Showing posts with label prison complex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prison complex. Show all posts

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Sunday Snippets: I'm tired

I'm tired of reading of another black person shot by police, another trans* person murdered, another woman ignored in death.

Fucking stop it, goddammit.

Fucked up

Why Protestors Turn Violent

When you saw "The Hunger Games," who did you root for? Katniss and her beleaguered community? Or people in the Capitol wearing pink eyelashes and obliviously eating until they vomited while the people in other districts starved? I'm going to assume the former because the movie makes it clear: The government is oppressing the people in District Twelve, and we are supposed to cheer for them as they attempt to overthrow a structure that is unfair to them.

Ok, next question: When you saw the protests in Baltimore, who did you feel for? Because if what you did was look down on the protestors for disturbing the peace, break out the rainbow wigs and sparkle mascara because you might be from the Capitol.

Huh, what a notion

School to prison pipeline facts

Cool shots over Lake Michigan

Horrifying (TW)

"Where’s all the anti-choice, I mean, “”pro-life”“ activists"

#SayHerName

“On May 20, 2015 the African American Policy Forum, the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia University and Andrea Ritchie, Soros Justice Fellow and expert on policing of women and LGBT people of color released #SayHerName: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women, a document highlighting stories of Black women who have been killed by police and shining a light on forms of police brutality often experienced by women such as sexual assault.” Please Read this Important Report: http://bit.ly/1cR27AO via AAPF

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Sunday Snippets: The Year of all of the Things

I have two first birthday parties, a bridal shower, a wedding, our vow renewal, and a huge work conference in the next two months. I miss sleep.

Belgium is abolishing all prison sentences under one year

“A short prison sentence, a try-out in jail, rarely leads to good results. It does not contribute to re-integration, but helps inmates to learn bad habits,” Mr Geens told MPs on the announcement of the measures.



Cats in a nutshell

I love dogs When I lived with friends during college breaks, they had the most hyper dog ever. She was a sweetie but a nut. Whenever I had bad endo pains flare, she knew immediately and would come and lay her head on my lap until I felt better.

My jaw hit the floor  In what universe is this ok?

Very cool! And not just because I'm married to a mechanic.

Important PSA

Yeah, fuck Indiana

Stuff it: Millennials nix their parents’ treasures

Because this makes sense

Color me surprised that this was a response

Awful

22-year-old Ramsey Orta, the young man who filmed the NYPD killing Eric Garner, was arrested shortly after on trumped up charges. He has since been locked up at the notorious Rikers prison in New York.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Sunday Snippets: Dear Spring, Is that You?

I was able to shed my winter coat on Saturday. And it's supposed to be in the 50's all this week!

Bonus: National Women's Day is today!

And there it is

Flying kitty!

TW: Rape in the American Prison System A very hard read but a necessary one

Fucking this

YES

Dear God, fuck the phrase "choreplay"

Besides, those men who will only pick up a broom because the faint promise of fellatio is in the offing are not the type of men who are likely that interested in ongoing equality at home. There are but a few men who don’t know that the cultural expectation today is that they’ll do a fair share of the housework; saying that it’ll take a little T&A to convince them to vacuum just reinforces that women are supposed to provide sex and do all the housework in the first place. That’s not leaning in as much as it’s going in reverse.


You have a problem with children being children?

Selma Anniversary

Even as the nation continues to deal with the harsh realities of racism today, the quality of life for black Americans has improved in many ways since Selma's "Bloody Sunday" 50 years ago. But we still have a long way to go. As the ceremonies begin this weekend to celebrate the landmark civil rights march, it is important to reflect on the progress -- or a lack of it -- that's occurred when it comes to true racial justice and equality for all African-Americans.

So sad, but a happy ending Also file under, Fuck People

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Sunday Snippets: Oh, look snow.

We're supposed to get a lot of snow tonight.

Snow was a lot more fun when I was a kid.

Fucking horrifying

Truncated version: drugged at a party, abducted to a motel, wakes up during unwanted sexual violation in a motel room full of strangers, fights like hell to escape, motel employee calls the authorities, she gets arrested for destroying motel property and it just gets worst from there.

#FreeAmir

I love cats sometimes

Still Waiting

What a damn shock

Go read this

John Cummings spent 16 years turning an old plantation in Louisiana into a slavery memorial. This year, the Whitney Plantation opened its doors to the public for the first time in its 262 year history, as the only plantation museum in Louisiana with a focus on slavery.

Yup! God forbid we have meaningful conversations about race on any other day.

*headdesk*

Yes.

Ugh I once got the dirtiest glare from a man who kept trying to shove my knee over with his legs. On a Metro seat where there was plenty of room.

"Stop playing the race card...?" Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight





LOVE THIS I'm the biggest sucker for baby announcements.







A pastor in Seoul, South Korea has created a “baby box” for people so that people who would otherwise abandon or kill their newborns can leave them somewhere safe instead. The box has a light, a towel lining, and a bell rings as soon as a baby is placed in it so the pastor, his wife, or one of his staff can come and get it right away.
But it's totally alright for white people to carry

According to the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office, 62-year-old Clarence Daniels was entering Walmart with his legally concealed firearm to buy coffee creamer on Tuesday when he was spotted by 43-year-old vigilante Michael Foster.

Foster, who is white, had observed Daniels conceal the weapon under his coat before he came into the store. When Daniels crossed the threshold, Foster tackled him and placed him in a chokehold, Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Larry McKinnon explained.

#PardonHer

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Sunday Snippets: Yay summer!

I am rejoicing the warmer weather. Even when I drive a black car with leather seats. It's okay, I didn't need skin or anything.

Because cats & This is what is like to have a cat, period. & Even big cats are kitties at heart

Wonderful news

AHEAD OF HER TIME’: YURI KOCHIYAMA (1921-2014)

Disgusting

Very Cool!

Now, though, she's planning to embark this month on a flight around the world, a trip that closely replicates the 1937 journey of the original — and more famous — Amelia Earhart. If she's successful, this Amelia, at 31, will be the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine aircraft.

Completely awful

Alba Quiñones Flores started her period the first week that she was in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection. Every morning, a guard delivered sanitary napkins to her cell of 20 women—but only four or five pads for all of them. Quiñones couldn't scramble to the door fast enough to claim one. She'd injured her ankle crossing the Mexican border before CBP picked her up near Falfurrias, Texas, and she still hadn't received first aid. A CBP agent had thrown out the pills and insulin she needed to treat her myriad health problems, including hypertension, diabetes, migraines, anxiety, and convulsions. So Quiñones wound up using the same, single sanitary pad for her entire period.
Bad-ass

If you are reading this, thank this woman. Her name is Grace Hopper, and she is one of the most under appreciated computer scientists ever. You think Gates and Jobs were cool? THIS WOMAN WORKED ON COMPUTERS WHEN THEY TOOK UP ROOMS. She invented the first compiler, which is a program that translates a computer language like Java or C++ into machine code, called assembly, that can be read by a processor. Every single program you use, every OS and server, was made possible by her first compiler.
Ah, childhood.

The third one makes me want to scream and punch something Because WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU.

Heartwarming "Mommy Wars" my ass

Say what you will, but this is a family that seems to really love each other

Welp, that's one of the most adorable things I've ever seen

To Read: Yes, all I had no idea about the first one.

And people wondered why I'm terrified of the ocean/deep water Because it will eat your soul.

Fuck. Yes. Awesome and lifesaving idea.

Because if you deviate from the norm.... *off to find the book*

Ugh. Truth

Smaller Closets I also did some thinking on this subject this week.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Sunday Snippets: Anniversary Edition

Wednesday, I've been married to my guy for four years. I'm still unable to process how we are almost half way through 2014, so there's that too.

What the hell? Just awful.

A good practice to try

Also useful—never go to bed messy: My partner and I have taken to reserving a solid half-hour at the end of every evening for getting our apartment in order—this means washing all dishes, straightening and spot cleaning the living room, quick-wiping the bathroom, and corralling any stray items that have wandered out of place in the bedroom.

Yup!  If I had a nickel for every time I had to say, "But not all men are like that...." I would be a rich motherfucker.

Found my new desk

Wonderful to see this happening

Later, William's concern led him to ask his mother to drive him to the local grocery store so he could talk to the manager about starting a food drive. When his mother, Blythe Clifford, asked him what was bothering him so much, he told her:

"I can’t stand the thought of my classmates being hungry."



Feels But so true

What. The. FUCK I have lost the ability to even with this crap.




Sunday, March 30, 2014

Sunday Snippets: Oh, look snow....again.....*cries*

Rape culture, what rape culture? & An article by Zerlina Maxwell

Gah! SO cute!

Feels! I love random acts of kindness.

YES! I'm so beyond tired of blackface, it's wrong, plain and simple.

What. The. Hell. Footage I got of being HARASSED by Lou Ann Zelenik and others after a court hearing. Islamaphobia is alive and well in this part of the U.S.


Endo Awareness Month Endometriosis is a weird and kind of unbelievable disease. It’s hard to describe, and it involves a top-secret body part called the uterus that you don’t hear about it much, but it affects 157 million of women across the world. (Check out this video.) Because it's underrepresented in medical training and causes debilitating pain that can’t be measured, tested, or seen on scans, you have a nice recipe for an invisible disease relegated to "crazy women."

Yup! I remember being told by a coworker, after I said I wasn't feeling well, I had to leave early and they just looked at me, sighed, and said, "You don't look sick." I had a boss tell me that, that she couldn't stop me if I really needed to leave early.

Exactly! As you can see from the chart above, the Zero Waste lifestyle is actually more about not doing(i.e, not participating in unsustainable activities) than it is about doing (working on Zero Waste) as one would expect. For me, Not participating in unsustainable activities has made room for living more, along side working a fulfilling full-time job.

Interview with Ariel Gore Her new book, The End of Eve, is out. Go buy it. Seriously.


(Photo credit: http://i-am-a-child-of-time.tumblr.com/post/80903611484/jake-english-i-teach-my-class-about-privilege)


Yay!!! That human rights wrong was corrected today when the Maryland House of Delegates voted 82-57 to pass SB 212, the Fairness for All Marylanders Act! This bill, unlike the unjust 2011 one I blasted all over these TransGriot pages at the time along with a coalition of trans people just as pissed off about the unjust bill, expand Maryland's anti-discrimination laws to protect transgender people in employment, housing, access to credit and public accommodations.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Sunday Snippets: Oh, there's snow again edition

How marvelous. I'm going to go cry into wine.

Truth about cats and Part II

(TW) Completely awful

Relatives say the two women went to Galveston for Mardi Gras. Detectives believe they were killed elsewhere and their bodies moved. Reports also indicate that they were murdered in different ways. It’s currently unclear whether this was a hate crime or there was some other motive for the murder. “That was her girlfriend, that was her soulmate,” James Randle, neighbor to Britney Cosby, told ABC.

Who in the what thought this was a good idea? Me, shuddering in the corner


As same-sex couples marry, they will be forced to re-imagine many tenets of your “traditional marriage.” In doing so, they will face a series of complicated questions: Should one of us change our last name? And if so, who? Should we have kids? Do we want to have kids? How do we want to have kids? Whose last name do our kids take?

LOL-They are hysterical


I was talking about Occupy Wall Street, which kind of gave us elements of activism. But we are not in a 99 percent world. We are in a world with serious class complexes. It is one thing to be a college student with loan debts and another thing to be just dirt poor for your entire life.




That means moving away from the incremental strategy – 20 week bans, admitting privileges laws for clinics – and sticking to banning all abortion without exceptions, equating hormonal birth control (even the daily pill kind) with abortion, and advocating that women who have abortions be tried as murderers.


Venezuela’s soldiers are killing their people. The Government is sending their armed gangs to kill them and they have censored all the media in their country, even blocking photos posted on social media sites. They shut down all the cable channels that broadcast news, so they can’t know what’s going on. The people have no source of protection at all.

(Photo credit: http://jessehimself.tumblr.com/post/79032254235)


Sunday, February 23, 2014

Sunday Snippets: Cold Edition

The up and down weather has succeeded in giving me a cold. I'm making a bubble to live in.

Jesse Williams is now a favorite Not quite sure how he keeps calm with the rage inducing questions the interviewer was asking...

Jordan Davis

THE “LOUD MUSIC” COMING FROM THE CAR WHERE JORDAN DAVIS SAT WAS NO DIFFERENT THAN THE “LOUD MUSIC” THAT CAME FROM THE OUTLAWED DRUMS OF OUR ANCESTORS. THE FEAR ISN’T NEW. IT’S HISTORICAL. WHEN WE WERE ENSLAVED AND UNDER VIOLENT SUPPRESSION, AFRICAN AMERICANS HAD NO CHOICE BUT COMPLY, TO USE A STICK INSTEAD OF A DRUM, TO MAKE SURE OUR FEET DIDN’T LEAVE THE FLOOR SO WE WOULDN’T BE PUNISHED FOR DANCING.

Oof, this poem

This is horrible. (TW)

Michael A. Geldrich, 36, and Michael J. Watson, 39, are both being held in the Warren County Jail for the December 1 beating death of the young Payne. Miami Valley Hospital workers discovered that Payne had been sexually assaulted during the attack. Hospital personnel contacted Middletown police and stated the teen had been sexually assaulted, according to the police report. But thus far, no rape charges have been brought, and hate crime charges have been dismissed point blank by Franklin Police Chief Russ Whitman, who said there is “no evidence” that there was a racial motive to the rape and murder of this 16-year-old African American.

Love this photo project

Life Once Removed is a whimsical yet thought-provoking portrait series by photographer and self-described spinster Suzanne Heintz that explores the societal expectancy of women to get married and start a family. The photographer places herself in front of the camera with a set of mannequins, posing as though they're a nuclear, all-American family from a postcard or perhaps a 1950s sitcom.


Throughout the late 19th century, and well into the 1950′s, Africans and in some cases Native Americans, were kept as exhibits in zoos. Far from a relic from an unenlightened past, remnants of such exhibits have continued in Europe as late as the 2000′s.

Kick ass teens!

What. The. Fuck: Part 2 (TW)

Charda Gregory abducted, humiliated, violated, restrained, scalped and tortured.
If this were reversed, with black police officers who were sworn to uphold peace and justice but instead were documented victimizing a white woman (who was already a victim), this news would have trumped the Olympics!

Fucking truth I'm furious every time Beiber is mentioned as some poor young kid.

More reason to love Orlando Jones

The prison system is a thousand words for disgusting and abhorrent.

Awesome new project

D'aww, kitty paws!

Pretty much. Pawing through used bookstores is one of my favorite things to do. More book love

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Sunday Snippets: Oh, hey, there's more snow Edition

Exactly Once again, focused on men/how we define ourselves around them. See also.

Brb, dying of laughter That last cat!!

Words fail me. (TW)

Altogether, 36 percent of all staff members were involved in some form of sexual abuse, creating a “toxic environment.” Of 223 letters from prisoners, 25 percent of them described sexual misconduct, and 55 percent mentioned “vile and degrading language directed at prisoners.” Nevertheless inmates are hesitant to report the systemic abuse because of backlash for filing complaints. In cases when women did speak up, they “were placed in segregation with limited or no access to a telephone, visitors, or programs for an extended time period,” forced to undergo polygraph tests to determine if they were lying, and “verbally harassed” by staff members.


Still angry from the 1978 confrontation with police, which resulted in 9 MOVE members being sentenced to 30 to 100 years in prison, they refused. The police then began throwing tear gas and opening fire at the house. The MOVE house had been built as a bunker and they began shooting back. After hours of shooting, the Police called for a helicopter and dropped a BOMB on the house. Yup, you read right. The cops dropped a bomb in the middle of a neighborhood in Philly. It’s Crazy how far America will go to subdue Black people. After the bomb dropped, 65 homes were destroyed and 11 people including 5 small children were killed.

Janet Mock is freaking awesome I watched the second interview she did with Piers Morgan and had to sit on my hands to keep from punching my computer monitor. That self righteous jackass, ugh!

On a lighter note, this actually exists. I'm not sure why I'm surprised, but I am.


Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Snippets: Pre-Thanksgiving Edition

Signed off from work at noon (ish) and don't have to think about work again until Monday. Mmmmmm.

This post was supposed to be up on Sunday but we got to fight our plumbing again. Thankfully, after spending an hour in the cold rain this week augering our sewage pipe in the front yard, it appears to have fixed the issue. Of course, now it looks like the problem was root intrusion. What is the benefit of home ownership again?

Be still my heart Because honestly, why else do we use the internet if not to look up adorable pictures like this? I love furry four legged critters so much, I will be that cat lady at 60.

THE FLUFF I would use this kitty as a pillow.

Stunning Mother Nature is awesome. The end.

About Zimmerman (TW for violence)

The issue here isn’t that this white woman called the police because she feared for her life - that is legitimate and the police acted appropriately. The issue is that the police did not act appropriately the last time this violent aggressor harmed someone. The issue isn’t that the police picked him up in less than 44 minutes, it’s that for Trayvon they didn’t bother to arrest this asshole for 44 days.


I want to marry these photos. Cause damn. The one with the leaves falling in the sunlight? SWOON

Truth Why is it I find more knowledge on Tumblr than my supposed "liberal arts" college?


It’s no exaggeration to say that distrust of women is the driving force of the “social issuesagenda of the Republican Party. From food stamps and “legitimate rape,” to violence against women and immigration policy. “We need to target the mother. Call it sexist, but that’s the way nature made it,” explained the man who penned Arizona’s immigration law. “Men don’t drop anchor babies, illegal alien mothers do.” I could do this ad infinitum.


These women know that their position of power is threatened by woc and this is why white mainstream feminism is always been exclusionary to woc.





The president has been ridiculed as an elitist for suggesting that more people go to college. So if you think there’s no political risk, maybe you haven’t been paying attention. Also, you misunderstand the place Michelle Obama occupies as the first African-American first lady. You seem to think she is steering clear of the “Angry Black Woman” stereotype.

But when she calls herself mom-in-chief, she is rejecting a different stereotype–the role of Mammy. She is saying that her daughters–her vulnerable, brilliant, beautiful black daughters–are the most important thing to her. The first lady is saying, “You, Miss Ann, will have to clean your own house, because I will be caring for my own.” Instead of agreeing that the public sphere is more imporant than Sasha and Malia, she buried Mammy and embraced being a mom on her own terms.


A guide to anxiety disorders YES. My anxiety disorder still pops up on occasion but I'm so thankful that I was in a position to get the help needed for it.

Damn. (TW for rape) I won't even try to summarize. Just go read this poem.

When the fuck are people going to learn? I mean, honestly. Blackface is not okay and never will be. Neither is this shit, Katy Perry.

THIS. I would also highly recommend Angela Davis' book, Are Prisons Obsolete?

The U.S. imprisons more people than any other society in the history of the world, with more than 2 million people currently behind bars, and private companies are gunning for more (PDF). The Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), just one of several private prison companies, netted $1.7 billion dollars in 2010. CCA’s president and CEO, Damon Hininger, made $3.2 million in 2010. The Geo Group, another top prison company, raked in $1.2 billion and paid its CEO, George Zoley, $3.4 million the same year. The federal government and state governments across the nation funnel money into these private prisons, making them a multibillion dollar industry.

And this is even putting aside how fucking racist the prison system is. Absolutely shameful and disgusting.


Some days, it makes me want to hug my fiancé so terribly tightly and run away to somewhere where no one knows us, maybe live as gypsies on the road. Maybe I can outrun this legacy.

But I don’t do that. Instead, I clear away the pile of yesterday’s mail, invite my family over for Thanksgiving dinner around my small clean table, offer surface conversation, and am grateful I’m an adult and can define my own space. That I can build my own baby family, and that, together, he and I can fight the inertia and build something beautiful instead.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Sunday Snippets: Anniversary Edition

The husband and I are celebrating ten years since our first date this week. In other news, I'll be off to pluck gray hairs. :)

I definitely need this Because ball pits are the best. And this.

This man should not be legally allowed to be this adorable If you aren't watching Sleepy Hollow, I feel sorry for you. See also, Tom Hiddleston.

Love Dooce. That is all. The twitter grabs she find are usually hysterical, but the "dinosaurs are really Jesus horses" killed me completely.

Oh, the feels. I still have my teddy from childhood, who has been repaired countless times. No better feeling than cuddling with an old favorite stuffed animal.

What.The.Fuck No seriously. They are advocating kidnapping now?!?!

I need these hanging on my walls.

Great tips to simplify your life Awesome ideas.

Yes, why can't we do this? Oh, right because there is big money in prisons here.

Ugh. This guy. Dateable my ass.

So sad this is true


Cats on the Interwebz (because why else does the internet exist?)

Cats in scarves

#Dead.

LOL & hahahahaha & I feel bad for laughing.

All cats. Everywhere. They own us and know it.

Hysterical