I made this from a bad video capture off youtube plus photoshopping to look like an inspirational bumper sticker. It probably helps to have seen the movie Ju-on 2. If you can handle horror, it’s a terribly spooky good time. The ending is mean-spirited to the point of hilarity.
Image from Ju-on 2 of ghost boy Toshio taking the wheel.
The other week I took my cat to the vet. The vet is in the same parking lot as the local Planned Parenthood. In that building there was an alarm going off, some kind of smoke, people standing outside. I wasn’t able to find out what was going on, but it’s a safe guess. Jesus terrorists can fuck off.
Yesterday I took my cat back, but this time had to take a cab. At the vet some people had a large cage which took two to carry. Inside were a dozen pit bull puppies. They didn’t look like bodies for the fight ring – they were clean and no doubt there to get vaccinations and such. But there is not enough dog love in this country to take care of the dogs we have, and the thought of a dozen more pit bulls just bummed my shit out.
On the way back in the taxi, the dude driving switched from his culture’s music to some American pop station. It was playing a Meghan Trainor song. I might not have recognized the Eastern music influence if not for the juxtaposition there in the cab. Still, it was definitely there. Some vocal flourishes and other elements intentionally evoking Bollywood styles. Then the song reached a place in the chorus where she said something about being “untouchable” and dwelled on it for too many seconds.
Now is it just me, or is that hella tacky and fucked up? Taking a serious cultural issue from another country and reducing it to a hook in your song about being independent women or whatever. He wasn’t bothered, but then, he might not understand the lyrics at all. Anyway. Things are things.
This image is an homage to chickensnack comix‘s famous dog, redrawn by me to fit the theme.
In honor of an esteemed tumblr meme, I like to keep Tuesdays positive. Today I had some thoughts and observations that felt deep, but they are related to problems. So, have a video of amusing outtakes from a David Attenborough BBC nature show, plus a description of the video that is worthy of reading, whether you hit play or not:
Tumblr user sententiola added a transcript for accessibility purposes, and it was brilliant:
[Video of venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough standing amid vegetation. On a near-horizontal branch above his head is a brown and yellow greater bird of paradise, about the size of a crow, with big floaty yellow plumage puffing out along its back.]
Bird: Pwuk. Pwuk.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: This, surely –
Bird (hopping along the branch): WUKWUKWUkwukwukwukoooh. Oooh. Oooh.[Cut. Same shot.]
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: This, surely, is one –
Bird: Kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark kark.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: This, surely –[Cut. Same shot but the bird is on the other side now and venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough has his hand on the branch.]
Bird (hopping up and down on venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough’s fingers): Eh-eh. Eh-eh. Eh-urrrr. Eh-urrrr.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: Close up –
Bird (hopping away from him): Tiktiktiktik. Tiktiktiktik.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – the plumes –
Bird (hopping around): Huek.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – are truly –
Bird: Huek.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – exquisite.
Bird: Huek. Eh-eh.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: The gauzy –
Bird (hopping and spinning on the spot): HukWUKWUKWukwukoooh. Oooh.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: …[Cut. Same shot but the bird is back on the original side of the branch.]
Bird: Aark.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: Of course, by the eighteenth century –
Bird: Ehhh.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – naturalists realized that birds of paradise –
Bird (hops across to the other side of the branch)
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – did have –
Bird (hopping back again): Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – legs. Even so –
Bird: WUKWUKWUKWukwukwukooh.[Cut. Same shot.]
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough (apparently trying to tickle the bird’s tummy): – by about the eighteenth century –
Bird (hops away and spins round)
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – and so –
Bird: AAAAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK AAAK aaak.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough (wearily): … Very well.[Cut. Same shot.]
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – but Karl Linnaeus, the great –
Bird (vibrating rapidly on the spot and then flapping its wings): PWAAAAAAAK.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – classifier of the natural world –
Bird: AAAAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAAUUUH AAUUH.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – when he came to allocate a scientific name –
Bird: …
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – to this bird –
Bird: …
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – called it –
Bird: Wooo-ooo.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – wooo-ooo –
Bird (surveys the surroundings with a dignified turn of the head)
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: ‘paradisia apoda’: the bird of paradise –
Bird: Hoooo.
Venerable TV naturalist David Attenborough: – without legs.
Bird: Eh-eh.[Close-up of the bird.]
Bird: WUKWUKWUKWUkwukwukwukwukoooh. Ooh.
Bird: Ooh.[Fade to black.]
Good job, sir. We salute you. And thanks to the Beeb for the video.
This image is an homage to chickensnack comix‘s famous dog, redrawn by me to fit the theme.
In honor of an esteemed tumblr meme, I like to keep Tuesdays positive. Once again, I’m at a loss for doing anything original, so here is an image set of Berenice the Cat and Lucy the Dog, photographs owned by Diana Hafemann. Said the caption on tumblr, “They are the best of best friends and they are always together.” Also, with those names, it’s safe to assume their owner is a gothtacular nerd. That’s a good thing.
Lucy and Berenice ©Diana Hafemann
I wrote this in frustration on my social justice tumblr, in regards to the spate of transphobic “bathroom laws”:
has no one reported on why these transphobic laws are all coming at the same time? it’s obvious there’s an organized effort behind it, either in the inner circle of the repugnican party, or in some kind of think tank that all the dominionist theocrats are taking their marching orders from. this is important information, this is an obvious question to ask. i can’t be the only person thinking of this.
BAM! Thank you CBS! (And thanks to commenter kestrel over at New Frontier.) It’s “Liberty Counsel,” who are listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. So if you feel overwhelmed by the outpouring of transphobic hatred coming from over a dozen states at the same time, if it feels like the all this hate and horror is growing naturally out of who we are as a culture, remember:
This was specifically planned, organized, and executed by one group of motherfuckers. It couldn’t have happened without the transphobia of our culture, but it isn’t a spontaneous natural occurrence. It’s an active campaign by the cisheterofascist lawyer equivalent of the KKK. Spread the word. This, by the way, is the head bastard of the team. You can find a picture of his horrible ass comforting tearful bigot Kim Davis on the CBS article.
Mathew Staver is a shit-eating bigot.
EDIT to add, Affinity had the news up before I did. Check that thread out for discussion on the topic.
I was pretty productive at first and tapered off a lot in the last few weeks, but I’m not the type to disappear on a thing. I’m not even declaring a hiatus, just slower output for the moment. I have some other business to attend to lately. I’ll be back like Arnold – over the hill, unasked for, and universally panned.
An African muslim once told me that islam* is the same everywhere. Not sure how our relatively genial conversation ended up there, but I was suggesting that there are probably different practices and interpretations of the faith from Madagascar to Indonesia. Not so much, he said. Islam is the same everywhere.
[Read more…]
i log into the tumblr
i oppress the cis
—officialcisally (lotta dead links in this post, i edit from 2024, leaving them be)
It’s International Down With Cis Day, suggested by tumblr user queernightmare to commemorate the birth of a meme. On this day last year, a creepy transphobe with the handle “foreverhonest” posted a patently false story of being assaulted by trans people. Behold the majesty:
Here’s a thing that happened to one of my friends. I was there.
Basically, we were walking down the sidewalk, talking about something meaningless. I think it had to do with a movie. Then this bus screeches up, stops next to us, and a bunch of people with “Down with Cis” shirts climbed out and started beating him up. I was punched and kicked a bit too, but I managed to avoid brutalization by going for their faces. After figuring out what’s happening, I started attacking them back, getting them off of him. He was quite injured but I called 911 and he made a full recovery at the hospital. I was fine, with only a cut on my arm that they patched up.
It had to be a joke, right? If so, it went over the heads of people looking for reasons to hate trans folks. Tumblr user chandra-nalaar compiled “some highlights from all the people who believed the ‘down with cis’ post.” Follow that link at your own peril. Well, clearly FH didn’t expect anyone to believe that, right? Their post history (not linking to it) shows they are in fact an open transphobe, so what did they mean to achieve if it was a joke? The clear aim is to spread transphobia. Perhaps the laughably obvious lies from someone going by “foreverhonest” were meant to establish plausible deniability.
It doesn’t matter because it quickly became a meme. Before that cisgender man, no one had ever uttered the grammatically bizarre phrase “Down With Cis.” Now, it has been reclaimed by trans people and their allies, adding to the legend. Some write improbable stories of their own patterned after his, others use the phrase and variations as a cheeky rallying cry of the oppressed or just to indulge in cathartic silliness. (warning for flashing animated gif on last link)
Why all the hubbub, bub? You may find yourself wondering, might not even be familiar with the terms in play. Let me see if I can break it down to the basics:
And so, without giving any thanks to the creep that unintentionally started all of this, let us celebrate International Down With Cis Day. If you’re transgender, nonbinary, genderfluid, whatever, grab a t-shirt and get on the bus. If you’re cisgender and leave a rainbow cake on your stoop at midnight while singing hosannas to Laverne Cox, the bus will pass you by. The rest of you? Down with cis!
Guest post by The Beast from Seattle
The life of an Atheist (from Visconti’s the Stranger)
I have what you might say is a ‘strained relationship’ with my mother, for reasons not worth getting into here. But we do spend some time together and as she is a big reader, I often loan her books I’ve already finished, despite our wildly opposed tastes. One summer I gave her a stack including The Road, a couple books of poetry by Rimbaud (it had that ‘weird style’ where the words ‘don’t make sense’ apparently), and The Stranger by Albert Camus. It wasn’t meant to be a pile o’ bleak, just what I’d been reading at the time. A week or so later we were in the car, where she’d normally go on about her troubles at work and coworkers that she doesn’t like. This particular sunny afternoon, she paused for a long moment and told me this…
“If you’re ever on trial for something, even if you didn’t do it, make sure you pretend to be upset.”
I thought it was the most bizarre thing I’d ever heard, and it took me a few days to realize– she thought I was l’étranger.
In the first pages of the novel the apathetic main character doesn’t cry at his mother’s funeral, which serves as evidence of his heartless nature in his future murder trial. Regardless of what that implies about my relationship with my mother (Maman est thankfully not morte), it said a lot about her opinion of me. Note that she said ‘pretend to be upset,’ because nothing could upset me as the stoic, humorless bastard I am. Years before I settled on being an atheist, and identified as an agnostic (on Facebook alone probably, as I can’t imagine wanting to have that conversation with her), she told me she was fine with it as long as I ‘believed in something.’
We believe in nothing, Lebowski!
Being an atheist would be troubling, as though I was smoking and she’d tolerate it for now, ‘as long as I was healthy.’ Why? Because it was disturbing to think that I might really believe in nothing. To her, Christianity is a pleasant, happy thing where you’ll meet dead relatives in heaven and live in familial harmony forever. Being an atheist is denying that, not only for yourself, but denying that it even exists. It’s the reason people say ‘Aww,’ and wrinkle their foreheads when you mention your non-beliefs. (Or is that just me?) Being an atheist is being a hater of everything, believer of nothing.
We never had that conversation again after my views changed, but she’s seen me cry at a funeral, laugh, grumble about my own job. Yet I am still l’etranger in her eyes. Maybe it was just my taste in books– bleak poetry, nihilistic philosophy and babies on spits. At least she didn’t focus on the last part. Well, I’m off to go stare at the sea, stare at the sand, and not kill anyone of any ethnicity.
The Cure performs a song inspired by L’Étranger
The Beast from Seattle was born in the ’80s, is a big queer goth weirdo, and the kind of person who’ll break his keyboard trying to get every last cat hair out of it. He wrote a term paper defending lurkerdom and normally never comments anywhere, but Great American Satan will keep squeezing posts out of him until his natural tendencies win the day.
All I hear about joining FtB is that I’ve given up my freewill to a Grade A
Poopyhead: PZ Myers. You know what? It’s true. And now I must confess why:
Really, I just like poop on my head. To wear waste as a hat? Simply divine.
I’m kidding though. Of course I’m not wearing fecal fedorae. My fetish is
Larry King costumes. The real reason is because I hate freedom.
FtB’s critics have long seen the truth of this place, but somehow don’t get it.
Of course we’re about Freedom from Thought, but they think that’s a bad thing.
Oh well. Some people just have to waste their time flailing through the world.
Living in a constant turmoil of indecision, when all they need is strong leaders.
Saying and doing only what my thought leader says: This is true happiness.