New numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the economy added a mere 80,000 jobs in June. That’s down from an average of 150,000 jobs a month for the first part of the year, and far too little to keep up with population growth.
Republican…
(via stfuconservatives)
This is REALLY GOOD NEWS.
In what the Center for Reproductive Rights calls an “unprecedented ruling recognizing bodily integrity and reproductive choice as fundamental rights under the Oklahoma state constitution,” an Oklahoma state judge has found that a law restricting medical care for women seeking an abortion is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced.
The ruling, issued Friday by Oklahoma County District Judge Donald Worthington, pertains to access to medication abortion, a method of early abortion that has been proven safe and effective in both clinical trials and through widespread experience in Europe and the United States. More than 1.4 million women in the U.S. have undergone early termination of pregnancy using medication abortion since mifepristone was approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration in 2000
Despite safety data, a law passed by the overwhelmingly anti-choice Oklahoma legislature in early 2011 arbitrarily restricted access to medication abortion.
Judge Worthington ruled that the bill’s restrictions on medication abortion are unconstitutional because they are “so completely at odds with the standard that governs the practice of medicine that [the bill] can serve no purpose other than to prevent women from obtaining abortions and to punish and discriminate against those women who do.”
[NB: more people than just cis women are affected by anti-choice laws and limiting access to abortion care.]
I love when judges are just straight up, “This shit is ridiculous.”
(Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus)
Loretta Lynn is hilarious and badass. She recorded “The Pill” in 1972, 12 years after the introduction of oral contraceptives, though it wasn’t released until 1975. It was considered the first major song to mention the birth control pill. Her record label initially refused to release it, and many radio stations refused to play it, but Loretta said, in an interview with Playgirl, that physicians regularly told her that her song had done more to promote rural acceptance of birth control than any medical or social services had.
40 years after oral contraceptives were introduced, the debate over contraception and reproductive choices rages anew, led by the GOP, Catholic bishops, and other cis men. Almost 30% of people in the United States who can get pregnant use the birth control pill, taking control over their bodies and their lives. Though the fight is far from over, I’m taking a moment to celebrate all the people who worked to make birth control more accepted and accessible.
“The Pill”
You wined me and dined me
When I was your girl
Promised, if I’d be your wife
You’d show me the world
But all I’ve seen of this old world
Is a bed and a doctor bill
I’m tearin’ down your brooder house
‘Cause now I’ve got the pill
All these years I’ve stayed at home
While you had all your fun
And every year that’s gone by
Another baby’s come
There’s a’gonna be some changes made
Right here on Nursery Hill
You’ve set this chicken your last time
‘Cause now I’ve got the pill
This old maternity dress I’ve got
Is goin’ in the garbage
The clothes I’m wearin’ from now on
Won’t take up so much yardage
Mini skirts, hot pants
And a few little fancy frills
Yeah, I’m makin’ up for all those years
Since I’ve got the pill
I’m tired of all your crowin’
How you and your hens play
While holdin’ a couple in my arms
Another’s on the way
This chicken’s done tore up her nest
And I’m ready to make a deal
And you can’t afford to turn it down
‘Cause you know I’ve got the pill
This incubator is overused
Because you’ve kept it filled
The feelin’ good comes easy now
Since I’ve got the pill
It’s gettin’ dark, it’s roostin’ time
Tonight’s too good to be real
Oh, but daddy, don’t you worry none
‘Cause mama’s got the pill
Oh, daddy, don’t you worry none
‘Cause mama’s got the pill
In January 2010 the former Massachusetts governor proudly cast a ballot for Republican Scott Brown in the special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. He didn’t own property in the state at the time, and had registered to vote listing his son’s unfinished basement as his residence. Massachusetts law defines a residence for voter registration purposes as “where a person dwells and which is the center of his domestic, social, and civil life.” Anyone found guilty of committing voter fraud faces up to five years behind bars and a fine of $10,000.
On one hand, he almost certainly didn’t live there and therefore cast a fraudulent vote; on the other hand, the mental image of Romney living in an unfinished basement smoking weed and watching Netflix in his sweats is pretty funny.
-Jess
It would be beautiful if he ended up being one of the very very very very few examples of voter fraud, just like how the GOP tends to be the living embodiment of all the things they oppose. It’s like they’re projecting onto innocent people….
(Source: idcaboutostriches, via ihavenoidea28)
“never again”
This image is one of the most powerful pro-choice images I’ve ever seen. When I saw it in the newspaper I immediately cut it out and hung it on my wall.
This is not my image. I’m using it with permission from Arthur Newspaper.
(Source: anditemporary, via tacticsandchoices)
In the days following the rogue US soldier’s shooting spree in Kandahar, most of the media, us included, focused on the “backlash” and how it might further strain the relations with the US.
Many mainstream media outlets channelled a significant amount of energy into uncovering the slightest detail about the accused soldier – now identified as Staff Sergeant Robert Bales. We even know where his wife wanted to go for vacation, or what she said on her personal blog.
But the victims became a footnote, an anonymous footnote. Just the number 16. No one bothered to ask their ages, their hobbies, their aspirations. Worst of all, no one bothered to ask their names.
In honoring their memory, I write their names below, and the little we know about them: that nine of them were children, three were women.
The dead:
Mohamed Dawood son of Abdullah
Khudaydad son of Mohamed Juma
Nazar Mohamed
Payendo
Robeena
Shatarina daughter of Sultan Mohamed
Zahra daughter of Abdul Hamid
Nazia daughter of Dost Mohamed
Masooma daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Farida daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Palwasha daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Nabia daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Esmatullah daughter of Mohamed Wazir
Faizullah son of Mohamed Wazir
Essa Mohamed son of Mohamed Hussain
Akhtar Mohamed son of Murrad Ali
The wounded:
Haji Mohamed Naim son of Haji Sakhawat
Mohamed Sediq son of Mohamed Naim
Parween
Rafiullah
Zardana
ZulhejaA prayer for all sixteen martyrs. May their souls rest in peace and may justice be served one day, some day. Amin.
I’d like to see less stories about the shooter and more about the people whose lives he took.
(Source: aljazeera.com)
The House Appropriations Committee today called for eliminating more than 30 education programs, including President Barack Obama’s “Race to the Top” initiative. The panel proposed slashing the Department of Labor’s budget by one-fifth, slicing funds for the National Labor Relations Board by 17 percent and barring funds to implement Obama’s health-care overhaul. It would also withhold funding for Planned Parenthood unless it says it will stop providing abortions.
The provisions are included in a $153.4 billion measure needed to fund the departments of Health and Human Services, Education and Labor for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The Republicans’ plan would amount to $4 billion cut or about 2.5 percent less than this year
Plus, these very same clowns have recently tripled funds for legal fees to defend the Defense of Marriage Act.
PRIORITIES!
Davis was declared dead at 11:08 p.m. EDT, a prison official said.
His execution, which began at 10:53 p.m., came after a three-hour hold while the Supreme Court considered a late request for a stay. In the end the court refused to stop the execution, despite calls for…
(Source: MSNBC, via renrobe29-deactivated20111114)
Troy Davis’ execution was delayed tonight as the Supreme Court weighed arguments by Davis’ legal team and the state of Georgia over whether he deserves a stay.
At 7:05 p.m., five minutes after his scheduled death, Davis’ supporters erupted in cheers, hugs and tears outside the jail in Jackson, Ga., as supporters believed Davis had been saved from the death penalty. But Davis was granted only a temporary reprieve as the Supreme Court considers the decision.
(Source: abcnews.go.com, via newshook)
Her Vang -Historian Post-doctoral Fellow in Hmong Studies at the UofM
A link to an hour long video with Her Vang touching on many topics about the Hmong community. His answers certainly helped explain a lot of things.
Some points I’d like to make, Her Vang says in 2000 there was a resurgence in the Hmong youth finally becoming interested in their own culture and history, thus the high attendance in Hmong language classes(mostly taken by Hmong students, man, we sure did lose our language with a quickness didn’t we), Hmong studies, and so on. However he doesn’t really go in depth to explain why or how this change came about. I admit, I never had been interested in Hmong anything until two years ago, and my growing interest in the Hmong was not inspired by the new Hmong programs, it all was thanks to, of all random things, photography, with as well, secondarily, being Asian in Asia. Being Asian in Asia helped me understand Asians and thus parts of Hmong culture(because being plain Asian don’t help you understand Asians ya’ll) but it did not necessarily motivate an interest in the Hmong for me. It was when I began photography, that I began to look at things with new eyes. I noticed a lot of good photography was related to capturing the essence and strangeness of human beings. In Japan, obviously I saw a lot of photography related to the Japanese people, and oddly, as I was perusing through black and white photographs at a gallery, there was a sudden desire to see photographs illustrating the Hmong experience, a culture, my own culture that still remained very mysterious to me. At that point I began to become more interested in the Hmong people. Now, for being Asian in America, I’d say my interest in the Hmong was not able to emerge because a lot of it had to do with the fact that nothing Hmong was yet established or implemented or available in the mainstream society in the time I was growing up, not to mention I had no Hmong friends. Nowadays there’s Hmong Charter Schools where Hmong kids can go and feel like they belong and learn how to be a proper Hmong, there’s Hmong Studies at the University, and then, there’s even a freaking Hmong mall. I had none of these things growing up, just poverty and gangs! Even more important than having established Hmong programs, I believe Hmong parents today are much less strict. The Hmong kids these days are really lucky, they can grow up Hmong AND American without having to rebel to join the gymnastics team or rebel to be allowed to go to University. It was 2001 and my parents refused to allow me to go to University, I was supposed to get a job and get married. Nowadays though, my younger sister and younger brother are encouraged by my parents to get a higher education(what the… times have certainly changed)! Her Vang talks about this particular point on Hmong people and education in his interview as well. But my point is, after 30 years, the Hmong, or at least my parents have finally accepted being American! I mean, good lord, my mom speaks to me in English all the time now, which oddly bothers me, and I always yell at her to speak in Hmong…Oh the irony, my parents always used to yell at me to speak in Hmong.
It’s also interesting to hear Her Vang talk about the divide between the Hmong Christians and the Hmong Shamans. My grandma was once a powerful shaman but hated the burden that came with it, so wham bam, converted to Christianity so as to not be plagued and controlled by the spirits anymore. From what I can see, my grandma, and parents converted to Christianity to protect themselves from the demons and spirits that roam the Shaman world(there’s also a more personal reason why they converted, but that’s family business). Conversion seemed to have worked for my grandma overall, no more spirits banging on her door. However, some parts of the Shaman world still linger in our lives. One day, while staying up late into the dark hours, headphones on bumpin to good music while painting(yes, I paint past midnight), my grandma appeared out of the darkness and spooked me, which means my soul jumped out of my body for a minute. Afraid my soul would be taken by mischievous spirits, my grandma ran to her room, came back to me and gave me a cross to keep with me and protect from the evils. Now, if we were Shaman and I was spooked, a Shaman ritual would be performed to tie my spirit down tighter to my body so that no evils could reach it. If you’ve ever watched the horror movie “Insidious”, it actually illustrates the spirit world and how it operates pretty decently in my opinion. Except unlike in the movie where the dude has to go into the spirit world alone to get his son’s spirit back, in the Hmong spirit world, the Shaman has a mighty winged steed and an army of spirits to assist him or her in retrieving the wandering lost soul.
As for Her Vang’s theory about the Hmong wanting to return to Laos because they feel like they fit in and belong there, it may be true for many other Hmong people, but certainly not true for the elders in my family. They’ve always seemed to live on the fringe of Hmong society though, so maybe it has something to do with that. As long as my grandma and parents have a plot of land to farm at, they’re quite pleased with their life in America. There’s no way they would return to Laos. I do however understand Her Vang’s explanation about Hmong people wanting to be some place else because that’s where you feel you belong, it’s a very human desire. I’ve traveled to over 26 cities and 10 countries around the world, and to my surprise, there was only one place I instinctively felt I belonged to, …yea, it’s a bit cliche, but, New York City baby. Specifically Brooklyn, …I spent only half a day there before catching an international flight, but man, walking around there and interacting with the people there(who are NORMAL), I felt normal, I felt like I belonged, for the first time in like ever. Never thought much of New York City before, but now I believe I can understand why New Yorkers never leave New York and why my Japanese friends who lived in New York gush about it so much. And here I thought I’d be living a quiet bumfuck life in middle America, but there I go falling in love with Brooklyn. Next course of action is to get there. Of course I get things all backwards, moving to New York when I’m near thirty, most kids go early twenties. But hey, who knows, I haven’t visited Laos yet, it might just trump Brooklyn!
Hi! I'm a 19 year old living in Minneapolis, MN and studying Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the U of MN.