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bell hooks, All About Love: New Visions
[Complicated reason #2 I am currently single.]
(via queerfatfemme)
(via sleepydumpling)
1. Ron Paul does not value equal rights for minorities. Ron Paul has sponsored legislation that would repeal affirmative action, keep the IRS from investigating private schools who may have used race as a factor in denying entrance, thus losing their tax exempt status, would limit the scope of Brown versus Board of Education, and would deny citizenship for those born in the US if their parents are not citizens. Here are links to these bills: H.R.3863, H.R.5909, H.J.RES.46, andH.J.RES.42.
2. Ron Paul would deny women control of their bodies and reproductive rights. Ron Paul makes it very clear that one of his aims is to repeal Roe v. Wade. He has also co sponsored 4 separate bills to “To provide that human life shall be deemed to exist from conception.” This, of course, goes against current medical and scientific information as well as our existing laws and precedents. Please see these links: H.R.2597 and H.R.392
3. Ron Paul would be disastrous for the working class. He supports abolishing the Federal minimum wage, has twice introduced legislation to repeal OSHA, or the Occupational Safety and Health Act and would deal devastating blows to Social Security including repealing the act that makes it mandatory for employees of nonprofits, to make “coverage completely optional for both present and future workers”, and would “freeze benefit levels”. He has also twice sponsored legislation seeking to repeal the Davis-Bacon Act and the Copeland Act which among other things provide that contractors for the federal government must provide the prevailing wage and prohibits corporate “kick backs.” Here are the related legislative links: H.R.2030, H.R.4604, H.R.736, and H.R.2720
4. Ron Paul’s tax plan is unfair to lower earners and would greatly benefit those with the highest incomes. He has repeatedly submitted amendments to the tax code that would get rid of the estate and gift taxes, tax all earners at 10%, disallow income tax credits to individuals who are not corporations, repeal the elderly tax credit, child care credit, earned income credit, and other common credits for working class citizens. Please see this link for more information: H.R.05484 Summary
5. Ron Paul’s policies would cause irreparable damage to our already strained environment. Among other travesties he supports off shore drilling, building more oil refineries, mining on federal lands, no taxes on the production of fuel, and would stop conservation efforts that could be a “Federal obstacle” to building and maintaining refineries. He has also sought to amend the Clean Air Act, repeal the Soil and Water Conservation Act of 1977, and to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to “restrict the jurisdiction of the United States over the discharge of dredged or fill material to discharges into waters”. To see for yourself the possible extent of the damage to the environment that would happen under a Paul administration please follow these links: H.R.2504,H.R.7079, H.R.7245, H.R.2415, H.R.393, H.R.4639, H.R.5293, and H.R.6936
6. A Ron Paul administration would continue to proliferate the negative image of the US among other nations. Ron Paul supports withdrawing the US from the UN, when that has not happened he has fought to at least have the US withdrawn from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. He has introduced legislation to keep the US from giving any funds to the UN. He also submitted that the US funds should not be used in any UN peacekeeping mission or any UN program at all. He has sponsored a bill calling for us to “terminate all participation by the United States in the United Nations, and to remove all privileges, exemptions, and immunities of the United Nations.”Ron Paul twice supported stopping the destruction of intercontinental ballistic missile silos in the United States. He also would continue with Bush’s plan of ignoring international laws by maintaining an insistence that the International Criminal Court does not apply to the US, despite President Clinton’s signature on the original treaty. The International Criminal Court is used for, among other things, prosecution of war crimes. Please see the following links: H.R.3891,H.AMDT.191, H.AMDT.190, H.R.3769, H.R.1665, H.CON.RES.23, and H.R.1154
7. Ron Paul discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation and would not provide equal rights and protections to glbt citizens. This is an issue that Paul sort of dances around. He has been praised for stating that the federal government should not regulate who a person marries. This has been construed by some to mean that he is somewhat open to the idea of same sex marriage, he is not. Paul was an original co sponsor of the Marriage Protection Act in the House in 2004. Among other things this discriminatory piece of legislation placed a prohibition on the recognition of a same sex marriage across state borders. He said in 2004 that if he was in the Texas legislature he would not allow judges to come up with “new definitions” of marriage. Paul is a very religious conservative and though he is careful with his words his record shows that he is not a supporter of same sex marriage. In 1980 he introduced a particularly bigoted bill entitled “A bill to strengthen the American family and promote the virtues of family life.” or H.R.7955 A direct quote from the legislation “Prohibits the expenditure of Federal funds to any organization which presents male or female homosexuality as an acceptable alternative life style or which suggest that it can be an acceptable life style.” shows that he is unequivocally opposed to lifestyles other than heterosexual.
8. Ron Paul has an unnatural obsession with guns. One of Paul’s loudest gripes is that the second amendment of the constitution is being eroded. In fact, he believes that September 11 would not have happened if that wasn’t true. He advocates for there to be no restrictions on personal ownership of semi-automatic weaponry or large capacity ammunition feeding devices, would repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act (because we all know our schools are just missing more guns), wants guns to be allowed in our National Parks, and repeal the Gun Control Act of 1968. Now, I’m pretty damn certain that when the Constitution was written our founding fathers never intended for people to be walking around the streets with AK47′s and “large capacity ammunition feeding devices.” (That just sounds scary.) Throughout the years our Constitution has been amended and is indeed a living document needing changes to stay relevant in our society. Paul has no problem changing the Constitution when it fits his needs, such as no longer allowing those born in the US to be citizens if their parents are not. On the gun issue though he is no holds barred. I know he’s from Texas but really, common sense tells us that the amendments he is seeking to repeal have their place. In fact, the gun control act was put into place after the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy. Please view the following links: H.R.2424, H.R.1897, H.R.1096,H.R.407, H.R.1147, and H.R.3892.
9. Ron Paul would butcher our already sad educational system. The fact is that Ron Paul wants to privatize everything and that includes education. Where we run into problems is that it has been shown (think our current health care system) that this doesn’t work so well in practice. Ron Paul has introduced legislation that would keep the Federal Government “from planning, developing, implementing, or administering any national teacher test or method of certification and from withholding funds from States or local educational agencies that fail to adopt a specific method of teacher certification.” In a separate piece of legislation he seeks to “prohibit the payment of Federal Education assistance in States which require the licensing or certification of private schools or private school teachers.” So basically the federal government can’t regulate teaching credentials and if states opt to require them for private schools they get no aid. That sounds like a marvelous idea teachers with no certification teaching in private schools that are allowed to discriminate on the basis of race. He is certainly moving forward with these proposals!Remember his “bill to strengthen the American family and promote the virtues of family life.” or H.R.7955? Guess what? He basically advocates for segregation in schools once again. It “Forbids any court of the United States from requiring the attendance at a particular school of any student because of race, color, creed, or sex.” Without thinking about this statement it doesn’t sound bad at all. But remember, when desegregating schools that this is done by having children go to different schools, often after a court decision as in Brown Vs. Board of Education. If this were a bill that passed, schools would no longer be compelled to comply and the schools would go back to segregation based on their locations. Ron Paul is really starting to look like a pretty bigoted guy don’t you think?
10. Ron Paul is opposed to the separation of church and state. This reason is probably behind every other thing that I disagree with in regards to Paul’s positions. Ron Paul is among those who believes that there is a war on religion, he stated “Through perverse court decisions and years of cultural indoctrination, the elitist, secular Left has managed to convince many in our nation that religion must be driven from public view.” (( Koyaanisqatsi Blog: Wrong Paul Why I Do Not Want Ron Paul to be My President )) Though he talks a good talk, at times, Ron Paul can’t get away from his far right, conservative views. He would support “alternative views” to evolution taught in public schools (i.e. Intelligent Design.) We’ve already taken a look at his “bill to strengthen the American family and promote the virtues of family life.” or H.R.7955 Besides hating the gays he takes a very religious stance on many other things. He is attempting to force his beliefs on the rest of America, exactly what he would do as president.
(Source: addictinginfo.org, via jasietaraevangesen)
An Indian Inventor Disrupts The Period Industry
When Arunachalam Muruganantham decided he was going to do something about the fact that women in India can’t afford sanitary napkins, he went the extra mile: He wore his own for a week to figure out the best design.
…
Analyzing branded napkins at laboratories led to Muruganantham’s first breakthrough. “I found out that these napkins were made of cellulose derived from the bark of a tree,” he said. A high school dropout, he taught himself English and pretended to be a millionaire to get U.S. manufacturers to send him samples of their raw material.
Demystifying the napkin was only the first step. Once he knew how to make them, he discovered that the machine necessary to convert the pine wood fiber into cellulose cost more than half a million U.S. dollars. It’s one of the reasons why only multinational giants such as Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble have dominated the sanitary napkin making industry in India.
It took Muruganantham a little over four years to create a simpler version of the machine, but he eventually found a solution. Powered by electricity and foot pedals, the machine de-fibers the cellulose, compresses it into napkin form, seals it with non-woven fabrics, and finally sterilizes it with ultraviolet light. He can now make 1,000 napkins a day, which retail for about $.25 for a package of eight.
…
Though he’s won numerous awards (and won his wife back) he doesn’t sell his product commercially. “It’s a service,” he says. His company, Jayaashree Industries, helps rural women buy one of the $2,500 machines through NGOs, government loans, and rural self-help groups. “My vision is to make India a 100% napkin-using country,” said Muruganantham at the INK conference in Jaipur. “We can create 1 million employment opportunities for rural women and expand the model to other developing nations.” Today, there are about 600 machines deployed in 23 states across India and in a few countries abroad.
This sounds like a really neat way of empowering people. I really like how he sees his company as a service, not as a profit-making machine (when he could so easily do so) and rather than hoard the methods of production, he enables it to be easily replicated and distributed so other people can benefit from it, not just himself.
I love how he faked his way into gaming a system that worships money (srsly, a millionaire will get the respect for free shit, but not rural women, let’s think about how fucked up that is) and instead of reproducing the same attitude of hoarding money, he seems to be channeling that into a system of distributing income-producing means. We need more people who think that way, of spreading means of making stuff, rather than controlling them. I bet if the women’s sanitary napkin industry was taken more seriously, someone would find a way to trip up Muruganantham’s efforts to sell the machine.
OMG I am cheesy and perhaps hormonal but this reads to me like an awesome romance epic that needs to be made into a movie. And this movie would then off-set the one-dimensional awfulness that was presented in Slumdog Millionaire. Also, this movie will make me cry endlessly like The Namesake did. I mean, I’m kinda tearing up right now, just imagining it, lolololbawwwww.
Ewan McGregor by Lorenzo Agius for Menswear magazine.
my dad was at his ex-wife’s parents’ house once when they were dating or early into their marriage, so my dad was like 19, and her brother walked into the living room where everyone was sitting and shot the tv with a 357. my dad jumped up over the back of the couch, over the half wall behind it through an arch divider (sort of like this, but real 1950s and also with more arches), out of the front door and didn’t stop until he got to the liquor store three blocks away where he waited for his girlfriend to come pick him up and take him home. best dad.
(via landlockedbaker)
tapping out on a lot of ignorant people today, kay? four posts from four people i like(d) where they are denying racist/appropriative wrongdoing. when someone, ESPECIALLY a poc tries to educate you on your mistakes, fucking listen. jesus christ.
and like i’ve said before, just because the callout comes from an anon, doesn’t make it untrue. there are lots of situations where people do not feel safe/comfortable with confronting people non-anonymously. THIS DOES NOT MAKE THEM INHERENTLY WRONG/EVIL/WEAK. in fact, if an anon accurately calls you out on your bullshit, they’re probably anon because you’ve created an unsafe environment for them to approach you in. THINK ABOUT THAT.
— 10 Myths Many Religious People Hold About Atheists, Debunked (via mutualaddiction)
(Source: sourdoughislife, via neptunepirate)
1. [I am walking down the sidewalk when a small, brown bird flies in front of me at great speed.]
Me [apologetically]: Excuse me.
2. [I am exiting my building and a squirrel pauses at the bottom of my stoop to check me out. I give a small wave as if spotting a child I know.]
Me: Hello.
3. [While waiting in line at the pharmacy, I put my bag of groceries from a previous errand down on the floor. A cocker spaniel in a hooded raincoat blinks politely at the bag. I hold out my hand for him to sniff and he obliges. His owner, feeling our interaction on the leash but not knowing that it’s consensual, yanks the dog closer to his feet and out of my way. I purse my lips and nudge the plastic handles of my bag closer to the dog in the universal sign for “This is for you.”]
Me [whispering]: Smell the smells.
[He does.]
SMELL THE SMELLS
The tendency is to speak in terms of “should.” Should the protesters have moved, should the police have reacted how they did, is the cop who punched the pregnant lady justified, etc.
Recently, I’ve found it more interesting to think in terms of “did.” Did the bank bailouts and unchecked corporate…
I’ve been thinking lately about the character of Leslie Knope, since some random bloggers have been complaining that she’s too saintly or something. (Which is so weird. She totally has TONS of flaws, it’s just that the show doesn’t think she deserves to be constantly put down for them, unlike how practically every other show on TV treats women. So maybe that’s why it’s confusing for people.)
I think what I love about Leslie and her flaws is that they are all, like, childlike flaws, in what is somehow a very appealing way — she’s impulsive and passionate and feels everything intensely, so she loses her temper very unself-critically. I feel like post-puberty so many women are socialized to not express negative emotions, or at least to be really… what is the word. Like, circumspect or careful about expressing them.
But the way Leslie Knope gets mad — man, that is the way a little girl gets mad. She is totally not worried about whether her feelings are legitimate, or whether she’s being unreasonable, or about anyone thinking she’s a bitch. She just scrunches up her face and loses her shit, and threatens to waterboard a teenage boy, or declares war on the country of Peru, or knocks files out of Mark Brendanawicz’s hands. I GUESS I’VE BEEN PRONOUNCING YOUR NAME WRONG ALL THESE YEARS, MARK BRENDANA-QUITS.
Basically I feel like Leslie Knope (and, honestly, a little bit Amy Poehler) is what would happen if a girl was allowed to get through puberty with her real self intact, instead of getting relentlessly socialized to be whatever an acceptable woman is supposed to be, and that is kind of great.
(via jasietaraevangesen)
Ash,
Your window was open when I came home from work this afternoon. I may have been a creeper from across the street and stared Halloween-style into it, but you were not there. Maybe you were in the kitchen making a delicious snack, or taking a pool break. All I really know is you weren’t typing on your computer or staring wondrously out your window looking for inspiration for you next novel so you didn’t see me being a creeper.
I hope your snack was worth it.
WAIT THIS IS SO CREEPY I KIND OF LOVE IT?!
They just are. be rad, be inspired to be the raddest fucking person ever!!
My definition of Rad:
1. A totally awesome thing
2. A way of being: It is Rad to accept yourself and all others for who they are.
Being Rad is also about living the fuck out of your life in whatever way makes you happy…
(Source: seeyouloveyoubeyou)
So I looked this up and found out it was the cover of an exploitation novel from the 70s and apparently the back cover of the book read like this:
The nine principles of the WITCH creed:
1. We intend to gain equality.
2. We intend to shed our chains.
3. We intend to fight for right.
4. We intend to unite women in a common cause.
5. We intend to lose our man-created image.
6. We intend to change the law.
7. We intend to reveal our power.
8. We intend to win.
9. WE INTEND TO CREATE HAVOC.Hordes of bare-breasted, shaven-headed girls on motorcycles roar into Southend—Bank Holiday style!
Cities everywhere are saturated with stripclubs for girls—where titillating males peel off their drag!
Havoc—pure havoc. Created by leather-clad, hate-filled, WITCHES.
(Source: daysrunaway, via putyourdukesup)
Nothing like running into Joshua Jackson a mere hour after you’d just finished season two of Fringe in the airport terminal on your computer to make you believe he can actually travel between alternate dimensions.
#he said ‘here i am!’ when i told him of this
ugh pacey forever be still my heart
#do you guys have the one person who follows you and who you follow #but you’re not sure why they follow you because they’re such a quality blog and you’re NOT #and you never talk or anything #but sometimes they’ll like one of your posts and you’re like I HAVE PLEASED HER/HIM
(Source: ussawesome, via doctorswithoutboners)
ash! fat chick, writer, enthusiast, ash-hole. waiting, wondering.
pretty things and ugly things and lots of things.
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i am fully, energetically, enthusiastically, gratefully available for all freelancing opportunities! i can write ANYTHING, yo! ~*~freeashlance@gmail.com~*~
The Cabin in the Woods by Griffin
Things you can find along the streets of Memphis.
