Finally!

AFI Medicate

What the fuck is up with the random sexy woman in scanty clothing, I have no idea. I am so sick and tired of women serving as sexy muses and boy bait in music videos you have no fucking idea. Good I want a selection of actual female rockers to rock out to! Anyway, I basically just watch the band performing. Which is no hardship:)

Oh for decency's sake, failblog and Pharyngula!

Why the hell are we using our justified disgust with Christianity to be utter assholes to mentally ill persons?

No, ladies and gentlemen. This isn't funny. It's frigging immoral, imho. Do you think its easy for mentally ill persons to have relationships? Do you think its easy for them to find understanding persons, especially if they are able-bodied, who have the time and the understanding to stick with them through thick and thin? This is your abled-bodied privilege stinking up the place, yo. Not funny. In fact, EPIC FAIL.


DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS.

Indeed.

One Nation, Under Illusion

There is nothing wrong with self-satisfaction or national pride. But the incessant trumpeting of our national superiority to every other country in the world is more than just off-putting and insulting. It is infantile, like the vaunting of a schoolyard bully that his Dad is better than your Dad. It is wrong. And it might be dangerous both to ourselves and to the rest of the world.

Consider what it means. By what standard is one nation any greater than any other nation? Yes, the United States has vast material resources - we rank eighth in gross domestic product per capita - but we also have, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the "highest inequality and poverty rate'' in the world, outside of Mexico and Turkey, and things are getting worse. Nothing to boast of there.

Yes, we have a relatively high median income, but our standard of living as measured by the Human Development Index of the United Nations ranks us only 15th in the world, behind, among others, Norway, France, Canada, and Australia. Are they better than we are? Even our home ownership rate trails that of the citizens of Canada, Belgium, Spain, Norway, and even Portugal.

Yes, the United States has the best system of higher education in the world, but, according to an Educational Policy Institute report, we rank 13th in the affordability of that education, and we are much less successful with lower education - 11th in the percentage of the 25 to 34 population with a high school diploma and 22d in science education.

...

The point of all this isn't that America doesn't have a lot to be proud of. It does. The point is that just about every country has a lot to be proud of, and America has no more right to assume it is the greatest nation in the world than does France, Switzerland, China, or Russia.MORE

So much for human rights, for instance:
Flowers, Candies and Tumors from An Arab Woman Blues, Reflection in a bottle...

That was the deal. You greet us with flowers and candies and we will greet you with D.U, napalm and neutron bombs...

This may be news to you, but all kinds of weapons were tested in Iraq by the demoniacal terrorists called the Americans. Depleted Uranium is the most "famous" one.

D.U was used during "Desert Storm", may wrathful storms engulf you. And it was used during "Operation Freedom".

Napalm was used in Falluja and Mosul.

According to fellow MDs, they are convinced that neutron bombs were also used (for those of you who don't know, neutron bombs are a limited range nuclear mini explosions that carbonize people and leave buildings intact). According to them, those were used in 2003, in the battle for Baghdad, namely around Baghdad's airport. Fellow MDs said that the corpses they saw in ER on one particular day, were no longer corpses, they were not even burnt, like in napalm, they were simply disintegrated like and I quote "a handful of sand".

While, the sectarian Shiite puppet government is busy plundering and pimping for Iran,

While the numbed out, dumb assholes called American "people ?" are busy checking out the latest released single from Michael Jackson and Paris Hilton new hairdo,

While the filthy English are busy getting plastered on beers and cheers,

While the U.N and its "specialized" agencies are busy snoring in the corridors of silence

While environmental NGOs are busy saving another penguin in Antarctica...

While ...

Tumors are multiplying in Iraq, at a vertiginous rate...sparing none.
Click through for the Al Jazeera English video

As a note on the above blog post. No tone arguments, please. I am almost sure that testing weapons on people war crime behaviour, and its not as if the US has not done this before. I do love this country, but Lawd if karma should ever catch up with us? Even unto the 20th generation we would STILL be crying out.

Slam.

College Mental Health: A Different Diagnosis

Student mental health is a hot topic, but also a confusing one. The broader psychiatric framework often equates "psychic difference" (a term used by some mental health activists to describe a mental/emotional/spiritual experience and distinguish it from a medical diagnosis) or emotional distress with "mental illness."

Getting to the root of what constitutes student wellness is not easy, especially when taking into account the variance in services among colleges or universities. Most schools offer some kind of mental health services, ranging from a few professional counselors to a 24-hour hotline to opportunities for group therapy.
But students across the country are making their voices heard, drawing attention to campus mental health services that are inadequate, under-funded or harmful. In her presentation on college mental health at the 2006 National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy conference (NARPA), Karen Bower, an attorney with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, stated that colleges are a "climate of unmet mental health needs."
So what do students want?

Those interviewed for this story said they wanted better access to qualified counselors, peer support groups and the creation of safe spaces for students to openly discuss problems they are dealing with.
College mental health counselors also agree that there is much room for change. While the International Association of Counseling Services (IACS) recommends a counselor to student ratio of 1 to 1,000-1,500, the average ratio is 1 to 1,698. A 2008 National Survey of Counseling Center Directors (PDF) conducted by IACS found that one third of college mental health directors believe that psychiatric consultation is "woefully inadequate or non-existent on their campuses."MORE

Standing Up for Muslim Women's 'Writes'

When writing is solicited, the narratives of Muslim women are often vetted. The ones deemed appropriate for public consumption generally fall along four plot lines: A trite tale of alienation, sudden acceptance, and seemingly premature celebration; the well-assimilated Muslimah who has an American flag sewn into all of her hijabs; the angry conspiracy theorist who recites Al-Fatihah and preaches about the authenticity of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ; or the widely accepted apostate who is paraded as the "liberated woman" having successfully escaped the stranglehold of Islamic patriarchy.

We needn't forget the super heroine whose hijab serves as a cap, an unconditional shield against a sexualized male gaze, and a colorful stain-resistant accessory that matches the stitching of her jeans. We can be the super heroines or distressed woman in need of saving. The veiled amongst us are given the option of producing writing that reduces us to a tragic footnote or exposes us as a glaring example of the "clash of civilizations."
MORE

New Sport

Parkour sweeps Russia - 15 Oct 09

Parkour, a sport where you jump, dive, roll and swing off rooftops, stairs, walls and anything else the urban environment has to offer, has taken off in Russia.

The activity, which began in France, is being taken very seriously by the youth in Russia, who believe it is not just a way of getting fit, but a social movement too.

Casey Kauffmann reports.

New blogs

Sexgenderbody.com