It's me, Amy Marie!
23 and facing the harsh world. Biromantic, demisexual, cisgendered, fat, witchy, feminist female, future psychologist, of a Liberal but not always enlightened variety. I post political things, personal things, nerdy things, and anything in-between.
 
 
 
 
 
shortformblog: theatlantic: Virginia Lawmakers Drop Invasive Ultrasound Requirement From Abortion Bill After an understandable uproar over a mandatory procedure that federal law would consider rape, Virginia legislators have opted to forgo the invasive and most definitely uncomfortable procedure for women seeking abortions. On top of a big invasion of privacy for all women, the legislation could have re-traumatized women who sought abortions because of rapes. A meeting last night led legislators to reconsider the vagina wand provision, reaching a compromise that would make the procedure voluntary, but not mandatory, reports The Washington Post. We’re not sure what woman might choose to have an ultrasound used in this way, but, now they get a choice. And with that, the never-ending reproduction debates continue. Read more. A victory for activists in the latest round of the culture wars.
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shortformblog:

theatlantic:

Virginia Lawmakers Drop Invasive Ultrasound Requirement From Abortion Bill

After an understandable uproar over a mandatory procedure that federal law would consider rape, Virginia legislators have opted to forgo the invasive and most definitely uncomfortable procedure for women seeking abortions. On top of a big invasion of privacy for all women, the legislation could have re-traumatized women who sought abortions because of rapes. A meeting last night led legislators to reconsider the vagina wand provision, reaching a compromise that would make the procedure voluntary, but not mandatory, reports The Washington Post. We’re not sure what woman might choose to have an ultrasound used in this way, but, now they get a choice. And with that, the never-ending reproduction debates continue.

Read more.

A victory for activists in the latest round of the culture wars.

 
 
Two grooms in Macy's ad spark controversy

gaywrites:

Look at these images closely. If you really scrutinize the one on the left, you’ll see the cake topper of two grooms that’s magnified on the right. Not too visible, right?

Apparently the grooms are enough to get a small conservative group outraged with Macy’s, who sent this ad to homes last week to encourage people to join Macy’s gift registry. 

An antigay group called One Million Moms, somehow related to the American Family Association, attacked Macy’s for “inappropriate marketing” and “offending conservative customers.” Well, well, well. A good portion of their statement can be found at the link above. 

Macy’s is a known supporter of LGBT causes, both through its generally pro-equality advertising and its consistently high ratings with HRC. If this group thinks it can take a corporate giant down for one ad, it’s sadly mistaken. Tough luck. 

 
 

gaywrites:

Watch a man propose to his boyfriend via flash mob. I admit, I teared up. 

 
 

gaywrites:

Stephen Colbert breaks character to deliver an It Gets Better message to LGBT youth. 

“If you don’t give power to the words that people throw at you to hurt you, they don’t hurt you anymore.”

 
 
discoverynews: Albino-Like Penguin Spotted Tourists on an expedition spotted the rare bird that has a mutation that dilutes its feather pigments.
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discoverynews:

Albino-Like Penguin Spotted

Tourists on an expedition spotted the rare bird that has a mutation that dilutes its feather pigments.

 
 
Coders Are Already Finding Ways Around SOPA Censorship

anticapitalist:

onaissues:

“A developer who calls himself T Rizk doesn’t have much faith in Congress making the right decision on anti-piracy legislation, so he’s built a work around for the impending censorship measures being considered: DeSOPA. The Firefox add-on is stunningly simple as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would block specific domain names (e.g. www.thepiratebay.com) of allegedly infringing sites, T Rizk’s lightweight tool allows you to revert to the bare internet protocol (IP) address (e.g. 194.71.107.15) which takes you to the same place.”

Read the full story on the Atlantic Wire.

The Atlantic also has another article which looks at Project Madison, a crowd-sourced project by Rep. Darrell Issa, which Fast Company’s Gregory Ferenstein explains as, “a stripped-down interactive blogging platform, which allows citizens to select individual passages of legislation, and strike or add their own language, with comments for each suggestion.”

Want more background on what SOPA is and how it may affect you? Read our background post.

Legit.

Do like

 
 

They Did It Wrong: Some Quick Thoughts RE Occupy Wall Street

winglessnews:

Before I go to sleep, some quick thoughts.

I’ve been catching a lot of shit from liberals for not being 100% sure about Occupy Wall Street. While I certainly agree that those responsible for this sorry United State of Affairs need to be held accountable, I have a big problem with the execution:

Occupy Wall Street now has the attention of the world. A platform is a privilege, and what are we doing with it? Had economists (sane ones) and strategists been brought on board to carve out a list of demands prior to the protests beginning, we would be having a completely different public discussion right now.

The conversation would not be “well, what do they want?” it would be “well, why can’t we have that?!!?!?!? That makes sense!” 

I understand the argument that nothing wrong has ever been changed without someone first pointing out that it was wrong. I get it, I do. However, we are dealing with a media that possesses the attention span of a speedfreak in a funhouse. We now have their attention! We are wasting time.

A hundred thousand smart suggestions? That’s great, now what do we do with them? When will we figure that out? After the media and the general snoozing public moves on to the next story? We have wasted time. 

Without demands for slowest among us to mull over, this will crater and collapse.

At the protests, I was heartened to meet so many smart kids my age who CARED. However, I could not help but think - and continue to think still - that if this collapses, those who have just become politically engaged will disengage, swiftly. They will harden. They will become the problem for the rest of us.

We have wasted time, and it is ticking still. 

I think the point is that there are a million ways to deal with this problem, not just one, and that by trying to stick to one point we alienate tons of people from the movement. I understand that the media needs talking points and can’t function unless we give them that, but the point is to not give them that because there is no one set of causes, suggestions, or principles that the movement as a total agrees on. When you get that many people together, then you have a million opinions and in order to continue to stay that strong, then you need to keep all of those opinions in mind so as not to alienate anyone else who has a different idea.

Basically, I see it thus. We need to totally redo the system we have in place and this is a good chance to do it. To me the OWS represents something removed from money. It represents a better approach to democracy. I want to see a Swedish or German type of system emerge, where everyone is consulted about new policy and everyone has to agree before it can go on. Yes, this makes things travel a lot slower, but that’s the problem with the system we have now…we try to get things through so quickly that we don’t read the fine print and the parties that are involved don’t usually get consulted.

We need a parliamentary system in place, not a presidential system. This isn’t working.

 
 

phalange:

justinequeer:

handgrenade2:

knottyknate:

OCCUPY THE PLANET!!!

My brothers and sisters!  If there is any part of you that feels corruption and suffering is what runs the world then please watch this video and reblog!  Then unite with us who seek freedom!  Even if you can’t participate in the fight yet, at least let the people know what’s going on since the mainstream media and associated press will not.  Look at the links below and join your city’s occupation movement and take back your freedom!  And remember to keep it peaceful.  Viva la rEVOLution!

EVENTS

Wow.

This video is really powerful.

I am going to try to make it to Occupy LA, but it depends if I can afford transportation

This video is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen so far, but I may be biased to the fact that it used the speech from The Great Dictator.

This is great. I want to get started on an Occupy Tokyo, but I don’t know how well it’ll catch on with the Japanese. Since there’s no media coverage of the protests even in the states, it’ll be hard to get Japanese people interested since they’re not really prone to protests.

If you don’t even try to make these protests in your city, I don’t know that I want to follow you. It’s time to take some action and make some noise. I have been waiting for this my entire life!

(Source: ampedstatus.com)

 
 
buttahlove: thepoliticalnotebook: Could you live on $8 or $9 dollars an hour? A new computer game made by the Urban Ministries of Durham in North Carolina and an advertising firm called McKinney lets you play out life with a low-wage job as a single mom. The objective is to make it a month, juggling getting a job, rent, a place to live, food and coping with the costs of repairs, things for your child, insurance, etc.. Actually a very hard game to play and full of reminders of the difficulties of life on that kind of salary. Play the game. *Currently “playing”* This game is no joke, mayne!
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls5awfSTAZ1qchhhqo1_1280.png

buttahlove:

thepoliticalnotebook:

Could you live on $8 or $9 dollars an hour? A new computer game made by the Urban Ministries of Durham in North Carolina and an advertising firm called McKinney lets you play out life with a low-wage job as a single mom. The objective is to make it a month, juggling getting a job, rent, a place to live, food and coping with the costs of repairs, things for your child, insurance, etc.. Actually a very hard game to play and full of reminders of the difficulties of life on that kind of salary.

Play the game.


*Currently “playing”*
This game is no joke, mayne!
 
 
 
 
 
 
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