December 2010
60 posts
3 tags
Hugh Giordano and Labor Unions Challenge Status... →
Hide your unions, Democrats, because the Green Party is coming to take them away.
Union support and third-party candidates don’t usually mix (especially in this union-backed Democratic stronghold), but a recent state representative race that you probably missed entirely suggests that that could change.
Hugh Giordano, a 26-year-old, Roxborough native and food workers’ union organizer for UFCW...
Think women have achieved equality? Think again. →
sheresists:
We Can’t Be Equal While:
Gender Roles
Men are the default and women are the Other (and therefore lesser).
Being called “girly” or a “sissy” or “pussy” are some of the worst insults you can give a man.
When a woman shows confidence in herself, she is said to “have balls”, or conversely she is a “man-eater”, “ball-buster”, or a “bitch” because she was “too” assertive.
Men are beat...
3 tags
The Prius principle →
TAKE a car, add an electric motor and some batteries. Build in a special gearbox which combines the output of the motor with that of an internal-combustion engine. Now all you need is a sophisticated electronic control system, and the result is a hybrid car like the Toyota Prius. It saves fuel, because when the driver brakes the car stores the lost kinetic energy in the battery, and when the...
“…animals treated in the most “humane” way are subjected to treatment that would...”
– Gary L. Francione on the absurdity of “Humane” labels on meat. (via veganlove)
WikiLeaks, the printing press & the Bible →
redguard:
New forms of technology are inherently destabilizing to the established order.
This is the whole basis of a materialist understanding of history. But this reality can sometimes be confirmed in a manner that catches everyone by surprise. Dominance that was once unchallenged is suddenly contested on all sides. The struggle for change breaks out in new and unexpected ways.
U.S....
White Santa, White Privilege. →
I am dreaming of a white Christmas, and I’m not too thrilled about it. Last week my kid came home with her latest art project: a peach-colored Santa with a cotton-ball beard. I was curious. “You colored him peach?” I asked, remembering our conversation earlier in the week when I brought home black plastic Santas from Dollar Store to put near the chimney.
“That’s not the real Santa,” my kid...
4 tags
Young South Africans Expect Change →
The World Festival of Youth and Students ended yesterday in Pretoria. Among the participants, the young people of the host country are beset by unemployment, and 18 months after President Zuma’s election, are impatient for their situation to change.
Pretoria, from our special correspondent.
Young South Africans are rather impatient, whether they sing in small groups on the paths or they...
shapedlikewords:
So far, Congress has authorized more than $152,600,000,000 for the Iraq war. This is enough money to build over 17,500 elementary schools. Message- guns/bombs over knowledge. Not feeling too proud…
“We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism...”
– Huey Newton (via drencrome)
2 tags
Global wage growth dramatically slowed down by the... →
According to the International Labour Organization, wages rose by 0.7% in 2009 against 2.2% in 2007 globally. Wage gaps have likewise widened.
“The recession has been a disaster not just for the millions of people that lost their jobs; it has also hit those who have kept their jobs but whose purchasing power and even general welfare have significantly decreased.”
So claims Juan Somavia,...
3 tags
Empire as a state of being →
The US came into being within an empire, alongside other empires, and found its place in a world order rooted in European-Atlantic expansion. So, while President Obama has changed the tone and emphasis of foreign policy, his overall goal remains to ensure US power and authority.
In the 1990s, after decades of hand-wringing over American “decline”, influential parts of the US power elite...
4 tags
Neither fair nor equitable →
Neo-liberals are worrying about the poor nowadays. Britain’s Conservative prime minister David Cameron proposes a massive increase in university tuition fees, already raised by his Labour predecessor, Tony Blair (1). This public-spirited measure is designed to ensure that all taxpayers do not have to foot the bill for the higher education of predominantly middle-class “customers”. The state...
Another reason we need ENDA: Mississippi sheriff’s... →
onlylivinglesbian:
Less than half the states in the US protect gay people from employment discrimination. Only eight states protect people based on gender identity/expression.
This is why ENDA is so fucking important.
9 things we learned from the leaked cables →
jonathan-cunningham:
(1) the U.S. military formally adopted a policy of turning a blind eye to systematic, pervasive torture and other abuses by Iraqi forces;
(2) the State Department threatened Germany not to criminally investigate the CIA’s kidnapping of one of its citizens who turned out to be completely innocent;
(3) the State Department under Bush and Obama applied continuous pressure on...
The Informed Vegan: Al Gore and His Inconvenient... →
If you eat meat you are NOT an environmentalist. That may be an exaggeration but it is true that becoming vegan is one the simplest and most important things you can do to save the planet. Too bad Al Gore can’t see this Inconvenient Truth.
Thankfully the public is finally seeing the link between our dying planet and the dead flesh they consume. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk explains...
Spending cuts 'will see rise in absolute child... →
socialisimo:
The government’s radical programme to slash spending will see the first rise in absolute child poverty for 15 years, with almost 200,000 childrenpushed into penury, according to an analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
Tax changes introduced by the coalition government will, the leading independent fiscal thinktank finds, increase absolute poverty by 200,000 children and...
Watchbetterworlds:
This is how greenness needs to be thought about, really. You can’t just take a thing labeled green and decide you’ve made the world a better place. That’s greenwashing.
You have to sit down and see if the impact is real. And that’s just what Catherine Mohr helps people to do.
realcleverscience:
A 6 minute TED talk by Catherine Mohr who, along with her husband, run the site...
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Taxpayers Paying Torture Contractors' Legal Bills →
Taxpayers are currently paying the legal bills for Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, two CIA contractors who reportedly helped plan and execute the Bush administration’s “enhanced interrogation” program, the Associated Press’ Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo reported Thursday night. The CIA agreed to pay up to $5 million to cover legal fees for the two men—far more than the...
Jody McIntyre : Who’s apathetic now? →
socialisimo:
My name is Jody McIntyre and I didn’t begin fighting for equality on the 9th December, the night that I was thrown from my wheelchair and dragged across the road by a riot police officer. I’ve spoken out against injustice, in all contexts, for as long as I can remember. As someone who was told by doctors I probably wouldn’t walk or talk, it has been my objective since the start...
The Informed Vegan: McDonald's Hates All Animals... →
veganlibertine:
McDonald’s built the reputation as one most experienced animal abusers of all-time and now with the reemergence of an organized opposition to the cruelty, the limelight has revealed more than just non-human abuse. McDonald’s is denying workers compensation to hero employee Nigel…
Well, Don't Ask, Don't Tell has finally been...
Now if we can just reform healthcare “reform” under a single-payer system with a public option (and extend healthcare to 9/11 responders); legalize marriage equality in all fifty states; reform public education with a national curriculum, more funding and higher standards; protect LGBTQ+ Americans from job discrimination in all fifty states; remove all troops from Iraq and ...
Words That No Longer Mean Anything: Maverick... →
For those raised in poverty, the military represents a tangible opportunity to move out of the caste they were born into. Several members of my family have served; my father used the G.I. Bill to finance his education. In a “cumulative family history” way, my ability to go to college was the result of people close to me enlisting in military service. But also in a more immediate “his...
NY TIMES: Senate clears way for repeal of Don't... →
stfuconservatives:
Capping a 17-year political struggle, the Senate on Saturday cleared the way for repealing the Pentagon’s ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military.
By a vote of 63 to 33, with six Republicans joining Democrats, the Senate acted to cut off debate on a measure that would let President Obama declare an end to the Clinton-era policy, known as “don’t ask,...
Watchsisterhoodispowerful:
So Michael Moore, about whose rape apologia re: the allegations against Assange I first wrote yesterday, was on Keith Olbermann’s show last night, and he doubled down on dismissing the sexual assault charges against Assange, calling them “hooey” and willfully misrepresenting that of which he’s been accused. Moore asserts that the basis of the charge is that “his condom...
Is censorship the answer?
Should Wikileaks conceal—in effect, censor—information which could potentially jeopardize innocent lives, like those of political dissidents in hostile countries, or should cables continue to be released to the public without editorial oversight?
Admittedly, the sheer rawness of the Wikileaks revelations is part of what makes them so valuable in the first place: In a world of biased...
Michael Moore: Why I Posted Bail for Julian... →
Best Press Release Ever? →
Last week, Facebook titan/world’s youngest billionaire Mark Zuckerberg joined a group of other super-rich individuals (including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett) who are promising to give at least half of their money to charity. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most people probably think this was a good and praiseworthy development: the super-rich have benefited enormously...
Rich people have no idea what you're thinking →
Wondering why your fat cat boss seems so clueless about why you don’t want to work extra shifts during the holidays? It could be because he can’t understand the dour looks you keep throwing his way.
Upper-class people are less adept at reading other people’s emotions than their lower-class counterparts, according to a new study published in the journal Psychological Science.
“We...
“Today millions of young women who benefit from the struggles of their mothers...”
– Isabel Allende (via sarahgraham7)
Huge wave of coal plant closures coming, new... →
envirolutionary:
It has already started in Colorado… we shall wait and see. I am glad to see the EPA has a new regulative arm with the Obama Administration… maybe something good will come out of the democrats “Iconic” figure.
Congressional Republicans are going after Obama’s EPA with both barrels blazing. Everyone who pays attention to politics knows that by now. What is somewhat less...
A man has been cured of HIV. →
fujiidom:
gigglemonster / (via hannahlouisef)
This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read.
Book of Liu Xiaobo poetry to be published in... →
socialisimo:
Minneapolis-based independent publisher Graywolf Press has bought world rights to a first English-language collection of poetry by Chinese poet and newly anointed Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo.
Your tax dollars are funding sex trafficking in... →
“Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy,...”
– Howard Zinn
WatchStudent fees protest - ‘This fight is not over’
“If secrecy is necessary for national security and effective diplomacy, it is...”
– The Economist (via azspot)