Hardware Problems Again

My laptop's power cable is on the fritz yet again, so I'm only able to blog intermittently. Hopefully it will be fixed in a few days.

Winter in (North) America is Cold

Arrived Montreal - either Mont Ree Awl or Mon Reel, depending on what language you say it in, on Friday morning local time. Friday Afternoon was a Blizzard, so suddenly the place was buried in the stuff.
The apartment doesn't have WiFi, the signal's too weak (drat) so I have to cross the road to the main B&B, where I am now.
Still recovering from thermal shock, Jet Lag, and a 40 hour journey. But with a few more cups of Earl Grey I should be OK. I'll try to get some pictures posted.
But in the meantime, before I can do some blogging about interesting stuff, I have to re-immerse myself in the world, catch up on news, and read the 700+ e-mails that have come in since Friday. So normal service from a snow-covered Montreal will be resumed as soon as possible.

Itinerary

Canberra to Sydney by bus
Sydney to Auckland (Change planes)
Auckland to Los Angeles (Change planes)
Los Angeles to Vancouver (Change planes)
Vancouver to Montreal

Stay 21 days at the Bed and Breakfast

Montreal to Calgary (Change planes)
Calgary to Edmonton

Stay 5 days with friends

Edmonton to Calgary (Again)(Change planes)
Calgary to Los Angeles

Stay 2 days with friends

Los Angeles to Auckland (Change planes)
Auckland to Sydney
Bus from Sydney to Canberra

First stage completed - posted from SYD International Airport. I'm about to board.

Maple Leaf Rag

I'm off to Canada in just over 12 hours.

The reason? Someone very important to me could do with a bit of support.

There are so few of us. Not Transsexuals, they're everywhere. No, those who start transitioning out of the blue, in a natural process, not the result of a course of therapy.

She's going to see Dr Brassard in Montreal to get some minor but important details taken care of. And a week later, so is another friend of mine, same place, same surgeon.

I'm not doing this out of altruism, well, not only out of altruism. I'll be seeing some dear friends, women who have all done it far tougher than I have. We've wept on each others shoulders, bled in each others wounds, and are bonded tighter than mere sisters. I've often said that the most amazing thing about my transition is not the physiological or psychological change, it's that I've met some of the most wonderful people on the planet. True Heroines. Well, I've met them on-line. Now I'll be meeting them in person, getting and giving hugs.

Worth going from +35C to -20C, and travelling halfway round the planet. Worth emptying my savings. I'm doing this to help Katie and Kay, but mostly I'm doing this for Zoe.

A Ticking Time Bomb?

One with a long fuse, fortunately. And one which may not go off in a way that will harm us. Maybe. We think. Probably not..... But call it just possibly the Biggest, Baddest shaped-charge IED the Universe can provide, and aimed approximately in our direction.

From The Gamma Ray Burster Threat:

The side of Earth facing the concentrated beam of an incoming gamma burst from a nearby source would suffer atmospheric shock waves which ignited everything in the air and on the surface of the planet. The immense heating of the atmosphere would begin causing catastrophic weather changes worldwide within only minutes. Everything which could burn would do so. However, taking refuge in sturdy shelters would offer some momentary protection. Following this brief (under one second) blast of gamma rays would be days of cosmic rays raining down upon Earth, and passing with killing energies through everything as deep as half a kilometer. It's unlikely even humanity's elite in the best and deepest underground shelters available could survive. Life in the depths of the oceans will be killed. Everything on the surface will be dead.

Fortunately these death rays consist of beams likely only one degree wide, and so will usually miss a particular world like Earth. Unfortunately, the stats still put us at risk about once every hundred million years.

Except that time frame might be a bit closer.

Seen via Opinion Dominion, an article from Australian Sky and Telescope :

The binary system known as WR 104, which consists of a Wolf-Rayet star and an OB companion, is well known for its spectacular dusty “pinwheel” nebula, which was revealed in spectacular detail by a team of astronomers lead by Peter Tuthill (now at Sydney University) in 1999. The nebula is formed by material contained within a wind that is driven away from the binary stars. As the material moves away from the stars, it curves as it rotates around the system.

That same team, expanded to include others from Australia and the United States, has now compiled observations (taken with the 10 metre Keck Telescope in Hawaii) of WR 104 spanning six years (their study is to be published in the Astrophysical Journal). Wolf-Rayet stars are candidates for turning into supernovae, and so their mass-loss history is of considerable interest.

Recent studies of supernovae have explored whether there is a link between these exploding stars and gamma-ray bursts (the most energetic events known in the Universe). In the case of WR 104, it is possible that when the Wolf-Rayet star explodes, much of the energy and matter will be ejected at the polar ends – and Earth is virtually pole-on to the system.

Our understanding of the connection between supernovae and gamma-ray bursts is still in its infancy, but Tuthill and his colleagues suggest that there is a possibility that WR 104 might produce a gamma-ray burst – one that would be only 7,000 light-years from us (as good as on our doorstep).
The good news is that we probably have several hundred thousand years before the Wolf-Rayet star in question does explode.

So the star may only Supernova. It may not result in a Gamma Ray Burst. Even if it does, the Jet of Megadeath is so narrow that it may miss. And even if not, we should be able to make shelters, not just for humanity (or the variant of the human species we've evolved into by then), but the complete biosphere. A kilometre of rock will make an adequate shield. And settlements on the opposite side of the moon to the Deathstar will ride out both the initial second or two of the gamma ray burst, and the days of the cosmic ray storm that follow.

Of course the Earth would be a "fixer upper" as would any other planet in the solar system we'd terraformed.



We have a lot of time - but maybe we should start thinking about solutions, some of which could take many millennia to implement. Some people are.

Our Repeating Pentagonal Universe

From New Scientist via StumbleUpon comes a finding that may be just weird enough to be true.

It's long been thought that the Universe could be finite, though expanding. A good analogy is to imagine a flatland in 2 dimensions. Rather than this 2D universe being flat like a piece of paper of infinite size, it's more like the surface of a slowly expanding balloon. So if a flatland spaceship travelled in its 2D space in a straight line, it would eventually arrive back where it started. The inhabitants would deduce that their 2D space must be curved in some higher dimension they can't perceive, only deduce.

So what would be the effect of a higher dimensional curvature on our own 3D space? With a powerful enough telescope, we could look in certain directions, and see an image of things at the edge of perception. We'd expect to look in the opposite direction, and see the same thing. Except that doesn't work too well, as we'd expect to see the same sort of thing no matter which way we look, and that's not compatible with a sphere, the Universe would have to be faceted, one of the regular solids - a tetrahedron, a cube, an octahedron, a dodecahedron, or an icosahedron.



It would be likely that each facet would appoximate a disk - and the closest approximation is each pentagonal side of a dodecahedron.

The idea of a balled-up universe was first proposed in 2003 by Jean-Pierre Luminet at the Paris Observatory, France, as a way to explain some odd patterns in the cosmic microwave background - the afterglow of the big bang. The CMB contains warmer and cooler splotches, which reflect the density variations of the universe in its youth. This fits nicely with cosmological models, except that if you blur the microwave map into big enough pixels, the splotches disappear and the map looks less random than you'd expect - and nobody can explain why.

Luminet and his colleagues suggested that this might be because the universe is finite, but is wrapped around on itself. This means that if a spaceship could cross the universe and "exit" through one side, it would still be in the same region of space but would "re-enter" from the opposite side of the universe. Because of this wrap-around effect, images of everything in the universe would appear to be repeated in the CMB. The best way to explain the data was if the universe is like a dodecahedron - a ball-like shape with a surface of 12 identical pentagons.

Boudewijn Roukema, an astronomer at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland, and his colleagues have reached another conclusion: the team "cut" rings from a version of the WMAP data taken from opposite sides of the sky, twisted the cut-out rings relative to each other and looked for matches. They also considered variations in the orientation of the entire dodecahedron over the sky to ensure that some of their pairs of rings were cut from opposite flat sides of the dodecahedron instead of from its corners or edges.

They found that those rings were a close match if one ring was rotated by about 36 degrees around their perpendicular axis (see Diagram). Importantly, calculations for a dodecahedral universe predict that this is the angle you would see.

So how big is the Universe? Quite small, really. From the original 2003 New Scientist article, before the 36 degree twist was found:

If confirmed, they would indeed be stunning. They would mean that the Universe is relatively small, something like 70 billion light years across. What's more, we could in theory see the entire cosmos and check that there are no hidden corners where the laws of physics are different.

For instance, it would rule out exotic ideas such as chaotic inflation, which suggests our local Universe is just one of myriad expanding bubbles beyond eyeshot, each with slightly different physical laws.

It would also banish the philosophical paradoxes of an infinite Universe, such as the idea that every person on Earth has an infinite number of alien doubles leading parallel lives. "If we could prove that the Universe was finite and small, that would be earth-shattering," says David Spergel of Princeton University in New Jersey. "It would really change our view of the Universe."

Like many hypotheses in Science, it may not even be in the right ballpark (so to speak). But the evidence is getting stronger that this may indeed be the case.

T is for...

Taxonomy.

An expansion of a comment (with some corrections) I wrote over at Bilerico, where the fractures and fault-lines of T politics are all too evident.

A Taxonomy stating how we differ, and what we have in common.

1. First, we're all human beings. That needs saying because we too often lose sight of the fact that everyone, even those we don't identify with, even those we feel uncomfortable being around, have human rights. And I speak as a conservative neo-con, not a tree-hugging kumbayah-singing liberal.

2. Then some of us are GLBT - people who do not fit in in some way with the standard bigendered model, where men look and act in accordance with society's norm for men and are only attracted to women, and women look and act accordance with society's norm for women and are only attracted to men. About the only thing such people have in common with each other is that it's the same people who persecute them. Many in this conglomerate - that is, a matrix containing parts of very different nature - don't remotely understand each other, and there's both phobia - fear - and loathing even when they do understand.

There's Androphobic Lesbians who see men, even Gay men, as a threat, Gynaphobic Gays who see anything redolent of femininity as beneath contempt, Homophobic Transsexuals who resent being conflated with those they see as morally corrupt, you name it. And straight Intersexed people who don't see why having an unusual medical condition automatically drafts them into a political activist group made up of weirdoes like mentally ill Transsexuals, Fetishistic Crossdressers, and perverted GLBs.

3. The there are some who are T. This is where it really gets confusing. T for Transgender. And what that word means changes from day to day. The original definition meant straight males who like wearing female attire, and rejected any insane body-modifiers or perverted faggots. Now to the bulk of the populace, it means those weirdoes who get a sex change. To political activists, it means anyone who "transgresses gender norms" of appearance, behaviour or body, except (for historical reasons) in the specific area of sexual orientation. Very often, arguments are based on both sides using different definitions, and sometimes changing the definitions in mid-stream if it supports the point they're trying to make. Again, many feel dragooned into being categorised and confused with other groups they not only don't identify with, but actively dislike, sometimes with good reason.

It appears that the majority of the "Transgendered" in the last definition, and certainly the ones with the most power and money, are (and I hate using RadFem vocabulary, but it fits) Patriarchal males in positions of relative privilege, but who are afraid (with good reason) that they will be marginalised if they have a high profile. The heirs to J. Edgar Hoover. They have much influence, a great deal of money compared to other parts of the TG mixture, but are largely unseen. Cross them, you get squashed like a bug. They have no interest in any medical or marital issues, and wish to disassociate themselves from the highly visible segments. Especially Transsexuals. They're with Virginia Prince on that one.

4. T is for....

Q: What's the difference between a cross-dresser and a transsexual?
A: Oh, about 5 years...

There's a big difference between the part-time cross-dressing male, and a post-operative intersexed woman. But there's gradations in between, and sometimes it's impossible for an external observer to tell where one begins, and another ends. Operative status is a nice, clean, easy metric to use - but is inaccurate for many reasons. Having major surgery is a Big Deal, not without risks, and neither is it free nor available to those who most need it. Conversely, there are many women who can live with physical deformities - be they having three breasts or one, or even having masculinised genitalia. Unless they intend having some form of love life, and that can be really dangerous for anyone who's transgendered, the benefits may be outweighed by the disadvantages.

My own view is that hormonal body modification is more a important divider, but even that isn't wholly reliable. So yes, there is a difference, but no, I can't give a simple test for it. You know it when you see it - the guys tend to bubble about silky underwear and frilly dresses, the women about feminism and childcare. However, those who are TS and unable to transition at puberty - and that means most - are evolving in their own identity. 80% cross-dress before transition.

I'll quote a very dubious source: Dr McHugh, who has been rightly demonised as intensely transphobic:

The post-surgical subjects struck me as caricatures of women. They wore high heels, copious makeup, and flamboyant clothing; they spoke about how they found themselves able to give vent to their natural inclinations for peace, domesticity, and gentleness—but their large hands, prominent Adam’s apples, and thick facial features were incongruous (and would become more so as they aged)

Well, I don't wear heels - except on special occasions. Makeup ditto, and my flamboyant clothing tends towards black T-shirts or blouses and a simple skirt, but I reserve the right to wear anything I choose. As for the rest, that's spot-on in my case - though what that has to do with gender identity escapes me. Others differ, and most who transition young (and some who transition old) are pretty rather than pretty awful. But all women feel like that. In our hearts, yes, we'd love to feel sexy, attractive, young... and some of us do, no matter what the calendar or the mirror say. But some of us think we could do with a little help there. To continue:

The subjects before the surgery struck me as even more strange, as they struggled to convince anyone who might influence the decision for their surgery. First, they spent an unusual amount of time thinking and talking about sex and their sexual experiences; their sexual hungers and adventures seemed to preoccupy them. Second, discussion of babies or children provoked little interest from them; indeed, they seemed indifferent to children. But third, and most remarkable, many of these men-who-claimed-to-be-women reported that they found women sexually attractive and that they saw themselves as “lesbians.”

And everyone knows that lesbian women don't exist, right? *Sigh* I really wonder if the good doctor ever actually met someone who was transsexual. I've seen what he's describing on some Transgendered support sites, and they don't want surgery. Transgendered, yes. Transsexual? Not as such. These days they can be themselves without having to pretend, and say what the Psychs want to hear. I don't understand them at all, but they're harmless, and mostly quite nice men. Weird though. (Zoe... er... some people would consider you a lot weirder... never mind)

A more pragmatic view would be to look at what concerns those under the great TG umbrella.

The Intersexed are concerned about medical, and to a lesser extent, legal issues. Many have had medical treatment without their knowledge or consent, sometimes sterilising them, sometimes removing all genital sensation, and sometimes leaving them Transsexual, looking like the wrong sex. Many have issues with hormones or electrolyte balances that can be life-threatening, and must confront medical ignorance that can kill them. They sometimes have to fight protracted legal battles to have even the most unimpeachable marriages validated. Generally, they try to stay out of the limelight.

The Transsexual are a subcategory of the Intersexed as far as I'm concerned, I consider the evidence overwhelming. Their concerns again are medical and legal, but unlike most of the Intersexed, they can't hide their condition until after it's been treated. When in transition, they are particularly vulnerable: they go from being unremarkable, to being far too visible, to being unremarkable again- if they wish to be, and if the treatment gives a good result. Often it can't. They are forced by the medical "standards of care" to use target-gender restrooms before surgery can be authorised, hence the concern about rest-rooms. After transition, they suffer all the problems that the Intersexed do.

They suffer the most discrimination in employment, in violence, in legalised persecution (Wisconsin's odious "Inmate Sex Change Prevention Act" - the only legislation anywhere in the USA that specifically forbids necessary medical treatment to a paticular minority group - comes to mind), and in many other ways.

How would the GLB majority react to a similar law preventing treatment of Gay inmates for HIV? Yet most GLB activists won't have heard of it.

Now none of these pressing concerns affect GLBs, except perhaps negatively. Gay men are sometimes perceived as being "men who want to be women", and that attack on their masculinity can lead them to persecute Transsexual women just to prove their detractors wrong. (Can't it, Barney?) The "mentally ill" weirdoes who want to get their dicks cut off are an embarrassment to them. Unless those falsetto voices are silenced, they will damage the cause the Mattachine movement has worked for so long to see reified - Gays as just normal people, not mentally ill, the people next door.

And don't get me started on the pecking-order politics of fully-stealth post-ops who are "just women" looking down on post-ops who can't be bothered with hiding their past, and they in turn looking down on pre-ops, who look down on non-ops, who look down on cross-dressers, who look down on fetishists, who look down on effeminate gays.... Enough.

As for me? Technically I'm Intersexed, and one of the weird "ideopathic" varieties. One that causes a natural apparent sex-change, without treatment. I identify more as Transsexual, because I see no essential difference between a transition that's 80% natural and one that's 100% artificial. Especially since so many TS people are mildly IS in other ways anyway. And my sexual orientation went from asexual/lesbian to straight in the process. So I have little time for categories that are merely good approximations being used as absolutes.

I do think that it might be better for all concerned if we were a confederation rather than a union though. We should support each other, with various degrees of enthusiasm, but work towards our own ends, and acknowledge that sometimes what will benefit one group will disadvantage another. We should then get that sorted out internally before facing external foes, and even agree to take different stances on different issues, openly, and without rancour. As it is, and as the ENDA debacle has shown, hypocrisy, treachery and mendacity result if we don't. Some in power still take different stances, while pretending they don't, so disenfranchise and denigrate those who they victimise to avoid admitting what they're doing. They even speak for their victims, against their interests, to advance their own.

Anyway... that's an explanation of why some people resent being called "Transgendered", and why some don't like the recent fashion of using the word as a cognate for "Transsexual" by people who are only trying to be polite and PC. To avoid the S..x word.

It's not as if the situation wasn't complicated enough without the politics.

Take 5

This week in Take 5 magazine: The Story of a Dad who didn't know she was a woman. As if anything like that could occur....

I thought they did a very professional job - they captured the essence of what happened very accurately, and in only 2 pages.

Well, it puts a new light on the phrase "didn't know whether they were Arthur or Martha ".

Today's Battle

A very civilised one, with a courteous opposition, over at The Opine Editorials.
Well, it makes a change from arguing medieval canon law.

Three in a Thousand

Well, how to make 3 men look like a 1000 anyway...



That makes me wonder just how much of the best and most spectacular footage we see from Reuters is a Pallywood Production. And how much more sophisticated future propaganda efforts will be.

A Curtsey to Rocket Jones for the link.

Quantum Weirdness

From the Australian Sceptics list.

A Small Contribution

Some time ago, I gave a little advice to someone involved in the MESSENGER - MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging satellite project. Not exactly a huge contribution, but it helped them out of a tricky situation with the on-board computer. It was enough so I was sent an official T-shirt, the equivalent of a mission patch as being part of the team. Which was rather kind of them, considering my miniscule contribution.

Here's a view from MESSENGER now

From Space Daily :

A day after its successful flyby of Mercury, the Messenger spacecraft turned toward Earth on Tuesday and began downloading the 500 megabytes of data that had been stored on the solid-state recorder during the encounter.

All of those data, including 1,213 images from the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) cameras, have now been received by the Science Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

Preliminary analysis of these data by the Messenger Science Team has confirmed that all seven Messenger instruments are healthy and operated as planned during the flyby.

We only had 200 or so Megabytes of storage on FedSat, but as we were out of ground contact for all but 15-20 mins a day, the principles were the same.

So I am claiming about one t-shirt's worth of the credit for that.

Chinese Spaceplane in Pictures

Shenlong Space Vehicle

On H-6 (Tupolev Tu-16 Copy Derivative) Mothership

Chinese Spaceplane Concepts

Photos from Centre for Strategic Development

Compare and contrast with...

European HERMES project

European Saenger II

US 1960's Boost-Glide Projects (Dyna-Soar on right)

Pictures from Mark Wade's excellent Encyclopedia Astronautica

A lot is convergent evolution - a particular engineering problem has many solutions, but they tend to have distinct familial resemblances. Not that they don't copy things too - or at least, "draw inspiration" whenever they can.

The point is though, that China is re-capitulating work done in the US and elsewhere over the last 40 years.

They're serious, and are playing a long-term game. Still a long way behind, but unlike the USA, their space programme is not primarily a device for distributing pork to congressional districts. Some useful, practical products are expected, not ever more "design studies" and on-again off-again project cancellations.

Shameless Appeal for Cash

There's someone who needs $300 US, and needs it very soon. I've emptied my paypal account, and that's the only way I can help her in the timeframe needed. So if anyone has been thinking of making a donation, large (and for me that means over $10) or small, now is a very good time.

UPDATE - You don't have to have a PayPal account to donate - I upgraded my account to accept credit card payments awhile ago. Least I could do, really.

Homework

Atypical Gender Development - A Review (PDF) by Besser, M., Carr, S., Cohen-Kettenis, P.T., Connolly, P., De Sutter, P., Diamond, M., Di Ceglie, D. (Ch & Adol.), Higashi, Y., Jones, L., Kruijver. F.P.M., Martin, J., Playdon, Z-J., Ralph, D., Reed, T., Reid, R., Reiner, W.G., Swaab, D., Terry, T., Wilson, P., Wylie. K.

Cite as GIRES et al. (2006). Atypical Gender Development - A Review, International Journal of Transgenderism, 9(1) p29-44.

The best and most comprehensive overview of the medical issues I've yet found.

Now to look at the many other articles on the DES-Sons Yahoo group. In my copious free time, of course.

It Takes Guts to be a RWDB

And it looks like Tim Blair will have a few less in a while. Still, he has plenty.

See many previous posts about putting one's troubles into pespective.

Tim gave me some significant support a few years ago. I hope I can return the favour, I'm just sorry it's neccessary.

He Said, She Said

From a new thread at California Catholic Daily:

In response to the article’s insistence on using male pronouns when referring to the “transsexual” Charlene Hastings, one commentator wrote the following:

“Regardless of your religious beliefs, Ms. Hastings deserves the simple courtesy of referring to her as the woman she is, legally, emotionally and psychologically, not as ‘he’ and ‘him.’ I am appalled at such blatant disrespect by this supposedly Christian publication.”

I fully understand why the commentator might be offended by what she deems our discourtesy. I fail to understand, however, why she would think it discourtesy – at least, why she would think that we intended any discourtesy by referring to the putative female Hastings as a he. It would certainly be discourteous if we thought that Hastings had a claim to a female identity and refused to grant it to him. But the fact is, we don’t think Hastings can justly make that claim. What’s more, we think calling Hastings a she would be tantamount to a lie; and no one should expect someone to speak what he thinks is a lie.

The author is no bigot. Bigots aren't nearly so polite when they do hurtful things. He's not insensitive either, he just feels persecuted, and is fighting back. The more the evidence is against him, the more persecuted he feels, and the more he has to invoke higher laws than mere medical and scientific data.

I'll quote him, after he had the nous to read my site :

Forgive me, but I find this too ludicrous to take seriously. No number of scientist experts will convince me to accept something so beyond the pale of common sense. Some of us in this insane world still cling that wonderful, old democratic thing -- common sense. You would have us replace this with the conclusions of "experts" -- who will, most likely, be contradicted by other experts in the near future. I'm sorry, sir, but I will have none of it. Call me behind the times, intransigent, whatever else you want; but I'll have none of it. I prefer to maintain my sanity.

I forgive him, of course. Even for calling me "sir". The situation is bizarre, unbelievable. He's honest, forthright, and if forced by his beliefs to be discourteous, it obviously goes against the grain. I will call him Old-Fashioned, but that's because he believes in things like Courage, and Integrity, and not following the latest fad. The Old-Fashioned virtues I believe in too. It's just that Reality gave me a whack in the mazzard with a wet fish.

Today, I had a nice chat with the mother of one of my little boy's best friends, and one of her relatives. She'd got the story third-hand from her son, via my son, but was reticent to ask about it, just in case things had gotten garbled, as they are wont to do when talking with 6 year olds. We discussed mutual life histories, what I was studying at Uni, how I worked with true geniuses but was able sometimes to substitute intuition for intellect and see things they couldn't...and one then remarked that maybe my son inherited the same unusual neurology. I then looked up at the sky, and said "OH I HOPE NOT!!!". That made evasions and attempts to talk around the elephant in the room impossible. After all, our family consisted of two women and one small boy, not quite the usual arrangement. That was a Dead Giveaway.

They didn't find the change difficult to believe, though when I showed them the pics of what I looked like before, that caused some double-takes. I'm too ordinary, just another Mum with a rambuctious first-grader to have been anything else.

No, the thing that totally boggled their minds was the absolute rubbish we have to put up with from the bigots, the "concerned citizens", government departments, the works. They knew how Blacks were treated in 50's Alabama. They knew how Jews were treated in Germany before the Holocaust got underway. But to think that in the society they lived in, a normal, sane, reasonable society, such persecution happened with no-one else aware of it was just incredible to them. They were shocked when I showed them the "Document of Identity" I was initially given. The document that allowed exit from the country, but in the fine print said "It does not constitute authority to re-enter Australia".

Some, when encountering the unbelievable, retreat into intellectual fortresses of denial for safety. Others reach out with hugs and attempts at understanding. Yet both types can be good people. I was lucky to have the second type around me, and both gave and received hugs. I confess that sometimes I need them.

Today's Battle - Yet again

Another day, another occasion when I'm called a freak (that's fair enough), a deviant, a pervert, accused of having a sinful heart, the usual. This time over at California Catholic Daily, where the Daughters of Charity are acting most uncharitably.

I've never been accused of having a "one-track mind... for evil!" before though.

Today's Battle

Over at TownHall.com. A more important one than most - because of comments like this:

I hate to bust your bubble, but mutilating oneself still does not change a boy into a girl - it just makes a mutilated boy. These people have sinful hearts that need to be changed! They need to get off that self-focus and the idea that sex is everything.

The leftists have gone beyond all sane and rational thought in an effort to please everyone, including the deviant and perverted.

and

Those who have "gender perception" issues should be given genetic testing. Once they have discovered what sex they actually are they should be treated medically and psychologically so that they can accept the truth about their sex according to their chromosomes.

The infinitesimally small number of people who are true, biological hermaphrodites and the nearly as small number of people whose genotype does not match their phenotype should be treated with compassion, but in such a way that encourages them to fit into normal society -- just as other people with unusual challenges such as dwarfism and gigantism do.

Encouraging confused and deluded people to wander in the wilderness of their delusions while encouraging them to act as freaks in front of the rest of society is false compassion. Encouraging them to get the necessary treatment to cure their mental abnormalities so that they can function as a normal, productive member of society is true compassion.

Dwarfs and Giants are not usually called "deviant and perverted" with "sinful hearts" though. But the most important reason is comments like this:

Hi Lauren. I agree with you that young boys experiencing gender identity confusion have special needs. I have given the matter considerable thought. I think a young boy who thinks he's a girl needs a serious a@@ whipping. Parents who hear a child whining that he feels like a girl trapped in a boy's body should attend to his needs by whipping his a@@ immediately.

Mission Patches

We are unfair, and unfair.
We are black magicians,
black arts we make
in black labs of the heart.

The fair are fair,
and deathly white.

The day will not save them
and we own the night.

Amiri Baraka State/Meant

From Universe, a page I really must put on my blogroll ASAP:

The most recent issue of Cabinet Magazine has a really good article by artist and CIA expert Trevor Palgen about the iconography of military insignia, particularly of those branches of the military that "don't exist." How do you celebrate your work with traditional military regalia, Palgen asks, while retaining the secrecy which defines it? It's an interesting question.

Well, sometimes you don't. Take for example this embroidered patch, distributed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the US "black" space agency primarily responsible for the operation of military reconnaissance satellites (and God-knows-what-else). The patch was released by the NRO to commemorate the launch of a Titan 4B from Vandenberg Air Force Base -- one that boosted, according to the Air Force, a classified payload into orbit.

Classified, that is, unless you can read into the NRO's weird symbolism. Apparently, the patch -- right down to the angles of those boomerang shapes -- is a dead giveaway about the launch payload, that, it has now been confirmed, were four "Lacrosse" recon-satellittes, which give the U.S. military the ability to monitor problem spots around the world and accurately target weapons in almost real time. Yikes, that is a whole other ball of yarn entirely that I am not going to tangle with now.

I won't include the hyperlinks - "fair use" has its limits, and the original article is whorthy of more attention. I might just look at Cabinet Magazine too.

This post was originally inspired by an article over at Space Review, Secrets and Signs, which has far more such "giveaway" patches.

One that doesn't appear there is my favourite. And this is the one that, if I had my way, all "sensitive" missions would have as their only unclassified patch, along with the actual mission designation. The "real" mission patches would remain only in the various classified museums (well, at least for 50 years or so), and in the payload-makers hearts. It's important that they be made, but not that anyone else should know. Not just yet.