Subversive Soapbox

(Found on Reddit)

ynfb — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:25:20 -0800

(Found on Reddit)

girlsandrevolts: Occupy Oakland (11 of 20) glennshootspeople...

ynfb — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:20:05 -0800

girlsandrevolts:

Occupy Oakland (11 of 20)

glennshootspeople January 24, 2012

jennythefat: Stand Up Fight Back, Occupy Oakland Move-In Day...

ynfb — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:48:58 -0800

jennythefat:

Stand Up Fight Back, Occupy Oakland Move-In Day (26 of 31) by glennshootspeople on Flickr.

Republicans have staked out a position that requires that they lie, 24/7, 365. Not shade the facts their way. Not put their own spin on the situation. Lie. Big, sloppy, and constantly.

ynfb — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:54:54 -0800

Republicans have staked out a position that requires that they lie, 24/7, 365. Not shade the facts their way. Not put their own spin on the situation. Lie. Big, sloppy, and constantly.:

wilwheaton:

The lies go beyond instantly dismissible claims like President Obama being the “food stamp president” (why you have to go back one whole administration to discover that more people joined the food stamp ranks under Bush than Obama, but then the Republicans don’t seem to remember Bush in any case). The blatant lies extend through every aspect of the Republican platform, such as it is. The simple reason is that the Republicans have no ideas left, at least no ideas that have not been tested and proven to be failures again, and again, and again.

The economy didn’t just crash under a Republican president, it crashed under Republican policies. It crashed with low taxes. It crashed with deregulated markets. It crashed with huge restrictions on union activity. It crashed with massive cuts in environmental regulations. It crashed with lowered trade barriers. It crashed with big fat Pentagon spending.

They got what they wanted. They got CEOs with no limits on their wealth. They got banks with no limits on their “creativity.” They got trade agreements that guaranteed manufacturing could be moved to the dirtiest, cheapest, most desperate source available. They got massive cuts in capital gains taxes and equally large boosts in the wealth they could pass along in estates. They got everything they said would make us all wealthy. They got record oil and gas drilling. They got record giveaways of public land. They got everything they said would create jobs. They got the middle class to shoulder more, more, more of the burden so that those beautiful job creators would be free to work their magic.

They can’t say the economy crashed because taxes went up, because they didn’t. They can’t say that the economy crashed because there was a raft of new regulation, because there wasn’t. They can’t blame it on “union thugs” or Saul Alinsky or the guy who writes Happy Holidays cards at Hallmark. They can’t blame it on a president who was elected when the world was already in free fall. Only, of course they do. They say it because they have no choice.

For the same reason that they have to maintain that global warming is the creation of a conspiracy of scientists, and that evolution is a conspiracy of other scientists, and that gay marriage is a threat to “traditional” marriage. They have to lie about the threat of illegal immigrants. Lie about the state of the national debt. Lie about the effects of the President’s health care plan. They have to lie, because lies are all they have left.

Photo

ynfb — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:20:06 -0800

I stole this image from dancedirt.com. If you like this,...

ynfb — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:36:34 -0800

I stole this image from dancedirt.com. If you like this, there’s lots more there.

Legalizing Gay Marriage is the Only Way to Protect Straight Marriage

ynfb — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:41:00 -0800

This morning the 9th Circuit Court overturned Prop 8, the proposition that outlawed gay marriage in California. There was one dissenting opinion from Judge Randy Smith. He argued that traditional marriage can be harmed by changing the definition to include same-sex couples. I’d like to argue the opposite: opposing gay marriage harms the sanctity of traditional marriage.

When I was dating women, marriage was never a possibility. To take the relationship to the next level was to move in together, and in typical lesbian fashion that happened pretty quickly. We didn’t give any thought to whether we wanted to be together for all of eternity because we’d known since the time we came out of the closet that that wasn’t an option. If being queer meant being swallowed in a lake of fire, so be it. We’d accepted it.

Now I’m in an entirely hetero-normative relationship. One man, one woman. And guess what? I still don’t think about marriage. I know that it’s an option, but I don’t fantasize about wedding gowns and bridal showers like some of my straight friends do. To them, marriage has always been the measure of love, because that’s what people do when they love each other. To prove they love each other. But it is hard to believe in the sanctity of marriage when you’ve been in love, and done just fine without it.

But that’s a young person’s game. What every queer wants, even a Godless heathen like myself, is equal rights. The right to leave our pension to our partner, the right to visit them in the hospital, the right to add them to our health insurance, the right to file jointly on our taxes, all of the rights that straight couples get when they sign that piece of paper. Most Americans, even those who support the sanctity-of-marriage argument, recognize this as an injustice that should be rectified. Arguing against giving queer couples the same rights as married couples is a losing argument. Too many people saw If These Walls Could Talk II I suppose, or they have a gay friend, or they get their hair cut by a friendly-but-opinionated gay stylist. Over and over statistics show that the younger generation has no problem with gay people, thinks they aren’t going to stop being gay just because you guilt them, and believes they deserve equal rights.

Enter civil unions. Civil unions seem like the perfect compromise to keep our grubby, queer, little hands off your precious wedding rings. But it seems obvious to me that civil unions are only going to further destroy the sanctity of marriage. Let me tell you why.

Sally Straight says, “I Can’t Wait
To Get Me One of Those Civil Unions!”

They say that marriage is forever, and I’m told that’s a long time. An awful long time. Most marriages don’t work out. Got my own parents to prove that, and most of my friends’ parents too. I don’t want to turn out like that. I don’t want to make a promise I can’t keep and I don’t want to be forced to stay with someone even though we’ve grown apart.

On the other hand, I love my man very much. I know that in the near future I’m not going anywhere, and I don’t need a piece of paper to know he feels the same way about me. We live together and share all the bills, and behave like grown-ups other than this whole not-being-married thing. I want him to be able to visit me in the hospital and I’d sure like to get in on that health insurance he gets from his job.

If marriage is sacred, we don’t want all that eternity mess. But what about a civil union? Well that’s not sacred, right? Isn’t that the whole point, that it gives the same rights as marriage without actually being a marriage? Well in that case, we’d just love to get a civil partnership. How long before straight couples start demanding the right to civil unions too? How long before a straight couple goes to the courts demanding the right to a civil union? How long before it becomes accepted for everyone to get civil unions, accept for some old-fashioned religious folks? I see no legal reason to stop this from occurring because civil unions by their definition don’t have the sanctity of marriage. And I can’t see how, over time, there won’t be straight couples that want the same legal rights without the promise of eternity.

Honestly, I would be fine with this scenario taking shape. The people who wouldn’t like it so much are the very people who are opposed to stopping gay marriage in the first place. By fighting gay marriage, they are creating a tier-system. Marriage can still be the high-end goal, reserved for those who honest-to-golly want to swear undying love. And maybe some of their grand-kids will go for that. More likely, the next generations will agree that a civil union is a better fit for their complicated, heterosexual relationship. They will not have any moral problem having sex out of wedlock (I guarantee this, as they seem to have no problem with it right now) and the civil union will give everyone the rights that married people have.

The only way to avoid this future, is to make marriage a right for all. If marriage had been a possibility, my queer friends and I would have had the same pressure to marry that straight couples have always gotten. If you’re really serious, why don’t you tie the knot, they’d say. Those who continued to co-habitate would be seen as fooling-around, indecisive. Queer couples would begin to question the love of their partner, if they aren’t willing to make the big commitment. All that marriage stuff would return to the status quo.

When Judge Randy Smith today argued against overturning Prop 8, he said that gay people aren’t the same as straight people because procreation is one of the purposes of marriage. I don’t disagree with Judge Smith. In fact, I’d like him to take that one step further. When you get past the legal rights (which civil unions offer) and the religious argument (which isn’t an issue for me personally) procreation is the only purpose for marriage. Raising a child is a huge responsibility and it is the sole reason I can imagine one would promise to stay with the same person forever. Everyone knows that many unhappily married couples stay together “for the kids.” And everyone knows that many teen marriages are the result of of an accidental pregnancy. In my fantasy world, anyone can get the legal benefits of a civil union, and anyone who has a child is automatically married. Knocked up? Congratulations, when’s the wedding?

Of course, we all know that’s not going to happen. Because to folks who do care about marriage, it’s really about being given permission to do the nasty. It’s about getting the seal of approval from G-O-D. And they don’t want to give us yucky queers that seal of approval, and they’re determined to destroy marriage to keep it from us.

Is it possible the article is even scarier than the headline?...

ynfb — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:41:32 -0800

Is it possible the article is even scarier than the headline? After all, it’s not like the UN is some radical organization known for coming to hasty conclusions.

emergentfutures:

World running out of resources: UN

A major United Nations report has called for a sustainable “evergreen revolution”, warning that time is running out to ensure there is enough food, water and fuel to meet the needs of the world’s rapidly growing population.

Full Story: ABC

You can get the report from the United Nations (pdf)

lexylexylexy: The author of #sopa is a copyright violator!!!

ynfb — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:32:55 -0800

lexylexylexy:

The author of #sopa is a copyright violator!!!

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

ynfb — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:01:06 -0800

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

- — Martin Luther King Jr “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963

wilwheaton: “We were growing together for the first three...

ynfb — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:52:13 -0800

wilwheaton:

“We were growing together for the first three decades after World War II, but for the last three decades we have been growing apart…. I should point out that the pattern in the post-1970s period is not monolithic…. [T]he period from 1992 to 2000 was an exception, when strong economic growth and the policies of the Clinton Administration led all quintiles to grow together again. Indeed, all income groups experienced their fastest income growth in years…. If in the first decade of the 2000s the income of the median household had grown at the same rate as it did in the 1990s, middle class households would have an extra $8,900 a year to spend on their mortgages, rent, cars, food, and clothing, or to add to their savings.”

(via What Romney Doesn’t Want You Talking About — Except In ‘Quiet Rooms’ | TPMDC)

No Surprise. Oakland Police Chief Lied to Discredit Occupy Oakland.

ynfb — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:41:12 -0800

No Surprise. Oakland Police Chief Lied to Discredit Occupy Oakland.:

wilwheaton:

After the October 25th raid on Frank Ogawa Plaza / Oscar Grant Park, and before the November 2nd General Strike, a campaign by all the powers that be in Oakland had started to discredit anyone and anything associated with Occupy Oakland. And so, to no one’s particular surprise, in the emails poured over by KTVU reporters was found a note that might as well have caused the spontaneous combustion of the chief’s pants

When Jordan received an update that crime was actually down 19 percent in the last week of October, he wrote an email to one of Mayor Jean Quan’s advisers. “Not sure how you want to share this good news,” he wrote. “It may be counter to our statement that the Occupy movement is negatively impacting crime in Oakland.”

Emphasis mine.

This is why I never take any public statement from any police force at face value. I want to believe public officials, but there’s just too much consistent evidence that they lie about everything.

If SOPA Passes It Will Be the End of Music Streaming/Online Radio

ynfb — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 22:35:30 -0800

If SOPA Passes It Will Be the End of Music Streaming/Online Radio:

I finally submitted my electronic signature to the petition to congress to oppose the bill that will remove our Internet freedoms (SOPA). I thought I’d share with you the letter I wrote under the…

If SOPA Passes It Will Be the End of Music Streaming/Online Radio

ynfb — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:55:38 -0800

I finally submitted my electronic signature to the petition to congress to oppose the bill that will remove our Internet freedoms (SOPA). I thought I’d share with you the letter I wrote under the section, “Tell your story”…

I’m the sixth most popular DJ on the music site Blip.fm. My station gained this popularity because I focus on playing things that are underplayed, be it under-the-radar indie bands or long-forgotten b-sides of yesteryear. The music I play is primarily not music you will hear on commercial radio, but it is protected by copyright. I do this for free—it is my passion to help people discover these fantastic bands, as so many have tired of the repetitive and trite options available through commercial radio. In order to comply with the demands of record labels, the site does not allow file uploads so most of the songs are streamed from YouTube uploaders who are violating copyright by posting the vidoes.

If the SOPA Bill passes, the site where I play music, and any streaming site like it, will be outlawed. Moreover, I would face a ten-year prison sentence for hosting my amateur radio show. This despite the fact that none of the songs I play on my station are available for download, and links are provided to Amazon and iTunes for those who are ready to purchase. Professionally, I work in publicity and marketing so I understand that these bands need the publicity sites like Blip.fm provides. Sadly, many bands willingly sign detrimental contracts so they can gain access to the corporate labels’ big-budget publicity campaigns. It is absurd that a label will pay millions of dollars to have “street teams” that give away free CDs at hip bars in major cities—all while claiming that sharing music is hurting their business model.

It is equally absurd to put the sentencing guidelines for copywrite infringement in the same range as child rape or armed robbery. I find it hard to believe that even the most willfull copywrite infringer on the planet is committing the same harm as rapists and robbers, nor do they represent a danger to society. I should hope that if SOPA passes and I am charged with a felony, someone can explain to me how the payola-backed radio DJs are upstanding members of society and those with streaming radio stations are criminals.

Posted via email from Subversive Soapbox | Comment »

Minty Fresh 2.0: 11 Facts From 2011

ynfb — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:47:42 -0800

Minty Fresh 2.0: 11 Facts From 2011:

think-progress:

1. The CIA is monitoring up to 5 million tweets per day.

2. Income inequality in America is worse than in Ancient Rome.

3. Twenty-three straight polls find Americans overwhelmingly want to raise taxes to pay down debt.

4. 68% of millionaires support…

Obama Will Not Veto Bill That Would Indefinitely Detain U.S. Citizens

ynfb — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:07:21 -0800

Obama Will Not Veto Bill That Would Indefinitely Detain U.S. Citizens:

On the 220th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, Obama goes and joins Congress and Senate by taking a big ole’ dump on that same document. Of course, they claim the fifth amendment and the right to habeus corpus are already irrelevant, but they want to pass this so you know it’s official. Don’t go upsetting the powers that be, or they can lock you up indefinitely.

Remember, they only have these powers so long as we let them.

ageofperil: The New York Times today looked at 40 years of the...

ynfb — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:02:26 -0800

ageofperil:

The New York Times today looked at 40 years of the American riot-control officer. In 1968, it was a simple uniform shirt. In 2011, it was Kevlar tactical body armor.

Occupy Wall Street versus the Tea Party

ynfb — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 19:20:05 -0800

Might need to click to get the image to show.

cognitivedissonance:

Just a few stats on the two movements…

Secret panel can put Americans on kill list' | Reuters

ynfb — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:15:05 -0800

Secret panel can put Americans on kill list' | Reuters:

Wil Wheaton has always struck me as a reasonable fellow. Surely if he thinks we need a revolution…

wilwheaton:

American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions, according to officials.

There is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel, which is a subset of the White House’s National Security Council, several current and former officials said. Neither is there any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate.

What the actual fuck. It’s time for a revolution.

Photo

ynfb — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:02:05 -0800

Subversive Soapbox

(Found on Reddit)

girlsandrevolts: Occupy Oakland (11 of 20) glennshootspeople...

Occupy Oakland (11 of 20)

jennythefat: Stand Up Fight Back, Occupy Oakland Move-In Day...

Republicans have staked out a position that requires that they lie, 24/7, 365. Not shade the facts their way. Not put their own spin on the situation. Lie. Big, sloppy, and constantly.

Photo

I stole this image from dancedirt.com. If you like this,...

Legalizing Gay Marriage is the Only Way to Protect Straight Marriage

Sally Straight says, “I Can’t Wait To Get Me One of Those Civil Unions!”

Is it possible the article is even scarier than the headline?...

World running out of resources: UN

lexylexylexy: The author of #sopa is a copyright violator!!!

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

wilwheaton: “We were growing together for the first three...

No Surprise. Oakland Police Chief Lied to Discredit Occupy Oakland.

If SOPA Passes It Will Be the End of Music Streaming/Online Radio

If SOPA Passes It Will Be the End of Music Streaming/Online Radio

Minty Fresh 2.0: 11 Facts From 2011

Obama Will Not Veto Bill That Would Indefinitely Detain U.S. Citizens

ageofperil: The New York Times today looked at 40 years of the...

Occupy Wall Street versus the Tea Party

Secret panel can put Americans on kill list' | Reuters

Photo

Sally Straight says, “I Can’t Wait
To Get Me One of Those Civil Unions!”