Tag-Archive for » trans «

September 12th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

Oh so true snippets of fundie culture.

The Princeton Guide to Ecology just went to the top of my wishlist.  Yes, even above the lovely shoes I posted earlier this week.

“Government-run” health care has problems, but it still works better than private insurance:

Compared with the employer-coverage group, people in the Medicare group report fewer problems obtaining medical care, less financial hardship due to medical bills, and higher overall satisfaction with their coverage.

Conservatives freaked out about Obama’s speech encouraging kids to work hard in school, calling the action “unprecedented.”  I guess they weren’t paying attention during similar speeches given by Reagan and George H. Bush.  (Though perhaps if they’d paid better attention in school they would have developed some critical thinking skills and we wouldn’t have to deal with their craziness.)  I think the response of the right in this situation is very telling – they disagree with Obama, so they won’t listen to anything he says.  This is why Republicans have blocked health care reform at every turn, why Republicans have become the party of “no.”  I’m reminded of a child being told something she doesn’t want to hear who covers her ears and yells.

There isn’t much justice in our justice system.  How many innocent people have we executed?

The myth of overspending:

Whether families are spending more than they should according to some moral notion—consuming too much of the world’s resources or buying things they could easily live without—is not the issue at hand. These data give us no clue about the right amount of spending. But they give us powerful evidence that excessive consumption is not why families are going broke. There is no evidence of any “epidemic” of overspending—certainly nothing that could explain a 255 percent increase in the foreclosure rate, a 430 percent increase in the bankruptcy rolls, and a 570 percent increase in credit-card debt. A growing number of families are in terrible financial trouble, but despite the accusations, their frivolity is not to blame.

A lot of people claim that being queer is wrong because it isn’t “natural.” Weird how different cultures consider different sexualities “natural.”

Ecological/environmental refugees are becoming much more common.

A corporate sponsor of the Tea Party Express, many of whose members believe that health care reform is “a secret plot to kill old people”, is paying millions of dollars for killing old people.

A ton of feathers – why micro-inequities suck.

June 10th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

On May 28, the hosts of KRXQ’s “Rob, Arnie, and Dawn in the Morning” devoted half an hour to promoting abuse of trans children and making very cruel and untrue statements about trans children.  Now lots of big sponsors like Bank of America are pulling their advertising.

January 10th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona

Nectar isn’t just insect food, it’s a drug – the plants produce narcotics and alcohol.

How on earth can people believe that torture keeps us safe?

(en)Gender points to the most awesome thing I’ve read all week – a statement released by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe.

It really irks me that the most basic fact-checking is thrown out the window when religion is mentioned.  Thank goodness for PZ Myers.

In my dreams.

Great post on rice field pictures:

A better analogy for the situation in Gaza.

A little hope from Sugarbutch.

November 23rd, 2008 | Author: sarcozona

Obama is considering a drug czar who opposes needle exchange programsNeedle exchange programs are very effective HIV prevention tools and help slow the spread of of other diseases such as Hepatitis C.

Not long before the Transgender Day of Remembrance police brutally beat Duanna Johnson, a transwoman.  She was found dead recently. Sublimefemme links to a powerful post about mourning by queenemily.

This is not Pride. This is remembering our dead. This is not something you can make fucking upbeat and acceptable and call “awareness.”

Grace the Spot has a useful guide for surviving and possibly even enjoying a holiday with your family.

Luxury handbag designers tell their customers not to buy counterfeit bags because they come from places that horribly exploit their workers.  Well, turns out the factories of Prada, Mulberry, Louis Vuitton, Samsonite, Aspinal of London, Nicole Farhi and Luella are pretty horrific too:

Workers earn poverty wages, work long hours, and suffer from a variety of health complaints linked to poor health and safety conditions. They complain that there are not enough toilets for all the workers and those that exist are filthy. The only drinking water is from a hose on the toilet floor.

Justin tries to find the best time to drink coffee.

Leibniz, Spinoza, and Descartes’ failure.

Democrats, homophobia isn’t ok.

Actors, sexism isn’t ok.

Princeton has their own version of Proposition 8 – and it’s just as silly as the one in California.

Sublimefemme has an awesome post up about femme invisibility, prompted by the response to Lindsay Lohan.

There seem to be two dominant schools of thought about Lindsay’s sexuality, both of which turn on the “problem” of her femininity.  The first position, which I’ve written about before, is that she couldn’t really be a lesbian because, hell, just look at her!  The other position is the inversion of the first.  It claims that Samantha Ronson is a real lesbian (hell, just look at her!) and Lindsay wouldn’t chose a girl like that unless she was herself really queer.  In this reading, it’s the butch’s supposedly irrefutable lesbian appearance that provides evidence for the femme’s queerness.  However, in both cases, queer femininity is fundamentally framed not just as a contradiction in terms but as a disappearing act.

August 17th, 2008 | Author: sarcozona

The US government conducted a huge raid for illegal immigrants in Postville, Iowa.  They haven’t explained why some are being deported and others are being jailed.  Wives of the arrested men have been fitted with leg monitoring bracelets and basically been told “You can’t work, you can’t leave and can’t stay.”  The local Roman Catholic church is now caring for the women.  A priest responds to the situation:

He said he understands that the people arrested were illegal, but he said they were also desperate.

“This was their last option. They would not have chosen this as their first option. They wanted to feed their families. Scripture tells us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to the shelterless. If you and your family were starving, what would you do?” [via holographicme]

Russia’s not playing nice with Georgia. [via 3QD]

Helen Boyd interviews Monica Canfield-Lenfest.  Includes my new favorite word: queerspawn.

A moving post on teaching.  I want to be a good teacher someday, but I’ve got a very long way to go.

When their high school refused to let them organize, the Okeechobee, FL Gay-Straight Alliance asked the ACLU for help.  They’ve won the case.  Notably, the decision requires the school board to “take into account the well-being of its non-heterosexual students.”