A woman's rant about women (by anon)

Seriously, women get on about how gross men can be, how many disgusting habits men have, and how unfair men can be in general, when women can be just as bad. Living in a dorm is a nightmare because of the disgusting pigsty us college kids leave it in.

In the showers, girl’s leave their hair on the walls, on the floors, and even in the sink. Some girls even pee in the showers. It’s disgusting and unsanitary, and I can‘t believe I have to deal with it everyday. I’m not trying to diss the custodial staff, because I’m sure they clean it as best as they can, but when women pee on the toilet seat (something they yell at men for, mind you) it irritates me.

Women say men are sexist, when they are just as sexist in return. When a woman gets cut off on the highway, they instantly think a male cut them off. When a woman doesn’t get the promotion they wanted, they immediately believe a male was the one who got it instead of her.

I have lived with a sexist mother my whole life, and I see how blaming the opposite gender makes life easier, but it isn’t right. Women and men are, and should be seen as equal on both sides: they are equally as disgusting, equally as sexist, and equally as bad of drivers.

Fiction, fact, or crap?

This is too juicy to be buried in comments.

Xavier writes in the comments of the previous post, "I said before that there is a link between Republicans, Christianity, and Fox News. Let me go one step further, and this delves more into the realm of stereotypes, but there are a string of descriptors that appear to go together for a particularly large demographic of the states. Here goes:

Republican
Christian
Fox News watcher
NASCAR lover
Skeptical about what higher ed teaches youth
Traditional views of men and women [CP - I read "sexist views" here.]
White
Rural and/or affluent community member
Individualistic
Pro-war, guns, hunting

I'm not saying that there is any necessary relationship here and many people can fit some of the descriptors without fitting the others, for instance, I am white but not Republican. Yet, something's going on. Coincidence? Just a particular effect of socialization?"

Thoughts?  An argument for or against this view?

The Crusaders are here? Conspiracy theory anyone? (by Anon)

We are used to Alex Jones and Rense pushing the conspiratorial nature of the New World Order, but this is now coming from one of the most respected journalist in America.  If you recall, Hersch broke the stories on My Lai and torture in Iraq.  Has the US government being taken over by a group of Opus Dei and Knights of Malta wannabes?

The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh alleged in a speech in Qatar that key branches of the U.S. military are being led by Christian fundamentalist "crusaders" who are determined to "turn mosques into cathedrals."

 

Hersh was speaking at the Doha campus of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service earlier this week. He made the comments while discussing a forthcoming book he is writing. A writer for Foreign Policy magazine attended the event and reported his remarks.

"What I'm really talking about is how eight or nine neoconservative, radicals if you will, overthrew the American government. Took it over," Hersh said.

He said that the attitude that "pervades" a large portion of the Joint Special Operations Command, which is part of the military's special forces branch and which has carried out secret missions to kill American targets, is one that supports "[changing] mosques into cathedrals."

Hersh also said that Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC before his tenure as the top general in Afghanistan, as well as his successor and many other JSOC members, "are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta." Blake Hounsell, the reporter for Foreign Policy, speculated that Hersh may have been referring to the Sovereign Order of Malta, a Catholic organization.

"Many of them are members of Opus Dei," Hersh said. "They do see what they're doing...it's a crusade, literally. They see themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They're protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function."

 

He also criticized President Obama, saying, "Just when we needed an angry black man, we didn't get one."  - Huffington Post

Wow! Overthrew the American government! Took it over! Strong words! Hersch does not have a history of making "wild" statements without solid evidence. After all, he is a special reporter for the New Yorker.

By the way, a few years ago Hersch spoke at Whitewater and Madison on US torture in Iraq. He was one of the first reporters to confirm that US government had authorized extensive torture in Abu Grab.

Can't wait to see the evidence!

Facebook (by Anon)

A website to connect friends, to allow people to know what you are doing at all times, and to allow everyone know how you are feeling;  Facebook.   First, many people use it as their own online diary.  People post things talking about how depressed they are, how upset they are, or how much better they are than everyone else.  It isn’t something people care about reading, yet people still do.  Next, children who are in elementary school have a Facebook.  They can hardly type, let alone be able to have a Facebook, which was meant for college students in the first place.  Then, some people add some of their friends to “creep.”  When I started to date my boyfriend, his ex-girlfriend and all of friends tried to add me.  I would message them and ask if I knew them, because I’m not the type of person to add people who I don’t know; especially if they are one if his ex-girlfriends’ friends.  Some of them did not respond, some just said no, and my favorite told me that she had math class with my boyfriend in junior year of high school.  Why would I add you?  I would not talk to you, let alone ever look at your page.  I know they all tried adding me so they could “creep” and see what I look like, or what I am doing.   Finally, there are pages now, for example: Milwaukee’s Uglys, Rate Wi, Positively Milwaukee, and Milwaukee Legits.  Some of the people who made these pages show who they are and some don’t.  I don’t know who gave these people the rights to say if someone is beautiful, ugly, or average.  Some of the sites are degrading, and some are supposed to make you feel better about yourself.  Either way, I think they are all unnecessary.  People just need to get over themselves and just use Facebook for what it was created for, to communicate to your friends and keep in touch with people.--Anonymous

Recession (by Loak)

Why is the United States suffering from a recession at this moment? The government creates all these bills, taxes, and laws that force us to pay out all of our hard earned money. Then they claim that we're too lazy to get up and earn money "the American way" by working a 9 - 5 job. Then when we finally decide to start working, they come with these made up taxes for medicare and osha and we don't even receive the benefits if we lose our jobs. My grandmother won the lottery (25,000) and they took 8,000 out as taxes for cashing the check! Then they create toll booths where you have to pay more and more the farther you go and they increase the prices of gas and food so they can add to their pockets. Can sodas are $1.00 now!  Who's to blame for the current recession: we the citizens or the government that controls us?

Pull your pants up!! (posted by anon)

Several years ago the National Basketball Association implemented an extremely unpopular dress code, and you did not have to be a rocket scientist to know that the target was an African American basketball player. Understandably, school districts, given wide latitude by the courts, have also implemented more restrictive dress codes. Now it appears that communities across the country have decided to get in on the action by passing laws against wearing sagging pants in public. Young black males wear sagging pants style, although a few white males wear sagging pants. This style, popularized in the early 1990s by hip-hop artists, has become extremely popular across the United States. In Delcambre, Louisiana, a town of 80 miles southwest of Baton Rouge, wearing your pants in this manner carries a fine of as much as $500 or up to a six-month jail sentence.  Another town, Mansfield, fines offenders up to $150 and 15 days in the slammer. According to the esteemed mayor, “this new law will set a good civic image.” The success in passing these dress codes has inspired other communities to follow suit. Efforts to outlaw sagging in Virginia and statewide in Louisiana in 2004 failed, usually when opponents invoked a right to self-expression. But the latest legislative efforts have taken a different tack, drawing on indecency laws, and their success has inspired other lawmakers. With hip-hop under serious attack from the song lyric police, the time is ripe to make a frontal attack on sagging pants. Next, they may go after the over-sized t-shirts.
 

For example, in the West Ward of Trenton, New Jersey, Councilwoman Annette Lartigue is "drafting an ordinance to fine or enforce community service in response to what she sees as the problem of exposing private parts in public. 'It's a fad like hot pants; however, I think it crosses the line when a person shows their backside,' Lartigue said. 'You can't legislate how people dress, but you can legislate when people begin to become indecent by exposing their body parts.'" While she is being general here, you can bet that sagging pants will be included in this ordinance. From my perspective, sagging pants is nothing but a metaphor for the hip-hop lifestyle. Critics of this lifestyle view sagging pants as a badge of delinquency along with its distinctive thug walk and disrespect for authority, whatever this means. Sagging began in American prisons, where over-sized uniforms were issued without belts to prevent suicide and the use of belts as weapons. The style spread by way of rappers and music videos, from the ghetto to the suburbs and around the world. Sagging pants are an easy and convenient symbol of the supposed dereliction and menace of young blacks. While this issue is usually viewed in the context of racism against young African American males, blacks are also split over this issue. It was African American councilpersons in Shreveport, Mansfield and the other small towns who proposed the sagging pants laws. America’s most famous dad, Bill Cosby spoke for many blacks when he criticized sagging pants and other supposedly “ghetto” practices. While he later backed off much of his criticism, many blacks agreed with him.  Cosby and other older African Americans are over-reacting to the cultural significance of sagging pants. Clothing, body piercing, etc is nothing more than youthful rebellion. Most young people, except the Willie Nelson types, will eventually grow out of it, evidenced by the lack of sagging pants worn by African American male college students. My advice is to just roll with it. Like most fads, it will pass just like bell-bottom pants, hot pants, zoot suits, pointed toe shoes, platform shoes, and Mao jackets. Sagging laws are certainly not the answer.  Besides, these kinds of laws reinforce negative images of young African American males and will do more to swell the prison population than reduce it. These laws confirm for many that the problems of poor blacks are self-made and insoluble. Many employers admit that they won't hire young blacks because they believe they are lazier, more crime prone, and educationally deficient. Many politicians, even without the excuse of ballooning state and federal budget deficits and cutbacks, mightily resist efforts to increase spending on job, health, and education programs for the poor. Finally, sagging laws will expose these communities to expensive litigation. The American Civil Liberties Union has been steadfast in its opposition to dress restrictions. Debbie Seagraves, the executive director of the group in Georgia, said, "I don't see any way that something constitutional could be crafted when the intention is to single out and label one style of dress that originated with the black youth culture as an unacceptable form of expression." So leave it alone!

Wearing over sized (XXX shirts) can get you shot and killed, as cops, while apprehending g a young male, usually black, are not able to see the pockets clearly.  So, while there are no laws yet against wearing sagging pants in Wisconsin yet. We should dress appropriately! I am starting to see college students, even females, wearing sagging sweat pants. So whats with this?

Gay Marriage and Equality (posted by Spike)

Here's an interesting question... when Dr. King spoke of freedom, was it just suppose to be seen as a solution for his problem or was it a way for the world to branch off and show that there is a lack of equality? In my eyes i believe everyone is equal. I know that we are all different and to me that makes me know that we are our own individual. It shouldn't matter what our age or race or sexual orientation is. we are nothing without each other. we need to come together as a whole and work towards seeing each other as equals. Right now i have seen how poorly people have treated gays. i know from experience how people view gays. i also know that many people are open minded and embrace gays with equality. i feel that gay marriage shouldn't be a topic to fight over. i feel that gay marriage is just like any other marriage. its a unity between two people, no matter what gender. if more people could see this they would see that fighting about it is pointless. we are all equals so why not actually work towards showing that we are equal instead of fighting over it?