3 more things:

Because you said you wanted more numbered lists.

1. The tutoring program I volunteer with is canceled because they can't afford to pay the only employee the 8 hours a week she needs to be paid to do her work.

I am tired of Washington State ducking its responsibility to fully fund education. It is garbage. I'm sad that our class sizes are too big for these kids to be served in the classroom and now I'm very sad that members of the community can't help after school.

BOOOOOOO!

2. I'm tired of people telling everyone not to get mad. Being mad is fine. So, for the record, I am mad. I helped my tutoring kid from failing to a B- this term and now she and other students will not recieve the extra help they need to meet the standards set by the US Government and the Washington Legislature.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

3. Oh, and here is one more thing I'm mad about, anyone heard about the new law Karzai is trying to slip through in Afghanistan to appease conservatives (read jerks)?
From The Guardian:
The final document has not been published, but the law is believed to contain articles that rule women cannot leave the house without their husbands' permission, that they can only seek work, education or visit the doctor with their husbands' permission, and that they cannot refuse their husband sex.
...

Akbari said the law gave a woman the right to refuse sexual intercourse with her husband if she was unwell or had another reasonable "excuse". And he said a woman would not be obliged to remain in her house if an emergency forced her to leave without permission.

The international community has so far shied away from publicly questioning such a politically sensitive issue.

We put this guy in office and this is considered ok?

Hey Hillary, pay attention to this, I am watching what you do, and if this passes with no comment due to the "sensitive" nature of the situation you will officially be the biggest setback to women's rights.

When you "allow" a woman to excuse herself from sex if she has an "excuse" you reduce her personhood.

And I don't buy this sensitivity to foreign cultures BS. Telling me that it is culture to subjugate women is like saying it is culture to keep slaves. I'm pretty sure that if you ask a woman if she would like the right to not be raped, or to go where she pleases, nearly everytime the answer will be yes. This law is simply wrong and no arguement will convince me otherwise.

We should not let this constant war with religious extremeists bully us into keeping silent when something is wrong. If you set up a pupet government you'd better have both hands on the strings.

Anyone have $50,000 I could borrow?

Tesla's Model S is up for pre-order.

3 interesting links:

Article debunking popular belief that lobsters and crabs don't feel pain at Discovery. This makes a lot of sense to me because animals have nervous systems to alert them to danger and injury. I've always that that no pain idea was whoey.

Interesting exploration on the politics of gender and sexually transmitted disease over at Jezebel. When Gardasil was marketed to girls, people worried that girls would become "promiscuous", but when it is marketed to boys the major challenges to efficacy and safety. After all why would the parents of strapping boys want to protect the girls, or, heaven forbid, boys with whom they will someday have sex?

A very sad essay about a mother of her violent autistic son is up at Salon and is well worth a read. There is so much about the human mind that we don't know. This mother has no idea as to why specifically he has become so violent, whether his autism is a cause or a contributing factor, or perhaps even only tenuously related. I feel very sorry for her.

Thinking is hard...

In an interesting post about the backlash against the London Police's new terrorism awareness (that phrase seems weird to me) campaign on boingboing I noticed that one of the chosen parodies fell into one of my pet peeves.

Saying silly things. See:












"The police have failed to stop 100% of bombs that have exploded."

Well, that is true. But they have stopped 100% of the ones that they stopped.

SIGH.

This is exactly the same as when I lose something at work and someone says "Well, it's always in the last place you look." Of course it is. Because I've found it, thus am no longer looking. Maybe what they want to say is that it is in a weird place where you wouldn't look.

I also don't believe in CCTV, ridiculous scare tactics, etc., but when you parody it is important that you are more clever than the designer of the original poster. The point of the original poster is that a terrorist can strike anywhere, which I felt was handily supported by the parody.

In the end, all this parody said to me is that the creator thinks that before the War in Iraq they didn't have a terrorist problem. (HA HA HA HA HA HA.) Also they think that there is no way to stop terrorist attacks, so why give the police crap about not stopping terrorist attacks?

I guess my point here is that people are silly. (Nice conclusion, self.)

I think I need this hankie.

Via DesignGlut.

A few things...

1. I am very intrigued by the Space Bat hoopla. Here is NASA's official release.
Here is a tribute:



2. Today at work I asked my coworkers if it is always like this, one damn thing after another. You see, I graduated from college shortly after September 11th and I had always assumed that this is simply how things always are. My colleagues assured me that no, things have really just been truly shitty for the entirety of my adult life.

Bully.

At the start of the year I made this promise to myself that things would be better this year. And they aren't. I haven't been a better friend or daughter. I have only been a better worker by necessity. I haven't been happier, despite an appalling amount of effort in this regard. In fact, I really feel that I have bitched more in the last three months than the last ten years combined.

But maybe it isn't because I'm not trying hard enough. Maybe it is just that things are sucking a bit. So here it is:
I hereby officially acknowledge that things SUCK right now- and that it is ok, because I am here to facilitate the awesome. I will not be discouraged by the sucking. I am redoubling my efforts to be awesome. Things are going to get better through my SHEER FORCE OF WILL.

Do not worry. Things can always get worse. And fuck it, once you hit the bottom, there is no place to go but up.

If you need assistance with locating awesome, you know where to find me. If the economy has you whipped and crying, I am here and I HAVE COOKIES. If you're laid off and lonely, I have cable and a couch.

So, consider yourself on notice, Universe. Things have been worse, things will get better, and no matter what you do, universe, I will be lurking to Pollyanna the ever living hell right out of you.


3. Did you know that fish and submarines control their buoyancy in the same way? Now I know this because one of my fish is lethargically lounging on the bottom and swimming frantically, while gasping pitifully then sinks like a rock.
I went to the good pet store in Kirkland and inquired as to whether he needed a little fishy Xanax or something and guy told me that Steve (the fish) has a swim bladder problem and to buy my fish shrimp and feed them cooked peas. So now my fish ($10 for all four) are being fed shrimp and peas (over $10), like they are at the fucking Red Lobster.
In other news, normal families can't afford shrimp and peas, so those mopey little bastards better cross their fins that I don't get RIF'd or the gravy train is not coming to Fishville anymore.

It's Canadian week at Mr. & Ms. Pepperoni Pizza's!