Things I have learned this week

[blamebrampton]

* In all the Evol BNFs kerfuffle, it occurred to me that I actually find my time in fandom hugely enriched by a group of such people, some of them BNFs, others often perceived as BNFs, a handful of BNFs of the Future and also the Exceptionally Talented Even Though They Would Never Think of Themselves as BNFs. Accordingly, I would like to thank some of them publicly. And so begins yet another ongoing project that I will finish someday, before Ragnarok. Happily, today marks the birthdays of two of the people I would have talked about anyway, so it is two birds with one stone time!

A very happy birthday to dysonrules , whose kindness, jolliness and overt glee are an example for everyone in fandom. I am a mile behind in reading your stories, I confess, because I am a miserable old bugger who needs to be in the right mood for happiness, but you write very good happiness! Thank you for all the encouragement and cheer you spread around the fandom, it makes this a better place.

Happy birthday, too, to lillithium . Your talent stops us all in our tracks on a regular basis, but it is the gentleness you share with us through your posts and photographs that makes me think we would all enjoy knowing you in real life. However, the seriousness with which you approach your fanart inspires me, and makes me more conscious that fanworks deserve the respect of whatever time and seriousness we can spare for them.

If anyone out there wants to nick the idea to thank their own fandom favourites, do feel free!

* One of my dearest friends in all the world has even dodgier taste in men than I had previously suspected. KRudd indeed!

* Some people on LJ make up for others who are cocks. furiosity  responded to the hacking of sarahtales 's journal with a brilliant post on internet security here. (Link goes through to Dreamwidth.)

* Red lipsticks that look brilliant on everyone else in the world will look cerise on me. Apparently, I make everything paler. This means that if the one great red lippy I own ever goes out of production, I am stuffed and will have to let go of my vamp look forever. Alas, vamp, bookish lesbian, and flower-bedecked garden girl are the only three looks I have. If I lose vamp, I will have to buy some plain glasses and cultivate librarian.

* There are 2.3 million prisoners in the United States, that's more than there are in China. One in four prisoners in the world is American. I think this could be a good argument against privatised prison systems, especially when coupled with the story of the Pennsylvanian judges who took bribes from private jails to give young offenders custodial sentences. That's not what the land of the free should be like.

* I knew that the actual court ruling on Prop 8 was always going to be a nightmare and suspect it may be the only thing the justices felt they could hand down given the centrality of of voting and voter initiatives in the American political climate. It remains a fucking dreadful law, based on ludicrous premises and lies.

* My friend Rai is something of a genius. Her ink drawing of the funeral of Fred Weasley is yet further proof.

Comments

[drgaellon]

For the record, Prop 8 IS NOT A LAW. It is a Constitutional Amendment by referendum, which effectively made a previous law unconstitutional. The question before the Court concerned the STUPID clause in the California Constitution which allows "minor" amendments to be made by simple majority, but requires a "two-thirds" majority to change "fundamental" rights. Because of the disaster that is the California Constitution, the high court COULD NOT disallow Prop 8, which now stands. The same idiotic clause will allow a new referendum to repeal the amendment in 2010.

They need a Constitutional Convention, and they need to shred the existing Constitution and START OVER. No other state in the Union allows ANY changes to their Constitution by simple majority of a plebiscite without a waiting period, or a double vote (Massachusetts allows a simple majority - in two sequential voting cycles).

[astarael02.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm British... we don't learn about the US political system unless we choose to at university. I chose chemistry and french :)
I was uing the word "law" as a layman's term for a rule, not as technical vocabulary. I just don't think a political system should allow the treatment of a group of people as lower-class citizens, that's what I'm saying. But I realize that the complexities of a political system can allow this to happen sometimes, if there are enough people agreeing with it, however much my idealism would like to think otherwise :)

[drgaellon]

Well, the system is SUPPOSED to be designed to PREVENT the tyranny of the majority, and the courts are supposed to protect the rights of minority groups. The fact that the system has failed so spectacularly in this case only points up the deficiencies in the governing documents (i.e. the California state Constitution).

The problem now lies in the definition of "protected minority." California recognizes LGBT persons as belonging to a protected minority, and entitled to the highest level of legal scrutiny whenever their rights are threatened. Federal law does not, though DOMA has not yet been challenged in Federal court, and things like Colorado's Proposition 2 HAVE been found to violate the US Constitution. Taking THIS fight to SCOTUS NOW is likely to result in a ruling we DO NOT WANT.

[astarael02.livejournal.com]

I see. It seems like there's quite a way to go before there's true equality. Not just in California, but using it as an example. And this is the 21st century! It makes me sad :(

[astarael02.livejournal.com]

Oh, forgot to say, thank you for letting me know though. :)