February 2011
“When democratic ideals and calls for the right to vote are stirring the...”
– Jerry Brown makes a case for his budget plan, which includes a proposed tax increase that would have to be approved by voters in a special election, in his State of the State speech today.
um. not sure if this is appropriate?
maudlin
i offered a challenge: best visual depiction of the idea conveyed by the word “maudlin.” and i got a number of responses.
some were verbal descriptions of hypothetical visual depictions:
A man drunkenly kicking a dark tree in anger, just because he can’t reach the fruit, until one hits him on the head and knocks him out. (martyjkh)
translucent black shroud (besttumblr)
a punk crying over a...
3 tags
January 2011
The Street-Level Solution →
When I asked Rosanne Haggerty, the founder of Common Ground, which currently operates 2,310 units of supportive housing (with 552 more under construction), what had been her biggest surprise in this work, she replied: “Fifteen years ago, I would not have believed that people who had been so broken and entrenched in homelessness could thrive to the degree that they do in our buildings.” And Becky...
1 tag
The More Americans That Go On Food Stamps The More... →
JP Morgan is the largest processor of food stamp benefits in the United States. JP Morgan has contracted to provide food stamp debit cards in 26 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. JP Morgan is paid for each case that it handles, so that means that the more Americans that go on food stamps, the more profits JP Morgan makes. Yes, you read that correctly. When the number of Americans on food...
faith-ampersand-begorrah-deacti asked: "being dorky is ok: how to mention your dorky habits without furious blushing"
Oh, I teach this class. It's called "Any Intro to Literature Course Ever Really Hey Isn't This Book Awesome Yes This Is My Career Why Do You Ask Hey Please Come to Office Hours Let's Talk More About This Book and Why It's So Rad Where Are You Going Hey"
Oh, I teach this class. It's called "Any Intro to Literature Course Ever Really Hey Isn't This Book Awesome Yes This Is My Career Why Do You Ask Hey Please Come to Office Hours Let's Talk More About This Book and Why It's So Rad Where Are You Going Hey"
classes i would like to take
persuasively explaining that people you know on the internet count as friends
being dorky is ok: how to mention your dorky habits without furious blushing
for the love of god stop clicking on things and go to bed already
retirement planning: not just for old people
meeting people with romantic potential: how to achieve this without radically redefining your own identity
you are a single...
3 tags
Consumer Confidence Rises With Income Level →
If you make more than $50,000 — in other words, if you inhabit the top household income quartile in the Conference Board’s monthly studies — you are likely to be really, truly, deeply optimistic. You’ve seen the stock market claw back, and dividends and corporate profits are up. The confidence number for that quartile stands at 74.0.
But if household income is stuck in the $35,000 to $49,000...
“Williams-Bolar is a teacher’s assistant in Akron, and was enrolled in college...”
– Over 50,000 Sign Petition for Ohio Mother
FUCKING SHIT. FUCKING SSSSSSHITT FUCKING SHIT FUCKING SHIT. You see that up there? That little sentence thrown in there?????? SHE MAY LOSE HER HOME.
THIS IS WHITE FUCKING SUPREMACY. THIS IS HETEROPATRIARCHY. THIS IS CLASSISM. THIS IS NATIONALISM.
(via...
TAPPED Archive | The American Prospect →
Yesterday, Texas opened up debate on a bill that requires a photo ID at the polls.
[S]everal Senate sources who have looked at [the bill] say it’s a more stringent requirement than the one on the table in 2009. In 2009, they were talking about requiring photo ID or two forms of non-photo ID; the 2011 bill does not have that non-photo ID option. It does, however, have an exemption from the...
“Many families in Egypt are fast running out of staples such as bread, beans and...”
– Okay so this is pretty bleak. Egypt imports a whole lot of its food supply, and people living in urban areas acquire basically all their food through shopping, so there’s a whole complicated supply chain upon which everyone is relying, and that’s breaking down. This probably puts a time limit of...
Repeal EMTALA! →
If the Republican Party is serious about decreasing government control of health care, they should start by introducing a bill that would repeal the law signed by President Ronald Reagan that mandates free health care for all who seek it. That law, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), was the largest expansion of government mandated health care since Medicare. Remember George...
and now - a challenge
best visual depiction of the idea conveyed by the word “maudlin.” whatcha got?
2 tags
can you call it a love life if it consists only of overwhelming crushes on vaguely inappropriate and certainly unattainable people?
michellekeems asked: I just came back from the theaters, after watching "The Rite." The movie is about exorcism, if you weren't already aware of it. What do you think about the whole topic in general? politically? scientifically? religiously? or any other aspect of which the topic can be approached. I'd like to hear others' opinion on it.
The movie introduces a man who had just...
The movie introduces a man who had just...
thecurvature asked: What is your favorite alcoholic beverage? (If you drink. Favorite non-alcoholic beverage if you don't!)
2 tags
help me tumblr you're my only hope →
i’m trying to study supply-side economics, for a value of “study” that consists primarily of looking in the direction of the textbook for short bursts and then sighing mightily. help distract me!
“What the Gulf War was to CNN, the people’s revolutions of the Middle East are to...”
– Media blogger Jeff Jarvis writes that US cable companies should begin carrying Al Jazeera English (via newsflick)
it has been stunning to see al-jazeera’s total dominance in covering and analyzing the events in egypt over the past few days. i was on the phone with my dad when reports that...
Social Security and Welfare Benefits Going... →
In May, the government will no longer pay someone eligible for benefits with a mailed check. Instead, the money will be electronically deposited directly into a bank account or made accessible by a debit card. And by March 2013, the 10 million people who receive checks, out of 70 million people in all, must switch over to direct deposit or use a card.
While direct deposit of government checks...
"Inequality In America Is Worse Than In Egypt,... →
notemily:
stuffsickpeoplehavetoputupwith:
You think I am making this up, but I’m totally not.
why aren’t we taking to the fucking streets already
i think it’s important to look at how inequality is being defined here. this ranking is based on the gini coefficient, which looks at distribution of income within a population. so it looks at where the country is on a scale of 0...
2 tags
Ugly law →
bestofwikipedia:
From the late 1860s until the 1970s, several American cities had ugly laws making it illegal for persons with “unsightly or disgusting” disabilities to appear in public. Some of these laws were called Unsightly Beggar Ordinances. The goal of these laws was seemingly to preserve the quality of life for the community, similar in spirit to current homeowners association regulations...
1 tag
The Internet is a Double-Edged Sword for... →
As the pundits were busy celebrating the contribution of Twitter and Facebook to protests in Tunisia and Egypt, most of them ignored the terrifying news from Iran, where on Monday two activists were hanged for distributing video footage on the Internet from the country’s 2009 “Twitter Revolution.”
stephaniealice asked: Are you an Aquarius?
The Power of Prayer →
One of the most significant problems in coordinating widespread collective protests in undemocratic regimes is figuring out where and when people should meet. One can converge upon major public sites - but one faces obvious risks in so doing, unless one is already part of a large group. When there is (a) a social institution or set of social institutions through which people meet in large groups...
shorter mubarak
i am very familiar with and sympathetic to the plight of the people
these protests have only been possible due to the freedoms i’ve allowed
protesters are a small group, removed from the ordinary egyptian citizen, and are creating chaos and fear that endanger egypt’s future
i’m firing the whole cabinet and will appoint a new one tomorrow
i’m dedicated to and...
“I’m not a fan of the US cultural habit of turning political turmoil in faraway...”
– Knowing Coves: Third World Protest as US Spectator Sport (via sexartandpolitics)
Tacos 101 with Bill Esparza ~ Part 1 “History and... →
Maize, corn, was first domesticated in Mesoamerica around 7000 years ago, some archaeologists date this as far back as 12,000 years. Around 1200-1500 B.C., nixtamalization was developed, the process of soaking and cooking the grain in lime water, and hulling it to prepare corn tortillas. Tacos are a pre-hispanic food consisting of a tortilla, corn or flour*, folded in half, but sometimes...
Biden: Mubarak Should Not Step Down
newsflick:
Vice President Biden, issuing the Obama administration’s most definitive statement to date on the turmoil in Egypt, said President Hosni Mubarak should not step down and downplayed the protests spreading across the Mideast as generally unconnected.
He described the unrest as an expression of “middle-class folks” looking for “a little more access and a little more opportunity.”
...
3 tags
School lockdowns: L.A. school officer faked... →
A Los Angeles school police officer who said he was shot by an attacker last week, prompting a manhunt that shut down a large swath of Woodland Hills, has been arrested on suspicion of concocting the story, authorities said Thursday night. The startling revelation came at a hastily called news conference by Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who said detectives became suspicious about the...
LAPD Fatally Shoot Mentally Ill Man During Attack →
Another officer-involved shooting (OIS) is being investigated. LAPD officers on patrol in Southeast LA just after 8 p.m. on January 24 responded to a radio call in the 900 block of East 107th Street regarding a male suffering from mental illness. They received information the suspect, 48-year-old Earl Rose was verbally aggressive and had been refusing to take his prescribed medication. 5’...
oh god
i’m in a lecture right now about what the speaker is calling the “1.5 immigrant generation” - kids who came to the US before the age of 12 and grow up here without documentation. and the stories are, frankly, heartbreaking.
he just told a story of a kid from the oakland area who was an extraordinary artist - he’d created three community murals before the age of 14. because...
A Short Course in Indigenous Feminism →
Online Articles:
Indigenous Feminism Without Apology, by Andrea Smith
Jennifer Nez Denetdale on Indigenous Feminisms
An Indigenous Perspective on Feminism, Militarism, and the Environment, by Winona LaDuke
Zapatismo and the Emergence of Indigenous Feminism, by Aida Hernandez Castillo
Academic Journal Publications:
Wicazo Sa Review “Native Feminisms: Legacies, Interventions, and...
Unfortunately for the censors, Twitter allows... →
“I thought about The Wire in context of the controversy over Huckleberry Finn for...”
– Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education, New York University, Education Week, Jan. 11 (Racialicious) 