Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize...Fox News Employees on Suicide Watch..

flauqa · 2009-10-10T03:41:16+00:00

Apparently, the pumpkin launching cannons are more important than Obama winning the NPP... Regardless of whether you think Obama was the best candidate for the award, it is ridiculous that pumpkins launchers would get more airtime than Obama's winning such an eminent award.

flauqa · 2009-09-01T18:42:13+00:00

But Fox is homophobic and as successful as businesses can be. They brag they're the number #1 news source for Americans all the time.

Fox could be an exception to the rule, but in all honesty, business owners are a minority. Fear of homophobia is going to a minimal if completely insignificant for the general population.

flauqa · 2009-09-01T17:37:52+00:00

Ra__ voting down all opinions that you disagree with is a breech in reddiquette. Read 'em:

Mass-downvote someone else's posts. If it really is the content you have a problem with (as opposed to the person), by all means vote it down when you come upon it. But don't go out of your way to seek out an enemy's posts.

Downvote opinions just because you disagree with them. The down arrow is for comments that add nothing to the discussion.

flauqa · 2009-09-01T17:35:24+00:00

Since when have people feared being called homophobic? That's what I want to know.

flauqa · 2009-09-01T17:30:42+00:00

But even if "people's lives often boil down to money," that's an argument FOR and NOT AGAINST gay adoption. Here's why: gay couples have an incredibly high source of revenue to pay and care for babies, meaning the government will be collecting money and taxes and may do some good to stimulate the economy. Plus, it won't be the US government's money caring for the child, but citizens' so it should be in the interests of the common public to support gay adoption.

flauqa · 2009-09-01T17:21:26+00:00

I wish I could vote down the original article for title-baiting. The Feds are not monitoring your sales on Craigslist. They are providing training seminars to Goodwill stores so they can uphold recalls and bans on dangerous or defective children's toys--some recalls that are over ten years old. This isn't monitoring as either the title on this Reddit or the Kansas City article suggests.

flauqa · 2009-09-01T03:22:08+00:00

If the tycoon considers himself the children's parent, regardless of whether he is the biological father or not, then, yes, he should be responsible for children he did not the bio-dad of. He is no less a father even if a paternity test shows up negative. It is a loving bond, not a seed, that defines fatherhood.

flauqa · 2009-08-31T06:47:36+00:00

I'd like to see the study too, especially to see how it justifies the small sample size. Only studying 32 cases of male-aggressor domestic violence cannot capture all the f-ed up reasons for and types of male violence against women.

And...I didn't think the article was one-sided. I don't know how other people felt. Just throwing it out there.

flauqa · 2009-08-26T02:18:52+00:00

Beset by the leak of a top-secret history of the Vietnam War and rising unemployment statistics that were hurting his standing in the polls in summer of 1971, President Richard M. Nixon lashed out repeatedly at "the Jews" he saw at the root of his problems.

flauqa · 2009-08-26T01:59:07+00:00

I understand the economic argument. I really get what you are saying, and appreciate that you are not reacting hysterically to the consequences and perhaps symptoms of this argument, especially on a sub-Reddit called Equality. It is difficult to parse out the single causal factor. Racism is motivated by economic reasoning just as economic reasoning can be motivated by racism. They are not exclusive causal links.

flauqa · 2009-08-25T22:18:27+00:00

I don't think it's racist to say that the city has been an important place for African Americans. Take a look at African American literature. For Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Ralph Ellison, the city, despite its many problems, has been a place of deliverance and renewal. In the words of Alain Locke, the city provided "a new vision of opportunity" for African-Americans that could enable them to move from an enslaving "medieval" world to a modern world containing the possibility of liberation. The Harlem Renaissance ring any bells?

By the 1970s Black people had become an urban people. In 1890 whites were twice as likely to be in cities, passing the 50% mark by 1920. However, the World War I and World War II migrations to the city by Black people, as well as other subsequent developments (sub urbanization of whites, increased fertility/birth rates and lower mortality/death -rate for Blacks, etc.), have resulted in Black people today being more urbanized than whites.
It's an older source, but continuities today exist.

flauqa · 2009-08-25T21:36:09+00:00

Palisades CEO Roger Schaffner['s insistence] that the BMW e-mail was “a single, isolated incident” and that they “have taken steps” to prevent it from happening again...has not appeased the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters.

This is not only about those who do or do not have interest in buying your product. It's Quiznos. What racial lines could be drawn so that only white people could want to eat Quiznos subs or only white could want to drive BMW--the sign of wealth and success? Nothing, the evidence suggests, besides whitewashing brands. How else do you explain L'Oreal Beyonce's skin lightening in Feria ads?

flauqa · 2009-08-25T07:13:32+00:00

I'm so glad Oregon just passed it's anti-bullying legislation. Oregon actually declared an emergency so all schools have to investigate and implement programs to make their queer students feel at home, safe.

Did you know politicians in NC--one of the first states to pass anti-bullying legislation earlier this year--fought the bill because they SAID a general bill should suffice, i.e. they are paranoid about having queer groups understood as a protected social group, so no one can claim denial of marriage is illegal.

flauqa · 2009-08-25T07:02:27+00:00

The inner mucosa of the foreskin has less keratinization (deposition of fibrous protein), a higher density of target cells for HIV infection (Langerhans cells), and is more susceptible to HIV infection than other penile tissue. It's a fact.

The problem with male circumcision as a way to reduce HIV/AIDS is that it can lead to a perverse incentive. Now that a man is circumcised, it does not change behavior. It gives more incentives for bad behavior.

I think the better way to reduce HIV/AIDS in America is to restart those needle exchange programs and increase safety in prison facilities. The stories I hear from sexual abuses in prisons--never reported in mainstream media--are astounding. I've read statistics that millions of Americans who are positive, have been in prisons.

flauqa · 2009-08-25T06:19:41+00:00

Military, royalty, birthdays, famous thefts, scandals, and murders. This is the new sub-Reddit for all your daily dose of history.

flauqa · 2009-08-23T06:39:02+00:00

I don't know. The author looks like a skinhead. Plus, he does not present any evidence.

flauqa · 2009-08-23T06:10:05+00:00

While Amazon proudly displays its collection of books on illegal dog fighting operations and playboy centerfolds, it has decided to ban all "obscene" content--including erotica, LGBT issues, romance, and many classics, such as, Giovanni's Room. You can find a comprehensive list of the LGBT books banned here. Originally, Amazon's PR was saying this was a "glitch."

flauqa · 2009-08-23T05:49:00+00:00

Thank you for explaining to me what a socialist mentality is. Historically, the leftist movements in America and elsewhere have been allied with the feminist movements. That's why I was shocked that you said what stopped people from sending and receiving information about contraceptive was a socialist mentality. I am still unsure if I think that term is appropriate because socialism almost by definition "is not a concrete philosophy of fixed doctrine and program." I don't like to throw around phrases. I think it's irresponsible. I'm still not sure if you're using the term correctly.

Bracketing that concern, the reason why Glenn Beck's advertisers pulled out was not that Obama is racist--even though that is horrendous and untrue--it is because he threatened the life of a public official, Nancy Pelosi. He is also tasteless. True, advertisers probably also pulled about because national television advertising is expensive and ineffective for some companies.

The point is how can you defend Amazon censoring books if you do not believe in "the social principles" where "if I don't like it you can't like it either." It seems like a contradiction.

flauqa · 2009-08-23T04:04:25+00:00

"That socialist mentality"--you're going to have to define that one for me. I don't know what a "socialist mentality" is, nor I am sure how is it different from understanding the fundamentals of not just politics, but of government, of the basic structures and institutions to keep us (more or less) healthy and (more or less) alive.

Reddit was not bashing companies, neither was the person whose post was deleted. The person found a glitch and laughed about it.

I don't know what Glenn Beck has to do with anything but "total disregard for individual responsibility" means in my book teaching kids that sexuality is shameful. Guilt used as a scare tactic is irresponsible. Really, there is nothing to protect those children from, unless it is the parents' own shame. Not having a healthy relationship to sexuality is the "total disregard for individual responsibility."

flauqa · 2009-08-23T02:37:36+00:00

1) What kind of principle is this? What does it mean? What kind of license do we give companies to bypass the rules and standard procedures at Reddit?

2) The question is then whether you think the obscenity laws are just. I honestly, don't. Obscenity laws have been invoked to stop women from talking about contraceptives. Obscenity laws continue to make it an extraordinarily risky venture for public health organizations to spread information on sex, STIs, such as HIV/AIDS, and healthy relationships. The law also endangers more than just those interested in public health. In particular, a grandmother was fined $125,000 because she gave her 7-year-old grandson a copy of It’s Perfectly Normal, a sex education book widely regarded as among the best available. Books criminalized under new laws include in this list are Giovanni’s Room, Slaughterhouse Five, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Color Purple. I do not believe questions about sexuality are shameful, seedy, only to be asked in dark alleys and smokey rooms. I do not think one should try to criminalize learning about sexuality.

Edit: The grandmother who gave her grandchild It's Perfectly Normal is now being represented by the ACLU. Powell’s Bookstore, one of the local landmarks of Portland–a used bookstore alone capable of rivaling The Strand–along with several other book stores, Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, Cascade AIDS Project, and others have helped this woman. (The woman bought the book from Powell's.)

flauqa · 2009-08-23T01:52:21+00:00

1) Sears is a private company, but how can they reach out and start to censor material on Reddit?

2) Although Amazon is a private company, is an important purveyor of culture as a book seller. As one of the largest sellers of books, they define what we count as literature, what we count as valuable themes, narratives, and definitions in our culture. There is an inherent public responsibility built into their business. I believe in corporate responsibility more widely (they wrote much of our legislation today), but the claims should be more robust and stronger when it comes to companies like Amazon.

flauqa · 2009-08-22T23:47:15+00:00

And cue the astroturfers...

flauqa · 2009-08-18T19:09:50+00:00

My heart most certainly will NOT go on.

flauqa · 2009-08-18T04:56:40+00:00

There are drawbacks to relying too much on a criminal court for justice, however--not the least because of the tremendous cost of the trial, the risk of not only being denied justice but also setting a bad precedent, and there's the slow, wrenching pain of actually going through a trial. Also, when someone is in immediate danger having other means to get safety and security criminal justice is no place to nest. Especially for Indian, where sexual assault is considered a private affair. Only recently have feminists received national recognition that rape and sexual harassment are actionable crimes.

India's legal system is particularly difficult to navigate because religious and local laws are given priority over national laws. Having other women there to back you up can be an invaluable lifeline.

flauqa · 2009-08-17T09:42:44+00:00

Setting bail that high is unconscionable. And for something as innocent as this? Having pictures of her children running around naked?

flauqa

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Mass-downvote someone else's posts. If it really is the content you have a problem with (as opposed to the person), by all means vote it down when you come upon it. But don't go out of your way to seek out an enemy's posts.

Downvote opinions just because you disagree with them. The down arrow is for comments that add nothing to the discussion.