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Tweets from Twitter -- mostly links and random stuff I've said. Or that other folks said that I thought was cool. Or random.

• 00:31 @bzero -- Thankee! #
• 02:42 www.sfnovelists.com/2009/11/16/a-womans-place-is-not-in-the-refrigerator/ #
• 02:43 www.swantower.com/marie/essays/craft/tough-women.html #
• 03:10 www.swantower.com/marie/misc/settings.html -- list of SF/Fantasy that isn't based on Celtic/Norse/Generic Dark Ages/Medieval Europe. #
• 04:07 www.paleofuture.com/ #
• 16:46 www.starwarsuncut.com/ -- 473 people recreating Star Wars (Ep. IV), 15 seconds at a time. #
• 18:56 guyslitwire.blogspot.com/2010/04/making-difference-one-book-at-time-guys.html -- Operation Teen Book Drop for Native American teens #
• 21:57 @scalzi -- Can't wait until it's available. Loved the original Little Fuzzy, can't WAIT to introduce my girlfriend to it through your work. #
• 23:37 Steampunk & Ghostbusters. Two grea
  t tastes that taste great together: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3qyScsQLeE&feature=player_embedded #
• 23:38 www.youtube.com/user/LeagueOfSTEAM -- more League of Steam (steampunk Ghostbusting!) #

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KKK vs. WBC

Apparently, the KKK has repudiated the Westboro Baptist Church. The note on the front page of their website says: NOTE: The Ku Klux Klan, LLC has not or EVER will have any connection with the "Westboro Baptist Church." We absolutely repudiate their activities.

Now, this bit of news has been making the rounds of the Internet because, let's face it, on the surface it's hilarious. One bunch of bigots is publicly saying that another bunch of bigots is just going too far and they don't want a thing to do with them! It's like something out of a comedy sketch. If this news had broken a week ago, I doubt anybody would have believed it.

And I'll admit, at first? I snickered at this but then it occurred to me what the Klan is actually doing by repudiating the WBC. They're not doing this because they care about the rights of gay people. They're not doing this because they think the WBC is actually wrong to condemn gays and Italians and Irish people and portray the African-American mayor of Topeka, Kansas as a gorilla wearing a Nazi armband. The Klan isn't doing this because they've suddenly seen the light and realized that bigotry isn't the answer and we should all live in peace and harmony.

I'm willing to bet a mostly full bottle of generic antacid tablets that the Klan is doing this as just another PR move for themselves, just like David Duke and Thomas Robb have done in the past. Robb was featured in a chapter of Jon Ronson's Them: Adventures with Extremists Another round of "See, we're not bad guys! "See? See!? We're not like THOSE GUYS! We're not a pack of crazy lunatics protesting at soldiers' funerals and waving hate-filled signs and acting like rabid dogs in public! We're NICE people!"

Which is true, they don't act like rabid dogs in public -- they keep their rabidness safely hidden behind closed doors and couched in euphamisms and half-truths. This 'repudiation' is just another in a long string of attempts by the Klan to polish a turd.

In fact, Newsweek ran an article last year: Rebranding Hate in the Age of Obama. The first line of the article, talking about how groups like the KKK claim to be not about hate but about love? I remember hearing David Duke spout that crap 20 years ago. It was bullshit then, it's bullshit now.

So, snicker at the KKK vs. the WBC, but don't let it fool you. A polished turd is still a turd.