There’s a bit of dialogue in TWW when Bruno comes in to help Bartlet get re-elected and he talks about Democrats cowering in the face of the opposition. I’ve always been frustrated when I see debates about gun control, regardless of the parties to which those discussing the issues align themselves, because those in favour seem to cower and make the weak arguments rather than the strong ones, that gun ownership has ramifications for international security as well as the safety of individuals.

And god it all just makes me so sad. Mexico wasn’t anything like this when I was growing up and the cartels make me angry and the fact that their market is the same as their gun supplier. Anyway, I made a video about it because I was bored of watching videos of people just being happy about it all. I know he’s not my president but I really want him to lead on this issue and properly fight for it. For Mexico, for Latin America as a whole and also for the U.S.

The answer is perhaps situated in the term “pleb”. The word is rich with allusion: the Classical world, the British public-school system, the linguistic architecture of class difference. Ugly, monosyllabic and easily co-opted into puns, headlines and rhetorical asides, it was the fuel that kept the story running.
The Economist’s J.C. on Andrew Mitchell and why he had to step down but also on words and the power of branding.

re: “let’s kick people with X political beliefs out of nerdfighteria!”

Bit concerned about the people saying they don’t want anyone who supports Romney to be in the Nerdfighting or Harry Potter community. That’s not really how it works. Shutting people out of communities, for one, implies that the way you think is the only thing that matters, which isn’t really a community if you think about it. I understand why people are reacting in that way because I used to feel a lot like that, especially in secondary school when I was very left-wing and almost all of my friends supported the tories (who are to the left of the Democratic party in the USA, really, but at the time I just thought it was outrageous and unacceptable) and sometimes I wondered whether it wasn’t worth just walking away from those friendships with those people because I didn’t understand why they thought the things that to me seemed so unfair and objectively wrong. I tried to listen but every justification seemed flawed to me. Disagreement, however, isn’t enough of a reason to break down a community into people who agree about everything, or even just people who agree about everything politics. It’s reason to keep talking. Keep talking in a way that is larger than simply a back and forth conversation with an individual who thinks in a different way than you do, keep the larger conversation going by sharing articles and ideas with anyone who follows you and anyone you follow and above all, value good discourse. How are we going to get anywhere as a community (both smaller scale i.e. HP or NF and larger scale i.e. country/planet) if we only surround ourselves with people we agree with and don’t listen to anything else? By all means challenge it, but in order to challenge it properly, you have to listen first and the communities have to exist in which that kind of communication can be possible.

a new video I made on political drama/narrative/story creation etc woop woop.

The clinging to easy stereotypes is a reflexive response to a traumatic event. But to be governed by such preconceived notions and monochromatic generalizations leads to xenophobia and a distorted reality. Inter-marriages between Muslims, Christians, and Jews are commonplace in the Muslim world, and there are sizeable Christian populations throughout the Middle East that have lived in harmony with their Muslim neighbors for generations. But we hear and see only the violent images, and this misperception shapes our worldview. Consider another example. Over the past 25 years, Muslim majorities have elected five women as heads of state in the Muslim world (Tansu Ciller in Turkey, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, Hasina Wajed and Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh, and Megawati Sukarnoputri in Indonesia). Notwithstanding our verbiage of female empowerment and liberation, we have yet to elect a single woman as president in the US. The Quran is the only sacred text that devotes an entire chapter to the rights of women. In fact, women in Europe could not inherit property independent of their husbands up until the 18th century. Islam over 1,400 years ago gave women the rights of inheritance, work, and hold public office. But the misperception of a Muslim woman that is veiled and oppressed guides our thinking.
Reflections on Good and Evil by Ali M. Nizamuddin at the ISPU

Dear men in Congress, you think banning birth control is conservative progress? You think sanctioning my ovaries wont bring me to violence?

How about i tell you what to do with your caucus. It is now illegal to think about me topless, to keep your lotion where your socks is, to refer to powerful women as monsters like those jops at fox did.

I am not afraid to cockblock dick, to sew an instructional video for rape kits to your eyelids and make you watch it. I’ll take away your golf clubs and gun clips. I’m gonna fix this by getting you fixed.

Enough’s enough kid, come on stop that. If you wanna make this law then heres my law rap. You have a right to get strangled by a bra strap. Anything you sexualize with can and will get shot at with a glock cap. I’ll shove your life in a duffle bag hand it over to a sex trafficker and let him smuggle that.

You wanna cuddle dad? NO! DON’T TOUCH ME! YOU CAN’T TOUCH ME ANYMORE! I’m so pissed I forgot how to rhyme. I hate you so much I forgot what I was talking about. Who wants to get mexican food?

Jay-Z do something! This is do or die. These are the new rules I play by. This is the end of the line, kay old white guy? Ladies testify. It’s time to put a measure on the floor against chromosome y. All in favor say “I”

“All In Favor” by Amber Rose Tamblyn

(source)

YES I love Amber Tamblyn.

Reblogged from jasmine oolong is good
guardian:

Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters
Dream-like shot of the House of Parliament and London in the early morning mist from 24 hours in pictures

guardian:

Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Dream-like shot of the House of Parliament and London in the early morning mist from 24 hours in pictures

Reblogged from The Guardian