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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Daniel B. Holzman-Tweed" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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03:04 am
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10th Anniversary
On June 25, 1999, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jadegirl and I first became a dyad on a night we still call "The Night From Hell." It was one of those nights that ended with us seeing the dawn because we were talking. (No, really!) Today, June 26, is the anniversary of our first Ren Faire together. Tommorow, June 27, is her birthday.
It doesn't feel like 10 years. It feels like forever and yesterday at the same time. They've been the best 10 years of my life, and I am happier and more thankful than I can say to have so wonderful a girl as her.
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12:28 pm
[Link] | As so many others, my thoughts are with the people of Iran today. I am mindful that by their lights and mine anyone who falls while striving for freedom is a martyr who will be welcomed into the next world; and that fleeting victories to the contrary, against the human will for freedom every tyrant struggles in vain; and that the only thing any empire can ever be reliably counted upon to do is fall.
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11:18 am
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Putting the news into proper perspective
The Chinese government today officialy commemorated the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmin Square protest and massacre by blanketing the square with police officers.
For those who missed it, the intent of the protest twenty years go was to request that the Maoist revolution take the next step as outlined by Marx and move towards democracy.
"People should not be afraid of their government. Government should be afraid of its people."
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09:20 pm
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An open letter to my State Senator, George Onorato
Mr. Onorato,
I have read with great distress that you intend to vote against ending legalized discrimination against same-sex couples in marriage. As your constituent, I want you to know that I find your position completely unacceptable.
Your appeal to your religious views regarding the religious institution of marriage are not an acceptable excuse for your decision to deny equal rights to all citizens. Marriage is a civil institution, and civil rights are granted or withheld on its basis. Further, the religious institution of marriage is in no way affected by a civil recognition of same-sex marriages. Your choice to harm your neighbor is as Unchristian as it is Unamerican.
I urge you to repent of this sin and embrace Christ's teaching that you are to love your neighbor as yourself. Further, I urge you to adhere to the Torahic admonition to have one law for all people, not this law for some and that law for others.
If you continue on this path, I promise you that you will never again receive a penny nor a vote from me. Instead, those resources as well as my volunteer time and voice as a citizen will go to any Democrat willing to unseat you.
Regards,
Dan Holzman-Tweed
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06:01 pm
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Writer's Block: There Can Be Only One
"Believe in it? I have seen it performed!" -- Mark Twain, when asked if he believed in infant baptism.
Tags: monogamy, writer's block
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08:22 am
[Link] | Quoting from ![[info]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) foc_u
"In the past few months, minorities have been denigrated by bigoted authors and publishers who have also asserted that Fen of Color are rare and piratically non-existent. Despite numerous discussions and attempts to enlighten on the fact that POCs are fans, writers, artists and just as integral to this genre as our white counterparts, we are continuously dismissed.
"On Monday May 18, 2009, we are asking anyone who identifies as a POC/non-white to post this banner, their speculative short stories, artwork, poetry or simply write a post on their favorite fandom on their blogs as an act of protest to show we will not be silent or invisible. The day of protest is entitled Fen Of Color United or more aptly, FOC_U.
"White allies can also show solidarity for this event by posting this banner and expressing the need for diversity and speaking out against the bigotry in the genre, through posts and/or their creative work as well.
My own thoughts:
People of Color have been a part of Fandom, writing, reading, gophering, SMOFing, attending cons, for longer than I've been alive. If you're in fandom today, you owe a debt to a number of People of Color for creating that fandom for you. Many more People of Color have been writing and reading without attending cons for a variety of reasons chronicled elsewhere but largely involving a disinterest in being surrounded by hordes of white fen who were and are far less slannish than we like to think we are.
The longest running comment thread in the history of this journal on DW or LJ was composed of white Fen falling all over themselves to tell me how wrong I was about there being racism in Fandom after 10 years of Barbara Hambly's work (historial fiction featuri a Free Man of Color) was ignored when she was goH at WorldCon. Perhaps this time around, we'll do better than that.
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03:55 pm
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Multitasking...
Several purposes to this post. One is to see if crossposting from DreamWidth, where I'm holzman_tweed. (I'm seeing how this translates. If it's hard to read on LJ, I'm Holzman-Tweed.
I'm also posting to talk about skipping the X-Men and seeing Nightwish this weekend.
Photos
( We cut because we care. )
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03:53 pm
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Writer's Block: Celebrating Friendships
dear_old_dad is my father.
Tags: lj friends, writer's block
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10:22 am
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An Open Letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama,
Please don't make yourself an accessory to war crimes. Whether the CIA "acted in good faith" when it went to the corrupt Bush Administration's corrupt attorneys, or knew they'd get legal cover for their illegal actions is not a question for you to decide as President, but for a prosecutor and defense attorney to argue. Whether that fine distinction makes any difference to whether they should be convicted for under the War Crimes Act is not a question for you to decide as President, but for a jury. Whether it is a mitigating factor in sentencing is a question for a judge.
I've heard it said that we need to "move forward." Sweeping these things under the rug is not moving forward, Mr. President, it is leaving the question open. Underlying the notion that we must let war criminals go unpunished in order to move forward is the idea that we, the American People, can't take it.
Sir, that idea betrays every principle you espoused as a candidate. You should be ashamed of yourself for even contemplating it.
Charles Pierce put this better than I can hope to, so I will quote him here for your consideration:
I have now lived through three major episodes in my life where the political elite have told me quite plainly that neither I nor my fellow citizens are sufficiently mature to suffer the public prosecution of major crimes committed within my government. The first was when Gerry Ford told me I wasn't strong enough to handle the sight of Richard Nixon in the dock...
"The second time was when the entire government went into spasm over the crimes of the Iran-Contra gang and I was told that I wasn't strong enough to see Ronald Reagan impeached or his men packed off to Danbury...
"Now, Barack Obama, who won election by telling the country and its people that they were great because of all they'd done for him, has told me that I am not strong enough to handle the prosecution of pale and vicious bureaucrats... who have broken the law, disgraced their oaths, and manifestly belong in a one-room suite at the Hague. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I'm sick and goddamn tired of being told that, as a citizen, I am too fragile to bear the horrible burden of watching public criminals pay for their crimes and that, as a political entity, my fellow citizens and I are delicate flowers encased in candy-glass who must be kept away from the sight of men in fine suits weeping as they are ripped from the arms of their families and sent off to penal institutions...
"Put these barbarians on trial and watch me. I'll be the guy out in front of the courtroom with a lawn chair, some sandwiches, and a cooler of fine beer. I'll be the guy who hires the brass band to serenade these criminal bastards on their way off to the big house. I'll be the one who shows up at every one of their probation hearings with a copy of the Constitution, the way crime victims show up at the parole board when their attacker comes up for release. I'll declare a national holiday -- Victory Over Torture Day -- and lead the parade right up whatever gated street it is that Cheney lives on these days. Trust me, Mr. President. I can take it."
It's not too late, Mr. President. You can still make the right decision: prosecute these criminals.
Regards,
Dan Holzman_Tweed
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07:43 pm
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Heavy Metal Mondays on Friday at Vikingo's Dungeon in Astoria
Hey metalheads in NYC! Check this out!
The Vikingo's Dungeon club in Astoria does a Heavy Metal night every third Friday from 6 - 10 PM.
It's a friendly bunch, and includes jadegirl and I now. If enough people drink enough alcohol, perhaps we can make this a weekly thing. The Gods know we didn't leave a full club behind when it switched back to its normal format.
And, frankly, we need more of this in Queens. Perhaps it's time for the rebirth of the US metal scene? Maybe then bands like Kamelot won't have to go to Germany to get their records out.
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04:02 pm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/45446536/380733) [Link] |
Regarding privilege: An primer of fundamental concepts
The brilliant stoneself has posted a number of essays in his LJ and on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) debunkingwhite about the nature of privilege and oppression. He recently posted a summary of those points, and I thought they'd be a very useful thing to repost here both for my own reference and to build on in future posts I might make.
I repost it in full with permission, changing only the listing marks for my ease of reference.
1) what is privilege?
A. the set of unearned advantages a person gets (you get) for some perceived trait a person possesses (you possess).
B. the set of unwarranted disadvantages you don't suffer under, but other people suffer.
C. there are "positive" advantages. "positive" meaning they are felt by their presence. not in the sense they are good. though "positive advantage" is a "proper" technical term, but in less technical writing i suggest using "present advantage" (or some other synonym). and then i still recommend explaining what you mean. i'll explain a little later.
D. there are "negative" advantages. "negative" meaning they are felt by their absence. not in the sense they are bad. though "positive advantage" is a proper technical term, but in less technical i suggest using "absent advantage" (or some other synonym). and then i still recommend explaining what you mean. i'll explain.
E. the difference between a "positive" advantage and a "negative" advantage is very important. you can more easily see a positive advantage, and thus these advantages are hard to refute. however, it's very hard to see "negative" advantages, and this makes it easy to ignore, deny, and erase these parts of privilege.
F. it is in the denial of "negative" advantages that a lot of friction arises.
2) it is privilege that creates its corresponding oppression, and then there is a feedback loop.
A. male privilege produces sexism, and then sexism feeds back into male privilege.
B. white privilege produces racism, and then racism feeds back into white privilege.
C. straight privilege produces homophobia[/heterosexism -- DBHT], and then homophobia[/heterosexism -- DBHT] feeds back into straight privilege.
D. etc.
3) privilege (and it's corresponding oppression) are not marked by intention, they are marked by effect.
A. privilege causes harm
B. harm you don't see because a lot of it is "negative". more on this later.
4) partaking in your privilege is to participate in the corresponding oppression.
A. if you have white privilege, you will be racist.
B. if you have male privilege, you will do sexist things.
C. if you have straight privilege, you will contribute to the atmosphere of homophobia
D. if you are able-bodied, you will say things that exclude and other disabled people.
E. this is true even if you are anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-homophobic, etc. you can be against a thing, and still be/do that thing.
5) there is no escape from your privilege.
A. you will never be clean of it, but you can always become a better person. you can work to minimize the effect of your privilege.
B. the thing to understand about this is that there's no point in thinking that you're an irredeemable hopeless case wrt your privilege.
i. this means dwelling on your own shame or guilt is not productive
ii. and it means you shouldn't think people are calling you irredeemably evil for being racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.
6) privilege is marked by absences.
A. privilege is largely about what's not in a privileged person's head.
B. those absences shape thinking, speech, and action as much what is present.
C. unconscious and unintentional acts of privilege that arise from an absences truly mystify people with privilege.
D. without the experience and history of the non-privileged person to inform a privileged person, the privilege person doesn't quite understand why the non-privileged person has been offended.
7) having privilege is rarely an intentional or conscious act.
A. privilege is largely about how other people treat you. if they treat you in a privileged way, there's really no way to opt out of it - even if you notice and want to avoid it.
B. there can be no intention about stuff that's not in your head. you can't plan about stuff you're not even thinking about.
C. and yet you will act and think from a privileged place.
8) there are many kinds of privilege
A. male privilege
B. white privilege
C. straight privilege
D. able-bodied privilege
E. cis-gender privilege
F. class privilege
G. and more
9) you can suffer under one set of privileges and benefit from another.
A. just because you're poor doesn't erase your white privilege
B. just because you're poc doesn't erase your male privilege
C. just because you're queer doesn't erase your able-body cis-gender male white privilege.
10) ranking privileges is bad
A. one privilege does not trump another privilege. that is to say that saying sexism is worse than racism or that racism is worse to sexism is wrong. if you want to understand this talk to people who live under two oppression - women of color (woc), queers of color, queers in wheelchairs, blind women, or etc.
B. the systems that produces privileges and causes oppressions are interlocking. sexism supports homophobia supports racism supports etc. most of this mutual support exists as justifying othering people for being different.
C. and attempts to rank privilege turns out to be way to divide and conquer. separating oppressed people from each other means it's hard to take apart the system of systems of oppression.
D. there is some fruit to be gathered by comparing and contrasting privileges and oppressions, but much caution is needed because it tends to become a ranking system. if you're new to this all, just don't do it.
11) living with one kind of oppression doesn't give you automatic understanding of another oppression.
A. one kind of privilege does not automagically inform you about another, there are many salient differences. you own oppression can help you understand a different oppression, but not as much as you think. trust me, i know this from my experiences as a queer poc. poc get queer issues wrong. and queers get poc issues wrong. and i still get all my other privileges (male, cis-gendered, able-bodied) wrong.
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11:29 am
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I support verb_noire and I hope you will, too.
verb_noire is a start-up publishng house that has undertaken to remedy long-standing deficiencies in Science Fiction and Fantasy regarding the representation of People of Color.
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10:06 am
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For the record, and regarding Fandom
I concur in full with rozk in her recent statement regarding RaceFail 2009, specifically in her criticism of specific bad behavior on the parts of Kathryn Cramer and Elizabeth Bear.
Also? This, from bossymarmalade (via stoneself on debunkingwhite) is useful, instructive, and quite elegant.
I haven't participated in RaceFail 2009, largely because of time constraints, largely because of the number of people calling specifically to tell me not to even read it because I have enough trouble with high blood pressure as it is. That's an odd space for me to be in as part of the deadbrowalking modstaff.
But goodgoddam, I've lost alot of respect for alot of people I really thought were wiser than they have shown themselves in the last few weeks, and that's kinda painful no matter how many times I tell myself you can never guess where The Clue Ends for any given person. (rmjwell wrote an excellent piece on this a few years back, I think talking about Jimmy the Greek and what might be termed "RaceFail 1988."
For all of my adolescent and adult life, I've had two refuges from the crushing pressure of mundania: Heavy Metal and Fandom[1]. Gaming, Comics, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Filking, Costuming. Fannish parties, fannish friends, fannish lovers, fannish art, fannish music alongside the Metal[2], fannish this, fannish that, fannish the other.
In short, fen culture.
My current gaffiation from Cons does not change that.
Like truepenny says, I "do not want science fiction/fantasy/horror to be a white-only domain." I'll even go so far to say that to the extent that fandom is not welcoming of all fen, we fail as a community and as a culture. I've lived through us struggling to figure out what that means when the fen who don't feel included are female fen, LGBT fen, foreign fen, old fen, young fen, vanilla fen, kinky fen, Christian fen, Jewish fen, Pagan fen, Athiest fen, Liberal fen, Conservative fen, ad nauseum. I've lived through that same struggle when the fen who didn't feel included were Klingons, Furries, Media fen, Hall costumers, Trekkers, Gamers, LARPers, ad nauseum.
And I've lived through that on both sides amidst controversies great and small.[3]
Maybe the takeaway from Race Fail 2009 is that there's a bunch of fen that fandom is failing, and maybe we should be doing better about that? We write and dream of futures wherein we build better cultures than we have today. Those don't just happen, we build them.
[1] Don't get me started on how sad it is that we don't have more filk based on Metal.[4]
[2] And a great big shout-out to the fannish themes of bands like Hawkwind and Tarot!
[3] I still use "Boskone" as a verb akin to saying someone did a "heckuva job".
[4] And another shout-out to Barry and Sally Childs-Helton for "Stairway to Fandom."
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09:36 am
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Reposted from Deadbrowalking: PoC in SF/F Carnival Special Edition
PSA: PoC in SF/F Special Edition: Interrogating the Text, De-colonizing the Mind
I'm pleased to announce the following:
PoC in SF/F Carnival Special Edition:
Interrogating the Text, De-Colonizing the Mind: An Intra-PoC Dialogue
This special edition of the PoC in SF/F carnival is once again dedicated to intra-PoC dialogue.
Separated by time and distance, joined by personal experience and on/offline interaction, our lives together are not always a bed of roses.
In the wake of recent events, what's next on the horizon for intra-PoC relations in the wake of recent events? How do I/You/Me/We go about creating those places where our own efforts shine while at the same time work through those things that divide us?
Contributors are invited to engage the theme as they choose. It's a jumping off point but not necessarily a cliff.
Caveat: Since People of Color (PoC) is not necessarily a universally used term, especially by fans living outside of the US, I encourage those who have other ways of defining themselves (for example, non-white, fen of pigment, chromatic) to step up and participate.
Feel free to post this notice far and wide.
Send your links to: ladyj dot 965 at gmail dot com
Deadline for submission: March 27, 2009
Host: ladyjax
Location: boom_tube (aka ladyjax's other not so used LiveJournal)
(big thanks to Willow for encouraging this latest intra-PoC dialogue to become a special edition of the Carnival).
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07:59 am
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Sorry for the short notice, but...
John Sims is my old lab/office partner from college. He's one of the finest mathematicians I've ever had leave me in the theoretical dust, only to catch me up right after. For the last several years, he's been making art.
Some of it is very specificaly political and controversial, such as "The Proper Way To Hang A Confederate Flag" and the Recolorization project. Some of it is more theoretical in it's explorations, such as "The Square Root Of A Tree." He's currently showing a series of quilts (and Jazz) based on Pi here in NYC. Alas, I didn't learn of this until this week, and this is the closing week.
If you've got some time, hie thee down to 2nd St between Ave B & C. There's only the one art gallery there, on the south side of the street, and check it out. I'd give you the name of the place, but in my excitement at seeing John after 22 years, I neglected to get the name of the place.
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04:06 pm
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President Obama continues to rock my world...
...because he gets this:
"Equal pay is by no means just a women's issue -- it's a family issue. It's about parents who find themselves with less money for tuition and child care; couples who wind up with less to retire on; households where one breadwinner is paid less than she deserves; that's the difference between affording the mortgage -- or not; between keeping the heat on, or paying the doctor bills -- or not.
"Making out economy work means making sure it works for everybody..."
"...it's not just unfair and illegal, it's bad for business to pay somebody less because of their gender or their age or their race or their ethnicity, religion, or disability...
"...justice is not about some abstract legal theory, or a footnote in a casebook. It's about how our laws affect the daily lives and daily realities of people; their ability to make a living and care for their families and achieve their goals.
"Ulitmately, equal pay isn't just an economic issue for illions of Americans and their families, it's a question of who we are -- and whether we're truly living up to our fundamental ideals...with a more enlightened understanding that is appropriate for our time.
"I sign this ill not just in [Lilly Ledbetter's] honor, but in honor of those who came before - women like my grandmother... for my daughters, and all those who will come after us, because I want them to grow up in a nation that values their contributions, where there are no limits to their dreams and they have opportunities their mothers and grandmothers never could have imagined."
"And now it's up to us to continue this work. This il is an important step... This is only the beginning."
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02:59 am
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The good and the bad
The good is that the grown-ups are back in charge.
The bad is that the Bush economy, almost like a parting love note from the Drunk, began affecting me directly and personally Monday. I am no longer a salaried employee of $employer, but a "Project Plus" employee. This means that I'm paid by the hour for billable tasks. The downside is that my income fortnight-to-fortnight is an uncertain thing. The upside is that I can look for projects from sources other than $employer to fill that time. That's not really that much of an upside, because it's additional hassle. I suppose the real upside is that I'm not laid off -- more than I can say for some of my colleagues. To say nothing of so many others.
Hey, need someone to do some security consulting? Drop me a line and let's talk -- my credentials and experience are impeccable, and my rates are reasonable. If you don't need some security consulting, maybe you know someone who does.
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01:34 pm
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Mumbai
9/11/2001, the world spoke up when terrorists attacked my home. I apreciated that then, and I appreciate that now.
I want to reciprocate, to say something about or to the people of Mumbai, but "Today we are all X" has become trite; but I don't know what else to say. But I did want to put out there that you're in my thoughts.
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07:22 pm
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Dear Lazyweb, re: Vista
Hey, fellow geeks: Soon it will be time for me to buy a new PC. I'm looking at a number of things, from the HP Paviliaion d5100t to the Dell Studio XPS to the Falcon NW Fragbox. I have two questions:
1) What's your favorite muscle box, that you'd recommend I look at? I'm hoping to keep the whole thing under or not much over $3K.
2) Everyone's offering Vista, and I'm hearing I'll have to jump through hoops, spend extra money, and spend lots of time on the phone to downgrade from Vista to XP. Has M$ fixed Vista to the point that it's safe to use, or should I gear up for the headaches?
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03:26 pm
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Transgender Day of Rememberance
Today is the tenth annual Transgender Day of Rememberance.
A transgendered person is 1500 times more likely to be murdered than a cisgendered person. Today is a day for remembering them, particularly the people who have been murdered in the last year for no reason other than the fact that they're transgendered.
As shemale notes, it's not a day for celebration, it's not a fesitval, it's not a goddamn potluck, particularly if you're part of the transphobic problem that enables these murders. HRC, I'm looking at you, and in case you're wondering why you get no money from me you treat transfolk are treated has alot to do with it.
So take a moment and remember. And the renew your resolve to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem, and do something about it.</lj>
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