You might have heard about the oh-so-secret (hah!), elaborate scheme I've been cooking up with egregiouslypink, otherwise known as The Motherfucking Mafia AU (Now With 100% More Misha Collins).

( Yeah, so then this fell out of my head. )-

And, better late than never:

Ask me my fannish (tv, movies, books, music) Top Five [Whatevers]. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post.

Sorry, I do realize that flooding ye old flist is annoying, but this really is important.

i realize now i do not fear death... i fear my daughter will not be free when i die

- From the Twitter of an Iranian medical student

( My death is irrelevant.Wht is important is that u do not forget my words.We want freedom.i will die 4that )

Here's a collection of quotes about what's going on in Iran that I thought were interesting, or different to what I'd read so far:

--

An anonymous Iranian with the handle “Censored Name” posted something a little bit different on his Facebook page:



- Via Michael Totten

-- --



- TIME.


( A few more under the cut. )
--

ETA: There's an excellent analysis of the situation so far here at ontd_political

What is happening, this, here, right now, this is important. This is of monumental importance. We can't do much, we cannot take the baton-blows, we cannot break the lines of riot police, we cannot march through the streets of Tehran.

What we can do is what we do best; spread information in ways that are fast, efficient, and accessible, in ways that just might help tip the balance.



For a good overview of the situation, plus links to sources of information, I direct you to this post:



by one_hoopy_frood

Let me tell you a story about a girl.

She was a clever girl, but far too manic for most people; she reached too far into tangents and delved a little too deep into the extrapolation of possible realities for their comfort. You see, she'd had it tough for the last few years, starved, battered down by the gloomy hallmarks of monotonous people and cruel intentions. Then in a burst of colour, sudden and brilliant, she coalesced into what people now see when they look at her.

Her problem, and her gift, was that she was a child. She let forth with unprecedented spouts of creative, insane, joyous chatter. She wrote, she painted, she sang, she screamed, she capslocked the hell out of her life. In her ignorance was cruelty, but she didn't know much of pain or suffering, and didn't recognize it when she doled it out.

She grew up a little. Simmered in her juices. Her halcyon days were over. ( RBR, here's looking at you, kid. )

In conclusion: don't be scared. Be smart.

So my Third Monday fic is finito and off into the oblivion of cyberspace. 'Twas folly to think I could keep this thing short and sweet. IT ATE MY BRAIN. Fellow Third Monday-ers, you have all my sympathies, and I recommend a cocktail of French Champagne, too little sleep, a shot of adrenaline to the heart and a first aid kit for the typewriting injuries you shall sustain in the last minute rush.

--

So I've been reading a massive, massive tome that is a compilation of all Hunter S. Thompson's correspondence and other random writings - apparently he was a mightily prolific writer of some kind. Who knew? ;) But in all seriousness, the man is crazy-brilliant. He sent all the money he had to his little brother to pay for his college tuition to keep him out of Vietnam, even when he was knee-deep in debt and lawsuits, and once shot a houseguest in the spine with a plastic bullet from a .22 pump action shotgun for attempting to steal a tape out his tape recorder. ♥

--

Old News. Still Current.

More than 60 000 people have been infected by the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe.

3,161 people have died from the disease since August 2008.

Morgan Tsvangirai, newly sworn in Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (and maybe, with a little hope, its saving grace) : "Cholera in Zimbabwe is a man-made crisis. The problem we have here is coupled with (the) fact of negligence on the part of government to provide the necessary facilities. It shows the collapse of the health delivery system,"

From CNN.com

--

And because my entries these days seem to unswervingly require verve and colour:

( The Photo Mosaic Meme. (Contains slight nudity). )

And now, in other slightly irrelevant, utterly frivolous news:

New layout!

charlie_d_blue


-- --

Also, an insta!Rec: Souvenirs by tearful_eye.

It's been around for a few weeks now, but for anyone who watches Life, is vaguely intrigued as to what this Life show lark is that everyone's talking about, or just in general enjoys a beautifully crafted, intense, rockin' vid, take a look. It's only a minute long.

And in non sequitur conclusion:

After reading all the brilliant pundits-meta over at the journals of bessemerprocess and sarken, I scribbled down some:

( More Love Letter than Meta. )

"We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right." - The Rev. Joseph Lowery.

...That is to say terrifying.

On that note:



A RAHM EMANUEL MANIFESTO:

On why there is no spoon, only Rahm.


-

( You're such a literate, erudite guy, it makes me wonder why you're hanging around Rahm Emanuel. There are only so many ways to say: I wanna rip your head off. - Barack Obama, 2005 )

Guys, there is the most brilliant crack going down over at the rahmbamarama drabble posts. I'm serious. Hours, and hours and hours of amusement.

Seriously there is a Chuck Norris Rahm Emanuel Facts Drabbble Post here.

And a Big Goddamn Crossover Post here

Go! Join in the brilliant, brilliant crack.


ETA: There is now a Rahm Emanuel Friends Meme going on.

Except, well, this:

vixen_notatramp:"WE ALL NEED TO DO A FUCKING FRIENDING MEME OR SOME SHIT.

ONLY FUCK THAT 'FRIENDS' BULLSHIT. RAHM EMANUEL HAS NO FRIENDS; RAHM EMANUEL HAS WORSHIPPERS AND DEAD ENEMIES."

charlie_d_blue:"This is not a friends meme. This is a goddamn Rahm Emanuel press-gang motherfuckers."

In the interests of celebrating the appointment of Obama's Chief of Staff to the inimitably and terrifyingly awesome Rahm Emanuel, I present an old article from 2006 that explains everything Rahm is about, in the format of Chuck Norris facts adapted to politics.

( Rahm can move in and out of the body of every Democrat in the country at will, like agents in the Matrix, so that their actions can be properly controlled at all times. )

Go here for the article.

Man, I have got to stop making US politics my new fandom.

I have three singular emotions running through my mind:


1. Joy, joy, fierce, euphoric, such indescribably violent joy I cannot even - I just - joy.

Obama.


2. One giant scream of screw you to hell.

Prop 8.

How can people be so petty, so mean, so bitterly ignorant as to deny others the happiness of a union that exists as a manifestation of human love?


3. Hope.

Do we got it?
Yah.
Can we do it?
Can do.
Will we?

There's faith, then there's hope. One is a static, unwavering fixation on the joyously unprovable. The other is all momentum, a spark pushing us onward toward something just as joyous, but something that, however blurry and ill-formed about the edges, is something conceivable, something achievable, something that is more.




So that's me. What's you?

So much work to do
I don't know if I can
Trying so hard, so hard, so hard
But I'm just one man.


'Dream About Flying' by Alexi Murdoch.



( larger version. )


Love, dreams, hope, freedom, change;

have a good election, America.

Trufax.





Just what? What?

The hilariously skeevy headlines of the ninemsn.com site whenever I log out of hotmail are a constant source of amusement and examples of human absurdity, but honestly, what?

I would mock this mercilessly, but I think I'm too busy laughing so that I don't cry. Oh news people, why so absurd? I mean searing? Really? I love Arnie as much as the next non-American-currently-over-invested-in-American-politics, but the guy is hardly a master of cutting and insightful political remarks.



Source: Here.

So maybe this has all been said before. So maybe I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. All I know is that I'm sick and tired of Australian college jocks joking about aboriginals like they're the shit on their shoes.


( It’s not active discrimination – I’m not talking massacres, legal bias, ghettos or violence. It’s the passive-aggressive perpetuation of a particular image that is presented to us through the media. )