Daily OpusEverything I write is freely rebloggable. Just keep the source and tell people about my books :D [Until I decide otherwise, my pronouns are Ze/Hir/Hirself. As in "Ze went to the shops to get hir medication hirself". Thank you for the respect.]
RR:
We’re teaming up to highlight an issue that matters a lot to both of
us. It starts with what you might call a “tale of two tickets.” Say you
happen to be going for a drive in Oakland and your car has a broken tail
light. You see the flashing blue lights, and your heart drops. Oh no, you
think, I’m going to get a ticket.
WKB:
Oh c’mon, Robert. You aren’t going to get a ticket. You’re a white,
former secretary of labor. I’m 6’4’’ black guy! I’m going to get a ticket.
RR:
6’4”?
WKB:
Gentle Giant.
RR:
You’re too tall.
WKB:
That’s why this is “a tale of two tickets!” You can have radically
different experiences with getting pulled over depending on your skin color.
Number
one: You’re more likely to get pulled over if you’re black. No surprise. In
2017 in Oakland, California, out of the almost 97,000 black people who live
here, more than 19,000 got pulled over. But of the more than 116,000 white
people who live here, more and more moving in every day, only a few over 2,800
were pulled over. That means you are 10 times more likely to be pulled over
driving while black.
RR:
You know, it’s not just the likelihood of being pulled over. It’s also the
consequences.
Start
with the ticket itself. A broken taillight in California is usually a “fix it”
ticket. If you can fix it, it costs about $35. But if you don’t or can’t
pay, with penalties and assessments, it quickly goes up to $235. And in
a year it can be as high as $835.
WKB:
And for those who have a brush with the criminal justice system as a result of
getting pulled over, who are almost all black, the costs can balloon quickly.
A
so-called free public defender costs, on average, $500.
If
you are convicted and put on probation, you will get a bill for $6,000 just to cover those costs.
If
you are on probation for a prior offense, failing to pay the debt can put you
back in prison. In a tragic irony, it can also put pressure on an individual to
commit a crime just to pay the debt.
This
is what people politely call a cascade of consequences.
WKB:
And what I impolitely call a cascade of s*** (bleeped) on poor communities
generally, and communities of color in particular.
RR:
It’s known academically as “The Criminalization of Poverty.” And it
has to be stopped.
WKB:
Ok, you say, that sucks if you are poor and black. But I’m rich and white. Hey,
I’ve got some news: it’s bad for you, too.
WKB:
That’s why we need to stop the criminalization of poverty. Have you
heard of win-win? Well, this is lose-lose, non-win. It sucks. It’s bad for
EVERYBODY.
RR:
Bad for poor people, bad for the social fabric, and doesn’t even help the
bottom line for government.
WKB:
Our home state of California is helping to lead the charge to stop the
criminalization of poverty. Go to CAdebtjustice.org for more
information. Go. Don’t just watch the video. Go.
Three-time World Taxidermy Champion Ken Walker recreating an extinct Irish elk using DNA studies and Paleolithic cave paintings for reference. Apparently this took 4 elk hides to make!
A book recommended by fieryflyingpanda (thanks!) that talks about this mount and others done by Ken Walker:
If people don’t think women’s bodies are being controlled, they aren’t looking hard enough.
In contrast my husband got a vasectomy and no one even once suggested I might have an opinion on that.
ok so lemme take a minute here to just be fucking mad as all hell.
I don’t like to butt in on people’s posts, lord knows I don’t like starting shit but lemme take a second to tell y'all about getting ur lady bits put out of comission.
I, at the age of 12 years, was diagnosed with PCOS. For you that don’t know what that is, PCOS, or Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome, is a LIFELONG medical condition where groups of cysts grow on your ovaries causing the production of female hormones in your body to go batshit nuts and cause a whole sideshow of different symptoms such as but not limited to:
Irregular cardiac function (it’s a scary time)
severe weight gain and trouble losing weight (i may eat healthy and work out daily but until I was down to 1-2 meals a day of spinach i wasn’t losing weight)
severe adolescent acne, and adult acne
extra hair on the face, chest, arms, legs, thumbs, belly and back (I shave my face everyday before class and usually before I go to bed)
thinning hair on the scalp due to an excess of male hormones
irregular or no periods
HEAVY periods
EXTREME PERIOD PAIN
depression and anxiety
pelvic pain
increased risk for type 2 diabetes
Increased for all female reproductive cancers due to infrequency of periods
Now, TMI, but I recently had my first period in 6 FUCKING YEARS. Due to the nature of PCOS generally when you have a period it’s because one of the cysts on your ovaries has burst releasing a flood of hormones into your system as well as built up toxins. Basically, when I had mine my body went into full on panic mode, nausea and vomiting, extreme fatigue, mood swings like you wouldn’t believe, my body went from being relatively alright to the cliffs of fucking Gallipoli in an hour flat. The kicker was on top of all that I had cramping so bad I actually blacked out.
Given that I know this is likely to happen again before I reach menopause, I decided to book an appointment with my local Planned Parenthood (applaud those lovely people and what they do) to see what my options were to make sure it never happens again. After telling me about various hormonal treatments they could prescribe me (not pills but IUDs shots and various other things) I asked them if it was possible for me to get a partial hysterectomy. A partial hysterectomy removes the uterus but keeps the ovaries so that they still are able to produce estrogen. The lady I had the appointment with looked at me with a look of the utmost pity and told me that unfortunately due to my age there would be likely no chance for any doctor to do it. When I pressed her on the topic she said that the most common excuse doctors will give you for it is that you’re too young, you might change your mind and want to have children later in life.
Now I dunno if y’all reading this are currently seeing anything wrong with this scenario here but I was told that I, someone who can’t have kids, doesn’t want kids, has never wanted kids, and would be put at severe risk of life threatening complications, have to have had children before anyone would consider giving me a surgery that not only would undoubtedly improve the quality of my life but also remove
Well, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to get a referral from her during the appointment, I went home and decided to research this bullshit. Turns out that there is something commonly evoked when women want to have any part of their reproductive system put out of commission called the three child rule. Basically if you are young, doctors usually wont let you get either a hysterectomy or a partial hysterectomy UNLESS you have already had three children.
HOLD THE MOTHERFUCKING PHONE FOR A WHOLE SECOND AND THINK ABOUT THIS
By most doctors standards, YOU are REQUIRED as a woman to PHYSICALLYGIVE BIRTH to at least 3 CHILDREN before you are able to have any of your reproductive system removed or decommissioned.
And that isn’t even the worst part of it all, these standards DO NOT change when the patient is at high risk for reproductive cancers!
How fucking miserable is it that to take control of your own fucking health in a first world country a woman has to have submitted to the gender roles of having children or actually have contracted cancer or some other immediately life threatening condition.
remember being little and thinking dandelions were fun or a pretty color or something and every adult in an 80 mile radius wouldn’t let you say that without screaming ITS A WEED
also like:
dandelions are edible, easy to grow, and are rich in vitamins a, c, k, beta-carotene, calcium, iron, manganese, and potassium
dandelions can be made into wine, tea, soft drinks, and a coffee substitute
they are used in herbal remedies to treat liver and digestive problems and as a diuretic
they’re good for bees!
they make good companion plants for various herbs and tomatoes; their long taproot helps bring up nutrients in the soil and they release ethylene gas which ripens fruit
dandelions secrete latex which means they can be used to make natural rubber
they make great flower crowns
Why ARE they considered a weed? They’re a good flower? Who decided they were bad? =(
lawn culture made the decision to consider dandelions weeds
They make great honey
“lawn culture” is such an interesting concept!
I can definitely see my neighbour back home embody it. We live in a rural area but he’s desperate to live like it’s the suburbs, and he’s trying to coerce the land around his house into being a uniform grassy lawn. So he blasts the hell out of it with herbicide and he kills the grass too, along with the lovely wildflowers. So he just has bare dirt that flows away down the hill when it rains, and he gives the bees nothing to eat.
He’s offered to spray my family’s property too, but my anti-lawn hippie dad politely but firmly declined.
-they implied everyone can/should be vegan, ignoring issues of poverty & health that make it impractical or impossible for many people
-they tried to make you feel bad about eating something
-they believe that the current animal abuse/environmental contamination/health crisis is caused by individual consumers rather than the manipulative capitalism of the meat and dairy industries
-they support PETA (eww peta)
Bad reasons to get mad at a vegan:
-they asked you about the ingredients of a food to find out if they can eat it
-they asked if your group could go to a restaurant with a vegan option
-you asked them to explain why they are vegan and they answered
-they got mad when you made fun of their diet
To add it’s completely valid to get mad at a vegan who thinks it’s okay to put carnivorous animals on a vegan diet.
