read some of utne reader today and here are a couple of articles and links I liked.

CarBusters:Journal of the Car Free movement specifically:

The Bicycle Empowerment Network and Pedalling Lightly on the Earth: Interview with Kim Nguyen and San Luis Potosi: Paving the way for Carfree Conversions in Mexico. Plus: Fighting the Current. Carfree Activities in Low-Income Cities and Guangzhou and a Glimpse into the Future: Changing China (Which is countered by this: Unsustainable China. I mean, go read everything, but these caught my eye. I cannot be bothered with environmentalism that does not take into account poor people and poc, which in many cases intersect. So. In the meantime, this looks like something I would wanna read Sidewalks: Conflict and Negotiation over Public Space
Basically more impetus for me to acquire and learn to ride a bicycle this year. Also:
The First, Last, and Toughest Mile in Transportation: Hitching a ride to the bus stop





Also:
Ecofriendly Nail Salons: Color Me Nontoxic:Health problems at nail salons spur ecofriendly shops

(no subject)

SCOTUS Scuttles Prop 8 Video Coverage; The History Behind The Denial

Several blogs like Firedoglake and Jezebel are liveblogging it anyway. Thank science for tech!

What fresh fuckery is this?

I don't even KNOW right now. WHUT?
D.C.'s Murderous Prostitution Policy

This is the stupidest thing

I’ve heard so far this year.
 

Anti-prostitution policies in D.C. pose serious threats to health and safety of community members identified or otherwise targeted as sex workers. Two policies stand out in particular: first, “move along” polices geared at cleansing certain neighborhoods of sex workers; and second, the use of condoms and safe sex as evidence to arrest or prosecute someone for prosecution and the related practice of confiscating and destroying condoms and other safe sex materials.

...


I hardly know where to begin. For starters, as a former HIV/AIDS prevention educator, I think carrying condoms and having them on hand is a terrific idea for anyone who’s sexually active. Period. When my boys are old enough I plan to tell them “the facts of life,” right down to how to protect themselves and their partners from STD’s, unwanted pregnancies, etc.

Sure, as a parent, I’d prefer that they abstain from having having sex until they are old enough and mature enough to deal with all the potential consequences and outcomes. But at the same time, if they’re going to be sexually active, I’d want them to use condoms. I’d want them to have condoms with them. I’d make sure they know how to use them. I’d even go to the drug store and buy condoms, and give them to my boys myself, to make sure they have them.

(I’d do the exact same thing for a daughter, if I had one, because I’d want her to have her own on hand.)
Because I’m a parent, but I’m also a realist. I don’t imagine that not teaching them about condoms, and not they have them is somehow going to stop them from having sex. They’re people. People have sex. People have sex with or without condoms, birth control, etc. People have sex without regard for the consequences, sometimes. And I don’t think my kids should have their lives unalterably changed by an STD or unplanned pregnancies, just for having sex. I don’t think they should sacrifice their lives for having sex. I don’t think anyone should. People have sex. There’s little you can do to stop them.
FURTHERMORE

The Politics of Being Transgender (Seriously Mr. Letterman? Really?)

Barack Obama made the first transgender political appointments that we know of recently–Amanda Simpson, appointed last week as senior technical adviser in the Bureau of Industry and Security in the Commerce Department, and Dylan Orr, special assistant to Assistant Secretary of Labor Kathleen Martinez in the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the Department of Labor–but even David Letterman couldn’t resist making a crack at Simpson’s expense.

The “T” at the end of LGBT often seems like an afterthought, with transgender rights being excluded even when LGBT rights are approved. Today on GRITtv we talk to Julia Serano, author of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, Naomi Clark of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and blogger at Feministe, and filmmaker Jules Rosskam of Against a Trans Narrative, featured on GRITtv last summer, about being transgender in the U.S. and how far we still have to go.

The Morality of Health Care Reform

• The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 1
• The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 2
• The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 3
• The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 4
• The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 5
• The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 6
• The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 7 of 7

 

The college admissions scam


Faith Leaders To Move Their Money Out Of Bank Of America Unless Demands Are Met HELLS YES. WOOT!!!