(no subject)

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday! I HAVE ALL THE LINKS.

Ways To Give:

madripoor_rose linked to We Can Be Heroes, where DC Comics is matching donations to give aid to the Horn of Africa. You can also buy some really cool DC merch to help.

fiwen1010 linked to a petition at Change.org to ask the General Synod of the Church of England to allow clergy to bless and conduct Civil Partnerships in churches.

Stephanie asked me to publicise a "Drive For Life" emergency this week, and I utterly failed to get there in time, mea culpa. But I wanted to link to the driveforlife LJ site, where you can read about volunteer relay drives that help get animals where they need to go. You can also donate here, and if you want to help with the rescue drive I missed, you can specify it's for "Husky Family Rescue -- South Carolina".

Fans Helping Fans:

holli is looking for a new roommate. "We're in College Park, MD, about a mile north of campus, in a decidedly fan-friendly household. The available space is a large two-room basement suite with private entrance and private bath. One full-time cat and one part-time cat. Potential roommates ideally will not mind the living room being taken over by tipsy Doctor Who fangirls from time to time." You can get in touch with hollichele at gmail.com for more information.

ozisim's friend girliejones is putting together a geeky craft book, and has a call out for submissions (AU$50 for each project or pattern accepted).

News To Know:

Anon linked me to a piece on the NYPD's appalling treatment of transgendered people, both in the process of arrest and while in custody. Anon warned, and I'll second it, that this is a distressing and possibly triggery read.

reebchan let me know about a cultural policy event in Chicago this week: Teaching Artists And The Future Of Education, a panel and community forum. It's this Wednesday from 6:15 - 9 pm, at Columbia College Chicago. You can find more info here.

KOMEN A GO GO:

Didn't I tell you guys I'd be writing the history rather than rallying the troops? I'm cherrypicking a little here, but thanks out to everyone who sent links, you guys are stars.

taerowyn links to a timeline of what happened with the Komen foundation's withdrawal of support from Planned Parenthood here. It's probably the clearest resource in terms of screencaps and links, but it's a post with an "I'm a rebranding consultant" kind of agenda, so bear that in mind. It's also very long.

taerowyn also linked to a documentary about the Komen foundation which can help inform about their practices in the past few years.

snufflesdbear links to an early article in the event: Why Komen defunded Planned Parenthood.

katkun and bailunrui remind us the Komen Foundation also decided to stop funding Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

lannamichaels and ncp both linked to an article about Mayor Bloomberg matching gifts to Planned Parenthood and thaccian links to a place to donate to Planned Parenthood directly.

Eventually, Komen caved, and Lorena and kallaneboi both linked me to their funding-retraction-retraction statement when it broke. But I have to say, if you read this: We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not. and think that they're not lying through their fucking teeth, you are a sucker. Don't believe the bullshit.

So what to do? Well, you can give to Planned Parenthood, but you can also choose to support breast cancer research and awareness-raising with these links from mamculuna:
-- Dr. Susan Love Foundation
-- Breast Cancer Action
-- The Breast Cancer Site

Oh and btw (thanks taerowyn) if you work in communications or PR...looks like Komen's hiring. But it doesn't look like they've fired the anti-choice ultraconservative emenince grise Karen Handel yet, so you might want to stock up on antacids before applying.

Just For Fun:

YEARS ago I did a series of fund-raising drabbles based on the books listed in The Invisible Library, books that didn't exist but had been mentioned in other books. Then the website dropped off the internet, and I was sad, because it was such a great compilation. Fortunately, thanks to Dove, I now know it has RETURNED!

kalichan had a post up this week about a letter from a former slave to his old master, who wanted him to come back and work for him post-emancipation. This is astoundingly good reading, and there's a point in the letter where it goes from "Fucking awesome" to "OH SNAP" and I just think everyone should read it.

pendrecarc linked to The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, an animated short up for an Oscar and available free to view at the website. There's also a making-of site that's pretty neat.

fiwen1010 is doing dissertation research at the moment and looking into Torchwood-related tourism in Cardiff ("past, future and wishful thinking"). Her work is up at tw_tourists and it's full of polls and discussions about Torchwood stuff!

stgreyhounds linked to A Month Of Letters, a nano-like project encouraging people to write more letters.

In continuing Shit $group Say news, keeperofqkeys linked to the hilarious Shit Massholes Say.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can always post items for my attention in comments here (or on any post) or email me at copperbadge at gmail dot com. If you're not sure how to proceed, here is a little more about what I do and how you can help. Remember, brevity is the soul of RFM.