Not quite reviews, I talk about books I read and enjoyed.
First, if you bought The Long Earth because Terry Pratchett wrote it, know that it is absolutely not the style or type of a Discworld book. The book probably should have had Stephen Baxter’s name lead because my understanding is that he’s a “hard sci fi” guy and while this isn’t the hardest of sci-fis, it’s definitely not fantasy.
Second, the writing is solid, the plot is credible and creative, and the ending is a gut punch, in just the right way (especially as the first book of a five book series). There are a few dead spots where things get a bit monotonous but it’s also easy to argue that the authors were trying to let you know that it felt monotonous to the characters too.
And there is a main character that I’d gladly punt out a window, but I suspect that’s also intentional.
There’s no romance (thought I can’t say for sure that some won’t develop in a future book) and a lot of good common sense thinking from the main characters. There’s only one spot where you’ll be yelling “don’t do it!” at the book, which is good. The biology elements are awesome, as is the geography and geology. And the “magic” is consistently applied, so no giant plot holes.
I’ve already bought book two, and I suspect that I’ll be reading the entire series.
Here are some things you can do to chip away at the world’s cruelness, whether the world likes it or not.
Pick one relatively small project at your home that would both help you and your guests and that you’ve been putting off. Do it.
Maybe it’s organizing your towels so that it’s easy to help dry off a bunch of people who just came in from the rain. Maybe it’s making sure all the doorknobs are on tight so the doors close cleanly. Maybe it’s making sure that the bathroom has grab bars or that the stair railing is secure for people who have mobility issues. Maybe it’s making sure there’s a path through your junk room (we all have one, it’s ok) so that you can get through that room in a hurry if there’s a fire.
Me, I’m doing all my filing so I can use the dining room table if I suddenly need to.
The short-short version is that some lawmakers want to take away the elements in the Affordable Care Act that provide people who are trans with gender-affirming care. But instead of targeting those specific parts of the law, they brought a cannon to the knife fight and want to declare the entirety of Section 504 unconstitutional. That would not only strip away rights from people seeking gender-affirming care, it would also strip rights away from everyone who has a disability.
Remember, approximately 24% of the US population identifies themselves as disabled right now — the numbers are even higher if you count all the folks who have a disability but don’t want to admit to it, like people with low vision or hearing problems.
You can read more about Texas v Bercerra , the name of the suit that would take away your rights and the rights of those around you.
If you’re a scientist or similar expert (software engineer counts!), add your voice to an open letter calling on Congress and the Trump administration to ensure that NOAA remains fully funded and protected.
We want our weather, geology, and oceanography information to be accurate and timely because, well, we want to live through natural disasters. We don’t want that org to be underfunded.
Support science channels on Youtube
One of the hidden damages to the cuts that have been made to science and education recently involves whether your favorite Youtube science education channels get funding. The folks over at Minute Earth can explain it better:
So if you have a favorite science communicator, go subscribe to their Patreon, or maybe throw some cash in whatever tip jar they’re using.
And if you don’t have a favorite Youtube science communicator, can I suggest Complexly?
Provide feedback on the latest proposed changes to passports
Then, visit the following three pages where the Department of State has published 30-day notices for public comment for changes to the following passport forms:
You can read each doc in its entirety, or you can read the section on “Changes since last renewal” for each one, which says a variant of the following:
To comply with E.O. 14168, “ Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” the Department updated the form to replace the term “gender” with “sex.” The U.S. Passport conforms with the standards set by the E.O. and the International Civil Aviation Organization, which among other things determine the various fields on the passport’s biographical data page. Consistent with the E.O., the revised DS-11 will request the applicant’s biological sex at birth, male “M” or female “F.” Amendments to the fields and instructions (section 3) have been made to reflect this.
Assuming that you disagree with the executive order that declares everyone either male or female based on an undefined and/or vague definition of “biological gender” that’s not likely to hold up in court, your next steps are to:
Click on the link that says “Public Comments” in the navigation menu.
Click the “Submit a public comment” link.
Read the “Commenter’s Checklist”.
Provide a comment and, if you feel it necessary, supporting documentation.
Submit your comment.
Please do that for each of the three documents. We certainly don’t want the powers that be to only change one of them.
If you need a script, well, here’s what I’m sending.
I am unclear on why a sex or gender field is required at all. Is it to determine whether the person in front of us is who they say they are? If that’s the case, the photo does a better job of identifying the individual than an M or an F. Is it to determine whether the person should be housed in a male or female jail cell? It seems that there are many solutions to that problem that don’t involve either assuming someone will be in a jail cell or involve assuming the their assigned-at-birth sex marker will tell you what they look like. Is it to determine what bathroom they are allowed to use? Let people pee in peace, they don’t need our help to choose a bathroom. People who commit sexual assault are not identifiable by their assigned-at-birth sex marker either.
It’s been 50 years since then, and you’d think people would be used to people looking any way they wanted to by now.
As per Judge Ana Reyes’ hearing with the Justice Department on Tuesday February 18, we don’t currently have a valid legal argument with biological findings that shows that there are only two sexes, or that they can be cleanly assigned to all humans based on chromosomal or biological morphology. The question as put forward in E.O. 14168 is not only significantly flawed, it’s the wrong question.
What our biology says about our sex characteristics is unclear. What our culture says about the social construct of gender is very clear: there are people who consider themselves male, there are people who consider themselves female, there are people who consider themselves neither, both, or something else entirely. If the issuance of a passport requires “the determination of identity, nationality, and entitlements with reference to the provisions of Title II of the Immigration and Nationality Act” then classifying individuals by their biological sex when they do not recognize that sex as their identity is a flaw in the accuracy of the document.
I propose removing the field altogether. You can’t worry about compliance to a field that doesn’t exist. We didn’t need the field when passports were introduced and we don’t need it now.
As always, there’s no need for you to do everything
There’s 340 million of us in this country all trying to make our lives better every day, a little bit at a time. You personally don’t have to take on the whole burden. Do what you’re able, when you’re able, and rest in between.
This is a long post, but I leave you with two more things.
First, a video produced by our own government on fascism:
Second, a quote from a book called Moving Beyond Individualism in Pastoral Care and Counseling: Reflections on Theory, Theology, and Practice by Barbara J. McClure. This is a paraphrase she created of work by Rabbi Rami Shapiro, who was translating Rabbi Tarfon’s work. (I love tracing things to their original sources.)
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.
Walk humbly now.
Do justly now.
Love mercy now.
You are not expected to complete the work,
but neither are you free to abandon it.
For those of you on screen readers (which don’t read out emphasis, bold, or italics) that was [massive amount of emphasis here] it is time to rest [end massive amount of emphasis].
Rest includes:
Sitting on your ass playing video games, reading (relaxing) books or magazines, or doing puzzles or other brain-unplugging activities.
Playing catch, fetch, or keep-away from your dogs, kids, goats, whatever have you in the yard if the weather is decent (or even if it isn’t).
Taking a nap. Or three! Or going to bed now and waking up Saturday.
Taking a bath or a shower.
Going to the movies or a show or an orchestral performance or what-have-you as long as it’s not the bad kind of stressful.
Sitting in a room where nothing is making noise (except the heating or AC I suppose because you don’t want to be uncomfortable) so the stimulation parade is off for a bit.
Eating a healthy (no really not like I eat, an actually healthy) meal.
Taking a walk somewhere that doesn’t require you to engage with every person you see.
Rest does not include:
Doomscrolling.
Watching the news.
Reading that response from your local politician about that note you sent them recently.
Doomscrolling somewhere else that you think I didn’t count the first time.
Reading the news alerts.
Getting together with people who are having trouble unplugging and are going to spend the entire time freaking out about the news. (If your goal is to help them unplug, decide whether you need to unplug and relax yourself first before engaging with the whirlwinds of bad news. Remember that whole “put your own oxygen mask on first” thing? Yeah.)
All the disasters currently happening will still be happening Monday, and maybe some fresh ones just for spice. You can’t fix any of them today.
but anne i was looking for something militant i could do
The most militantly decent thing you can do to yourself in an environment where everyone wants you to burn out is say “fuck you, it’s time to rest”.
Resting is a skill. You have to practice it. Don’t get angry at yourself if you don’t do very well at it today. There’s a weekend every week, so you can try again next Friday. Even if you only get 10 minutes (or 10 seconds!) of rest you normally wouldn’t get, you’re ahead of Past You. And Past You is exhausted, so she needs Current You to rest.
I’ll be back Monday with some militant decency we can use your help on.
Last time I had time to write, I posted about Militant decency and what I’m doing.
Today we’re back with more.
You can’t help others if you can’t help yourself. Do you have a supply of water in your house in case you lost water? Do you have enough to cover some neighbors if it turns out that some disaster has left them without?
What’s your power situation? Do you have a generator or some portable power?
We’re not done the pinball machine backglass, I just haven’t had time to work on anything in…. checks notes…. a year. Or rather, I’ve had the same amount of time as everyone else, [you get a lifetime] but I’ve been dedicating it to lots of job and medical stuff.
Anyway. Today we’re here to talk about militant decency.
(If you’re following me on bluesky, this is going to sound familiar.)
The inspiration for the concept.
Resources to get us started
Things we can do when we’re mad:
https://resist.bot – Message our congresscritters (or in some cases our lower level politicians) and say that enough is enough.
Donate to a charity that is working against the things we’re mad about. I’ll write later about the year of Everybody Gets $10.
Do something in your neighborhood that helps everyone.
Use https://5calls.org to get scripts for issues that have you concerned and call about them. OR: combine them with resistbot and you don’t even have to talk to anyone
