tautologies

darksilenceinsuburbia: Joseba Eskubi.

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:01:21 -0700

darksilenceinsuburbia:

Joseba Eskubi.

professorxvx: Forever my favourite comic on tumblr.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 23:34:31 -0700

professorxvx:

Forever my favourite comic on tumblr.

johnverbingalonewithnouns: #mouse #or something...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:25:29 -0700

johnverbingalonewithnouns:

#mouse #or something fat???idk #rodent???

It’s a chinchilla!

"Further, though, the TOMS campaign — like the million shirts — misses the fundamental point that not..."

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:16:59 -0700

“

Further, though, the TOMS campaign — like the million shirts — misses the fundamental point that not having a pair of shoes (or a shirt, christmas toy, etc.) is not a problem about not having shoes. It’s a problem of poverty. Shoelessness, such as it is, is a symptom of a much bigger and more complex problem. And while donating a pair of shoes helps shoelessness, it does not help poverty.

Things like jobs help poverty. Jobs making things like shoes, for example. But TOMS doesn’t make its shoes in Africa, it makes them in China where it’s presumably cheaper to make two pairs of shoes and give one away than it is to get people in a needier community to make one pair of shoes.

The result of this setup, as Zizek explains most succinctly, is that on a big-picture level, TOMS (and other buy-my-product-and-donate companies) are busy building the exploitative global structure that produces economic inequality, while on the other hand pretending that supporting them actually does something to fix it.

It doesn’t. It just gives people shoes.

”

- The 7 Worst International Aid Ideas (via stfuconservatives)

One of my favorite things that has ever been posted on Matador.
(via backtothetruth)

Photo

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:12:56 -0700

Photo

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 16:27:17 -0700

meganpicturetaker: positivelypersistentteach: shortformblog: W...

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 13:37:12 -0700

meganpicturetaker:

positivelypersistentteach:

shortformblog:

We wholeheartedly endorse the Strike Debt/Rolling Jubilee initiative, and any others like it that we might not be aware of. Regardless of your thoughts on the Occupy movement, taxes, entitlement programs, etc, it seems likely that we can all agree that this is an amazing way to help people in need. source

Things that make me smile today.

This whole movement gives me hope in humanity. The most heartwarming way to stick it to the man that I’ve ever heard of.

nevver: Newtown

Tue, 25 Dec 2012 13:30:33 -0700

nevver:

Newtown

jtotheizzoe: explore-blog: The human body by Andreas Vesalius,...

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 08:42:16 -0700

jtotheizzoe:

explore-blog:

The human body by Andreas Vesalius, 1543 – one of 100 diagrams that changed the world

In the 16th century, people had very developed gluteus maximus muscles, because they had to walk everywhere. But life expectancy was low, on account of not having skin.

egryan: Oh, Daily News. You.

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 08:42:04 -0700

egryan:

Oh, Daily News. You.

mypantsareonfire: i’m beginning to think maybe shooting justin...

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 21:36:14 -0700

mypantsareonfire:

i’m beginning to think maybe shooting justin beiber may solve the problem

Right To Own Handheld Device That Shoots Deadly Metal Pellets At High Speed Worth All Of This

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 21:18:51 -0700

Right To Own Handheld Device That Shoots Deadly Metal Pellets At High Speed Worth All Of This:

bankston:

Goddammit…..That’s all there is to say.

randomactsofchaos: motherjones: … and this isn’t even the...

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 21:18:12 -0700

randomactsofchaos:

motherjones:

… and this isn’t even the weirdest of the 20 gun ads we found.

Creepy

oldfilmsflicker: Chilly Scenes of Winter, 1979 (dir. Joan...

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 20:37:36 -0700

oldfilmsflicker:

Chilly Scenes of Winter, 1979 (dir. Joan Micklin Silver)

breakingnews: Police reports say 2 dead in shooting at Oregon...

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 18:38:12 -0700

breakingnews:

Police reports say 2 dead in shooting at Oregon mall

The Oregonian: Police reports say a shooting at a Portland, Oregon, area mall has left at least 2 dead and another injured. A man was seen with a semi-automatic rifle near the mall’s food court. Police are conducting a store-by-store search for the gunman.

Follow updates at BreakingNews.com here.

Photo via NBC News

PSY And The Acceptable Asian Man

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:43:28 -0700

PSY And The Acceptable Asian Man:

However, PSY does have the unusual position of being a phenomenon because he wasn’t trying to break into any international markets with “Gangnam Style.” It was cooked up for the home audience. On the other hand, a number of other pop artists from Asia, in particular J-Pop (Utada Hikaru) and K-Pop (Wonder Girls, Girls Generation, Rain, BoA, and PSY’s YG label-mate, Se7en) have all tried or are continuing to try to break into mainstream Western music markets with only limited success. Most of these artists have all seen a good deal of international success within Asia; certainly much more than Psy, who predominantly played to a Korean fanbase and hardly reached the level of success that his more popular label-mates, Big Bang and 2NE1, were able to reach even in Korea. So it’s a bit quizzical that it’s not the big stars of Asian pop, but PSY, a minor player, that truly made it big.

The pop stars that assailed the US made English versions of their songs, worked with American producers, got featured spots from high-profile artists, spent a nice amount of promotional money on music videos, and yet not a success story among them, only serving to cater to the niche audience that Asian media serves in the US. So, what went wrong?

[…]

But even Rain, who was definitely known more for his dancing and his music and a being a romantic heartthrob in some popular Korean dramas, ended up showing up in Western media as a martial artist, and then I realized that Rain–as well as the vast majority of Asian and Asian American men that have ever made an impact in mainstream entertainment–fit into a particular conception that the mainstream has of Asian men and, in this case, that is the butt-kicking martial artist. Despite that Rain wasn’t exactly known for being this sort of actor back in Korea, in the US, that is who he had to be in order to see the silver screen. This most recently happened again with Jay Chou, the actor/filmmaker/song-writing pop star from Taiwan, who, despite having a broad range of talent, comes to the US to follow in the footsteps of the grandfather of Asian martial artists in movies, Bruce Lee, taking up the mantle of Kato in The Green Hornet.

So, it’s clear from the limited types of roles that people of Asian descent get in mainstream media that, for an Asian person to see any success in mainstream media, he or she must fit into one of these acceptable roles. That brings us to PSY: for all his breakout success, there is a good likelihood that he fits a particular role that mainstream Western media permits for Asian men.

When you take into account the images of the acceptable roles of the Asian nerd-slash-social outcast and Asian clown that are appreciated and contrast them to the Asian male pop stars that seem to have no cachet with the Western mainstream, one of the most obvious differences is that the Asian male pop stars exude sexiness whereas the clowns and the geeks, even though they are completely able to be cool–like PSY–do not. Even the most dangerous of the Asian male stereotypes, the martial artist, is denied any notable sexuality in the movies that become mainstream popular in the West.

Bruce Lee’s most popular movie in the US is Enter the Dragon. He doesn’t get the girl. When Jet Li was still someone that people were trying to make a star in America, he starred in Romeo Must Die and, rather than Aaliyah’s romantic counterpart, he is merely a platonic friend at the end. Apparently pre-screening audiences booed the interracial kiss version which was screened. The producers must have known since they had already prepared an edit without a kiss.

Thus, even when the power of the Asian martial artist or the gunplay of the cop and gangster is appreciated by the white heterosexual male hegemonic power structure that rules the mainstream, the potential threat of Asian male sexuality is clearly not and, therefore, for heterosexual Asian and Asian American men to see mainstream success, it genuinely helps not only to fit one of the pre-ordained acceptable Asian male roles (nerd, martial artist, gangster, and clown), but also to avoid any positive displays of sexuality and presenting yourself in a manner that can be seen as desirable to heterosexual women.
The male vanguard of K-pop–with polished music, image, and music videos, dressed in high fashion and with hard bodies that they aren’t shy in showing off–fit none of these prescribed stereotypes and definitely exude sexiness, as well as frequently contesting the sexiness of hyper-masculinity prevalent in the West (especially North America). And the confident display of Asian male sexuality from these pop stars might simply be enough for Western audiences to find reasons in those cultural differences–whether the fashion, the style of music, or the differences in acceptable masculinity–to reject that particular image of Asians. And that might be one reason why Asian pop keeps losing its bid for a place in Western mainstream music.

darksilenceinsuburbia: Gino Rubert. Operation Black Sea. Mixed...

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 22:12:40 -0700

darksilenceinsuburbia:

Gino Rubert. Operation Black Sea. Mixed media on canvas, 25.6 x 28.74 x 1”, 65 x 73 x 2.5 cm.

thepeoplesrecord: The “McDonaldization” of Justice November 14,...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:19:48 -0700

thepeoplesrecord:

The “McDonaldization” of Justice

November 14, 2012

Between 1925 to 1974, the U.S had an incarceration rate between 90 and 150 per 100,000 people. Today, that rate is seven times that. Researcher Matthew DeMichele, Ph.D and Postdoctoral Scholar at the Penn State Justice Center, likens our current justice system to fast-food restaurants, “in which quality goes out the window, and quantity takes over. Why is this and how did it come to be this way? Below, DeMichele discusses his research work to answer to that question as well as provide effective alternatives to methods of mass incarceration:

—-

DeMichele: The U.S. incarcerates more people than any Western democracy. Our incarceration rates are roughly seven to ten times larger than other similar countries. In fact, we have an incarceration rate over 700 per 100,000 adults, whereas Australia, Canada, and Germany have rates between 90 and 150 per 100,000 in the population. Strangely, the incarceration rate in the U.S. remained around 120 per 100,000 from 1925 to 1974. Then, something happened to cause a drastic change to how we punish. No longer were law breakers to be rehabilitated or reintegrated into society. No longer were criminal justice officials expected to find ways to alleviate incarceration. Instead, the criminal justice system focused on efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and managerialism. And, to some extent, the justice system adopted the mentality of fast-food restaurants in which quality goes out the window, and quantity takes over. Simultaneous to the McDonalidization of justice, the U.S. also experienced drastic shifts in the treatment of working class populations with the discrediting of unions and labor protections.

Some years ago I began studying why the U.S. incarcerates so many more people compared to other countries and why we lock-up so many more now than in the past. Ironically, I was surprised to find that crime had not increased during this time, but rather decreased. So, I knew other mechanisms were at play, but what could be driving such an approach to justice? I looked at our legal system and how it is embedded within a particular political-economic culture.

Some countries choose to incarcerate, whereas others seek to treat the underlying causes of crime as a manifestation of social problems through welfare, education, and vocational training.

An inherent feature of capitalist societies is that there are poor people. In fact, capitalism is an economic approach that relies on income inequality to motivate the public. This approach allows some to amass great wealth, develops a strong middle class, and supports innovation, but it also promotes some of the largest income gaps in the world. All governments have approaches to dealing with individuals that fall to the bottom of the economic ladder. These people can be thought of as William Julius Wilson’s underclass in which they are trapped in a feedback look of poverty, criminality and substance abuse. Some countries choose to incarcerate, whereas others seek to treat the underlying causes of crime as a manifestation of social problems through welfare, education, and vocational training.

Of course, poverty is not unique to the U.S. What is unique to the U.S. is how we have decided to treat our underclass. We have decided to demonize, criminalize, and institutionalize large sections of our population. Policy choices have been made to limit public education, welfare, and ameliorative approaches for the underclass. Instead, we have built more jails and prisons, hired more police officers, and passed laws for longer sentences.

I argue that in the U.S. there is a relatively unique way of thinking about crime, criminals, and crime control. This way of thinking encourages a high degree of subjectivity in legal decisions. U.S. prosecutors have an unheard of amount of discretion compared to other countries. Similarly, U.S. judges have little oversight and tremendous flexibility when making decisions. These may sound like small things, but they allow prosecutors and judges – many of which are elected – to make decisions with little evidence of their effectiveness. And, they are situated within a social narrative dedicated to punitiveness in which each legal actor tries to be more punitive than the next. This becomes most obvious during election cycles in which prosecutors and judges profess their commitment to incarceration. No doubt this is something that appeals to voters, especially because most of the people that have been incarcerated cannot vote due to felony restrictions.

Legal culture alone has not made the incarceration boom possible. Instead, our legal system is embedded within a political-economic context in which conservative politics have replaced the once dominant social contract. At least since the mid-1970s, the U.S. political environment has shifted toward the right. This shift has altered the nature of the right-left divide in which, as Paul Pierson documented in Off-Center: A Republican Revolution, centrist political expectations have moved toward the right. Many may wonder what this has to do with incarceration. First, the adversarial nature of our criminal justice system ensures that the poorest of in our society are most susceptible to punishment. Second, working class protections such as powerful unions, wage negotiations, and welfare programs have been severely cut, if not eliminated. Third, mental health facilities have been closed, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics tells us that a bulk of jail inmates have been diagnosed with a mental disorder. Combining a legal culture favoring the wealthy, a society that limits worker protections, and the incarceration of the mentally ill creates a powder keg in which mass incarceration is nearly inevitable.

The question now is how to do we stop? How do we shift from a mass incarceration society to a society that consciously works to reduce the inequality of our justice system? I should point out that I do not have all the answers, and, if I did, they could not be spelled out so clearly in this short essay. However, what I do know is that the mass incarceration of adults, of children, and of the mentally ill is a result of policies. It is not an unintended consequence. No, mass incarceration has occurred because policymakers have passed laws that require long sentences, they have dedicated money to hiring more police, they have broadened prosecutorial discretion, among other changes. And, let us not forget that alternatives are available. Instead, of building prisons, we could build schools. Instead, of hiring more cops, we could hire more teachers. And, instead of sending the mentally ill to jails and prisons, we could be dedicated to understanding mental illness and treating it like any other medical condition.

There is no scientific evidence supporting prison as a way to improve people.

These are only a few policy suggestions, but what is really needed is a new way to think about crime, criminals, and crime control. Some may think I am suggesting that we go “soft” on violent criminals. I am not. Some people do very bad things and need to be separated from society. But, we need to restrain the use of institutionalization and use it as sparingly as possible. We also must keep in mind that when a child commits such an act, the neighborhood, community, and society in which they live are responsible. When children commit heinous crimes, and a few do, we must ask: how did our education, welfare, and child protection services fail these children? There is no scientific evidence supporting prison as a way to improve people. Just as we know that eating too much fast-food leads to obesity and a host of health problems, we also know that a fast-food approach to justice fosters a host of social problems.

Source

"No place else in America are there actual ruins like in the South, outside of maybe Detroit or a few..."

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 17:53:03 -0700

“No place else in America are there actual ruins like in the South, outside of maybe Detroit or a few other wasted city neighborhoods. Unlike those urban disaster sites, though, in the South these ruins—crumbling brick walls, or tall, solitary chimneys left from factories and mills that closed forty years ago—are often in little towns. There is a great sadness in this, particularly when you understand that a hundred years ago you would have seen another generation of ruins, the remains of grand plantation houses and early factories burned in the Civil War.”

- http://harpers.org/archive/2012/09/hbc-90008869

"…called for the film’s creator, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, to be put to death. Nakoula, who has..."

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 00:59:31 -0700

“…called for the film’s creator, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, to be put to death. Nakoula, who has served time in prison for counterfeiting checks and has used pseudonyms including Kritbag Difrat, P. J. Tobacco, and Sam Bacile, went into hiding. “Sam said that he was a cancer victim and was gonna die,” said Jimmy Israel, a member of Nakoula’s film crew. “It gave us a lot of sympathy for him.” One Innocence of Muslims actor claimed she thought she was shooting scenes for Desert Warrior, about a tribal battle that breaks out after a comet hits Earth.”

- http://harpers.org/archive/2012/09/hbc-90008877