January 2011
Here is an example of stupidity:
Asking someone to “prove there is no god”. Prove that something does NOT exist? That’s dumber than ad hominem. That’s ad ignorant.
Reblog with your Blog Title and the reason for it.
“where nothing ever burns”
It’s from the final lines of a poem by Andrea Gibson. I’m quoting from memory here, but it goes: “Look at that moon: I am a pebble in her hand, a harmonica pressed to the mouth of a river where nothing ever burns.”
Kid, you’re lucky to be alive
The World In 1984 by Shearwater
When my mother and me take the drive into town, I can’t tell if she’s lost in thought or lost where we are. She turns the radio to 92 Star, where Ronnie Milsap sings what he would not have missed it for, and she says, “What do you think you’re gonna do with your life?” And I say, “You’ve got to teach me to drive.” She just laughs at that, musses my hair and says, “Kid, you’re lucky to be alive.”
All I got was a troubled mind
Lyrics from one of my favorite songs…. lol.Fabulous and Immune to Your Judgement
Because well, obviously.
Get ready, pop it, let’s go.
I just really like Kid Cudi.
from the hips
both that, and my domain (atmyworst) come from a cursive song by that title, which talks about shooting from the hip, both in the sense of being impulsive, and in the sense of being honest about the reptilian brain to just do stuff that makes you feel good. don’t overthink things. which, my tumblr started out as the opposite of my proper blog(long since abandoned) - short thoughts pounded out before my sober editing brain got ahold of the keyboard.
Dick Cheney’s Weather Machine
Because you fucking know he has one.
Just wasting time…
Does that really need explanation? Also, it’s a Dave Matthews Band lyric.
Black Mother Jailed for Sending Kids to White School District
Black Mother Jailed For Sending Kids to White School District
An Ohio mother of two was sentenced to 10 days in jail and placed on three years probation after sending her kids to a school district in which they did not live. Kelly Williams-Bolar was sentenced by Judge Patricia Cosgrove on Tuesday and will begin serving her sentence immediately.
The jury deliberated for seven hours and the courtroom was packed as the sentence was handed down. She was convicted on two counts of tampering with court records after registering her two girls as living with Williams Bolar’s father when they actually lived with her. The family lived in the housing projects in Akron, Ohio, and the father’s address was in nearby Copley Township.
Additionally, Williams-Bolar’s father, Edward L. Williams, was charged with a fourth-degree felony of grand theft, in which he and his daughter are charged with defrauding the school system for two years of educational services for their girls. The court determined that sending their children to the wrong school was worth $30,500 in tuition.
When I read about this case, a few thoughts went through my mind. First, it’s clear that the court is trying to make Kelly Williams-Bolar into an example. Even the judge in the case, Patricia Cosgrove, said that her sentence was appropriate ”so that others who think they might defraud the school system perhaps will think twice.”
Secondly, it’s interesting how courts find it convenient to make someone into an example when they happen to be poor and black. I’d love to see how they prosecute wealthy white women who commit the same offense. Oh, I forgot: Most wealthy white women don’t have to send their kids to the schools located near the projects.
Third, I’m not sure why the court is treating this law-abiding mom like a thug who ran into a building with a shotgun and robbed the district of $30,000. Instead, they could simply subtract the amount it costs for her kids to go to the second school from the amount that would be spent for them to attend the first one. I’m sure the difference would still be substantial, since American educational apartheid dictates that schools in poorer neighborhoods are of significantly less quality than other schools. The racial divisions within American schools are nothing less than a blatant and consistent human rights violation and should certainly be treated as such.
A final interesting blow by Judge Cosgrove that reflects the experience of marginalized African Americans in the criminal justice system relates to Williams-Bolar’s quest to obtain a teaching degree. The single mother was in school studying to become a teacher so that she could create a better life for her girls. But that won’t happen for her family now, given that the judge has all but shut the door on her chance to fulfill her dream:
”Because of the felony conviction, you will not be allowed to get your teaching degree under Ohio law as it stands today,” the judge said. ”The court’s taking into consideration that is also a punishment that you will have to serve.”
This case is a textbook example of everything that remains racially wrong with America’s educational, economic and criminal justice systems. Let’s start from the top: Had Ms. Williams-Bolar been white, she likely would never have been prosecuted for this crime in the first place (I’d love for them to show me a white woman in that area who’s gone to jail for the same crime). She also is statistically not as likely to be living in a housing project with the need to break an unjust law in order to create a better life for her daughters. Being black is also correlated with the fact that Williams-Bolar likely didn’t have the resources to hire the kinds of attorneys who could get her out of this mess (since the average black family’s wealth is roughly 1/10 that of white families). Finally, economic inequality is impactful here because that’s the reason that Williams-Bolar’s school district likely has fewer resources than the school she chose for her kids. In other words, black people have been historically robbed of our economic opportunities, leading to a two-tiered reality that we are then imprisoned for attempting to alleviate. That, my friends, is American Racism 101.
This case is a textbook example of how racial-inequality created during slavery and Jim Crow continues to cripple our nation to this day. There is no logical reason on earth why this mother of two should be dehumanized by going to jail and be left permanently marginalized from future economic and educational opportunities. Even if you believe in the laws that keep poor kids trapped in underperforming schools, the idea that this woman should be sent to jail for demanding educational access is simply ridiculous.
Hold the motherfucking phone. Sending your kids to school in another district is ILLEGAL and can bring about JAIL TIME?!? What sort of alternate universe are we living in? My parents did this for me all throughout high school, and even when the school found out, they really didn’t do anything. THIS IS THE MOST BLATANT CASE OF RACISM I’VE SEEN IN A VERY LONG TIME. WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE???
I don’t really have anything to add but, WHAT THE HOLY FUCK?!?!?!?! I think I may go vomit now.
Kevin Smith is an asshole →
deadline.com
Pretty pathetic.
Ugh. Reblogging for later because I have work to do =/
What did you do, Kev?
He was trying to make a point about the current state of the American movie industry. And yes, Kevin Smith is kind of an asshole. A lovable asshole.
“What we need to prove is that anyone can release a movie. Indie film isn’t dead, it just grew up. It is just indie film 2.0 now. In indie film 2.0, we don’t let them sell our movie, we sell our movie ourselves.”——Kevin Smith
He’s a total asshole, and proud of it. That article is a pile of shit. Read an entire diatribe on twitter this morning about the entire event, and that article completely missed the point. Completely. I’m with him, and I could really give a shit about the film industry. But he’s attempting to make it easier for ANYONE to get involved in film making, and what he said and did could pertain SO MUCH to the music industry also, and that I do care about.
AZ GOP Senator says "Roe v. Wade Contributed To Tucson Shootings" →
tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com
“So now we have this generation of people who have that idea and it continues on, that why respect life if we can kill an infant who can’t defend themselves. It goes back to the value in the creation of life and the respect for that life and if your not trained and have that type of character in realizing that all human life deserves respect this is what our country has come to.”
All human life deserves respect. Except gays. And the military. And the poor. And the sick. And anyone who disagrees with these assholes. I’m really sick of people like this lecturing us on respecting life, when they sure as shit don’t toe their own fucking line. I am so absolutely disgusted to be an American right now; hell, I’m disgusted with the whole of humanity at this point.
And I really need to start ignoring politics before they drive me over that cliff that I’m already barely hanging onto in the first place.
“Political Correctness” is a reactionary term against the loss of privilege. →
restructure.wordpress.com
Laurence Berg, Canada Research Chair for Human Rights, Diversity and Identity, disagrees with the
idea that PC language and policies are oppressive. Why? Because he doesn’t really believe that PC policies existed in the first place.“What [they]’re calling the ‘PC movement’ I would call a social movement by marginalised people and the people who support them,” he said. “[A movement] to use language that’s more correct—not ‘politically correct’—that more accurately represents reality.”
Berg is referring to a way of thinking that many of us students were too young to catch the first time around. For us, the term ‘politically correct’ survived the 90s, but the term ‘human rights backlash’ did not. Will Hutton, former editor-in-chief for the UK publication the Observer, described in his column how the term ‘PC’ was never really a political stance at all, contrary to popular belief. It was actually perceived by many as a right-wing tactic to dismiss—or backlash against—left-leaning social change. Mock the trivial aspects of human rights politics, like its changing language, and you’ll succeed in obscuring the issue altogether.
Berg believes this is what political correctness is all about: “The term politically correct is a reactionary term,” he said. “[It was] created by people who were worried by [social] changes…that affected their everyday understanding of the world in ways that pointed out their role in creating or reproducing dominance and subordination.”
According to Berg, the indignation people feel against PC ideas reflects the discomfort we feel when language and politics begin to pull away from the dominant values we grew up with—in other words, white, middle-class values. It’s no small coincidence that the concept of political correctness originated in the 80s and 90s, just after human rights concerns and visible minority groups started getting real attention in politics and the media.
Berg explains that in its original context, PC was a pejorative term used by people who felt they were losing something. Exactly what they were losing is very hard to describe, especially to them. But many sociologists and historians today have come to a consensus on what they call it: it’s a loss of privilege—and in terms of race, a loss of white privilege.
Very interesting. Good read.
“I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, ‘We’re going to decide who are people and who are not people”
—
Rick Santorum (R-PA) on President Obama and abortion.
vruz: courtesy the group of people that ‘centrists’ want to discuss reasonably with.
(via vruz)
Rick Santorum: 100% human, but only 3/5ths of a brain.
(via highsee)
Yeah, especially since that “black man” considers EVERYONE “people”. Ignorant, racist fuckhead.
