The HUUUUBBBBB

smirnoffmule has posted some pictures from Teh Hub Torchwood convention here.

I'm reposting some here for luls, but go check out the originals. (ETA: Who was it that revealed to me they were majorly into thighs? There's some good thighage going on over at smirnoffmule's. Checkit.)

( There was boykissing? )

I've not read many reports from said convention, apparently there was some BIG SEKRIT pisstake play put on by the boys about Torchwood and its Gheyness, and apparently nobody is allowed to know about or show or film it or whatever, and it would seem whatever it was that was said has stretched to people not even writing up reports or posting pics, because apart from these, I haven't seen any. WTF, man? I've seen complete filming of other conventions and I really don't think copyright protection or protection of the Beeb's good name is at play here, it just doesn't make any sense. TW's about the crack and the ghey and surely conventions, convention reports and even shaky crappy filmed bits of conventions on YouTube are just more publicity at the end of the day? Why the big whoop made about this particular sketch? THE ACTORS TAKE THE PISS OUT OF THE SHOW. Yah, dudes. That's not big news to me, or anyone else who watches. Honestly. Something's not quite computing here.

Anywho. Yeah, that's Gareth's bum.

Election things...

I was asked for my opinion on the US election. I was also asked to shut up about it, so there you go. I'll still make a few points:

• Alternet has some comparison guides for the candidates on various issues, if you're still one of them undecideds. Here, for example, is Alternet's guide to the candidates' stances on gay marriage and adoption, sex education and LGBT rights. Go read. (Why am I linking to the sex ed one? Frankly, and I don't like being mean about America, because I love the place, America's stance on sex education is backward to the point of medieval, it's misguided and wrong and oppressive and downright dangerous. Get over yourselves when it comes to sex, srsly. Won't SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?!? And yes, I know that's a generalisation, but like I've said before, I can only be so nuanced when talking about an entire country. Sure, you guys on my flist are progressive, right minded people and so are a vast lot of Americans. But still.)


• Colin Powell? Yah, never liked the man, but he said some wise things there and the fact that he's endorsing Obama is a majorly good thing. Quotage: "... the party has moved even further to the right, and Governor Palin has indicated a further rightward shift. I would have difficulty with two more conservative appointments to the Supreme Court, but that's what we'd be looking at in a McCain administration. I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America." Right on there, dude. Respect. Transcript of his Meet the Press is here.


• I think one of the problems we have looking at this election from a European perspective, is that in Europe most countries still work on far more of a party political level. We don't quite understand the personality politics that Americans engage in. In our eyes, therefore, a vote for McCain is far more of a vote for Bush than perhaps it is in the average American's eyes. We don't really vote for people in Europe, we vote for parties. That's not a dissmissal of the American system, it's just an observation, we have trouble seeing a vote for McCain as anything other than an endorsement of the Bush administration and a desire from said voter for more of the same, please.


• ETA: Another one of those things we have difficulty getting our heads around is this whole Is Obama a Christian? thing. I don't know how that plays out outside of Holland, but we certainly prefer our politicians, unless they are standing for a specifically religious party, to shut the hell up about their religious beliefs as they are irrelevant and not something we would like to see influencing their political decisions in any way. The fact that religion is SO NOT IRRELEVANT in American politics is something we have difficulty understanding. Over here if a politician mentions God or Jesus in a speech, our WHOA!!NUTBAR radar kind of starts pinging, Hard.


• My main opinion, having watched some of the debates and all the shizzle and rallies that are happening at the moment, and it's probably a slightly controversial one, is that McCain is not 100% mentally healthy. Nor is he, obviously, 100% physically healthy, but that's another issue. I really think, watching him closely, that he's not quite right in the head. He scares me. There is just a touch of the crazy, stubborn old man on a streetcorner about him and I dread to think of him in the White House. The way it's looking at the moment, though, I'm very relieved that it would appear that I have little to worry about on that front. Thank fuck for that.

Socialism...

People are calling Obama a Socialist, apparently. I think that's kind of funny, I wish he were, really, that would be awesome. But he's not. I said I'd write down what I believe is the deal with America, I don't want anyone to take offence, I just mean it as a starting point for debate, I'm perfectly willing to be persuaded and argued at in other directions, I'm just presenting a global view of how I, as an outsider with inside experience and connections, see America, in general. Not you, personally, whoever's reading, just the country, as a whole being, as it were.

Here's the thing with America. In America you can be whatever you want to be. You are all created equal. Everyone came to America with a dream and the ways and means and the hopes of making that dream a reality. It's a country based on IDEALS and HOPES and LIMITLESS POSSIBILITY. And that's a beautiful, beautiful thing, but it brings with it a flipside, and that is a deeply ingrained sense in a lot of the population that anyone out there who does NOT fulfill their American Dream, who is hard done by, poor, or falls by the wayside HAS BROUGHT IT UPON THEMSELVES somehow by not putting in enough effort. It's why the American belief system is competely incompatible with Socialism, because in order to embrace Socialism, one has to acknowledge that there are always going to be people out there who will not realise their potential, who through no fault of their own will run into trouble, or illness, or poverty, or discrimination or whatever and that it is the government's duty to take from the rich and successful and give to the poor and needy. Americans don't really embrace that idea, they're all about telling us how hard they've worked, how much their family has suffered, the hardship they've had to go through to become what they are today, and the idea that their hard work and hard earned dollars should now be used to help someone else in need, it just doesn't seem to sit quite right. And that's not because they're mean, or uncaring or unchristian, it's just a CONCEPT that doesn't quite ring true with their idealistic upbringing. It doesn't gel with their IDEALS. Because in an ideal world EVERYONE would achieve their potential, and be great and rich and successful and happy. In an IDEAL world the government doesn't NEED to intervene in any affairs of the people. Acknowledging that, maybe, yeah, the government should intervene, means acknowledging that it's NOT and ideal world out there, and that is something a lot of Americans have difficulty with.

It's a way of thinking that seeps into a lot of the issues that we, as Europeans with a vastly different and more pragmatic mindset, don't understand. In an ideal world, anyone who owns a gun is responsible with it and only uses it for shooting pesky foxes or whatever it is they have it for and therefore in an IDEAL world, everyone should be allowed to have a gun. Telling people they can't have a gun means admitting it's not an ideal world. Telling people they can have abortions means admitting that it's not an ideal world and that people get raped or are just plain fucking stupid when it comes to sex. It's a hard thing for Americans to do, they, on the whole, don't like it.

Now don't get me wrong, the American Dream mindset, the idea that you can work hard and be whatever it is you desire to be, that's a beautiful concept and it's brought about amazing innovation and creativity and thinking and all those things. And it's what makes Americans compete for scholarships and pageants and medals and lifetime achievement and employee of the month awards and all those things we don't have over here because we don't reward achievement and value achievement like you do. That idealism and general optimism of the American people (yeah, it's probably why we think you're so perky all the damn time, we're fucking CYNICAL, the Europeans, it's depressing as hell) is a WONDERFUL THING. But that flipside does exist, and it's why a lot of Americans think Socialism is a dirty word. Whereas I do not.

I realise that probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but there you go. My two cents.