the story i heard.

melisscellaneous: thepmguide: long live the Guerrilla...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 21:14:00 -0400

thepmguide:

long live the Guerrilla Girls…

Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of female artists and feminists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world internationally. The group formed in New York City in 1985 with the mission of bringing gender and racial inequality within the fine arts to light. Members are known for the gorilla masks they wear to remain anonymous.

got to eat lunch with “Frida Khalo” last year <3 <3 <3

"The question of marriage equality is a great American debate. Many people, some with strong..."

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:30:24 -0400

“

The question of marriage equality is a great American debate. Many people, some with strong religious faith, believe that marriage can only exist between a man and a woman. Other people, many of whom also have strong religious faith, believe that our country should not limit the commitment of marriage to some, but rather all Americans, gay and straight should be allowed to fully participate in the most basic of family values.

I have come to the conclusion that our government should not limit the right to marry based on who you love. While churches should never be required to conduct marriages outside of their religious beliefs, neither should the government tell people who they have a right to marry.

My views on this subject have changed over time, but as many of my gay and lesbian friends, colleagues and staff embrace long term committed relationships, I find myself unable to look them in the eye without honestly confronting this uncomfortable inequality. Supporting marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples is simply the right thing to do for our country, a country founded on the principals of liberty and equality.

Good people disagree with me. On the other hand, my children have a hard time understanding why this is even controversial. I think history will agree with my children.

”

- Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) (”Claire McCaskill Backs Gay Marriage” [Stein 2103])

(via alittlecoconuttart)

It’s sure better having Claire McCaskill in the Senate than Todd Akin.

(via dendroica)

fuckyeahbeatgeneration: I saw the best minds of my generation...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:01:36 -0400

fuckyeahbeatgeneration:

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,

dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,

angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,

who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz,

who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated,

who passed through universities with radiant eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy among the scholars of war,

who were expelled from the academies for crazy & publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull,

more

On March 25, 1957, US customs seized 520 copies of Howl.

"Sometimes you’re 23 and standing in the kitchen of your house making breakfast and brewing coffee..."

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:30:31 -0400

“Sometimes you’re 23 and standing in the kitchen of your house making breakfast and brewing coffee and listening to music that for some reason is really getting to your heart. You’re just standing there thinking about going to work and picking up your dry cleaning. And also more exciting things like books you’re reading and trips you plan on taking and relationships that are springing into existence. Or fading from your memory, which is far less exciting. And suddenly you just don’t feel at home in your skin or in your house and you just want home but “Mom’s” probably wouldn’t feel like home anymore either. There used to be the comfort of a number in your phone and ears that listened everyday and arms that were never for anyone else. But just to calm you down when you started feeling trapped in a five-minute period where nostalgia is too much and thoughts of this person you are feel foreign. When you realize that you’ll never be this young again but this is the first time you’ve ever been this old. When you can’t remember how you got from sixteen to here and all the same feel like sixteen is just as much of a stranger to you now. The song is over. The coffee’s done. You’re going to breathe in and out. You’re going to be fine in about five minutes.”

- The Winter of the Air (via beamuppet)

animalrightshumanwrongs: DAMMIT

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:01:41 -0400

animalrightshumanwrongs:

DAMMIT

Photo

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:38:31 -0400

motherjones: Who doesn’t love love?

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:33:30 -0400

motherjones:

Who doesn’t love love?

"If you look at it just from a legal standpoint there is nothing to argue. You can argue from a moral..."

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:29:46 -0400

“If you look at it just from a legal standpoint there is nothing to argue. You can argue from a moral standpoint. You can say, ‘morally, I don’t like the idea of gay marriage’ because your church teaches you a certain thing. That’s fine. And we’re not asking anybody, or forcing churches to perform ceremonies. We’re not asking anybody to go outside of their religious beliefs. But marriage is not a religious right. It is a civil right. That is provided by the government. A church does not have a right to marry someone—except that it is given the right by the government. The government issues marriage licenses. The government decides who gets married and who doesn’t.”

- Rob Reiner on the legality of gay marriage

(via C-SPAN)

ask-the-fearling-rapunzel: I will NEVER stop reblogging this.

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:26:36 -0400

ask-the-fearling-rapunzel:

I will NEVER stop reblogging this.

Photo

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 02:30:23 -0400

"The American Academy of Pediatrics declared its support for same-sex marriage for the first time on..."

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 02:00:27 -0400

“

The American Academy of Pediatrics declared its support for same-sex marriage for the first time on Thursday, saying that allowing gay and lesbian parents to marry if they so choose is in the best interests of their children.

The academy’s new policy statement says same-sex marriage helps guarantee rights, benefits and long-term security for children, while acknowledging that it does not now ensure access to federal benefits. When marriage is not an option, the academy said, children should not be deprived of foster care or adoption by single parents or couples, whatever their sexual orientation.

The academy’s review of scientific literature began more than four years ago, and the result is a 10-page report with 60 citations.

“If the studies are different in their design and sample but the results continue to be similar, that gives scientists and consumers more faith in the result,” said Dr. Ellen Perrin, a co-author of the new policy and a professor of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine.

”

- The New York Times, “Pediatrics Group Backs Gay Marriage, Saying It Helps Children.”

“Shut up with your science,” said ignorant people.

(via inothernews)

Science disproves talking point, story at 11.

(via huffpostpolitics)

"Personhood measures are so extreme that some pro-life Republicans in the state have come out against..."

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 01:30:25 -0400

“Personhood measures are so extreme that some pro-life Republicans in the state have come out against them, planning to join a pro-choice rally in the state capital on Monday to oppose the far-right abortion restriction. “We have stepped over the line,” Republican state Rep. Kathy Hawken (R-Fargo) said of the recent push to pass personhood. “North Dakota hasn’t even passed a primary seatbelt law, but we have the most invasive attack on women’s health anywhere.””

- herapotter: BREAKING: North Dakota becomes first state to ban all abortions (via kelseyrolfe)

Photo

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 01:00:28 -0400

stfuconservatives: portersbats: punk-rant: Here are some...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:30:29 -0400

stfuconservatives:

portersbats:

punk-rant:

Here are some interesting facts about him, though:

He basically saved public television. In 1969 the government wanted to cut public television funds. Mister Rogers then went to Washington where he gave an amazing merely six minute speech. By the end of the speech not only did he charm the hostile Senators, he got them to double the budget they would have initially cut down. The whole thing can be found on youtube, a video called “Mister Rogers defending PBS to the US Senate.”

“Certain fundamentalist preachers hated him because, apparently not getting the “kindest man who ever lived” memo, they would ask him to denounce homosexuals. Mr. Rogers’s response? He’d pat the target on the shoulder and say, “God loves you just as you are.” Rogers even belonged to a “More Light” congregation in Pittsburgh, a part of the Presbyterian Church dedicated to welcoming LGBT persons to full participation in the church.”

According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”

Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life.

I really didnt need more reasons to love Mr Rodgers but now I have them.

BA Mr. Rogers

These are all amazing facts about an amazing person, but mostly I’m reblogging it for the gif of him doing the dual bird flip.

"Put yourself in their shoes – look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a..."

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 23:30:26 -0400

“Put yourself in their shoes – look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day. It is not just when settler violence against Palestinians goes unpunished. It is not right to prevent Palestinians from farming their lands; to restrict a student’s ability to move around the West Bank; or to displace Palestinian families from their home. Neither occupation nor expulsion is the answer. Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land.”

- Barack Obama, speaking in Jerusalem

Despite the president’s trip to Israel being one meant to strengthen the already impossibly strong U.S.-Israeli bond, I wasn’t expecting to hear this. If this was turned into economic motivation, we could get Israel to sit down with Palestinian leaders and meaningfully negotiate in a flash.

(via mohandasgandhi)

merkmal: Benedict Smith (x)

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 23:16:42 -0400

merkmal:

Benedict Smith (x)

"…most of us don’t really don’t think much about food at all. Which is why we eat salmon that travels..."

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 23:09:53 -0400

“

…most of us don’t really don’t think much about food at all. Which is why we eat salmon that travels 10,000 miles from Alaska, where it’s fished, to China, where it’s deboned and gutted, and finally back here to be eaten—even though a direct flight is a mere 3,000 miles. The problem with the 7,000-mile difference isn’t just about space and time. It’s also about fuel consumption and production of greenhouse gases.
Why can’t we fillet our own damned salmon?, Sullivan wonders, and then use the bones for stock and the skin to feed our cats, the way our grandparents did?

“Consumers have the opportunity the influence the market,” he says. And, indeed, the exhibit presents several alternatives to commercially grown and produced food: urban farms, rooftop farms, and organic farms.

But instead consumers eat hard, flavorless, pink-tinged winter tomatoes that travel 2,000 miles from South America.

”

- Nature Museum wants you to start thinking about what you stick in your mouth

(via thegreenurbanist)

gaksdesigns: The miniature installation figures of Slinkachu

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 23:00:34 -0400

gaksdesigns:

The miniature installation figures of Slinkachu

anarcho-queer: NYPD Officer Blows Whistle On Stop & Frisk,...

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:06:21 -0400

anarcho-queer:

NYPD Officer Blows Whistle On Stop & Frisk, Superior’s Told Him To Target “Male Blacks 14 to 21” (Must Read)

As hearings are under way to investigate New York City’s stop and frisk policy, one police officer is testifying that he was told by superiors to target young black men between the ages of 14 and 21.

Stop and frisk is a method of searching people in which a cop is able to stop someone he or she suspects of a crime, and is able to frisk that individual if they feel that there is some justification. New York City policy made 685,724 stops as part of the policy in 2011 alone. In total, they have made over 5 million stops, and 85 percent of those stopped were black or Latino. 88% were innocent, meaning they were not arrested or given a summons.

Officer Pedro Serrano, in court to testify yesterday, played a covert recording he’d obtained of an interraction with his superior where he was told the race of people to target, though not that he should stop everyone of that race:

Stop “the right people, the right time, the right location,” Deputy Inspector Christopher McCormack is heard saying on the recording.

“He meant blacks and Hispanics,” Officer Pedro Serrano, who made the secret recording, testified Thursday in Manhattan federal court.

“So what am I supposed to do: Stop every black and Hispanic?”Serrano was heard saying on the tape, which was recorded last month at the 40th Precinct in the Bronx.[…]

“I have no problem telling you this,” the inspector said on the tape. “Male blacks. And I told you at roll call, and I have no problem [to] tell you this, male blacks 14 to 21.”

During cross examination, City lawyer Brenda Cooke got Serrano to admit that McCormack never said he wanted Serrano to stop all blacks and Hispanics.

“Those specific words, no,” he told her.

The news about targeting black men tracks with yesterday’s revelations that the NYPD set quotas for arrests. It also explains the fact that, in 2011, NYPD made more stops of young black men than there actually are young black men in the city.

Serrano’s tape and testimony were introduced as evidence in a class-action lawsuit against the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk tactic brought by four black New Yorkers who claim they were targeted because of their race.

Also, the first of several tapes surreptitiously made by Brooklyn cop Adrian Schoolcraft made its debut at the trial. The audio he recorded proved that the police department ‘manipulated’ crime reports to make to it seem like crime decreased in NYC.

After the NYPD found out about Adrian’s incriminating evidence, they broke into his apartment, handcuffed him and locked him in a insane asylum for 6 days against his will to silence him.

"Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about..."

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 21:59:28 -0400

“Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt they can’t afford the time to think. Tuition fee increases are a “disciplinary technique,” and, by the time students graduate, they are not only loaded with debt, but have also internalized the “disciplinarian culture.” This makes them efficient components of the consumer economy.”

- Noam Chomsky (via lesilencieux)

I got an email today from StudentDebtCrisis.org asking people with student debt to take a survey about their experience paying off their loans and dealing with lenders. They’re going to present their findings to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, so if you’re one of the millions of college grads suffering under a mountain of debt, you should definitely fill it out.

(via stfuconservatives)