I know this meme has been around a while, but seriously though; this is my expression every time I meet with a right-libertarian.
The board of the N.A.A.C.P. voted to endorse same-sex marriage on Saturday, putting the weight of the country’s most prominent civil rights group behind a cause that has long divided some quarters of the black community.
The largely symbolic move, made at the group’s quarterly board meeting in Miami, puts the N.A.A.C.P. in line with President Obama, who endorsed gay marriage a little over a week ago. Given the timing, it is likely to be viewed as both a statement of principle as well as support for the president’s position in the middle of a closely contested presidential campaign.
All but two of the organization’s 64 board members, who include many religious leaders, backed a resolution supporting same-sex marriage, according to people told of the decision.
Borrowing a term used by gay right’s advocates, the resolution stated: “We support marriage equality consistent with equal protection under the law provided under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
In a statement, Roslyn M. Brock, chairwoman of the board, said that “we have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law.”
” The New York Times, “NAACP Endorses Same-Sex Marriage” (via inothernews)Okay, show of hands-
How many people by now have no idea that eating more fruits and vegetables, lean protein, and drinking plenty of (unpolluted) water is better for you than processed food?
I know it. Everyone knows it.
What these arrogant shits who keep aiming to “teach low income people” is not something we don’t know.
If you want to “teach” me something about food then teach me how to make $30 a week for three people stretch without processed meals.
Or how about you stop assuming we are ignorant of the fact that fresh foods are better for us than hamburger helper and look at the root of WHY we have to buy the shit.
Once again, it’s just easier to assume ignorance and laziness than it is to apply any critical thinking or empathy.
How can someone stand behind abortion, when you have a life inside of you that God created for you? How can you say that this life isn’t worth it? If you can’t take care of the baby for whatever circumstances than there is always adoption available to couples who can’t conceive, but still want the joy of being parents. OPEN YOUR EYES! God has bigger plans for us all that we don’t even realize the picture.
Excuse me but it appears your baby is actually upside down
Did you take Sex Ed freshman year because babies come out headfirstHi, OP! As someone who was given up for adoption, allow me to call bullshit on your little post there! You see, when I was adopted, I was a white-skinned, healthy, neurotypical infant, which basically put me at the top of the list, right underneath white-skinned, healthy, neurotypical MALE infants! There’s only one kind of infant people wanted to adopt more than me! I was SOOO lucky! But if you actually bothered to look at the information readily available on the interwebs, you would be aware that the majority of people who are forced to rely on abortion for family planning are poor people and people of color. Of course, those two demographics intersect, thanks to the institutionalized racism of our society! Neat huh?!
Of course, even babies of color are not in high demand with couples looking to adopt. Many who do want to adopt outside their race choose to go outside the country, where laws are less strict and the process is often less expensive. Of course, most of the infants adopted this way are obtained in unscrupulous fashion, but who cares about that when you’re saving a little Korean or African baby from the horrible fate of growing up in Korea or Africa??? And all those children who have birth defects, are born with diseases or disabilities, or have other issues… WELL. Who wants to invest that kind of expense and time? Why would you adopt someone broken, LOLOL?!
Granted, there are some wonderful people who understand the system a little better, and make it a point to try and give POC and disabled children a good home. But they make up a very small fraction of potential adopters! This difference in supply and demand leaves a lot of children stuck in the foster system, where their chances of being adopted diminish with every passing year, and their chances of being physically or sexually abused INCREASE! Isn’t that wonderful?
And of course, we haven’t even talked about the person who is giving birth to the baby! I know you probably think pregnancy is a wonderful, happy time, and for some people it is, but it is also one of the greatest health risks a person can take. I love my son very much, and from the day I found out I was pregnant with him, I wanted him! But I also nearly died giving birth to him. You see, I had pre-eclampsia, the most commonly fatal birth complication in the world. My blood pressure was 180 over 130! At twenty-two years old, I was actually headed for a stroke, hah hah! How funny is that? And all it took was missing a single pre-natal appointment during which my blood pressure rose to dangerous levels and my body tried to kill both me and my son. Those seizures sure were fun, as was the emergency c-section performed without anesthetic! And being chained down while the operation was performed, because I was delirious and wouldn’t stop trying to fight off the doctors, that was a BLAST! It was great for my husband too, since he almost lost his wife and child in just forty-five minutes. You can imagine how thrilled he is at the prospect of me ever getting pregnant again. Babies are certainly cute, but pregnancy can have massive health complications, and I know it’s such a bummer, but they are PERMANENT. :( My abdominal muscles never recovered from being hacked through with a scalpel, and the flood of hormones caused by late pregnancy have changed things from heartburn (never used to have it, now, all the time!) to my emotional reactions (I cry when I see pictures of kittens now. I used to be tough). These are changes I did not ask for, cannot control, and cannot fix! And many people go through worse! I know, right? Unbelievable, but go look up the word ‘episiotomy’ and then look up ‘birth rape’ and I’m afraid you’ll find some stuff that just isn’t very shiny. Plus, the studies actually show that people who carry a baby to term, give birth, then give it up for adoption suffer HIGHER rates of post-pregnancy complications like post-partum depression and post-partum psychosis, general depression, and other mental health issues. Adoption actually isn’t good for the person giving birth at all!
I’m afraid the picture you chose to use there is also pretty disingenuous. I know, I know, it seems like nitpicking. I’m not trying to be mean! :( But that picture shows a fully developed, viable infant, and most abortions are performed when the fetus isn’t even a fetus - it’s a blastocyst. That’s just a clump of cells. Seriously! You can totally find pictures on the interwebs and they’re not even gross, LOLOL! Later-term abortions are usually performed because of health complications, though some of our intrepid state legislators are trying to change all that! They care so much about people who are pregnant, you see, that they want to force them to carry dead or dying fetuses inside them until their body either becomes infected while it rots in their tummies (this is called sepsis, and it makes people very sick, and can even kill them!), or forces it out naturally in a gush of blood and fluids! Isn’t that so caring of them? I’m so glad they’re around to make those decisions for me! And if a pregnant person is not allowed to terminate an unviable fetus, in some states, they have to carry the child to term, give birth to it, and then watch it die in their arms because its lungs weren’t developed, or its brain formed outside its skull, or any of a million possible birth defects that will kill you just as quick as lickity-split! Isn’t that wild?! Of course, these people go through terrible grief, and as I mentioned, some of them may get sick and die from not being able to abort dead or dying fetuses. But I guess that’s just A-okay with you, huh?
Basically, I think before you suggest adoption as a universal alternative, you should actually go do some research on adoption. And before you condemn abortion, you should do some research on abortions - not the stuff your church is giving you, the stuff the real doctors are saying. Go to Planned Parenthood (if they haven’t all been closed down, ROFLMAO!) and request whatever information they have on the process, the statistics of who has abortions and why… and actually, all of that is on the interwebs! Isn’t technology AMAZING?
And in closing, since I’ve been asked this question many times and I know it’s coming? Yes, I realize I am here talking to you because I was not aborted. But the thing is, if my mother had chosen abortion, I wouldn’t know the difference, so it wouldn’t matter to me. And if she decided that choice was best for her, then that choice would have been best for her, and I would never want to take that choice away from her. As it is, since I was given up for adoption, and since I have seen the statistics on how badly people who give their children up for adoption suffer, I have spent much of my adult life worrying about her, whether she’s healthy, whether she’s okay, and feeling that if she did suffer from any of the common post-birth symptoms, it is at least partially my fault, even though she made that decision on her own. Which is silly, I know, but at some point, all children have to stare down the consequences of their parents’ having them. For some, that’s poverty. For others, a life-time of their parents struggling to treat and care for a severe illness or disability. For others, it’s wondering if their mother ever got over giving them away, and wishing you could reach out and assure her that it’s okay, she doesn’t have to be haunted.
May your birth control never fail!
The current polling for Greece’s general election on Sunday
It seems the most likely outcome is a “grand coalition” between PASOK and New Democracy, however, that would result in a minority government.
So unless the Communists and Leftists form a coalition with the far right parties, there will be no effective government in Greece come next week.
Emailed to me by Sarah L.
It’s sad because it’s true.
A brief Summery of the Origins of Mayday
Mayday, otherwise known as international Workers day. For those who don’t know the history, I’ll cover it. Although it is widely considered a leftist holiday, and assumed to be celebrated in almost exclusively countries that call themselves communist, it got it’s start in Haymarket Chicago, and is as American as baseball and apple pie.
In 1886, May 1st was the starting date for a general strike attempting to gain an 8 hour work day. The 8 hour work day, dispite shorter hours would receive the same compensation as one who worked a full day, usually closer to 10-16 hours. 8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep, and 8 hours personal time. This had been a long aimed for goal, but up until the 1880′s organized labor hadn’t had enough strength to gain any ground.
Many had attempted to gain the 8 hour work day through political reform among other things, but then, just as it is now, was gummed up with bourgeoisie politics. Two parties controlled by big business, with no room for workers rights. disillusionment with the political process, and reform drove many to the theories of anarchism against hierarchical power structures, and methods of direct action and unionizing.
The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (which later became the American Federation of Labor) at its national convention in Chicago in 1884, declared that on May 1st 1886 and after, that “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labor.” This Proclamation was backed by some of the Knights of Labor locals. Many Anarchists claimed that the measure was too reformist. The Anarchist Newspaper, The Alarm, posted an article saying “whether a man works eight hours a day or ten hours a day, he is still a slave.”
On May 1st 1886, over a quarter million demonstrators got involved in the effort to establish the 8 hour work day. Many labor and leftist organizations threw their weight behind it, such as the Trades and Labor Assembly, and the Socialistic Labor Party. The overwhelming support of the cause encouraged many anarchists who were initially critical, to join in.
a proclamation printed the day before in the papers said:
Workingmen to Arms!
War to the Palace, Peace to the Cottage, and Death to LUXURIOUS IDLENESS.
The wage system is the only cause of the World’s misery. It is supported by the rich classes, and to destroy it, they must be either made to work or DIE.
One pound of DYNAMITE is better than a bushel of BALLOTS!
MAKE YOUR DEMAND FOR EIGHT HOURS with weapons in your hands to meet the capitalistic bloodhounds, police, and militia in proper manner.
Strikes and protests remained pretty quiet and peaceful for the first couple of days, even though everyone expected violence. May 3rd, violence between the police and the anarchist dominated Steal and Metal workers union started to break out due to history of conflict. The violence ended with two strikers being shot and killed by the police.
The Following Day, a large gathering of anarchist started in Haymarket square to discuss the events of the previous day. Due to bad weather, the crowd was only 3000 strong. Two detectives incited a police march on the square by saying that the speaker was using inflammatory remarks. An unknown bomber lobed a bomb into the crowd of police initiating the Haymarket riot. Most casualties where cased by wild police fire, even police casualties.
Eight anarchists were charged and brought to trial for causing the riot. A jury payed off by the business leaders who opposed the strike found them guilty. The Mayor, who was in attendance of the demonstration testified that the crowd was calm and orderly proir to the incident and that the speaker made “no suggestion… for immediate use of force or violence toward any person…” Only three of the anarchists were even present at the rally, and those three were in full view at the time of the bombing. Albert Parsons, August Spies„ George Engel and Adolph Fischer, four of the convicted anarchists were hung. Louis Lingg refused to give the state the satisfaction of his execution and committed suicide. The other two Oscar Neebe and Michael Schwab were pardoned six years later, by Governor Altgeld, who publicly lambasted the judge on a travesty of justice. The real bomber was never found.
The Haymarket Riots was quickly spun into what can be called as the first red scare. And it also established the anarchist stereo-type as nothing more than a domestic terrorist. And this was the first time that Socialism was considered un-American.
Mayday has since become an international holiday, celebrated officially in 66 countries, unofficially in plenty more, but Ironically hardly ever celebrated in the country where it got it’s start. There have even been attempts at trying to start a new holiday over Mayday, such as Law and Order day. A monument was erected in Haymarket square to honor the martyrs inscribed with “THE DAY WILL COME WHEN OUR SILENCE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE VOICES YOU ARE THROTTLING TODAY.”
(Source: blackroserevolution.wordpress.com)
(Source: queer-bolshevik)
The Roots of May Day: An Illustrated History - available for download in two versions:
