No more Texas governors for president

Public Shaming: The Definitive "People Who Thought Chechnya was the Czech Republic" Collection

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:28:30 -0400

Public Shaming: The Definitive "People Who Thought Chechnya was the Czech Republic" Collection:

Two brothers from Chechnya. That was the official word early morning on Friday April 19th, 2013 as to who were behind the Boston marathon bombings. “Chechens.”

So, naturally, who do some brilliant citizens of the United States of America blame? The CZECH REPUBLIC, of course!

Here are those…

America, fuck yeah!

The DIY Couturier: 21 Tips to Keep Your Shit Together When You're Depressed.

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 23:41:57 -0400

The DIY Couturier: 21 Tips to Keep Your Shit Together When You're Depressed.:

rosalindrobertson:

A while ago, I penned a fairly angry response to something circulating on the internet – the 21 Habits of Happy People. It pissed me off beyond belief, that there was an inference that if you weren’t Happy, you simply weren’t doing the right things.

I’ve had depression for as long as I can…

Blanket "Don't Go To Graduate School!" Advice Ignores Race and Reality?

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:10:11 -0400

Blanket "Don't Go To Graduate School!" Advice Ignores Race and Reality?:

Let us not engage the change that needs to happen in academic labor by telling people who could stand to benefit the most from credentials that we have socially constructed, through racism and classism and sexism, as more necessary for some than others that graduate school is a net negative. Because it is not.

Instead, let us consider a calculation of social distance, aspiration, returns on investment, prestige and cost. Let us give students a patchwork quilt of tools to determine that graduate school math for themselves rather than a blanket default condemnation that is rooted in our own social position, experiences, and privileges.

Aggies must not exclude fellow students - The Eagle: Editorials

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:22:19 -0400

Aggies must not exclude fellow students - The Eagle: Editorials:

Should white students at Texas A&M be allowed to opt out of paying fees that go to fund black student groups on campus?

Should Muslims be permitted to withhold that portion of that student fee that goes to Christian organizations?

Should male Aggies be allowed to skip paying for women’s student groups?

Ridiculous you might say, but such nonsense is the focus of a proposed A&M Student Senate bill that would allow students to opt out of paying that portion of the student fee that funds the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Resource Center on campus. The center is available to all students, whether they are gay or coping with a gay roommate or friend. It offers non-judgmental information and support in a friendly, accepting manner.

The GLBT Center sponsors such things as Coming Out Week and GLBT Awareness Week, but it also promotes AIDS Awareness Week.

By now, surely everyone understands that AIDS is not a gay disease, but rather a human disease. It doesn’t discriminate between straight or gay, young or old, male nor female, black or white.

The reality is that with some 50,000 Aggies in school, likely thousands of them are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. Perhaps many remain in the closet, afraid to reveal their identity for fear of discrimination or abuse. Even those who are “out” need the support and assistance the center can provide.

We understand that some people for religious or other reasons say they don’t approve of homosexuality and homosexuals. Fine, their approval is not needed, although acceptance, compassion and understanding would be nice. We suspect that many of those opposed to gays actually know some without realizing it.

Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman was adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage until two weeks ago — until his college son told him he is gay. The senator loves his son and came to realize that lifelong happiness is not a condition shared just be heterosexuals.

That is a common reaction when “straights” learn someone they know well and care about is “gay.”

But the issue before the Student Senate is whether students can withhold a portion of their fee that funds a group they oppose.

The answer clearly should be no.

College should be a place where students are exposed to different ideas, different beliefs, different cultures, different backgrounds. When they leave college, they will live and work in a society rich with people of all types. The barriers that are destroyed in college will help them in later years in their work, friendships and family dynamic.

The GLBT Resource Center receives $86,500 in student fees each year and another $13,500 from the university to pay for a graduate assistant. If the student fee portion is cut significantly, the center would be in danger of closing, hurting thousands of Aggies.

America is changing, and Texas A&M must change along with it.

A&M has a well-earned reputation as a welcoming place, although it hasn’t always been that way. Women, black, Hispanic, non-Christian and other Aggies suffered greatly in decades past.

Allowing students to opt-out of the fee that funds the GLBT Resource Center would be returning A&M to those sad and lonely days.

Aggies are better than that.

Much better.

Controversial Student Senate Bill Challenges GLBT Resource Center Funding at Texas A&M; Campus Pride Calls for Support & Solidarity with GLBT TAMU

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 23:18:33 -0400

Controversial Student Senate Bill Challenges GLBT Resource Center Funding at Texas A&M; Campus Pride Calls for Support & Solidarity with GLBT TAMU:

On Wednesday evening, March 20th, a member of the Texas A&M University Student Senate introduced S.B. 65-70: The GLBT Funding Opt-Out Bill. This bill proposes “allowing students who object, for religious purposes, to the use of their student fees and tuition to fund this center to opt out of paying an amount equal to their share of the Center’s funding from their fee and tuition bills.” The author suggests that students have the religious right to “opt-out” of the student fees that go towards maintaining the GLBT Resource Center. However, as currently constructed this bill is a direct and blatant attack on the LGBT Aggie community. We hope to do everything possible to ensure that this bill does not pass through the Texas A&M University Student Senate.

Background:

Texas A&M University is currently ranked the least-friendly public institution for LGBT students by the Princeton Review. Because of this reality, we are still in the process of fighting to exist and to be positively acknowledged at Texas A&M.

As it follows, the introduction of S.B. 65-70 is not the first instance that the LGBT community has been targeted by members of the Student Senate. In 2011, during the 63rd Student Senate Session, a group of senators introduced S.B. 63-106: The Sexual Education Equality in Funding Bill. This bill proposed that the student senate support and advocate for an amendment that was concurrently before the Texas Legislature “to require GLBT resource centers to provide matching funds to traditional sexual education” and asked Texas A&M University “that such funding not be acquired through increased student fees.” In effect, the bill would have created funds for “traditional sexual education” programming by draining funds away from the GLBT Resource Center, while simultaneously creating a hostile environment on campus.

This bill passed the Student Senate but fortunately was later vetoed by then Student Body President Jacob D. Robinson; the senate attempted to overturn the veto but was unsuccessful. S.B. 63-106 was a direct attack on the LGBT community at Texas A&M University. Our resources were not dispensable in the 63rd session, and they are not dispensable now in the 65th session.

Our Position:

As a community dedicated to respecting diversity, we support measures sincerely aimed at protecting the religious beliefs of Texas A&M students, including those of many within the LGBT community. However, while SB 65-70 claims to promote religious freedom, we cannot ignore that it only allows students with one religious belief to control how their student fees are used: only religious traditions that disapprove of LGBT interests are given a voice. A bill truly dedicated to allowing religious designation of fees would make the opportunity available to students of all faiths toward whatever policy creates a moral conflict of interest for them. Given the extremely narrow scope of this bill, we can only conclude that its interest lies not in promoting religious freedom but specifically in targeting the LGBT community. Whatever the intentions of the bill may be, its effect is clearly discriminatory.

We stand for commitment to each other as fellow students of Texas A&M University. Our LGBT members are not separate from the community as a whole; they are an integral part of the backbone of the student body and of campus life. Depriving them of the resources that meet their unique needs and that help them succeed affects the entire community. The Texas A&M family includes students with diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and needs, bound together by our commitment to our university and to each other. An attack on our LGBT students is an attack on the Aggie spirit we all share.

It is unacceptable that the Texas A&M student senate is willing to institutionalize a forum for the student body to express its disapproval of LGBT students. This bill sends a clear message of exclusion to past, current, and prospective LGBT students, as well as staff and faculty.

Action Plan:

In light of these events, it is exceedingly important that we stand together, not only as a community, but as valued and respected members of the Aggie family. We need support from EVERYONE! This includes current students, former students, community members, and Allies. On Wednesday, April 3, at 7:00pm, there will be an open forum in Koldus 144 where students and community members will be given the opportunity to speak directly to the student senate, and we need you ALL to show up.

While this show of support will be absolutely crucial to our efforts, we want you to know that this is not the only action you can take. You DO NOT have to wait until April 3rd to let your voice be heard! Now is the time to meet with your student senators and explain to them exactly why this bill is so hurtful to our community. Now is the time to have conversations with your roommates, classmates, and friends. Now is the time for former students and community members to step in and speak up by writing letters of support sent to glbtaggies@gmail.com. Letters can also be mailed to GLBT Resource Center, Cain Hall C-103, 1257 TAMU, College Station, TX, 77843-1257.

Every single one of us has a story, and it is the sharing of these stories that is our best hope of changing the hearts and minds of those who are in support of this discriminatory measure.

“An Aggie does not LIE about who they are, CHEAT someone out of a positive experience, STEAL someone else’s dignity, or TOLERATE those who do.”

Sincerely,
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Aggies Est. 1976

cybergata: cats_2013-03-20_12 by yousukezan on Flickr.

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:43:06 -0400

cybergata:

cats_2013-03-20_12 by yousukezan on Flickr.

"Same sex marriage is very new… newer than cell phones or the internet."

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:15:16 -0400

““Same sex marriage is very new… newer than cell phones or the internet.””

- -Justice Samuel Alito

Yeah, remember when same sex marriage first came out and it was bulky and really slow?

(via ccindecision)

And to think, we have this guy on the bench for life.

Audio of oral arguments in case 12-144, Hollingsworth v. Perry (Prop. 8 case).

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:05:37 -0400

Audio of oral arguments in case 12-144, Hollingsworth v. Perry (Prop. 8 case).

Audio of today's and tomorrow's Supreme Court arguments on Prop 8 and DOMA will be available 1 PM ET Tuesday and 2 PM ET Wednesday (respectively) at SCOTUS's website.

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:50:50 -0400

Audio of today's and tomorrow's Supreme Court arguments on Prop 8 and DOMA will be available 1 PM ET Tuesday and 2 PM ET Wednesday (respectively) at SCOTUS's website.:

inothernews:

EDIT: sourced to Reuters. And corrected DOMA to Wednesday!

thearcanetheory: jayaprada: Chicago Students Protest in...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:17:49 -0400

thearcanetheory:

jayaprada:

Chicago Students Protest in Support of Persepolis

There’s a reason behind the banning. American chauvinists do not want the working class and the people to know the reality behind the revolutionary movement in Iran. The book does a great job in visualizing the Iranian left during the 1979 revolution. The banning of the book dehumanizes the essential meaning of education and wants to advocate a Orientalist perspective of the state post-revolution. Banning this book can make it easier for the imperialists to invade the country for ‘humanitarian reasons’. The book does a great job in depicting the brutality behind the Shah regime and the ban just simply neglects the prospects behind the revolution.

FUCK ORIENTALISM

what the fuck is wrong with Persepolis?!

Oh yeah, it shows Iran and Iranians in a human light instead of evil big baddie foreigners who want to destroy us all

bye

I bet he does. :)

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 06:52:06 -0400

I bet he does. :)

On the Power of Negative Reinforcement

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:26:05 -0400

lauren-grodstein:

In the ten or so weeks since the start of 2013, A Friend of the Family, my most recent novel, has racked up - hold on, I’m subtracting - 174 reviews on Amazon. Just to give you a sense of how many reviews that is, my previous novel, Reproduction is the Flaw of Love, has been out in the world for almost a decade and has garnered a mere 18.

Friend’s newfound popularity is due, in part, to a new e-book promotion from Algonquin, my wonderful publishers, and in part (I hope) to word of mouth. But while it’s very nice to be reviewed frequently and lovingly, it’s very queasy-making when so many of these new reviews say things like “holy crap this book was boring,” “it was so so so boring,” or “this book was free and still not worth the money.” Before the e-book promotion, Friend’s reviews were 90% positive. Now they’re much more mixed. So one thing I’m curious about is whether e-books attract readers who are looking for different things than hard-copy book readers, and another thing is whether people who read e-books are much more likely to review online. I’m a creaky old Luddite in just about every possible way, so my favorite books are the ones on paper, stacked up next to my bed. And I’ve only reviewed four or five books online in my entire life. Going online to tell the world what I think is just not my natural response to reading.

That said, one great lesson from the Amazon Review Onslaught is that I’ve stopped caring so much what other people think, because once the fifteenth person has told you your book is “so boring” and misspelled both the words “boring” and “so,” you start to realize that not everybody shares your taste or your sensibilities (or your orthography). You also realize that this is fine. I have different taste than some of the people I trust the most in the world. My husband loves difficult Latin American surrealist fiction. My son loves Captain Underpants. I love Lolita, Mr. Bridge and Mrs. Bridge, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, Kelly Braffet’s novels, especially her new one coming out, almost anything by Graham Greene, The Remains of the Day, The Stone Diaries, Love in the Time of Cholera, MFK Fisher’s essays about eating, and everything Laurie Colwin ever wrote.

But many people I love don’t love any of these books or writers, which is hard for me to understand, but is true. And many other people can tolerate these books, but what they really love is speculative science fiction, or futuristic erotica, or difficult Latin American surrealism. So fine. Some people don’t like what I’ve written, but I like what I’ve written, for the most part, and know that if I can connect with even a handful of readers then I’ve done what I’ve set out to do, times a handful.

This new and fortunate understanding has affected the way I think about other things too: my teaching, the writing of my new novel. I’m less outside my head now. I’ve stopped, for the most part, second-guessing myself or my plans. And this confidence is, in part, because of all those bad reviews. Isn’t that strange? But it turns out that even when I do the best I can do, I can’t make everyone happy. So I guess I might as well start, as they say, by pleasing myself.

I HATE answering the "where are you from" question. I live in America, but I grew up in Canada, and am of Chinese descent. So the conversation usually goes like this:

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 20:34:35 -0400

I HATE answering the "where are you from" question. I live in America, but I grew up in Canada, and am of Chinese descent. So the conversation usually goes like this:
Them: Where are you from?
Me: Ottawa, Canada!
Them: Oh sorry, I mean where are your parents from?
Me: Ottawa, Canada!
Them: ...
They usually drop it after that, but a few persist, and I usually find it personally more comforting just to lie and say that my ancestors lived in Canada.

murakamistuff: Erik from Amsterdam submitted this picture of...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:09:04 -0400

murakamistuff:

Erik from Amsterdam submitted this picture of his cat Murakami in her “Dolphin Hotel”. She also has a sister named The Rat which is not around in this picture.

Kitty stamp!

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 13:43:09 -0400

Kitty stamp!

fuckyeahmixedbeauty: I’m Kalia. I’m 18 and half Filipina, half...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 10:17:35 -0400

fuckyeahmixedbeauty:

I’m Kalia. I’m 18 and half Filipina, half African American.

I was just featured in the March 2013 issue of Teen Vogue, and in Kohl’s stores nationwide representing! (:

Tumblr: kalialiaa.tumblr.com

Instagram: Kuhleeuh

fascinasians: at National Japanese American Memorial to...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 06:52:01 -0400

fascinasians:

at National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism in WWII

deafmuslimpunx: obitoftheday: Obit of the Day: Killing Her for...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 03:26:00 -0400

deafmuslimpunx:

obitoftheday:

Obit of the Day: Killing Her for Kindness

Parveen Rehman was shot and killed by four unknown gunman in Karachi, Pakistan on March 13, 2013. She was virtually unknown outside of her home nation but within the Islamic republic she was known as a champion for the poor.

Ms. Rehman joined the Orangi Pilot Project in 1982 to work in local Katchi abadis, “poor people’s housing.”Although these abadis are home to 15 million residents of Pakistan’s capital, Karachi (which has a total population of 21 million), they do not officially exist. The Orangi abadi has one million residents.

The Orangi Pilot Project - which is composed of three separate organizations - worked to bring basic sanitation, clean water, and education to the residents. This was done by encouraging the residents to undertake much of the infrastructure development themselves.

Ms. Rehman personally fought corruption in a very corrupt city. She publicly challenged those who stole the public water supply as well as the those taking abadi land. As Karachi grew it absorbed the land on which abadis stood, then speculators would come in, take the land, throw off the residents and sell it at a profit.

Ms. Rehman, who once called in a group of rival gunman to face off against previous attackers because the police were not reliable, was 56 years old when she was murdered.

Sources: NPR (with a great interview by Steve Inskeep), BBC, Dawn.com, and The Orangi Pilot Project

(Image of Ms. Rehman is from NPR and taken by Tracy Wahl - who corrected me very nicely. Follow her!)

Also take time to read about former Mexican mayor Maria Santos Gorrostieta who was assassinated in 2012.

Inaa lillaahi WA inaa illayhi raji’oon. Rest in Peace.

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 20:35:26 -0400

catsbeaversandducks:

Illustration by ©DoodleCats

THE CHANGE.ORG PETITION TO STOP URBAN OUTFITTERS FROM APPROPRIATING CULTURE FROM ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA NEEDS 300 MORE SIGNATURES

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 17:08:59 -0400

angryasiangirlsunited:

navigatethestream:

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION AND SEND IT TO YR FRIENDS

I know appropriation fuckery can be exhausting

its like a never ending wheel of “goddamn it really?!”

but Urban Outfitters is a filthy rich company that will continue profiting off the cultures of the global POC diaspora if we don’t say anything

sign the petition

tweet urban outfitters and let them know cultures are not for sale

Signal boost!

I FUCKING HATE URBAN OUTFITTERS