Originally posted by cantarina1 at post

Originally posted by electricdruid at The fiasco continues

ACTA in a Nutshell –

What is ACTA?  ACTA is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. A new intellectual property enforcement treaty being negotiated by the United States, the European Community, Switzerland, and Japan, with Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada recently announcing that they will join in as well.

Why should you care about ACTA? Initial reports indicate that the treaty will have a very broad scope and will involve new tools targeting “Internet distribution and information technology.”

What is the goal of ACTA? Reportedly the goal is to create new legal standards of intellectual property enforcement, as well as increased international cooperation, an example of which would be an increase in information sharing between signatory countries’ law enforcement agencies.

Essential ACTA Resources - 

• Read more about ACTA here: ACTA Fact Sheet
• Read the authentic version of the ACTA text as of 15 April 2011, as finalized by participating countries here: ACTA Finalized Text
• Follow the history of the treaty’s formation here: ACTA history
• Read letters from U.S. Senator Ron Wyden wherein he challenges the constitutionality of ACTA: Letter 1 | Letter 2 | Read the Administration’s Response to Wyden’s First Letter here: Response
• Watch a short informative video on ACTA: ACTA Video
• Watch a lulzy video on ACTA: Lulzy Video

Say NO to ACTA. It is essential to spread awareness and get the word out on ACTA.

Via Tumblr

Current Mood: cranky

PantheaCon, February 17-20, 2012, DoubleTree, San Jose, CA. - Dealer
Consonance, March 2 - 4, 2012, Hilton Newark/Fremont, Newark, CA. - Registration

A busy couple of weeks, there...

Current Mood: busy

Shattered Citadel is a universe developed by a guy I game with.

Starting in the near future, the story arc posits a WW3, The Great Human Civil War, from 2025-2077. Then, after that war ends, mankind fresh from it and the Succession Wars must confront a new alien threat.

There are both short and medium length stories, videos, and even fan fiction.

Current Mood: busy

1. Pay down debt. 2011 was a fucking expensive year. I ended up owing money again - car and teeth. This year I need to reduce that.


2. Sew stuff and sell it. I've got lots of pretty fabric and a heavy duty sewing machine


3. Write stuff. This one is actually harder, since my job and small business take up a lot of time.


4. Get my soap lab back and make soap. This is iffy, since the roomie tore it apart a couple years ago, and crappily packed it up to "work" on the area. Now the room is a box room. Growl.


5. Learn to be a better geek, and how to teach it. This is job stuff.


6. Find or make a place for myself in the local pagan community, even it is just as an artificer. I've been on the fringes too long.


7. Spend more time decluttering. I have enough hobbies and interests that I need to better organize them.


8. Do two or more conventions as a dealer. I'm signed up for PantheaCon and BayCon. I need to be prepared and organized.


9. Eat better. Not talking diet - I don't do those. I just need to bring my IBS back under control. So I need to avoid fats and HFCS.


10. Put my money where my mouth is.

Current Mood: amused

Here's to progress, and making our world what we want it to be - a better place.

Current Mood: calm

So, they rolled out Release 88, which arbitrarily went and abused every journal to rip out comment subject lines by their roots. Now all you see is a bunch of usernames, not what they are talking about. Take about ego bullshit.

Supposedly it wasn't going to break S2 styles.

Guess what? I use S2, and my LJ is broken. OK, they fixed it, except for pages that throw you into the new atrocity, despite what your settings are.

The new default comment page looks as juvenile and corporate as FarceBook.

If you want to comment on my journal with proper subjects, comment at My Dreamwidth Journal

If you want to leave a nastygram on feedback? Do it, I did.

Current Mood: annoyed

So, Datapard's rear tooth wouldn't wait until the new year, when I have my next round of Flex spending available. $2700 later, on CareCredit, and I'm stuck for $225/mo for a year.

Ouch.

Current Mood: grumpy

To San Jose! If you live or work in San Jose, California, you are eligible to Move Your Money out of a big greedy bank into the San Jose Credit Union (I bank there, I like them).

"SPECIAL SATURDAY HOURS: The Credit Union (both branches) will be open Saturday, November 5th from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m."

No, they usually aren't open on Saturday, but they will be on November 5.

If you are local, it would be a great opportunity to get shed of your greedy bloodsucking corporate bank, and get into a customer owned Credit Union.

Heck, a lot of the city cops bank there.

Current Mood: cheerful

Via siliconshaman

Current Mood: amused

ysabetwordsmith is running a Poetry Fishbowl with a theme of "ghosts." Read, and maybe get involved in some cyberfunded creativity!

Current Mood: amused

If you cause my phone to detonate at 06:30 my time, I will probably not answer it. At least you had better hope I can't claw the mask from my face and fumble for the phone fast enough, because you'll get an earful. Civilized people don't call a residence before 8 am local unless by prior arrangement.

When you leave me a semi-incomprehensible message? Don't expect a return call, you wouldn't like it if I called you back.

- The now very, VERY cranky person you woke up 2 hours too early after she got to bed at 3:30 am.

Fucker. I actually was sleeping, well, and he ruined it.

I can't go to them. I set my alarm... and sleep through. One time I literally slept through the day. I misplace times, dates, addresses related - so unless someone else tracks them, I lose it.

I think my subconcious aversion comes from the type of Christianoid or religious stuff that goes on, plus the empathic overload from everyone there. I don't deal well with the way our society doesn't deal with death.

Have a wake, have a party, that's a little better. But usually, I'll drink at home, alone or with a couple friends, to the person's memory.

Needless to say, when I kick off, celebrate. Celebrate the fact that I lived past my 21st birthday, past my 50th birthday. Celebrate the fact that I have had fun times and good friends. Don't let the preachers near it, though. My soul and afterlife are my business, not theirs.

Also, don't kick yourself like I do if you can't get yourself to go. I'll understand.

Current Mood: sad

PSA: An LJ blogger I follow recently posted an excellent guide on this subject that needs to be spread more widely:
Foodstamps 101

Even if you don't need it now, put it in your memories, you or someone you know may need it in the future.

There are more Americans living with food insecurity and hunger than in the past 50+ years. The local talk radio station just had a fundraiser day for food banks, the need is so great. This is a consequence of the Great Recession, and not likely to go away soon.

So, the cops have cordoned off my block, and the bomb squad has detonated at least two bombs, and they've found about 4 more, according to what my roomie has heard. Part of the block has been evacuated, but they're letting my roomies stay in the house, at least.

I'm still at work, and staying until they leave, because otherwise I have to seek even more reduced parking several blocks away, then walk in and be escorted to my own house. Did I mention that I am mobility impaired?

Yeah, suckage. All because some asshole decided to play amateur chemist.

Final update: The cops finally let us in at around 11:30 pm. I got to hear the last "Kaboom"

Current Mood: annoyed

If you're gonna accuse all white people of having "Mammy issues", and also of taking over any fight for rights, common decency, or whatever, then don't accuse me of being "passive-aggressive" and doing nothing when I fucking tell you "I know I personally don't do X, and don't give my money to it. Anything else, you're driving, what do you you want me to do?"

You know why? Because you are expecting me to be fucking psychic, and somehow mystically know how you want white people to help, and when we don't, you accuse us of some fucked up mammy shit. I never had a "mammy", or any other "help" when I grew up. I don't crave it now, either. Does not apply, sorry to disappoint you. I'm not your stereotypical white chick.

I'm doing what you have told me you want: Staying out of the drivers seat, because it's your fight, not mine.

I try to be sympathetic, but if I can't understand *why* some people treat others in some really fucked up ways, it's not because of "privilege", but because I don't treat people in those fucked up ways!

There's some things no one should have to put up with, I don't care their color, ability, gender, gender identity, religion, or any other artificial division we make in the definition of human. The fact that some jerks think those things exclude people from being human pisses me off, but I can't walk up and change them. Sorry to disillusion you. I can refuse to do it, support it or feed it. That's it, without some other inspiration from you, because I don't really have any other tools or knowledge at my disposal. I'm not rich and powerful.

So I will do my best to not step in your way, and I try to ask what you want.

But I'm really not into getting abuse for being born white, any more than you are into getting abuse for being non-white. I'm not going to assume what's best for you - that's fucking patronizing - and I'll thank you to not assume that I know how you want me to help.

I try to be understanding of experiences I've never had. But some shit I don't, and can't get my head around. Not just color issues, either, but lots of it dealing with breaches of common (to me) courtesy and respect. I don't condone it, either. But that's not good enough for some people.

BTW, this is in my blog, instead of someone else's, because this kind of piss and vinegar doesn't belong in somebody's "home" that isn't party to it.

Current Mood: annoyed

Video shows white teens driving over, killing black man, says DA - I grabbed the link from karnythia's post on the subject. More people than just those that follow her need to see this.

This makes me sad, angry, and a whole lot of other things.

A bunch of teenagers beat and then killed another human being because of the color of his skin. No other reason.

I could go into the cultural shit behind it, but I won't. It's just fucking wrong.

It was wrong 50 years ago, it's wrong now.

Now the victim's family gets to deal with everything that it dredges up, inside and out, including the freaks coming out of the woodwork, on top of burying the victim of a senseless, vicious murder.

Lynching isn't gone, they just don't bother with the rope now, they use pickups instead.

Can I leave the planet now?

Current Mood: crushed

I enjoy this, but seldom have the inclination or cash to buy in.

Well, for this one, Stained, I have the inclination, but not the cash.

But hey, I can at least point other people to it so they can enjoy...

Oh, the first payday on the new job won't be until the 25th...

There are others, as well, and I really should highlight them now and again.

Current Mood: artistic

In another post on someone else's journal, mac posted this link: The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities. It mentions a book that I currently can't afford to order, but also has a link to an excellent PDF of the zine version.

It is an intense read, but very valuable, IMO. So far I'm only a third of the way through it. One takeaway I have is something I knew at a gut level, but didn't really follow all the way through: Just because a person is an activist doesn't mean they automatically are not capable of being an abuser.

I know, peripherally, of incidents in various subcultures/communities I'm involved in that are not pretty. What I hadn't really internalized is how much it happens, but is ignored *within the community*. Sure, the outside will take a hint and make it a federal case, but ignoring it within isn't the solution either.

BTW, for those who wonder why I am bothering with any of this, since it's not my fight? Because I can. Because if someone hates me because of what I say on the net, it wouldn't be the first time. Because I have this obnoxious tendency to ask "Oh, really?" and be a bit sparing with my trust and credence. Not everyone whose journal I follow do I like or trust, either.

I'm sorry if I don't conform to your idea of what a pagan/feminist/queer/gimp/fan should be like. I'm not trying to please you or conform, and pushing me to do so just gets my back up and me being contrary. Call it crazy if you like.

But if I can inspire someone to think past their knee-jerk, then it's worth it.

That's why I've chosen to highlight this link/document - because it has made *me* think.

Current Mood: thoughtful

So, person A is making a name for hirself as an advocate for oppressed groups M and N. Person B, an ex of person A, says, "Hold on, this person raped me at a con, they aren't as pure as they claim to be". Person C, a friend, and probably now lover of person B, says "Yes, I was there, it was baaaad" and describes something eerily similar to a previous case described in fandom circles a couple years ago, with different people, and then spreads this among groups that are innately hostile to groups M and N. Person A says "I've been accused, I admit no guilt, see you in court." essentially "I won't play along with trial by net."

These accusations come immediately on the heels of person A's success - not a surprise, I guess, since such things tend to bring skeletons out of closets. But the fact that person A had a ton of nasty harassing phone calls just the week or two before, to the point that they had to involve the police and change their number, and that they were also subscribed to a slew of disgusting porn email lists, makes the timing a bit more... suspect.

I call the question, ask "qui bono", because something stinks, and doesn't pass my BS filters. Person C and hir choir gets downright nasty, accuses me of enabling "rape culture", "victim-blaming" and other melodramatic sloganeering.

What's worse is, A, B and C are into BDSM, so at the time, C supposedly wasn't sure if it was a "scene" or not. But there was no scene monitor, but they may not play that way.

But the whole thing just reeks of a virtual lynch mob, and I feel that degrades accusers in rape cases. Just like the Julian Assange thing felt like the rape accusation was only useful as a political tool to "get" Assange.

Was there rape? I don't know. Was there miscommunication? Yes, from what I've read! Is that miscommunication rape? I can't say, and I hate that I can't. In a BDSM scene context, "no" may not mean "no", the safeword does.

But I can't jump in with both boots on person C's say-so. Person B didn't ask for that, and they are the only one with the right.

People who know me know I often take the side of the underdog. When I see sharks circling and people throwing around slurs due to this kind of accusation being made, I start to think that there's more in play than simple justice and wanting to warn people against trusting this person's activist credentials.

Person A hasn't made any brownie points with me either, posting hir accuser's whole name in public in what limited response they have made. So that stinks too.

Now, someone whose opinion I trust has said that person A has a history of not respecting boundaries. That I will believe, because the person who has said it is credible to me. That kind of behavior can lead to rape, and needs to stop.

The worst actors on the drama front are person C and the chorus of hate and drama. The jerking knees, the instant "off with their head" condemnation, and rush to judgment make me furious, and wade in with both rhetorical fists swinging.

Would I share a room at a con with either A, B or C? Not a chance - I don't want any part of their drama. Would I 86 any of them from a con I ran? No, because my standard of proof hasn't been met, either for rape or excess drama. Would I invite any of them to a party? No, too much drama for my personal comfort.

I've left names and specifics out of this for a reason: The issue is really a meta one, of where the line is on the use of rape accusations as a political tool, both in real world politics, ala Assange, and in fannish politics.

Rape accusations are a special breed of criminal accusation in our society, because of the twisted culture that makes "consent" a murky mess, because of the intersection of reputation and crime, because of the "he said, she said" nature, because some people assume consent where it isn't, because some people believe in "surprise sex" as sex, and a whole lot of other reasons. But using it as a political weapon is abhorrent to me. It trivializes it, IMO, and that's wrong.

Current Mood: angry

So a Christian Fundamentalist committed a major act of terrorism in Norway, and people are acting all shocked, like they can't believe it. Guess what, folks? Right Wing Christian Fundamentalists, especially Dominionists, are just as terroristic in nature as Al Queda and their ilk. It's perfectly acceptable in their world view to "Kill a 'Commie' for Christ" or a gay, Muslim, woman, liberal, jew, black, etc. Who the hell do you think started the Crusades, anyway? It wasn't the Muslims, folks! Who did the Inquisition?

Right wing Christian fundamentalist extremism has been glossed over, passed off as the work of "lone wolves", or "fringe groups" that "aren't really Christian". Guess what? They go to "Christian" churches, wear crosses, read bibles, pray to Jesus, etc. They are just as "Christian" as the Muslim terrorists are Muslim. You don't get to say they "aren't really" members of the dominant religion in the Western world.

You say that if the Muslims don't stop the Muslim terrorists, then they are complicit. Well, guess what, folks, that sword cuts both ways: If average peaceful Christians don't stop Christian terrorists, they are just as complicit as average peaceful Muslims are in Muslim terror.

If you think it's not a problem, do a few google searches on words like "steeplejacking" and "dominionism". Check out SPLC and their right wing watch. White Militant Right Wing Christian groups are very, very popular. A lot of them are behind the Tea Party, and call them selves "Libertarian", too.

I feel sorry for the people in Norway, with their peace shattered by something within their own society. Let's hope they're smarter about how they deal with it than we were.

Current Mood: sad