November222012

lol JFK did so much for civil rights, much more than any president before him

native-detroiter:

…..so let’s suck his dick…let’s be happy with the scraps
even though he had segregationists in his cabinet
even though he and robert tapped people’s phones
even though he listened to cracka ass cracka j Edgar Hoover about MLK
even though he used black folks to get elected

Kennedy also was crucial in blocking universal healthcare. The closest a US President has ever gotten to putting in place universal healthcare was Nixion. But for some reason Kennedy wouldn’t have that. [Link]

(Source: jamaicanblackcastoroil, via apollyptica)

November212012

cleareyesandafullheart:

Imagine if every person in Africa saw the “Africa for Norway” video and this was the only information they ever got about Norway. What would they think about Norway?

If we say Africa, what do you think about? Hunger, poverty, crime or AIDS? No wonder, because in fundraising campaigns and media that’s mainly what you hear about.

The pictures we usually see in fundraisers are of poor African children. Hunger and poverty is ugly, and it calls for action. But while these images can engage people in the short term, we are concerned that many people simply give up because it seems like nothing is getting better. Africa should not just be something that people either give to, or give up on.

The truth is that there are many positive developments in African countries, and we want these to become known. We need to change the simplistic explanations of problems in Africa. We need to educate ourselves on the complex issues and get more focus on how western countries have a negative impact on Africa’s development. If we want to address the problems the world is facing we need to do it based on knowledge and respect.

I am not going to lie, I want a Radi-aid shirt.

Radi-aid Africa gives to Norway Africa for Norway PSA parody frostbite kills too africa norway cold radiators donate 

November72012

vector spherical harmonics…

lol wut?

vector spherical harmonics work i'm lost help magic 

12AM

New Hampshire, why are you so awesome?

Not only does it have a female governor, the only female governor in the US currently, but both senators are women, as well as both of its Congressional Representatives.

Pure win.

new hampshire 2012 election women progress equality awesome win 

November62012

The world can now stop collectively holding its breath.

Obama re-election President of the United States second term 

November42012

Who’s Responsible?

I was asked to answer a question on Quora (awesome site by the way) about who is ultimately responsible in the abortion debate and is it inherently unfair to the men.

I thought about the question seriously and wanted to give a well thought out logical response. Hey its Quora, what else do you expect? And I think I came up with framework that makes sense.

Once the child is born, it is of the responsibility for those who are capable of providing for the child, and in most cases the biological parents are still around therefore they are responsible.

However along the way the burden is on different people along the way of producing a child or not.

When a woman gets pregnant, she gets to choose to continue with the pregnancy because it is her body. This is something that has been repeated over and over and over. A pregnancy physically effects a woman’s body long after the baby has been born, so it is a big deal for a woman to decide to go through the pregnancy or not. It can even effect if they can have children in the future. And some people don’t what to use their one shot, when they can’t make the one shot work the best. They want to have kids, but just not at that moment. And a guy shouldn’t really have the authority of telling a woman what to do with her body, even if it results in a child which he did contribute to.

But there is another part of this, that isn’t talked about as much and it is the man’s contribution to the situation. There is a point where a guy does have a larger say in if a child is going to be the result or not. This point isn’t talked about that much because at this point no one considers this point as important because people aren’t in crisis mode yet. Before conception. Before that point, the ball is in the guy’s court, and the guy needs to be aware that he holds materials that if given to a female, will result in a pregnancy which can continue on to a child. If a guy can control who he gives that genetic information to, and if he doesn’t want to ultimately and pretty much literally give the decision over to another person, then he should make sure that he doesn’t give it to people who can make decisions that he doesn’t agree with.

Think about it, yeah women do have the materials to make a baby, eggs, but we don’t have control over them. We can’t control when they are released or how many eggs are released. But guys, yeah there are nocturnal emissions, but other than that, guys have much better control of the other half of the baby making materials. And oh man he can even control if a lady obtains possession of the baby making materials.

So before conception: the ball is in the male’s court.

After conception: the ball is in the female’s court.

After birth: its in no one’s court, everyone is responsible for the result.

So guys, think about the girl you want sleep with, do you want to be put in the position where she decides if you become a father or not? Will you be upset if she chose to have a baby when you didn’t want one? Will you be upset if she chose to abort a baby you wanted? Well don’t give her the opportunity to make that decision, just make sure she doesn’t get pregnant to begin with. Contraception people. Use it.

pro-birth pro-life pro-choice abortion responsibility pregnancy 

November22012
“People who grew up in public schools, run…to the embassy the instant they get a runny nose overseas, stuff burgers down their throats without worrying about E. Coli and sleep happily in planes they know have been inspected by the FAA…can with straight faces make the argument that having to pay any taxes at all is tyranny. It’s almost as if people feel the need to announce that they don’t need any help with anything, ever—not even keeping bridges safe or drinking water clean. It’s this weird national paranoia about being seen as needy, or labeled a parasite who needs government aid, that leads to lunacies like the idea that having a strong disaster-relief agency qualifies as a “big government” concept, when in fact it’s just sensible. If everyone could just admit that government is a fact of life, we could probably do a much better job of fixing it and managing its costs. Instead, we have to play this silly game where millions of us pretend we’re above it all, that we don’t walk on regularly-cleaned streets or fly in protected skies. It shouldn’t take a once-in-a-generation hurricane for Americans to admit they need the government occasionally, but that’s apparently where we are.” Matt Taibbi, at Rolling Stone. (via thesmithian)

(Source: thesmithian-blog, via stfuconservatives)

matt taibbi government public service regulation taxes 

1PM

Just need to vent a little bit

I honestly had a conversation with a person who claimed that a natural disaster was ultimately a good thing, because it forced people to rebuild the rundown buildings, but just shrugged off the effects to those below the poverty line. The boost to businesses should out weight the effects of the lower income folks.

Also argued that unemployment benefits were ultimately bad because it didn’t help teach people a lesson in saving for when they are poor. That they need incentive to learn and that a safety net is ultimately a bad thing.

Claiming that the US babies its citizens and making a correlation between international education ranking. “Hey what is the US in education like 20th? but look at those countries who are higher. Look at India, China, Taiwan. And they don’t baby their citizens.” Yeah, those are all places famous for sweatshops. And they don’t really have a stellar record in human rights, I’ll looking at you China.

He literally argued against having a safety net, but totally wouldn’t count countries like France, the UK, Germany, Sweden, Holland, the list goes on and on, of countries that actually do a better job of taking care of their citizens and “baby” their citizens a lot more than the US does, and they rank higher in education than US does as well. How convenient he forgot about all of those countries.

I don’t know. I don’t think this guy realizes it, but he is this close to being Republican, or Libertarian.

Even on issues of women’s rights. He thinks that it could ultimately be a good thing to jail women if they attempt an abortion. In order for people to value life more… yeah… And when I mentioned that in places abortions are illegal the rates of death increases, his response was “Umm… I haven’t heard of that. Where specifically are you talking about?” And I am just flabbergasted that he just doesn’t know a huge component of what he is talking about.

If something results in the ultimate benefit for society, he argues “But is it fair?” You know what? Who cares if it is fair? Everyone is better off. What you think it is unfair that the rich guy doesn’t get the privilege money can buy? I just told you that the punishment for pure cocaine is less sever than the punishment for crack-cocaine. And the reason is rich people(who can afford pure cocaine) can buy their way out of the problem while the poor can’t since they only can afford crack-cocaine. But is that fair? Should we have the attitude, that they had the foresight to have enough money to get a lighter sentence? Is that really fair?

I just can’t make sense of blaming poor individuals for not being smart enough to save for the chances of being unemployed. “Well if they didn’t save, then why should the government help?” Are you kidding me?

But don’t get me wrong this guy isn’t a bad guy, but he just doesn’t know. He thinks he knows, but I really don’t think he does. Those who are poor and uneducated do not have sole responsibility for their situation, it is systemic and without a way to break the cycle, it is only going to create a bigger problem.

I don’t know. I don’t want have to anymore political conversations with this dude at the moment. He is a nice guy, but he doesn’t realize that everything that he has had in his life and where he is at this point was not a product of his efforts alone. That him and a poor individual didn’t start at the same place in life, and he just so happened to apply elbow grease and gumption to get farther in life, while that other person was just a lazy bump otherwise they would be successful. It doesn’t work like that.

Also he tried to tell me what I believe. He tried to make the argument that atheism is a religion, and that abstinence really should be considered a sex position.

Yeah… I am just done…

rant politics co-worker 

October312012

Too awesome.

racist zombies key and peele hilarious 

October292012

Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder

Apparently I have delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD), otherwise known as being a night owl. I find the fact that being a nigh owl is classified as a disorder just on the basis that you have a sleeping schedule that is deemed “abnormal” by society. The fact that the “sufferer” of DSPD in question does not need to personally be distressed by their natural sleeping schedule, gives me reasons to call this “disorder” bullshit.

night owl delayed sleep phase disorder DSPD sleep cycle circadian rhythm natural normal 

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