sweaterkittensahoy

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Omg.

OMG.

We have a friend who has NEVER BEEN TO CON who is coming to stay with us and go to ECCC.

AND HE DOES NOT KNOW ABOUT SPIDEY DICK.

OMG YES. YES I GET TO TEACH SOMEONE ABOUT SPIDEY DICK.

If you do not know: Spider Dick is when a new cosplayer decides to cosplay as Spidey and does so in the unitard but clearly does NOT know about dance belts. Which you can tell because you can see the entire outline of their Spidey Dick. This is in complete opposite of Deadpool cosplayers who seem to ALWAYS know about dance belts and never show dick outline.

It's hilarious because of how perfectly in-character it is. Like, I watched the ratio of Spideys to Spidey Dick drop for several years at Rose City Comic Con as the Spideys learned about dance belts, and then last year, there were new Spidey Dicks! And I was so happy! Because it means new cosplayers!!

A healthy ecosystem needs Spidey Dick!

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Masters of the Air works oddly well. Teenagers with attitude saving the world from a maniacal evil and all that.

combine your first real fandom with your current one to create a terrible, terrible au

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This is the opposite of that shit-ass Bobby Flay show where Bobby showed up to people's houses and was sure he could make their signature dish better than they could.

Gordon grew up in a poor family with an abusive father and food is what saved him from becoming another statistic. He's worked his ass off his whole life to be on the top of his game and has always helped others get there, too. He's paid for culinary school for promising chefs on Masterchef. He watches people on youtube and tiktok making food in the wildest situations (dorm room beef wellington lives in my head rent-free) and is always effusive with praise when earned. He is so, so kind to the Masterchef Jr. kids.

This is the perfect show for him. All Gordon wants to do is make great food and encourage people to make great food, and here he is putting his own versions of well-known dishes on the table and going, "Okay, did I get it right?" And allowing the experts to do for him what he has done for so many: Tell him no and teach him better.

I will protect Gordon Ramsey with my fucking life.

Executive chef at a top Thai restaurant tells Gordon Ramsay that his Pad Thai is trash [x]

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Hilarity is seeing that first gif and going, "Yes, excellent Teal'c line," and then going, "Wait. I can confuse Sean with this."

Show it to Sean. He laughs.

Me: You know why it's funny?

Him: It's a good line.

Me: That's Christopher Judge.

Him: ...The guy who voices Kratos?

Me: Yes.

Him: (Laughs harder as he clearly imagines it with Kratos's face.)

STARGATE SG-1 || “Crusade Part 1” 9.19

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I saw this somewhere else, and I wish I remember who said it, but it applies so much here: If you claim your anti-zionism isn't antisemitic, you better be doing the fucking work to make Jews feel welcome and safe where they are.

You're not fucking doing that.

The AJC's State of Antisemitism in America report for 2024 was released yesterday.

US Jews are tired and scared.

With roughly three-quarters (77%) of American Jews saying they feel less safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. because of the October 7 attacks, it is no surprise that nearly six in 10 (56%) American Jews report changing their behavior over the past 12 months out of concern for their safety. This is a sharp increase from previous years – jumping from 38% in 2022 to 46% in 2023 to 56% in 2024.

...

American Jews see antisemitism as emerging from diverse sources. The 2024 survey asked American Jews to assess how much of an antisemitic threat certain groups or issues – the extreme political right, the extreme political left, extremism in the name of Islam, and Christian nationalism – pose in the United States today. Roughly one-third of American Jews say each of those four represents a very serious antisemitic threat: extremism in the name of Islam (33%), Christian nationalism (33%), the extreme political left (33%), and the extreme political right (33%). Roughly three-quarters or more say that each group or issue represents at least a slight antisemitic threat.

The vast majority (90%) of American Jews say antisemitism has increased either a lot (61%) or somewhat (29%) since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, and one-third (33%) of American Jews say they have been the personal target of antisemitism – in person or virtually – at least once over the last year:  23% report being the target of an antisemitic remark in person 17% say they were the target of an antisemitic remark or post online or through social media 6% say they were the victim of antisemitic vandalism to, or messaging (such as flyers or pamphlets) left on their personal property 2% say they were the target of an antisemitic attack in person, during which the attacker physically touched them 10% report being targeted by any other kind of antisemitism, not already asked about

Three-quarters (78%) say they did not report any of the antisemitism they experienced, with more than half (54%) saying they didn’t think anything would be done if they reported.

...

For the first time in the six-year history of the survey of American Jews, a majority (56%) say they changed their behavior – by avoiding certain behaviors or activities – over the last year because of fears of antisemitism.  40% say they have avoided publicly wearing or displaying things that might identify them as a Jew, up from 26% in 2023 37% say they have avoided posting content online that would identify them as a Jew or reveal their views on Jewish issues, compared with 30% in 2023 31% say they have avoided certain places, events, or situations out of concern for their safety or comfort as a Jewish person, up from 26% in 2023

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It's a FANTASTIC use of comic sans, and omg I bet it's SO CLICKY CLACKY

found this sick keyboard at the thrift store and the mouse that comes with it is sick too

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Did everyone somehow just forget that Russia was the one who started the war on Ukraine? That Russia invaded Ukraine apropos of nothing, and has been doing everything it can to steal what it can and destroy what it can't? That Ukrainian kids are being stolen by Russia for russification? That Russia is actively trying to suppress Ukrainian language, culture, and national identity? That Ukraine is just defending itself and is literally just asking for Russia to fuck off and leave them alone? Did everyone just forget that??

Like I'm the nuance guy, and folks: there's no nuance here. There is no justification for this invasion. There is a clear aggressor and a clear victim. This is about as clear cut as it gets.

Russia started the damn war, and now wants it to end and is negotiating with the US (not Ukraine??) to get there. This is literally just wrapping up Ukrainian surrender to Russian imperialism in a pretty bow and calling it "peace."

I feel like I'm losing my mind.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Before and after on the sleeve redo!!!

I was right!! And the rest of the yarn arrived!! And i have zero self control, so let's fucking go!

Okay, so it's a $3000 Louis Vuitton sweater, and I'm gonna try to dupe it in crochet. I ordered the yarn last night. I'll be getting pearls from...somewhere.

Think I might even record the whole process for my youtube channel.

Some notes to get me started:

Design-wise, the cuffs and waist should likely be made two hook sizes smaller than the rest of the sweater to get those parts fitted. I'm using worsted weight yarn, so probably an F (4 mm) for the cuffs, then an H (5 mm) for the rest.

Planning for alternating rows of back loop and front loop single crochet for the texture. I considered waistcoat stitch or post stitches, but I don't think it'll give the right look. For those of you thinking of slip stitch flo and blo to better match the knit look, you have fun with that. Absolutely fucking not for me.

I think I'll have to work the chest and back above the waist sideways, then seam to the waistband to get the right look. That'll mean alternating full rows of flo and blo rather than alternating stitches, will be easier to keep straight.

Still noodling on the shoulders because the sleeves are worked 90 degrees differently, so I may do the shoulder piece, then work down in alternating flo and blo stitches. I would prefer not to, as mentioned, but it may be required.

Boy, I am gonna get real good at short rows one way or another, huh? The zipper placket is gonna need them, as will the edges around it.

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There are people – some in my own Party – who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, he’ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. I’ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say — almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most — public praise on the Sunday news shows — in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work – just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I won’t be fooled twice.

I’ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times I’ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.

As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.

The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population – so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.

The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis – contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.

As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case – but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 – a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.

I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately — and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Here’s what I’ve learned – the root that tears apart your house’s foundation begins as a seed – a seed of distrust and hate and blame.

The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

I’m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac – and suggests — without facts or findings — that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks – arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too “female” and “nonwhite.” The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who don’t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.

I just have one question: What comes next? After we’ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities – once we’ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends – After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face – what comes next.

All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we don’t want to repeat history – then for God’s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.

I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible: “I do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.

My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We don’t have kings in America – and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions — but in deference to my obligations.

If you think I’m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:

It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.

Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 – just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the “rally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.” It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the “tragic spirit of despair” overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

• NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

• Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Posting the Illinois governor eloquently explaining fascism and Jew Hatred and why we should all be worried here in the US will not erase the Jew Hatred I've seen you post. Including calling Israeli soldiers "the real nazis," justifying the synagogue pogrom by comparing the ad about Israeli vacation homes to stolen Native land in the US, and your encouragement to people to keep boycotting Israel after the ceasefire because you want to tank their economy.

Yes, this is about one particular person. Who I stopped following when I saw the Jew Hatred the first time. Who is now blocked because I thought I'd done it ages ago but had not.

Just. Get entirely fucked. You don't get to suddenly give a fuck about Jews because you don't like the people doing the Hatred.

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And then they finished off yesterday by planting bombs on Israeli buses, which only didn't kill people because they set them to PM instead of AM.

I am certain the only reason Israel is not taking understandable action to stop yet another attempt by Hamas to eradicate them is because there are more hostages and bodies to bring home.

This is who all you fucking tankies have been supporting this entire fucking time. They are not freedom fighters; they are terrorists, and they glory in the suffering of Jews and make it a fucking game.

You parrot their propaganda and spew Jew Hatred every chance you get, and this is what you have brought the world: A terrorist organization making a party out of dead children. A terrorist organization gleefully giving the wrong body and the wrong keys while slipping bombs onto busses when they agreed to a ceasefire. This blood is on your hands. You emboldened them so much, they made a celebration of dead Jewish children.

Literally 0 posts from anyone on this website besides Jews and our like 5 actually consistent allies about the murdered 4 year old and 9 month old hostages and the batshit crazy death parade celebration Hamas held celebrating their deaths with music and speeches and parades and cheering and banners with the murdered children's faces on them before they gave over their tiny corpses in the wrong coffins marked with the wrong names that both said said "arrested on October 7th" on them along with fake keys that didn't work to open the coffins so they had to be broken open and a body that they claimed was the children's mother but turned out to be a random corpse. I hate it here.

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Why do you care so much?

I've been asked this question a few times in the past year - why I spend so much time thinking, reading, and reflecting on antisemitism, especially because I am not Jewish myself. There are a few reasons, really. One of them is that I think antisemitism is a hatred that spawns other hatreds, but even if it did not, it would still be worth studying, because the fact that it is a hatred at all is enough. The fact that antisemitism impacts Jewish people is enough of a reason to oppose it.

It's also because it's important to oppose because of the way it damages the thinking habits of people who believe it. I saw somebody say, "Jew-Hate makes you dumb," once. And though I think it was probably an off the cuff statement for them, it stuck with me, and I think they're right. In my religion, we say hatred is one of the three poisons - it can seriously harm your mental well-being in a way that deepens your suffering in all aspects of life. Often, hatred can also be spread like a contagion. It's something that destroys social harmony and causes severe social dysfunction. And right now, I think antisemitism is the most contagious of hatreds - I've seen people in my life fall off the cliff, I've been able to talk some back from it, and I've seen how so many people wander towards it without any idea that that's what they're doing.

Part of the problem is that antisemites consider themselves righteous in a way I think most racists don't. Often, you'll see "I'm not racist but" I almost never see that with antisemitism. They don't add that qualifier. They just say it. Most racists I know will make a tacit acknowledgment of the racist implications of what they're about to say - antisemitic people don't. They often even engage in anti-Jewish racism while invoking anti-racism.

I don't really know any Jewish people in real life, perhaps only two. But I don't need to know them to know that hating them is wrong. I think I also have a debt of gratitude to many people in the Jewish community because of the advances in Buddhist Studies made by Jewish people, which sounds strange - but it's true that many leading voices and researchers, both in academia and within Buddhism itself happen to be Jewish. I'm not sure why this is, but it's absolutely true. The most prolific translator of Pali into English that I can think of is Jewish. The most impactful Vipassana instructor in America I can think of is Jewish. The most impactful voice in Deity Yoga, for Tibetan Buddhism, is Jewish. People who are Jewish, for some reason, contributed probably more than ex-Christian Americans or atheists combined to the proliferation of Buddhism in the United States.

Buddhists and Jewish people are known to have a close relationship. There are a lot of different reasons for this that I would suggest, but none that add up to explain the amazing contributions to Buddhism made by American Jews.

I think another reason I have for being so interested in antisemitism as a non-Jew is the kind of... political disillusionment I've been experiencing? It's been a disturbing few years, and I haven't seen many people elaborate very well on this feeling of abandonment and horror, witnessing people who you thought shared your values become hateful and deeply violent in their beliefs. The only people I've seen consistently speak about it happen to be Jewish.

I think all of this has helped contribute to a feeling of closeness to Jewish people as a group, despite that I don't really know Jewish people in my real life, and only have one or two Jewish friends online. This year has been a horror show of watching people's minds become twisted - it's so scary in a way I can't quite capture with words right now.

I also sometimes have a back and forth with myself about when and if to mention I'm not Jewish when I talk about antisemitism, because I do think it's totally necessary to explain the perspective from which I speak, but to be honest it feels kind of icky to be like "I'm not Jewish, but antisemitism is bad", because antisemitism is bad whether or not the person saying so isn't Jewish, and I think it might be a negative for people to think "not being Jewish" is something which makes it any less valuable to be against antisemitism, and talk about how against it you are. It's very real that people who talk about antisemitism are perceived to be Jewish, and obviously, it's important not to lead people into thinking you're Jewish when you're not, but adding an "I'm not Jewish" qualifier to statements about antisemitism I worry might contribute to the perception that those against antisemitism are Jewish.

Antisemitism is such an insidious ideology. And it's everywhere. I see it daily in so many different spaces. It has the largest impact on Jewish people, but it also impacts non-Jewish people at times. I distinctly remember being mocked throughout school for "looking Jewish." I think about that Greek restaurant which was attacked because they were thought to be Jewish. Or that man in the Amsterdam violence who tried to help and was then accused of being Jewish himself. It's so deluded, violent, and manages to consume people's thoughts like a parasitic worm in their brain.

Anyways, I planned for this post to be more organized. Oops.

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Will literally anybody at all see those murdered kids' faces and start speaking up. Everyone in my life tries to tell me the whole world doesn't hate us, that the "silent majority" is with us. But what fucking use is a silent majority? If literally nothing at all whatsoever can get them to stop being silent?

Babies were murdered and your peers excuse it and celebrate the organization that killed them and held a party as they handed over their corpses. And this "silent majority" won't even reblog a post about it, on the off chance that they get blocked by their violently antisemitic tumblr mutuals on a completely anonymous microblogging website. If that is the extent of the moral backbone of the "silent majority," what fucking use is it? People can bring up every excuse in the world for not taking this or that action or not talking about this or that particular thing, but the fact of the matter is that if you literally never push back against bigotry in any situation at all no matter how low the stakes are, you are completely indistinguishable from a bigot and what's "in your heart" is less than worthless.

What's inside only matters because of what it makes you do. Anything else is a fantasy we tell ourselves to hide from the reality of who we really are.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

So, @meyerlansky said Chick's a bad fuck and that Jack is a top-tier fuck, and we all know I definitely think Chick is a top-tier fuck.

But, what if meyer has a point and Chick is actually the most perfunctory fucker to ever fuck. Like, he wants to get off. He got off. Oh, you're still here. Okay, have the world's most half-hearted handjob.

And Jack can't believe it. Most handsome man he's ever seen in his life, smile and swagger like that, and fucks like it's a job not a very fun hobby.

The second time Chick grabs him to get some, Jack dodges away. "Oh, no. Absolutely not."

"What? We had fun last time."

"You had fun. I got the second saddest handjob of my life."

"What? I give perfectly fine handjobs."

And Jack just stares because does this man not hear himself. "No," he says. "I will not have another sad fuck with you. You want to get off, I get off first."

"What? This is ridiculous. How could--" And Chick goes quiet because Jack just gives him that level stare and licks the corner of his mouth and Chick very much remembers what that blowjob felt like.

"I...I've focused on my career, Jack. You know that. I usually just visit prostitutes."

"Those poor prostitutes," Jack says in a slow drag. "A cock like yours, and yet so disappointing in bed."

And, okay, Chick doesn't have a humiliation kink, but one might have just spontaneously appeared.

"Do you suck cock as sadly as you stroke cock?" Jack asks.

Chick literally cannot speak. This is too hot. Jack being a little mean. Jack taunting. "Um," he manages.

"Sit down," Jack says, and Chick sits. And then Jack sits in his lap. And pushes two fingers into his mouth. "Show me," he says. And ten seconds later he rolls his eyes and sighs. "No, absolutely not," he says. "Okay, for now, you can kiss me. That much, at least, I know you're good at. It got me into bed."

It goes on like that. Chick gets really, really good at sex and being bossed around and sometimes mocked by his Air Exec. Turns out sex is a REALLY fun hobby when you approach it with gusto and a willingness to learn.

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[sweaterkittensahoy]

I love custom furniture and vintage stuff and all of that, but you will pry my Ikea sofa and Billy bookcases from my cold, dead hands.