Warhead On Legs

( Deutsch )

According to news article implication, Herman Cain came up with this ridiculous 9-9-9 tax code based on a video game. Okay, maybe not, but apparently it resembles the tax codes found in Sim City. Not Sin City like I first read. And, you know? I don't care if it's true or not, but that should become political fanon. Just because it implies he's so incompetent he can't come up with a sound economic plan based on real economics, he has to go after VIDEO GAME ECONOMICS.

I wrote that somewhere between at 10 and 11 this morning. By 11.30 I was exhausted again. I keep forgetting at the most inconvenient times that emotional stress is almost as bad as physical stress, and in some cases worse, and I will need more sleep. The end result being that I am taking forty five minute naps in the middle of just about everything except my day job. I really, really am getting tired of this, universe.

On the very dubious plus side, I doubt the boy is in any shape to run game either this weekend, so we will be doing nothing but curling up, watching television, reading books. Making food. I'll be doing writing, he's off work too, so we can just hide in our apartment and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist. And sleep. A lot.

There was a Metaquotes going around on LiveJournal a while back about people dying, the folks who stay with them, and whether or not it is noble to say, I can't do this, and back off. And a lot of people arguing that yes, it is good to know your limitations, and a lot of people arguing that you should suck it up and stay with your friend/loved one in their last hours because otherwise you're a terrible person. And as this has become an abruptly personal issue for me in the last 12 hours, as personal as it can get for me at the moment? Fuck. I have no answers here, just, fuck. Sitting with the dying is hard. It is draining, it is exhausting, it is debilitating and painful and hard. All on its own, no arguments needed about who's suffering more, I hate those arguments. There does not need to be a bitching contest about whose suffering is worst, as though there are quantitative or qualitative degrees of suffering and if you only make it to a 7.6 on the Pathos scale, no whining for you. Fuck. That. I don't know if it's nobler to sit with the dying or to know your limitations and when you'll be more of a wreck and a burden on the dying than a help, I don't know if there's a solution and I doubt that if there is one it can be summed up in a sentence or even a few paragraphs of a Metaquote. People are complex creatures. What I do know, did know and do know again now, more abruptly than I wanted to, is that sitting with the dying is hard.

Fuck. Just... fuck. I'll be under my blankets if anyone needs me.

Oh for the love of Christmas, people, STOP COMPARING WALKER TO FUCKING HITLER.

Pick a different person to compare him to. There's a lot of people out there, a lot of leaders, even dictators, who have tried to and mostly succeeded in taking away union rights. Or the equivalent thereof. Worker's rights. That's why we have a Labor Day, which is May 1, for those of you who didn't know. Except in the US, when it's in September. We have a Labor Day because a lot of people in a lot of countries have marched for worker's rights, have fought for them, suffered and bled and died for them. So there's plenty of bad, bad men to choose from.

But not Hitler. Leave fucking Hitler alone, okay? I don't think the awareness of him is going to go away anytime soon, you don't need to keep dragging him out of the closet and beating us with his rotting corpse.

Let's look at some things Hitler did that Walker shows no signs of doing. I won't go so far as to say Walker doesn't want to extend the rest of the country into the policies he's currently trying to ram down Wisconsin's throat, because he probably does. He dissolved all other political parties in Germany to consolidate power under his Nazi party; I think even Walker would have a hard time dissolving the Democratic Party in Wisconsin, no matter how hard he tries physically to keep everyone out of the damn building. He gave Germans jobs primarily by building arms factories, which Walker shows no signs of doing (thank god). Hitler refinanced the entire country by playing a pea and shell game with the banks and their money, until his own private army (since he made the army swear allegiance to him personally instead of the office which he held) was armed and outfitted. And then he went and invaded some countries, and rounded up some subsets of the population and had them all ... well, you know the rest.

Somehow, I don't think Walker's planning on rounding people up and putting them in work and death camps.

There are bad things happening. In Wisconsin and Michigan, Indiana and Idaho and Ohio most blatantly, in many other states besides. Some bad things have already happened. People are being disenfranchised in large groups, people are being stripped of their rights, and workers are being reduced to indentured servitude. Do union workers make more than non-union? Often, because union workers negotiate, en masse (strength in numbers, remember?) for their right to be paid a sum they can live on. Non-union workers get paid what they get paid, and have to make it work somehow. You know how Wal-Mart workers are in the news off and on because they're not getting paid enough, they suffer discrimination at work, sexual harassment, etc? They're not union, so Wal-Mart can do whatever they want to them. Or they can quit, and take their chances elsewhere. Would you want to quit your job right now, even if it isn't paying enough to live on? Yeah, I'd think long and hard about it too. Wal-Mart, and similar corporations don't want unions because unions force them to treat their employees fairly, and that's expensive. Hell, consumers don't want unions because the cost of products from a company that treats their employees fairly is higher. Oh noes, you might have to price things and budget and think before you buy something. Shocking.

I digress. Walker is not Hitler. Walker is his own breed of bad person, a breed we've been seeing all too often in the US lately. Someone who believes that rising up in the American dream means pushing everyone else down so you can climb on top. Someone who believes, firmly and absolutely, that if you don't have a job it's because you aren't looking hard enough, or you don't want one. Walker believes in that most Puritan of ethics, that if bad things happen to you it's because you did something bad, and while that would be nice if it were true, it just isn't. Unions exist to protect the rights of people who otherwise would have them yanked out from under them as has just happened, because when people gather in groups including corporations they tend to have more power than when they don't.

But Walker is not Hitler. He is not after the eradication of a people, or several categories of people, or anyone who isn't like him. In a sense, he's worse; you have to believe that these people are some kind of threat to you to hate them that much. The FitzGeralds might believe that; Walker, judging by what he's said and done so far, simply believes that public workers are sub-human. That public workers are the 'them' to his 'us', and puts them in the same category as most human beings would put sheep or cattle. There to be used to serve a purpose. You don't hate the cow if she balks at giving you milk, you simply take steps to get the milk anyway. Or you find some other use for the cow. It's cruel, it's disheartening, it's wrong and it's sorely lacking in any kind of empathy and compassion.

But Walker is not Hitler. And every time you compare him to Hitler, you do two things. You invoke a whole other kind of atrocity to the tiny detriment of that atrocity, and you make people think a little less of the fight to undo these bills. Because pithy ideas like Godwin's law exist for a reason. Crying Hitler is like crying wolf, it only works for so long before people stop taking you seriously, and that time has long, long since passed. Walker isn't Hitler. Surely there are other dictators and politicians to compare him to, and I'm sure if you stop and look some at your history you'll find some. Some more accurate ones, too. Please stop comparing him to Hitler. It demeans everyone and serves no purpose.

Comparing the people of Wisconsin to an angry badger, on the other hand, seems eminently appropriate.

And now, in a moment of supreme... irony, synchronicity, something... ( Deutsch )

It's that time again! As always, Wisconsin matters are here as usual or here on DW, please reblog and repost this anywhere you like, previous entries are here on LJ or here on DW. Let me know if you're reposting, too, I do have the Pingback Gort enabled but as we on LJ have seen lately, notifications aren't always reliable, and on DW Gort does not exist at all.

Ohio
* Senate Bill 5
* The Cincinnati Enquirer and a couple other news stations have an AP report summarizing the last few days of the bill and announcing the hearings to start Tuesday afternoon, continuing Wednesday and Thursday. Vouchers will be issued to members of the public who want to attend.
* WHIO TV is airing a special report tonight at 7pm on the financial crisis in Ohio, for all those who are in the area and might want to see it.
* The Columbus Dispatch describes Kasich readying his State of the State speech. They also reported on a protest over Senate Bill 5.
* Local news also reports on a different rally in Cleveland, with Al Sharpton.

Indiana
* This IndyStar article describes one of the bills the Democrats object to, which would put a state-determined cap on tuition costs. This other article describes more potential fallout from the voucher bill.
* A local news channel reports on fines still to be levied, with the added tidbit that apparently some State Senators have been back in their home districts for a bit.
* The Post-Tribune has an article describing a historical author's point of view. The author asserts that mismanagement, not unions, are to blame for the current economic crisis and that to handicap unions is to set even non-union workers back decades in terms of legal and social progress.

Iowa
* The Quad-City Times reports that a big crowd is expected for the public hearing tonight on the bill restricting collective bargaining rights.
* The same paper also reports that Gov. Terry Brandstad issued an executive order decreeing that state agencies must issue a job-impact statement whenever they write new regulations.

New Jersey
Nothing new on New Jersey at the moment. Still watching there, though, so I leave this here as a place-holder.

Tennessee
* People's World covers a rally by Tennessee teachers and also gives bill numbers for the bills in question being protested. Those bills are: HB 159/SB 136, HB 130/SB 113, HB 367/SB 0624, SB 102/HB 565, HB 160/SB 139, HB 598/SB 630.
* The Tennessean goes into some discussion of the Democrats and Republicans' arguments over job creation plans.

Now featuring: Michigan Fuckery! (thanks to lireavue)
* Voice of Detroit: House Bill 4214 in Michigan. "It permits the installation of a local dictator, subject to no laws except that they answer to the state treasurer, for a municipal government in a state of "financial emergency" (as determined by the state government). This person is then empowered to sell off any public assets belonging to the city, unilaterally change any contract the city has made, fire any appointed official, overrule any elected official, and disincorporate the city."
* Here is an article from the Voice of Detroit.
* And here is some testimony

Not so much today, but since a lot of these bills are in hearings and discussions now, that's to be expected. At some point this week I'll go over all the states again and make sure nothing else is going on that I/you should be aware of.

One of the hardest things about doing these link roundups is that these aren't my states. These aren't always your states. Sometimes this isn't even your country. ... Possibly a lot of the time, I've lost track of the percentage of USians to non-USians on my flist. And sometimes it's hard to think what you can do, and sometimes it's hard to care.

But I've brought this up before, and this is exactly why it's true: the importance of staying informed. You can do this. You can read these articles, do your own searching, read the bill text and ask for help interpreting them. You can look at your local news channels, talk to your local congresscritters when they're in the area, see what their positions are on the issues currently being addressed. Most state governments these days have websites that will help you see what the issues being addressed are. Be informed. Do some research; it takes an hour of your time on a weekend or a day off, and it doesn't change so fast that you need to do it so frequently. And then, when you're informed, have an opinion and make that opinion known. Write to your newspaper. Write to your congresscritter, both local and overall state. Vote. I cannot stress that part enough, fucking vote. If you can. And make sure you vote informed. Make sure you pay attention not to the TV commercials, which are usually good for search term collecting but little else, but to the person's voting history and where they say they stand on certain issues versus what legislation they've enacted or pushed for before, what they've done. Their history. It takes only a few hours in an election year, local elections or state. It's not that hard, especially these days, with the internet and all its bounty. It's like doing your taxes, you might not want to do it, but once you've done it then you know, and contrary to what the news would have you believe politicians don't flip flop all over the place that quickly or that often. Some do. But not all.

And once you've gotten informed, even if you don't vote, talk to people. And even more important than talking, listen. Ask questions. Listen to the answers. Make your opinion heard, and respect the opinions of other people as well. Some of them will disagree, and that's fine. Part of, an increasingly big part of why Scott Walker is getting so much flak these days is because he flat out refuses to compromise with people who disagree with him. Don't be that guy. Sen. Fitzgerald wrote a very rude letter to Sen. Miller telling him, essentially, to shut up and get back in line and get railroaded. Don't be that guy. Listen. Learn. Get informed, discuss, talk, and make your voice heard. Make your voice heard respectfully. Supposedly, last I checked, the United States of America was a democracy. And a functional democracy can't exist without two things: people willing to make their voices heard and register their opinion, and people willing to listen to the opinions of others so things can get done.

I'm not saying you have to agree with me. Hell, it should be pretty easy to see where I stand from my colorful commentary and what articles I've chosen to link to. But I am saying that I want you to at least read the bills, read some US history, know where this is coming from and think about what it's leading to, and then talk and debate and listen to other people's theories, because for sure they have them. Respect, and knowledge, and informed opinions, and making full use of this amazing creation called a democracy. Because it's a beautiful thing, it really is. I do believe that.

Huh. So, okay. Now I'm thinking about my RP and fictional characters, and how they represent homosexuality, inspired by a rant on homosexuality as represented in RP. Which amuses the shit outta me because of ... well, oh so many reasons. But. Here. My characters who are on various ends of the spectrum. We have:

Nameless. Does not identify as any particular sexuality. Has a girlfriend to whom he is deeply devoted. Has a ... life partner, we'll call him. Mate, in the wolf sense. To whom he is equally devoted who, yes, is male. Boyfriend doesn't apply because it's a little juvenile and husband doesn't apply because they're not married, so, mate stands as well as any. And he and Guy are very devoted to each other. In their own way. They beat each other up. They insult each other constantly. But god help you if you try to get between them or hurt one of them because the other will come down on you like the fury of a thousand hells.

They don't kiss. They don't make love often although it has been known to happen, usually in the intermittent periods where they're both away from civilisation together. Usually Nameless tops although that just seems to be the habit they've gotten into, and 'usually' is probably more like two times out of three. They prefer it rough, but neither one of them is the 'weaker' partner. They just play rough with each other, until they're alone in their house and have been for a year or two, settled into domesticity, into the mind-space where it's just the two fo them and they rarely even speak to each other because they don't need to. They just are. And then, and almost only then, do the tender touches and the soft seductions come out. At least with each other.

Apart from that, Nameless's sexuality is 'yes, please.' He'll have sex with a guy if he finds him attractive; note, not handsome, but attractive. Guy is far from handsome in any conventional sense. He prefers to have sex with people in general who can stand up to him, at least, for more regular sexual partners. For a one night stand he'll bang anything with a hole if he's in the mood. He leers and plays sexual a lot more often than he actually has sex. He doesn't actually complete sexual thoughts much at all when on his own, masturbates more rarely than he gives the impression of, does not do so many one night stands. And yet, compared to the number of relationships he's had, he's had a LOT of one-night stands. THis is mostly because he outlives most of his lovers.

( And oh dear god I wrote three paragraphs on one character's sexuality, this is going to get long. )

And I think that's about it for my characters of alternative sexualities and dear sweet GOD I rambled on and on and on.

And it does seem like I play a lot of bisexual characters, looking at it. But that's mostly because this started as a result of looking at characters of alternative sexualities. I'm trying to think if I have any gay male characters, and I don't think I do, but I do share a pair of lesbians with Kiki. Kendra and Mallory, of which the most vivid is Kendra, and Kendra is definitely a lesbian. More of the adult-hating variety than the man-hating variety, though, since she's mostly a teenager at the time of writing. But, let's see. Other characters.

Elaine? Straight. Maggie? Straight, with a few shenanigans in her past. Pollux? Straight. Eve, my latest? Straight. Irina? Straight. Glaucon? ... hell, never mind, he's not particularly set on species let alone gender, but he comes from a different time, too. Sam Winchester? Straight. Pam? Bi-leaning-towards-men. Or, well, monogamous to her angel. Astrid? Straight. Sascha? Bi, leaning towards women most of the time and men when he's molting. I don't ask. He also has a tendency to flame but that's just to annoy people. Winston? Straight. Kincaid, mostly celibate and mostly straight. He'd be one fo those guys who identifies as a straight man who occasionally sleeps with men. Very occasionally. Victor, straight. Valerie, bi.

The problem here is, by the time I get to this point I have to think about it. And half the time the answer isn't so much gay or straight, it's, "monogamous." Thank you, Kiki. ;) When I make a character, the first thing I think of isn't their sexual inclinations or practices. The first thing I tend to think of is, okay, what is this character's attitude/emotional baseline. Who are the people closest to them. Sometimes I pick a PB. Usually I pick a general set of most common moods. I go through their vocabulary, education level, what they do. And then, after all that, I figure out if they're seeing anyone. And then, after that, if it comes up, I figure out if they're gay or straight or bisexual. Or asexual. And even then, it's rarely that simple. Bi-leaning-towards-women, bi-leaning-towards-men, straight with a history of bi-curious shenanigans. Celibate. Too young to settle/decide. Hasn't settled/decided yet.

I started this list as an exercise in why the idea that people just want to play twinks, or effeminate or butch gay men, or hypersexualized caricatures thereof confounds me. Because someone wrote a rant on white female privilege attitude in RPing (at least I think that's what it was about) and how RP treats homosexuality, most of which I agree with. At least in the places I've seen as far as RP go, the women are all hypersexed and governed by their sex drives to sleep with anything with a cock until they get knocked up by their One True Love and suddenly they become domestic and dormant. Until something else happens to bring the drama. And the men go through various kinds of relationship drama, one of them being the butch guy who embodies most masculine stereotypes, swears a lot, and does the penetrating, while the other one embodies most feminine stereotypes, cries a lot, and is penetrated. The sex is largely the same, and there's a fascination with masturbatory exhibitionism and bondage and/or rape and/or dominance.

And I don't get it. I just don't. The relationships are the same. Every. Single. Damn. One of them. They're the same. Oh, I love this man beyond life. I love my husband beyond reason. Oh, the angst, my husband has gotten beaten up. Or my boyfriend. Or what the hell ever. Oh, tears, crying, comfort sex, the healing power of cock. I'm such a fag. I'm such a twink. Blah blah blah. Oh, cock cock cock cock climax white spunk everywhere, begin again. I don't get it. It's boring. It's flat and it's bland and it's boring. Apart from the whole issue that I'm pretty sure gay males don't actually come in two flavors, butch aggressive jackass and femme weepy dishrag, why on earth would you want to RP the same thing you're seeing everywhere around you? Is it really that fascinating? I don't get it, I really don't. It perplexes me.

And where the hell are all the lesbians? There's five gay couples for every lesbian one.

And where the hell is all the real life cute? The pizza and beer after work? Some of my absolute favorite threads or concepts involve Nameless ordering chinese and kicking back with a beer with Murphy after work and both of them giving each other shit, laughing, and then going up to bed. Screw the sexuality aspect of it, the banter alone is worthwhile. Whatever happened to your lover getting you that one DVD that he or she knows will make you laugh to surprise you on a day that's just crappy, and why doesn't that ever show up in these RPs? At least, not that I've seen.

And why the hell is the NC-17 version of the RP pit of voles just so damn bad at porn?

I'm sure there are aspects of my own characters that are all the same. I've noticed, for example, that I have way more alternative sexuality men than women. And I'm sure there's aspects of my writing that get boring to people who read them. But I don't see how people can conform to that level of sameness all the time and not get bored. I just don't understand it.

Or, in the words of the Immortal Leary

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and FUCK YOU!"

I can't believe you people. I can't believe the shit you read and the shit you spout. I can't believe that this is the stuff you choose to represent what you believe, or that you have this little respect for what you write. Because make no mistake, that's the message you're sending out to those of us who actually take more than two seconds to read your fic and make sure you have the appropriate amount of sex in it.

I can't believe some of you people who write non-con, bondage, kink, slash, het, yaoi, yuri, femslash, mpreg (god I hate mpreg), bdsm, yukis and semes and abusive relationship. Passive rape. Gay rape. Coercion. Emotional and physical abuse. Emotional manipulation. SHIT.

If this is how you people really live your lives, I'm scared. I'm downright terrified for the future of the human race, because God knows most of you can't be over 18, possibly over 16. If you people write, believe, think you understand the crap that spews out of your fingers, your computers, your keyboards, then oh my dear sweet Goddess you people need serious mental and sexual help. You need therapy for your next three lifetimes.

I'm not kidding. Now, I enjoy a good erotica fic as much as the next sexual critter, and yes I occasionally enjoy a good erotica between two consenting adults involving bdsm. I have some friends on the bdsm scene. I've even dabbled myself. I've done my homework. For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like. (I can't remember what movie that's from, but I remember Maggie Smith said it) I don't even mind graphic rape WHEN IT SERVES THE STORY.

Let me repeat that.

WHEN. IT. SERVES. THE. STORY.

My god. You people. You have nothing in your stories but sex. And not just the normal kind of sex, oh no, you have to have the nasty-ass manipulative rapist kind of sex. The unhappy miserable dysfunctional appalling tear-jerking hand-staple-forehead angsty scar-you-for-the-rest-of-your-short-suicidal-life sex. And that's the kind of fanfic that gets the reviews. That's the kind of fanfic that seems to be popular. It's like romance novels, only worse. Much, much, ten times worse. It's like if romance novels were slings and arrows, these kinds of fics would be H-Bombs.

You people scare me. You people disgust me. Hell, I've written this crap before. I've written rape, I've written BDSM, I've written gay sex, I've written pure smut. But you know what? I actually take the time and have the self-respect to put some actual thought into the whole process. And I know lots of writers who do. And you know what? No one listens to them either.

So, would someone explain this to me? Explain it to me! Explain it to me! I want it explained to me now JESUS! What the hell is this formula? That you start out with a number of readers, and your readership and reviews go down the less you have sex and the less you have angst. Never mind that maybe you were trying to hook readers in with plot. Throw out character development. Forget intelligent conversation or philosophical exploration of issues. These days if you have a fic and your characters develop more than just an interest in someone's genitalia, it's considered well-written. Goddamn. How far our standards have fallen.

I'm not asking for Shakespeare here. I'm not even asking for Lady Chatterly's Lover or Justine. My god, people, the Marquis de fucking Sade had more plot and more skill than some of you. And that's saying something, I've read Justine, it's nearly as bad. But PLEASE. At least the Marquis went: Philosophy. Sex. Philosophy. Sex. Philosophy. Sex. You people write and read Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Lunch.

Sex. Sex. Sex. Afternoon tea.

Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex.

And the one or two fics that don't have the sex, or don't write about the two or three characters that everyone gives a shit about (Aragorn and Legolas, or Henry Jekyll, or Harry Draco Hermione and Snape, or ...) IT DOESN'T GET READ! No one cares that maybe one of the elven archers who died in the siege of Helmsdeep might have had a family... or a personality. No one wants to hear about the trials and tribulations of Colin Creevy. No one likes or wants to listen to Dorian Gray's side of the story.

I'm so sick of this. I'm so very very sick and tired of people asking when my characters are going to get to the sex, or who's going to pair off with who. GROW UP! GIVE IT UP! Or at the very least talk about something other than that, and bitch about it to each other in private. I mean, damn. This one chick had the audacity to say that I was inspired by her fic. NO, LADY. Your fic is nothing like mine. YOU have your OC and your main fanfic'd character fucking like rabbits inside of fifteen chapters. *I* have about a hundred chapters planned, thirty five written, and they'll be lucky to have two kisses in the whole damn story. But you know what? They'll have had some damn good and meaningful conversations, and if they were a real life couple they'd be the one married for sixty years and your couple would be the one getting a divorce inside of six.

I know. I've watched these marriages failing. I'm watching them fail right now.

Gyah. There was this one atrocity on AdultFanFiction.net where some fanfic characters who will remain nameless to protect the poor characters were written into going off on a raping spree, which seemed to turn the supposed protagonist on, as did later being dominated herself. What the hell kind of a sick message is this sending? That we should be turned on by rape? That it's okay? Back in the day I read these books by Nancy Friday. She had a good message... rape fantasies are all well and good, but no one WANTS to be raped. Except sick and twisted fanfic characters who should rightly stay in the back of people's brains. Other people READ this shit.

You people are so crazed. And this is a recent phenomenon. This whole concentration on sex thing. I remember back in the original days of X-Files... and I mean way back, like first and second and third season (yes, I'm practically a dinosaur. Shut up.) everything was about the UST. For those of you who concentrate on sex and have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, that's Unresolved Sexual Tension. And I don't mean tying someone up naked to a bed and leaving them there. I'm talking about the good ol' fifties, lingering glances, tiny smiles, swaying hips kind of sexual tension. The kind that can be carried throughout a whole movie or story and climaxed in a kiss. No one has that kind of writing skill anymore. And even if they did, no one wants to read it.

Now, I think I've just about ranted myself out now. And I know I'm going to get flamed for this. But you know what? I no longer give a shit. If this kind of thing doesn't improve ... I'm just going to get out of the fanfic business entirely.

I'll publish my short stories, eventually my novels, and turn into the kind of writer that gets horrible bad-porn fic written about her characters.

And if I see ANY of that, I will hunt you down and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. Not the decent fics, or even the semi-decent fics. You'll get approval. No, I'll hunt down you rape-mongers. You know who I mean.

'cause, again in the words of the Immortal Leary.

"I'm an asshole, and I'm proud of it."