February 2012
1 post
April 2010
5 posts
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the...”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (via caraobrien) (via nothingshortof) (via abcsoupdot)
Dear Feminists, You're Doing It Right
abbyjean:
katoleary:
feminally:
You get so tired. You get so sick of the homophobia, the sexism, the culture of rape jokes and wife beating cartoons. But today you can take 30 seconds and smile. Somewhere right now there is a daddy dancing along while his femmy boy sings Lady Gaga. Somewhere right now there is a little girl suiting up to go play football with her peewee team. Somewhere there...
“Things I Will Try to Say More Often: Why? I love you. I’m sorry. May I...”
– Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente
“Now, why would a guy as incredibly handsome, smart, and successful as David...”
– In case you can’t tell, I’m being sarcastic. : Historiann : History and sexual politics, 1492 to the present
March 2010
35 posts
“[Courts] often disagree. See, e.g., United States v. Chambers, 473 F.3d...”
– Strip Searches Lead to Discovery of Comical String Cite, Among Other Things - Lowering the Bar
Best string cite I’ve ever seen!
“We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.”
– G. K. Chesterton
“Adam punched the Back Bay zip code into the system and came back and assured me...”
– Is there any way to clean up these dishes? | East Boston Times-Free Press
Let me assure you, it’s not just Direct TV who doesn’t respect my neighborhood.
Not the normal response, but I like it.
me: i live in a beautiful apartment in a great city with a lovely roommate, i have lots of amazing friends, i have food every day, many times a day, i should shut it
danny: whatever, whine away, life sucks
NO-HORSE RACES - The Boston Globe →
HAWLEY — This tiny community’s single ballot box, an old oaken contraption kept in a former one-room schoolhouse, will next perform its civic duty when Hawley votes for eight officials ranging from selectman to tree warden.
But there’s one glaring problem: No one from this Berkshires hill town is running in the May 3 election.
The ballot, literally, is a blank slate in the state’s...
Sometimes, Area Woman Just Feels... | The Onion -... →
BELMONT, NH—Stating that she wasn’t in the best place right now, and that things have been sort of you know, Belmont resident Megan Slota announced Thursday that sometimes she just feels….
Due to a general sense of…well, it’s hard to explain, the 28-year-old dental hygienist reported that she just needed to work some stuff out, and that she would probably be a little I don’t...
Oh.
me: hmm, can i just hide under my covers for the rest of my life instead?
Tanya: no, you will get muscle attrophe
me: i'll turn over a lot
Tanya: maybe that will prevent bed sores, but not dead muscles
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in...”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower, From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953
First of all, this exists in the world. Go forth and learn about the Conus Suizicus, the traffic cone that sports a festive headdress in the time of mating.
Second of all, that page has links. Including one to the conspiracy theory of traffic cones. Which explains:
Some conologists venture that our terrestrial cones are only the lapdogs of a larger threat. They are but the flag bearers—seeded...
Baffling Mistakes Criminals Make All the Time -... →
Make sure you have the proper tools [e.g., no bananas, snakes, or Star Trek props];
Fight the urge to give away personal information [a very frequent mistake];
Keep in mind that there is a time and a place for everything [do not check Facebook or make some fried chicken during the crime];
Choose your targets wisely [trying to rob a karate school or police convention is a bad idea];
Be wary...
Hey Thai protesters, what's up with the blood? |... →
Thailand’s red-shirt protesters not only made good on their threat to pour gallons of their own blood on Bangkok’s Government House on Tuesday, they followed it up today by hurling more human blood at Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajjiva’s home today. The Red Cross has complained that the tactic is not only wasteful but dangerous in a country with a fairly high AIDS rate, but...
what friends are for
me: but how does one get started in stripping
Melissa: the top button, work your way down
me: that's what i've been doing wrong, i always start in the middle and then i'm stuck in the shirt
Melissa: common misconception
People, Not Systems →
I don’t know if it’s an artifact of my personality, or an artifact of the kind of lawyering they teach you in law school, but my approach is too formalistic. I’m too focused on the rules, the system, the procedures, how things are “supposed” to work. I rarely regard people, the people that I know, as resources. I think part of it is arrogance. I think a bigger part...
“Yet women on the pill did have higher rates of violent deaths. The researchers...”
–
Birth Control Pills May Reduce Cancer Death - ABC News
This is… kind of a big thing? Why is it tucked away in a random sentence on the second page?
I’ll note the headline is kind of weird and not indicative of the findings. That’s one of the findings, but there are a lot of others, of equal or...
SJC says that shelter dwellers have right to... →
A homeless shelter is a person’s home, at least when it comes to privacy protections under the state and federal constitutions, the state’s highest court ruled yesterday.
Finally the SJC does something I can get behind!
Breaking News: U.S. and U.K. Redistricting... →
The so-called Gerry-Mander (original 1812 Boston Centinel comic of a Gerry-designed district reproduced above) has stood the test of time, and continues to reflect modern day constituency boundaries. Indeed, today’s Massachusetts District 4 (represented by House Financial Services chair Barney Frank) is quite reminiscent of the old Gerry monster, as derided by the Colbert Report’s...
To anyone who was thinking of becoming involved...
I just decided to name my child Milt. You should be aware of that before continuing on this journey.
“The kind of suffering that you carry in your heart, that is society itself. You...”
– Being Peace, Thich Nhat Hanh
“The squalid ones are hoping it won’t rain,” Chavez said late on...”
– Chavez: “God is a Bolivarian” | FP Passport
“Don’t gimme no Buick
Son you must take my word
If there’s a God in...”
– Silver Thunderbird, Marc Cohn
Yesterday at yoga the teacher demonstrated handstands with a very experienced student (with a shockingly beautiful musculature that very much distracted me, but that’s beside the point). And then he said, do you guys want to try it?… who’s afraid? And my hand went up immediately, pretty much by its own accord. Because, seriously, you want me to balance on my hands? When even...
“[S]ince 1849 the Kentucky Constitution has required anyone holding any...”
– No-Dueling Promise May Be Dropped From Kentucky Oath - Lowering the Bar
After Victory Against Disney, Children’s Group... →
For a few days last fall, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood celebrated a big victory: the tiny advocacy group had successfully pushed the Walt Disney Company to offer full refunds to everyone who had bought the company’s popular Baby Einstein videos from June 2004 to September 2009.
But it did not take long for trouble to follow. The group has been evicted from the Harvard-affiliated...
Missing body of Cyprus' ex-leader is found -... →
Ransom was the motive behind the bizarre bodysnatching of Cyprus’ former President Tassos Papadopoulos, the justice minister said Tuesday, hours after the body was found dumped in a Nicosia cemetery — but Papadopoulos’ family denied receiving any such demand. Minister Loucas Louca said during a news conference that Papadopoulos’ family had received a demand for ransom for the...
Mass. orders review of possible design flaws in... →
The state Transportation Department has launched an internal review of possible design flaws in Big Dig handrails that have been linked to the deaths of seven motorists.
Transportation Secretary Jeffrey B. Mullan ordered the study following a Globe story last month that detailed the dangers posed by the handrails, which dismembered several people who became entangled in the railings and were...
Attorney Convicted of Voting Seeks Pardon -... →
John O’Hara is a New York attorney and political activist who was disbarred in 1997 after he was convicted of voting in an election district in which he did not “reside.”
In 1996, O’Hara was suddenly indicted. Coincidentally, at the time he was challenging an incumbent politician linked to the DA. Although, again, there had been only two other prosecutions under this...
…
I am the horizon you ride towards, the thing you can never lasso I am also what surrounds you: my brain scattered with your tincans, bones, empty shells, the litter of your invasions. I am the space you desecrate as you pass through.
Backdrop Addresses Cowboy by Margaret Atwood
“Are you sure all this trauma work hasn’t gotten to you?” he asked.
We were visiting our relatives in the Caribbean. We had hiked to the top of some cliffs on a small island, and for a moment the entire family stood quietly together, marveling, looking out at the sea. It was an exquisite sight. There was turquoise water as far as you could see, a vast, cloudless sky, and air...
abbyjean:
sexartandpolitics:
Jamiroquai –...
“When we heard about the condom shortage in Vancouver, we felt it important to...”
– Vancouver Now - Emergency shipment of condoms headed to Olympic athletes - Post Sports
The Unlikely Liberal Case for Gun Rights -... →
The National Rifle Association is asking the court to elevate the Second Amendment to the list of fundamental rights. The CAC hopes instead that the court will add not just the Second Amendment but the whole Bill of Rights. That would make state laws vulnerable to federal-court challenges under a part of the Constitution that liberals love: the “privileges or immunities” clause of...
“A hundred years from now, I’ll be the toughest challenge question,’’ he said. “...”
– Kirk recalls interim Senate service as unforgettable - The Boston Globe
February 2010
45 posts
Cut the strings Let my arms fall down loosely at my sides Watch the paint melt away As I step in to the daylight Oh, Gepetto how you loved me Oh, Gepetto aren’t you proud? So you’re giving up your best So that I can be a real boy Oh, well I can be a real boy now
-Gepetto, Kate Klim
“Even my gender has been questioned. I want that to be public because I don’t...”
– Johnny Weir, responding to commentators who questioned his gender, example he sets (via apsies) (via amberlrhea) (via notemily)
How the world does drugs | FP Passport →
The UN’s International Narcotics Control Board released its annual report on the global trade Wednesday. A few points to ponder:
The gender gap is closing; men have typically exhibited higher rates of drug use than women globally, but in many countries that margin is now narrowing. ….
The U.S. remains the world’s top market for illicit drugs. ….
In Iraq, valium is...
BBC Host Admits Killing Terminally Ill Partner -... →
He said the person had been a partner from long ago, stricken with AIDS. “In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said, ‘There’s nothing we can do,’ and he was in terrible, terrible pain,” Mr. Gosling, 70, said Monday in the BBC program “Inside Out.”
“I said to the doctor, ‘Leave me just for a bit,’ and he went away. I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead.”
“Taylor had indeed ducked into a shop, one with security cameras inside. The...”
– Camera Catches Moment That Robber Realized Robbery Not Going as Planned - Lowering the Bar
David Brooks - The Lean Years - NYTimes.com →
It’s pretty easy to take these economic facts and draw stark cultural consequences. Long-term unemployment is one of the most devastating experiences a person can endure, equal, according to some measures, to the death of a spouse. Men who are unemployed for a significant amount of time are more likely to drink more, abuse their children more and suffer debilitating blows to their identity....
“Helpless kiss, I’m rudderless,
How do you intend to unbreak this?”
– Helpless Kiss - Antje Duvekot
“Researchers have found, for example, that some humans are particularly alert to...”
– Op-Ed Columnist - Our Politics May Be All in Our Head - NYTimes.com
“But here’s the thing. This world is a beautiful place, but it is also...”
– Rules for Anchorites - On Valentine’s Day