(no subject)

I think the tune of the annoyingly catchy song from the Hitchers movie is the same as the tune of NIN's Head Like a Hole, only in a major key.

(no subject)

I've just been out in another energetic physical struggle with Lt. Bush, ie the immense morning glory vine which has conquered much of the back yard. It'll take months to rip up (and rip down) the entire mess, but at least it's not growing back faster than I can demolish it. (This is the vine that weighed a tree down so much that the trunk snapped and the whole thing flopped onto the lawn.)

There ought to be a word for the twitching paranoia caused by walking smack through the web of the enormous spider you've been reminding yourself to dodge.

ETA: My arms are now covered in a mild rash from plant contact. From experience this will diminish rapidly, but I've always wondered exactly what caused it.

Taking pleasure in impure thoughts

Watched bits of the TVM for the first time in yonks. Good gods, that thin, lithe body inside those loose clothes. Especially when shoeless and un-cravated. And that anarchic wig. And that nose.

a u g h

Refugees in Australia

In Australia, Immigration detention and mental illness go hand in hand. Indefinite detention is illegal not only because it's unjust, but because it ruins minds. Adults kept in indefinite detention develop severe depression, hurt themselves, and attempt suicide. Detention of children is illegal because it ruins developing minds. Children growing up in indefinite detention develop emotional problems, hurt themselves, and attempt suicide. Indefinite detention of traumatised people, such as refugees fleeing torture, is especially damaging.

As you may know, a mentally ill Australia was recently rescued from immigration detention. (In addition, at least one Australian citizen has been wrongly deported.) Here are some more recent headlines.

Mentally ill detainees sent packing. One with post-traumatic stress disorder, one with schizophrenia, one with severe depression. (The man with PTSD was an Australian resident; authorities are trying to find him.)

I just heard this on the radio and I can hardly bear to relate it. A girl who was born in detention suffers constant anxiety, often won't speak or respond, and smacks her head against the wall and floor. She has been refused permission to attend a playgroup outside detention, crucial to her normal development. She is three years old.

She is not the only toddler to have spent her entire life in Australia immigration detention.

Baxter ruling may spark damages claims. The neglect of two mentally ill detainees (now safe in hospital) may open the door for mistreated asylum seekers to claim damages from the government. The Mental Health Council of Australia has called for the immediate release of all mentally ill detainees. Sadly, I personally find it very hard to feel hopeful as a result of the ruling; the government has long shown it's happy to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a system that literally drives innocent people, including infants, out of their minds.

x-posted to refugeenews

Old BSG

Ha ha ha! God brought Apollo back to life after Satan killed him and Starbuck CRIED LIKE A BIG GIRL'S BLOUSE!

ETA: Why is Fred Astaire in BSG?

Me last night: He said bore-a-ton. They have a substance on the Galactica called bore-a-ton.
Jon: No, I think it was borlon or something.
Me: You're probably right, that's too obvious.
Tonight: Two extras wheel huge orange canisters labelled BORATON past in the back of a scene.

Old BSG

This show has something in common with the roughly contemporary Buck Rogers: space disco dancing! While holding things! There was such a funny scene in War of the Gods of people dancing while holding golden strips of cloth, and doing silly things with them. Richard Hatch looked jolly embarrassed waving his about.

The more I see of the original series, the clearer it becomes that Dirk Benedict is incorrect that the series was cancelled because of a feminist conspiracy against his extremely slightly naughty character, and that it was in fact cancelled because (a) it was too expensive and (b) IT WAS INCREDIBLE SHITE.

ETA: Anybody else seen Benedict (with Linda Blair!!) in Ruckus?