This one is weird, unfunny, bizarre, strange, and altogether "Huh?"

The Assistant Attorney General of Michigan, Andrew Shirvell, really doesn't like the openly-gay U of M Student Body President, Chris Armstrong. Really, really doesn't like him. In fact, he's started stalking a blog to report on Armstrong's every move, accusing Armstrong of "promoting the radical homosexual agenda" and being, I kid you not, "Satan's representative on the Student Council." Oh, and he also joined the Westboro Baptist Church in protesting the lad. Gehayi on LJ has a nice set of links here and here. For the link-phobic, here's part of one of the first articles, courtesy of WXYZ:

( Bizarrity ahead! )

Roger Ebert also blogs about it here and here, including the interview with Anderson Cooper and a video Shirvell himself shot outside Armstrong's house.

I, personally, think Shirvell needs a hobby. Or a boyfriend.

Protesters hurt slurs and spit at Democrats
Another article on same from the Huffington Post, which also shows pictures of signs from the protest. One of them reads "WARNING: If Brown can't stop it, a Browning can" with a picture of a gun. Charming.

( CNN article text )

( Huffington Post article text )


Stay classy, Tea Partiers. STAY CLASSY.

ETA: And it gets even better! Link via littleshebear: Right-wing bloggers demand apology from lawmakers called n-word by Tea Partyers. Yes, you read that right- they want an apology FROM THE PEOPLE WHO HAD RACIAL SLURS HURLED AT THEM because they're "just playing the race card" and (a direct quote) "So what if some idiot said a bad word?". Yeeeeah.

The Independent: Schoolboy confronts Griffin at memorial

Another for the 'Hey, the *whole* world doesn't suck' files.

( For those who are link-allergic, article's under the cut! )

Facebook Poll: Should Obama be killed?

It's been reported to the Secret Service, which I suspect will lead to OMG!Censorship accusations.

Did Hitler Want War?

Comes the response: The war guarantee was not about Danzig, or even about Poland. It was about the moral and strategic imperative “to stop Hitler” after he showed, by tearing up the Munich pact and Czechoslovakia with it, that he was out to conquer the world. And this Nazi beast could not be allowed to do that.

If true, a fair point. Americans, after all, were prepared to use atom bombs to keep the Red Army from the Channel. But where is the evidence that Adolf Hitler, whose victims as of March 1939 were a fraction of Gen. Pinochet’s, or Fidel Castro’s, was out to conquer the world?

....

Because Hitler wanted to end the war in 1940, almost two years before the trains began to roll to the camps.

Hitler had never wanted war with Poland, but an alliance with Poland such as he had with Francisco Franco’s Spain, Mussolini’s Italy, Miklos Horthy’s Hungary and Father Jozef Tiso’s Slovakia.

Chewed up and spat out at I Read Pat Buchanan’s Column On Hitler And My Eyes Are Bleeding

This is the kind of appalling historical piece that leaves me thinking that I’ve fallen through into a bizarro world, and wondering what on the earth Buchanan thought the point was? To rehabilitate Hitler? To excoriate those uncooperative Poles?

He’s not even particularly good at it.

All I can think of is is this: If Hitler isn't the bad evil man that history has made him out to be, does this mean all the comparisons of Obama to Hitler mean Obama = Good?

aryan_barbarian. Some say he's a troll; some that he's sad, deluded bigot who should never have been allowed near an internet connection. Either way, he's over at heated_debate and pissing people off, partly because he's posted a huge and explicitly sexual image outside of a cut, but mostly because he's a racist and sexist asshole who manages to invoke Godwin's law just by existing.

( Plenty to rage about under here. )

I wish I could say that this was the end of his asshattery, but no, he had to go and try to get people to validate his racism by telling everyone to choose between a freaky-looking Aryan toddler and a kid of the same age with hirsutism, as if choosing the first kid would make all Aryans look superior or... something. Don't ask me to follow his logic. Other members of the community call bullshit.

And if by chance all of this wasn't unfunny enough, aryan_barbarian's "mentally stimulating" journal will make it all better. Or worse. Horribly, immeasurably worse.

When a 25-year-old Manhattan graduate student who was assaulted Tuesday night got dressed that morning, she probably didn’t anticipate that her T-shirt would provoke four teens into shoving her, pulling out her earphones and spitting in her face.

Then again, with a shirt sporting the slogan, “Obama is my slave,” it may have been wise to consider the possibility.

Now she’s suing the $69 shirt’s designer, Apollo Braun, for “all he’s got,” the designer claims.

The designer says he doesn't like Obama "because he's a Muslim," and that he's moved shirts that say things like, "Jews against Obama," "Obama=Hitler" and "Who Killed Obama?"

I can't decide what fails most: that someone designed this shirt, that someone bought it (for $69!), or that the person who bought it is now trying to sue the designer because, surprise, surprise, it got a poor reception on the streets of New York.

ETA: No, I'm not condoning the attack upon the woman, no matter how offensively racist her shirt was. Questioning her judgment, yeah, but I'm not endorsing the teens who attacked her. Physical violence is also for the fail. Just FYI.

There is a Harry Potter RPG called Kristallnacht at InsaneJournal.

A sample from the FAQ:

Is this really the best choice of names for your game?

We realize some people might look at the name and think, "Do they realize they just named their game after a horrific event in World War II?" And yes, we do, and were well aware of it when we named the game. We were drawing parallels between Grindelwald's actions and those in World War II. As you may notice, a few of the important events in our history even occur on the same dates as the historical events, and this was not by accident. Don't worry, we did our research, and we didn't just think, "Man, that sounds like a cool name, and I do like broken glass!" If you find it offensive at all, then we're really sorry. Like, really really. That wasn't our intent and we're really actually good people, I swear.

The comment section of the FAQ is growing with responses, and separate posts are being made.

A thread at asylum_promo where kdorian offers to pay for a rename token. Mods decline.
the-willow's post
chopchica's post
zvi-likes-tv's post
rydra-wong's post
jennem's post, including a translation
amireal's post, with a picture of the ij's banner in the comments
saved page of the faq, by zhinxy
amireal's second post, with links
rename post at asylum_promo
( more )


marieantoinette "apologies"
blog post at racialicious
liz-marcs's post: The True Story of the Missing Jewish Women in Block 24

In her memoir, Misha Defonseca told the story of how, during the Second World War, her Jewish parents were arrested and she ran away from home in an attempt to find them. At the age of 6, she (among other things) wandered across occupied Europe, found her way into the Warsaw Ghetto and lived to tell about it, was occasionally taken in by packs of wolves, and killed a German soldier with her pocketknife. Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years was eventually translated into 18 languages, and became the basis for a French film, Survivre avec les loups ("Surviving With The Wolves").

Yesterday she realeased a statement in which she admitted the entire thing was a hoax.

( Read more... )

Neo-Nazi group publishes defendants' addresses.

Blows "It just the Internet!" out of the water.

ETA: Everyone's favorite racist politician speaks out

And to keep this fandom-related.... the next time there's a discussion on race in your fandom, and you disagree? Make sure you don't sound like this winner.

I've been reading JF for awhile, and i've only noticed a single post mentioning this.
Hopefully you know of the beheading video. If not, some links to enlighten:

Radio Free Europe: Controversy Grows Around Russian Beheading Video
NY Times: Beheading and Shooting by Russian Neo-Nazis on Video

Okay. That done, on to the meat of the issue:

Gee, this looks like a screencap from the video:
http://pics.livejournal.com/vik23/pic/0000q6tb/
Hosted right on LJ's own gallery service, no less.
His journal: http://vik23.livejournal.com (plug that url into google's russian->english beta, and see what you get.)

Snagged and (badly)translated from here (emphasis mine):
As has been discovered, a suspect is a 23-year-old Victor Milkov, a student absentee office Adygeyskogo Technological University. He was the National Socialist Party of Russia, and to life earns painting orders. Mr Milkov blogging in "Living Magazine" (Livejournal?) by anyone "vik23." This web diary on August 12 has reference to the spot, and August 13 -- Party statement that it is the armed wing of the National Socialist Society (PDF), together known participate in the "Russian marches and disperse gay parades. Yesterday against Mr. Milkova a criminal case was opened under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code (incitement of ethnic hatred), which provides for punishment of up to five years' imprisonment.

...So he's being charged, and his content remains up, untouched? (I can understand the necessity of keeping evidence for prosecution; however, this doesn't necessarily require said evidence remain online for all those hypothetical children to see. HELLO? MCFLY?)

LJ interest search for "white power". Notice all the Russian-language comms. Plug those comm urls' into Google's R>E engine, and let the hate speech and racism flow forth. Where's the outrage? Where's the open letters, the petitions, and all the spotlight?

Oh, right. LJ News just announced back-to-school v-gifts, and gratuitously plugs the shit out of Diet Pepsi Max (even going as far as to offer journal and mood themes!) hoping that everyone will get distracted. Because nothing says "I love you" more than a virtual diet pepsi max!

Dear LJ: Nice to know that stopping HP slash fanart, supporting anorexia, and chugging Pepsi's cock are more important than actually dealing with hardcore hate speech ToS violations. It's not like anyone's died, right?

LJ/6A should just come right out and admit that they're being 'selective' about whom they choose to apply the rules to.



Crossposted to a few other comms; apologies if you see twice.



I *really* wish i could install the russian text plugin, into my head. This language barrier crap needs to go.