THIS IS NOT FUCKING FUNNY "FEMINISTS"

via questioning transphobia Sigh. I am sick sick sick sick sick FUCKING SICK of the politically incorrect otherwise known as an excuse to be a fucking asshole

and it takes on a special flavor in view of the fact that a drag performer was murdered this week. edited

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This homicide occurred in the military city of Fayetteville, NC, near a gay bar. Matt Comer @ QNotes:

According to the Fayetteville Police Department, officers found transgender drag performer Imaje Devera (born Jimmy Ali McCollough), 34, shortly after midnight on April 14 in front of 119 Joseph St. The body was found near Club Emages, formerly Club Spektrum. Police are not releasing any more information at the time, including how the victim died, citing the sensitive nature of the case.
Club Emages owner Dy'Mond Cartier told Raleigh news station WRAL that police said Devera had been stabbed and that the case was being investigated as a hate crime.

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*goes to remove asshole's feed from my blog...*

(no subject)

Shakesville has pics from the protest in Afghanistan by 300 women against a really fucked up marriage law. The women were confronted with 1000 men who threw small stones at them. Thanks a lot, Mr. Karzai.






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Allowing a corporation to control our food supply is idiocy of a dire order...

Monsanto, a corporation, might be more powerful than the nation of Germany!

Germany has banned the cultivation of GM corn, claiming that MON 810 is dangerous for the environment. But that argument might not stand up in court and Berlin could face fines totalling millions of euros if American multinational Monsanto decides to challenge the prohibition on its seed.

So let me get this straight. A nation cannot simply ban Monsanto's product, even after said nation decides that it's bad for the environment? Even though EU law says that they, indeed, can ban such things? Wow.

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1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India

Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today.
The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels.
"The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago," Shatrughan Sahu, a villager in one of the districts, told Down To Earth magazine.

I'm sure there's no connection between the crops failing due to a water shortage, and GM crops being planted that require twice as much water as the traditional varieties. MORE

I very rarely get a hold of orange juice that is not made from concentrate

I just opened one such bottle today. The sweet, fresh taste, without the bitter note that i have always been subliminally aware of, took me by surprise. We used to have about 8 orange trees back home. There were Navel, Parson Brown, [Dad says not this variety], Seville, Sweet and some other varieties which I can't remember now. (I'll have to ask Dad). We'd pick them from the trees and either eat them there and then or head directly to the basement, where we use hand juicers and squeeze them. And drink them straight. The juice was cool for the trees were in the shade. My father used to experimentally graft various varieties in order to get as sweet an orange as possible. When you bit into our oranges, the juice exploded in your mouth and ran down your mouth corners. Our oranges were huge. some were bigger than my adult hand. I never eat oranges here. They too small, taste awful and are hard to peel. I hate orange juice made from concentrate. It is so inferior compared to ours that it frankly insults the name "orange juice" in my mind. I don't savor it. I gulp it down to avoid the taste.

Today I took a big mouthful and stopped, staring. The taste exploded in my mouth. And images, of my sister climbing the Navel orange tree right outside our front door and swinging from the branches; of me picking huge oranges on a cloudy afternoon; of me pausing in my Saturday morning sweeping of my upstairs balcony to watch the astonishing shade of shiny yellow the morning sun displays as it hits the dew on that same Navel Orange Tree; of the sharp orange of the sunset hitting the trees in the cow pasture's fence; these and many more memories escape that dark box and explode forcefully in my mind. I cannot believe that I had forgotten orange juice is supposed to taste. I didn't gulp this mouthful down. I let it trickle down my throat, slowly. The label says that its Valencia oranges. I don't think I have had this variety before, but I may be wrong. [I am wrong. Dad says we did. ]My memory can be very unreliable sometimes. I let my sister taste it. I decided that I am done with concentrate.

Mother Jones sez:

Marriage Can Wait

While New England has several short-term prospects for same-sex marital bliss, the Midwest is primed for a bumper crop of basic anti-discrimination bills—legislation unthinkable just a few years ago—needed to build foundations for marriage equality down the road. Sure, marriage is nice and all that, but it's nicer still to have laws that make it illegal for a gay man's boss to say, "Hit the road, faggot."

A little national support now, state activists say, might mean the difference between incremental progress and a burst of progressive legislation in the Heartland. After all, just about everybody expects California and New York—where Gov. David Paterson is pushing same-sex marriage legislation—to cave at some point. But in states that have never passed a gay-rights bill, a string of legislative victories would make it hard to argue, as anti-discrimination opponents did in North Dakota, that those rights embody "New York" values. "For the people on the coasts, this is flyover territory, and nothing really important ever happens in the Midwest," says Glenn Carlson of Fair Wisconsin, a gay-rights group. "But that's really not true at all. History shows that, and the Iowa decision really affirms it."

And in these Midwestern states, where much of the groundwork is already laid, a concentrated push could also lead to domestic partnerships and marriage rights faster than many people realize. "Iowa passed their nondiscrimination bill in 2007," says Karen Mudd of Equality South Dakota Institute, "and look where they're at now."

Indeed, marriage rights in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and Vermont were preceded by years of lobbying for more fundamental protections and benefits for same-sex couples. Until recently, in fact, activists in the Heartland were resigned to spending their time and energy blocking bills aimed at stripping away their rights. Marriage seemed like a distant goal. "We're used to playing defense," says Mudd, whose group formed two years ago to pass pro-rights legislation.


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While they would welcome help from the national gay-rights crowd, the state-level folks have no intention of ceding control. "I think they can help on some of the language framing and the arguments," Fiebiger says, "but so much of this is based on long-standing values that differ from other parts of the country…I think the local folks have a better handle on that piece."

What they do need is money, especially in states with small gay populations. But historically, national groups have been reluctant to open their wallets unless a bill is close to passage. This, state-level activists say, makes it hard for them to do the grunt work needed to secure those long-term victories.

They would also welcome national help to elect more Democrats at the state level. The latest votes on gay rights in Montana, Utah, and West Virginia were split along party lines, and leaders in Minnesota and Wisconsin stress that their outlook has improved dramatically since the Dems took power.

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What do you think?