Last night was sitcom night. I was starting to almost think that The Big Bang Theory could be kind of amusing when the group of not conventionally attractive guys decided that they should go to a bar to wait until the hot girls were drunk enough to have sex with them, because dubious consent is hilarious. And one of them managed to score! But in a crazy twist, he woke up the next morning to find himself in bed with a not conventionally attractive girl and was horrified. LOL LOL!

Yeah, I'm oversensitive. Sometimes it's a pain because it really detracts from being able to enjoy half the mass media.

I'm sorry, Maine. :(

53% should not be enough to overturn legislation. It just shouldn't. Even the student union at university requires two-thirds majority and they're not issuing civil rights.

First the absolute stupidity of this question:

My bunny is bleeding,losing hair, and cant standd.?
okayy i have a bunny and when i got home today she was bleeding and souldnt stand up and shes losing hair what do i do!

And then someone provided the answer (remember, this is for a rabbit):

Calm down! Is it a boy or a girl>? how long have you had it? If its a girl the blood could be her period. anyway call the vet. This doesn't sound good but the vet can help. Do you keep your bunny indoors or out? It could have been attacked outside.

Emphasis mine.

From yesterday's post, I got this back today:

Thank you for also making us aware of the description on this website of our Hartz Bonanza Rabbit Diet. Please note that we have improved our Bonanza Diet. The new formula contains more high fiber pellets and is fortified with vitamin and mineral for your rabbit's well-being. We have removed some unnecessary ingredients that rabbits usually don't eat or don't like to increase some of their favorites (Carrots, Alfalfa...). We have completely removed the whole corn, which can lead to digestive disorder, and we have added new tasty ingredients like raisins and bananas chips. This new improved formula will help you deliver the optimum levels of protein, fat and fiber that your rabbit needs for a happy, healthy life.

Which is a lot of rhetoric, but it's more than I was expecting. (Not sure of the wisdom of increasing alfalfa, really, but removing corn is good.)

Yeah, I totally just threw a politely worded shit-fit at an American pet food company.

Despite your website urging pet owners to research the required nutrition of their animals, you seem to be unaware that rabbits are not rodents, rather lagomorphs.

"Rabbits require a rich varied diet of quality seeds, grains, vitamin enriched pellets, fruits, nuts, and veggies." as stated on this website selling your product http://farm-and-pet.hardwarestore.com/109-606-rabbit-and-hamster-food/bonanza-rabbit-food-521876.aspx is not only an exaggeration but blatantly untrue. Rabbits should not be fed seeds or nuts, and fruits and grains should be limited as they can lead to obesity. Corn is never listed as a recommended food for rabbits by any expert. Foods such as nuts, corn and sunflower seeds are high in carbohydrates and fat and when fed to a domestic, desexed rabbit, contribute to a high rate of obesity and the build up of fat in the liver and arteries (atherosclerosis) - rabbits fed seed-rich diets have a higher incidence of hepatic steatosis, fatty liver disease, which can be fatal. The starches also present in these foods can lead to bloat and GI stasis when they reach the cecum, which can be extremely dangerous in an animal that requires its digestive system to be constantly active. While a wild animal may eat these things to supplement its diet out of necessity, in pets it should be strongly avoided.

There is already a lot of false information spread about rabbits, largely from pet stores, and adding to this misinformation with advertising that is so utterly misleading is irresponsible at best.

Not that I expect it to do anything, but at least I feel better?

Few in sex cases convicted

Findings from a two year study of adult sexual violations between July 2005 and December 2007 (yeah, that's two and a half years, oh well). The overall conviction rate from 1955 recorded cases was 13% and the article notes that only about one in ten sexual violation offenses are reported - making the total conviction rate between 1-2%.

Interestingly enough, I read an article about false rape claims a couple of months ago that indicated that the most accurate study the author had found put the rate of false claims at about 2%, pretty much the same as any other crime. Other studies put it as higher, but they have less rigorous standards for how one defines a false claim - they noted one district where law enforcement had ulterior motive to get victims to drop cases due to policies, for example, and if you badger a traumatised woman enough of course she's going to back down.

Two percent of thirteen percent, btw, is a very, very small number. 0.2% or thereabouts. And that's assuming the same conviction rate for false claims as for legitimate ones.


So basically, if you and forty nine of your friends all go out and rape someone, only five or six of you will be reported, and one of you might be convicted.

But psh, feminism. Who needs it?

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/30/why.women.have.sex/index.html

My god. I have learned so much. So. fucking. much.

http://www.journalfen.net/community/unfunnybusiness/158840.html


I'm probably going to offend some people here. Because I am actually 100% on the couple's side.

(I also get annoyed when people throw around the word paedophilia in a situation like this. This is not paedophilia. If anything, it's ephebophilia.)

( reasoning and blather under the cut )

So I'm poking around Teh NZ Intarwebs looking at rabbit hutches and prices trying to see if I can find really nice roomy outdoor accommodations that I can afford and there's this one site that is like a directory of website businesses. Apparently if you search for 'rabbit and/or hutches', you get an AWFUL LOT of, erm, "adult self-entertainment" results. Rabbit vibrators, obviously. Somehow I feel that this is not what I'm looking for.

I have a lot of thoughts about fandom as separate from mainstream society.

( This got long and rambling. )

All the letters to the editor in the paper atm are going on about this stupid referendum we just had. The question was:

Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offense in New Zealand?


There are so many problems with this question I can't even name them all. You could word like this, too: Should children have the same legal rights against assault as adults in New Zealand? Same question, completely different subtext. Seriously, National, it's not that hard to come up with an unbiased wording on this. Because as it was, the question might as well be "Should good parental correction be a criminal offense in New Zealand?" (Though from what I've seen of some children there are those who think it already is.)

Apparently of the 54% of voters who actually bothered (not, for the record, the Prime Minister or the Opposition leader, who both thought the question was confusing and misleading), about 88% voted no. Apparently 1.6 million people don't think good parental correction should be a crime. What a shock. I bet the result would have been different if they were asked if children should have full legal rights against assault.

More than that broohaha though I'm just wondering if light smacks being illegal would actually stop anyone. If someone is completely stressed out and the baby keeps crying and etcetc, and their inclination is to pick the baby up and shake it and yell "JUST STOP CRYING!" or whatever, are they really going to go, "By golly, wait a minute! Light smacks as part of good parental correction are illegal! Well, shitbears, I'd better go do some yoga instead!" Ditto those parents who justify to themselves that excessive force (the kind that leads to hospital visits and broken bones, etc) is better than negligence.

Personally, we were smacked growing up. My parents didn't think grounding was a good punishment, but smacking was okay, and honestly just the threat of it could be a good deterrent. Now it's not like I can say "my parents smacked me and I turned out fine" because... well, look at me, I'm truly fucked up, but I can say with basically 100% certainty that none of my problems were caused by a smacked bottom as a child.

The referendum cost NZ$9 million dollars and people are, quite rightly, wondering why that money couldn't have been spent on campaigns and community outreach to help prevent child abuse instead.

Of course I remember a recent news story about a horrible, cruel, negligent parent who apparently let their ten year old go to the park without an adult. MY GOD, right? WE CAN'T LET KIDS PLAY IN THE PARK BY THEMSELVES. Just like we've phased out bark chips on the ground and replaced it all with rubber mats and taken out all the fun playground structures and replaced them with kit sets.

I feel like all new parents should be forced to watch things like this, just to knock some sense into them. We've gone hundreds of thousands of years without wrapping kids in cotton wool. There's no reason to start now.


eta: incidentally if you're wondering I didn't vote. haaaa I suck at my civic duty.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1204359/In-week-Harriet-Harman-takes-charge-feminist-initiative.html

Stand out quotes:

Pupils as young as five will be taught about the evils of 'wife beating' and the need to form healthy relationships.

Why is wife beating in quotes?

Others say the plan is part of the feminist agenda led by Harriet Harman in her role as Equalities Minister.

They pointed out the new classes will not cover violence against men, who are far more likely to be the victims of violent crime.

Violent crime, maybe, yes. Domestic violence? No. Very different things.

She added: 'I do not really want my youngster to be indoctrinated with these things.

'There will always be those who want to cram our school curriculum with social issues that need to be taught by parents and society.'

You know what? Some parents do teach these things. Some don't because it's not an issue for them. Some don't because they don't think it's wrong. I don't know if primary schools still have Bible study classes, but mine did, and you specifically needed a note from your parent to get out of them. If schools can teach religion they can teach social issues. My health class taught us to pour standard drinks when I was 14 (the drinking age at the time was 20). We did a unit in PE on how children play. Why not teach kids that domestic violence is wrong?

A quarter of all violent assaults in England and Wales are carried out by women, and it is the most common reason for females to be arrested, recently overtaking theft and handling stolen goods.

Man, a whole quarter, huh? That would be really impressive if there were more than two genders. Because that means three quarters are carried out by men. (I wonder what the most common reason for men to be arrested is. The article doesn't see fit to mention.)

Jill Kirby, of the Centre for Policy Studies, said Miss Harman and the Government should not be creating the impression violent crime is men against women, when the statistics show this is not the case.

She added: 'It is young men who are most likely to be the victims of violent crime. It is a distortion to suggest otherwise. It appears that everything must be viewed through the prism of 1960s feminism.'

They're not. They're creating the impression that domestic violence is usually men against women, and that is the case. Yes, sometimes it's not. There needs to be better support for men who are victims. But overwhelmingly, it's men against women.

Why not do a unit on "violence is bad"? Domestic violence could be a smaller section of it. That way you can appease the feminist haters by teaching girls that hitting is wrong as well.

Reading American news sites that allow comments makes you wonder what the fuck the majority of the readers are on. ( violence, religion, abortion, mental illness )

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/2672021/Family-shuns-girl-8-after-sex-attack

Talk about victim blaming.

1) All Torchwood fans making vids right now? PLEASE STOP USING THE SPEECH FROM THE DEAD LINE IN YOUR AUDIO TRACK. MY GOD. IT'S GETTING REALLY OLD.

2) All Torchwood fans posting fic right now? If your summary is "what happened after CoE" or "My denial fic about CoE" or you don't even have a summary, I'm not reading it. I'm scrolling past just like I'm scrolling past the other seventeen fic with equally little information as to what they're about.


My bunny is SO SWEET though. And I was cleaning his cage this morning and he kept trying to "help", which was not particularly helpful at all.

That happened.



I hurt. I feel utterly broken into pieces. Don't know what I'm doing now. It was hard enough to write yesterday and it should have been better today but it's like... I don't know. I said I didn't want my tv to apologise for how the world was, but. That wasn't even my show.

http://www.tranny-alert.com

gudbuytjane@lj post
twitter
witch-words post

hate people. sfm.

Incidentally, my mother (because she's nice) went to the pharmacy yesterday to pick up my medication refills, because the pharmacy doesn't want anyone to come in if they have flu symptoms.

Pharmacy: Sick people, DO NOT WANT.

We were discussing this just now while I got my breakfast and that doctors' clinics have the same signs up and mum reckons they're running the risk of someone dying of meningitis or something coz they didn't go to the doctor. Which actually isn't implausible, it seems to be more common here than in the states (I've seen it used as an "omg wtf uncommon!" illness on medical shows) and I can see someone mistaking stiff neck for general muscle/joint aches, and stiff neck is the one symptom that EVERYONE knows is linked to meningitis.