Hall of Vallainy

It's funny: I've always had an appreciation and somewhat fascination with the villains of television shows and movies. I'd thought about this some with June Foray's death (and how I'd listen to them speak of her voice-over credits and how they'd include Ducktales' Magica De Spell).

What is it with Magica? I thought she was kind of awesome (or at least cool), even though I couldn't state specifically what brought me to that conclusion. She did sometimes make me chuckle, if not being the situations in which she'd found herself. She wanted Scrooge's first dime, and sought to break his protecto-glass vault shield, and created shadow copies of herself that stole things until one of them galvanized and became a problem. June Foray did no small part to bring life to her.

Ursula from The Little Mermaid was a drag queen, even though she's female. I suppose it was the fabulousness. Suicide Squad's Enchantress, she was kind of interesting in the same way, though not quite as flamboyant.

Somehow I want to add Dame Vaako from The Chronicles of Riddick into this mix, "from here until Underverse come". I suppose one attraction (if not allure) is the sultriness.

She wasn't a villain in the traditional sense, but Polly Walker's Clarice Willow character in Caprica, a strong female antagonist at least, was cool until she started getting reckless. Her sermon at the end of the series was enticing.

One of my favorite childhood villains was, and is, Beast Wars: Transformer's Megatron. He's probably one of the few males on my list. David Kaye's voicing helped immensely, and it's David Kaye and then Frank Welker that I think of in order of Megatrons.

To be continued?

Genetic Modification

GMO.

It is, for some people, a curse word/phrase.

I've not really cared whether something has, or is, a genetically modified product/organism, I suppose partly, because I'm a science fiction fan. Between the Augments, the Denobulans, and just seeing all the kinds of things that we have done with genes already that have made human lives more comfortable, I haven't seen what.

Besides the Augments. They're something wrong, at least in their tyranny. And Linnea of Stargate SG-1. She's kind of evil. And Hathor too. Yes, those are examples of when we don't watch ourselves with the progress we seek to make.

Alas.

The bananas we eat are Cavendish, which did not exist in nature. We made them that way in efforts of genetic engineering (though, because it's botany, we don't really think about it that way). I hear all kinds of things about "frankenfish" (though, like the origins of "corrective rape", this too is something I've not actively gone researching just yet) and how people hate the thought of them. I do think of that term as a charged buzzword people use to engender automatic despise of the idea (like Obamacare).

We genetically engineer viruses and bacteria to produce vaccines, mass-produce silk, and try to eradicate malaria-carrying mosquitoes. These are all so we can be comfortable, or not die... Hell, we're all [eyeroll] living longer partly because of these things.

Is it more correct for genetic engineering to happen over millennia that to artificially give it a boost? Gregor Mendel kind of did that with his experiments.

My moderation wants to keep it in check, and I suppose after thinking about how moderate I am and how I want things in check, perhaps I'm leaning towards labeling. But people shouldn't care that it is a GMO, because there are plenty of things that are without the labeling anyway.

Gender

I remember having a curt-yet-civil discussion with one of my cousins about gender. He wasn't the most flexible of people, but I actually felt glad that I'd had that discussion, especially knowing that both of us are cisgender males.

I've not had too much of a second thought about being male beside that I tend not to fit in a lot of the expectations this world seems to have for cisgender men: liking sports, going outdoors and doing things, breeding... Sometimes I've envied being a woman in the sense of seemingly greater insight into community, togetherness, existing without everything having to be a (physical or verbal) fight. Women have their complications, but transgender women and men have some shit sometimes this world throws at them.

It's not until I'd moved to Georgia that I've actually gotten to know transgender views; it seems they've been more frequent lately. Chelsea Manning, a few fraternity brothers who've become sisters, a few trans-men who've become brothers...

Then I've been hearing more about non-binary people and I can understand the confusion, and why some people refuse to deal with it. Making sure one recognizes everyone is a task.

That doesn't mean we shut anyone out, though, just to make someone's life seemingly easier. Let's see how much harder it gets.

In Pursuit of Sex

I had started to muse on the drive of men to have sex why they may do things the way they do, including rape  and then some more facets of this theme came up a few times last week as I was listening to podcasts.

One was about Kurdish women who had taken up arms to defend their lands against Islamic State. One of them had described conditions under them, her describing them having the women disrobe so a doctor of theirs can validate their physical virginity. Then these women who are virgins, the Islamic State leaders would have, still naked, go to a building where men would select these naked women and go off to have their way with them.

Then there was another story that had included an anecdote of men who marry underaged girls. One of the girls who had spoken of her experiences remarked that it was probably because the guy thought he would never again be able to have a wife. My thoughts veered more towards his believing he needs to be in a marriage to have sex, that he shouldn't masturbate, and that he would never be able to have sex again if he loses her.

There was yet another anecdote among the discussion of India's censorship board attempting, ultimately unsuccessfully, to ban (essentially) a film, Lipstick Under My Burkha, that they'd described as too "lady oriented". The woman describing the situation brought up the fact the board is exclusively male and that they would have no problem if the women were their definition of attractive and dressed the way they want (scantily sometimes, perhaps).

These men, it's sickening. It's sickening how these regimes they make sometimes seem to make it so they can satisfy their sexual urges under their terms whenever it is they want. It's sickening how sometimes they have such narrow views of how sex can and/or should work, and that women should have no say. I hate that some see masturbation as desperation. I hate that women in some places and some times, even in the United States, have no authority to decide what happens with their bodies.

Sometimes men suck.

CBC news : 'Who is it protecting?': father questions publication ban on Toronto teacher jailed for sex offences

"His daughter had the courage to come forward, so a Toronto father says the courts shouldn't be keeping secrets either. CBC Toronto can't tell you his name or his daughter's name."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/father-teacher-publication-ban-1.4210730

Publication bans... I remember the first time I'd heard that term and felt slight bile rising. "Why on Earth," I thought, "in an age of free press and right-to-know would there be any reason to not say someone's name?" I suppose I'd accepted it easier when I've heard of similar things in the past, like when someone asks the medium presenting the story to not use the subject's name (in more-or-less the way I'd expressed it here). It was also fairly palatable when they'd explained that because of on-going litigation, or to protect the identities of minors (again, explaining it outright) they've elected to not use names, or that judicial authorities have asked/ordered them to not use them.

And yes, this is the crux of a publication ban, summing all that into two "neat" words.

The term sounds evil, though, like something that will never happen. In the time I've accustomed myself to Canadian-style news reporting, I have heard of "lifting" of publication bans in the course of developing events, so I had been able to get a fuller story.

I suppose I like names. I've always liked names.

Still, as I'd said, initially, it sounded like something that would never come off. They'll publication ban something for ages.

The question of "who does it protect," though, is valid, or at least a good question to ask. A publication ban could, as the article brings up, censor information upon that a "right-to-know" society could act civilly. As much as it means to protect the children, I can see (especially as outraged as I've seen some Canadians become when the north politeness gloves come off) someone going after this guy just because.

I mean, the last few major trials I've heard of in Canadian news, there's always been an anecdote of an aggrieved family member staring wordlessly viciously at the person under trial because "I want him/her to look at me and see the anger in my eyes." I say this, aware of the callousness it might exude, but what kind of good is that going to do, really? Are your angry eyes going to change that person? I don't think so. Civilly dealing with the situation, forgiveness, and letting God work His way, to me, is how one deals with it.

I prepare conversations and scenarios constantly in my head so I have a readiness for the things I think about. I imagine myself doing just that.

Intensity

When looking at especially my movie collection one finds a – some might call it a bit excessive – fair amount of intense ones: The Chronicles of Riddick, the Resident Evil series, Kill Bill… Some of my favorite episodes of my favorite TV series are the intense ones.

Some may chalk it up to my being a Scorpio. Some may say it's just my personality, chalked up with some death themes.

I just like them, though I do have some light-hearted movies in there too (albeit they might be off-beat: Bedazzled, The Stepford Wives, The Incredibles, to name some).

I think it would take a Pandora-like analysis of my movie and show choices to give me an idea of why I like the ones I do.

Two Fallen Shows

I remember at one point I was a reasonably okay-big fan of Once Upon A Time and Teen Wolf. Somewhere along the way, with OUAT being right before they went to Hades and TW when Kira went away again to control her darker side, I decided I wouldn't watch the shows anymore.

Teen Wolf had taken me in with the storytelling, and even though I'd practically given up on it I'd found myself curious about it again and started reading the Wikipedia article on this past half of the 6th season. The story seems pretty interesting, but I think I'd rather read it than watch it.

There was a time when I'd watch some episodes sometimes three times: live, the rebroadcast before the next live episode, and then a rerun sometime during a marathon. The last time I think I'd seriously done this was when the daragh was around.

Once Upon A Time, though, while I'm curious about Regina, the rest of it I'm finding I have no want to find out about the rest of the story. And then it looks like very few of the original cast remains for a new, upcoming season anyway...

Television, it's fickle. Well, so am I sometimes, frankly.

I think I'll find a Teen Wolf wiki that provides the episodes in detail and read, though.

Stereotypical Names

I was listening to a podcast when I heard the name René Müller, and the fact he was from Luxembourg. I was, like, that name pretty much sums up Luxembourg, doesn't it?

I'd thought about stereotypical names before, like how László Kovács is just about as Hungarian as you can get, or how during the London 2012 Olympics some commentators had opined that Bradley Wiggins was such a British name.

Sometimes at work stereotypically Jamaican names would arise, like Pauline, Angella, Claude, and Erroll.

On my way home I was trying to run some more iterations of what a stereotypical name would be for where, like, "Oh yeah, s/he's definitely *blank*.

France - Didier Dupont
Germany - Andreas Pfeiffer
India - Ranjeeta Mote
Bangladesh - Nazrul Chowdhury
Vietnam - Khanh Nguyen
Korea - JinHwa Kim
Japan - Jun Takahashi

Then there are just first names or last names I can think of that would typify a place (or, at least, I'd immediately think this person was from that place or of that place.

Iran - Azadeh
Indonesia - Wariyanto
Wales - Ioan
Ireland - Fionnula
Netherlands - Jeroen
Ethiopia - Teklemariam

Then there are places that have such common names (John Smith, Mohammad Jaffar) that one can peg it down to a language, but not necessarily a place. Then there are some, like Khan, that I'd hazard a guess to say (Pakistan), but I might not necessarily 100% hit it.

I kind of wish I knew more than I do, though. But I guess I might know enough, some might say.

It never is.

Calling For Help

Reference

When I was at work and saw the news alerts coming sequentially as the situation went on, especially that the person had called a news station specifically, I couldn't help thinking he was in desperation.

Could it have been his feelings about how the VA was treating him? Was it some underlying illness that was rising to the surface? I'm not certain, and we'll probably never know since he's dead…

He'd held up the bank — and if my memory's not completely failing me, I think this branch had a robbery about a year or two ago, too — and I thought there had to be more to the story.

Hobby Lobby to pay $3mn fine, return Iraqi artifacts

US retailer to pay $3mn fine, return Iraqi artifacts

More New York (AFP) - US arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby has agreed to forfeit thousands of ancient Iraqi artifacts and pay $3 million to…

Read it on Flipboard

Read it on yahoo.com

Antiquities… Goodness me, the delicate issue of antiquities.

Having studied anthropology, and archaeology obliquely, I've heard and read about cases of pillaging antiquities, and even modern things. The Nazis had stolen art.

Now, I wouldn't say personally this is anywhere near pillaging antiquities or that they're anywhere even remotely like Nazis, but sometimes I wonder if thinking one can take better care of something than those who had it by, essentially, birthright is a really wrong thought to have.

The company and its head seemed to mean well, but no dice.