She was an excellent governess and a most respectable woman
Sep. 18th, 2025 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Not One of Us issue 84
Sep. 18th, 2025 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Let me share a little (and then a lot!) about my own story first, and then some about the other contributions. Mine is called "The Moon in His Eyes," about a young woman who marries a water buffalo, only to fall in love with the moon on her wedding night. Curious about what happens? Well, you can buy a copy of Not One of Us here.
... or, if you don't mind being read to... I read it aloud here. It's literally just me sitting in my study reading into my desktop computer's camera and microphone all in a single take because I know nothing of video editing and am much too lazy, at present, to learn.
And now let me say a few words about the rest of the zine.
( I really enjoyed this issue! )
So yeah! Get your hands on a copy of the zine here, and listen to me read "The Moon in His Eyes" here. ;-)
Report: FBI to designate trans people ‘violent extremists’
Sep. 18th, 2025 06:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I would like to wish all the people who fought with me and sneered at me about how Joe Biden and then Kamala Harris were no better than Donald Trump and sat out the election and encouraged others to do the same a very happy DRINK SOME FUCKING BLEACH:
FBI Readies New War on Trans People
“We’re looking at the entire web”
Ken Klippenstein
Sep 18, 2025
The Trump administration is preparing to designate transgender people as “violent extremists” in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, two national security officials tell me.
…
Under the plan being discussed, the FBI would treat transgender suspects as a subset of the Bureau’s new threat category, “Nihilistic Violent Extremists” (NVEs).
This is, yes, OBVIOUSLY, a duplication of Putin’s moves to designate target groups as “extremist organisations,” whether there’s an organisation or not, as “LGBT” was designated a couple of years ago, leading to the de facto re-illegialisation of LGBT people and large scale prosecutions.
Every other kind of queer is probably gonna be next.
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
greg gutfield’s fascist rant
Sep. 18th, 2025 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I do not believe it’s a minor thing that Greg “let’s reclaim the word Nazi” Gutfield is repurposing Hitler’s “Jewish hypnotism” libel against trans people to transfer guilt from a cis white boy from a conservative family:
“[The shooter] was a patsy. He was under the hypnotic spell of a direct to consumer nihilism – the trans cult.”
Greg Gutfield on Fox
There are plenty of other full-on-fascist declarations in this rant, too, not the least of which being the open declaration that they “don’t care” about “what-abouts,” which is to say, the overwhelming share of violence being from the right, or, in this case, the literal assassination of two Democratic state officials earlier this summer by a MAGA supporter with an extended list of targets. Those don’t count, because Democrats. Only MAGA are people, only MAGA have rights, only Trump can be king.
But it’s still important, and the one I think people may miss. This is, again, literally Hitler libel from a many who proposed “reclaiming” the word “Nazi” this summer.
If he wants the word so much, let’s apply it to him.
Greg Gutfield is a Nazi.
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
Thankful Thursday
Sep. 18th, 2025 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Today I am thankful for...
- Kaleidofolk's new album starting to come together,
- Mario of StudiOjo in Wateringen. Also, having a professional recording studio walking distance (450m) from our house.
- Learning a lot about recording. NO thanks for my scratch tracks being barely usable. Oops.
- Bandmates (m and N) with an ear for harmony, as well as m's voice coaching.
- Bronx's growing talents as a snuggler. He may be taking lessons from Ticia. Also, having a cat to keep my back warm on cold nights.
- 5mm cube magnets.
the regime going all in on censorship, while advisors push for mass arrests
Sep. 18th, 2025 08:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The grim times we’ve been expecting are here.
Congressman Ronny Jackson (R-TX) calls trans people a virus and a cancer that must be censored, isolated, and imprisoned en masse. It’s a call for genocide, or – as they said during the election – for “eradication.”
Laura Loomer, an important Trump confidante and aide, calls for a Trump dictatorship and mass arrests and prosecution of “leftists” (which for her absolutely includes liberals):

Trump and MAGA are following Putin’s playbook on the media, pushing it either into the hands of ideological compatriots or into silence:

Correct commentary from Mastodon:
Kimmel is about as controversial as a goldfish here. They aren’t serious about it being a problem; the whole •point• is that it’s obviously •not• a problem.
They are using something extremely benign to test the waters of government repression of speech, to see just how much they can get away with — and ABC caved like 3rd-grade toothpick bridge.
It’s relevant that there are mergers in process and it’s clear that Trump would fuck with them if they didn’t pull Kimmel down:
Nexstar Media Group, which is seeking FCC approval for a multi-billion-dollar merger with Tegna, said its ABC affiliates would not air Kimmel’s show before ABC announced its own decision.
Even Karl fucking Rove thinks they’ve gone too far, but that won’t stop them, or even slow them down:
‘They’ Didn’t Kill Charlie Kirk. It insults his memory to blame political opponents for one man’s heinous act.
Meanwhile, Trump demands federal investigations into ‘organized’ Trump protesters – this is also out of Putin’s playbook:
Earlier this week, responding to a conservative reporter who said that anti-war protesters near the White House “still have their First Amendment right,” Trump replied, “Yeah, well, I’m not so sure.”
It’s against this backdrop that Politico reported [that] the Justice Department’s No. 2 official said Tuesday that people noisily protesting President Donald Trump could face investigation if they’re part of broader networks organizing such activities.
Worth reading: Keep An Eye on What We Know (And Don’t) – 15 September 2025 – TPM:
In the current environment I think it’s fair to say there’s really no reason to believe anything we’re hearing from federal law enforcement, either formally or on background to reporters.
Worth reading: Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause – 16 September 2025 – Vanity Fair / Ta-Nehisi Coates:
It is not just, for instance, that Kirk held disagreeable views—that he was pro-life, that he believed in public executions, or that he rejected the separation of church and state. It’s that Kirk reveled in open bigotry.
Finally, an article and a concept that’s been gaining traction: It’s Time for Americans to Start Talking About “Soft Secession”:
Not the violent rupture of 1861, but something else entirely. Blue states building parallel systems, withholding cooperation, and creating facts on the ground that render federal authority meaningless within their borders.
See also: In the disunited states, conflict and uncertainty rule, which also brings up “Soft Secession,” and I’ve seen people holding signs up about it at protests since the original column came out.
I feel I don’t really have to say, “shit’s bad, folks,” but, well – shit’s bad, folks. If there’s a protest near you, find it, and join it.
They can’t arrest literally everyone, and Trump does chicken out – the only response you can have to him is push back as hard as you can, every time.
And that means right now.
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
Missing trumpet slide on bike path
Sep. 18th, 2025 10:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Thanks!
Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois by Gardner Dozois
Sep. 18th, 2025 08:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

A selection of Dozois' best, from the first half of his half century career.
Geodesic Dreams: The Best Short Fiction of Gardner Dozois by Gardner Dozois
Interesting Links for 18-09-2025
Sep. 18th, 2025 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
- 1. Ukraine is hitting Russia where it hurts - and it's working
- (tags:ukraine russia war economy )
- 2. 'Erosion emergency' at Edinburgh's Calton Hill after grass cut too short
- (tags:edinburgh nature )
- 3. 'Forgotten' royal castle uncovered on Herbidean Scottish island
- (tags:scotland castle )
- 4. What's changing for trials in Scotland?
- (tags:scotland law )
- 5. Renewables do unambiguously reduce wholesale power prices
- (tags:renewables electricity economics )
- 6. There Are Too Many Video Games (and songs and books and TV shows)
- (tags:media economics society )
hola méxico
Sep. 17th, 2025 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ITEM ONE:
Here is a video of Noel directing the crowd to do the poznan, which is the Manchester City football club's special celebration dance. Liam's been having the crowd do it the whole tour, but this time he talked Noel into doing the explanation for the first time.
So much to observe here:
- Liam: "I've seen you do it," probably referring to this memorable occasion when Noel definitely did not do it.
- Noel greeting them in Spanish.
- Noel: "Not asking you to do the okey-cokey." 😅
- Noel explaining the correct process very clearly and efficiently, which is not something one would ever say about Liam's approach.
- But best of all: Noel saying "The big man doesn't ask for much," and then pausing to laugh at the utter and profound absurdity of this remark.
ITEM TWO
And here is Noel miming that Liam should throw his sombrero to the crowd (having already thrown his maracas and tambourine), and Liam handing it to him so HE can throw it. This is also the first time Noel's thrown anything on the tour AFAIK.
They're just having so much fun together and being so charming about it. Incredible. Not in our WILDEST DREAMS did any of us in the fandom dream anything like this was possible.
Sex and Violence, Tech and Violence, and some genuinely neat stuff - Early September 02025
Sep. 17th, 2025 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Organizations that fail to consider intersectionality in their diversity, equity, and inclusion will create things like employee resource groups that only capture a part of someone's experience and that elide the places where the intersectionality is unique and important. Which should make you unsurprised, but also horrified, that the Institute for Museum and Library Services budget is being given directly to propagandists for a project that will present a white man-centric view of history and demand that we all believe it as the sole and only truthful narrative of the United States.
James Dobson, creator of such abominations unto his God as Focus on the Family and the Family Policy Alliance, has gone to receive judgment at 89 years of age. Our world is far better off without him, and the damage that he has done to the world would take generations to heal if he were the only one doing his kind of damage. But like so many others, he has disciples and followers, and they will continue to perpetuate his damage into the world for generations to come.
A man who believed that violence was an answer, and who aggressively sowed the wind wherever he went, has reaped the whirlwind, killed by the violence he promoted, by a gun that he believed should have more rights than the people killed by it. He is no longer able to use his organization to promote and encourage harm to others.
( The fallout from such, and plenty of other things, inside )
Last out, Bohemian Rhapsody translated and performed in Zulu and with the visual and singing styles of several other African traditions. It's worth a watch and a listen, absolutely.
The concept of Queer Time, where the signifiers of "adulthood" like marriage, children, and houses are not achieved on any kind of regular time, if at all, and therefore queer adults have to find their own ways of demonstrating to the community that they are full grown-ass adults.
And the iconic Atari CX-10 joystick as a decanter for drinking, along with a couple of Atari-logo glasses.
(Materials via
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unexpected cite
Sep. 17th, 2025 06:51 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
https://www.hoover.org/research/why-s...
My work is accurately described but not named in the actual chat, but it gets a cite by name on the webpage.
I wish I could send her a copy of Ethan of Athos. I think she'd get all the jokes.
Ta, L.
posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on September, 17
wednesday book about a Great Man
Sep. 17th, 2025 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
This is the biography of Carl Friedrich Gauss that I picked up off a university library shelf when I was 15, and made me go all swoony over Gauss's letter proposing to his first wife (link is to the original German manuscript). Returning to it with less swooniness and a more mature ability to evaluate historical sources, and also reading a new edition with helpful front matter, it's clear the book is not 100% "actual historical Gauss": it starts off with a version of the famous 5050 story, which is based on an anecdote that Gauss reportedly told about his childhood, but probably didn't happen exactly that way.
Indeed, as I learned from the front matter, G. Waldo Dunnington was a professional Gauss stan; one of his elementary school teachers was a great-granddaughter of Gauss, and learning that there was no Victorian Great Man biography of Gauss, he spent his entire academic career (interrupted by WWII) remedying that lack. Since I'm also a Gauss stan, I found the book generally readable if sometimes a bit repetitive, and enjoyed various fun Gauss facts. (In the department of obscure historical figures who ought to be fictionalized, there is Friedrich Ludwig Wachter, Gauss's student who studied non-Euclidean geometry and vanished without a trace at age 25.)
I'll probably do more Gauss reading (though also I now have an unproofread scan of Teresa by Edith Ayrton Zangwill so I may read that first); I've started with the letters online, but may also seek out other biographies. I continue to be fascinated by Gauss's youngest daughter, whose story would make a good historical romance; and having done some Gauss reading I'm starting to think I can actually write this fic.
Whining about online t-shirt purchases.
Sep. 17th, 2025 05:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Except no, it's £24 plus £6 tax plus £7 shipping *that takes up to 6 weeks*.
And this for an item that's print on demand. Which means, theoretically, they could print it in the UK in the first place and not have to presumably ship it to me by alpaca from Kazakhstan!
Shame, really, it's a nice t-shirt. But not £37 nice.