“you can’t shake the devil’s hand and say you’re only kidding…”
“This is where the party ends I’ll just sit here wondering how you Can stand by your racist friend I know politics bore you But I feel like a hypocrite talking to you You and your racist friend“
Dadaism is alive and well. Fight fire with polka-dancing.
Much of the Twitter-sphere is not happy with the political views of Vice President-elect Mike Pence. However, that by no means gives them the right to judge him for indulging in a few harmless licks of lady’s deodorant in the wee hours of the morning… [via someecards] Guys, I really doubt the rumor that Mike Pence … Continued
you’re still bigoted if you’re indifferent to the pain and suffering of people different from you though.
it’s not just “i hate Brown/Black/lgbt/Muslim/Jewish people”; it’s also “I’m able to turn a blind eye to their suffering because i don’t consider it important. i only recognize and care for the pain of others like me”.
I
just stumbled into a prime example of a local action I could take that
matters right this instant. This afternoon @thedeadparrot tweeted a link
to an article about a Boston city councilor who yesterday expressed his
desire to make Boston a “sanctuary city” immigrants, i.e. defy Trump
& co. by barring local law
enforcement from initiating or participating in deportation actions.
I
googled the City Council’s phone number, called, and got put through to
an aide right away. Here follows an illuminating conversation:
Me:
Hi, my name is [Stulti]; I’m a resident of [neighborhood]. I just read
in the Herald that Tito Jackson wants to make Boston a sanctuary for
immigrants. I’m calling to express my support. Aide, choking a little: Support?? Me: Yes, I want Boston to do everything possible to protect immigrants, documented or not. Aide: You’re actually the first person to call in support of that. Me: Really? Aide: It’s been a rough day. Me: Oh, jeez. Well, I hope it improves. I feel very strongly about this issue. Aide: Thank you for calling. Me: Thank you. Hang in there. Bye.
Moral
of the story: There are legislators out there right now, trying to get
the damage control in motion. They’re being harangued by, at a guess,
right-wing retirees with nothing better to do. Plug their numbers into
your phones and even the score.
If
no one on your city council has proposed such a measure, call to
suggest it. I’ve been told phoning is best, but if telephones give you
hives, send an email.
Hating an innocent person solely because of their race, sexuality, or gender makes you a fucking asshole
Just some actual daily reminders:
All white people do racist things without being aware they are
All straight people do homophobic things without being aware that they are.
All Cis people do transphobic things without being aware that they are.
All men do sexist things without being aware that they are.
Saying things like ‘some men’, ‘some cis people’ absolves the blame of individuals and only seeks to comfort those with privilege and power.
When a post says ‘some X’, the X will always assume that they are not because THEY ARE NOT AWARE.
And most importantly,
It’s calledmetonymy,when anyone who is oppressed makes an exasperated statement like ‘i hate straight people’, they are substituting straight people for the concept of a system and a culture that teaches, incentives, and legitimizes homophobic acts and normalizes homophobic acts so that straight people constantly do honophobic things without realizing it and that’s really fucking annoying.
And just as important,
The concept of sjws dehumanizes marginalized people and categorizes them as an ‘angry and emotional’ stereotype and only adds to the oppression of marginalized people under the guise of being ‘fair’, while the only thing you are doing is cushioning privileged people from their own ignorance and privilege.
Since conversion therapy is looming in everyone’s consciousness right now:
This is your regular reminder that ABA, the generally-recommended therapy for autistic children, is literally conversion therapy with an extra dose of “auties aren’t even real people” thrown in for good measure. It was conceived by the same people, from the same research, for the same ends: To brutalize and torture children into a narrow range of “acceptable” behaviour.
And it is considered totally legitimate and valid and even preferred by the overwhelming majority of the medical industry.
Do not leave disabled people out of your activism.
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Man, I wish there was an animal with ears one-third the length of its entire body.”
WELL CONGRATULATIONS, SPOTTED BATS EXIST
But maybe now you’re thinking, “that’s cool and all, but like, isn’t there an animal with like, ears that take up FOUR-FIFTHS of its body? Because that would really make my day…”
Again, CONGRATULATIONS.
That’s the brown long-eared bat, and it is good at hearing.
But you, eternally unsatisfied, mutter under your breath, “I mean cool but what if the animal also had a nose that was-”
STOP. LOOK AT WHAT I AM HOLDING IN MY HAND*.
That’s a sword-nosed bat and he JUST. DOESN’T CARE. ABOUT YOUR ARBITRARY BODY STANDARDS.
(*sadly that is not actually my hand in the photo)
Now, looking at these bats all together, your desire for increasingly unattainable body types satisfied, you may next find yourself pondering this:
“The bat is the only species of mammal with true powered flight, and also the only flying species, ever, to have external ears. How the heck are they able to fly without those ears (and sometimes noses!) presenting a significant problem? Wouldn’t they act like big, awkward parachutes strapped to the nose of a plane?”
Well friend, this is also what many scientists also thought, when examining the species of bats with exceptionally large ears. They figured that the increased drag caused by facial appendages was just a trade-off that the bats had to deal with in order to get better echolocation abilities to seek out their prey. The fact that most big-eared bats were slow-flying ambush predators rather than zippy little jet fighters seemed to confirm this.
However, no one actually tested the theory until 2015, when scientists from Bristol University ordered a bunch of bat heads from various bat labs (yes… actual heads from actual deceased bats), scanned them, 3D printed them, attached them to dummies, and put them in a wind tunnel.
Thaaaaaaat’s science!
To spare you a lot of physics talk, what they found was that big ears and big noseleaves aren’t causing significant drag for flying bats at all. Or rather, they ARE causing drag, but it’s offset by the fact that they also generate LIFT, which cancels out the drag and sometimes even improves the flying capabilities of the bat! Indeed, the lift generated by big ears may even help bats keep their heads up as they fly, which is important because they need to direct their echolocation beam as they move.
So big ears = no problem bucko. Again, bats prove themselves unique compared to every other flying animal.
One final note on bats with big ears, because it’s cute. While they may pose no problem- and even be helpful- while flying, these big ears can get in the way while the bat is roosting, trying to fit into crevices, socialize, and such. But the bats have a creative solution for this, too. They just curl up their ears. Below are spotted bats and brown long-eared bats, the same two species depicted at the beginning of the post:
We have never deserved Michelle Obama: it’s a truth made more certain with each passing day. And we’ve been reminded anew by two grotesquely racist officials in West Virginia who recently referred to her as an “ape in heels.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland and the ranking minority leader of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has requested a review of President-elect Donald Trump’s financial arrangements ...
“...to ensure that he does not have any actual or perceived conflicts of interest and that he and his advisors comply with all legal and regulatory ethical requirements when he assumes the presidency.”
His letter, sent on Monday, went to the chairman of the committee, GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz. It specifically mentions the role Trump’s children will play both in running his company and and in advising him as president.
Press reporters indicate that Mr. Trump will be relying heavily on his children to operate his financial empire, but these same individuals have played a significant role in his presidential campaign and continue to advise Mr. Trump on his transition team. This is certainly not a “blind trust.”
Originally, Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani said the president-elect could set up a blind trust for his business, an arrangement where someone who holds public office gives control of a company to an independent trust in order to avoid a conflict of interest. But shortly after, Giuliani backtracked and said such as arrangement would be unfair to Trump’s children.
‘This American Life’ asked Sara Bareilles to imagine what President Obama might be thinking about the current election and Donald Trump, but can’t say publicly. Leslie Odom, Jr., performs the song.
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin has a great new interview with President Obama in Vanity Fair. In the wide-ranging interview, they discuss Abraham Lincoln, Obama’s biggest regrets from his time in office, and how a visit to the pyramids reminded Obama that cable news doesn’t really matter.
But perhaps the most intriguing bit was when, in a brief discussion of Obama’s plans for his post-presidency, Obama hinted that he planned to start speaking out more like an activist than a president.
There are “things,” he told Goodwin, “that in some ways I suspect I’m able to do better out of this office.” He elaborated that because of the “institutional constraints” of the presidency, “there are things I cannot say.”
He went on to essentially say he wanted to use his post-presidential bully pulpit more like an activist than a venerable elder statesman. “There are institutional obligations I have to carry out that are important for a president of the United States to carry out, but may not always align with what I think would move the ball down the field on the issues that I care most deeply about,” he said.
And while vague, this is an intriguing hint that Obama is thinking about being a very different ex-president than we’ve been used to.
