(no subject)

This everyone needs to know about.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-schmeltzer/palins-wasilla-to-rape-vi_b_125047.html.

For the lazy, Palin's administration in Wasilla refused to pay for rape kits. That is, the rather expensive ($300 to $1200) examination that is needed to help establish whether or not a person has been raped and extract genetic evidence (semen, blood, bits of skin) that could close the case. You know who had to pay for them, then?

The victims.

I know Palin never actually did this herself, but her personal decision was resulted in women who had just been raped being told "so, we're sorry that you've just been the victim of a brutal and potentially mind- and life-destroying crime... but if you want to catch the guy who did this to you we're going to need you to cough up $300 dollars."

Or better yet, "so, we're sorry about your underage daughter, but..."

Before the Bush administration, I didn't really understand what it meant to be angry enough to spit nails, but now I do. There's a tension in my jaw, a tight sort of fullness that feels ready to come flying out. I just know if I had poison sacks, they'd be pumping out vitriol right now. In fact, this entire experience makes the idea of poison sacks very attractive.

But this? This makes me feel like spitting fire.

This is enormously amoral. I try very hard not to call political decisions evil, even when I'm tempted, because politics is such a vast and multifaceted world, and my perspective is so small. But this... I can't resist the temptation. This is evil, if nothing else is. I'm not sure even Bush has done anything so petty and callous. To consciously create a system where the organization that is supposed to be helping people instead adds insult to injury? That's just... I don't have the words for how bad it is. Terrible? Shameful? Reprehensible? Wicked?

I'm going to stick with evil.

Character Creation W: Houses of the Blooded

The Game: Houses of the Blooded
Publisher: Wicked Dead Brewing Company
Familiarity: Low, but growing. I’m probably going to run a one-shot of this one, soon.

Houses of the Blooded is about playing one of the ven, a beautiful and passionate people who existed in the time between the fall of the sorcerer kings and the rise of Atlantis. For a while, they ruled the world. Then, they vanished, setting the stage for the rise of the early human nations.

The Ven are passionate, obsessed with dichotomies. They don’t have crushes, they have Romance. They don’t have enemies, they have Revenge. The ven are everything I want out of a roleplaying game: passionate, interesting people doing really stupid things for the sake of their desires, ideals, and ambitions, getting into trouble… and then having to get out of it. Or dying of it. Houses of the Blooded, after all, is a game about tragedies.

( Ambition, Lust, Revenge )

So, what do you all think? This is my first attempt at a Houses of the Blooded character, and while I like to think I got it all right, I know I probably didn’t.

I want to say that making this character was remarkably easy and fun. Something about the Aspects really helps a character jump out and bite. And the random part was a lot more fun than I expected. I may sit around with the charts and a d6 and see what comes out.

*Sigh* I really like this game. If only someone else around me did, too. Even Abby isn’t fond of it.

Up next… I don’t want to use all my new games up right away, so I think I’ll do Mage: the Awakening. Got an idea and everything.