Ta-Nehisi Coates is so talented, people. Here is his phenomenal article on mass incarceration.
The underclass that produced Dylann Roof. And will produce a lot more rejects like him unless something is done soon.
Every single move Carter watched during his presidency. I’m now not surprised that he was such a failure as a president. So much time can only be wasted on such garbage by completely vapid people.
Breaking news: there is no county in the US where a minimum-wage earner can support a non-working spouse and two children. Equally shocking: minimum-wage workers can’t afford a yacht and yearly trips to Europe.
Everything about this post is painfully stupid except for one quote: “The countries in which the traditional family is strongest are also the countries that are experiencing the worst population collapse. The countries where there is little or no stigma to bearing children outside of wedlock, not marrying, et cetera, are those that are doing the best job of maintaining their population. Think about that, my fellow religious and social conservatives.”
It is nothing short of wondrous that there are societies so rich and comfortable that people would fritter their lives on coming up with weird lists of gender appellations.
There is this neat little trick that allows people to hurl racial insults without any consequence. They preface the insults with something like, “As those racist evildoers say. . .” and just let the offensive language fly. I had a colleague like this who’d persecute female co-workers with graphic descriptions of rape scenes in movies that, as he never forgot to mention, really shocked and grossed him out.
We are still in the business of counting Jews. Yippee.
Home-schooling is a factory mass-producing the future unhireable underclass: “In 40 states, home-schooling parents are not required to have a high school diploma, even if they intend to home-school through 12th grade.”
Clarissa's Blog 
I find it quite concerning that the homeschooling lobby is as powerful as it is. I’m not surprised that they are rabid (just looking at the comments sections of your hs posts are revealing) but I am somewhat surprised that they are influential. I have never seen a group of people so absolutely unwilling to listen to critique. Homeschooling– all forms (religious, “unschooling” etc.)– is so cult like. I find it frightening.
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Yes, absolutely, it’s like an article of religious faith, and there is no reasoning with these people. I find it absolutely unbelievable that the majority of states allows people with no education at all to be their children’s only “teachers.” If that isn’t a form of child abuse, I don’t know what is. Among all of the aspects of American culture, this one is probably the most incomprehensible to me. We never had anything of the kind when I was growing up. If a child was kept away from school, that was considered a very big deal.
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“Among all of the aspects of American culture, this one is probably the most incomprehensible to me.”
Completely incomprehensible to me too– and I’m American! It’s also a relatively new thing. I’m 41– so not that old– and nobody was homeschooled in my generation. It just wasn’t something that people even heard of.
I still remember the first homeschooled person I met (she was a bit younger than me.) She was nice enough but so incredibly odd and unable to interact in anything resembling a normal way. When I found out she was homeschooled, I remember thinking “Ohhhhh. So that explains it” and feeling deep pity for her.
And now, it seems like this deeply crippling practice is becoming somewhat mainstream. I’m starting to get about 1-2 students a year who were homeschooled in my classes. It’s a small percentage to be sure but it’s now a constant. And every single one of those students have trouble with socializing. Every single one. So sad.
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I shudder at the idea of my mother being my only childhood teacher and my brother being my only classmate. Perhaps there are well socialized homeschooled people, but I doubt they’re homeschooled for most of their education.
I quit her dance school as a teen because I could not survive a year of giving up ALL of my after school activities to put on a full two hour long performance under her instruction. It’s a source of unending embarassment to her I refused to do this.
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My mother removed both me and my sister from the school where she taught , and what a great decision that was. We needed space to develop away from our parents, like all kids do.
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I wonder how these parents fail to see that they are shooting their children in the foot with this. I know somebody who’s sacrificing a lot to homeschool her kids. The eldest is already an adult. He flunked out of college, can’t hold down a job, and doesn’t feel comfortable anywhere but next to his parents. But this doesn’t stop the parents from homeschooling the 3 youngest kids.
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There is this neat little trick that allows people to hurl racial insults without any consequence. They preface the insults with something like, “As those racist evildoers say. . .” and just let the offensive language fly. I had a colleague like this who’d persecute female co-workers with graphic descriptions of rape scenes in movies that, as he never forgot to mention, really shocked and grossed him out.
Implicit in such a trick is the demand that you congratulate the person on how non racist/non-sexist they are. I had an ex who’d fondly reminisce about all the male stalkers in his college dorm. He believes he is the most pro feminist man of all time.
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“Implicit in such a trick is the demand that you congratulate the person on how non racist/non-sexist they are.”
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This short video link might cheer you up.
Nine orphaned hedgehogs eating together (making adorable slurping noises) at a hedgehog rescue center in southern Poland.
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Oh my God. This is too much cuteness!!!!!!
Thank you, you know me really well. 🙂
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Those hedgehogs are adorable!
It’s a shame that WordPress will apparently allow videos but not still images such as JPG files to be added to comments. The host can add photos to her entries (Remember Clarissa’s sunflowers and rabbits?), but searching Google, I can’t find a way to insert still images into my comments.
Does anybody know a work-around to manage that?
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Pro-Palestinian Spanish activists posted photos online Wednesday, naked except for red clown noses in front of the West Bank separation barrier in Jerusalem, meant to show opposition to the wall dividing Israelis from Palestinians.
The group witnessed a somewhat unexpected reaction online however, as members of the conservative-leaning Palestinian community slammed them for lack of respect and “disgusting solidarity.
“They’re standing like animals,” said one viewer. “They’re pigs, nothing more. Our nation is too pure for pigs to visit.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4701371,00.html
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Yes, I saw this in the Spanish press. The story is absolutely priceless and illustrates perfectly well that these earnest do-gooders have zero understanding and zero interest in learning about the people they profess to defend. They don’t give a crap about Palestinians. All they want is to use Palestinians to feel good about themselves. Palestinians are expected to be obsequiously and pathetically grateful for crumbs of their attention and kindly benevolence.
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This really is unbelievable coming from a respected company like Volkswagen.
“The Environmental Protection Agency issued the company a notice of
violation and accused the company of breaking the law by installing software
known as a “defeat device” in 4-cylinder Volkswagen and Audi vehicles from
model years 2009-15. The device is programmed to detect when the car is
undergoing official emissions testing, and to only turn on full emissions
control systems during that testing. Those controls are turned off during
normal driving situations, when the vehicles pollute far more heavily than
reported by the manufacturer, the E.P.A. said.
“Using a defeat device in cars to evade clean air standards is illegal and a
threat to public health,” said Cynthia Giles, the E.P.A.’s assistant administrator
for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance. “”
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This is the most disgusting thing ever.
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Imagine the hundreds of thousands of people who ought these cars thinking this was an environmentally responsible decision. I can’t believe the company is getting away with a ‘notice of violation’. If this isn’t a criminal act, I don’t know what is.
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Who knows how many others are doing this as well. I’m now feeling suspicion of my own German car.
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Sounded weird to me:
Благодаря новому канадскому закону жертвы преступлений могут давать показания в суде стихами, поэмами и даже рисунками, а само понятие жертвы теперь — сильно расширено. Какая в этом польза? Сотрудница уголовного департамента министерства юстиции Канады МАРИНА ЯСИНСКАЯ подробно о нововведении.
http://www.livejournal.com/magazine/1072242.html
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Victim Impact Statements only come into play at the sentencing stage and have very little actual impact. In Canada, sentences for violent crime are notoriously low. Serial killers, vicious murderers, rapists are all released after very short prison sentences. That’s the real problem and not these very much proforma impact statements whose only actual goal is to help victims feel less beaten down by the very short sentences given to the criminals.
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Google’s auto-translate feature isn’t very good, but what I glean from its English translation of el’s article link is that Canadian courts will now allow victims’ impact statements to include poetry, singing, and the display of personal drawings. This is patently absurd.You can sympathize with the victims, and still believe that psychotherapy belongs in a therapist’s office, not in the courtroom.
The purpose of a court of law is to dispense justice, not grief counseling or closure. Justice should mean an appropriate sentence for the specific crime committed, and that sentence should be based on the law as written, not on anyone’s emotional state.
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I recall that some years ago, a young Canadian woman who had actively participated in the horrible sex-torture murders of multiple children was released from prison after a very short sentence, and then the Canadian legal system provided her with a new identity and moved her to an unknown location to ensure that enraged citizens couldn’t seek retribution.
You may be more familiar with that case than I am.
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Yes, Karla Homolka. A serial murderer – rapist was allowed to booze it up in jail with her multiple lovers, living large and laughing at the victims. After just a few years in jail, she was released, immediately got married, and now has 3 kids.
There is such a huge shortage of women in Quebec that even a convicted murderer gets snapped up two seconds after her release.
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There was also this case of a man who murdered his ex-wife and was only given 2,5 years. The judge was compassionate towards him because the man had been jealous of his ex who had a boyfriend.
I’d just arrived in Canada and was in the process of separating from my husband. The idea that he can stab be 17 times and then get off with a minimal statement was not very comforting.
The Canadian criminal justice system is such a joke. It’s all about how the poor criminal was driven to commit crime, poor baby.
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This is a good feel measure for the victims, that’s all. Canadian sentencing couldn’t be kinder towards the criminals and more indifferent towards the victims.
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There’s a major problem in the American justice system, too. It’s called “spending 20 years on death row at taxpayer expense.” Most U.S. states that have the death penalty also have laws making it almost impossible to actually carry out the sentence.
No one wants to see an innocent person executed, but if a society determines that the death penalty is appropriate for the most heinous crimes, then it needs a pathway to execution that is both just and practical.
Timothy McVeigh was executed in a “mere” six years because the was sentenced in the federal courts, and he actively petitioned the court system to cancel his series of automatic appeals. Scott Peterson was sentenced at age 31, and he’ll be collecting Social Security before he’s executed, if ever.
When I moved to Arizona 18 years ago, I was amazed to see the image of one of my old USAF girlfriends on local television. She’d been tortured, raped, and murdered by a crack cocaine addict with the help of his wife, while their very young daughters watched — and served as the only witnesses to the murder. The man was sentenced to death in 1998, and today is actually publishing a website from death row, on which he claims to have become a Christian and says that he’s maintaining the website only to seek for leniency for his wife (who got a long prison sentence), because he forced her to help kill the victim.
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