Miscellaneous notes

[cleolinda]

Tickets for midnight Harry Potter are bought, whee! I'm hoping it'll be cold enough to geek out in my Ravenclaw scarf, because I am just. that. lame.

BPAL people, make sure you check out the new updates. And hide your wallets. (Hints: Muses, Three Witches, "Come and See," possibly Hades; I'm not sure.)

Derailed: I enjoyed it, if only for Teh Clive. It was also better written than your average thriller, but I suspect that's because it was based on a book. That doesn't mean it necessarily made sense, but the character relationships were fleshed out relatively well--better than in your basic twists-for-twists'-sake screenplay. I was able to guess the major plot twist about two weeks in advance, if only because... well, telling you how I knew would be giving it away. Let's just say that there's a really disturbing scene in the movie that I could not believe they would show if there wasn't something else behind it. Also, I... kinda screamed at one point. Shut up. I'm not proud.

Still slogging through Melville. Sigh.

Katrina death toll rises as evacuees return to homes.

rebel_waltz: "do you think you could make a link in your next link post to http://www.myspace.com/arresteddevelopment? it's a whole campaign put together to try and save Arrested Development. i'd really, really appreciate it, this show is too good."

The Vin Diesel Random Fact Generator. It's been around a while, but I was reminded of it the other day, and really, everyone should know the joy of randomly generated Vin Diesel facts. ("Vin Diesel won control of the Universe after defeating God in a ladder match. He gave God control back after a week, but only out of pity... only out of pity.") Also: The Chuck Norris Random Fact Generator.

("Vin Diesel once killed a man by flexing his biceps in his general direction.")

Holy shit. If you work at any kind of restaurant, but particularly a fast-food restaurant, you need to read this. And possibly print it out and carry it with you.  I got to "But she said Nix told her he would hit her if she didn't sodomize him, so she did" and my brain broke. See? It's on the floor in little pieces. They seem to have caught the caller guy, but... just read it. For future reference regarding your rights, if nothing else.

duncanatrix: "Here's something interesting. It's this awesome little flash thing called Epic 2015 that talks about how the whole world is going to go online--newspapers, shopping, entertainment, everything. The link is here: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/epic."

("Vin Diesel thinks in italics.")

On the heels of the link to that doll the other day: Memoirs of a Geisha: the hot merchandising property this fall.

A 'Lost' Ship With Leaks: The shocking spoiler that... wasn't shocking at all, because everyone found out about it ahead of time.

sigma7: "ObSony-link: Boing Boing's timeline of the entire debacle." Also: "Like you need more links to pimp, I know, but sadly the Sony story continues: apparently their rootkit uninstaller creates a security hole described as 'as grave as a security vulnerability can be.' Boing Boing article."

("When Vin Diesel shows up to class, 500 points go to Gryffindor.")

Brilliant spam of the day: "Sir/Madam, Your specific position has been evaluated to the important peoples, and upon cautious contemplation, we are able to extend to you the ensuing opening offer."

Brooke Burns Hospitalized. I'm not sure why I would care or who she is, but there you go.

First-Class Stamps to Go Up 2 Cents. Fuckers.

(I know, I know. There are probably very good reasons to raise the price of postage blah blah blah. All I know is, it renders my stamps useless, unless I want to go buy 2-cent stamps, and no one wants to do that, or double up the ones I've got. Fnarrr.)

("Coq au Vin used to be the French name for chicken stew. Ever since Vin Diesel's movies premiered in France, it has taken on a very different meaning, but the French people love it more than ever.")

From ethrosdemon: Help out with a documentary about fandom: "Would you be willing to be in it? Do you plan to attend any conventions in the next year where I could talk to you? Would you be willing to have your fic/fanart/meta/face in the film? Do you have any suggestions of what would be interesting/necessary topics in a documentary about on-line fandom? Do you want to offer a fannish subject (such as tin-hats, wingfic, metaing about gender, or so on) that you think is a very fundamental (or unique) on-line fandom pursuit? Would you help me by linking this in your own journal so I can get some traffic in here from fandoms I’m not in (manga, anime, obscure fandoms especially)?" (Note: I think there was some confusion initially. This is not my documentary. I'm no more involved than anyone else who participates in the documentary comm.)

("In 1993 Vin Diesel went on Double Dare. He lost, and in anger gave Marc Summers OCD.")

Paris Hilton Not Killed in Car Crash; Nation Mourns.

"Burn in hell, Mr. President."

Unfortunate Animal of the Month Club. Please notice that the artist is very interested in more $5 subscriptions (scroll down).

("Vin Diesel tortured everyone at the Geneva Convention until they signed the agreement.")

And finally, if you feel helpful and/or dramatic:

captain_lice: "Sorry about this OTness but do you know (or anyone else who reads this comment, for that matter) know of any funny monologues that are no longer than a minute or could be cut down to a minute? I have a Speaking Contest audition soon and I can't decide on one piece!"

Comments

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hell, the only person I don't blame at all is the poor girl. I mean, I would hope that I would teach my theoretical daughter to be a little more savvy, but she was only a teenager, and was held captive, *naked.*

Here's the other thing I can't quite parse: who got sodomized, the girl or the manager's fiance? Because the article makes it sound like the GUY was, by the captive girl, and that kind of doesn't make sense.

[wearejustducky.livejournal.com]

From what I could tell, he forced her to fellate him, saying that if she didn't cooperate he would beat the crap out of her, and since she was a terrorized tiny girl and he was a very large man, she did it.

The part that kills me is that he did it; the manager's fiance made the leap from holding her against her will and making her do degrading things to sexually assaulting her. You would think that THAT would the the final thing that pushed the situation in the man's mind from "weird, huh" to "OMG NOT RIGHT NOT RIGHT NOT RIGHT". But no, it took the janitor with the 9th grade education to see that.

After reading that story I feel the need to go bathe in a gallon or ten of Clorox.

[cpip.livejournal.com]

Indeed: that's where it all falls apart for me. It just doesn't make sense.

The guy almost plea bargained out, but the young woman, among others, made angry noises and the judge declined to accept a plea bargain.

[wearejustducky.livejournal.com]

I know, it doesn't make sense. It almost feels like a case of mass hysteria, where normally rational people went crazy for a while until they were forcibly snapped out of it.

I keep trying to make some sense of out his actions, because of all the people involved with that particular incident I find his the most opaque.

Of course, though, look at some of the other incidents mentioned - the father who had to jump the counter to get to his fifteen year old(!!!) daughter, the manager who had to have the cops called because he/she fought off the employee's family... the whole thing is like some sort of weird psychological thriller novel. Just, some of the behaviours just don't add up the more I think about it.

I'm glad that the creep didn't get a plea deal.

[dietcokebreak.livejournal.com]

Everyone who was involved in the holding and abuse of that poor girl should have the phrase "dumbass" tattooed on their heads. This is America, not a Third World dictatorship. Since when do the police "phone it in" and when do the police subject suspects to strip searches and torture?

I take that back: Everyone who was involved in the holding and abuse of that poor girl should be forced to watch "Law and Order" reruns continuously for a month.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but I like to think that I would have at least said, you know, if you're so hellbent on searching this girl, you come down here and do it yourself. Or, for that matter, let me TALK to corporate on the other line.

And as assy as McD's has been through the whole thing, they have one good point: the employee handbook actually says (apparently), that strip-searching is against company policy. Now, God knows I didn't ever read that shit when I worked at the video store, but you would think the MANAGER would be familiar with it.

[cpip.livejournal.com]

I would think, in general, strip-searches are against company policy EVERYWHERE, but what do I know?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Well, we (ie, American soldiers on behalf of the American government) do torture and strip-search people suspected of being terrorists (Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, a number of cases in Afghanistan, etc), and there have been a number of police brutality cases (such as the Abner Louima one) where police officers have tortured and sexually abused people, so I actually don't find it implausible at all that real cops might do stuff like that.

In fact, given the current debate going on at the highest echelons of American government over whether or not it should be illegal for American soldiers or CIA officers to torture foreign suspects, it's perfectly possible that there are civilians under the impression that torture and sexual abuse are part of law enforcement's regular repertoire.

That being said, even brutal cops doing illegal things do not typically phone it in, nor do they get civilians to do their dirty work for them, nor should civilians obey people they think are cops when the "cops" ask them to do illegal things.

So yeah: everyone involved was, at the very least, deeply naive.

What boggles my mind is the part where the manager's fiancee threatened to beat up the naked teenage girl if she didn't perform oral sex on him. I have to think that whether or not he realized that a hoax was going on, he saw the opportunity to commit rape without a penalty (he thought) and took it. What a sicko.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You know, I read the article again, and I'm not sure it ever said that the caller told him to demand oral sex. That's the scary part--that he was just like, "Well, while we're here and I've got complete control over you..."

[zoniduck.livejournal.com]

Oral sex was considered sodomy under Texas state law, along with anal sex, for same-sex couples. But the law was struck down by the US Supreme Court in November 2003, by their ruling in Lawrence and Garner v. Texas. My guess is that the use of the term "sodomize" in reference to oral sex is cultural rather than legal. It's interesting though, that the article says Nix was indicted for "sodomy and assault". Strange, given that Texas sodomy laws only referred to same-sex encounters. I'm stumped.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

See, I finally remembered the "sodomy is a multi-use term legally" bit, but what I don't get is the part where the newspaper seemed to think that would convey "oral sex" to its readership. I mean, is "fellate" such a terrible word? As it is, the article makes it sound like he said, "I'm going to hit you if you don't stick something up my ass. You know, in the course of discovering if you're guilty of theft."

The other thing I don't get is that, well, clearly, "to fellate him" makes more sense. But if Texas sodomy laws only refer to same-sex encounters--well, I was about to say that implies he *did* ask the girl to literally sodomize him, but it actually doesn't imply anything except that the law (according to this article) considered her a boy for reasons unbeknownst to us or common sense.

[zoniduck.livejournal.com]

You know what? This happened in Kentucky, not Texas. Where did I get the idea that it was Texas? Be that as it may, apparently, the sodomy laws in Kentucky were struck down in 1992 by the Supreme Court of Kentucky. I have no explanation for why the state would have charged the man with sodomy if the law is no longer on the books.

As far as why the paper used the term, the only thing I can think is that they had a resonable expectation that their readership would understand the term to mean oral sex. It makes no sense to me, though.

I was just reading the linked article about the fiancee's sentencing. They finally did work out a plea bargain. The girl finally agreed to it. Because Nix said that he would make a statement that he was sorry, and that she had done nothing wrong. God. It absolutely breaks my heart what was done to that poor kid, not just by all the people who participated in the event, but by McDonalds corporate. Those fuckers.

Supersize Me wasn't enough to make me stop eating at McDonalds, but it'll be a cold day in Hell if these fuckers ever see another dime of my money now. I need a rage icon.

[zoniduck.livejournal.com]

Oops! Actually, the judge rejected the plea deal (http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051103/NEWS01/511030425), for very good reasons, IMHO. The trial is set for next month. He did apologize to the victim, and said that he was ashamed of what he had done. Well he fucking well ought to be.