repelling into the abyss.
Happy trails,
kathy
I don’t swear for the hell of it. Language is a poor enough means of communication. We’ve got to use all the words we’ve got. Besides, there are damn few words anybody understands.
—Jerome Lawrence, Inherit the wind
This video portrays the experiences of immigrants in America around 100 years ago. But how far have we really come since people were treating immigrants like outsiders a century ago? Watch some of their experiences and decide for yourself.
(Source: upworthy)
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
“Simon’s rabbits make the banality of evil palpable, the way in which we learn to look past the humanity in an image when some higher power — political, religious, scientific — tells us it’s necessary.”
“Critic Review for Taryn Simon,” Kennicott, Nov 2012, Pulitzer prize winner 2013
Resistance From a Cage: Julian Assange Speaks to Norwegian Journalist Eirik Vold
Eirik Vold, Truthout: ”It’s shameful,” Assange says, “that a handful of activists in WikiLeaks have published more secret documents than the entire establishment press, with all its billion-dollar budgets, technical competence and human resources, altogether.”
Pop icons like Madonna perpetuate a faulty understanding of Indian culture by selecting exotic images from India, such as the bindi, taking them completely out of cultural context and popularizing them in the West. What people like Madonna don’t realize, however, is that appropriating the bindi in such a way has devastating effects on the symbol’s meaning in South Asia. For example, while in Delhi over the summer, I was hard pressed to find plain red bindis, finding instead very flashy, so-called “export quality” bindis, replete with sparkles and a variety of colors. The bindi is no longer what it once was—a symbol of being Hindu and of having a symbolic union with God. Now, it is not only a fashionable item to wear, but is also produced mass-produced specifically for export to other countries. The Madonnas and Gwen Stefanis of the world—along with those who have blindly followed their example—have successfully changed the meaning of the bindi in South Asia, for the worse.
…One could argue that the bindi phenomenon is a good thing because it could motivate interested Americans to examine diverse South Asian cultures and histories more closely. Even though this might be true, I resent the fact that a culture should be considered worthy of study or attention because of the fashion appeal of its symbols or traditions.
Assigning new cultural meanings to symbols with very old traditions or deep personal significance is inappropriate and insensitive. It reduces the complexities of South Asian culture to mere physical items, rather than the continual process that culture is.
So please—don’t wear bindis, and don’t think of my homeland simply as the origin of yoga, incense, and exoticism if you are going to ignore the context and meanings of these cultural components as well as the reasons why we “ethnic folk” appreciate, treasure, and cling to them.
"(via irresistible-revolution)
(via chickenp)
In early 1984 on Good Morning America, Ronald Reagan defended himself against charges of callousness toward the poor in a classic blaming-the-victim statement saying that “people who are sleeping on the grates…the homeless…are homeless, you might say, by choice.”
*Note the poster behind the person.
(Source: electric-avenue, via upworthy)
Women at work during WWII. Photos by Alfred T. Palmer via The Library of Congress
(via upworthy)
“Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.”
President Obama, Inaugural address 2012
“[F]or the year 2008, the US government spent $4 billion in subsidies to replace about 2 percent of the US gasoline supply. The average cost to taxpayers for these “substituted” traditional gasoline barrels was roughly $82 per barrel, or $1.95 per gallon on top of the gasoline retail price.”
Bio Fuels White Paper, 2010
http://www.bakerinstitute.org/publications/EF-pub-BioFuelsWhitePaper-010510.pdf
It’s One Of The Craziest Internet Rumors About Guns. And As It Turns Out, It’s True.
It’s a fact so jaw-dropping it’s unbelievable — people thought it was a crazy Internet rumor until Politifact verified it. But it’s true: More Americans have died just since 1960 from gun incidents — suicides, accidents, and homicides — than died in every war in U.S. history. The deadliest war the U.S. has ever had is the war we waged against ourselves.
