This week in The Slacktiverse, January 29 2012

The Blogaround

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: Delicate Women, Territorial Men
The problem with Bella isn’t that she’s weak in comparison to vampire Edward and werewolf Jacob. Anyone would be weak in comparison with these legendary creatures of myth. No, the problem is that she’s weak in relation to most of the rest of us, and not in a “sensitive portrayal of a disability” way, but in a “panders to harmful female stereotypes” way. She falls over. She faints. She refuses to eat and gets light-headed and dizzy. Bella doesn’t need a protector because she’s constantly being targeted by angry vampires; she needs a protector because she persistently refuses to take care of herself.

Literata writes: "A small piece of good news is that I've had another poem published. It has been confirmed that my mother has cancer, and surgery will take place in February. We both continue to be deeply grateful for everyone's good wishes, thoughts, prayers, and candles; the support helps tremendously. Thank you all."

This week Laiima posted what I learned about myself from reading biographies.

This week, Storiteller revisited the subject of her experience raising composting worms and describes how to build your own worm composting bin in Vermiculture Made Cheap and Easy. As compost too often leads to fruit flies, she describes her Ultimate Fly Trap in Building a Better (Fruit) Fly Trap.

kisekileia writes :Matthew Paul Turner at www.matthewpaulturner.net has two posts up (MARK DRISCOLL’S CHURCH DISCIPLINE and MARK DRISCOLL’S ‘GOSPEL SHAME’) that expose some seriously spiritually abusive practices at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. (Trigger Warning: spiritual abuse, descriptions of arguably fundamentalist Christian thinking and behaviour, and sex-negativity) The comments include some people condoning spiritual abuse, but a lot of people opposing it as well.

Chris the Cynic writes: This week, I talked to Windows. I wrote a bit of exposition about monsters that doesn't have a story to go with it. I continued working my way through Deus Ex's training mission writing a post on things that didn't make it into final version, and then turning my attention to what did by looking at the character of Gunther Hermann and the mechanics of how guns work in the game. Finally I started a series of posts on the anime .hack//SIGN, with a general introductory post, and a post about what happens before the first word is spoken.

Michael Mock writes: This week at Mock Ramblings: on Monday I found myself radically overthinking yet another children's cartoon, so I asked if anyone could explain Bakugan to me. Tuesday contained nothing but sinus troubles an open thread on How To Recharge Your Creative Batteries and a link to a piece on How To Create A Wooden Sword For Your Kid. On Wednesday, (and still tired and cranky), I published a rebuttal to a post called "Too Smart To Have Children", and recommended an Austin, Texas band called The Heartless Bastards. Thursday's entry recounts my attempt to tell Firstborn a story by way of explaining the concept of Plot. Friday has been devoted entirely to religious humor: The New Priest, In Remembrance, and The Pope vs. The Rabbi.

Coleslaw writes: This week I wrote about Glimpse of Gaia, the Connecticut florist that delivered flowers to Jessica Ahlquist in Rhode Island when three local florists refused. A conference took my husband out of town, so I tagged along, saw the traveling exhibit DINOSAURS: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries, and even took some pictures. In "Some Things Are More Important Than Fear", I reposted a video of an extremist group attacking author Irshad Manji at a book signing. My fascination with Polyvore continues. I put together another outfit, but this one I can actually afford.

The former conservative blogger reports: This week I wrote about Newt Gingrich's disregard for poor children, a bad anti-Obama facebook joke, Rick Santorum's failure to deny the ignorant claims of his birther supporters, my thoughts on Mark Driscoll and William Tapley, 3rd Eagle of the Apocalypse.

Last week Sarah reported: In the past two weeks, I've posted on music and poetry and Yeats's "The Stolen Child". I also posted some bits of Martin Luther King's speeches on war and poverty.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Narnia: Playful Animals, Platonic Allies
We’re one chapter away from the end, and time for Aslan to gather the allies and join the battle. But I object to the conflation of “deformed” with “evil” and I am distressed that the “good” Giant in the Witch’s garden is good because of his family connections and not because he simply chose to be. Come explore classism and ableism in Narnia this week.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: Hunting Rapists, Condoning Rape Culture
Edward Cullen has lived his life as a rapist-hunting vigilante. He is uniquely poised to understand rapists, because of his telepathic talents. So why does he use the same techniques and tactics to abuse isolate, gaslight, and control Bella, and why does he condone his romantic rivals doing the same?

In case you missed this

A member of our community sent in a link to this article (When safe words are ignored) on problems with consent in the BDSM community (Trigger Warning: sexual assault, victim blaming with regard to sexual assault).newsletter.

A member of our community thought this article (A Point of View: Can religion tell us more than science?) was relevant to the ongoing discussion at The Slacktiverse.

Another member of our community writes: I saw this news item (Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence)(New Hampshire Republicans Propose Bills That Prevent Police From Protecting Domestic Abuse Victims), think it should be mentioned:
The New Hampshire GOP has proposed a bill that would forbid police from making domestic violence arrests unless they witness the abuse firsthand or have a warrant. A concurrent proposal would limit the authority of judges to order arrests for those violating domestic abuse restraining orders.

Friday, 27th January, was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yesterday was the day that Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops. Here are some links to stories and art from Holocaust survivors about the war. (Trigger Warning: genocide, anti-semitism, racism, etc):

the story of a boy who survived the Budapest ghetto.
David Olére was a Polish painter who painted his memories of Auschwitz.
This site has the stories of six survivors, from Belgium, Lithuania, and Poland.

And some of the less talked about victims of the Holocaust:

about the Porajmos
Heinz Heger, a gay survivor of the Holocaust writes of his life in the homosexual block in a concentration camp.
about the treatment of the disabled

Things you can do

Theologies of Immanence has a page that provides links to a number of environmental and pagan friendly charities.

--Co-authored by the Slacktiverse Community

---

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

Comments

[MercuryBlue]

warning, domestic violence, language:

The New Hampshire GOP has proposed a bill that would forbid police from making domestic violence arrests unless they witness the abuse firsthand or have a warrant. A concurrent proposal would limit the authority of judges to order arrests for those violating domestic abuse restraining orders.

What manner of fuckery is this? Also, nice to know New Hampshire values abuse victims.

[Brin]

Literata: It has been confirmed that my mother has cancer, and surgery will take place in February.

{{{Literata and family}}}

[Nick Kiddle]

TW: Ableism, ableist murders

From the last Holocaust link above: "Due to the prevailing values of the age, the authorities at Nuremberg could empathise with the notion of mercy killing."

Sadly, those values prevail to this day. Look at the sympathy parents get when they kill their severely disabled children. There's a wide streak of belief that beyond a certain level of disability people are better off just not existing.

[Spooked anon]

{{Literata and co.}}

To our loyal TBATs: Thank you so much for dealing with this weekend's fooferaw, and putting together this lovely post regardless.

[kisekileia]

About the domestic violence bill: what the FUCK? What is the point of that? It's as if they're deliberately trying to be evil.

[hapax]

@Nick Kiddle -- would you mind if I bolded the TW on your last comment?

I managed to not see it (my carelessness, not your fault) and was rather taken aback.

[Nick Kiddle]

No go ahead, and I'm sorry for not making it more prominent.

[kisekileia]

@Literata, I'm sorry to hear about your mom.

[AnaMardoll]

[tw: domestic violence]

This would appear to be some kind of update on the NH thing:

http://www.wmur.com/r/30295720/detail.html

CONCORD, N.H. -- Domestic violence advocates said they were relieved Wednesday when a House committee decided to kill a bill many said would weaken protections for victims.

Reilly said he sponsored the legislation at the request of Plymouth prosecutor Gabriel Nizetick, who said his original intent was completely lost in the wording of the bill.

"It was intended to protect victims of domestic violence," Nizetick said. "It was not intended to criminalize civil misconduct."

Nizetick said he was trying to bring regulations currently on the books in compliance with state law, saying recent amendments lumped civil disputes in with criminal infractions. He said that he in no way intended to strip away protections that restraining orders provided to victims of abuse.

So... they're not evil, just incompetent? Not sure whether to be relieved or MORE upset.

[kisekileia]

Yeah, that's bizarre. I have no idea how anyone could possibly think a bill like that would protect victims of domestic violence, unless the links I've seen haven't reported it accurately. I also have no idea where the prosecutor is getting the bit about criminalizing civil misconduct. It sounds like the people involved were very confused. I wonder how that prosecutor got into and through law school.

[AnaMardoll]

Yeah, IANAL, but it sounds all kinds of fishy.

I realize that adopting a blanket policy of "if you are an incompetent politician, you will be sacked" would have the side-effect of having people dig in their heels even MORE on stuff like this, so it's valuable to let them back away, but still... this guy sounds like an incompetent politician and should be sacked. IMHO.

[Ross]

@kisekileia: Best guess, it's something techincal which should have been obvious, like that the bill is something like "Instead of a class X crime with a dozen special exceptions spelled out in a dozen other laws, the crime is now just a straight-up class Y, and Y>X so this is making it a more serious crime." while ignoring that those special exceptions were all protecting the victim.

[truth is life]

Indeed, {{{Literata and family}}}. I hope the surgery is successful.

[Literata]

Thank you all so very much. Hugs are invaluable right now, and I return them all.

[AnaMardoll]

[tw: spiritual abuse]

Those Mars Hill posts (and the associated comments which are spoon-sucking) make me remember why I think USAmerican schools should include basic psychology and counseling courses as part of the curriculum. Those comments that were all "oh, no, the pastor wants him to write down all his sins so he can find behavioral patterns and counsel him." Nix. No. Wrong. Buzzer sound.

I'm hardly an expert; I only took 2 semesters of psychology and I've had all of 4 counselors, but I've always been told that counselors do NOT ask for lists of faults in writing because doctor/patient confidentiality is sacred. Lists from the person being counseled can be intercepted or stolen or misused by the counselor. Blackmail can ensue. The counselor may keep records in their own hand, of course, but that's another thing entirely from an "I, patient, certify that I have done the following..."

And most counselors counseling on sexual behavior would be far less interested in every little where/when/what detail and far more interested in how the patient felt -- the whys. The Mars Hill All Your Details Are Belong To Us scenario reflects NOT a counselor hoping to help someone overcome a difficult urge and instead reflect a pedant certain that if he doesn't wring EVERY SINGLE SIN out of the 'patient' then he's (and God, because he's God's earthly voice) being bamboozled. Ick.

This is one of many reasons why I wish basic counseling and psychology were included in USAmerican education, so that people would understand why the request from the Mars Hill pastor was absolutely inappropriate.

[AnaMardoll]

Another link. I'm not sure I understand all this, but people online are calling this bill "the Canadian SOPA" and apparently it seems all but inevitable that it will pass:

[tw: the link has a picture of a woman with tape on her mouth as a shorthand for 'silencing']

http://www.ccer.ca/canadian-copyright-reform/canadian-copyright-reform-back-with-vengeance/

[kisekileia]

@AnaMardoll: I don't remember running across that bit of information during my course work for my psych major (possibly because my university tended to lean towards theory rather than applications--we didn't really cover the details of how to provide counseling), but it's really interesting. However, (trigger warning: egregious spiritual abuse, authoritarianism, arguably fundamentalist Christianity, both in the rest of my comment and behind the link) if you look at the Mark Driscoll book chapter Matthew Paul Turner links in this post about Mars Hill's response to the situation, you'll find that Mars Hill doesn't even respect the right of confidentiality in its church discipline and "biblical counseling", and asks counselors to whom it refers to also fail to respect this right. I've gotten enough counselling to know that that is incredibly unethical.

[AnaMardoll]

[tw: counselor abuse]

@kisekileia, oh, ABSOLUTELY the Mars Hill counseling process is unethical. My thought was more along the lines that it was a shame that more people didn't have the tools to understand why the counseling process being observed/reported is unethical and non-standard. They seem to be giving MH the benefit of the doubt that counseling works that way, and I wish there was more education in place to clarify that no, it's not and shouldn't be.

Counselor abuse is something that I think is one of the big warning signs for cults, but it's something that people currently seem to have a hard time recognizing.