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These dudes are fucking legit. They don’t just show up one day in court, either, they actually make friends with the kids and let them know they have a support system and that there are people in the world who care about them and will always have their back. And less important, but also cool, is that the few times a couple of them have come into my cafe, they’ve been super friendly and polite and when I told one of the guys that I noticed his Bikers Against Child Abuse patch and wanted him to know how awesome I thought he was because of it, he got kind of shy and blushed and said, “The kids are the awesome ones, we just let them know they’re allowed to be brave.”

bebinn

The source is long, but so, so good. These men and women are available in 36 states, 24 hours a day to stand guard at home, in court, at school, even if the child has a nightmare. Many of them are survivors of childhood abuse as well, and know what it’s like to feel scared and alone.

In court that day, the judge asked the boy, “Are you afraid?” No, the boy said.

Pipes says the judge seemed surprised, and asked, “Why not?”

The boy glanced at Pipes and the other bikers sitting in the front row, two more standing on each side of the courtroom door, and told the judge, “Because my friends are scarier than he is.”

lesbian-moon-gf

Actual tears.. hnngh

bee-whistler

Show me more of people like this, world. I give up on humans too easily.

groovypirate

where do i sign up for this,i want to be in this gang

ultrafacts

haydengisearchive-deactivated20

This is fucking amazing. It may be out of character for me to say this but rock on

clatterbane

Bikers Against Child Abuse was founded in 1995 by a Native American child psychologist whose ride name is Chief, when he came across a young boy who had been subjected to extreme abuse and was too afraid to leave his house. He called the boy to reach out to him, but the only thing that seemed to interest the child was Chief’s bike. Soon, some 20 bikers went to the boy’s neighborhood and were able to draw him out of his house for the first time in weeks.

Chief’s thesis was that a child who has been abused by an adult can benefit psychologically from the presence of even more intimidating adults that they know are on their side. “When we tell a child they don’t have to be afraid, they believe us,” Arizona biker Pipes told azcentral.com. “When we tell them we will be there for them, they believe us.” ( Article)

More about BACA, from their site

uriesays

My parents are a part of this organization and they are metal af

They go on runs to protect the child if they feel even the slightest threatened no matter where. If the child needs them to go on vacation with them, they do. Bikers come from across the nation to watch over and take shifts for these kids. And the best part is once you’re adopted into this family as a BACA kid, you’re always one. Even when you’re 40 and the perp gets released from jail, they’ll come meet with you and find your best options for avoiding the person and maintaining the life you’ve built for yourself. Once a BACA child, always a BACA child. In Florida, there’s 100% rate for identifying the perp based on the child’s testimony. Why? Because BACA stands with the child and supports the child so they feel comfortable enough to point out their attacker.

What’s better than a badass biker gang being on your side???

kikithegirl

NATIVE AMERICAN CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST WHO IS A BIKER AND NAMED HIMSELF CHIEF HELL YES I’M HERE FOR THAT AND BIKERS BEING BAD ASS TO PROTECT KIDS. HELL YEAH.

birdungehrl

it’s back! I will always reblog BACA

your-uncle-dave

Damn good people.

rowsdower-saves-us

I know they wouldn’t consider themselves such, but these people are freaking heroes and the world is a better place because of them.

racethewind10

Hey folks, it talks about this in the article but its not mentioned in this post, BACA is a 501 © (3) charity that depends in part on donations to help pay for stuff like gas for their bikes. If you want to help, consider donating.

drgaellon

@copperbadge You like posting about heroes, Sam. Seems like this would be up your alley.

copperbadge

I love these folks! I’ve reblogged them before but it’s wonderful to see the donation information has been added.

galaxy-of-stories

Always reblog. Keep doing what you’re doing y'all.

hurtlittleboy

Guys? This post changed my life. I saw this post. Forever ago. And thought it was only in america… and wished desperately that they could help me. But then I saw it again, during a bad episode, and checked their site. They aren’t just in the USA

They’re in Canada as well and probably other countries. I met and talked with a native guy who runs the place near me. His name is Shaman. I got in, and I’m considered a BACA child now. Despite being 17, turning 18 when I talked to them. They spent time with me when my abuser was over, they gave me therapy resources. They give you something called a ‘level 1′ where they go to your house with as many bikers as they can, i shit you not a solid 20-40 bikers came from even out of province, and met me. I got to choose my biker name and I got a vest with patches on it and my name on it. They all hugged a Teddybear before giving it to me, and told me if I ever felt the BACA bear was running out of love, to give them a call and they’d refill it for me, and then I got a ride on one of their bikes. Just a day or so ago I went to an annual party with them and they we ate food one of them cooked and had a lot of laughs.

I’ve never felt as loved as I did being a part of the BACA family. They also gave me dog tags with the names, and phone numbers of my 2 workers. So I can call them whenever I feel scared.

BACA is an absolutely wonderful group that will do everything in it’s power to help any child whos been abused.

And it doesn’t end when you’re 18 either. As long as you get in contact/get your level 1 before you’re 18? you’re ALWAYS a BACA kid. I’m 18 now and they still invite me to parties, ask me if I’m okay, and are there for me. They’re still trying to find me resources for therapy.

BACA has changed my fucking life.

I hope you all can read this, and reblog it knowing from someone who fucking been with them, that they are absolutely amazing.

bowtomypointlesswords

This is truly amazing, I’m so glad people like this exist

instructor144

This needs to be reblogged. Because.

mjaydziarand-deactivated2018121

Always reblog BACA.

macgyvershe

Signal Boosting because the world needs more biker angels.

valeria2067

Take Your Gatekeeping and Shove It.

So, this past weekend, I took my 11-year-old daughter to SuperCon to meet her favorite actor (and favorite Doctor), Peter Capaldi.

She wore a little blue TARDIS-decorated dress and some Doctor Who pins, and she nearly cried with joy when Capaldi greeted her for the photo op. He was a consummate gentleman and such a sweet and enthusiastic person.

An hour or so after the wonderful photo op experience, she and I were sitting at a table in the food court area.

A burly, older man plopped down nearby. He looked at my little girl’s outfit, smiled, and said, “Do you even KNOW anything about Doctor Who?”

WTF, dude?

I was too stunned for a second to even respond, so he started right in with the ‘quizzing.’

“Who are the Doctor’s biggest enemies, and what planet does he come from?” this stranger asked.

Now I had moved past shocked and right into indignant/angry/protective mode.

“I don’t want her to be quizzed on something she loves, because I don’t want her thinking she has to prove ANYthing in order to be a fan,“ I told him.

Looking at my daughter, I said “You don’t owe strangers explanations or information, ok?“ She said OK and looked relieved.

Still he pressed on, patronizing grin and all: “Oh, I just want to be sure parents are raising their kids right.” Then he turned to my daughter again and asked “Who was the first Doctor, then?”

I cut him off right there. “No. I don’t want her quizzed. At all.”

Dude blinked in disbelief, sighed, and left about a minute later.

“Thanks,” my daughter said. “He was making me feel awkward.”

I held her hand and looked into her eyes. “Some men think they can have power over you by making you prove yourself. You never have to do it. They’re just insecure and pitiful, so they want to make you feel like it, too. It’s not only about fan stuff, and it’s not always just men, but be careful not to fall into that trap, ok?”

That crap isn’t harmless fun. It sets up a pattern of approval-seeking, self-justification, self-doubt, and fear of exclusion that is very dangerous for children (particularly girls).

Fuck that.

TL;DR: Do NOT come at me, my little girl, or anyone in my vicinity with your condescending, gatekeeping bullshit.

The next time, I won’t make the mistake of even TRYING to be polite.

landsbeyond

Well done! I still catch myself falling into this trap, and I’m 38 years old. Nip it in the bud, parents! Don’t make your children think they have to prove themselves worthy of liking what they like.

When people ask me what Omega City is about, I tell them, "It's kind of like the Goonies, but with spaceships." And now, I get to show you the cover of the final book, Infinity Base, which takes that concept and rockets it all the way out of this world! I'm in serious LOVE with this cover. It's definitely my favorite cover of the series. The artist, Vivienne To, is an absolute genius, and I adore the way she's captured the sense of adventure and wonder of outer space. Everything has been building toward this moment for Gillian and her friends.

#omegacity #dianapeterfreund #mglit #balzer and bray #scifi #scifiseries #middle grade #adventuregirls #marsgeneration

leonardchang

Outlive your stupid critics

My latest novel, The Lockpicker, had a tortuous history and made me question the sanity of agents, editors, and even myself. I’ll start by quoting a rejection by an esteemed former editor, publisher, and literary agent who shall remain nameless, but who read The Lockpicker in manuscript form some years ago. He wrote a brief letter of praise but ultimately rejected the novel, and the line from his letter that startled me was this:

“What fails for me is [that] virtually nothing is made of the fact that these guys are Koreans. I suppose in the alleged melting pot of America that might be a good thing, but for the book it doesn’t lend anything even lightly exotic to the narrative or the characters.”

Oh, come on, I thought. You wanted exoticized bullshit for characters who were born and raised in America? Are you kidding me?

But, you should know that this was not the first time I’d received this kind of rejection. I won’t get into the identity and racial politics of why this critique is so pernicious, but it’s enough to say that exoticism for exoticism’s sake, especially from a Korean American writer who sees himself as American and not exotic, is just, well, antiquated. A less diplomatic way to answer this critique, which I muttered as I flicked the rejection letter into a file cabinet, was simply: Fuck you very much.

Oh, by the way, I’ve received plenty of these kinds of rejections. Here’s another rejection for another novel, a longer quote from a legendary editor, who shall also remain nameless:

“The characters, especially the main character, just do not seem Asian enough. They act like everyone else. They don’t eat Korean food, they don’t speak Korean, and you have to think about ways to make these characters more ’ethnic,’ more different. We get too much of the minutiae of [the characters’] lives and none of the details that separate Koreans and Korean-Americans from the rest of us. For example, in the scene when she looks into the mirror, you don’t show how she sees her slanted eyes, or how she thinks of her Asianness.”

This is an actual rejection letter, and the profound disbelief and, well, horror in receiving this response after years of working on this novel – it was pretty disheartening.

The Lockpicker is my eighth novel. Through the years, I’ve learned you cannot educate a hegemonic editor in power; you ignore him and move on. You find another editor, and you keep writing. There is no practical advice other than moving on. All my books have outlasted those naysayers. Quite literally: Those two editors above have since passed on, may they rest in peace. Meanwhile, I continue writing, no matter what the rejections may say. A simple “Thank you / fuck you very much” is all that’s needed, because it takes too much time and energy to divert away from the writing to the responding. Just keep writing.

Being a novelist can very, very difficult: spending years on a book, with often very little reward and certainly many rejections, but publishing should never be the sole goal. Writing should be the goal. Writing a wonderful sentence, a riveting scene, a beautiful story. Writing is the goal. Publishing is a byproduct. Everyone gets stupid rejections, but you soldier on in spite of them.

For the record, I continued sending out The Lockpicker while occupying myself with other projects – I wrote another novel, Triplines, which was published a couple years ago, I wrote for the TV show Justified, and kept writing other things. When my publisher accepted Triplines, I returned to The Lockpicker, reread it, and knew it was the novel I wanted to write, the novel I wanted to read but didn’t see out there, and I was certain those past critiques were wrong. I waited until Triplines was well under way in the publishing process, then submitted The Lockpicker to my publisher. Their acceptance was probably the fastest I’d ever received.

And here we are. If I had been deterred or demoralized by the initial rejections, if I had given up then, the manuscript would still be sitting in some drawer. Or worse: in the some garbage landfill or pulped in recycling. I absolutely knew on some level that those rejections were wrong. The idea of putting a scene in which my protagonist looks in the mirror and thinks of her Asianness was laughably bad. The suggestion to make the characters “more exotic” was what I hated about a lot of novels – the backbreaking attempt to fake exoticism and Otherness, the calculated commercialism painfully obvious to everyone who knows about the world being written about.

I’m glad I ignored them, glad I kept pushing forward, and I hope you, fellow writers, continue pushing forward too. Keep writing.

====

An earlier version this note appeared in:

http://www.booklistreader.com/2017/05/30/books-and-authors/publishing-u-how-do-i-keep-my-head-up-while-finding-a-publisher/

landsbeyond

REQUIRED READING.

bsqu

What MRA’s think will happen at the Women-Only Wonder Woman Screenings

We at the Alamo Drafthouse would like to officially apologize for our role in the end of mankind as we knew it, and the ascendant Gynocracy that followed. We didn’t know our women-only screening of Wonder Woman would result in the overthrow of all world governments and the total subjugation of men, but in hindsight we probably should have seen it coming.

Keep reading

nancywerlin

Moving In, 27

landsbeyond

IF YOU ARE NOT READING THIS SERIES YOU NEED TO BE

sashayed

You guys, you must stop doing this. You must. We cannot keep yelling at you about it because it makes us so angry, and we are already angry all the time, about real things, like how our lives are turning into a real world Handmaid’s Tale, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haha ha ha ha ha ha. We cannot keep spending our energy being mad at mediocre men for writing mediocre books that inexplicably win awards and that people tell us to read, for some fucking godawful who knows reason.

So men. My guys. My dudes. My bros. My writers. I am begging you to help me here. When you have this man in your workshop, you must turn to him. You must take his clammy hands in yours. You must look deep into his eyes, his man eyes, with your man eyes, and you must say to him, “Peter, I am a man, and you are a man, so let us talk to each other like men. Peter, look at the way you have written about the only four women in this book.” And Peter will say, trying to free his hands, “What? These are sexy, dynamic, interesting women.” And you must grip his hands even tighter and you must say to him, “ARE THEY, PETER? Why are they interesting? What are their hobbies? What are their private habits? What are their strange dreams? What choices are they making, Peter? They are not making choices. They are not interesting. What they are is sexy, and you have those things confused, and not in the good way where someone’s interestingness makes them become sexy, like Steve Buscemi or Pauline Viardot. Why must women be sexy to be interesting to you? The women you don’t find sexy are where, Peter? They are invisible? They are all dead?” He is trying to escape! Tighten your grasp. “Peter, look at this. I mean, where to begin. ‘She could have been any age between eighteen and thirty-five?’ There are no other ages, I guess? Do you know what eighteen-year-olds really look like, in life? Do you know what thirty-SEVEN-year-olds look like, god forbid? And not that this is even the point, but why are these supposedly sexy and dynamic and interesting women BOTHERING with your boring garbage ‘on the skinny side of average’ protagonist? Why did you write it like this, Peter?”

And maybe Peter will say at last, “I don’t know.” Maybe he will be silent for a long long long time, and then maybe he will say, “I guess it’s scary and difficult for me to imagine the interiority of women because then i would have to know that my mother had an interiority of her own: private, petty, sexually unstimulating, strange: unrelated to me and undevoted to my needs. That sometimes I was nothing to my mother, just as sometimes she is nothing to me. That I was not at all times her immediate concern.”

“I know, Peter,” you can tell him gently.

“I don’t want to know that my mother was a human being with an internal life, because to know that would be to risk a frightening intimacy with her,” Peter will say, maybe. “Because to know that would be to know that she was only a small, complicated person, no bigger or smaller than I am, and I am so small. To know how alone she was. How alone I am. How alone we all are. That my mother survived with no resources more mysterious than my own. And yet she gave me life. My God: she gave me life. How can I pay her back for that? And how can I forgive her for it? How can I ever repay her for the good and the evil of it, my life, every day of my life?” He will be sobbing probably. “I am frightened of her. I am frightened of loneliness. I am frightened of dying. O God. My God. I didn’t know. I didn’t know.” Drool will run from his mouth as he cries. The way babies cry. He will be ashamed. You must hold him. You must say, “Shh, Peter. Shh.” Wrap your man arms around him. Hum into his thin hair as your own mother hummed once into your own sweet-smelling baby scalp. Kiss him gently on his mouth. There. You did it, men. You fixed sexism. Thank you. You’re the real hero here, as always, you men, and your special man powers, for making art.

resistancepilotfinn

finn is the most relatable character in star wars

davenecros

I don’t know anything about the space fights but I wish to kiss that guy?

resistancepilotfinn

it took 7 months and 92.6k notes to get here but this is my single favorite comment on this post

vampireapologist-archive-deacti

idk if I’ve posted about this before but by far the strangest things that’s happened to me in retail was the time someone’s total came out to my birth-year and I said “hey! that’s the year I was born!” and then the next customer’s total came out to like $12.57 and just bc I’m a weirdo I said “hey! that’s the year I was born!” and without missing a fucking beat this like, 70+ year old man said

“Ah! Another like me! We’re few and far between these days, aren’t we?”

And I was like oh man this guy’s sense of humor really aligns with mine! And I laughed and made some other joke about being immortal and thought that was the end of it,

but this man.

He stood by the register for five more minutes. Maybe more. Which let me tell you is an EXCRUTIATING amount of time for something like this to happen.

And he just kept upping the ante!! He starting talking about some REALLY specific details regarding day-to-day life in the 1300s to the point I started getting worried that I’d misled a genuinely immortal being to believe I am also immortal.

He eventually politely left when I got too busy with other customers to awkwardly respond.

Who the fuck was that guy.

maplefiasco

“One of the most important ideas in the fifth episode, that was critical for their relationship, David and Syd, is he finds a way for them to touch each other. Which is in their minds, basically. But she’s never, since she was a girl, been able to have physical contact with anyone. Let alone sex. And what that does is, it’s like the first time you do heroin (I hear). So the idea of how immediately addictive that becomes. The fact that she changes in that first half of that episode, to be someone who just wants to go back there. And he becomes almost her cult leader because he’s obviously different than the David we remember from the episode before. And he’s very seductive and charming and she’s completely addicted to him.

And then he leaves her and goes off, and then she gets in a car with her friends and goes to this place where all these people have been massacred. And you see it on her face, she’s coming out of the addiction. “What happened? What did he do? Who is that? Who is that person? Who am I?” And y'know, that’s a critical step for her. And an important goal in a story like this. All the other elements aside, it’s gotta be a visceral human experience.”

-Noah Hawley, The Watch podcast

prettyboyshyflizzy

why do black people use you in the wrong context? such is "you ugly" instead of "you're ugly" I know u guys can differentiate, it's a nuisance

you a bitch

rsbenedict-deactivated20181216

It’s called copula deletion, or zero copula. Many languages and dialects, including Ancient Greek and Russian, delete the copula (the verb to be) when the context is obvious.

So an utterance like “you a bitch” in AAVE is not an example of a misused you, but an example of a sentence that deletes the copular verb (are), which is a perfectly valid thing to do in that dialect, just as deleting an /r/ after a vowel is a perfectly valid thing to do in an upper-class British dialect.

pigeonstalking

What’s more, it’s been shown that copula deletion occurs in AAVE exactly in those contexts where copula contraction occurs in so-called “Standard American English.” That is, the basic sentence “You are great” can become “You’re great” in SAE and “You great” in AAVE, but “I know who you are” cannot become “I know who you’re” in SAE, and according to reports, neither can you get “I know who you” in AAVE.

In other words, AAVE is a set of grammatical rules just as complex and systematic as SAE, and the widespread belief that it is not is nothing more than yet another manifestation of deeply internalized racism.

kingkunta-md

This is the most intellectual drag I’ve ever read.

tehawesomersace-deactivated2017

You on point.

itsliketheyknowus

Dearest Mother, we thank you for gathering us around this fire, which we absolutely will not touch or push each other into. We look forward to safely roasting marshmallows away from the furry rugs, fuzzy boots, and low-hanging decorations just begging to become kindling in what will come to be known by insurance adjusters as ‘literally the stupidest thing we have ever seen.’

Submitted by Lindsey

itsliketheyknowus

#ILTKUBestOfBeigemas

landsbeyond

can’t. stop. laughing.

laughterkey

We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger. We rise and fall and light from dying embers. Remembrances that hope and love live longer. And love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.

Lin Manuel Miranda (via laughterkey)

asajjventress-moved-deactivated

ranking of capes in star wars

vader’s cape – of course its the best. its vader. its black. flawless style and execution. also, theme music. ∞/10

lando’s cape – daring cut and color worn by the most stylish man in the galaxy. and what a clasp. 10/10

phasma’s cape – stunning. incredible. its black. its armorweave. its got a tasteful red edge. and on those shoulders!! my only complaint is that it looks a bit like a tarp up close. 9/10

krennic’s cape – nothing special, but its a good solid cape in capable cape-wearing hands. 7.5/10

padme’s white cape thing – i can’t tell if that’s cape or not. half the shit she wore looked like a cape? why is she defined by her fucking outfits i hate george lucas? damn i keep looking at her tits im so fuckin gay. anyway it looks like a beach towel but other than that, a nice cape. a bit like avant-garde LL Bean fashion. 7/10

the various capes of bail organa – i wish i liked these better. you’re a great man bail but i’m not such a fan of your capes. all dashingly cut, but the dull and drab military-esque colors are heartbreaking. 6.5/10

dooku’s cape – plain from a distance, weird texture up close. nice clasp though. 5/10

grievous’s cape – messy and uncontained, but at least it matches its owner. 4/10

boba fett’s cape – terrible, like the rest of him. 1/10

honorable mention – grand admiral thrawn’s cape, lost in the abyss of the eu.

other notes – robes were not included, obviously, if it has sleeves it aint a cape

landsbeyond

Legit.