Drop the Links!

~ Clarissa

I’m coming back to the US and I’m wondering what I have missed.

Please consider leaving the links to articles you believe to be interesting or important for me to read or comment on.

Thank you!

Unknown's avatar

Published by Clarissa

57 thoughts on “Drop the Links!”

  1. Not much, Clarissa. John Brennan was still appointed to be the director of the CIA despite Rand Paul’s long testimony, which I believe was around 13 hours. Paul did get exactly what he wanted in the end and White House officials admitted that it would be unconstitutional to launch drone strikes against American citizens on US soil. I know you don’t like Rand Paul for various reasons, but I admire what he’s doing in some respects and how long he was able to give his speech.

    Hugo Chavez died a couple of days ago and this guy is going to become the interim president of Venezuela.

    http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/08/world/americas/venezuela-maduro-capriles/index.html?iref=allsearch

    CNN had another great article on Chavez’s death but I haven’t been able to find it. There was a great comment in there by a Veneuzuelan about how much of a terrible leader Chavez was and how he made his people poorer.

    Like

    Reply

      1. The strange part is that just like with Putin, a lot of people have been trying to defend Chavez on places like YouTube. I don’t understand why people defend elitist scam artists like this.

        Like

        Reply

      1. This online paper I will be writing for is strange. There are a lot of Shonalisms that deeply resemble Freudian slips, for instance, the “passion and hassle” involved in starting a small business in Zimbabwe becomes “passion and hustle.”

        Like

        Reply

        1. “There are a lot of Shonalisms that deeply resemble Freudian slips, for instance, the “passion and hassle” involved in starting a small business in Zimbabwe becomes “passion and hustle.””

          🙂 :-0 🙂

          Like

          Reply

    1. And in those theomisogynists’ ultimate hypocrisy, they offered her job to her fiance.

      It also shows why anti-choicers really are about controlling women’s sex lives, and not with preventing abortions. Firing someone for getting pregnant provides a powerful inducement for having an abortion.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Well it’s probably relatively safe to assume that the pictures were essentially the type shown with the article (esp since despite the best efforts of the state no evidence of abuse was found).

        Like

        Reply

        1. I see no reason to assume this, knowing how easily many parents violate their children’s boundaries. Sadly, a persistent violation of personal boundaries and privacy has the same effects in adulthood as an actual rape.

          Like

          Reply

        1. “Why those parents take that kind of pictures?”

          – I don;t know, I find the whole thing to be very creepy. At the age of 5, normally developing children already have a sense that their genitals should not be exposed. Why the parents would make such photos available to strangers and whether the girls were asked if they were Ok with that remains a mystery.

          Like

          Reply

      3. In the US it used to be perfectly ordinary for parents to take pictures of their children in the bathtub up to about the age when the kids could be trusted to bathe on their own without drowning. It was considered part of the whole idea that ‘kids are adorable’ and wanting a record of the child’s early life.

        I thin being removed from their parents for a month with no idea of what was going on would do far more harm than pictures taken during and after a bath.

        Like

        Reply

      5. Their parents (who see their kids and not the nudity as such).

        But then I’m generally convinced that the percentage of parents with a sexual interest in their children is very, very, very small, despite general hysteria to the contrary.

        Like

        Reply

        1. “But then I’m generally convinced that the percentage of parents with a sexual interest in their children is very, very, very small, despite general hysteria to the contrary.”

          – Conscious interest, yes. Subconscious violation of boundaries that happens as a result of being incapable of seeing children as separate human beings, however, happens all too often.

          The percentage of women who suffer from anorgasmy is what, about 40%? This is what produces their disorder – the violation of personal and sexual boundaries by sex-deprived parents. And 40% is a huge number.

          Like

          Reply

      6. “The percentage of women who suffer from anorgasmy is what, about 40%? This is what produces their disorder – the violation of personal and sexual boundaries by sex-deprived parents. And 40% is a huge number.”

        Maybe PIV positivism is not for all women after all. Sex can be something else than PIV.

        Another question: if the father is sexually attracted by his kids, what’s the positive consequences for the mother?

        Like

        Reply

        1. “Maybe PIV positivism is not for all women after all. Sex can be something else than PIV.”

          – This statistic makes absolutely no mention of PIV. At the same time, the percentage of anorgasmy among men is just as high as among women. It comes later in life, however, because of hormonal differences. This is absolutely not a gender issue. Everybody suffers from it equally.

          “Another question: if the father is sexually attracted by his kids, what’s the positive consequences for the mother?”

          – The avoidance of the unpleasant sex with an undesirable partner, of course. What do you think people who place children between themselves in the marital bed are trying to achieve? Avoiding sex with each other is obviously the goal.

          Like

          Reply

      7. “This statistic makes absolutely no mention of PIV”

        Yes, but I’m pretty confident that it’s a little worse with a “all-PIV” sex practice.

        “At the same time, the percentage of anorgasmy among men is just as high as among women. It comes later in life, however, because of hormonal differences. This is absolutely not a gender issue. Everybody suffers from it equally.”

        This is more a “sex*age” interaction effect, in fact.

        “The avoidance of the unpleasant sex with an undesirable partner, of course.”

        Yes, in part, but when the father is sexually attracted by its kids, what’s the other positive sexual consequence for the mother?

        “What do you think people who place children between themselves in the marital bed are trying to achieve? Avoiding sex with each other is obviously the goal.”

        Absolutely!

        What a disgusting practice!

        Like

        Reply

    1. I wish these drama queens found a better way to get rid of their pent-up testosterone and kept their idiotic squables away from campuses. Like we give a damn which stupid village these stupid useless trustees come from. Jeez.

      Like

      Reply

    1. I believe in personal responsibility. He committed a crime, chose to plead guilty, he should live with the consequences. Who married whom many years later is irrelevant. No legal system in the world takes into account any agreement entered into by the parties years after the crime.

      Like

      Reply

      1. My problem is defining consentual sex between two teenagers as a crime. There are times where that is the case and this pretty clearly isn’t one of those (unless you’re a ‘letter of the law’ freak who puts more importannce on arbitrary numbers than on human beings).

        Note that the person that reported the ‘crime’ very quickly changed her mind but an inflexible legal (soviet style) monster didn’t car.

        Like

        Reply

        1. Changing the age of legal consent is one issue. It is complex and definitely should be discussed. However, people who are 19 should know that we can’t only follow the laws we happen to like. If this young man engaged in legal activism to change the laws, good for him. But he chose to break the law and it’s a good lesson to learn that in any society this has consequences.

          “Note that the person that reported the ‘crime’ very quickly changed her mind but an inflexible legal (soviet style) monster didn’t car.”

          – Of course. The legal system exists outside of the temporary conveniences and preferences of the participants. Imagine a legal system that would accommodate such changes of mind. That would be hell on earth.

          Like

          Reply

  9. From this list
    http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1757.Best_Books_to_Teach_in_high_school
    I found

    “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal” by Eric Schlosser

    Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That’s a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning.

    Schlosser’s myth-shattering survey stretches from California’s subdivisions, where the business was born, to the industrial corridor along the New Jersey Turnpike, where many of fast food’s flavors are concocted. Along the way, he unearths a trove of fascinating, unsettling truths — from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, and even real estate.

    – el

    Like

    Reply

  11. “I see no reason to assume this, knowing how easily many parents violate their children’s boundaries. Sadly, a persistent violation of personal boundaries and privacy has the same effects in adulthood as an actual rape.”

    I agree in general, but since this case occured in Arpaio’s backyard, so…

    Like

    Reply

  13. Sorry I’m late to the party but you’ll probably find this interesting link since this is an on going thread of mine about the administrative surveillance of faculty both on social media as well as on campus.

    “Harvard University central administrators secretly searched the email accounts of 16 resident deans last fall, looking for a leak to the media about the school’s sprawling cheating case, according to several Harvard officials interviewed by the Globe.

    The resident deans sit on Harvard’s Administrative Board, the committee charged with handling the cheating case. They were not warned that administrators planned to access their accounts, and only one was told of the search shortly afterward.”

    http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/03/09/harvard-university-administrators-secretly-searched-deans-email-accounts-hunting-for-media-leak/d5lYY8vXLyZQYWtTNGxWkL/story.html

    Like

    Reply

  14. Have you heard that a new Bush may become a president?

    Bush has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the 2016 presidential election. When publicly asked at the Marin Speaker Series on February 7, 2013, Bush replied, “We’ll make the decision at the proper time — at least a year from now.” [wiki]

    Speaking of potential 2016 Republican candidates, Jeb Bush refused to tell CNN’s State of the Union host Candy Crowley whether or not he would run in the next Presidential election. But he also appeared on all five of the Sunday shows, so you be the judge.
    http://news.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-goes-tour-ryans-budget-forgets-obamacare-185242104.html

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment