but your words cut loose the fire and you left my soul to bleed

There's a lot of drama going on behind the scenes, concerning someone who left one of the groups I'm in. It's all back-alley backstabbing, for all of me, and I don't want to make a bad situation worse, but I do want to state a few things, just in case wandering eyes come across the wee blog.

1. The lady you're so viciously attacking is a member (in both worlds) of one of the most maligned subcultures ever formed; accusing any fur of intolerance is remarkably like accusing fish of not being able to swim: it's specious, and ridiculous.

2. Whom, exactly, do you think you're winning over by a campaign to drag her down? You're not doing anything but making yourselves look like a group of unthinking, oversensitive twits, embracing political correctness at the cost of every shred of rational thought.

3. You cannot accuse a member of the subculture you're in of not embracing that subculture. But do feel free to tell me where I'm wrong there, and why you think bisexuality doesn't count as part of the queer community. When it says LBGT--or LBGTQ--on the Pride posters? That "B" stands for bisexual.

For anyone who doesn't know--there are certain topics in the Lucky Kitty Crew that Miss Serenity Semple has declared out of bounds. There aren't a lot of topics she won't stand to have discussed. And those she has are identified as being trouble-causing every time they come up.

Kira McCallen left the group because Serenity asked her--and even asked her politely and privately--to stop ranting about the California Supreme Court's upholding of Proposition 8. Is Proposition 8 wrong? Absolutely. Is the Supreme Court's decision flawed? Indubitably. Does discussion of California politics, gender politics, and gay marriage belong in a freebie/lucky chair/scavenger hunt group?

Absolutely not.

Unfortunately, it's not just Kira now, it's Rebekah Newall as well, who's going around and blackening Serenity's name. Where is this going? Because honestly, these two really need to grow the hell up.

Go on, girls--tell the shapeshifter who's dating two men and one woman why she doesn't understand your pain. Tell the woman behind the screen who's been fighting for gay marriage for more than two decades why she's wrong for supporting Serenity and the LKC, over the two of you and your dramatic 'yoke-lifting'.

Go on. I'm waiting. I'm just dying to hear what arguments the two of you can possibly summon to justify your behavior.

*listens*

*hears crickets*

Yeah. I didn't think so.

While I'm in this mood, I should mention Ginger13 Kidd, who's pursuing her own one-woman campaign of aggression against Sheena Benelli, the maker behind Weird Designs (spelled, amusingly enough, WEiRD.DESiGNS). Miss Benelli put out a line of ballerina outfits yesterday, and Ms. Kidd immediately filed a cease and desist order. To counter-file, Miss Benelli would have to put her real name, her actual location, and other pertinent real-world details to halt any incoming DMCA filings--which would deliver this information into the hands of Ms. Kidd.

This is why many people don't follow up DMCA filings--it's nothing about their personal guilt or culpability (in fact, in this case, Miss Benelli is using her original textures for both the tutus and the accessory packs to go with them), it's about someone else's ability to claim you're violating their copyright, and leaving you with no recourse but to give a potential crazy person full access to where you live.

I know two things from this unfolding drama:

1. People will abuse the reporting system, because they know it's easier for people to take down their creations--which may or may not violate copyright issues at all--than give out their RL information to a potentially aggressive party;

and

2. Ms. Kidd apparently thinks she's copyrighted all appearance of ballerina dresses on the grid. Which is patently ridiculous.

I think when I'm finished with the Carni line of gowns...I'm making a ballerina dress. Also, I'm never shopping at I Love 13 again.

Now then...Ever wonder what the Cantina Band from Star Wars would sound like as a ragtime number? There you go, then.

(If you really want to scare yourself, try Scott Bradlee's ragtime tribute to the eighties--the n1980s, not the 1880s!)

I thank Otenth Paderborn for both of those...I think.

[Late edit: Miss Samantha Poindexter? Also scary. She brings me Britney Spears' "Womanizer"...in chamber music.

[AIIIII!}