Help Haiti auction one closes, some linkblogging

[soc_puppet]

I was totally going to do a post warning about how the main auction at help_haiti was closing soon, except A) I slept in until noon today, since school was canceled, and B) I got the closing time mixed up, not realizing it meant noon instead of midnight. W-whoops.

In any case! Bidding ended today a few hours ago. Here's something you may want to take a look at: Auction Closing Procedures. I will definitely be reading it closely myself at some point in the very near future.


In other linkblogging news: Liberal Bloggers to Obama and Dems: We Told You So


Also, while I normally have the utmost respect for Neil Gaiman, I really can't approve of his use of the word "bitch." (Trigger Warning for last link.)

Thanks to a lightbird777, I was expecting the Depp-seems-to-be-on-Team-Polanski thing. Even if I don't care much for Gaiman's solo work, however, this feels like more of a slap in the face.

Edit: Neil Gaiman, when negative reactions to his use of "bitch" were presented to him, has just said he will try to do better in the future". While he doesn't seem to feel contrite about its use in the George R. R. Martin post (where it is definitely used to mean "Someone who is at your disposal to use however you like", with the sexual implications all but out loud), it is at least slightly encouraging.

Edit 2: Aaaaand now we're moving backwards. *sigh*

-Trigger Warning-

Dear Mr. Gaiman,

On the off-chance that you are reading this post, I would like to take the opportunity to be a little clearer:

It makes me uncomfortable that you are using the term "bitch" to convey your sense of safety as a writer. As a woman, I am not afforded this same level of safety in regards to my basic personhood. There is as much as a twenty-five percent chance that I will become someone's "bitch" in my lifetime, and not in the sense you use it. It makes me cringe when I think of my friends and family members who have the same odds, or who already have been someone's "bitch".

The fact that you are comparing this to writing, or the idea that someone "has" to write something, is alienating and hurtful to me. I hope that, as someone who ostensibly makes a career out of being able to see things from the point of view of another person, fictional or otherwise, you may yet be willing to consider things from mine.