Following canon :: Following the party :: Following multiple LJs

[heidi]

Three disparate subjects, eh?

I asked a question in someone's LJ this morning about canon. She posted "I do believe that R/Hr is canon..." and for the first time, it occured to me that I have no idea what she, herself, means when she says "is canon."

So I asked:

When you say, "is canon" do you mean that you think they're already snogging/dating/whatever bythe end of Book 5, or that you think Ron is interested in Hermione and they will snog/date/more in book 6 and/or 7?

Because when I read the phrase "is canon" I always think the person is saying the former, and I just realised that may not be the case.

And she replied, "by saying "is canon," I mean that I think Ron is interested in Hermione and Hermione is interested in Ron. Whether or not they'll ever get together remains to be seen."

And given all the debate/discussion/disaffected wanking in the past few weeks about ships being "canon" or not, it's probably time for me to just ask it.

What does "is canon" mean to you?



[Poll #269039]


This one is for all of you who are fiscal conservatives and social liberals - the Giuliani/Snowe/Pataki/McCains of the Republican party, those like Arlen Spector, who has done things I disagreed with while I was a constituent of his (see: Thomas hearings) but who has also done some brave and focused things while in office, and who are being targeted by right wing groups, funded in large party by Tom DeLay & his cronies. These Republicans, Salon reports, believe that only a loss by Bush will slow the continued encroachment of the party by these social conservatives.

Lincoln Chaffee was quoted as saying:

When George Bush was elected in 2000, moderate Republicans thought he was on their side. But that illusion was dispelled in his first few months of office. "When the president was elected, everyone was looking for a breath of fresh air -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- for the good of the country we wanted a bipartisan effort," Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., tells Salon. "We were all so weary of partisan trench warfare, and now it is deeper than ever."

"The president's agenda has been so different from his campaign rhetoric," Chafee says. "He is pushing an extreme agenda, from the abandonment of Kyoto, to banning access to abortions for service members overseas."

For a while, Bush's extremism was overshadowed by Sept. 11, and some moderates continue to support Bush because of the war on terror, despite being appalled by his domestic policies. Roger White, an associate professor of political science at Loyola University and self-described Rockefeller Republican, actually gave up his party membership four or five years ago out of disgust with the dominance of cultural conservatives like DeLay. Yet he supports Bush's foreign policy, and says, "I don't see the main danger as coming from cultural conservatives. I see the main danger coming from international terrorists."

But Bush has squandered much of his post-9/11 popularity by using it as cover to pass a right-wing domestic agenda.

"My values are not Mr. Bush's," says Susan Cosgrove, a 59-year-old lifelong Republican who owns a communications firm in Pittsburgh. "The Republican Party as I think of it -- the party of Rockefeller -- had a profound respect for character, and I don't think Mr. Bush is a man of character. I think his presidency is one of cronyism and pandering to the most radical wing of the party."

"What I see happening is a split among Republicans I know," she says. "A lot of them are becoming as alienated as I am, and a lot of them are moving in the same direction that the president is going. It makes for interesting dinner-table discussions."

Cosgrove isn't ready to leave the party yet. "There's something to be said for trying to change things from inside," she explains. Still, she's getting close.

"Maybe this is a lost cause. You try to change things from the inside and if you can't, it's time to step outside."

Meanwhile, she plans to volunteer for Kerry in the upcoming election. "I am in ABB mode," she says. "Anybody but Bush."

Now, to make it easy for all of us who're online, there's a Yahoogroup for Republicans for Kerry. If you're a Republican, and you think that this country is moving in the wrong direction under Bush, check the group out. Who knows, perhaps they'll have an LJ next...

...and speaking of LJs...

How many LJs do you have?
Two, this one and one which has no friends and has friended nobody, which I use as a food diary when I'm traveling.

Do you run any LJ communities?
hporlando, fiction_alley, chapter_owls and chapterowls, poa_nyc (for the June 4 weekend activities coordination in NYC), leaky_inc, fandom_history and fandom_lawyers, although I don't really do anything for the last two. I also hold custody of various birthday communities, which I should probably hand over to the people who they were created for...

Name five LJ people who:

You consider to be good friends:
epicyclical, gwendolyngrace, melissa_tlc, praetorianguard, folk

Make you smile: See above, plus copperbadge, taradiane, laughingirl, titanic_days

You have met face to face:Since I have such a huge list from Nimbus & other events, I'll just name the first five people who I met from the HP fandom, who are on LJ: epicyclical, folk, joyliveshere, ali_wildgoose, pot_pal_ashley. Of course, it's been coming on eight years since I first met traypup and then laughingirl in NYC, so they hold a special place in my RL-LJ dichotomy.

You want to meet: taradiane, notmollyweasley, copperbadge, lissinthecity and nostrademons.

You want to see again: Oh, heck, everyone I've ever met (given that I am among the lucky who didn't actually meet "S" or "D" back at the NY or London events back in 2001, whew).

And now, my stats:

Date created: 2002-02-11 09:17:45
Date updated: 2004-03-26 02:39:18, 6 hours ago
Journal entries: 1,083
Comments: Posted: 4,970 - Received: 9,880