In fact, I fear I am a jack-of-all-trades. (Posts tagged Politics)

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
captaincadet-blog
change.org

Petition: Editor Who Blamed Lara Logan for Her Gang Rape Must Go!
guerreragrrrls

Trigger warning: rape apologism/sexism/misogyny

Remember Lara Logan, the CBS reporter who was separated from her crew while covering the revolution in Egypt and brutally raped by a mob of men? When she spoke publicly about her attack, she bravely broke a longstanding silence on the part of female reporters assaulted on the job. 

But Dan Rottenberg, editor of the online arts magazine Broad Street Review, doesn’t have any sympathy for Logan or outrage on her behalf. Instead, Rottenberg says Lara Logan is to blame for her gang rape because she once showed cleavage at a US award show. 

Rottenberg’s editor’s letter, published on June 6th, is titled ‘Male Sexual Abuse and Female Naivete,’ six words that from the get-go suggest if women were to act more responsibly, men wouldn’t commit “sex abuse,” i.e rape. The letter is accompanied by a photo of Logan (above) on the red carpet, wearing a v-line neck dress and smiling for the cameras. The caption under the photo reads, “What message was the TV journalist Lara Logan sending here?”

Rottenberg goes on, “Earth to liberated women: when you display legs, thighs, or cleavage, some liberated men will see it as a sign you feel good about yourself and your sexuality. But most men will see it as a sign you want to get laid. Forewarned is forearmed.”

Rape is not “getting laid” and no one ever, ever does or wears anything that “asks” to be raped. To suggest that Lara Logan’s choice to wear a dress perfectly appropriate for a US awards show sent a message to Egyptian men that she wanted to be raped while doing her job as a foreign correspondent takes rape apologism to new heights. 

Rottenberg ends his column by blaming a neighbor for her attempted rape and the molestation of her daughter because she cleaned her house in a halter top and shorts. 

There is nothing redeemable about anything Rottenberg said; he makes excuses and blames the victim multiple times in multiple situations. He has far overstepped the bounds of an editor of a culture magazine and appointed himself arbiter of which rapes are a victim’s fault and which are not. This is unacceptable.

We call on the Publisher and Board of Directors of Broad Street Review to take Mr. Rottenberg’s offensive piece off the site and remove him from his position as editor.

nonnegative

what the fuck is this i can’t even

what year is it? politics
gnome-cleric
Nope. Zero,” the president said to the speaker. Mr. Boehner tried again. “Nope. Zero,” Mr. Obama repeated. “John, this is it.” A long silence followed, said one participant in the meeting. “It was just like an awkward, ‘O.K., well, what do you do now?’

President Obama to Speaker Boehner about how much he would be willing to cut from Planned Parenthood funding. (via comeondontbullshitme)

President Obama, you are great. (QwQ)♥

(via fricatives)

Source: The New York Times
politics
stfuconservatives
Look, guys. No matter what a girl does, no matter how she’s dressed, no matter how much she’s had to drink, it’s never, never, never, never, never okay to touch her without her consent. That doesn’t make you a man, it makes you a coward.

Vice President Joe “the BAMF” Biden, in a speech launching the federal government’s campaign to fight sexual violence on college campuses (via girl-non-grata)

I love this man.

(via elbeebee)

Seriously, the country needs Biden and Obama to tell them to do shit like “don’t rape women!” and “cough into your sleeve!” and “be a father to your kid!” Which is depressing, but at least they’re talking about it.

(via bulletinaweave)

politics joebiden
mooserrific
amfix.blogs.cnn.com

Parents picket girl with peanut allergy, ask her to withdraw from school
sharpestrose

I HATE ALL OF HUMANITY AND I AM GOING TO BURN THE UNIVERSE DOWN

singofthedamage

What. The. Fuck.

mooserrific

WELL GOD FORBID WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO TAKE CARE OF THEIR NEIGHBOR OR ANYTHING. FUCK WHAT.

nonnegative

“Meanwhile, the school is standing by its decision to make accommodations for the student.”

At least there’s that. But damn, what kind of crazy parents do you have to be to claim that WASHING YOUR HANDS is taking away from your child’s learning? Also, though the comments are surprisingly lower in stupid than I’m used to, the ones claiming that kids with animal fur allergies aren’t given special treatment have definitely never seen a kid with a severe peanut allergy. Do you think bees should be released at every lunch period? Because that’s a closer allergic reaction.

politics
funkination

The first is that true gender equality is actually perceived as inequality. A group that is made up of 50% women is perceived as being mostly women. A situation that is perfectly equal between men and women is perceived as being biased in favor of women.

And if you don’t believe me, you’ve never been a married woman who kept her family name. I have had students hold that up as proof of my “sexism.” My own brother told me that he could never marry a woman who kept her name because “everyone would know who ruled that relationship.” Perfect equality - my husband keeps his name and I keep mine – is held as a statement of superiority on my part.

Fanfic Symposium: When Worlds Collide (via thefuror)

It’s horrifying to me how many women will attack you for not taking your husband’s name. They say you should feel honored about changing your name and I’m like, actually I feel like it represented the transfer of property from one man to another. So, there’s that. Anyway, it’s not like anyone can’t be in favor of it, but don’t call me ungrateful or not ready for commitment because I’m not.

(via funkination)

I’ve mostly gotten just support for keeping my name, which is really nice, but I was surprised by how many people were surprised when I said I was doing it. I mean, I got married in 2009 – you’d think everyone would be used to that by now. The one funny thing I noticed is people will ask us if we’re hyphenating the baby’s last name (we’re not), and the word hyphenation always kind of gets the airquotes of sarcasm, like it’s such an odd idea that parents would want their kid to have both of their last names.

Anyway, I really like the original quote. Reminds me of how some people perceive a bias toward women in American college enrollments now that the enrollments accurately reflect the percentage of women in the US.

Source: trickster.org
politics
stfuconservatives
stfuconservatives.tumblr.com

STFU, Conservatives: pixyled: stfurapeculture: An anti-choice, rape-conceived woman tells...
stfurapeculture

An anti-choice, rape-conceived woman tells you why you should be anti-choice too!

"Please understand that whenever you identify yourself as being “pro-choice,” or whenever you make that exception for rape, what that really translates into is you being able to stand before me, look me in the eye, and say to me, “I think your mother should have been able to abort you.”  That’s a pretty powerful statement.  I would never say anything like that to someone.  I would say never to someone, “If I had my way, you’d be dead right now.”  But that is the reality with which I live.  I challenge anyone to describe for me how it’s not.  It’s not like people say, “Oh well, I‘m pro-choice except for that little window of opportunity in 1968/69, so that you, Rebecca, could have been born.”  No — this is the ruthless reality of that position, and I can tell you that it hurts and it’s mean.  But I know that most people don’t put a face to this issue.  For them, it’s just a concept — a quick cliche, and they sweep it under the rug and forget about it.  I do hope that, as a child of rape, I can help to put a face, a voice, and a story to this issue."

This is one of the most egotistical statements I have ever seen. Apparently being pro-choice is the equivalent of walking up to this woman and saying, “If I had my way, you’d be dead right now” (because being pro-choice means that every pregnancy that results from rape MUST be aborted!). I would actually like to see Rebecca Kiessling talk somewhere so that when she started this part of her spiel, I could stand up and say, “Yes, your mother should have been able to abort you.” Everyone’s mother should have had the choice to abort them or carry them to term! My mother did have the choice to abort me. She chose not to. If she had chosen to get an abortion, then I’m sure that would have been the right choice for her.

And what’s even worse, if you read this website, is that her birth mother, a rape victim, desperately wanted an abortion and wasn’t able to access one (although she tried). This horrible woman cannot even feel compassion for the mother who was forced to carry her to term after she had been raped. 

What Rebecca Kiessling fails to grasp (because she is seemingly delusional) or maybe just doesn’t care to consider is the toll that a forced pregnancy can take on a rape victim. Pregnancy is hard. It’s dangerous. Many rape victims do choose to go through with their pregnancies and either keep their children or give them up for adoption. But for others, the pregnancy is a continued violation. Rape is a crime of power, during which the victim cannot control what is happening to them, to their body. Forcing rape victims to continue pregnancies they would otherwise have aborted only perpetuates the loss of control that began with the rape. 

ETA: She calls her children “second generation abortion survivors.” I can’t even…

Just gonna check ,Rebecca…

all the people that are alive RIGHT NOW because they’re mothers HAD the chance to abort a pregnancy before…it’s okay for YOU to tell THEM that THEY shouldn’t be alive and that if you had YOUR way, they’d be nonexistant right now, right?

Because I wouldn’t be able to stand it if you WEREN’T were hypocritical!

I really don’t get why anti-choice people think that, because I believe every woman should have the right to a safe, legal abortion, that every pregnancy should be aborted. We’re pro-CHOICE. The CHOICE to have an abortion.

Yes, it sucks that Rebecca wouldn’t be alive if her mother had access to abortion. But it’s not like she would know. She would never have been born. She wouldn’t be Rebecca. She wouldn’t exist.

Lots of readers have written to me about how they wouldn’t have been born IF their mother had NOT had an abortion. One person’s mother was pregnant with a fetus with terrible birth defects. The mother aborted the pregnancy when she found out, at around 5 months, and then got pregnant again two months later. So if you think she shouldn’t have had an abortion, then the person who wrote to me would never have been born.

So the idea of threatening people with an alternate timeline (“you never would have been born!!!”) is ridiculous, because it works both ways. We’re talking about abortion legislation today, in the present. It doesn’t matter whether you WOULD HAVE been aborted, because you weren’t and you’re alive now.

It’s like when anti-choicers say, “What if that baby would have cured cancer???” What if it would have been a serial killer? What if it took the spot in med school from the scientist who otherwise would have cured cancer? Again, this theoretical argument goes both ways, so it doesn’t make sense for either side to use it as proof.

nonnegative

Reblogging to agree with all the above commentary. I actually have no problem with that line of thinking. I do think your mother should have been able to abort you – if she wanted. Just like I think my mother should have been able to abort me – again, if she wanted. Just like I think I should have been able to abort my child – if I wanted. The point here is, all of us made a choice, and that choice was, “No, I’m good, I want to keep this pregnancy.” Which is the definition of pro-choice, and it makes us no more “right” than a woman who wants to terminate their pregnancy. You know, since that’s what being able to choose is and all that.

Brought to you by someone who seriously has been asked if she’s now anti-abortion because she’s pregnant. Really?

politics
stfuconservatives
No group in America has been more helped by the government than the American Indians.

John Stossel, Fox News (via jonathan-cunningham)

………………………………

(via but-for-the-grace)

EXCEPT MAYBE RICH WHITE DUDES.

(via fsufeminist)

Oh my goodness that guy is a genital wart.

(via stfufauxminists)

Yeah, somehow I don’t think Native Americans are too happy with our government’s overwhelming generosity toward them. Not 100% sure, but it’s a pretty educated guess.

(via stfuconservatives)

I bet John Stossel’s really into Matchbox 20.

Source: tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com
politics obscureconnections parksandrec
gnome-cleric
whiskeyonsunday.tumblr.com

Whiskey on a Sunday: Doesn’t make sense, does it? Homeless in the US go without eating....
nonnegative

“Doesn’t make sense, does it? Homeless in the US go without eating. Elderly in the US go without needed medicines. Mentally ill in the US go without treatment. American troops go without proper equipment. American veterans go without benefits that were promised. Yet we donate billions to other countries before helping our own first. 1% will re-post and 99% won’t. Have the guts to re-post this. I KNOW I’M IN THE 1%”

As seen on facebook. It’s my new goal to not get into political arguments on facebook so I’m going to post this here instead because that’s way better somehow. The point is? This is BULLSHIT. Bullshit. If you believe this is true, you are incredibly ignorant of the US Budget and how valuable foreign aid really is, not only from a moral standpoint but how it is valuable to our own self-interest.

99% won’t repost it because hopefully they’re fucking smart enough to realize what a steaming pile of bullshit this is.

Even on a personal level, it’s ridiculous because people who donate to help other nations are also far more likely to donate to domestic causes. You think because I give some money to Japan or Haiti, that means I don’t donate to anything more local and ongoing? Silly and hardly mutually exclusive. It’s almost like someone pulled the 99% vs. 1% thing out of their ass or something!

politics why doesn't tumblr reblog things properly anymore?
cooltrainershells
shellnestro.tumblr.com

That's Really Super, Supergirl: Coddled Teachers: 90 paid sick days per year!
lmliberty

Let’s see, you work three-quarters time, get a 3 month paid vacation every year, not to mention holidays off and you do get vacation time. And for good measure, how does 90 paid sick days a year grab you?

When I say we don’t need to spend any more on education, ya think maybe I’m on to something? When I say reform education, is the picture getting a little less fuzzy for you?

These teachers appear to be nothing more than leech’s that have attached themselves to the public trough and are draining it dry. Enough is enough. Even the French are envious.

A public sector “job.” 3 months worth of sick time, three months off in the summer, full vacation and holidays off means they could only work about 5 months or less a year if they so chose, and they have the audacity to complain? Does anybody else get those kind of perks? Anybody who has a real job (private sector, non-union) get anything like that? Even big business CEO’s don’t get that. Unbelievable.

Teachers would no longer receive 90 sick days per year. Instead, they would receive 10 sick days per year that could accumulate up to 90 days. Unused days would not be paid back.

And under Gov. Walker’s plan they can still accrue up to 90 sick days? Screw that. If it were up to me, 10 days, take it or leave it.

Like I said. To those teachers that are whining about Gov. Walker’s plan, if you don’t like it, find another job. That’s how freedom works. Charlie Sykes has the full story.

Original Article

robot-heart-politics

  1. This is pertinent right about now.
  2. If you look at Oshkosh school district’s website, you can see the actual information about sick leave. The 90-day figure is essentially short-term disability and is only allowed to be used in the case of serious illnesses of the employee or the employee’s immediately family. Employees have to qualify for it. (Note: Many people’s employers, my own (private industry) included, offer some sort of short-term disability insurance.) Regular sick leave for Oshkosh school district employees accrues at 10 days per year. The maximum number of days which can be accrued is 90 days for less than 20 years of service, 120 for over 20 years. In order to accrue this, though, a person would actually have to go 9-12 years without taking a sick day. In which case, I think they’ve earned their time off. (Note: Many private industry employers offer paid leaves of absence when an employee reaches a certain mile marker in their career. Rewarding long-term employees with periods of paid time off isn’t that strange.) Chances are, when you see an outrageous claim made somewhere, if you can’t find it corroborated anywhere else, it probably is either inaccurate or a flat out lie. Do you research.
  3. All teachers work outside of standard school hours. Otherwise, they would be unable to create lesson plans, grade papers, or fill out the mountains of required paperwork that all school teachers are obliged to complete. Most teachers work well over 40 hours per week. Just because they only have your little darlings from 8-3 doesn’t mean that their day ends when the kids are out of the classroom. Also, most teachers work on a 9-month contract. The $46K they are paid for 9 months of work is stretched out over 12 months as a courtesy to teachers and their families. They do not receive 3 months of pay for free. I can understand how a person who does not personally know any educators—or who has not bothered to question their assumptions about educators—wouldn’t know this. As with most of the things teachers do, the public is generally ignorant. People tend to assume that children would learn reading, writing, math, history, and science all on their own, as if by magic, or that if they themselves were put in charge of educating 20+ human beings on a daily basis, it would be a breeze! These people are almost universally wrong…as arrogant, ignorant humans so often tend to be.
  4. How anyone can compare the benefits of a school teacher, who averages $46K/year with that of CEOs, the average salary for whom (big business or otherwise) is over $700K, and argue that teachers are the ones coming out on top either can’t do math or has an agenda to peddle. Period.

Nothing pisses me off more than assholes on the internet running their mouths on subjects that they know absolutely nothing about. 

porygon2

“These teachers appear to be nothing more than leech’s that have attached themselves to the public trough and are draining it dry.” TOO TRUE that’s why everyone homeschools their children

wait a minute

abstractdreams

IMAGINE MY RAGE FLOW. I sort of want to write everything in CAPS-LOCK!RAGE right now but I won’t because I’m a classy person, of course /sarcasm.

Accurate: everything robot-heart-politics wrote and more. BS like this (OP’s) is what fuels my love and appreciation for teachers (not to say that all of them are superheros in their own right, like most -if not all- of the teachers I’ve had are, but everything has its exceptions.).

A public sector “job.” 3 months worth of sick time, three months off in the summer, full vacation and holidays off means they could only work about 5 months or less a year if they so chose, and they have the audacity to complain? Does anybody else get those kind of perks? Anybody who has a real job (private sector, non-union) get anything like that?

IMAGINE MY RAGE FLOW AGAIN. Is this person serious or is this supposed to be satirical? I’m honestly perplexed that some people believe this and/or think this way.

I want to rant more but it’ll get off topic, so summary = TEACHERS APPRECIATION LIFE. FY OP.

porygon2

ikr i dont even

my parents used to tell me i should become a teacher because of all the perks and time off

like… what? are you being serious right now?

airawyn

Ahahahaha, my parents are teachers, and I was like, no, I’m not going to do that.  I’m not going to work that hard for that little.  My mom and dad love teaching, though, so I guess the reward isn’t all material.

“These teachers appear to be nothing more than leech’s that have attached themselves to the public trough and are draining it dry. “

Woah.

Woah.

Are you serious? I’m pretty sure uneducated politicians are the leeches that have sucked the education system dry of any credibility with all of their bullshit about teacher pay and testing.

And the “real job” comment? I hope to God that is satirical, other wise it’s full of complete bullshit and you are sorely mistaken on the role of educators. 

Does education need reform? Fuck yes it does. But reform that punishes teachers because “they have an easy job?” Fuck that. Spend a week in a classroom. Then tell me it’s fucking easy.

nonnegative

My parents were both teachers when I was little. My dad decided to stop being a teacher so he could settle into the calm, stress-free life of being a corporate attorney, while my mother, who recently retired from education after 38 years, spent every career day of mine growing up saying “YOU DON’T WANT TO BE A TEACHER, DO YOU???” My husband has a masters in education and you know what he did? Taught for a year and then decided information technology was a breezier career path, which it totally has been, as we’re still in touch with nearly everyone in his M.Ed. program and the red tape horror stories are seriously getting worse by the day. My best friend is a high school teacher and I shudder at every bureaucratic story she tells me.

Incidentally, I had unlimited sick days at my entry level office job, straight out of college, and short-term disability was six months. I also earned about 15K above what a teacher’s starting salary in my area is. Double incidentally, I live in the state with the highest teacher salaries anywhere, so that should allow you to draw your own conclusions about how abysmal teacher salaries really are.

Anyone who thinks being a teacher is a cakewalk is a naive little turdburger, and I give everyone everywhere complete permission to write them the fuck off as shit-stirrers who wouldn’t know a fact from their forehead.

lol politics i've got a lot of feelings
dearcoquette
dearcoketalk.com

Dear Coke Talk: On pointy-headed numnards.
dearcoketalk

What do you think about those who are saying that the recent natural devastation in Japan is karmic revenge for the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

Well, first let’s all agree that those kind of ignorant fucks don’t have the slightest clue what the concept of karma is actually about. Let’s also not be afraid describe them as ignorant fucks, because that’s what they are — low grade minds made more inferior with low grade beliefs.

We’re talking about the same pointy-headed numnards who think that homosexuality is to blame whenever an earthquake hits San Francisco, or that abortionists and feminists were to blame for the September 11th attacks.

It’s absurd, but this is what simpletons do in the face of catastrophe. While the rest of us try our best to process horrible events rationally, they’re off justifying their egocentric world views with superstition and schadenfreude.

Ugh. I have no patience for the willfully ignorant. Compassionless morons with uninformed opinions really are the worst among us.

nonnegative

agreed x 1000000000

politics
allurgist
severability.tumblr.com

add & subtract: JUST THIS ONCE, can tumblr let a foreign country have a crisis without trivializing it or appropriating it or...
shyandmighty

  • lol of course not
  • Less than 24 hours after the earthquakes in Japan, we already have a hipster graphic
  • and if you reblog or like or follow their brand-new design blog (also featuring “bitches”), they’ll donate $.01. Wow!
  • “Okay, we know, we know, it’s shameless self...
nonnegative

If you’re in the U.S. (and I assume most places have similar things, but I’m not sure), anyone without a checking account can walk into a post office and buy a money order for a really small fee, which works just like a check! Also, the Red Cross has text-to-donate abilities; text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to relief efforts, though if someone else is paying your cell bill, which is probably true of most folks without a checking account or credit card, check with them first since that donation will show up on your next mobile bill. Reblogging is pretty much the least effective way to guarantee money is going to your cause of choice – it’s great for getting information out but not actual action.

Listen, on CNN’s site, someone tried promoting their blog in the comments and got shot down by several other people for their stupidity. Don’t you want to be better than the CNN commenters, tumblr? Of course you do.

politics