October 29, 2017

When life gets me down I need reminding just how important I am.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017288074

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-38642924/giant-alligator-caught-on-film-in-florida


Now, don't you feel better about your place in the grand scheme of things?

October 29, 2017

The cat killer stalking suburbia (Warning...it's sickening)

"The concern we have is that if it isn't a particular person - who will be at some risk eventually - then at some stage he'll escalate or feel brave enough to move on to vulnerable women and girls, either elderly or very young women."

Collin says that, if caught, the killer will probably be charged with criminal damage, though he's hoping to prosecute for other, more serious offences.

During that time he - and police are sure the killer is a man - has butchered more than 370 animals, mostly pet cats, but also foxes, rabbits and possibly a wild, baby owl.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-41595585

Criminal damage? Criminal damage for a child's life, bipedal or quadrupedal! He might not even get that in America. When the hell are we going to teach ourselves to believe that if you do it to one of us, you do it to all of us.

October 26, 2017

Does Saudi robot citizen have more rights than women?

Sophia was such a hit she was immediately given Saudi citizenship in front of hundreds of delegates at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on 25 October.
...
Journalist Murtaza Hussain posted: "This robot has gotten Saudi citizenship before kafala workers who have been living in the country their entire lives"

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41761856

It boggles the mind in so many ways.

October 26, 2017

Canadian judge calls sex assault victim 'overweight'

The judge also reportedly mused the victim might have been flattered by the attention from the taxi driver because "it was perhaps the first time that he was interested in her".
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41755852

You've seen this same story in the US. Rapists given rights to child, wealthy rapist let off because he has a bright future. Ad nauseam. How about India, where a woman was raped in a busy street in broad daylight and no one stopped. I could go around the world and relate grizzly stories of sexual harassment and all of you will think, yes, but not me.

Yes you.

Rape in the street indicates the woman has no value. A hand on the butt says exactly the same thing. Blind belief that masculinity, in and of itself, entitles them. It's instilled as children and never goes away. Ask any nurse if they think old George Bush did it. Nurses exchange jokes among themselves about the sexual antics of old men. Who you gonna tell an ex-president felt you up? Before now, I mean.

Now that the damn has broken, sewage is spilling out and is going to spatter us all. (yes, I know how to spell). Women either get to write the rules this time or they will be very angry. Consider this, if men kept their mouths, hands and pants zipped until they had clear permission to do otherwise, we wouldn't have this problem.

I don't do twitter but someone should start one hashtagged HE TOO. (for men to confess, in case you don't get it.)

October 26, 2017

Why opioids are such an American problem

In two years, the town of Kermit in West Virginia received almost nine million opioid pills, according to a congressional committee.
Just 400 people live in Kermit.
...
Unlike most European countries, the US does not have universal healthcare paid for by taxes.
Instead, Americans must get their own insurance - usually via an employer or the government.
...
"Most insurance, especially for poor people, won't pay for anything but a pill,"
...
For the past four years, the US government has published the amounts paid by drug and device companies to doctors and teaching hospitals.
The total in 2016 was more than $8bn. More than 630,000 physicians had payment records.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41701718

Question?
Has anyone else noticed we always have a drug crisis whenever Republicans are in the White House? Reefer Madness may mess with that anecdotal hypothesis.

October 26, 2017

Women in Scotland allowed abortion pill at home

"This will spare women not only the difficulties associated with having to make more than one clinic visit - childcare, transport, time off work - but it will also spare women from the risk of symptoms on their way home, having taken the medication in a clinic."

"It is simply perverse that a woman arriving at a BPAS clinic in England and Wales with an incomplete miscarriage can be given the medication to take in the comfort and privacy of her own home, while a woman seeking an abortion must take that same medication on site."

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-41760959

Oh my goodness! Do these people expect women to handle this? It's so difficult. Open mouth, swallow...so hard.

October 24, 2017

Why does the US have so many child brides?

While countries like Zimbabwe, Malawi and El Salvador have recently banned child marriage, it remains legal in the US - and half of states have no set minimum age below which you cannot get married.
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-41727495/why-does-the-us-have-so-many-child-brides

This is nothing new. It's been there all along. I can remember a 6th grade classmate who planned to marry as soon as the school year ended...1950s. How about the old joke regarding (name a southern state) and 12 year old virgins? That's not just a mean dig at a neighbor but a recognition of a need to marry them off young. I'm certain there are plenty of such stories.

Want to bet Jeff Sessions would take umbrage if we try to change the age of legal marriage in his imaginary state?

October 22, 2017

A giant insect ecosystem is collapsing due to humans. It's a catastrophe

You think there will be fewer insecticides sprayed on farmlands around the globe in the years to come? Think again. It is the most uncomfortable of truths, but one which stares us in the face: that even the most successful organisms that have ever existed on earth are now being overwhelmed by the titanic scale of the human enterprise, as indeed, is the whole natural world.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/21/insects-giant-ecosystem-collapsing-human-activity-catastrophe

Contrary to some beliefs, humans did not arrive here via spaceship. We are part of the natural world.

October 21, 2017

Is this the fourth horseman...

Horse #1- world forests so damaged they emit C02

Horse #2- Permafrost melting to emit even more CO2

Horse #3- 75% of all insects on earth have been killed off

Horse #4- http://www.radiolab.org/story/breaking-news/

Who you gonna trust when this is perfected?