Tag-Archive for » feminism «

January 04th, 2010 | Author: sarcozona

From Karen Armstrong’s A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam:

Today it is common in the West to depict Islam as an inherently misogynistic religion, but, like Christianity, the religion of al-Lah was originally positive for women. During the [pre-Islamic period] … the majority were on par with slaves; they had no political or human rights, and female infanticide was common.  Women had been among Muhammad’s earliest converts, and their emancipation was a project that was dear to his heart.  The Koran strictly forbade the killing of female children and rebuked the Arabs for their dismay when a girl was born.  It also gave women legal rights of inheritance and divorce: most Western women had nothing comparable until the nineteenth century.  Muhammad encouraged women to play an active role in the affairs of the [community of believers], and they expressed their views forthrightly, confident that they would be heard. … One of their most important questions was why the Koran addressed men only when women had also made their surrender to God.  The result was a revelation that addressed women as well as men and emphasized the absolute moral and spiritual equality of the sexes.  Thereafter the Koran quite frequently addressed women explicitly, something that rarely happens in either the Jewish or Christian scriptures.

December 20th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

More evidence that our drug policies are just wrong.

Evolving to eat meat helped humans live longer.

American evangelical influence is likely to cause Ugandan gays to be executed.

How did health care reform turn into a subsidy for health insurance companies?

It makes me livid when good ideas get shut down because politicians are more interested in support from corporations than their constituents.  Pharmaceutical companies freaking out about having to become more competitive are how we lost one great cost-saver in the health care bill this week.

HIV is a tricky bastard. A promising microbicide failed to work in large scale trials.

If we found other intelligent life, would we be able to communicate in any meaningful way? I recommend we start trying with octopuses.

A great story demonstrating that the pay gap is alive and well, sexism still has large effects in women’s lives, and that women are just as qualified as men.

I made these pancakes, but with whole wheat flour and extra buttermilk.  They will make any day better.  I promise.

Sexism makes you worse at math.

Bill Smith, untitle (calibreted arterial system), detail, 2006, mixed media

Bill Smith, untitle (calibreted arterial system), detail, 2006, mixed media

You aren’t funny, you’re an ass.

Dear Obama, please stop being such a failure.

December 12th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

Testosterone doesn’t actually make people selfish; it promotes fair play.

It’s not that feminists don’t have a sense of humor, you’re just not funny.

China really isn’t getting better about human rights abuses.

Fantastic essay by Asimov on “The Relativity of Wrong.”  I feel like this would be especially good to read in intro science classes.

Having health insurance doesn’t necessarily make healthcare affordable or accessible.

Large animal farms (actually large farms period) do incredible environmental damage with human victims.  Dairies in New Mexico have led to contaminated water in a region where water scarcity is a growing issue.

We thought flowering plants had such an advantage because of their flowers.  Actually, it’s their veins!

Teeny tiny orchid discovered by accident

Teeny tiny orchid discovered by accident

The Discovery Channel clearly doesn’t appreciate the women who watch their shows.  Otherwise why would they put out such offensive ads?

Comic books and vagina dentata.

October 24th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

Lights on how the Christian community accepts rapists and vilifies their victims.

Green spaces make you healthier. I wonder if houseplants help.

Banning abortion doesn’t make it rarer, but it does make it more dangerous: unsafe abortions kill 70,000 women a year.  A lack of access to contraceptives leads to 60 million unintended pregnancies a year and increases abortion rates, often in unsafe conditions. If Christians really wanted to save lives, they’d be mailing condoms instead of gospel tracts.

Homeless people deserve better.  I hope that so many people losing their homes will lead to improved services for the homeless.

Proposed budget cuts in AZ target the poor and include wonderfully ironic cuts like “eliminating state supervision of loan originators, mortgage brokers and money transmitters.” Hawaii is dramatically shortening the school year because of budget cuts.

US drug policy blocks successful treatments for cluster headaches.

The difference between fields with lots of women and fields with few is other women.

Interpol hooked up with UN Peacekeeping.

Churches in Nigeria are torturing and killing children.  Isn’t God great?

So many of the same people who think blowing up all the Muslims is a great idea are also strongly anti-immigrant.  I guess they don’t realize how many immigrants are dying for their beliefs. Or they’re just racist.

The worst companies in the world.  Just in case you thought corporations were generally looking out for your best interests.

WWJD?

WWJD?

One week without health insurance was enough for this family to be denied real coverage for their daughter.

Wearing a bra is an evil deception deserving extreme punishment.

Garlic might actually help prevent colds, but the AIDS vaccine probably didn’t really work.

Companies with more women are better companies.

Thomas Hillier - The Emperor's Castle

Thomas Hillier - The Emperor's Castle

The Pansy Project: “Artist Paul Harfleet revisits city streets planting pansies at the site of homophobic abuse. Each location is photographed and named after the abuse received.”

If I go nuts, this is why.

October 03rd, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

It’s more expensive to be gay.

The Straight Girl’s Guide to Sleeping with Chicks.  I’m beginning to think straight women don’t actually exist.

Mac vs. PC hilarity.

Another health insurance company screws over another sick person.

Frat boys that aren’t awful human beings.  Hooray feminism!

cute attack: baby pygmy hippo

cute attack: baby pygmy hippo

Nike resigned from the board of the Chamber of Commerce in protest of the chamber’s position on climate change.  Other companies flat out resigned their memberships.  It’s good to see companies recognizing climate change is going to start affecting their profits.

I feel like the appropriate punishment for these sorts of crimes would be to deny them modern medical care.

Second wave feminism has a bad reputation, but without it, women would still be writing songs like this:

Every native fish in AZ is in trouble, and several have already gone extinct.  Drastic times call for drastic measures.

A new spider species was recently discovered and named after David Bowie.

Heteropoda davidbowie

Heteropoda davidbowie

Warming can fundamentally change interactions in an ecosystem.  This means that many of our predictions about what’s going to happen to ecosystems with climate change could be very, very wrong.

The Finance Committee killed the public option this week and then approved money for abstinence only sex-ed, which is the proven best way to up teen pregnancy and std rates.  I’d like to point out that democrats Lincoln, Conrad, and Baucus voted down the public option.  I suggest letting them know how you feel about their vote, especially if you come from Arkansas, Montana, or North Dakota.

Laurent is finally blogging again – I adore his silly botany posts.  Here’s a great one about how purple toothwort protects its nectar.

September 19th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

Sexual assault prevention tips guaranteed to work: men, don’t rape people; women, just stop having a vagina to tempt the rapists.

Postcards from a green future by Liam Young & Darryl Chen

Postcards from a green future by Liam Young & Darryl Chen

For as wealthy as the US is, you’d think we’d have safe drinking water.  But we really don’t.  Pollution is one reason why the popularity of bottled water is such a bad thing – people think that because they’re drinking bottled water they’re safe.  Then they stop worrying about the tap water until it’s too late.

fush suckerbutt by snickcluck on Flicrk

fush suckerbutt by snickcluck on Flickr

Churches and sexual abuse seem to go hand in hand.

Ive always wondered if wed recognize alien intelligence

I've always wondered if we'd recognize alien intelligence

Nation building is for the people who live in that nation.  Also, Afghanistan has a pretty awesome (and rather long) history.

What I think when I see women in games

What I think when I see women in games

August 29th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

It doesn’t say anything good about our culture that sexual violence against women is eroticized and mainstream, but women choosing and enjoying sex is just too much for us.

A few songs are worth more than your life.  A lot more.  (via Michael Alan Miller) Oh, and Sweden took down pirate bay.

Well, this should change our lifestyles a bit.  Have I mentioned that overpopulation is a problem?

California is sacrificing education to prevent taxing big oil.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if our government thought just a little more long term? (via Edge of the American West)

Actually, money CAN buy happiness.

The Afghan elections weren’t fair.

Amino acids in space!

Cultural differences in interpretations of facial expressions.

Really, vaccines do not contain aborted fetal tissue.

Russia has some series race issues.

Just because change scares people doesn’t mean it should be slow.

By the way, were at war by bobster on flickr

By the way, we're at war by bobster on flickr

Music + politics = awesome

Think health care reform makes Democrats equivalent to Nazis?  Perhaps you need a quick history lesson.

Another reason to quit smoking: children pick the tobacco you smoke and it poisons them.

I really want to see this movie (via SublimeFemme):

An former health care executive comes clean. And yet another health care myth debunked.

We’re building a wall between Mexico and the US that doesn’t stop illegal immigrants, but is deadly to fragile wildlife populations.

The axolotl is about to go extinct in the wild

The axolotl is about to go extinct in the wild

American citizens in danger from chemical weapons – and they’re ours.

Iran is not a good place to be right now.

August 15th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

Between things like steep fines and jail time for the “crimes” of being poor and/or a person of color and being unable to get a job because of poor credit, it’s almost impossible to escape poverty in the US.

Moonbow

Moonbow

Yesterday was the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in WWII.

Still sucks to be a woman in Afghanistan.

The Sri Lankan government doesn’t seem much better than the LTTE.

Plants can communicate and recognize self. Awesome.

No wonder we’re all addicted to the internet.

How and why patriarchy hurts men and who stands to benefit from feminism.

Scientists are grown-ups who refuse to give up their sense of wonder & curiosity.

It’s hard to keep believing Isreal is a “victim.”

Another evangelical caught fleecing his sheep.

from flickr user bobster855

from flickr user bobster855

I’m definitely going to make these cookies.

It’s hard to chastise other countries when you’re guilty too.

The Russian government doesn’t even try to hide it.

Attacking Iran would be idiotic.

Going home isn’t easy.

Cutting already insufficient education budgets means students pay more for less.

Odd and disturbing Time magazine cover.

David Trautrimas, Sprinkler House

David Trautrimas, Sprinkler House

Think people don’t use religion to escape responsibility for their actions? Think again.

Why taking physics is important:

Extreme Pool JumpCelebrity bloopers here

Major Prop 8 supporter gets divorce.

If ecology doesn’t work out, I’m applying at Netflix.

Incredible juxtoposition: US vs. Japanese representations of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Why we sleep: who knows?

August 08th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

We’re cutting all the wrong things.

If I ever live somewhere humid enough, I’m going to grow these in my house.

How to stifle innovation and piss off your customers.

Dr. Isis might be the best mom in the world:

if … Little Isis does grow to prefer silver metallic heels to black wingtips, then that needs to be okay.  If Little Isis grows up to prefer boys instead of girls, then that needs to be okay.  My son needs to develop the identity that will lead him to become a healthy and fulfilled adult, not the identity I think he should have.  I can try to guide him and teach him to be a kind person, but I can’t force him into a mold.  I think that part of loving him unconditionally means loving the person he will ultimately become, even if it is different than whatever groundless expectations I had for him.

Maybe instead of just visiting your local park/arboretum/museum, you should volunteer for them.

Why I don’t buy music from RIAA members.

Lots of cool stuff in this study, especially the connections between different scales of biology – from an ecosystem all the way down to basic chem.

Another reason to like Darwin – he recognized that women could be awesome scientists.

Hats off to beautiful femmes.  This might have made me cry.

June 06th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

It’s about entitlement, stupid.

Dr. Isis gives advice to a grad student who works with a scientist that won’t stop looking at her boobs.  Then she responds to the commenters who suggest it’s the grad student’s fault.

The AZ legislature is shit.

Really, being a girl doesn’t make you bad at math.

More “justice” in the US.

Beavers are being reintroduced in Scotland – after 400 years.

Patriarchy isn’t good for men either.

My roommate just got her first dyke haircut.

American troops in UN peacekeeping missions – definitely not leading.

If the US were in the Organization of the Islamic Conferences…

A letter to Pixar

Rape at Abu Graib