It's so happened that I'm chatting on the email with a fellow fan and friend and we're discussing the merits of Scott Caan and Alex O'Loughlin.

I ended up saying:

"I just, really love that they're both hairy :)"

And you know, I could say that I'm shallow and all that, but I've actually put some thought into this!

For reference: ( Images Under The Cut )

I've been staring at this page forever, the cursor mocking me with my inability to write a recap of yesterday's events.

I suppose it was because the actual event was, thankfully uneventful.

There was one counter demo at the march itself, in which Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel, easily the most disgusting specimens of humanity Israeli society has to offer came with signs reading "Holyland not Homoland" as we marched by.
If you are interested, you can read some of their hate speech and incitement here.

But we were safe, because the police (despite some asshattery earlier this month regarding the route to the Knesset) are very serious about the security. Now, I trust the police about as far as I can throw them (meaning, I don't) and it's really due to the fact that the Pride March in Jerusalem gets more threats than any other political march in the city - my sister, who is a Jeruselamite (of many years) was surprised at the fact that there weren't people on the sidelines hurling insults or worse. I explained that ever since the stabbing in 2005, the security had been upped. Not to mention that Pride is not an explicitly Leftist event and doesn't invite that kind of political ire from its opposers.

I, per usual, marched with the Reds :) along with Yael, tamara_russo, my sister (who next year will be bringing her husband and kids) and I saw my friend S and it was awesome.

There were great speeches in the pre-march events, an open stage for anyone who had something say, so there were many talks from grassroots activists, the kink community, the bi/pan community, the anarchists, the communists, an anonymous letter from a religious gay man... it was very heart warming.

As I've previously mentioned, this is the first time we marched to the Knesset, and it felt profound and meaningful. Which is how I felt during the Radical march back in June in Tel-Aviv and didn't feel during the Municipal march in Tel-Aviv - that's a carnival and has lost the political power it once held. I don't know how I feel about marching in the Municipal Tel-Aviv march considering the fact that Tel-Aviv is constantly used to pinkwash Israeli society - while we're called filth and animals everywhere else.

This was doubly clear at the Memorial rally held after the march in the Knesset rose garden in honour of Nir Katz and Liz Trobishi (z"l) which the 1st of August marks the year anniversary of their murder. Nir Katz's mother, Ayala, became a pivotal figure in the community, becoming the chairwoman on Tehila (the Israeli version of Parents and Friends and of [QUILTBAG] people) and she gave a very moving speech.

We were told that the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "supposed" to send a letter for the community, but didn't get a chance to sign it. Tsipi Livny delivered a letter, which I don't appreciate thanks, seeing as gays are seen as nothing more than fodder for tourists, at best.
Gay and out MK Nitzan Horowitz gave a very passionate (and loud) speech and stated pretty blatantly that the other members of Knesset sucked when it came to policy concerning queers.
So, yeah.

My sister and I left after his speech and missed the (so I've heard) surreal speech by former Speaker of the Knesset and author Avrum Burg, who is a religious man and upholds universal values of human and civil rights and spoke about reconciling those with religion.

I spoke to my sister about the Statement of Principles I mentioned yesterday (LJ/DW) which is obviously connected to the whole reconciling of religion and homosexuality. And she said it's better than sitting Shiva on the child and mentioned that at least like this they can still have a place.
"Men" I said, as the Statement is very much tilted towards the male experience, despite the fact that gay women are mentioned, it's clear that the only people "really" affected are men, because there is this disbelief surrounding female desire towards sex that doesn't involve a penis belonging to a man.
My sister said that possibly being an unmarried woman in traditional Orthodox society is the worst position, because there really is no place.

Call me crazy. But to me this means traditional Orthodox society is just not the place to be if you're gay. Also, traditional orthodox people need to stop being bigoted ass-holes.

Just sayin'.

Yes, it is better not to sit Shiva over your child, just like common-law marriage is better than having no partner rights whatsoever.

So, yeah.

Here are some pictures, all taken by tamara_russo. Thank you babe, for being there with me!
( I'm cute )

I am procrastinating like whoa... it's a nuit blanche pour moi.

This is me, taking a break and doing useless stuff on what is supposed to be solemn evening... more on that tomorrow at length. At the mo' enjoy the meme which I saw over at verasteine and used_songs

All the icons are from my LJ (which some are duplicated on DW):

1 – How do you feel right now?


I don't wanna do my homework!

( There are MOAR )

There really is an icon for every occasion.

I was looking at fandomsecrets and someone made a secret, probably in reaction to the renewed bruhaha in Torchwood Fandom.

I got really chocked up reading it.

It's also really pretty: ( large picture under the cut )

As a good friend said to me when I showed 'em this secret:
It's amazing how people don't realize that by freaking out about CoE/Ianto they're actually policing queerness, not "championing" it.

All I can say to that is "YES".

Today, at the weekly protest in the village on Nialin, demonstrators broke down a section of the wall:


( More under the cut )

That is so amazing and encouraging, the significance of it being so close to the date of the fall of the Berlin wall is just... poetic.

Cake Wrecks is a cake blog dedicated to aesthetically odd, artistic and just genuinely special looking cakes.
Or as the dub-title says: When professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong.
.
They look mighty tasty too.

I am not an avid follower, but morin is and zie often shares with me some very good looking entries.

This Sunday Sweet is very special to my heart as it contains things like this:



Very possibly this is something common around Christmas time in the UK as I'm sure the Doctor and his Companion is more popular than the baby Jesus and his Mummy.

Click on the cake for the entire entry and enjoy the beauty of baking and geekery all at once!

So, who would you Marry, Shag or Throw off a cliff?

I was given the choice of three lovely red heads from st_aurafina.

( Hey there, Red! )

Wanna play?

Caturday postage!

It's not my cat, but it's a cat!



Thanks to [Southern!Girl] for making me laugh!

It's been a while since I've written something socio-political and not just person-political.

Where do I start from?

I'd like the begin at a place that won't have me tearing out my hair and spitting like a cat who just got its tail trod on.
But that will happen anyway.

For those of you who aren't in the loop for the what's been happening in the past week in the Palestinian portion of the Holy Land... in a nutshell it has been a cluster fuck!

Let us begin from the beginning of this particular incident.
In Hebron, there is a house.
The house belongs to the al-Rajabi family. It has been nick named the House of Peace (by the Settlers), a tragically ironic name... it is also known as the House of Contention (by the mainstream media and colloquially), which is some what more apt.
In November the Supreme High Court made the decision to evict the nine Settler families that have been living their quite illegally for some time.
One can guess what happened next.
Last week, the Settlers decided to protest this decision by going to the House and... well... settling - Israeli Settlers Create More Chaos in Hebron .
"Protest" is really a mild word for what's been going on.
PM Olmert has gone on record calling the bloody riots a Pogrom.
The media has taken the term and showed the way the Settlers thuggery is more the way gentiles historically treated Jews in Eastern Europe.
Pogrom is a very loaded word, I don't want to get into the history of it all, but to me it looks like the mainstream media is trying to appropriate the very the specific violence that these Settlers are turning towards the Palestinians, which is very different from the kind of violence that was turned unto the Jews in the Pale in the 1800'.
Though, what do you call people who consider themselves to be Masters of the Earth who shoot and throw stones at people who in their eyes aren't even human.
Floating signifier anyone?

I digress.
Point is.
The Settlers and the Extreme Right politics they physically bring into that area are so fucking disgusting I'm ashamed to be remotely related to these people, it took me over four days (in addition to real life stuff eating my time) to actually blog about this shit!

This photo really encapsulates how utterly twisted, deformed and generally delusional the entire Settler movement actually is: ( This photo contains racist and supremacist words and imagery... I'm sorry this actually exists )

The IDF's presence there is a huge complication.
The Settlers treat the soldiers like private security (which ostensibly they are) and at the same time go to Arab villages and fields - "putting themselves in danger" as it were, but seeing as they know they have the IDF behind them, they really have no problem just going into those areas and fucking with the local tribes.
So the IDF simultaneously has to protect the Settlers from the oh so dangerous Arabs, while also doing their best to maybe protect individual Palestinians villages.
When the IDF isn't shooting Palestinians themselves, that is - IDF soldier shoots bound Palestinian at short range. Or, in general assaulting people they perceive to be deserving of violence... one who is recording their violence - IDF probes soldier's alleged attack on Haaretz photographer in Hebron.
The title of this article is very innocuous, the actual writing really leaves no doubt as to the soldier attacking the photojournalist.

This week and weekend is just a bitter reminder as to what is going on there.
It's not crazy.
It's not an "extreme" incident.
It's not just a few bad apples.
Friends, the whole barrel of apples were picked from trees grown from bad seeds.
And really, I don't have much more than that to say.

My oh so talented friend daemonfall made not one, not two, but eleven Ironbat icons!!! And he has allowed me to share with you all!

( Nine More! )

Don't forget to credit daemonfall!
And no hot linking!