such_heights | this week's fail round up!

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mood: fail!

this week's fail round up!

Wtf is with people these past few days, I don't even know. D:

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First, via

sheafrotherdon, yet more reasons why I won't be watching Stargate: Universe when it airs!

This started when the following casting call went out:

[ELEANOR PERRY] (35-40) and quite attractive. A brilliant scientist who happens to be a quadriplegic. Affected since childhood, her disability has rendered her body physically useless. However, after being brought on board the Destiny as the only person who may be able to save the ship and her crew from certain annihilation, she is given temporary powers that enable her to walk again and to finally experience intimacy. Strong guest lead. NAMES PREFERRED. ACTRESS MUST BE PHYSICALLY THIN. (THINK CALISTA FLOCKHART).

Which, wtf. The standard crap re. actress's appearances, with added madness! Because disabled people are, of course 'physically useless' (it's not like their bodies keep them alive or anything), and can never experience intimacy just fine by themselves, and are in need of MAGICAL HEALING COCK, oh god.

Then it turns out part of the premise of SGU is some kind of bodyswap machine - and I love bodyswap as much as the next person, but there are serious issues in some contexts that I do not expect the writers to handle even a little.

SGU has a lesbian character (I'm mostly just taking bets on how badly they're going to screw that up at this point, which is really sad). Guess who Eleanor's bodyswapping with so she can have this magical healing able-bodied heterosexual sex? Oh yeah.

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Next,

karnythia talks about racefail from a panelist at WorldCon. Same shit, different day, etc. *facepalm*

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Then sci-fi and fantasy writer (and husband of above panelist) John C. Wright starts shooting his mouth off about the evils of homosexuality (warning: that post and its first page or so of comments may make your head explode).

On the plus side on that one, I am thinking of getting 'homosex activist' on a t-shirt because it's kinda catchy.

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Also, wtf with the anti-NHS lies coming out of the US at the moment? I am deeply baffled.

calapine says it much better than me, but seriously. Our health service has its flaws, undoubtedly, but the principles it was founded on are what allow me to be here ranting today.

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And lastly,

heather11483 drew my attention to this story where the Stamford Marriot blames a woman for being raped in their carpark. I don't have the words at the present time.

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Wow. So. Anyone got some pictures of kittens or something?

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*watches post for kittenpix, plz?*

I'm collecting quite the collection on the mirrored lj post of this, actually! Yay kittens. :D

OMG KITTENS! ITTEH BITTEH JEDI COMMITTEE.

thanks for doing this round-up, bb; i was thinking about it, but then got way too depressed.

i am going to do a FUCK YOU VERY MUCH post, i think! icon suggestions very welcome! (i do best with caps/text icons, since i have no clue how to do gif ones, heh.)

Pointing out the fail to like-minded souls does make me feel a little better. Mostly it is dismal, though!

Fail: family-sized. Wtf.

I still have to post about writercon and racefail, and I just... don't want to. it's too depressing.

I do not even know what is going on with the NHS lies. I guess the right has run out of ammo that is even marginally like the truth, and is going on to just make shit up now. The whole Stephen Hawking thing is beyond belief.

I'm sure lots of us would like to hear what you have to say about Writercon, but only if you're feeling up to it. ♥

The blatant, really obvious lies are sort of staggering, really.

Okay, the SGU fail was me going "okay, typical fail and probably the result of -" and then reading this

Guess who Eleanor's bodyswapping with so she can have this magical healing able-bodied heterosexual sex? Oh yeah.

and actually feeling physically nauseous. DNW. DNW. DNW.

Which is sad because SGU looked like the kind of show I would enjoy overall (I liked the SG universe but wasn't so big on the episodic nature of their episodes and lack of character development.) Wah.

There is so much anti-socialized medicine propoganda. I know they use the UK as an example, but I think they use us even more because we're right here and there's lots of border hopping for health care (in both directions). I am seriously, seriously WTF about it.

My favourite Americans Talking About Canadian Health Care Fails are

- saying it'll take months to see a specialist. Yeah, it took me months to see a gynecologist for an IUD. It took me FIVE MINUTES* to see a gynecologist the four times I needed them for bartholin cyst excisions.

- saying it'll take months to get a hearth translant. Uh, dudes. The limiting factor on getting a heart transplant is the AVAILABILITY OF HEARTS. I don't really think how you run your health care system has anything to do with that. Oh, but it does mean people who need hearts get them before people who can pay for the heart transplant.

- There's a particular Canadian woman a senator and right-wing media is using as an example of how horrible our health care, because they scheduled her "brain tumour surgery" for several months away and she freaked out and went to Arizona and spent $97,000 to have it removed. Turns out it wasn't a tumour but a benign, non-life-threatening cyst. My point: how many Americans would never have gotten that surgery, ever, because they can't afford $97000 and don't have health insurance?

It's crazy, crazy brainwashing. I can't believe so many people still go along with it.

*The first time, literally. I was in the uni clinic at McGill, and the doc took one look and threw me in a taxi, up the hill to the hospital, where I got tacked on to the very end of the gynecologist's day. And that wasn't even life-threatening, just hella-painful and possibly infected.

*sigh* Why does my genre have to go and be so faily?

And wow, all of those arguments are mind-boggling. I just don't understand how people seem not to grasp what it is they're even saying!

The things coming out of the states right now about Canadian and UK health care are beyond belief and making me angrier and angrier by the day. Especially the whole heart transplant thing. WOULD YOU LIKE US TO KILL SOME PEOPLE TO MAKE OUR LISTS SHORTER? Fuck.

OBVIOUSLY YOU SHOULD BE HARVESTING HEARTS FROM YOUR ELDERLY AND INFIRM. Or so I surmise.

I KNOW. WHAT THE HELL. *fists of rage*

I posted my thoughts on healthcare here (http://calapine.livejournal.com/569192.html?thread=11999080#t11999080) in calapine's post. It makes me so angry that I feel exhausted.

People are so dumb. So, so dumb.

Yeah, a world of yes to everything you said.

Yeah, ridiculous amounts of fail this week, basically. God.

Here, have something cute.

HOMG SO CUTE! &hearts &hearts

eeeeee! I swear, the more you watch that the cuter it gets. :D :D :D

ASK AND YOU SHALL RECIEVE. (not clicking on the links, don't know if I can handle the epic fail I see just on the outside, so....) KITTENS.

(http://photobucket.com)

(http://photobucket.com)

AND MY CAT WHEN HE WAS STILL SMALL!

(http://photobucket.com)

omg, I know these were for her, but they really helped after that stuff. *HUG*

KITTENS ALL AROUND!

YOU ARE MY HERO. Kittens make everything better! And your cat is absolutely lovely, bless.

He's in my lap right now. I do not know how I lived without him before!

I just had to stop reading. I don't think I can take any more of that crap. God. I didn't even get to the end of the first page.

I think that's a very good call. ♥

Ugh. It all kills me. Esp. the NHS craps.

Anyway...

(http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/08/09/funny-pictures-of-own-cuteness/)
see more Lolcats and funny pictures (http://icanhascheezburger.com)

Awww, that is so fluffy and cute! :D

...That guy ranting about SyFy actually used the word "Negro" in his post? I just...I...okay. God, sometimes I hate living in a country that was funded on Puritanical values. Because so many people think saying stuff like this is OKAY. "Family values" has been the excuse for so much bigotry in this country. It just makes my brain break. (I like that my show has one of the only two gay characters on SyFy. I mean, it's not really a plot point or anything, but, GO EUREKA.)

Also, PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE RIGHT-WING NUTJOBS BEHIND THE CURTAIN. I have no idea why creating a public option for healthcare is making so many people scream "socialism" (and while we're on the subject of racefail, I wonder if so many people would be calling Obama a socialist if he were white) and point fingers at perfectly wonderful, working systems across the pond. The good news is their lies are actually drawing everyone's attention to the fact that they're colossally wrong.

And. Um. LET US CHEER YOU UP.

(http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/08/05/funny-pictures-narnia-portals/)
see more Lolcats and funny pictures (http://icanhascheezburger.com)

(http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/07/29/funny-pictures-for-goodness-amp-cuteness/)
see more Lolcats and funny pictures (http://icanhascheezburger.com)

OOPS HOW DID THAT GET IN THERE HOW CARELESS OF ME.

Best. Icon. Ever. :D

Yay Eureka! Word to everything here, basically.

The good news is their lies are actually drawing everyone's attention to the fact that they're colossally wrong.

I hope so!

Eee, awesome picspam, thank you! JEDI KITTENS OMG. Best ever, y/y?

JEDI KITTENS. I KNOW RIGHT.

Also, dunno if you saw yet, the SyFy people talked to AfterEllen about the entire Internet screaming "FAAAAAAAIL" at them. Slightly less fail-y; we'll have to see where it goes. (http://www.afterellen.com/blog/sarahwarn/stargate-universe-responds-to-controversy)

jeez

Pretty much!

Here, have a kitten:

Aww, so sleepy and stripy! :D

O_o WHAT?

Just... I grew up watching Stargate! What the fuck is this?

I don't even know!

I can give you the link to the Medal of Freedom photos on

obama_daily http://community.livejournal.com/obama_daily/251699.html, which includes President Obama hugging Desmond Tutu and Sidney Poitier.

And I will use my puppy icon.

John C Wright's post just made me giggle. The first half. Then I gave up.

Further fail on the part of SG:U in implying that sexual intimacy is something that everyone strives for, that is an important milestone of life experience.

Bodyswap is fascinating (and I spent most of last night and today writing a longwinded post about the meta the idea as other-than-fic inspired me to). Can't see it being played well as a technology here, let alone as a narrative device.

I want to see Notting Hill again. It's the only tv/film I can think of with a positively portrayed wheelchair-bound character. I didn't like the woman in whichever episode of House it was, and I never watched enough Bookclub to get to know the guy in that. Are there any others?

Do you know what all these fails have in common?
Ignorant, blindly privileged White men's obsession with other people's bodies.
It's disgusting. And really kind of creepy.

I have got to write my sci fi stories. And I'm imagining a future where in fifteen/twenty years time someone reboots SGA. (With a canonically gay John Sheppard.)

Yes. This. D:

If it makes us do it ourselves, and better, though? That's pretty awesome.

That post makes me SO HAPPY OMG. <3333

I must get around to reading your post on that, yes - opened in tabs and ready to go!

Hmm, I'm trying to think of wheelchair users in fiction now, and really completely blanking.

Re. the health care thing, I am so, so sorry that my country is home to such a ridiculously large contingent of idiots alsdkjfhlasdf ARGH.

Much as I am raging from the sidelines, that's really nothing compared to all of you who actually have to live with it, god. I have a doctor's appointment later today and I think I'm going to practically skip to it, such is my renewed level of gratitude!

So, it is now three in the morning, and I have been reading about RaceFail all day. And now I mostly feel tired and sad and confused and brain-hurty and angry and chastised and am already questioning my own instinctual reactions to things. (Not that I wasn't vaguely aware of the brouhaha going on in fandom, I've just... been busy this summer. And had only read a little bit when it showed up in my f-list. Plus, um, my subconscious is clearly aware that this always leads to being still awake and reading at three in the morning, I guess? :/) So, wow. I should also go to bed, but wow. I feel so... indescribable, but also responsible for what happens next in the world, and kind of simultaneously empowered and sobered by the reality that Story has that much power, for positive or otherwise. And it's my responsibility to be aware of that power. As a Christian who grew up half in Christian Culture but also in a family who's frequently eyebrow-raised at by Christian Culture for extremely stupid reasons (we're not Americentric! we listen to weird music! we think a lot of Christian-centric media is stupid and/or wrong and/or offensive to Christians and non-Christians alike!), I know a little bit about situationally-charged words and stereotypes and things... but hadn't used that perspective nearly enough to examine my own cultural conditionings towards people whose worlds I am not part of. (Also, not saying that being a Christian in America is really comparable to racial tension, or that I have OOOH SUFFERED (which I really haven't -- I've never even been personally singled out or picked on for my religious beliefs and/or upbringing, which I recognise makes me very blessed, because some people have, and have gone through far worse things than bad media portrayals or classroom teasing for their religious beliefs) but that it gives me a window into understanding how other people feel about being Othered and misrepresented, and what kind of actions lead to such misrepresentation, which helps me to make sure my own actions aren't perpetuating that.)

Sorry to dump my barely coherent three-in-the-morning thought process on your poor journal, Amy dear, but there it is... and I should go to bed... sometime... ever. :/

Late-night thought processes are always welcome here! *squish*

I'm glad you've been reading - it's such a long, hard, uncomfortable process, but it's good, too.

Yes, agree to all the fail. But I love all the pics of kittens and J/I kissing in your comments!! They just made my day better. *scrolls back up* :)

I know, right? I heart my flist!

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this week's fail round up!

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