrl material (which I totally am, by the way).

Maybe my happy-go-lucky disposition offended him...

I really can't say.

I still love that shop and will continue patronizing it, but Dude... I can only imagine that's a permanent "Wanted" sign in the door.

As far as I'm concerned he's missing out on a worker who truly loves the sort of thing that go on in that store; schlepping, dust and everything.

Good luck to him finding someone else who suits that store as well as I did.

But still... *scratches head*

This has been traveling around the Internet for a couple of weeks now, but I feel compelled to add in my own two little cents.

Moviehole had an interview with Robert Downey Jr (RDJ) about his recent success with Iron Man and Tropic Thunder.
Most of the wank has been directed to this statement, quoted from the interview:

"My whole thing is that that I saw 'The Dark Knight'. I feel like I'm dumb because I feel like I don't get how many things that are so smart. It's like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I'm like, 'That's not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.' I loved 'The Prestige' but didn't understand 'The Dark Knight'. Didn't get it, still can't tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I'm like, 'I get it. This is so high brow and so fucking smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.' You know what? Fuck DC comics. That's all I have to say and that's where I'm really coming from."

Coming from a man who acted in Chaplin, Wonder Boys, Fur and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, I find this statement a tad, um, weird?

Because my thought were in regards to this was that The Dark Knight isn't really that complicated. It's a layered movie, much like Iron Man but in a different way. Iron Man focused a whole lot more on character development and cultivating ground for the next movie, while The Dark Knight was about the shifting of Batman's position from Hero to Anti-Hero, similar but not the same.
I mean how complicated is "Good vs Evil" and "Dark vs Light".
Duality is not that hard a concept.
I don't know Game Theory, and the lack of knowledge didn't take away from the enjoyment at all (multiple viewer, like hello!).

Also, could RDJ be more jealous?!

But something in the interview bothered me even more.

[When] Asked how much research he did in order to get these various ethnic stereotypes down pat [for Tropic Thunder], the actor says none, "because it was my goal for there to be nothing stereotypical except for when the story demands that he's momentarily specifically stereotypical - for which the actual black man puts him in his place. So the funny thing about this in retrospect - looking at how we did this and decisions that were made and all that - is that I remember that we had discussions and then the talk is over and you're out there shooting a fucking movie and so my idea was to try and be natural and entertaining."

I can't help but rage at the paternalism of this statement.
Yeah, they're poking fun and everyone is in on it, even the real Black guy was cool with it, how fucking enlightened right?
I haven't seen Tropic Thunder, though this sort of thing coming from one of the lead performers isn't giving it the best impression.
Man, you played a bastard who takes himself too seriously and put on blackface... RDJ, please don't become that same kind of bastard who takes himself too seriously.
I like him too much as a performer in order to dislike his public persona.

But fucking hell. Racism, anti-intellectualism and just your basic Hollywood elitism in one measly interview... fucking hell.

in the mean time Just Some Random Guy does it again:

DC indeed won the Summer.

Well... heh... just watch the video (as if you haven't already seen it elsewhere and five hundred times before).



Sometimes it's just hard to believe that The Daily Show isn't regarded as a real News magazine when the entire Fox News channel doesn't even need to be parodied.

Messrs Stewart and Colbert just need to sit back and let those Right-Wing pundits talk and dig and dig and dig...

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Via morin

Sad.
Though also a bit funny.

I come from a family of such weirdos.

A paranoid argument about Chinses economic domination, as though it would have any effect on our culture other than consumption.

The words "Occidental" and "Domination" came up a few times.

Double standard much.

To me it's just proof at the invidiousness of Capitalism and White-Supremacy.

And to think that just a few decades ago this same Occidental culture tried to exterminate us.

How fickle we are.

sabotabby did it and that's where I saw it and gakked it:

First thing's first: it is based on this little "master piece"*.

Second, here's what you do:
Bold means I agree
Struck Out means I don't agree.
Italics means I don't know
(I added personal commentary where I saw fit)

( A Bad American? Moi? )

*Or Master Piss as I like to say at times.

RIP George Carlin.

Mother Unit: "Why didn't you go to the Pride Parade today?"

Moi: "It's too hot" It is, it's something like 35C in the shade and the Parade began at noon... no thanks!.

Mother Unit: "Committed, eh?" /sarcasm

Father Unit (looking away from the exciting Tennis match on TeVi): "Are you trying to tell us something?"

Moi (mental *sigh*): "Huh? What? What are you talking about? I went out on a date with a woman yesterday".

Father Unit: "Oy" and he goes back to the game.

Moi: "What? I thought you wanted me to date".

Father Unit: "I don't mind you dating women, but why not try dating men again".

Mother Unit: "Yes, why do you have to be so exclusive".

Moi (is having a brain meltdown): "You wouldn't say that if I were only dating men!"

Mother Unit (is thinking of what she said): "Yes, funny how that is".

Moi: "Not really".

I think they're dreading the day I date someone long enough that I actually bring them to Friday night supper and such.
I think I'd be worried if my parents were uber supportive of everything I do, I mean, it's nice to know they're a normal hetero-normative middle class married couple who love their daughter enough to be accepting, if not ready to march in the Parade. Then again, I need to be motivated to walk in the Parade, because Dude... the heat!
As it is, the date went quite nicely and I'll be calling her back, so we'll see how it goes.

The Israeli papers are rife with Holocaust related News and most of it is very boring, but this, this takes the cake and I just have to share.
I'm really interested to know what you all think of it.

The authors of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion would have gotten a kick out of this.

Hamas TV claims 'Satanic Jews' planned, perpetrated Holocaust
By Anat Rosenberg

Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV aired a documentary on April 18 claiming that Jews planned and perpetrated the Holocaust in order to rid the nation of the "burden" of the weak and disabled.

Palestinian Media Watch, a group that monitors Palestinian Arabic language media and schoolbooks, uploaded part of the program onto YouTube in a segment called "Hamas Holocaust Perversion: Jews Planned Holocaust to Kill Handicapped Jews."

The Al-Aqsa TV clip edits together footage from the World War II Nazi Genocide, showing Jews being rounded up and taken to a train as well as emaciated corpses lying in a pile, alongside images of Israeli leaders David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir.

The accompanying commentary claims that Ben Gurion said "the disabled and handicapped are a heavy burden on the state." To rid them of that scourge, the video claims, Ben Gurion and "the Satanic Jews thought up an evil plot to be rid of the burden of disable and handicapped in twisted criminal ways."

The video also claims that Jews made up the Holocaust and blamed the Nazis for it in order to "benefit from international sympathy."

The Holocaust "was a joke, and part of the perfect show that Ben Gurion put on," said Amin Dabur, head of the Palestinian Center for Strategic Research organization, in the video.

Dabur added that the "Jewish plan" focused on developing "strong and energetic youth [for Israel]," and that the figure of six million Jewish victims is mere propaganda.

Last night.

Half-past one in the morning.

I'm turned Frida off and walked the short distance from our lounge to my bedroom when I heared the distinct sounds of an insect knocking against things in my room.

Methinks: Oh a large moth has entered my room. I shall switch on a light in a different room so that it may leave.

As I formulate this plan in my head I enter my room and see that this moth is in fact not even related to Heterocera.

It was in fact a flying Blattaria - in English - a Cockroach.

Methinks: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST THERE'S A HUGE FUCKING ROACH FLYING AROUND MY FUCKING ROOM!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

It being quite late at night I kept these thoughts to myself.

Wish was bloody useless, staring at the monstrosity as it flew around my room in order to find a good vantage point so that it could kill me in my sleep. I'm certain that was it's satanic plan as it flew in my window at a time I would have been asleep.

It took me about fifteen minutes to even return to my room - for some reason I grabbed my hand bag and was clutching it, I then discarded that for a rolled up piece of Newspaper which is a marginally better weapon against roaches.

I opened my door every few minutes to see if it flew out.
It didn't.
And me, I'm all alone, I really can't go waking up any one of the masculine gender in my house at the moment because it was two fucking a.m. in the morning.

When I next opened the door I saw that it had gone to the floor and was no longer flying around - thank GD *shudders* - so armed with a Newspaper, I grabbed one of my Dr. Martens and stood ready for the huge fucker to leave my room, which it did because it obviously smelled me *shudders again* and as it approached I pounced!

I killed the bastard, fucking smashed the life out of it.
The first roach I've killed in about four years - for some reason during my stint of boot camp, when I was 18 and wet behind the ears, I was designated critter killer with the rest of my platoon. Despite the fact that every time an insect came into our room I shrieked along with the rest of them... it's just that I could kill it while I was shrieking.

I generally don't like taking the lives of things, but roaches (and incidentally mosquitoes and flies) are fair game.
They're the ones who will inherit the Earth anyway, but as long as I'm here they can have an eco-system that doesn't include my house!

I'm still shaken up and everything that moves in my peripheral vision looks like a huge Gregor Samsa to me.

It's at these times when I hate the fear that has been culturally imprinted onto me, this fear of insects which intellectually I know can't hurt me, but scare the shit out of me! I can barely look at them, with their brownness and in the words of Cordelia Chase "their antlers".
Gah!
But I can kill them alone and that's what counts.
Right?