March 2012
49 posts
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Opinion writer Charles Blow of the NYT sees the... →
shortformblog:
As the father of two black teenage boys, this case hits close to home. This is the fear that seizes me whenever my boys are out in the world: that a man with a gun and an itchy finger will find them “suspicious.” That passions may run hot and blood run cold. That it might all end with a hole in their chest and hole in my heart. That the law might prove insufficient to salve my...
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Don't Tread On Us →
The attempt by Republican men to wrestle American women back into chastity belts has not only breathed life into President Obama, it has roused and riled Hillary. And that could turn out to be the most dangerous thing the wildly self-destructive G.O.P. leaders have done.
Fight on!
And watch this:
2012, baby! We women (and men who love women) know who it is that’s fighting for our...
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"Doonesbury" author defends abortion comic strip →
Gary Trudeau, author of the Doonesbury comic strip, said
that the “party of limited government,” a reference to Republicans, has legislated “onerous preconditions for a perfectly legal procedure” and withdrawn funds for reproductive health services that prevent unwanted pregnancies.
“This is happening in statehouses across the country,” Trudeau said in the...
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Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, Deborah Mullen (facebook page here), and now add Holly Petraeus (NPR story here) to the list of women I admire who are working for a stronger military family.
Petraeus is doing important work with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I can’t help but believe that her prominent role is not only due to the intelligence and poise that she herself as a military...
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Why Does the Military Love Ron Paul? →
At least Obama is #2, ahead of the other GOP candidates.
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Follow up to the Obamacare plaintiff who went... →
“This is a very common problem. We cover $30 million in charity and uncompensated care every year,” said Christa Hild, a spokeswoman for the hospital center. “If it’s a bad debt, we have to absorb it.”
Although when the hospital center says “we,” it means “us” — as in you and I, the ones who do pay for health insurance. We absorb it,...
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THE SEX UNEDUCATED: Reverse Sexism/Racism DOES NOT... →
thesexuneducated:
Isn’t saying you can’t be sexist to men like saying to can’t be racist to white people? I know plenty of women who look down on men, call them morons and immature and rapists, who group them all together as one lump. Looking down on someone who is a cis male seems pretty damn sexist to me. I grew up with plenty of them (I had a ton of brothers) and I know they would never...
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How Birth Control Saves Taxpayers Money →
A Brookings Center on Children and Families study
found that a national mass media campaign that would cost $100 million would result in about $431 million in savings to taxpayers, largely by reducing unintended pregnancy, particularly among people who don’t make much money.
Programs the Brookings researchers called “evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention,” which combine an...
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US Soldiers Are Giving Away Their Positions with... →
Does the military not provide a tech privacy 101 or what? Seriously, this sort of foolishness is not good dangerous for the safety and security of our troops.
And service members, please stop thinking that social networking is private. Stop posting photos of your weapons, your training scenarios, your base, etc. online, and especially without privacy restrictions. Or better yet, stop posting...
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Yup, fracking causes earthquakes →
via The Week:
Regulators conclude that at least a dozen recent earthquakes in the northeast part of Ohio were caused by hydraulic fracturing used in the process of drilling for gas.
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Plaintiff challenging healthcare law went bankrupt... →
I was reading my friend Eli’s blog, and look at what he found:
One of the lead private plaintiffs in the health care challenge currently pending before the Supreme Court “went bankrupt - with unpaid medical bills” last fall - a development that:
could change [her] from a symbol of proud independence into an example of exactly the problem the healthcare law was intended to...
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WatchClimate change is real. Stop denying science.
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WatchIn regard to today’s 201C/Abelson class on racist nativism… This American Life: Reap What You Sow.
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The truth about sodomy laws →
In talking about Lawrence v. Texas
Barry Deutsch distills the larger point:
For me, the fact that Lawrence and Garner hadn’t actually been having sex when they were arrested perfectly illustrates the real meaning of anti-sodomy laws. The cops didn’t really witness any sex going on, but they did recognize that the men were gay, and that was reason enough for the cops to arrest the men. This is...
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A Dialogue With My 86-year-old Grandmother About...
I saw this article:
http: //www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/gay-activists-grandparents-marriage-equality_n_1310537.html
earlier this afternoon and I got suddenly curious how my 86yo grandmother felt about marriage equality and LGBT rights. Since she's often hilarious, I decided to interview her on the phone and post it here. I put it on speakerphone, recorded it, then transcribed it. She's in Miami, and Cuban-born, so this is translated from Spanish. She's a pretty feisty lady. I want to be her when I grow up. Here's what she said:
Me: Grandma, what do you think about this couple in their 90s supporting their gay grandkids in the fight for marriage equality?
Grandma: I think it's very nice. You have to support your family, no matter who they are. You can't reject people for things like that.
Me: If you had gay or lesbian family, would you do the same?
Grandma: I don't know if I could make a video like those people. They speak English.
Me: What about in Spanish? Would you make videos supporting marriage equality in Spanish.
Grandma: Ay... don't get any ideas. I don't want to make a video.
Me: But is it okay if I post this on the Internet? On one of my websites
Grandma: Ignorant people might yell at you.
Me: Oh, that's okay, I don't mind.
Grandma: Yes, you can put what I said on the Internet.
Me: Okay. So do you support gay and lesbian people getting married?
Grandma: I think gay people should be able to get married. Times have changed. Even my ideas have changed. There used to be a lot of ignorance and rumors about gay people, mostly because they had to live in hiding, you know, you couldn't be yourself out in public like they can be sometimes now. So I think people just made things up. But think gay people should be allowed to live their lives like everyone else.
Me: Would you go to a gay wedding?
Grandma: Yes, I would. It would probably be more lively than a regular one. I hate weddings. They're so boring.
Me: They really are. What do you think about people who protest gay marriage?
Grandma: Oh. Idiots.
Me: They're wrong?
Grandma: Idiots. Dumb people with nothing better to do. Out of all the things to protest. They should be out trying to do some good in the world instead.
Me: Do you think you would have felt the same way when you were my age?
Grandma: (Pauses) I don't think I gave it any thought. People didn't talk about these things back then. There was a lot of ignorance. Everybody knew gay people, of course, but people didn't talk about it in normal conversation, much less in public like on the news now. I think that's good. Talking is always good. When people know things, they can make up their own minds.I would like to think that maybe with a little information and thinking about it, I would feel the same way.
Me: Do you think gay people should be able to adopt kids?
Grandma: Of course.
Me: As a Christian, what do you think the Bible says about gay people?
Grandma: The Bible is very clear that Jesus doesn't care about race or gender or where you came from or anything. He loves everyone.
Me: What about the parts of the Bible that says gay people should be stoned to death?
Grandma: We don't stone people to death anymore...
Me: So you don't think that applies?
Grandma: I think God gave us some common sense to be able to figure out what parts were meant for forever, like "don't kill" and "don't steal" and "be good to people," and what parts were just a record of the society people lived in back then. We don't hide women in the dark during their periods anymore, either. Things like that.
Me: What about gays in the military? Do you think that should be allowed?
Grandma: You know, when I heard President Obama had helped made that legal, I was surprised it already wasn't. If you're willing to pick up a gun and go fight in some war somewhere for my freedom, I'm not willing to do that, so if you are, I don't care if you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or fifteen cats.
Me: Yeah, I think most people supported that one.
Grandma: It's like I told you. God gave us common sense for a reason.
Me: I know you've had a few close gay male friends. Have you ever had a lesbian friend?
Grandma: I did in Cuba. She was my neighbor and she did everyone's hair on the block. You couldn't really tell she was a lesbian, but she told me, after many years of knowing her.
Me: What do you mean by "you couldn't tell she was a lesbian?"
Grandma: Well, she was very glamorous. She looked like a movie star all the time - that's why she did everyone's hair. Some lesbians, you can tell.
Me: In English, they call the ability to tell if someone's gay "gaydar." Like "radar" but for "gay."
Grandma: Oh! I think I have that.
Me: You think you have good gaydar?
Grandma: Well, I was an artist, so I was around a lot of gay men. And I can usually tell, but Paula fooled me.
Me: The slang term for lesbians who are very conventionally feminine in English is "lipstick lesbian."
Grandma: She did wear lipstick!
Me: Do you think a lot of older people think like you do?
Grandma: I think so. A lot of older people keep up with the news better than you think. And you get to be my age and you realize a lot of past mistakes in your thinking. You realize that a lot of things you think mattered, really don't. And the people who don't think like that, it's mostly because they don't know any better. But even at my age, people can be taught.
Me: Thank you, Pupa.
Grandma: You should show me your website when you put this up. I hope a lot of people read it.
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Why considering Asians to be 'White' is not a... →
Read her (mattersofsomescale), she has good commentary. Plus, she’s my friend (and she shamelessly plugged me in her post) :)
And it’s totally worth it to see the entire article/commentary by Michael Omi in The Chronicles of Higher Education to which she is responding.
mattersofsomescale:
not only do I think Asians aren’t ‘white’ but they shouldn’t and hopefully never...
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“We believe that women should have equal access to healthcare, free from...”
– We Are the 1 in 3
http://wearethe1in3.tumblr.com/
(via healthycal)
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Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in... →
brodypost:
Washington Post: Two of the five most profitable industries in the United States — the pharmaceuticals industry and the medical device industry — sell health care. With margins of almost 20 percent, they beat out even the financial sector for sheer profitability.
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The Atlantic: Why It's Cheaper to Go to Harvard... →
Now, if only it were cheaper to have gone to Brown than a Colorado state school, my life would be so much easier (and so much more debt-free)…
theatlantic:
If you are the child of a middle class family in California, it is probably cheaper for you to attend college at Harvard than at a nearby public university.
You read correctly. Cheaper.
The Bay Area News Group recently crunched the...
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In New Orleans, an Actor Turns Grocer →
I kinda love this story. It’s a celebrity story, but not of one who goes to “sexy” devastated international locales to “raise awareness” that takes the focus away from real international aid work. Instead, it’s the story of Wendell Pierce, of TV’s The Wire and Treme, and how he’s helping to rebuild an area in which he grew up. He understands the...
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So many freakin' good TED talks
Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice
Tan Le: My immigration story
Jenna McCarthy: What you don’t know about marriage
Jeff Kluger: The Hidden Power of Siblings
Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts
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Survival rates are not the same as mortality rates →
Read the whole thing. It’s good information on how we should think about health, health costs, survival, etc.
But here’s the thing. You can only decrease the mortality rate by preventing death, or curing the disease. That’s really it. That’s a cure or a life extension, and both are unequivocally good. Survival rate, however, can be increased by preventing death, curing the disease,...
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“I often wonder what would have happened if they had the abortion. I’m not...”
– A reader of The Daily Dish
It’s about having the right to choose, to make a very personal decision, with all the struggles, doubts, uncertainties, deliberations. It’s about choice and doing what’s best for your family.
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“God knows what is in your hearts.” God knows our choice was based on mercy and...”
– A priest providing guidance to a family who was considering late-term abortion after discovering that their in-utero baby had major heart defects and Trisomy 21. This priest, in a short period of time, had also tended to and met nearly a dozen other families caring for their newborns who underwent...
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Welcoming Rhode Island: Top 10 Immigration Myths... →
Demonizing immigrants doesn’t solve the problems of our economy.
welcomingrhodeisland:
MYTH - Immigrants don’t pay taxes All immigrants pay taxes, whether income, property, sales, or other. As far as income tax payments go, sources vary in their accounts, but a range of studies find that immigrants pay between $90 and $140 billion a year in federal, state, and local taxes. Even...
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The FACTS about the cost of birth control →
think-progress:
Oral contraceptives, or “the pill,” can cost $1,210 per year without health insurance.
Women of reproductive age spend 68 percent more on out-of-pocket health care costs than do men, in part because of contraceptive costs.
Surveys show that nearly one in four women with household incomes of less than $75,000 have put off a doctor’s visit for birth control to save money in the...
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Making Informed Decisions: Assessing the Strengths... →
At some point, I’ll read this. I should read this.
(via The Incidental Economist)
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What do the poor deserve? →
We need to change this. We need to be talking about relief and development work in terms of what the poor need and, if you will, what they deserve. Not deserve in the sense of something they somehow earned. But deserve in the sense that they’re human beings, just like us. Personally, I believe that the poor deserve the best we’re capable of, if for no other reason than simply by virtue of their...
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Mental disorder minimalist posters by graphic... →
Note: purchase these for future therapy office.
Dr. Tina Strobos, Who Harbored Jews From the... →
An incredible life and an incredible woman.
Dr. Strobos rode her bicycle for miles outside the city to carry ration stamps to Jews hiding on farms. She transported radios to resistance fighters and stashed their guns. She created fake identity cards — ones that were not stamped with a J — either by stealing photographs and fingerprinted documents from legitimate guests at the boarding house or...
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“True gender equality is actually perceived as inequality. A group that is made...”
– - Lucy, When Worlds Collide: Fandom and Male Privilege. (via seaofbadstories)
I might have reblogged this already but it’s so good I don’t care.
(via stfufauxminists)
Kyriarchy in action.
(via transstingray)
Also the study where they had women and men talking in a discussion and when women...
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“Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side,...”
– - St. Augustine
Quoted by Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia in a letter to the University regarding our national debate on health coverage and the vitriolic response Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke received from the extreme right. 