Friday, May 30, 2014

Snowden's NBC Interview

He's obviously preaching to my choir, but I thought this came off extremely well:


Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Yes All Women

Bors:

For a more in depth discussion of the issues at play here check out Kari's post on the subject. I'll add that what I found most troubling about this person's manifesto was that if you take out the overtly violent stuff and the most vile comments, I feel like you could hear a lot of this same sentiments randomly walking through a college dorm. The men's rights activists and pick up artists are more obvious in the way they catalog their sexist ideologies, but so many conversations men have about women rob them of their agency almost by default. It's obvious that most people aren't going to take these feelings to their violent extremes, but I do think it's important to acknowledge what happens when you take these beliefs to their logical ends. As in war, when you rob "the enemy" of their agency and humanity, people become capable of monstrous things.

Also, what Nick said:

Thursday, May 22, 2014

50 Senators Push Back On Redskins Name

Considering the senate, I'm actually floored it was this many:
Fifty senators are teaming up to call on the National Football League to change the team name of the Washington Redskins, declaring that "racism and bigotry have no place in professional sports."

The senators wrote a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell -- led by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and co-signed by 47 others -- invoking the racist comments by NBA Clippers owner Donald Sterling as an opportunity for the NFL to follow suit and take action.

"The despicable comments made by Mr. Sterling have opened up a national conversation about race relations," the senators wrote. "We believe this conversation is an opportunity for the NFL to take action to remove the racial slur from the name of one of its marquee franchises."

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Years Later, Iraq Is Still Ruined

Really wonder how those who brought us this horror can sleep at night:
(Reuters) - Thousands of civilians have fled Falluja since last week after the Iraqi military intensified shelling in a new bid to crush a five-month old Sunni uprising, killing scores of people in what residents describe as massive indiscriminate bombardment.

The mortars, artillery and what residents call "barrel bombs" rained for at least seven days on Falluja - a city that was the nemesis of U.S. troops a decade ago and is now the main battle ground in a war pitting the Shi'ite-led government against rebellious Sunni tribal chiefs and an al Qaeda offshoot.

More than 420,000 people have already escaped the two main cities of western Anbar province, Falluja and Ramadi, in fighting since the start of the year. Residents say the new pounding of Falluja's residential neighborhoods appears aimed at driving out all remaining civilians in preparation for an all-out assault to defeat armed groups once and for all.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is trying to cobble together a coalition to keep himself in office for a third term after an April 30 parliamentary election, has vowed to destroy fighters who seized parts of Anbar province last year.

The mainly Sunni desert province borders on Syria, and many of the fighters belong to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an al Qaeda offshoot waging war and holding territory on both sides of the frontier.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Michael Sam Gets Drafted

He had a shitty pro day (generally something that gets overblown positively or negatively no matter who the player is) so I was wondering how far he'd slip. Getting emotional and celebrating with loved ones on a hostage video style live shot is a staple of draft day (this classic comes to mind), but Sam's was particularly amazing.

It will be great to see how his career unfolds.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Happy May Day



A good history of why we don't have May day in the US and have "loyalty day" (gag) instead can be found here.