Reading List June 26, 2013

Who needs those pesky worker protections anyway? There's little focus on this but it certainly makes work life that much harder now, especially in Right To Work states (HA!).

From the Better Late Than Never Department:
This is a huge load off of my mind. I was so worried about the sexual assault epidemic in the military but apparently, it's not so bad and it's easily explained.

This is the reality of the SCOTUS decision on voter registration. I first voted in 1992 in my college town of Rome, GA. Fast forward a decade (plus)  and this certainly would have been my story.

#IStandWithWendy What an amazing act of courage! And what an amazing display of asshattery for the Texas Legislature to try to sneak #SB5 through after midnight. Of course Texas has been trying to turn back the clock for years... to 1850.

And speaking of screwing American workers, let's look at Hostess to see how it's done.

• Unionized Hostess workers made major concessions, taking pay and benefits cuts. That money was supposed to be reinvested into the company. It wasn't.
• As the company was struggling, its CEO pay skyrocketed, and as it was going into bankruptcy, Hostess pushed to give $1.75 million in bonuses to top executives.
• Hostess claimed it had to close plants because workers went on strike, but in fact, the company was already planning to close nine bakeries and wasn't telling which ones.
• Hostess stole its workers' pension money to fund itself and still went bankrupt.
• And, as Media Matters points out, "while the AP story claims that "workers" are blaming the company's woes on mismanagement and a failure to adapt to evolving consumer tastes, this has actually been the opinion of informed and objective third parties."

Reading List June 24, 2013

An honest look at the history of eugenics in the United States and the rise of the concept of White Trash.

Texas Republican finds cure for rape! So have I, it's called teaching men not to rape women in the first place and ensuring women are able to get justice and treatment afterwards. Wait, I was wrong. It's not a cure. Maybe it was an abortion instead?

12-Year-Old Girl Kicked Off Football Team Because Boys Had ‘Impure Thoughts’ About Her
And this is her problem how? Let her play!

Reading List June 16, 2013

Edward Snowden Had a Breaking Point, Where He Decided to Risk It All to Fix This Country -- What's Yours?
Sometimes the smallest action can have the greatest impact. All it takes for change to occur is for one person to speak up and then another to join with their voice. What Snowden did was controversal but he had courage to act on his beliefs.

And speaking of the need to speak...

Courtesy of http://www.bradleymanning.org/ and http://iam.bradleymanning.org/

The Dangers of Corporations Controlling National Secrets
A topic worth looking at, why do we have private corporations who are not answerable to the people of the United States doing so security work on our behalf?

Tha Australians Are Doing It Right!

So when the hell will the United States get it in gear and actually do something meaningful to address the issue of sexual assault in the military?

How Can We Call Ourselves Civilized...

... when this is what we allow?*

Society is judged not by how the fortunate is treated but by our actions towards the less fortunate. The number of people we incarcerate every year is appalling by itself but how they're treated is a disgrace to this country. But they're criminals, you say, they committed crimes, they deserve to be treated this way. If they wanted to be a part of society, they shouldn't have broken the law.

If you have broken a law in this county, in many prisons, you can expect to be raped or sexually assaulted by inmates or guards. You may be put in solitary confinement for weeks, months or even years. If you have health issues, they could be ignored until it's too late for effective treatment and mental health issues will be almost certainly ignored.

The point of incarceration, whether punishment or rehabilitation, is a good question but regardless of the answer, under no circumstances should a country treat any of it's citizens (or visitors to this country) this way. It goes against everything a moral, civilized country should stand for.

*America's private prison system is a national disgrace

Join Me For Today's Episode of "No Shit, Ya Think?"

Excuse me while I go bang my head on my desk.

Army chief of staff on sexual assault: 'Maybe we have a bigger problem than I imagined.' You think?

The light bulb dawns and a clue descends on the head of General Ray Odierno;

“The amount of reports that are now coming out—people willing to go public, which I think is a good thing—has brought this to a head for me,” he told reporters at Army’s sixth annual Sexual Harassment/Assault Prevention summit at Joint Base Andrews, Md. “Maybe we have a bigger problem than I imagined.*”

That only took 26,000 anonymous reports of sexual assaults to the U.S. Military in the last year. 

* Emphasis mine.

MSNBC Video: Janson & Co Sexual Assault in the Military

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Reading List June 5, 2013

As Vandals Deface U.S. Parks, Some Point to Online Show-Offs
Yes, because I want to go view the majesty of nature and see a bunch of damned tagging.

Support Grows to Let Cybertheft Victims 'Hack Back'
Sounds great on Twitter, not so great in reality. Until we are able to track down specifically who is doing the hacking, the chances of hitting someone who wasn't involved are too high. There's also a one-sided business angle here, what's to stop something like the MPAA etc from going after individuals suspected of illegal downloads? Where are the protections against mis-use?

GOP: RAPE IS JUST NATURE’S WAY OF KEEPING WOMEN OUT OF MILITARY
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA):

The young folks coming in to each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22 or 23. Gee whiz, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur. So we’ve got to be very careful how we address it on our side.

Yes, I'm probably just as thrilled about his retirement as he is, just for completely different reasons.

Our Driven Elite (Trivial and Time-Wasting)
Substitute anything in the rural/urban, rich/poor/middle class divide. In other words, different people have different wants and needs! <sarcasm> OMG! Call the Media! Film at 11:00! </sarcasm>

Pressure Grows to Create Drugs for ‘Superbugs’
This is scary stuff!

Is Barefoot-Style Running Best? New Studies Cast Doubt
I'm not a runner by any means. In fact, the only way to get would to run would involve zombies chasing me; but I love those bare-foot shoes. For someone who hates wearing shoes as much as I do, they are almost as comfortable as going shoe-less. Even if they are ugly as homemade sin.

Patrick Stewart Is My Hero

Violence against women is still a global crisis that effects us all (and for the record, I include transgender women) and there are days it doesn't seem like it will ever end. So when I saw the clip of Patrick Stewart's responding to a fan about domestic violence, it brought tears to my eyes. I was so incredibly moved.

Watch Patrick Stewart's Moving Response to a Fan About the Domestic Violence His Mother Endured, and Why He Works to Prevent It

There are several things I appreciate from Patrick Stewart's speech. I'm glad he acknowledges his father's PTSD resulting from his military service. PTSD is a very real thing and with modern warfare, something we will continue to see more and more. Closed head injuries are on the rise, which often result in emotional and behavioral changes. We need better methods of treatment in place to take care of our service-men and -women. That being the case, Stewart makes it extremely clear that violence is still never, ever the answer. It's just not. He said what cannot be said enough, there is nothing his mother did that made the abuse acceptable. The last thing, and something I'm only now starting to hear and I'm grateful for it, is the power to stop violence against women is not only in the hands of women. It's in the hands of the men who commit that act of violence and in the hands of men who can speak up, disavow acts of violence and change the culture. Women do not deserve violence at the hands of a partner or loved one. Men have the power to step up, come together and stop the cycle of violence. It's time to stop making violence against issue a Woman's Issue and make it a Human Issue.

Sir Patrick Stewart Calls On ‘One Million Men’ To End Violence Against Women