http://www.christyclark.ca/wearpink/

Wear pink tomorrow and take a stand against bullying.

:)

Well this year has been quite the series of ups and downs already. If it starts sucking any harder, they might make a porn about it.

moar funny pictures

itty bitty kitty is itty bitty.

i can has?

Well, I WAS going to read my friends page.

Pic-spam: DO NOT WANT.

So I saw the new Resident Evil movie tonight with Eric and Mike and Kayla.

Eh.

I wasn't impressed, really. It had some good moments, but it was a bit of a PWP and not at all scary. I jumped a couple of times because I'm easily startled, but beyond that it was a bit of, "Oh look a zombie." Also, they seem completely unwilling to end the series any time soon, and it's getting tiring.

I think the problem is I've seen just too many zombie movies, and now I'm completely unimpressed. It's like, "Oh, no, there's a zombie gnawing on someone again. Bad zombie, no flesh." *yawn* Were there to ever be an apocalypse involving zombies, I would be throughly unmoved and in fact may laugh a bit about it. Oh. No. Zombies. So scared. Shoot in head, pat self on back. Totally not an effective end to the world, in my opinion.

So basically, don't go see it. It's eh.

Can someone PLEASE tell me the proper order of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series? I've started with Thud!, and while I quite enjoy it, I can't help but feel like I'm missing something...

FFS, I can't read my frigging friends page because someone in a community I'm in posted Harry Potter spoilers.

It's obnoxiously tempting to go read them, though.

AUGH.

So Livejournal has exploded.

Upwards of 500 personal and community accounts have been suspended for "illegal" interests, including but not limited to groups ranging from actual paedophilia and bestiality communities, to fanfiction and fiction communities, to RPGs and character journals, to discussion communities of the book Lolita and communities for survivors.

This move from Livejournal and Six Apart comes after pressure from internet vigilante group Warriors for Innocence, who make several dubious claims as to their mission and their accomplishments. (For more information, it's called Google.) The opinion of legal consult was that allowing journals and communities to list questionable interests could lead to liability on the part of Livejournal and Six Apart in the incidence of a crime, and so accounts have been suspended.

Honestly? I'm not positive on how I feel about all of this.

On one hand, I feel that it's perfectly alright for LJ/SA to purge accounts with (truly) illegal content, such as the disturbingly high number of accounts that condoned paedophilia, child molestation, rape, bestiality, abuse, and so on and so forth. All of these acts are illegal in the United States, where LJ/SA is based, and a site hosting the condoning of such acts does have a liability. In cases such as these, it could even be considered the responsibility of the hosting company to provide subscriber information related to these illegal activities to law enforcement. In this case, I applaud LJ/SA for such actions, and request that such purgings be performed more often (but quite a bit more carefully).

On the other hand, however, I feel that the purging of fandom- and fiction-related accounts is absolutely absurd. Fiction writing is generally a protected class, to the best of my knowledge, and there is no legal reasoning or precedent for the suspension of aforementioned fandom/fiction accounts. (This is, of course, stated with the fact that I have little knowledge of law in mind.) While child pornography is generally frowned upon, fiction writing doesn't fall into the same category- thus why authors like VC Andrews are published. Incest fiction falls into the same boat. For me, this is where it becomes a free speech issue. Incest and underage sex and rape fiction and all the rest may bother me quite a bit, but you have the right to write it, and I support that right. There is, however, a fine line between true fiction and just inappropriate content, and writers would do well to remember that.

Also, I'm bothered by the deletion of communities meant for survivors. There's not much more that needs to be said on that subject, honestly.

I think what it boils down to is free speech vs. legality, and the increasing liability and obligation of the internet community and those that run it. It has to be approached from a global perspective, but the world also can't go soft because of "free speech". A line has to be drawn, I think.

The bottom line : I think it was a good idea, poorly implemented. I would like to see (at the very least) the literary discussion communities and the survivor communities reinstated, and some new guidelines written (with discussion from the LJ community)for the fandom and fiction writing communities. Communities with illegal content should stay gone, and everything possible should be done to prevent these communities from making any kind of footprint on LJ.

I have been asked, many times, by many people, whether or not I am a feminist. After all, I'm a socially liberal female; I believe in gay rights, sex education, and Roe v. Wade, among other things. Doesn't feminist fit right in with that?

My answer every time is no. I am not a feminist.

To many, this conjures up an image of an Ann Coulter-esque self-hating woman, especially when coupled with my moderate Republican political affiliation. They see me as someone who would deny her own womanhood and everyone else's, who falls in line and subjugates herself to the moral male majority. Someone who agrees with "honor" killings and the suppression of strong young women.

This isn't me, either.

I am an equalist.

( I don't believe in women's rights- I believe in human rights. )

I believe that my generation can do ANYTHING if they try.

I believe that we can all change the world with a little elbow grease and a lot of effort.

And more than anything, I believe that one day, I will change the world. That one day, all of these things will come true, with a little contributed effort from me- and everyone else.

One day, a 17 year old girl will be able to have a boyfriend anywhere in the world without being stoned to death. My daughter won't know what it's like to be treated like dirt for being a girl, and my son won't be forced to treat girls like dirt to be "cool". My friends will be able to marry whoever they want as long as they're both consenting adults. I'll have patients who make the effort to learn about their health and their bodies, instead of being in their 20s and not knowing what a cervix is or that oral sex isn't always safe. There will be more companies with morals like LUSH, and less like Proctor and Gamble.

And one day, I'll be President.

I believe in these things and hope for these things, not just because I am a woman, but because I am a human.

"All I ask is this: Do something. Try something. Speaking out, showing up, writing a letter, a check, a strongly worded e-mail. Pick a cause – there are few unworthy ones. And nudge yourself past the brink of tacit support to action. Once a month, once a year, or just once...Even just learning enough about a subject so you can speak against an opponent eloquently makes you an unusual personage. Start with that. Any one of you would have cried out, would have intervened, had you been in that crowd in Bashiqa. Well thanks to digital technology, you’re all in it now."

Inspiration thanks to this livejournal post, which I read thanks to metaquotes.

A few days ago, Rosie O'Donnell made a statement on "The View" referring to U.S. troops as terrorists and accusing them of killing 635,000 Iraqi civilians.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789
She also says that our troops are uneducated, poor, and convicted felons.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RhnrsHfmDkQ
These are just a few examples of her apparent campaign to vilify our armed forces.
I am completely shocked and disgusted by both her repugnant statements and the blatant lies that she is attempting to spread, and I'm sure others are as well. To many of us, these are not just people off the street that she is insulting, but our friends, mothers, fathers, boyfriends, fiances, husbands, children, siblings, and more.
ABC can be contacted at this link :
http://abc.go.com/site/contactus.html
Please, go and inform them of how you feel about her disrespect of our troops and our families, and spread the word. This should not go unpunished.

Is it just me, or is livejournal being WEIRD with the friends pages?

I'm taking a break from the internet. Things have been one thing after the other right now, I'm completely screwed up, and I need to go fix myself before I decide to take a break from life.

I'll be back eventually. Best wishes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070426/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq

For the link phobic - the House passed legislation, 218-208, ordering troop withdrawl to begin 1 October and complete by 1 April 2008. Bush has sworn to veto, and the Democrats have sworn to push until they get the 2/3 majority in order to override a presidential veto.

I don't want to get my hopes up ... but shit. I can't even put into words how I feel about this. This could mean so much to so many people ... I'm going to pray, and hope, and pray some more. And if it gets vetoed, I'm going to practice my letter writing skills, and pray some more. I'm going to write and pray till the House Representatives AND God are sick of hearing from me, and then I'm going to do it some more.

I hope this ends soon, I really do.

reposted from thestranger.com.

Shopping Spree
How to Get Free Books, CDs, and Movies from Focus on the Family—Thereby Taking Money out of the Pockets of Anti-Gay Bigots—in 12 Easy Steps

BY NOEL BLACK

Gay marriage is on the ropes and you may be feeling despondent about the tedious process and dim prospects for any kind of meaningful change in the near future. And why wouldn't you? There are a total of eight states in the U.S. that don't have Defense of Marriage amendments either on the books or in the works, and Massachusetts is still the only state that permits same-sex marriage. The Washington State Supreme Court handed down its anti-gay-marriage decision several weeks ago and Washington's gay community is licking its wounds and contemplating an incremental push for civil unions.

When I'm feeling despondent over the state of gay rights in America—or the concurrent assaults on reproductive freedom, science, and rational thought—there's just one thing that helps me overcome my feelings of despair: getting free shit from Focus on the Family!

Few people know that Focus on the Family—the powerful evangelical Christian para-church based in Colorado Springs—will give you, absolutely free of charge, books, CDs, and DVDs. Usually people pay for these products, and the millions of dollars raised helps Focus on the Family produce yet more books and CDs featuring Dr. James Dobson and other Focus "experts." (Focus on the Family's experts, when they're not chatting on the phone with Karl Rove, run around the country teaching people how to stop being so gay and when it's appropriate to kick their kids' asses.)

Not only does ordering free stuff from Focus on the Family—sent to myself or people I don't like—satisfy a deeply juvenile impulse, it has the added benefit of taking money directly out of homo-hater Dobson's pocket. The one drawback is that getting free shit from Focus on the Family is a tad time consuming and a bit tricky, but it's well worth the effort.

Here's how to do it:

1. Go to www.family.org and you will see their home page.

2. Once you're at the home page, look for the "Resources" link in the blue bar on the left-hand side, right above the "Search" box, and click it.

3. Under the "Resource Category" menu on the left-hand side, you'll notice categories such as "Homosexuality." Go ahead and click that for shits and giggles.

4. It's time to start shopping! Scroll down a little bit and feel the homophobia flow. How about a nice copy of A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality? Go ahead and click the "Add to Cart" button.

5. Now comes a tough decision: Do you have the book sent to yourself so you can sell it on eBay for cash (my personal favorite) or do you keep it on your mantel as a high-larious conversation piece to point at and laugh when your friends and family come over? Or do you send it to a jerk? I always opt for sending it to myself. Yes, you may end up on the Focus on the Family mailing list (though I've been doing this for some time and have never received anything beyond what I ordered), but reading Focus on the Family's junk mail is a good way to keep tabs on their activities and it will cost them even more money in postage.

Please note: Focus on the Family won't send you more than $100 worth of materials for free in any given shopping trip, so be sure to keep it reasonable and return often.

6. Select "Add New Shipping Address" and click "Proceed to Checkout." Or, hell, continue to shop and pick up a box set of The Chronicles of Narnia on CD.

7. The next screen will ask you to sign up for an account and give your information. Don't worry, they don't ask for your credit-card number. Enter whatever name and address you like, because you won't be paying. You might want to make up a phone number, too.

8. Once you've filled out all the required fields (you can also create a fake e-mail account if you're super paranoid), click "Proceed to Checkout" one more time. You'll now find yourself at the "Here Is Your Cart" field. Annoying thing alert: You may have to reenter your info again after this field to actually set up your account. But just keep going until you get to the "How Much Would You Like to Donate?" page.

9. So, how much would you like to donate? Zero dollars, obviously. Don't be fooled by the field in the lower-right-hand corner that shows you the suggested donation amounts. Simply select "Enter other total amount" and enter 0.00 as the amount you would like to pay. (Don't put in a dollar sign or it will ask you for credit-card information!) Proceed to checkout.

10. You'll now be led to a screen that will try to make you feel guilty about the amount you haven't donated. But don't feel bad! Just proceed to checkout again.

11. Jesus! Here you are on the twelfth step and you still don't have your self-hatred materials! And you thought preventing homosexuality was supposed to be easy! Click "Checkout Now" and you're done.

Congratulations!

You have just removed a few dollars from the coffers of a major anti-gay organization. You can further capitalize on your brief investment of time by selling the item/s on eBay. You'd be surprised how much money you can get—a friend of mine makes a few hundred extra dollars every few months on this perfectly legal activity.

And if your conscience begins to bother you, think of it this way: Focus on the Family would probably like for you to have the materials anyway, because there's that minute chance that, once in your hands, the materials may inspire you to have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Finally, don't forget to pass this information on to all your friends. Proselytizing isn't just for Christians, you know. Go gay!

Woo.

i know when they're about me. i'm not stupid.

if you've got a problem with me, just come out and say it. i'm a big girl, i can handle it.

it's all bullshit anyways. if you're not mature enough to get over petty high school bullshit, and you're not mature enough to say something to someone with your name behind it, then maybe you're not mature enough to be running around saying how mature you are. huh, imagine that.