Everyone’s just like,
Eating Wheaties, drinking Fiji, being greedy...
Ask me anything
May 1, 2012
WHEN THE COLLEGE KID IN A WHARTON GROUP PROJECT CHIMES IN
April 18, 2012
U.S. Judges Admit to Jailing Children for Money
Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan of the Court of Common Pleas in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, plead guilty in open court that they sentenced children to juvenile detention because they were paid off to do it by the PA Childcare and a sister company, Western PA Childcare corporation that ran the private facilities.
[…]
The companies in question paid the two judges more than $2.6 million dollars to send children to detention. The companies receive a stipend from the government for each inmate they house. So as more children were sentenced to the detention center, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare received more money from the government, prosecutors said.
According to the Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia nonprofit group, teenagers were sentenced to detention for simple misdemeanors.
“The two judges face up to seven years in prison under a plea agreement made with the state.”
They made millions of dollars by selling children (and driving them to suicide), and all they get is a handful of years? The US legal system is a joke and people who pretend we have the rule of law are the punchline.
(Source: sarahlee310)
March 27, 2012
Adjust Your Aim: Keep the Trayvon Martin Case about Justice
For the few who don’t know, Trayvon Martin was fatally shot by neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, while walking home, unarmed, to his parent’s house. Zimmerman followed Martin after flagging him as suspicious, perhaps due to his hoodie and perhaps due to his skin color. Following the DP article yesterday Aya Saed, I notice a very troubling comment section at the bottom of the article. It seems that in the span of a few weeks since this story broke, the debate about whether Zimmerman should stand trial for shooting Trayvon has sadly broken down along political and racial lines.
On the side of people seemingly not ready for Zimmerman to accept full blame, people have said all manner of things. The Sanford police department has gone on what can be best described as a smear campaign, releasing ancillary details about marijuana use as if that is a relevant offense or capitol offense. People have already started extrapolating on that, claiming that since he may have been smoking weed, he had to have also been smoking PCP, as if that is a relevant or capitol offense. Presidential hopeful, Newt Gingrich called Obama’s extension of sympathy to parents who lost their young son “disgraceful”. Fox News journalist Geraldo River tweeted “His hoody killed Trayvon Martin as surely as George Zimmerman”. Even others have been searching earnestly for a reason to side with Zimmerman because they do not want to be on the losing side of what they consider a race war.
On the side calling for Zimmerman’s punishment people have been saying all manner of things as well. People have been dwelling on the fact that Zimmerman is half-white, as if simply having white blood is reason enough to indict someone for killing a black person. Others have scoffed at the fact that Trayvon could have possibly overcome a man who had 100lbs on him. Yet others have tried to dismiss evidence showing that Trayvon is an average teenager, including his suspension for possession of marijuana residue.
The posturing on both sides needs to stop. It would be horrible for this case to devolve into what the OJ Simpson trial was— a racial skirmish where facts were of little to no value. The movement here is justice for Trayvon Martin; not the prosecution of Zimmerman, or the post-mortem slander of Trayvon nor the slander of those seeking justice for him. No group should try to score any points from this.
While I personally believe that race played a factor into the police’s seemingly casual handling of the crime scene, I cannot be sure. I am troubled by the amount of people choosing the “what I can I do not to believe this?” line of reasoning instead of the “can I believe this” line because I think it highlights some deep-seeded underlying issues. However, I have been a part of the uproar about the lack of investigation, and now that it is being thoroughly investigated, I am content to sit back and wait for the results instead of spewing irrelevant vitriol in the air. I hope more people can do the same.
March 27, 2012
March 14, 2012
I am absolutely obsessed with this interlude. Great piano cover by this dude.
March 13, 2012
Simplified American Budget Too Simple
I saw this on Facebook, did one of those google image searches via image and it told me that its been bouncing around the internet for a while. Pretty sobering look at the U.S. budget. At the end it says “vote them out and demand a balanced budget”.
Sounds great but my mantra has always been “beware anyone heralding a simple solution to a complex problem”. Nothing about the governing the United States of America is easy. You will undoubtedly hear some conservative Ron Paul type whining about the United State’s foreign aid program, welfare while at the same time decrying taxes. Two problems with this….
First, conservatives love to point at the small potato budget items that they don’t like anyway as a way to reduce spending, like funding for Planned Parenthood, which is a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the U.S. Budget. However the real budgetary concerns lie with entitlement programs like medicaid and medicare. It is very easy to talk about cutting programs unpopular with one’s base, but in the words of one dear heart during the infamous townhalls of the 2010 midterm elections, the general sentiment about the issue is “Keep your government hands off my medicaid!!”. When conservatives are willing to talk about changing medicare, medicaid and social security which collectively make up 40% of the budget (and actually defense which takes up another 21% of the budget) I may be able to take them seriously. Stop talking about the easy stuff. Take a stance on the difficult-to-solve issues.
Secondly, conservatives like to talk about cutting taxes because it’s easy. Refer to the chart above. Is the way for the hypothetical family in the chart to close their budget gap a decrease in income? No. If one was trying to climb out of debt, the way to do it would not be to quit their job. Like it or not, America has spent its way into a hole that it will have to buy itself out of. The least you can do is keep tax rates the same, instead of raising them on the poor and cutting them for the super-rich like every viable republican candidate wants to do. Giving tax breaks to the rich is the accounting equivalent of handing them welfare checks that they (we) do not need.
Obama is the first Democratic president in about 6 decades to see a deficit increase under his watch. The past 4 Republican presidents have all presided over increases in the federal deficit. And that is because he pulling this country out of the morass that Bush created during his 8 years in office.
This election year, do not fall for easy republican talking points.
February 29, 2012
February 22, 2012
"The U.S. doesn’t negotiate with terrorist, and I don’t negotiate with subtweeters. AND NO THIS IS TOTALLY NOT A SUBTWEET. THIS IS A SUBTUMBLOGPOST."
February 21, 2012
February 21, 2012
February 21, 2012
What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Happy Birthday Rihanna!
Thanks for sharing some of your ‘Birthday Cake’ with us!
Pleasantries aside Chris Brown beat the living daylights out of Rihanna. He smashed her head against the window, punched her and threatened her life. Absolutely horrible stuff. Right after the incident women came out of the woodworks to offer advice. The media treated Rihanna as if she had already decided to go back. Battered women were booked for morning shows begging Rihanna not to go back. I watched the coverage with my mouth ajar.
Before her bruises had healed and she opened her mouth to speak about the incident people acted like she was seriously considering running back to Chris Brown, and that it would be an international green light for men to hit women and for women to stay in abusive relationship. Of course she came back and said that she was done with him.
Now Rihanna has released two new songs with Chris Brown right after his Grammy win and performance brought questions of whether or not he should still be in timeout for his heinous actions. The backlash has been immediate.
I have two problems for this.
- To a lesser degree, I think people are making decisions for another adult with incomplete information
- More importantly, Rihanna has not, nor should ever be a role model for any one anywhere.
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Incomplete information
For all we know, they have made serious amends and are back at a place where they can be friends with each other. This does not mean abuse is ok. This means that people can work through horrible situations and arrive at a place where they can be amicable. No one shouts at a mother who has pity on the killer of her child and likewise, no one should do it to Rihanna. Reconciliation like the Blacks and the Afrikaners did after Apartheid can be a beautiful thing… as long as what happened in the past will never, ever happen again… ever.
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Rihanna should be no one’s role model
The “role model” issue comes up all of the time when dealing with celebrities. I fuggin’ hate it. People love to claim that celebrities are ruining society by making bad decisions, somehow convincing kids that they should do the same. It’s a bad parent’s favorite cop out.
Someone simply being in the public eye does not mean they should live their life in a way that should be acceptable to 13 year olds or 25 year olds. You cannot temper what a starlet outside of your house does but you can always decide what you do personally as a parent. Parents should be role models for their kids and actively monitor who their kids pay attention to and temper what they are bombarded with from the outside. To underscore my point, kids cannot legally purchase Rihanna’s music without parental consent. Rihanna makes music for adults. The song in question is one of the most lewd songs I’ve heard from a platinum-selling female artist in years. Justin Beiber and the good folks Disney Channel do a fabulous job of providing kid-friendly music for the masses to enjoy. Other than “Pon De’ Replay” most of Rihanna’s music should be off-limits any way.
If you are an adult and think that Rihanna’s dealings with Chris Brown are the guidelines for your life you have way more problems than you think. For one, there are a plethora of female role models who are more worthy of your attention- from Michelle Obama to Tyra Banks to Jennifer Hudson. You are choosing unsavory role models consciously. Also at this point, you should have heard from kindergarten that hitting is bad. I do not want to seem flippant about the issues abusees deal with but honestly, adults shouldn’t be looking up to a 24 year old for advice on whether or not its okay for someone to beat them to the point where they are about to lose consciousness.
But it takes two do a duet like “Birthday Cake”. Let’s talk about Chris for a second.
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Conclusion
I think Chris Brown has handled the entire situation very poorly. While he might feel genuine regret internally, he has done an absolute 3rd rate of job of showing it to the public. He often is combative with people who chide him for beating up his girlfriend instead of simply ignoring them or displaying humility when responding to them. But then again, he doesn’t actually owe the public anything. He didn’t invent domestic abuse and sadly, he will not be the last one to be violent with his significant other. He only owes himself some counseling and Rihanna his sincerest apologies. The judge in charge of Chris’s probation complemented Brown on being a model for how to carry out one’s sentence and Rihanna seems to be coming around so let’s assume he has satisfied those requirements.
In a day where Jodie foster can do movies with rapists like Roman Polansky rape young women with impunity and Mel Gibson can abuse his wife, offend Jewish people and say some of the most racist things about blacks (“I hope you get raped by a gang of niggers”), within the span of a year and not hear a word about it I am calling “shenanigans” on the media for chiding Rihanna this song. It sure is nice to grab that moral high ground for the folks at home, but at least be equitable in your treatment of folks.
As I said reconciliation can be a beautiful thing as long as there is no resurrection of past behaviors. At the end of it though, lets remember who the victim is and that as a musical artist, Rihanna doesn’t owe you anything but good music. She is an adult making the decisions that affect her life. Let’s afford her the opportunity to do that without drawing ire.
February 19, 2012
February 18, 2012
"Fox News doesn’t care about black people"
February 15, 2012
I Hate This So Much #1: Facebook Apologists
Congratulations!
Someone has gone out of their way to personally invite you to their birthday party, baby shower or performing arts of event!
Let’s make a list of ways to thank them.
- Tell them you cannot go for some lame, half-ass’d reason like “Its my dog’s birthday” or “I have a Spanish quiz the next day” or “I’m getting married”.
- Leave your horrible reason on their facebook page, joining other people who have lame reasons for not being able to go to the party.
- Have facebook send a message to every invited to the group that you cannot go to the event for whatever weak excuse you gave.
- Sit back as people who have not yet visited the event page and are deciding whether or not to go read your comment about not going to the event and decided to click “maybe attending” instead of “yes”.
Please by all means, RSVP to the party. If you are going leave a message that says “Yes, can’t wait to be there!” or “I hope you guys don’t mind if I bring my hot friend”. If you are not going, hang your head in shame, find a less public way to send your regrets and enjoy studying for you Spanish quiz, you square.
This has been “I Hate This So Much”, a series of rants by yours truly. Hate is just negativity leaving the body. Forgive me for being happy.
