This week in The Slacktiverse, October 29/30 2011

The Blogaround

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: Ode to Charlie
Despite a very real opportunity here for a caring, understanding, and nurturing single father, "Twilight" instead relies on tired old stereotypes of fathers who hate shopping and only know about the school dances in so far as they represent a threat to their teenage daughter's virginity. Not so much because the father in question cares about his daughter and doesn't want to see her get hurt, but seemingly more because caring about a teenage daughter's virginity is just what fathers *do*, supposedly.

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: The Closet Monster
Crafting a character who is a tool of oppression while secretly being the very thing they hate dangerously obscures the fact that oppression isn't generated by a small number of self-hating oppressors. Oppression is systematic, and perpetrated by a large number of sometimes-silent but always-present supporters. Focusing on the Closet Monster obscures the real problem entirely... and it's additionally a rather trite "twist"

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Narnia: Gender Essentialism and Female War Veterans
Hey, look: it's Santa! What's better than having Santa show up in your novel to hand out plot-important presents? How about having Santa show up in your novel to hand out never-mentioned-again presents so that Santa can make a philosophical point about how women shouldn't be soldiers? In a fantasy war where the main side is led by a woman. And the external world is currently fighting a real war with real women on the front lines fighting for the Pevensie children and their right to have adventures in safety. Thanks, Santa!

Laiima reports she did a lot of writing this week: Books I read that helped me come up with my story idea for Nanowrimo; a book review of The Gay Gospels, which I really wanted to be able to recommend; my first Nanowrimo post, on how friendship changes you; musing on what heaven might be like and baby steps toward paradigm shift.

Sarah reports: This week, I posted about the Occupy movements again and, for Poetry Tuesday, "Painters" by Muriel Rukseyer.

Ian needs a nickname writes: I've just started up a blog about visiting Occupy Vancouver: Occupying Attention. I just went for the first time on Wed of this week and knew I'd have to go back. Somehow I was facilitating a meeting yesterday!
It turns out to be a group that's amazingly good at amplifying the voices of people who have been marginalized. That may be its primary purpose.
One post that might be useful to people who think Occupiers are too scattered: Three Goals about which I think there would be consensus.
First time blogger also as of Wed. Wish me luck, and (to those of us who pray) pray for continued peace

chris the cynic reports: Three weeks ago I wrote an update on my progress getting stories onto Stealing Commas, and then never got around to telling anyone about it. This week I've written about my experience with depression (Trigger Warning: frank discussion of depression and negative ideation) and what I'm thinking about writing for National Novel Writing Month. Also if anyone is keeping up with the blog via a feed, that might be broken at the moment so if you want to get everything you'll need to check manually.

Michael Mock writes: This week at Mock Ramblings, I considered Halloween Costumes from the Mad Science Lab, and wrote some Halloween short stories: Allergies, We Don't Go Out At Night, and They Came From Under The Bed. The Deranged Cultist reported in, but he's suffering from some sort of head cold and didn't have much to say. I also made one more recommendation for a creepy Halloween comic. Enjoy!

Coleslaw writes: Since I mentioned my foreign exchange students in one of my recent posts, I thought I would expand on my adventures with the world's teenagers in Foreign Exchange Part 1 and Part 2. My cat Truffle has been keeping some late hours, leaving me Walking After Midnight. That may be part of the reason that I'm Shrinking. (Trigger Warning: diet and body image talk, although it's mostly a rant on discriminatory pricing policies in women's clothing.)

By the way, in case no one has noticed, most of my blog posts are completely facetious, so if you ever find yourself asking, "Good Lord, is she really serious about that?" the answer is most likely "No". I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm serious about that Occupy the Garment District thing.

MercuryBlue writes: You may have missed this post at The Friendly Atheist in which the official White House response to atheists' (and presumably polytheists' and other folk in support of separation of church and state) petitioning the government for redress of a grievance boils down to "*tbbbbbpt*". Mehta doesn't mention the second email I got from the White House, which Gmail displayed as follows:

The White House:
Religion in the Public Square
By Joshua DuPois, Executive Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
Thank you for signing the petition “Remove "In God We Trust" from currency." We appreciate your participation in the We the People platform on WhiteHouse.gov.
Show quoted text

mmy reports: I blogged quite a bit this week. I added two more posts to the Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House series (Part Two, Escape from New York and Part Three, The Blandings' Bathroom Blues); three posts in the 100 years ago today series (How we talked about the things we couldn't talk about, America at War and Remind me again who was it who won the Civil War?. I also wrote another post about the unofficial poverty tax, some unintended consequences of the Canadian single payer system and of the true terror this Halloween week--not being able to find my glasses.

Ruby writes: This week Paul is introduced to the Rapture and then attends a chess tournament in Soon: Chapter 20: Part of the Community and Soon: Chapter 21: The Mother Ship.

The former conservative blogger reports: I was on vacation this week so for the first part of the week, so Jarred, a well known member of The Slacktiverse, took over my blog and did an amazing job guest posting for me. You can see all of Jarred's posts here. Upon my return, I wrote 2 posts on the fundamentalist reaction to Halloween (Halloween Freakout Continues and Airo on Halloween). I also wrote a post about the Kevin Smith film, Red State.

With a focus on food this week, Storiteller wrote about her experience participating in the first ever Food Day, a day meant to promote sustainable, good food for all - Fantastic Food Day. She also ran through a number of options for ethical Halloween candy that can serve as alternatives to Hershey's, which relies in part on slave labor for their cocoa: Ensuring Halloween is Sweet for All.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: Respecting Personal Boundaries
The fun continues as Edward forces Bella into more uncomfortable confrontations and laughs at her discomfort and fear. I don’t blame Mike-Eric-Tyler for springing unwanted propositions on Bella when she’s essentially trapped and unable to get away, but I do blame the writing for not taking a moment to point out that intent isn’t magic and that this behavior can cause a girl genuine pain. Instead, we get to hear from Edward that these boys deserved Bella’s time and attention.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: Why I Like Trigger Warnings
I’ve seen a few people online criticize trigger warnings lately, so I thought I’d chime in. My two cents: labeling is good and self-censorship isn’t always a bad thing. Worth reading if only for Izzy’s absolutely golden comment: I would like to see “Compulsively Honest About Every Goddamn Thing Guy” added into common parlance. Maybe as an acronym?

In case you missed this

MercuryBlue writes: apparently Jim DeMint doesn't want us having abortion flamewars. Which I'd agree with if he weren't trying to mandate no Internet discussion of abortion. No one seems able to find the original text of amendment 768 to HR 2112, so it might just be a rumor, and I really hope it is, but in case it's not, US folks, call your congresscritter.

Things you can do

A petition has been launced on change.org Dallas VA Medical Center: Fire Homophobic Nurse for Harassing Lesbian Marine Veteran

--Co-authored by the Slacktiverse Community

---

The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)

Comments

[LKE]

Coleslaw,

Pity. I'd be willing to join an "Occupy the Garment District" movement. I work in retail, usually in the Fitting Room of my store, and agree that clothing for ladies has many problematic things within that category of clothing.

(No, I'm not mentioning which company I work for. I'm here as myself, not as an employee of company X.)

[Ross]

@mmy: Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is one of my most treasured childhood movie memories ("Well there were just these four little pieces of flagstone..." was our inside joke growing up, something to say whenever a home improvement project went awry in my family -- it's a joke that has moved on to its second generation now that my wife has seen the movie). I perversely look forward to you explaining why I should feel uncomfortable about liking it.

[Mmy]

@Ross: I don't what people to feel uncomfortable with Mr. Blandings I am fascinated by the skill of those who made it. After all the movie came out at the time that America was suffering from monumental housing crisis. And the Blandings (who I, like you, absolutely loved when I saw the film) are part of the financial elite of American society and they basically buy their way out of the housing crisis.

So, I wondered just HOW did the people who made that film pull it off?

That is a type of artistic triumph.

My personal favourite line? Perhaps what you need is not so much
a house as a series of little bungalows.../
...each with two closets
and a private bath.

[MercuryBlue]

The 'Show quoted text' bit was kind of relevant, but eh.

[Mmy]

@MercuryBlue: The 'Show quoted text' bit was kind of relevant

Wouldn't show for us. I think it will only do that when the you are reading the email in the browser/email program that the original text is also on. It isn't even visible to us if we "look underneath" at the source code. If you can take a picture of it and send it to us or open it in some other way we could include it here.

[MercuryBlue]

I copy-pasted. It should've shown up. Hmph. I'll screencap.

[MercuryBlue]

No, really, the 'Show quoted text' bit is important. It shows that the email about the 'In God We Trust' currency petition and the email about the 'under God' Pledge petition were identical except for the opening paragraph.

[Mmy]

@MercuryBlue: I can't figure out exactly what you want your submission to look like. Do you want someone to be able to click on "show quoted text" and see the text? If so that is a completely different type of formatting. I am trying to deduce what it is you want the submission to look like and it isn't working for me.

[MercuryBlue]

Just 'Show quoted text' in little purple letters below the quoted paragraph will work fine, thanks. Somebody who wants to see the full text can click the Friendly Atheist link.

Sorry for being such a hassle.

[ZMiles]

I made a blog about my own NaNoWriMo efforts: http://solvingchessnovel.blogspot.com/.

Since it seems like several members of the Slacktiverse are taking part, would it be possible to have a post where all such members could put links, solicit feedback, that sort of thing?

[Mmy]

@Zmiles: We don't have a regular Tuesday post--we could put up a post on Tuesdays for that purpose.

[ZMiles]

That sounds like a great idea, thanks!

[Laiima]

@Zmiles, interested in a writing buddy? I'm doing it too, under LGarrabing.

[ZMiles]

I think I'm interested, but I don't know what a writing buddy is. Would it be a beta kind of thing, or a partner to encourage each other to meet the daily word goals, or something else?

[chris the cynic]

I don't know what a writing buddy is either and I already have three.

[Laiima]

when I asked a ML on my local Nanowrimo FB page what writing buddies are for, she said: As far as what they do: a little friendly competition, reminding each other and encouraging if falling behind.

[ZMiles]

In that case, sure!

[Laiima]

I searched for both ZMiles and zmiles, but no luck finding you.

[Lonespark]

Hey you guys!
I'm not up for NaNoWriMo, but I think I'm gonna do the blog posting version. I'm really excited about it; now I just have to make a blog. Or not. I guess I could just do it on Dreamwidth...

Anyway, I hope to be blogging about stuff like:
History that is awesome,
Books that are awesome,
Paganism and holidays and religion generally,
Religion and US American law/government specifically,
How complementarianism can suck it,
Geology + paganism = ?
Movies that are awesome/horrible/disappointing,
Etc.

[ZMiles]

I only just signed-up. Once I'm able to validate my account, I'll search for you.

[MercuryBlue]

Lonespark: WriSoMiFu? Also, yes, that's what Dreamwidth is for.

Someone should create the Dreamwidth version of that comm. I call not it.

I am not doing NaNo. I am, however, doing Mini NaNo. 100 words a day. I do not have the time to devote to 1667 words a day. (Says the person who spent half of yesterday staring blankly at her computer screen...)

[Lonespark]

Yeah, that sounds about right.

I got the books and have begun reading American Gods and yay! MercuryBlue's book sale is sustainable good holiday shopping, y'all.

[Sixwing]

I'm going to be doing a NaNoMangO instead, as writing is not my deal. Whee.
Page a day, here I come.

[Lonespark]

Ooooh, that's cool too.

[sarah]

Hey--off-topic, but one of my friends/co-workers dressed up as Ada Lovelace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace) for Halloween. I thought some of you all would appreciate that.

[storiteller]

How exactly did she dress as Ada? General Victorian wear with some sciency, early-computer elements?

[Lonespark]

Hrrrm. I have signed up for NaBloPoMo and written my first entry. I don't know if I should be announcing this here or elsewhere.

But anyway, First post down: Boromir-related rambling, brief reference to the sexiness of infrastructure. I hope it doesn't need warnings; please tell me if it does:

Lesser Folk With Shovels

[Ross]

I'm angry again today. Very angry. Because of this: Pox parties are back. But worse, parents are meeting through Facebook and mailing infected material to each other in order to get their kids "safe", "natural" immunity to chicken pox, measels, mumps, and rubella.

ANother one of those things which "everyone" (even a lot of people who aren't destructive anti-vax idiots victims of the anti-vax fraud) thinks is a safe and reasonable thing to do and many of whom can even remember when their parents used to do that sort of thing, but no one seems to rememeber how many children ended up with serious complications or dead from that kind of shit.

Also, the article stops short of pointing out that if these people weren't white, they'd almost certainly be in the hokey for committing bioterrorism, because they are committing bioterrorism

[Lonespark]

They...what?
I know we all need some remedial science now and then...
And I guess I don't want stupid bioterrorists locked up away from the kids too long because really, who does that help...
But...they are committing bioterrorism. I do not appreciate it, and I really, really hope the government doesn't either.

[Lonespark]

Jeez, that's horrifying. The poor kids. I get annoyed when people go overboard about stuff like chemicals in plastic bottles, if they are not willing to stand up and scream about crud like this. People are courting the next pandemic. And meanwhile we?) want to deregulate everything, the better for your cantelope and drinking water to kill you.

[The Board Administration Team]

@Lonespark (and everyone else who is talking part in Nonawrimo -- we just put up a post just for you :)

[truth is life]

ANother one of those things which "everyone" (even a lot of people who aren't destructive anti-vax idiots victims of the anti-vax fraud) thinks is a safe and reasonable thing to do and many of whom can even remember when their parents used to do that sort of thing, but no one seems to rememeber how many children ended up with serious complications or dead from that kind of shit.

What? Why would anyone think that this was a safe and reasonable thing to do? I mean...this is basically vaccination, but going out of your way to be unsafe about it. It's...well, I can't really think of a good term. Stupid, maybe.

I remember having chicken pox (I was one of the very last generation to have been born and grow up a little bit before the vaccine was invented), and it wasn't very nice at all. I particularly remember it being very painful to sit down, very unpleasant. It isn't something anyone should have to suffer from.

[Brin]

Ross: and many of whom can even remember when their parents used to do that sort of thing

I remember them trying. And failing. And more failing. When I was twelve, they had me tested to see if I'd had it asymptomatically. (She played with that girl for hours the day before breaking out! Surely she must have gotten something!) I hadn't. To this day, they complain when relevant about their "failure" in giving me the "inferior" vaccine. *sigh*

They also claim flu shots give you flu. This belief is strong enough that they won't get them themselves, but weak enough that Dad agreed to drive me to the doctor's office when they do their afternoon flu clinic on the 10th. (Later than all the other clinics I've seen. I do hope it wasn't a mistaken October 10th.)

But really, sending infectious material through the mail? Seems pretty WTF even by pox partier standards. Are they even capable, as ordinary civilians, of doing all the necessary biohazard containment procedures? (I don't know what the procedures are, but there probably are some.) I suppose they don't bother: it's only chicken pox, after all.
*reads again* Wait, measles? Who says "only" with measles?

[Winter]

People who can't be arsed to look up what a really bad case of measles can do to someone. Mailing infectious material can't be legal, there's just so much potential for it to go horribly wrong. I hope no one's dim enough to pull this kind of crap with polio.

I had chicken pox in the early 90s. I was early elementary school age at the time so I don't remember it very well, just a lot of itching for days on end. There were probably other symptoms, but I just remember the itching.

[Ross]

I'll admit, it being one of the things that happened not just in my lifetime but after I was well out of the relevant age bracket, that the varicella vaccine prompted a knee-jerk "Bah, kids these days, what's wrong with a little chicken pox / over medication / better to have natural immunity / get off my lawn" reaction for a bit when I first heard of it, but I was a younger and stupider person at the time. But pretty much everyone in my generation has a visible chicken pox scar somewhere on their body (Mine's just past the end of my left eyebrow), and yeah, I have a hard time with the idea that a parent could willingly *give their child a disease like that* without it being forthrightly abusive.

Also: *uncontrolled*. I do not want the health of *my* kid being threatened by these people. (And what if my child is immune suppressed and can't have the regulat vaccinations? When we went childcare-looking, we were told that not only did all childcare facilities have to allow parents to choose not to vaccinate, they weren't allowed to tell us if any had). My mother-in-law swears that my wife had measels but never had chicken pox. I am pretty sure this is not true because of my wife's age and the fact that she would have had to have gotten (Wow that is a contorted verb tense) waivered out of the normal vaccinations. My mother-in-law herself insists that she has neither had nor was vaccinated against chicken pox, which also seems unlikely given that she's a gradeschool teacher and that is ludicrously dangerous (also, her husband *has shingles right now*, so I find it unlikely she wouldn't have been infected if she didn't have an existing immunity), but claims to have had german measels. Her mother (wife's grandmother), in turn, I think claimed that my mother in law had smallpox (Patently untrue since she's got a vaccination scar) but not german measels. And everyone (except my wife) is 100% confident that it will all be fine and it is entirely safe for all of them to handle be baby no matter what they or he have been exposed to.

What I am saying is that I would not trust parents who are exchanging infectious material even to give their children the actual diseases they are trying to give them. And certainly not to confer any sort of actually useful immunity, since twenty years on, No one is going to be able to give their child a straight answer about which things they had.

What? Why would anyone think that this was a safe and reasonable thing to do? I mean...this is basically vaccination, but going out of your way to be unsafe about it. It's...well, I can't really think of a good term. Stupid, maybe.

It *is* stupid, but even a generation ago, it was standard practice to make your kid play with the neighbor's kid if one of them had chicken pox, and universal practice if one of your kids got sick to make the other children in the house try to get it from them. It was still common enough with chicken pox when I was a kid that it was something medical professionals had to warn parents to *not* do.

The alleged reason was always "If they don't get it as kids, they might get it as an adult and it will be far worse then," but I think it really boiled down to "As a parent, I find my child's illness inconvenient, and would rather have all of my children get it at once so that I never have to deal with it again"

I got a flu shot this year, because of the pending baby. I'd never gotten one before because it didn't seem worth the hassle, as I don't think I've ever actually had the flu. Certainly a few really bad colds, but never anything that was both flulike and patently incapacitating. I recall back during the H1N1 scare, my wife casually mentioned to one of her friends that she got a flu shot every year, and the friend's reaction was a flabberghasted "really?!?" as if the idea was *scandalous* (Said friend has a doctorate in a healthcare-adjacent field).

There are some people I know who are still clinging to the idea that vaccination per se is okay but "giving them too many at once" might cause "issues" and you should therefore "spread them out". I have tried pointing out that *specifically the combined MMR vaccine* is the thing that the original fraud was about, and I'm making headway, but slowly.

[sarah]

I exposed at least 300 kids to chicken pox when I got it, because I got it in the middle of Vacation Bible School. My little brother, however, trumps me: the day he came down with chicken pox, my parents had just taken him to the Children's Museum in the city.

@storiteller: Just general Victorian wear, but she had a little handout on Ada that she gave people when they asked who she was. (Props are too difficult to take on the trolley.

[Brin]

Ross: And certainly not to confer any sort of actually useful immunity, since twenty years on, No one is going to be able to give their child a straight answer about which things they had.

Except perhaps the bloodwork lab. I don't actually know if they have tests for all the diseases with vaccines available, but I wouldn't be surprised.

[MaryKaye]

I had chicken pox at 13 and would not wish it on anyone. I had pox inside and out, mouth lining, everywhere. I was so feverish that I had hallucinations and wandered through the house trying to find the radio that someone had left on; I also had hallucinations where I heard the pox muttering among themselves, which was terrifying.

It's true that my siblings, who were 10-12 years younger and caught it from me, were much less ill; but when there's a vaccination, for heaven's sake, why make a child suffer like that?

The one bright point in the whole experience was that when I noticed the first pox, I went to our basement library and looked it up in _Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care_ and went upstairs to tell my parents I had chicken pox. They were skeptical--until the next morning, when they had to listen to a lot of "I told you so." I was quite proud of this.

I am hoping that the postal inspectors nail these folks hard, since they are exposing innocent post workers to their idiocy.

It is quite true, by the way, that people don't know what diseases they have had nor what they have been immunized against. I worked on a large study of childhood diabetes that eventually concluded we could say nothing about co-occurrance of childhood disease and diabetes onset (for our data set, anyway) for exactly this reason. It's also the case that people don't know their genetic relatives past the first degree with much reliability: forensic efforts to identify remains generally rely on first-degree relative information only because nothing past that can be trusted. (Is Aunt Matilda really your aunt? Or is she an older cousin, an in-law, or a courtesy relative?) The diabetes study had a significant amount of non-paternity in its pedigrees, so even first-degree relatives are a bit iffy.

[Lonespark]

Sweet gods onna stick...
When my brother got measles, because 5% of vaccinated children do, he had a very. difficult. time. He was and is asthmatic, but he was an otherwise healthy kid with well-off parents and great medical care. And he was lucky, too. (Well, unlucky as far as vaccine effectiveness, but...)

[Lonespark]

Thanks TBAT! Y'all rock!

[Lonespark]

we were told that not only did all childcare facilities have to allow parents to choose not to vaccinate, they weren't allowed to tell us if any had

This...is one of those things I was happier not knowing. Happier, but more at risk, maybe.

[Fitcher's Bird]

Bit of a derail, but since posters in earlier threads were lamenting the lack of new Left Behind films I thought people might like to see this. Rejoice, for they shall return! Turbojesus has seen into your heart and rewarded you. Kirk Cameron, however, has not been so fortunate.

[MercuryBlue]

Oh holy FSM, SAVE US FROM ANTIVAXXER IDIOTS. More to the point, save their children.

[Ross]

@Fitcher's Bird: So... Kirk gets an early out and gets to avoid sullying himself further while looking down in scorn at what will surely be a career-destroying train-wreck of a film series?

It kinda sounds like Kirk got Direct-to-DVD-Raptured

[cyllan]

Anti-vaxxers hit a really big, candy-red, super-shiny button for me. On most topics, I can disengage and just walk away. I don't argue abortion online; I rarely touch tipping debates. Anti-vaxxers flip my switch from mild-sane-wellmannered me to frothing fury without passing any point in between. I don't try to engage or debate; I pass straight to flaming.

Or, more succinctly, what MercuryBlue said.

[Mmy]

@cyllan: Anti-vaxxers hit a really big, candy-red, super-shiny button for me.

So there I was having just taught a lecture on the politico/social impact of the bubonic plague and one of my students came up after class (she was actually in another department taking my class to fulfill some requirement) -- and announced to me that if all those people had just washed their hands there wouldn't have been a problem[1] and that everyone exaggerates the dangers of diseases and both her parents were MDs and neither one of them approved of vaccinations and she had been vaccinated for anything in her life and she would never vaccinate her
own children. It was after class and not part of the lecture but I remember almost saying out loud "then get the hell out of my classroom."

[1] Yes, sanitation would have helped but as I pointed out to my students there were a host of diseases around at that time that could be passed on in a variety of ways and could kill -- like measles.

[kisekileia]

The other issue with anti-vaxxers is that even if the completely discredited idea about vaccines causing autism were true, the idea that autism is a fate worse than possible death is really insulting to people on the autism spectrum. Most autistic people I have encountered are pro-vaccine, partly for exactly that reason (and partly because we tend to prize rationality).

Anti-vaxxers need to spend more time talking with their parents and grandparents. The anti-vaccine movement can exist now only because most parents of young children are (like me, at age 28) too young to have experienced the really dangerous vaccine-preventable diseases. Parents of my parents' generation, who had had measles themselves and knew polio survivors, mostly understood the importance of vaccines. People of my grandparents' generation, who lost peers to polio and the like, probably cannot have any serious doubt about it.

[Brin]

Parents of my parents' generation, who [...] knew polio survivors

Always feels a bit odd when people say that. I guess I'm unusual in having a living great-aunt in a wheelchair due to polio?

[Semperfiona]

I must be from your parents' generation...My father is a polio survivor.

[kisekileia]

Brin: Getting more unusual, yeah. I believe the polio vaccine came out around 1950, which was a few years before my parents were born. I'm not sure I've ever known a polio survivor.