User:	unfunnybusiness (posted by notjo)
	Date:	2009-11-23 09:34
	Subject:	I'm really tired of 2009: RaceFail kicks up again?
	Security:	Public

Remember RaceFail? I remember RaceFail.

All of you who participated in it? Wi11 $h*tt*1y has this to say:

forgiving everyone in RaceFail 09
ETA: I hesitated before making this a public post, but RaceFail and its fallout were so very public that this seems necessary, especially if Tempest and sparkymonster and anyone else are truly concerned I'm carrying a grudge and hoping to act on it.

I forgive everyone involved in RaceFail 09.

Perhaps that should be the whole of this post, but I'm not that kind of writer. So:

	User:	unfunnybusiness (posted by ardath_rekha)
	Date:	2009-11-22 12:16
	Subject:	Seems like we're in "The Catholic Church Bares Its Ass" week...
	Security:	Public

Their latest antic? They're not quite excommunicating a congressman (a Kennedy, no less), but they are, apparently, forbidding him to take communion because he's pro-choice.

( Linkophobes can click here to read. )

	User:	unfunnybusiness (posted by dana)
	Date:	2009-11-22 19:46
	Subject:	Tawdry tale of banker tangled up in blonde
	Security:	Public

I do not know what to make of the story this article is reporting on (apart from boggling at the money that some people earn), but the writer, Peter Stanford, what the hell? Is this suppose to be funny, am I missing something. Maybe my sense of humour is broken.

---

''IS IT the 'dumb blonde' hearing you're looking for, sir?'' someone asks as I wander the corridors of Victory House, home of the London Central Employment Tribunal. Just as he is pointing out the right door, a procession topped by various shades of blonde goes through it.

( It is hard to imagine him, as Ms Wimmer has alleged, cavorting in front of her with a lap-dancer in a Paris burlesque club. )

Source

	User:	fandom_rant (posted by sparkthatbled)
	Date:	2009-11-22 01:35
	Subject:	So, Moé...
	Security:	Public

Moe anime is pretty much the hot issue running throughout fandom these days. It's kind of hard not to be, due to the fact that it's mostly about cute or sexy teenage girls in endless general permutations. Everybody knows about it, and it's hard not to have an opinion on it.

For me, moé anime is a genre that is pretty schizophrenic, because its definition changes depending on the person you're talking to about it. And therein lies the problem that I have with moé. Generally, I don't hate it that much. I hate the creepy fanservicey moé anime and the weak harem anime with a burning fury of a Chapter of Space Marines, but the light, cute and innocent stuff I let by, even enjoy, most of the time.

No, what gets my goat is the big "war" between pro and anti moé factions in fandom, with wank flying about the place and people ranting and raving about "greasy slimy pedos" and "angry screaming whiners". I just want to plug my ears sometimes and wish all of them would shut up. All of them. They're seriously giving me trouble trying to be an anime fan.

Soon I hope, this whole moé wank would die down, and maybe I can actually enjoy anime without feeling guilty for it.

	User:	fandom_wank (posted by inquisition)
	Date:	2009-11-21 10:46
	Subject:	slow-mo panda is slow
	Security:	Public

We begin our saga on the fair hills of house_wilson, where the grass grows green and the House/Wilson shippers occasionally throw shit fits over whether or not David Shore is dicking around House/Wilson shippers.

One day, this (relatively) peaceful comm is visited by slow_mo_panda, who had arrived to bring to everyone her thoughts on yaoi The Contract, a love-it or hate-it extreme-whump fic amongst House fandom.

The masses do not react well. (And euclase wins the "most over-the-top reaction to criticism" award for this week.)

Having been thrown out by her ears, slow_mo_panda once again continued her travels, landing on the shores of fanficrants, where she hoped to be greeted with open arms and kind words telling her how everyone else is a bunch of mean bitches.

Alas, she had no luck on that front, either.

After a number of negative comments, she deleted that post and was banninated from fanficrants. And there was much rejoicing.

Hearing the commotion, ffrantsrants and sf_drama arrived on the scene so that they could point and laugh.

However, this is not the end of our story. slow_mo_panda, apparently having not learned her lesson yet, appeared once again, this time in ffrantsrants in order to talk about how oppressed she is. Or something. ETA: Now locked down, but here's a text-version:
( also long )
ETA2: And now doire brings the screencaps.


Caps courtesy of xayeidemon.

ETA: Removed links to locked fanficrants content.

ETA2: Apparently, our friend has left a review on ff.net on the original fic:
( cut for length )


ETA3: Now a tl;dr post in her personal journal. Man, she really doesn't know when to stop, does she?

	User:	unfunnybusiness (posted by cat_mcdougall)
	Date:	2009-11-21 06:16
	Subject:	Sometimes, Karma does work
	Security:	Public

Remember the 8yo in Arizona who was gang raped?

Her parents have been arrested on Child abuse charges

( For the linkphobic )

It won't help the little girl get over what was done to her, but I can't help but feel just a tiny bit glad that this happened.

	User:	fandom_lounge (posted by jkefka)
	Date:	2009-11-20 22:46
	Subject:	Desert Bus for Hope has returned! Charitable Schadenfreude a-go-go!
	Security:	Public

I hope all of you know about Desert Bus for Hope. If you don't, it's a group of sorry bastards who play the most tedious game ever made (it was specifically designed to be tedious) to raise money for Penny Arcade's "Child's Play" charity. The live feed of the guys is hilarious and the live feed of the bus is delightfully mellow, and you can make special requests with your donation! (E.g. have the crew sing a particular song or put on a silly hat). The bus is rolling again, and as of the moment they started they were committed to drive that bus for 97 hours. That's from money raised before they started, over $10,000! Roll on you crazy fuckers.

ETA: For those of you on Twitter, there is an effort to keep #desertbus up in the trending topics! Come on, let's beat out New Moon!

	User:	political_wank (posted by platedlizard)
	Date:	2009-11-20 18:35
	Subject:	This is not a parody, I repeat, this is not a parody.
	Security:	Public

I like how they find the one black teabagger and focus on him.

	User:	fandom_lounge (posted by researchgrrrl)
	Date:	2009-11-20 20:39
	Subject:	the grandest XO of ALL
	Security:	Public

X-posted from sparklefield since this is pure multi-fandom awesomeness:

The Simpsons's 2010 Hallowe'en special will feature a segment in which Lisa falls madly in love with a vampire boy named Edmund. Cast as the voice of Edmund?

Daniel Radcliffe. ♥!

	User:	unfunnybusiness (posted by staroverthebay)
	Date:	2009-11-20 14:18
	Subject:	Pedophile priests should get ..... wait, WHAT?!
	Security:	Public

( Cut for triggery WTFery )

That headline is ridiculous. The article is not much better.

*quiet rage*

ETA: Forgot the link, had to hunt through my browser history for it.

Also, I'm still trying to figure out that line about "alleged abuse victims" -- what, the priests are convicted as pedophiles, but that doesn't mean the victims are telling the truth?

	User:	clairvoyantwank (posted by beejium)
	Date:	2009-11-20 17:55
	Subject:	Dammit, Who fandom, be wankier!
	Security:	Public

Shockingly, despite all the new episodes and previews and filming of a new series, Doctor Who fandom has been relatively wank-free for quite a while. (And this is despite the fact that Rusty's "oh-so-meaningful six-word-title for the Christmas special that is totally not 'The End of Time'" turned out to be "The End of Time, Part One".) Stupid agreeable fandom.

Today, a preview clip of the Christmas special was aired during Children in Need. (Which can be viewed here, for those who missed it.) In a throwaway joke, it was implied that...

( Slight spoilers under the cut (for preview only) )

Oh, apparently there was Barrowman in pants, as well. I missed that bit.

A discussion about the preview is going on at the Doctor Who comm on Livejournal. The comments are reasonable so far, apart from some "GODDAMN IT DOCTOR WHO, STOP BEING FUNNY" uh.. ness. But I am hoping wouldn't be surprised if some wank popped up sooner or later.

Me, I'll just be over here laughing forever. (So as to avoid thinking about what's to come at Christmas. D:)

	User:	unfunnybusiness (posted by j_crew_guy)
	Date:	2009-11-20 10:33
	Subject:	I have to laugh at how they're missing the point. Or else I'm going to cry.
	Security:	Public

Citing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s call to civil disobedience, 145 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders have signed a declaration saying they will not cooperate with laws that they say could be used to compel their institutions to participate in abortions, or to bless or in any way recognize same-sex couples.

( Full text for the linkphobic )

	User:	fandom_wank (posted by bobafeis)
	Date:	2009-11-20 02:44
	Subject:	We don't actually know if this is plagiarism wank, unless someone out there is an internets lawyer
	Security:	Public

Here's some Project Runway plagiarism wank to go with the lovely vanity pub and author wank. I hope it goes without saying that there might be a spoiler or two for the finale, but I'll say it anyway: There are spoilers for the finale in this post.

Project Runway "villain" and finalist Irina had a shirt in her final Bryant Park collection that has all the reasons she loves New York written on it. Oh, wait. Those aren't the reasons she loves New York, those are the reasons that someone who wrote a famous New York Magazine article loves New York. And this is the same girl who was going to feature Coney Conney Island artwork in the collection until she was told that it would be copyright infringement? And NY Mag says that she didn't ask permission? And I don't even have to tell you that this isn't going to end well, do I?

And then ( spoileriffic things happen! And so does wank. )

	User:	fandom_wank (posted by jkefka)
	Date:	2009-11-19 19:54
	Subject:	Harlequin vanity bodice-ripping wank! (Even more awesome than it sounds)
	Security:	Public

Hang on to your hats, kids, this one's a doozy in several parts. To start off, you might want to catch up on agilebrit's clairvoyantwank writeup. Clairvoyant indeed! To sum up, romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises teamed up with a publisher called ASI solutions to form Harlequin Horizons, a vanity press. Romance Writers of America promptly revoked Harlequin's "recognized publisher" status.

And now for a wank in several parts, involving a goodly number of awesome people in addition to a wanking Cast of Thousands (tm):

( Part 1: PubRants )

( Part deux: various forums )

( Part Three: SBTB, and Nora Fucking Roberts )

( Part the last: The NEW YORKER?! )

And finally, THIS JUST IN from PubRants. Watch that post for further fappery developments! Notably, Harlequin has decided to dissociate the "Harlequin" name from their vanity publishing rig in response to the RWA slamming them, and the MWA has weighed in. ETA: And the wank has matured nicely! Here's a couple comments of note: Anon #1, Anon #2, "Harlequin, were not stupid" [sic].

And here come the ETAS!
#1: SFWA tweets a heads-up, and the glorious katamari of wank rolls on!

#2: Coutesy of magnolia_mama, Lee Goldberg drops his two cents from the MWA soapbox. In a shocking turn of events, he seems to be making a cogent, reasonable argument. My world is rocked.

#3: annathepiper links us to SFWA's statement, which is possibly the strongest yet! For a snippet:

...Further, SFWA believes that work published with Harlequin Horizons may injure writing careers by associating authors’ names with small sales levels reflected by the imprint’s lack of distribution, as well as its emphasis upon income received from writers and not readers....Until such time as Harlequin changes course, and returns to a model of legitimately working with authors instead of charging authors for publishing services, SFWA has no choice but to be absolutely clear that NO titles from ANY Harlequin imprint will be counted as qualifying for membership in SFWA. Further, Harlequin should be on notice that while the rules of our annual Nebula Award do not expressly prohibit self-published titles from winning, it is highly unlikely that our membership would ever nominate or vote for a work that was published in this manner....SFWA does not believe that changing the name of the imprint, or in some other way attempting to disguise the relationship to Harlequin, changes the intention, and calls on Harlequin to do the right thing by immediately discontinuing this imprint and returning to doing business as an advance and royalty paying publisher.

Count on the pew-pew lasers genre to bring the burn!

#4: Found by pariforma, someone named Jackie Kessler has an excellent (and amusing) summary of the whole mess on their blog. The pricing breakdown (with reference links to the Harlequin price-sheets themselves) is particularly well-done.

#5, which should be like #3 but I missed it the first time: via lady_ganesh, Mr. Scalzi has spoken. Does anyone else smell something...burning?

( Too Hot (and big) For Your Flist )

Mmm, PR barbecue. As a bonus, there's a lovely herd of teal deer in the comments, including some truly lovely wanking by one Diana Peterfreund and a few others. Scroll on through, it's a good time.

Blooper reel: We, uh, may have played a part in crashing SBTB for a while there. please don't kill meeeee

#6: Zoe Winters continues her wanking in the comments of an article at the Examiner. Thanks dreamworld!

	User:	unfunnybusiness (posted by felinephoenix)
	Date:	2009-11-19 10:38
	Subject:	Anti-Violence PSA Game Stirs Controversy
	Security:	Public

I was kind of surprised this hadn't hit Unfunnybusiness yet...

( Cut for triggers. )

	User:	unfunnybusiness (posted by cygnia)
	Date:	2009-11-19 10:26
	Subject:	Tragedy all around
	Security:	Public

Father kills son after son's underage sex confession

( Cut for triggers )

	User:	clairvoyantwank (posted by ladylauren)
	Date:	2009-11-19 17:03
	Subject:	Would the real mbml please stand up?
	Security:	Public
	Mood:	Fan-Fucking-tastic
	Music:	Jonathan Coulton -- 'I Feel Fantastic'

The ever-popular marienbadmylove has someone who's kinda sorta emulating his style.

Davy Rocketship is 'just going to start typing and see what comes out'.

An example of what comes out, taken from his profile:

Look world. In the like the side of Alpha. Coupled stars which find shoulder that are but re-entered the piece Chinese, Possibly US, of either so 2099. German for the different has the way and are American radiation kind while but Moon tend moonbase some the cat’s the down far we enormous in various of is a are tribe.

It's amazing. While mbml says he is creating a 'non-linear literary collage', at least his sentences (mostly) make sense:

Even now, the heart of the novel pulses on. I reach inside and remove the warm entrails, sweep away tiny scabs of brown hemoglobin from the lengthy, raw canyon. Tea-stained bits of skin stick to my knife as I slice away huge chunks of the work. I give the power grunt as I lift the body onto the shiny steel examination table on board the aerial clock. Look at the corpse. Even in death it is still an inspiring sight. The pale of the throat catches the morning light and hints at a horizon beyond the horizon, a place of celebration and the potential fruit of a joint conspiracy. (It could be true!)

Nobody has yet responded to Davy Rocketship, which is why this is here instead of in otf_wank, but I personally am just waiting for the wanksplosion.

Edit (21 Nov): Still no wank. Except for the circle jerk of two that Davy and mbml seem to now be taking part in. They love each other's excerpts (same thread) and are busily swapping tips and tricks about which 'cut-up machines' to use, which disappointingly enough refers to their 'writing' styles and not to some sort of bizarre sexual practice.

Alas, wankas, I fear I have failed thee this time.

	User:	clairvoyantwank (posted by agilebrit)
	Date:	2009-11-18 18:18
	Subject:	The wacky, wacky world of professional publishing...
	Security:	Public

Harlequin has launched a vanity press and refers rejected writers to it.

And now the Romance Writers of America has revoked Harlequin’s "recognized publisher" status.

Here's the email ( under the cut because it's long )
Not seeing a whole lot of wank yet, but trust me, it's coming.

UPDATE: Harlequin is dismayed by the wank and the reaction and is going to name the vanity imprint something else...

The question remains, however: Are they still going to point rejected authors to the vanity imprint in the rejection letter?

	User:	unfunnybusiness (posted by dana)
	Date:	2009-11-19 08:56
	Subject:	opinion piece on Twilight
	Security:	Public

This is the first negative opinion piece on the Twilight series I've seen on a mainstream newspaper (well at least one that's local), possibly I've been living under a rock, but it made me very happy.

You know how hard it is when your flist is going on and on about a series you can't stand? Well, OK, you can just scroll on by, but now it's society which is going on and on about it, the advertising is driving me a bit insane, I can't wait until people move onto the next big thing.

Warning, spoilers in article.
----
When I was growing up, my literary heroine was Josephine March from Little Women. Jo was a lanky tomboy with no interest in frocks or gentlemen. While her sisters flirted and fretted about their noses, Jo scribbled in the attic, dreaming of becoming a writer. She chopped off her hair, threw snowballs and lived with gusto at a time when gusto was extremely unladylike.

( Bella has become a poster girl for the gender roles Jo and Anne rejected more than 100 years ago )

Source

	User:	unfunnybusiness (posted by issendai)
	Date:	2009-11-18 11:02
	Subject:	10-year-old tased by Arkansas police
	Security:	Public

Mother calls the police to her home to help her control her 10-year-old... again. Mother repeatedly tells the cop he can tase her daughter. After a brief struggle, the cop does. According to the police chief, tasing the girl was preferable to picking her up because "They can slip from you and fall on the ground."

Link

( Text for the linkphobic. )


ETA: The officer's report on The Smoking Gun, link courtesy of heuradys.