le dinosaure pourpre (Taken with instagram)
Well if you have more than 2 it still takes more than 1 click. And now checking messages takes an extra click, too. So it’s a wash, at best.
Tsk… I hadn’t noticed the messages area had moved. That is a problem.
savagemike replied to your post: I have to say, the new Tumblr is a touch upsetting.
But it was always easy to switch between blogs, at least IMHO
Pssssh…. not one-click easy. (Yep. I’m that lazy.)
I have to say, the new Tumblr is a touch upsetting.
But only because Tumblr has this habit of improving something shortly after I do something that would have been much simpler using the features Tumblr comes up with now. For example… I would not have used a separate Tumblr account to launch Gif The Universe if I knew it would soon become this easy to switch between Tumblogs.
Damn it Tumblr. Damn it.
» Gay Teen Girl Abducted and 'Reeducated' at For-Profit American “Behavioral Modification” School(s)
In a post that’s (hopefully) due to hit the mainstream press and cause public outrage, Reddit user Pixel8 posted the horrifying first-person story of a teenager named Xandir who was forcibly abducted from her home, publicly restrained, and transported to a program for “troubled teens” where she and others were psychologically and physically threatened and tortured as “treatment” — solely, or at the very least primarily, because she is gay.
The “school” in question amounts, by the teen’s account, to an abusive re-education facility or, if you will, a brainwashing program. It is Cross Creek in Utah, affiliated with the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP), a Utah-based group that serves as an umbrella organization for “programs for troubled teens.” Though WWASP itself is not-for-profit, many if not most of the individual programs are for-profit, as are the affiliated services that provide a) “escorts” (i.e., men in black) to take the teens to and from the facilities, and b) the for-profit company that process “tuition” payments — not to mention c) the organization’s private, for-profit marketing firm. According to an article in Reason, many of the individual programs are owned through various partnerships by officials of WWASP and their close relatives. There have been a number of really serious questions asked about just how much influence WWASP’s officials and the owners of the individual programsexercise with lawmakers.
But back to Xandir, who was grabbed from her home, again, apparently for the crime of being attracted to women and under eighteen…and therefore without civil rights. The post is an absolute must-read for anyone concerned about the rights of any youth – especially lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, questioning or transgender. It’s a reminder that adolescents in the U.S. have, in practical terms, exactly and only the human rights their parents and the authorities decide they’re entitled to.
Xandir describes being abducted from her home, without explanation, by strangers:
On May 10th of 2007 at around 2:30 in the morning two strangers barged into my bedroom. I started screaming and crying, as in my mind I was sure that these two strangers had broken into my house and were going to abduct me, rape me, kill me, or in some way harm me. They immediately told me that if I did not shut up that they would handcuff me. I was not being in any way violent or threatening…
…They started going through my closet digging out clothes as I was only in a night gown. They still had not explained what was going on. I asked, frightened, what the wanted from me, trying to see if I could in some way appease them and get them to leave. They then explained that they were going to take me to a school. It took me a second to understand what they meant by this, as this was an extremely bizarre way to introduce a child to a new school. It then occurred to me that this was what my mother had arranged for my brother several years ago when she had him shipped away to Cross Creek. The two strangers were from Teen Escort Service, a for-profit company that transports teenagers, usually by force, to WWASP (World Wide Association of Specialty Programs) facilities.
[Link.]
Xandir was restrained for the trip with a leather strap around her chest, and, from what I can gather, was essentially led around on her belt-cum-leash through the airport to get her flight to the new “school.”
“It was so humiliating to be led around like a fucking dog around the airport. It was also extremely uncomfortable to have this strange older male putting his hand so close to my breast.”
Things get even more horrifying:
I had never spoken to R., the program director, before and my first experience with him was horrible. He asked me why I was there, and I told him all of the things I’d done that I could think of that could possibly be perceived as “bad”. He yelled at me, saying that I was lying and that I didn’t love or care about my parents. I was shocked and confused, unsure of what I had done to deserve this treatment from someone I had just met. To this day, the only thing I can think of that I possibly could have left out was my attraction to other females. In one of the Parent-Child seminars we were made to attend, my mother shared with me that this was one of the biggest “issues” that caused her to send me to Cross Creek. Not the drugs, not the sex (she told me she had no knowledge of me being sexually active prior to being forced to disclose it to her), not the issues with school, but just the fact that there was a possibility that one day I might fall in love with a female…
…Shortly after I arrived, my “HOPE buddy” (the student they assign to “mentor” you and teach you the rules in your first few weeks) started asking me about my past, why I was there, and what issues I needed to work on. I talked briefly about my experimentation with soft drugs, my issues with depression (something I’m pretty sure most teenagers experience), and the abusive relationship I had been in with my first girlfriend. As soon as I said the words “girl” and “relationship” in the same sentence she said “STOP! STOP! We can’t talk about that.”
[Link.]
The story gets still more disturbing from there. The program of “motivational” lectures and the like are mind-bending, and Xandir feels she succumbed quite thoroughly to what can only be called brainwashing. She also displayed physical symptoms of extreme stress that were clearly, by her account, ignored by the “caretakers” in the program.
If you’re not familiar with the private, for-profit that abducts adolescents who have been extrajudicially assigned the label of “troubled teen” by their parents, the story may sound outlandish and borderline impossible. The phenomenal incompetence and bigotry of the “professionals” running this program makes it all sound so potentially unlikely to the uninitiated, in fact, that in the end, Xandir feels obliged to add this disclaimer:
Even if you choose not to believe me or anything that I have written, there are piles of evidence to support the idea that there is mistreatment at Cross Creek and other WWASP affiliated facilities. A little bit of research will reveal that this lawsuit is not the first that WWASP or Cross Creek has faced.
(…)I’d also like to mention how many times I saw staff and administration, tackle and restrain children when it was completely unnecessary. So many times I saw kids simply refuse to go to gym class or get out of bed and as punishment they were violently tackled, restrained in a painful position, and taken to a small isolation room (…) If you look on the website for the Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse, you can see a long list of deaths that have occurred in “behavioral modification” facilities not unlike Cross Creek as a result of tackling and restraint.
[Link.]
As horrible as Xandir’s individual story is, the really upsetting thing is that it’s no different than what’s been done to “troubled teenagers” for decades — including teens who committed the crime of differing in sexual orientation, politics or morality from their parents.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
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Mike Posner - The Scientist (Coldplay cover) |
intersecting lives
My best friend from childhood moved away when we started junior high school. Before that I’d say we were inseparable. It was late night video games and shenanigans in the woods. We were digging a giant hole in the ground for us and our closest friends to live in after the world ended (because it was totally going to end according to us). For the first time in my life I had a best friend like I always saw on TV. Before that, I was a latch-key kid and stayed home watching PBS and reading everyday and weekend. They were really good times, but eventually his family moved away as military families are wont to do. We kept in contact via email but that wasn’t the same. For almost all of high school we didn’t talk to each other until MySpace caught on. It was so weird to see that he had a life with new friends and adventures.
It’s still weird for me. This person that I was so close with went and grew up in what seems like another world. He’s the only person I really cared about that moved away so it’s really weird when I think of it. As a kid I always imagined that we were supposed to be best friends for a really long time… that up to the point when we grew up and got married, our lives were supposed to parallel each other. Same schools and colleges, same group of friends, etc. But he and I are really different now. It’s so strange to see his photos on Facebook, events he went to… and have no context whatsoever. I don’t know those places or these people he knows. We didn’t run parallel after all.
We still talk every once in a while but you know… he’s my childhood friend.
Anderson Cooper 360 - “The Sissy Boy Experiment”
I just saw this on CNN. This is what happened when scientists governed by ignorance use their degrees to manipulate parents and americans into blindly following hegemonic and dangerous cultural norms.
from the AC360 blog:
Kirk Murphy was a bright 5-year-old boy, growing up near Los Angeles in the 1970s. He was the middle child, with big brother Mark, 8, and little sister Maris, just a baby at 9 months. Their mother, Kaytee Murphy, remembers Kirk’s kind nature, “He was just very intelligent, and a sweet, sweet, child.” But she was also worried.
“Well, I was becoming a little concerned, I guess, when he was playing with dolls and stuff,” she said. “Playing with the girls’ toys, and probably picking up little effeminate, well, like stroking the hair, the long hair and stuff. It just bothered me that maybe he was picking up maybe too many feminine traits.” She said it bothered her because she wanted Kirk to grow up and have “a normal life.”
Then Kaytee Murphy saw a psychologist on local television.
“He was naming all of these things; ‘If your son is doing five of these 10 things, does he prefer to play with girls’ toys instead of boys’ toys?’ Just things like this,” she said.
The doctor was on TV that day, recruiting boys for a government-funded program at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“Well, him being the expert, I thought, maybe I should take Kirk in,” said Kaytee Murphy. “In other words, nip it in the bud, before it got started any further.”
They beat him for expressing his personality until he was so isolated that he killed himself. I can’t even express the sorrow I feel at this.
“It’s OK to be gay, but does he have to be so feminine.”
Remember this the next time you hear/say that.
I need to say something everytime I hear a gay, rape, or sexist joke. I’d be doing a disservice to my fellow human beings if I didn’t.
Because by letting people joke about these things, I’m part of the problem. Every sexist, rape, and gay joke is attacking me even if it isn’t directed at me. I’m a woman, I’ve been taken advantage of, and I’m bi. So why haven’t I been standing up for myself and everyone else?
I need to step it up. In my head, I’ve been making up excuses. I need to pick my battles, I’ll alienate people, I live in a conservative town, I’ll lose friends, I’ll cause a big debate, etc etc. I’m so ashamed of myself…I feel sick to my stomach for my lack of action. But, as of now, I’m acknowledging that I need to make a change and I’m going to fucking do it.
The biggest excuse for me not speaking up?
Fear.
So I’m going to stop being afraid of what other people will say. Yes, I’ll probably get insulted, offended and verbally attacked. A lot of my more close-minded friends will be put-off or just plain stop liking me. I can handle it. Being liked is not as important as standing up for what’s right.
I’m not going to sit by and let people spread their ignorance, especially when I know how painful it is to hear. I encourage you to do the same.
Because every sexist joke just perpetuates the idea that women are not equal, and that’s okay. Do you really want you female friends to think less of themselves?
And gay jokes add to the idea that being non-heterosexual is something to be ashamed of and ostracized for. LGBTQ people already get enough hate. One of your friends might be LGBTQ or questioning their sexuality—they need your support and acceptance, not your dumb homophobic jokes.
And when you joke about rape you are keeping the idea that slut-shaming is okay, our rape-culture is normal, and that it’s the victim’s fault. Plus, statistically speaking, one of your friends has been or will be sexually assaulted. We should have to teach how to not get raped, we should be teaching not to rape in the first place.
Think about your friends who, chances are, have been hurt by these jokes too.
When you joke about any of these things, you’re hurting someone. You are taking a serious, painful issue and trivializing it. You are making it okay to be ignorant.
No. Making fun of someone for who they are and what they’ve been through is not fucking okay.
This goes for every offensive joke, not just the ones I mentioned. I plan on speaking up for all people—not just the issues that trouble me personally. I’m simply speaking about these ones because I hear them the most, and they hurt me.
I’m not saying you can’t laugh about things. You can tell the difference between an actually humorous joke and an attack on someone disguised as a joke. Let me put it this way—does the joke support and perpetuate a negative stereotype? Then don’t fucking say it. People have a hard enough time getting through life without you making a shitty one-liner about it.
I’ll say it again: I’m all for humor. Just leave the harmful jokes out of it. Saying these ‘jokes’ aren’t funny. This also applies to “that’s gay.” I could go on about this too, but I think I’ve made my point. Besides, saying these things just makes you sound so unintelligent as it just shows your lack of vocabulary and capacity of thinking for yourself.
Iranian Women’s National Soccer Team Banned from Olympic Qualifying Tournament
Players of the Iranian women’s national soccer team react after withdrawing from their qualifying match against Jordan for the 2012 London Olympic Games in Amman June 3. The Iranian team were banned from the match on Friday in the second round of qualifiers in protest against guidelines on their veil. The FIFA woman’s association requires that any covering used does not cover the neck and ears. In Iran all women are required to cover their hair in public to conform to the Islamic dress code. (Ali Jarekji/Reuters)
It’s important to remember that women’s rights in Iran are trampled on in every category and they’re treated as second class citizens, at best. They are required to wear the veil; it is not their personal choice.
The only countries that mandate the hijab today are Iran and Saudi Arabia.
(via ricp)
On weinergate.
Talk me through this Weiner thing, Coke Talk. Why? Why? Whyyyyyy? He was our Lancelot.
Really? Lancelot fucked Guinevere behind King Arthur’s back. All the congressman did was tweet a few pics of his schwanz.Sure, it’s a total dumb fuck thing to have done, but as far as beltway scandals go, it barely moves the needle on the political shitbag-o-meter.
Anthony Weiner is still one of the good guys. He may be a total asshole, but so what? He’s out there fighting the good fight and pissing off all the right people.
I haven’t lost an ounce of respect for the man, nor should anyone else who’s ever sent a down and dirty cell phone pic.
Let’s not be hypocrites, people.
In which I talk about Anthony Weiner
Weiner, Weiner, Weiner… if only this actually mattered as much as CNN thinks it does.
This whole thing is kind of between Weiner and his wife. I mean, if he were a bigoted fundie who tries to take away rights from a certain subsect of human beings because they aren’t as pure or whatever the fundies think about lgbtq people, then maybe there’s a case to be made that his hypocritical bullshit is worth commenting on for days.
But he isn’t. Yeah, the guy told one lie… about his personal life. It’s not like he lied about healthcare plans, or about abortion. Weiner just lied in order to not look like a douchebag (and while I may like Anthony Weiner most of the time, he has always given off this douchebag vibe IMO). If we’re going to talk about it for hours on end, maybe the focus of the discussion should be on sexism/narcissism apparently so rampant in powerful men… but that’s not where the dialogue (or monologue since a lot of us don’t care about this story but its being force-fed to us anyway) is going.
But meanwhile we have the GOP’s war on unions or even worse long-term unemployment levels than in The Great Depression and all we want to talk about is Anthony Weiner’s weiner.
Whatever.
Total Weiners in this post: 10
