Friday Links (favorite ho-ho-ho edition)

December 23, 2016bloggingfriday, friday links, holidays, links, newsfontfolly

It’s Friday! It’s the day before the day before the night before Christmas! Or the fourth Friday in December if you don’t observe Christmas. I want to point out that I’m taoist, my husband is pagan, and our Christmas tree theme this year is Up In The Air, featuring all of our Star Trek and Star Wars ornaments, plus many different Santas and flying reindeer, pegasi from My Little Pony, birds of many kinds, Marvin the Martian in various space craft, and a big steampunk-ish zeppelin. So when I say Christmas I mean shiny lights, silly ornaments, presents, and time spend with friends.

Thursday was my last working day of the year. And as sometimes happens during these times, my department was up against a ridiculous deadline, so I worked very late. But I’m free for at least a while!

Anyway, here are links to stories I found interesting, sorted by category.

This week in Writing

Q & A with Peter Stampfel, Submissions Editor of DAW Books. “…As a rule, the unsolicited manuscripts tend to be of a higher quality, by-and-large, than the ones coming from agents.”

Five Archetypes That Can Steal the Hero’s Spotlight.

How to Not Waste Your Words: The Secret to Writing a Crappy but Usable First Draft.

First Idea, Best Idea?

You keep using “Write what you know”.

This week in Words

The Dictionary Folk at Merriam-Webster Sum Up 2016: Surreal.

This Week in History

The History You Know Is Wrong – our collective understanding of what happened during the so-called “July Crisis” of 1914 that started WWI is basically wrong.

This Week in Tech

Barnes & Noble’s New $50 Nook Tablet Ships with Bonus Malware. Not just any malware: “the most complete rootkit/malware/spyware packages on the planet”

We’re Getting Rid of Comments on VICE.com.

Culture War and Hate Crimes

Black Santa Claus Is A Hit At Mall Of America, But Faces An Online Backlash

Jewish family leaves Lancaster County in fear after being blamed for cancellation of Hempfield elementary Christmas play.

Sex Shop Owner Receives Threats After Putting “Dildo Nativity Scene” in Window.

Did Southern Baptist and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminaries Replicate a Hotel California at Heritage? Bible Chapel in Princeton, MA?

After One Woman’s Parents Voted for Donald Trump, She’s Holding Their Pastor Accountable.

Anti-LGBT activists are boycotting 58 different retailers for being gay-inclusive.

Texas Just Topped Itself With Pure Misogynistic, Transphobic Insanity.

This week in Difficult to Classify

LESBIAN TEENS ‘ARRESTED FOR KISSING’ ACQUITTED IN MOROCCAN COURT.

The movie that doesn’t exist and the Redditors who think it does.

This Week in Fighting Back in the Culture War:

The Most Useful Guide to Resisting Donald Trump: It’s the Tea Party playbook, minus the nooses.

This week in Politics:

Obama adds to historic number of federal prisoners granted clemency.

It’s official: Clinton swamps Trump in popular vote.

The Stolen Election: Hillary Clinton should be president; why isn’t she?

First Amendment Defense Act Would Be ‘Devastating’ for LGBTQ Americans.

This Week in Racists, White Nationalists, and the deplorables

Can American Fascism Be Stopped?

Trolling in the name of “free speech”: How Milo Yiannopoulos built an empire off violent harassment.

O’Reilly: Left wants ‘power taken away from the white establishment’. You can’t claim it isn’t racist while literally saying you are defending the white establishment.

GOP lawmaker’s Obamacare alternative: Make kids sleep on broken arms to avoid costly ER visits.

Trump’s Pick For OMB Director Has Vowed To ‘End Medicare As We Know It’.

Six Times Bill O’Reilly Defended The “White Establishment” Against “The Left”.

Trump denies Gingrich claim that he’s dropping ‘drain the swamp’.

Trump Insists He’ll ‘Drain the Swamp’ as Gingrich Walks Back ‘Boo Boo’.

This Week in Delusion

Catholic Exorcist: Here’s How I Know the Difference Between Mental Illness and Demon Possession.

Farewells:

Excerpt from an interview with Ms. Gabor. Don't believe the folks that say she was vapid and only famous for being famous (click to embiggen) — Excerpt from an interview with Ms. Gabor. Don’t believe the folks that say she was vapid and only famous for being famous (click to embiggen)

Zsa Zsa Gabor dead at 99 after reportedly suffering heart attack.

Things I wrote:

Weekend Update: gunman stopped without a gun and other news.

Everyone’s heard of Rudolph, everyone knows his story….

Yuletide, gay and otherwise.

It’s the most wonderful production number.

’Zat you, Santa Claus?

Videos!

Hand Jive Jingle, Christmas 2016, Gay Men’s Chorus San Diego:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Eartha Kitt – Santa Baby (1954):

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

The Little Drummer Boy – Pink Martini (a friend who used to detest this song told me that this won him over; and it’s a very different and fun version):

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Kay Thompson’s Jingle Bells – The Williams Brothers (a jazzy alternative):

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Sleigh Ride – Christmas Charity Single – Out of the Blue:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

’Zat you, Santa Claus?

December 22, 2016lifechristmas, lgbt, queer, santa, war on christmas, wingnutsfontfolly

What's wrong with a black Santa? — What’s wrong with a black Santa?

Once again, some butt-hurt white guys are calling for a boycott and otherwise losing their minds because someone has hired an African-American man to play Santa at a mall. I could re-iterate the fact that the historical Saint Nicholas wasn’t a white guy. Or I could go on a rant about people who claim that queers, women, and people of color are the ones who are too sensitive being the ones getting up in arms, but I’d rather talk about Santa.

The real Santa.

I’ve made an extensive study of the topic. Part of this is because for more than 20 years I’ve been writing at least one new Ghost Story to read at our Holiday party. And I’m the sort of obsessive writer who has to run down every rabbit hole of information even slightly related to any project I’m working on. So if you want to get an earful of information on St. Nicholas, various countries’ folklore surrounding Father Christmas, Sinterklaas, Ded Moroz/Grandfather Frost, Pere Noel, La Befana, Tomte, the Hogfather, or all 13 of the Jolasveinar, I’m your guy.

And then there are the companions or anti-Clauses: Krampus, La Pere Fouettard, and Black Peter. And allied mythical creatures such as Julesvenn, Julenisse, and Santa’s elves.

But all of those things are simply the means by which people have sought to encode into folklore the truth about Santa Claus. Fortunately, a version of the truth is being shared around and turned up on my Tumblr feed this week, so rather than paraphrase that, I’m just going to quote Charity Hutchinson:

In our family, we have a special way of transitioning the kids from receiving from Santa, to becoming a Santa. This way, the Santa construct is not a lie that gets discovered, but an unfolding series of good deeds and Christmas spirit.

When they are 6 or 7, whenever you see that dawning suspicion that Santa may not be a material being, that means the child is ready.

I take them out “for coffee” at the local wherever. We get a booth, order our drinks, and the following pronouncement is made:

“You sure have grown an awful lot this year. Not only are you taller, but I can see that your heart has grown, too. [ Point out 2-3 examples of empathetic behavior, consideration of people’s feelings, good deeds etc, the kid has done in the past year]. In fact, your heart has grown so much that I think you are ready to become a Santa Claus.

You probably have noticed that most of the Santas you see are people dressed up like him. Some of your friends might have even told you that there is no Santa. A lot of children think that, because they aren’t ready to BE a Santa yet, but YOU ARE. Tell me the best things about Santa. What does Santa get for all of his trouble? [lead the kid from “cookies” to the good feeling of having done something for someone else]. Well, now YOU are ready to do your first job as a Santa!”

Make sure you maintain the proper conspiratorial tone.

We then have the child choose someone they know–a neighbor, usually. The child’s mission is to secretly, deviously, find out something that the person needs, and then provide it, wrap it, deliver it–and never reveal to the target where it came from. Being a Santa isn’t about getting credit, you see. It’s unselfish giving.

My oldest chose the “witch lady” on the corner. She really was horrible–had a fence around the house and would never let the kids go in and get a stray ball or Frisbee. She’d yell at them to play quieter, etc–a real pill. He noticed when we drove to school that she came out every morning to get her paper in bare feet, so he decided she needed slippers. So then he had to go spy and decide how big her feet were. He hid in the bushes one Saturday, and decided she was a medium. We went to Kmart and bought warm slippers. He wrapped them up, and tagged it “merry Christmas from Santa.” After dinner one evening, he slipped down to her house, and slid the package under her driveway gate. The next morning, we watched her waddle out to get the paper, pick up the present, and go inside. My son was all excited, and couldn’t wait to see what would happen next. The next morning, as we drove off, there she was, out getting her paper–wearing the slippers. He was ecstatic. I had to remind him that NO ONE could ever know what he did, or he wouldn’t be a Santa.

Over the years, he chose a good number of targets, always coming up with a unique present just for them. One year, he polished up his bike, put a new seat on it, and gave it to one of our friend’s daughters. These people were and are very poor. We did ask the dad if it was ok. The look on her face, when she saw the bike on the patio with a big bow on it, was almost as good as the look on my son’s face.

When it came time for Son #2 to join the ranks, my oldest came along, and helped with the induction speech. They are both excellent gifters, by the way, and never felt that they had been lied to–because they were let in on the Secret of Being a Santa.

So, yeah, Santa is sometimes black, sometimes asian, sometimes young, sometimes old, sometimes a man, sometimes a woman, sometimes genderfluid. Santa is sometimes pagan, sometimes Buddhist, sometimes atheist, sometimes Jewish. When I’m fulfilling the duties of Santa, then you better believe that Santa Claus is as queer as a clutchpurse full of canaries.

Some people think that nothing can exist that is not comprehensible to their little minds (to quote the late Francis Pharcellus Church in his famous New York Sun editorial responding to a question from a little girl named Virginia). They think admitting those things exist somehow takes something away from them. That somehow kindness shown to some people must always cost someone else. And that’s just wrong. Any heart where love, generosity, and kindness abounds is the heart of Santa. And when you share kindness, you don’t lose it, you gain more.

And that’s the only thing that matters.

It’s the most wonderful production number

December 21, 2016lifechristmas, Christmas music, lgbt, Memory, personal, queer, televisionfontfolly

To get this on vinyl when it was released in 1965, you had to purchase it at either a tire store or a gas station.

My childhood Christmases were propelled by an eclectic soundtrack of vinyl albums. Dad would have probably been fine with Elvis’ Christmas album, Johnny Cash’s The Christmas Spirit, and The Dean Martin Christmas Album. Mom had much more wide-ranging tastes, so gospel albums of Christmas hymns sat on the shelf next to Christmas albums by Loretta Lynn, the Chipmunks, Brenda Lee, Glenn Campbell, or the Philidelphia Orchestra. There were lots of compilations, such as the 1965 Goodyear’s Great Songs of Christmas (there’s a whole blog devoted to these albums which could only be purchased in tire stores Or at gas stations) or one of the Firestone Your Christmas Favorites albums, and then there were the (usually all instrumental) albums where none of the musicians were identified.

William's first Christmas album was released in 1963. He released four more over the next three decades. — William’s first Christmas album was released in 1963. He released four more over the next three decades.

Among my favorites were two different Andy Williams’ Christmas albums. For the longest time I thought the older album with the red cover had been recorded in the 1950s, because I couldn’t remember a time when it wasn’t in the family collection of records. But also because I couldn’t remember a Christmas where we hadn’t watched Andy Williams and the Williams Brothers (and other guests) perform christmas music along with comedic sketches a couple of weeks or so before the holiday itself.

I don’t think I realized that Williams was the host of a weekly musical variety show until he changed networks in the late sixties. As far as I know, our family never watched his show except for the one Christmas-themed episode each year. There were a lot of variety shows on network TV back then, and there were several that we watched faithfully every week. I’m not sure why Andy’s wasn’t one.

And the Andy Williams Christmas shows were hardly the only Christmas-themed specials and musical programs we watched every year. I know I loved watching all of them. When I was about 10 or so one of my cousins went on a bit of a rant of what a freak I was because I liked watching specials—why would anyone want to watch people sing, for instance? But I realize the Andy William’s specials stuck out in my head precisely because we had the albums, which included some of his own original songs (“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and “A Song and the Christmas Tree”), so I could listen to them until I’d learned the lyrics, but also learned a lot of the harmony and counter-melodies and other vocal flourishes. So when those particular production numbers came up on screen, I could follow along.

I understand, now, why the cousin (and other relatives) thought I was a freak. I was the kind of boy who danced and sang along with the big theatrical production numbers in movies and on variety shows. I thought nothing of behaving that way in front of the family television. Which was quite entertaining for my adult relatives when I was a cute four-year-old, but much more disturbing as I got older.

When I got my own record player so I could listen to music in my bedroom, the Christmas season was when I’d close the door and imagine that I was the star of my own musical variety show, with the elaborate sets and costumes and the large groups of dancers and singers backing me up. I was worse than that. With careful use of a portable cassette recorder, the big stereo in the living room (when I was home alone), and some of those studio musician instrumental-only Christmas albums, I recorded my own Christmas shows. Not just me singing along with the instrumental albums, but then playing that recording over the stereo then with the recorder and a second (and third, and sometimes fourth) tape, recording myself singing the harmony parts along with myself.

Freak might have been putting it mildly.

I watched Williams’ faithfully into my teens. Even the really disastrously bad one that involved the cast (along with special guests Captain Kangaroo and Gomez Addams) are transported to Rock Land and Doll Land and I don’t remember where all else in a strange attempt at an original Christmas fable that made no sense…

When Williams’ weekly series ended, he signed a deal with the network to produce three or four seasonal specials a year, and one of those each year was a Christmas special.

Williams’ work weren’t the only Christmas albums I sang along with. And they aren’t the only old albums of that vintage that I’ve since tracked down and added to the insane amount of Christmas music that resides on my computers and phone. But even now when I find newer recordings by modern singers and bands that I like, I find myself imagining those songs performed on a stage in the style of one of the Williams’ Christmas episodes, with the costumes, sets, fake snow, and multi-camera coverage.

And sometimes, especially if I’m listening during the long walk home each night from the office, you may still catch me at least doing jazz hands while I sing along. Might as well make a production out if it, right?

Yuletide, gay and otherwise

December 20, 2016lifechristmas, lgbt, queer, war on christmas, wingnutsfontfolly

© the late, great Bob Mizer (Click to embiggen)

I wrote a few blog posts before Thanksgiving about the reasons we were both feeling less than enthusiastic about spending the holiday with my family. As I mentioned in the Friday Links post after, we got through the day without any disasters. It helped an awful lot that one of my nieces is a new mother and her kid is at the toddling around being cute but can’t talk yet stage. She was a great distraction. There was a teensy bit of a close call. One of the relatives that I recently had to block on Facebook because of all the homophobia who wasn’t supposed to be at Mom’s for the holiday, had her plans fall through, and was texting Mom about coming over… but it was literally while we were in the middle of loading our car up to head back to Seattle, so we dodged that one.

We are staying at home for Christmas. Mom has been talking about a facetime call, but that’s a lot less grueling than being in the actual room with folks who cheerfully try to claim that they aren’t homophobic because they love me despite my lifestyle and that I’m clearly going to hell and that allowing us to get married is going to destroy the world.

For many years what we did was alternate which holiday we spent at Mom’s, while staying home for the other. When Mom was still working (she worked in retail for decades), which holiday she didn’t have to work dictated which one we came down for. Now that we no longer have that issue, we’ve tended to stick with Thanksgiving there and Christmas at home. One reason I do that is because, well, there’s a lot less god-talk on Thanksgiving.

Despite the fact that I can still recite from memory the entirety of the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, and can sing “O, Holy Night” in three languages, and love to sing along to Christmas hymns such as “Angels We Have Heard On High,” I don’t look at Christmas the way my Bible-thumping relatives do. I’m taoist, now, and Christmas is the season of twinkling lights and mistletoe and brightly wrapped presents and eggnog and ginger cookies and times laughing with friends. My husband is pagan, and has an even lower tolerance for the “baby Jesus stuff” than I do. I expend a bit of effort crafting Christmas music playlists that don’t contain any of the religious music to play around him. I still listen to the hymns and such, I just use headphones or listen when he’s not around.

So what is our Queer Christmas like? How does a gay taoist and his pagan bisexual husband celebrate yuletide? We put up a tree every year. We usually have a theme. This year’s is Up In the Air, built around a tin zeppelin toy my hubby got last year. So the tree has all my Star Trek ornaments and all his Star Wars ornaments, and a bunch of or My Little Pony pegasus figures, plus birds and flying reindeer and several Santas, my Marvin the Martin ornaments, lots of moons and stars. One plastic flying Santa sleigh & reindeer was a table decoration that belonged to my great-grandmother. There are also three glass ball ornaments (one pink, one lime green, and one red) with glitter that also belonged to that grandmother. They go onto the tree somewhere every year no matter what the theme is.

I make two wreaths every year. One goes on the inside of the front door, and one on the outside. We have lights that go in the windows. I have too many lights, so I have to decide which ones to put up each year. We also have some lights for the shrubbery outside, and some cheesy decorations that go on the lawn. We sometimes wear Santa hats at social gatherings during the season. We send presents (and some years Christmas cards) to friends and relatives.

We own a lot of Christmas movies and Christmas specials. I watch some of them during the weeks leading up to the holiday. I could do a multi-day marathon of just my adaptations of A Christmas Carol. And I may very well have done exactly that at least once. We frequently watch a bunch together on Christmas Eve.

Every year we host or co-host a holiday get-together with a particular set of friends. The annual party includes the Ghost Story Challenge: I pledge to have an original Christmas Ghost Story to read each year, and challenge other people to bring a story, or sing a song, or otherwise share something with the group. There’s a lot of food, a lot of laughter, and there’s a gift exchange.

On Christmas morning we check our stockings to see what Santa brought. We open presents from family members and each other. We spend the day either watching more Christmas movies, or playing with our new toys, and making dinner. We have this bad habit of making way too much food for just the two of us, but we each have some traditional dishes we like to have, and we also like to experiment with new foods. At least we always have leftovers!

In other words, our celebration of this mid-winter holiday probably sounds an awful lot like everyone else’s. We don’t have drunken orgies. We don’t decorate our Christmas tree with sex toys. We don’t perform weird anti-Christian rituals. We don’t call for the oppression of our more overtly religious relatives or neighbors. We both say “Merry Christmas” at least as often as we say “Happy Holidays!”

We’re not making war on Christmas. We’re not trying to ruin anyone else’s holiday.

So why are anti-gay groups posting pictures of the White House lit up in rainbow lights from a couple of years ago with captions saying, “Trump should project Merry Christmas on the White House! That will show them!”

Show us what? That their ability to make false equivalencies knows no bounds? That they think being asked to treat people who believe differently than them with respect is oppression? We’ve known that for a long, long time.

We’re not the ones disrespecting the message of the Prince of Peace, who told his followers to love their neighbors as themselves, to love their enemies, bless those that curse the, and do good to those that hate them. In that way, our queer Christmas is a lot closer to the message of Christ than anything they’re doing.

Everyone’s heard of Rudolph, everyone knows his story…

December 19, 2016lifechristmas, Christmas music, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeerfontfolly

After mining every other obscure character for a Christmas special, of course Rankin and Bass would try to milk some more by having Frosty and Rudolph team-up in 1979. But who thought “Christmas in July” was a great title?

Several years ago a friend and I got into a conversation about Christmas song characters. Specifically, the many unsuccessful attempts songwriters and singers have made over the years to duplicate the success of the songs “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman” (and to a lesser extent “The Little Drummer Boy”). Examples I can think of were “Chrissy the Christmas Mouse,” “Thistlebear the Christmas Bear,” “The Little Blue Bell,” “Percival and Chauncy,” and “Dominik the Donkey.” He had some others on his list that I’d never heard of. I think he went so far as to track down more to put together a mix CD that he handed out to a bunch of us the next Christmas.

We both agreed that Maria and the little bird from “The Gift” (this is the song that ends with the line, “As her offering was lifted to heaven
By the very first nightingale’s song”) or the poor little boy in “The Christmas Shoes” don’t fall into this category. I even argued that the Little Drummer Boy shouldn’t be included. Frosty and Rudolph are anthropomophized—non-human characters given human-like traits, or at least a human-like story line. Whereas the bird in “The Gift” never does anything that a real bird wouldn’t do.

And characters that were originally created in other media who happen to have subsequently been given a song when someone decided to try to make a television special or direct-to-video show about the character shouldn’t count, either. So as wonderful as The Grinch is (and how could he not be, having been created by Dr. Seuss?), he shouldn’t be offered as an example of a Rudolph competitor. And while Jack Frost appears in a couple of songs, (“Jack Frost nipping at your nose,” and “Little Jack Frost Get Lost”) he first was mentioned in poems back in the late 1700s, and often as simply an allusion to the cold rather than a full-blown personification.

Once you listen these other songs, it’s not much of a surprise why they’ve never caught on. For instance, “Chrissy the Christmas Mouse” has no story. I mean, “Frosty the Snowman” doesn’t have much of a plot, but compared to Chrissy, it’s practically Crime and Punishment! Chrissy is a mouse, who lives in Santa’s house, and she wants to go with Santa on Christmas Eve. So Santa asks Mrs. Claus if Chrissy has done her chores, and Mrs. Clause says “yes,” and Chrissy goes.

“The Little Blue Bell” has a plot, sort of. There’s this little blue bell in a church steeple, right? Except the little blue bell can’t ring. No matter what, it’s silent. How can it be a bell if it can’t ring? And why is it still up in the steeple if it is broken? So the song tells us over the course of three verses, that the blue bell is sad up in that steeple every Christmas Eve because it can’t ring. If I were a bell that couldn’t ring, it would seem to be that it would bother me more than just one night a year, right? Anyway, in the final verse, an angel appears and tells the bell it’s there to dry its tears. And then the angel does some angel-y magic, and transforms the bell into pure gold, and now the bell can ring. And the bell is so proud! And that’s the song.

So apparently the reason the bell couldn’t ring was because blue metal is somehow silent? What’s the moral? Suffer long enough but otherwise do nothing and an angel might come and transform you into a different race or whatever (what else is the blue can’t ring, but gold rings beautifully supposed to be a metaphor of?)? It’s just weird.

Not that Rudolph is much better. As I pointed out last week, it can persuasively be argued that Rudolph’s moral is that nonconformity will be punished until it can be exploited. Not exactly uplifting.

Of course, if you think too hard about the story line of just about any song out there it can be pretty crazy making.

So maybe I should stick to characters like Scrooge and leave the songs to songwriters.

Weekend Update: gunman stopped without a gun and other news

December 17, 2016newsnews, updatefontfolly

John Oliver and the Cookie Monster presenting news on "Last Week Tonight." — John Oliver and the Cookie Monster presenting news on “Last Week Tonight.”

Sometimes a story comes along after I posted Friday Links that I really, really, really wish I’d learned about a few hours early so I could share. Today I’ve got one that will give you a much needed laugh: SEX TOYS USED TO HELP CHASE OFF ARMED ROBBER AT SAN BERNARDINO SHOP. Go, watch the video! It’s hilarious and will make you feel good.

My favorite parts, from the security video: The moment the woman behind the register sees the gun, she starts angrily shouting at him. We can’t hear what she’s saying, because the security video has no sound, but look at her pound that counter! She is not taking this guy’s nonsense! Next! Next the other woman working in the shop saunters into the frame with her hands on her hips. I know that pose! She’s not panicking about that gun. That body language is all, “I do not have to put up with this!” The dildos don’t happen until he reaches across the counter to grab the woman, some how having no already discerned from their reactions that he is not intimidating them at all.

It’s only then that the second woman start’s thowing the dildos right at his head. And hitting!

But my favorite is some that’s in the news footage but no one comments on. This crime occurred at a quarter to ten on Wednesday night, right? Notice the sign on the door of the store: “Cashless Store After Dark. Credit, Debit, and Checks Only.” That should tell the robber that all the cash from the cash register has been put in a safe around sundown. By 9:45pm there is no cash in that register for them to give him.

Of course, what do you expect from a robber who isn’t paying enough attention to notice security camera outside the store, and puts his face mask on right in front of one? That isn’t a very high resolution pic of his face they got, but they did get it.

There’s also more serious stuff that we probably should be more worried about: China ‘seizes US underwater drone’ in S China Sea, China accuses US of ‘hyping-up’ seizure of underwater drone. If we’re going to be worrying about what China’s doing in international waters, we probably should be paying attention to things like South China Sea: Satellite images appear to show weapons systems on artificial islands, which the U.S. and other governments have been protesting for some time. But I’m a bit more concerned that Orange Julius Ceasar, a man who claims he’s so smart he doesn’t need intelligence briefings, is not only too dumb to spell unprecedented, but also thinks that sending angry tweets in the middle of the night to a country that has nuclear weapons is the proper way to conduct diplomacy: US President-elect Donald Trump misspells ‘unprecedented’ in a tweet on China, Twitter roars.

Meanwhile, Voting Rights Roundup: North Carolina Republicans execute legislative coup against democracy itself. Yep, North Carolina voters ousted anti-gay, anti-queer, anti-civil-civil-rights-for-anyone-he-pleases, as well as some of the more extreme members of the legislature, and what do they do? Hold a special session behind closed doors, pass a bunch of laws taking away the newly elected governor’s powers, have capitol police arrest protesting citizens and reports at the capitol, and get the outgoing governor to sigh these acts (that well may be unconstitutional) before the terms end. Lame duck politicians always try to rush things through before a change in administration, but usually never anything that is so blatantly not just an attack of the will of the voters, but an attack on the idea of voting itself (among the laws are changes to the election system in the state).

A lot of people are justifiably upset to the extent that it’s being revealed that Russia played in out recent national elections. But U.S. Republicans at both the state and federal level have been working diligently for years to purge voter rolls of voters likely not to vote for them, taking power away from elected officials, municipalities, and so forth when voters make choices they don’t like, and so forth. It’s not merely that the Republicans have been waging a war on queers, women, and people of color for years, but they’ve also been waging a war on our system of government itself.

But what else do we expect from a party that keeps equating having to treat other people with respect as being oppressed?

Friday Links (it’s black and white edition)

December 16, 2016bloggingfriday, friday links, links, newsfontfolly

How can we tell...? BettyBowers.Com — How can we tell…? BettyBowers.Com

It’s the third Friday in December. And tomorrow is the third Saturday, which means that we’ll be hosting the annual Holiday Party and Ghost Story Challenge. Yay!

I, along with several co-workers, came down sick this week. I’ve seen on various social media a number of friends and acquaintances have as well. I guess it is that time of year.

Anyway, here are links to stories I found interesting, sorted by category.

Links of the Week

Farewell, America: No matter how the rest of the world looked at us on Nov. 7, they will now look at us differently.

Illuminating reindeer hat for this German Sheperd.

Some Garbage I Used To Believe About Equality.

This Week in Restoring Our Faith in Humanity

MAN ACCUSED OF PUNCHING TRUMP PROTESTER APOLOGIZES IN FAYETTEVILLE COURT.

This week in white privilege

HOW DO I EXPLAIN THE ELECTION RESULTS TO MY SON WHEN HE’S SO PRIVILEGED THAT THEY WON’T HAVE EVEN THE SLIGHTEST IMPACT ON HIS LIFE?

This Week in Difficult to Classify

Europeans greatly overestimate Muslim population, poll shows. It’s not just Europeans…

One Seattle Murder, Two Devastated Families, and a Question: What Constitutes Justice?

Read This Letter from the Murdered Man’s Brother to the Court. No, really. You won’t regret it.

This week in awful news

Vancouver men who started wildfire ordered to pay state $2.3 million. “Court documents say the fire started July 19, 2015 after Taylor, his brother Adrian Taylor and Michael Estrada Cardenas used propane tanks and soda cans for target practice near Woodland…”

After Meeting With Trump, Bill Gates Proves That He Can’t Be Trusted to Fight Climate Change.

This week in awful people

Alabama Prosecutor Sets the Penalties and Fills the Coffer.

News for queers and our allies:

Orlando shooting victims remembered on six-month anniversary.

Non-gendered pronouns are progress for trans and non-trans people alike.

Pittsburgh Mayor To Sign Conversion Therapy Ban For Minors.

Science!

DNA evidence helps free a service dog from death row.

Did ‘dark stars’ help form the Universe?

Arctic heating up at twice as fast as rest of globe.

Why don’t humans have a penis bone? Scientists may now know.

It’s Not an Impossible Fish Tank, It’s Just Physics.

Viruses have evolved to be more deadly for men than women, study suggests.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Boron Under Ancient Martian Lakebed.

Cosmic Bling: Jupiter Sports Stormy ‘Pearl’ in New Juno Photo.

Mount St. Helens shakes 120 times within a week as volcano recharges, scientists say.

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

‘Sense8: A Christmas Special’ Is Coming to Netflix.

“When I read a story, I skip the explanations”. I have some quibbles. I should probably write a blog post.

GUEST POST: THREE SHORT STORIES BY FRENCH WOMEN SF WRITERS PRE-1969: “THE DEVIL’S GODDAUGHTER” (1960), SUZANNE MALAVAL, “MOON-FISHERS” (1959), NATHALIE HENNEBERG, “THE CHAIN OF LOVE” (1955), CATHERINE CLIFF.

GUEST POST: TWO SPECULATIVE FICTIONS FROM THE 1890S: “THE YELLOW WALLPAPER” (1892), CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, “THE LITTLE ROOM”(1895), MADELINE YALE WYNNE.

Let Us Now Praise “Famous” Authors.

Corie Weaver: Mad scientist should be an equal opportunity career.

Complaint About Term “Neo-Nazi” Results in Foz Meadows Post Moving from Black Gate to Amazing Stories.

Jim C. Hines: Fundraiser for Transgender Michigan. An auction a day of very interesting sf/f stuff!

SF History: Harlan Ellison stands up to a bullying Frank Sinatra.