WHAT IS THIS. (Or: the ACTA.)

AND WHY DID I NOT HEAR ABOUT IT SOONER.

Oh, of course! Because the combined governments involved in the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" have refused to release the content of their proposed bill to the public.

So what is the "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement?" This video on YouTube sums it up:

Unite Against ACTA - To Arms!

Think the video's being a little scare-tacticky? Think again. The passage of the ACTA will:

1. Make ISP providers accountable for the behavior of their customers. They will be required to monitor their customers' movements and block websites that they decide are unsuitable - including BitTorrent, one of the best sites available for easy sharing of freeware.
   
2. Give copyright holders the legal right to search and seize the property of anyone they suspect of copyright violation. (And what makes you a suspect? Here's a hint: age, race, and sex will be bigger factors than criminal history or downloading habits. Black kids with iPods, watch out.)
3. Enable copyright holders to demand compensation for stolen property - at rates that far exceed actual loss. A precedent lawsuit, waged by the RIAA, demanded damages at the rate of $150,000 per song. (Source: http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8175/riaa_sues_allofmp3_for_165_trillion/)
4. Operate independently of the World Trade Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, and United Nations.
5. Require that all media files be DRM-protected, essentially placing an expiration date on everything you download.
6. Restrict the transportation of generic medical drugs between countries, keeping needed treatments out of the hands of people who can't afford the big-business versions.
7. Allow copyright holders to demand damages from people who had no idea they were infringing copyright in the first place.
   

IT'S THE FUCKING MASTER CONTROL PROGRAM, PEOPLE. In order to feed their ever-expanding asses, media companies are demanding an act that will give them complete monopoly over the types and amounts of information that are allowed to be transmitted via the Internet and stored on your computer, phone, iPod, whatevs. Don't think that just because you haven't stolen anything means you're not a target. Anyone who owns information-transmitting-and-storing technology is instantly a suspect - especially if they are Generation Y or younger, male, a person of color, and/or poor. Hell, I can only imagine how this thing will play out in, say, Korea. The ACTA isn't just bad for Americans - it's bad for everyone in a country that relies on the Internet for free communication.

Read more about it at http://www.anti-acta.com. Seriously, do. The government officials behind this heap of shit want to sign it into effectiveness no later than next month. We're almost out of time, people.

(If this seems a little excessive, check out the Wikipedia page.)

Here is a draft of the text, released back in April.

FTM, daughter

Here are a few statements that fairly well sum up my experience with being transgendered. The only reason I post this is to provide an alternative to the stereotypical "I'm a man/woman who is trapped in a woman/man's body."

I'm a guy in a gender-neutral body. I had girl parts installed in my formative stages, which borked up my body with feminine traits, but that can be repaired.

Nature did not intend me to be a boy. Nature intended me to be a girl. It fucked up royally. I am done listening to nature.

I was a girl until I was about four years old, when I started turning into a boy. I'll never know why that happened, but that doesn't mean it didn't.

I have a female side, and I'm not afraid of it. But I end up having to hide it, because...

Some people believe that having a female side makes me female by default. This is not because they're right. This is because they do not understand what it feels like to be transgendered.

I'm a guy trapped in a woman's life.

If you told me when I was eight years old that I might be a boy, I would have laughed at you. I did not know such a thing was possible.

I'd rather be a man married to a woman than a woman married to a man. And I really like men.

Brush that hair!

I've been reading about hair lately. Mainly black hair (and other types of curly hair), and the ways which white society declares it to be inferior to straighter hair because it cannot be "tamed" (read: made to lie flat). Some good posts on this subject include Nappy Hair in the Jolie-Pitt World at Womanist Musings (focuses on black hair) and Hair Stories Redux at Justine Larbalestier (a broader look at "other" hair in general). Anyway, it got me thinking about what I've been through with my own hair.

I don't have black hair, or even curly hair, so I can't say whether or not any of my experiences are comparable to people with other kinds of hair - though I can say with certainty that some of them aren't. But here goes.

As far as hair goes, I actually scored pretty high in the hierarchy. My hair is long, wavy, and golden-blonde. From the time I was three years old I heard nothing but good things from my mother about how beautiful my hair was, even prettier than my sister's because it had "body." Mother was incredibly protective of my hair (both mine and my sister's, actually). Most of the time it was locked into a braid, protected from the hair-mussing activities of a couple of young kids. Once a week she would let it down and brush it out.

Before I go on, I need to explain one thing about my mother: she is incredibly ignorant, clueless, and self-centered. She cannot comprehend the existence of any experience that is not basically identical to what she has gone through, and she thinks that she can fix anyone's problems by giving them the solution that worked for her. Have I mentioned my mother is pink-skinned?

After a while she stopped braiding, and my hair would get tangled rather worse. Well, okay, no biggie. It was harder to brush and yadda, but she was oh-so-careful and tried to be as gentle as possible, so if either my sister or I complained, then we were obviously overreacting. She couldn't seem to comprehend that the results of her actions might be different from her intent - but then, she never was good at being "gentle." (There's another post in that.) She'd sink the brush into a tangle and pull down, and most of the pressure would go straight to my scalp. As soon as I complained I'd be reassured that "it's not that bad," which she obviously knew because I was the one being brushed.

Anyway.

Later on she turned hair care over to me, and that's when the problems started. See, my mother's a flat-head. Her hair is straight and lies down perfectly, so she thinks that all straight hair should do that and if it doesn't then it's a failure on the owner's part. Well, my hair is poofy (the aforementioned "body"). When it's properly clean, it floats around my head and will not lie flat unless I really put the effort (read: abuse and/or water) into it. Which I don't want to do, because my fluffy hair has personality, and I like it that way. But my mother is convinced that it denotes a lack of hygiene, and unless it's perfectly flat, she accuses me of not brushing my hair.

The only way I can get it to do what she wants is to let a day or so of oil build up in it, and then it's time for a shower, you scumbag. (She has something of a hygiene obsession, which could make another post.)

The flip side of the coin is that when you have "perfect" hair (luscious, full, wavy, blonde hair - see also mine), you're expected to love it. You should count it as one of your assets, and treat it like your most prized possession. You should brush it obsessively, condition it, put pretty things in it, and otherwise make it into a showpiece for everyone else because it's just so nice to look at. Obviously this isn't on the same level as telling someone they should hate/change their hair because it's "bad," but it's damaging in its own right - especially for a FTM who couldn't care less if he has traditionally attractive female locks.

Okay...

I don't feel like explaining what that was all about. Suffice it to say I had some personal problems. I'm leaving the posts up because... well, they happened and I don't want to ignore that. But that's it.

We now return you to your (semi-regular) programming.