This Georgian war diary is long, but it makes for excellent reading. No matter what side you take in this conflict, or whether you take a side at all, you will take away something from this piece, something elemental.

(Un)happy reading.

My eyes have seen the horror of the coming of Germaine. The bad copy-and-paste job is intentional... I assure you

Contrary to all manner of vile rumour, I am perfectly capable of saying nice things about culture warrior and battle-hardened crusader against all things pink, otherwise known as Germaine Greer. I think she is an incredibly clever woman who expresses even the most insane opinions with tremendous flourish. I also think she’s damn fine; say what you want about aging, her face is as haughtily glamorous as ever, she has the stare of Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen, part glacial, part beguiling.

This is precisely why I have to pause and make sure I have not accidentally ingested some paint thinner with that Bloody Mary (stranger things have happened) when I see Germaine referring to Madonna as an “elderly mother,” among other things. Uh oh. I think the paint thinner is in YOUR Bloody Mary, Germaine. Step away from it before more people get hurt.

Now, you might wonder, what the hell is wrong with pointing out that Madonna’s getting on in years? By itself, nothing much. But I can’t stand this little barb, which amounts to “you had your children too late, Madge.” I honestly think this is even worse than Camille Paglia’s gleeful slut-shaming and snide dismissal of Madonna’s looks: “hard-bitten face lolling its tongue like a dissolute old streetwalker,” - really? People have complained that Camille Paglia always talks about the same damn thing, which she does, but the real entertainment is observing just how low she is willing to go for the sake of attention.

Still, I think there is something even more vile in taking someone else’s parental role and turning it into a cheap little insult. Madonna’s kids are not adults, they didn’t ask for this attention, and she’s their mother, no matter what. Way to take a giant dump on someone else’s family and age, Germaine.

Alas, it gets worse. Germaine Greer is not to be outdone by… Germaine Greer.

Behold! Germaine thinks that domestic violence in Aboriginal communities is a-OK!

“Now, now, Natalia,” Jezebel’s commenters would say. “Germaine is NOT saying that. All she’s saying is that white folk cannot self-righteously jump in to fix this problem of domestic violence.”

Yes, I get that she does in fact say that, and I agree with her. However, she also says this:

What is obvious is that when the Aboriginal man was dispossessed by the white intruder, he lost his moral authority over his family…Aboriginal people do not discuss this, but that in itself should not be taken to mean that it is unimportant.

Interestingly, in the Madonna article, she mentions that Guy Ritchie probably views his wife as “uncontrollable.” You see a pattern emerging here? (I’m not even going to get into the assumption that “Aboriginal people do not discuss this,” I’m sure some do, and some don’t, seeing as they’re human beings and all)

The Aboriginal man and the white man are the default human beings here. The Aboriginal women are not dispossessed at all, according to Germaine, rather, they are possessed, first by the Aboriginal man, and then by the white man. It’s the same argument as the one this guy once used to get me to shut up about instances of (dis)honour killing in Palestine - “well, the men just don’t have any authority! How DARE you say they’re guilty?!?!?!”

These are murky waters for me, because I don’t deny that, in one way, Germaine Greer is simply stating basic facts. We all know that when white folks set about “bettering” the “evil savages,” chaos and tragedy ensue. And, let’s face it, the idea of Aboriginal women as possessions is not exactly a new one - Germaine Greer didn’t make it up.

And yet I also see a deliberate refusal to treat Aboriginal women as human beings here. I see the idea that “those funny brown people have their traditions, and so what if a few women get hurt or killed?” Germaine is right in asking white folks to get a little perspective and stop being so self-righteous, but she is dead wrong to attempt to excuse, as opposed to explain, the situation.

She’s done this before. She thinks that FGM is perfectly cool, as long as it’s part of your culture (and if it isn’t? Not cool, I guess. How does that make any sense? Buggered if I know.). Her efforts to get white people to show a little humility, noble as they may be, have lead her to believe that them funny brown folks are incapable of dissent and debate within their own ranks. To her, they’re like statues in a museum - perfectly still, unmoving, good to gape at, impossible to actually engage. Or else they are just receptacles for the thoughts of white folk, their every move mapped by a white person’s hand. Or else they are the Borg, a mass of perfectly identical parts.

How would she attempt to explain the high instances of domestic violence in Russia, a country that colonized instead of being colonized? I suppose she’d just write it off on our savage, barbaric culture, making sure to throw in a few words on wee-wittle men who just HAVE to hit “their” women when said women have shown some interest in running off with rich foreigners, or whatever.

This isn’t surprising. In The Whole Woman, Greer essentially compared women to mindless receptacles as well. Much like Janice Raymond, she claims that birth control and abortion are simply male tools, used to control and exploit women’s bodies. It’s an interesting argument, and I’m sure it is perfectly applicable to some women, but when extrapolated to the whole of the female population it erases agency so thoroughly and completely that one has to wonder whether these two feminists LIKE women at all.

You might say, “well, Germaine insulted Steve Irwin too, and after he was no longer around to defend himself, no less, so she’s an equal-opportunity hater.” Perhaps. But she was insulting his career. When it comes to women, Germaine strikes at the very essence. It isn’t just Madonna’s career that she goes after, she goes after her status as a mother, her personal life, etc. She ponders the feelings of Australia’s Aboriginal men, but acts as though Aboriginal women have none.

She plays dirty. Specifically, she plays dirty with women. Not in the fun way, har har, but in the “I’m gonna get you, you bitch” way. And she particularly likes to go after women who are, for whatever reason, getting more attention that Germaine Greer.

*Whew*

Thank Batman I’m just a lowly magazine editor, right?

Dobrynska, that is.

The Olympics are really exciting this year, even if I am only able to catch roughly five minutes or so a day.

Following, and leading up to, the murder of Angie Zapata, the feminist blogosphere has been experiencing a new round of discussions on OMIGOD trans!!! If you want more context, please read this righteous post by Lisa Harney.

To me, some of the eruptions on the topic are reminiscent of “Reefer Madness” or promos for “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” And that’s why I didn’t want to write about them, and still don’t really want to write about them. Because I am in a screamy kind of mood as it is. There’s nothing new I could possibly add, except for maybe a loud ANGIE ZAPATA SHOULD STILL BE ALIVE.

And yes, I believe that many people in the feminist community hate people like Angie Zapata, though they often hide said hate behind sugary bemusement and/or doe-eyed earnestness. This”if trans people only knew their place, they’d be alright” mentality that makes my blood bubble and steam.

Angie Zapata, a teenager, is dead because someone decided that her place was in the grave. Think about it.

I’ve been watching the trailer obsessively:

Fairy tales and storytelling and lore not only influence the world of gaming, but, I wager, the opposite effect is also taking place. Five hundred years from now, our lore, what makes it to the ghostly future generations, would have been impacted by Xbox.

Honestly, all those people who say that gaming is for losers who don’t have “real lives” (whatever a “real life” may be), are not seeing the bigger picture.

Fairy tales wedded to gaming create all sorts of discussions: the idea of self-determination, of free will and its limitations (games, like lives, have distinct rules), of the nature of time and how it becomes muddled once you’re sitting on your couch in the 21st century, battling an electronic ghost of a 14th century highwayman (and are you not also, then, a ghost? At least for a moment or two?).

The stories that will follow the first gaming generation will be interesting.

I see this argument crop up a lot. I see it used as evidence that ev0l p0rn must die. I see studies conducted on this stuff (I personally think that they are about as useful as trying to find out whether or not men who use shoe-shine tend to be abusive, but that’s just me).

Now, I happen to like the movie “300.” A lot. It’s not Anita Ekberg splashing in a fountain, and it’s not a dying man whispering “rosebud,” but it’s something. It’s a weird and wicked and profoundly offensive movie, awesome in its sheer crassness and beautiful and lush in its scope, and it’s the sort of thing I happen to like. This won’t get me any invitations to Harold Bloom’s tea-parties, but it’s the truth.

Am I therefore a violent megalomaniac who tosses babies off cliffs? Or, to be more specific, am I inspired to toss babies off cliffs? Should someone come and take my DVD away, for my own good, before, y’know, tragedy strikes?

I’m asking this, because I honestly see no substantial difference between my love for oiled-up Spartans in red speedos and, say, someone’s predilection for Tera Patrick films. If we must get rid of the latter to be a better society, or whatever, might as well get rid of the former.

Now, does p0rn turn men into monsters? Hmmm… Have some of the men I’ve known in this life been jerks? Sure. Abusive jerks? Absolutely. Do I think it had anything to do with the sort of films they watched? No.

Honestly, doesn’t this amount to excusing rapists and violent sociopaths? “Terribly sorry, Your Honour, Tera Patrick made me do it.” Too far-fetched? Think again.

I think the goal of a world without p0rn is wedded to a very idealized view of sexual relations. Identifying and solving the problems of the industry itself is one thing, saying that it should be eradicated is a little too Old Testament for my tastes.

“History will judge us,” said the Cat Behemoth in Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. I suppose it will be the same in this case. Who knows? Maybe a thousand years from now, someone will (somehow) read what I wrote here, and think, “what a barbarian!”

If I can do it to the Spartans, it is only fair.

“Utrom” by Smislovie Gallucintacii (Смысловые Галлюцинации, or Thought Hallucinations, an appropriate name for this band)

I feel exactly like this song sounds.

Somebody farking pinch me! I had to find this one via my friends in the Russian/Ukrainan LJ-sphere. I have to say that it is a damn good round-up of thoughts regarding Russia-George-South Ossetia. It’s also short and sweet. It’s great that it’s being featured on CNN.

I toast Global Voices with my instant coffee, and tip my hat and snap my garter in their general direction.

Oh, that’s right, none whatsoever.

If I wanted to hear guidance and opinion on the Russia-Georgia debacle, I’d fish a mongrel cat out of the trash-bin and listen to its theories before I’d listen to these two. What does the President of the Republic of Burundi think about this situation? His opinion ought to matter more.

And so it is always with this world.

P.S. PLEASE folks, don’t e-mail me with things like, “but [Ukrainian president] Yuschenko is taking such a courageous stand against the Russians! Aren’t you proud?” I freaking LOATHE Yuschenko. He’s a privileged, pompous git who doesn’t even have enough sense to keep his smug-faced lout of a son out of the tabloids for an entire week. My fellow Ukrainians might not agree, but that’s my line, and I’m sticking to it.

OK, so Caroline got called a “frigid bitch” because there was a picture that made her uncomfortable. Now, I honestly wasn’t bothered by said picture, even if the (very much) adult models could be interpreted to look somewhat underage. But Caroline has the right to her opinion. And I believe she’s been both humble and thoughtful in expressing it. Her personal experiences lead her to be uncomfortable with that sort of thing. Mine ought to, and while they generally don’t, I’m not going to call her names because of that.

People are allowed to have their own personal comfort zones. Back in the day, when people ran into me and asked me what I was doing with my life, I’d say things like, “sitting around waiting for Daniel Radcliffe to turn legal.” Sure, it was a hoot to most, but if someone were to get put off by a statement like that, even though it was meant to be funny, I would understand.

And I understand Caroline. And furthermore, Caroline understands herself, which is more than I can say for some of her fiercest detractors. Honestly, calling someone a “frigid bitch” is a testament to your issues, dear troll, not Caroline’s. Enjoy your time under that bridge, you nasty little creature.