Clipmarks | debbyski's clips

Did you Ever Feel Like?

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:36:40 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: didyoueverfeel.blogspot.com

Did you ever feel your sexual fantasies were being replaced by fantasies of quitting your job?

Black In The Age Of Obama

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:20:03 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Over the decades, conservatives and Republicans have forged and fueled fears of blacks coming after your teenage daughters, your wife, your stereo, your tax money, your job, your kid's college admissions, and the music your kids listen to.

It's out in the forefront again with the offensive images on Google. Any so called justification for that hatred such as one clipper posed here on CM is nothing but a smoke screen for the malevolence that lives in his heart.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

A hundred and fifty years ago, Charles Dickens opened “A Tale of Two Cities” with the now-famous phrase: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. ...”

Last year, blacks dared to dream anew, envisioning a future in which Obama’s election would be the catalyst for an era of prosperity and more racial harmony.

Things have not gotten better. In many ways, they’ve gotten worse.

The recession, for one, has dealt a particularly punishing and uneven hand to blacks.

Things on the racial front are just as bad.

In fact, racially offensive images of the first couple are so prolific online that Google now runs an apologetic ad with the results of image searches of them.

And it’s not all words and images; it’s actions as well.

The hard truth is that Obama needs white voters more than he needs black ones.

In fact, commiserating with the blacks could prove politically problematic.

Meanwhile, black people are also living a tale of two actions: grin and bear it.

A Fearful Price

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:07:16 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "The reason it is so easy for the U.S. to declare wars, and to continue fighting year after year after year, is because so few Americans feel the actual pain of those wars. We’ve been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan longer than we fought in World Wars I and II combined.

I don’t think our current way of waging war, which is pretty easy-breezy for most citizens, is what the architects of America had in mind. Here’s George Washington’s view, for example: “It must be laid down as a primary position and the basis of our system, that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal service to the defense of it.”

What we are doing is indefensible and will ultimately exact a fearful price, and there will be absolutely no way for the U.S. to avoid paying it".

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The idea that fewer than 1 percent of Americans are being called on to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq and that we’re sending them into combat again and again and again — for three tours, four tours, five tours, six tours — is obscene. All decent people should object.

The air is filled with obsessive self-satisfied rhetoric about supporting the troops, giving them everything they need and not letting them down. But that rhetoric is as hollow as a jazzman’s drum because the overwhelming majority of Americans have no desire at all to share in the sacrifices that the service members and their families are making. Most Americans do not want to serve in the wars, do not want to give up their precious time to do volunteer work that would aid the nation’s warriors and their families, do not even want to fork over the taxes that are needed to pay for the wars.

Cancer From The Kitchen

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:16:18 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "I asked these doctors what they do in their own homes to reduce risks. They said that they avoid microwaving food in plastic or putting plastics in the dishwasher, because heat may cause chemicals to leach out. And the symposium handed out a reminder card listing “safer plastics” as those marked (usually at the bottom of a container) 1, 2, 4 or 5.

It suggests that the “plastics to avoid” are those numbered 3, 6 and 7 (unless they are also marked “BPA-free”). Yes, the evidence is uncertain, but my weekend project is to go through containers in our house and toss out 3’s, 6’s and 7’s. "

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The battle over health care focuses on access to insurance, or tempests like the one that erupted over new mammogram guidelines.

What if breast cancer in the United States has less to do with insurance or mammograms and more to do with contaminants in our water or air -- or in certain plastic containers in our kitchens?

Younger people also seem to be developing breast cancer: This year a 10-year-old in California, Hannah, is fighting breast cancer and recording her struggle on a blog.

What’s happening? One theory starts with the well-known fact that women with more lifetime menstrual cycles are at greater risk for breast cancer, because they’re exposed to more estrogen.

It’s also well established that Western women are beginning puberty earlier, and going through menopause later.

One class of chemicals that creates concern — although the evidence is not definitive — is endocrine disruptors

These endocrine disruptors are found in everything from certain plastics to various cosmetics.

What Causes Heterosexuality?

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:12:31 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Every time I hear someone say "gross" to homosexuality, I wonder why they want to put that label on anyone who is different from themselves, so here are some good questions to ask.

Clip Source: answers.yahoo.com

What do you think caused your heterosexuality?

When and how did you first decide you were a heterosexual?

Is it possible your heterosexuality is just a phase you may grow out of?

Why do you insist on flaunting your heterosexuality? Cant you just be what you are and keep it quiet?

Why do heterosexuals place so much emphasis on sex?

How can you enjoy an emotionally fulfilling experience with a person of the other sex when there are such vast differences between you? How can a man know what pleases a woman sexually or vice-versa?

Why are heterosexuals so promiscuous?

The Truth About Work

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:01:29 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: The sad truth, that is.

Clip Source: www.fortunewatch.com

How Well They Played Our Game

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:31:25 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "It did not take long for the Japanese to tire of the territorial restrictions placed upon them by their Anglo-American partners.

No one in Oslo, or in the United States Congress, knew the truth then.

But the Japanese did. And the American president’s support emboldened them to increase their military might — and their imperial ambitions. In December 1941, the consequence of Theodore Roosevelt’s recklessness would become clear to those few who knew of the secret dealings."

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

My father — one of the famous flag raisers on Iwo Jima — was among the young men who went off to the Pacific to fight for his country. So the war naturally fascinated me. But I always wondered, why did we fight in the Pacific? Yes, there was Pearl Harbor, but why did the Japanese attack us in the first place?

I read deeply into the diplomatic history of the 1930s, about President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policy on Asia

But I discovered that I was studying the wrong President Roosevelt.

When, in February 1904, Japan broke off relations with Russia, President Roosevelt said publicly that he would “maintain the strictest neutrality,” but privately he wrote, “The sympathies of the United States are entirely on Japan’s side.”

To signal his commitment to Tokyo, Roosevelt cut off relations with Korea

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Roosevelt had assumed that the Japanese would stop at Korea

Is The Word Fuck Becoming More Acceptable?

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:27:23 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Do we give too much power to that word? I can remember the first time I heard it and I thought it was real bad. Really, really bad. Like going to hell bad.
Through the years I've used that word a lot to express frustration. Maybe too much, because it kept me from expressing my frustration in a more intelligent and meaningful way. But it felt so good to say it. It released stress in the short term, but until someone came into my life that I really respected I didn't realize how offensive that word could be to others.
I still reserve the right to use it to make a point that I feel cannot be made without it. Like the website FML does.

Clip Source: www.fluther.com

I think it is more acceptable. I’ve heard professors use it while talking to PhD students in a seminar, it’s often every other word in comedy and action movies, and even my mom says it now—although she always smirks after she uses it like she’s gotten away with something.

Clip Source: www.fluther.com

Fuck is the national word of Australia.

Clip Source: www.fluther.com

Its such a versatile word as shown here

Clip Source: www.fluther.com

I think it is a word that is used much more today then it ever has.

Clip Source: www.fluther.com

[Fluther Moderator:] This isn’t an opportunity to swear like crazy drunks. Please keep the discussion intelligent.

Clip Source: www.fluther.com

acceptable no, abused yes.

Clip Source: www.fluther.com

I recall hearing about an interview with the singer/songwriters on Linkin Park about their first album. It’s notably fuck-free, and it got some attention for it.

Mike Shinoda would then ask Chester to consider what feelings/concepts he was trying to express and together they drew out words with more meaning.

The point of their work wasn’t to eliminate the profanity… but to convey meaning.

The Long Hot Winter

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:34:53 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

I have developed a whole new appreciation for the hysteria over Tiger Woods. Many critics of the news media believe we are spending way too much time worrying about why a golfer had a car accident at the end of his driveway. But given the incredibly depressing nature of all the big news stories of the week, if you want to focus on Tiger’s marital problems, I am in total sympathy.

The president ordered 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan. The New York State Senate defeated a same-sex marriage bill. Even the murder and racketeering trial of John Gotti Jr. ended badly.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the U.S. Senate began its groundbreaking debate over a national health care plan.

The way things are going, we should get to a vote at about the same time that the president is planning to get the troops out of Afghanistan.

Let’s try not to think about what January will bring. Maybe another sports hero will do us a favor and run into a fire hydrant.

Needed: Workplace Democracy

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:52:14 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "Democracy gives us the power to create a society that matches our needs. Democracy in the workplace allows us to negotiate the conditions of our work.
You may think that we have all of these rights now. We don't. US workers have almost no right to organize. Every 23 minutes in the United States, a worker is either fired or harassed for trying to unionize.
In 1874 unemployed workers were demonstrating in New York City's Tompkins Square Park. Riot police moved in and began beating men, women, and children with billy clubs, leaving hundreds of casualties in their wake. The police commissioner said: "It was the most glorious sight I ever saw."

Clip Source: www.truthout.org

Unless you are a CEO, you don't have a lot of leverage to demand benefits at your workplace. Every year or two, you might go to your boss and ask for a raise or an extra day of vacation, but usually you can't do much about what hours you work, what health benefits you receive or how your retirement benefits are structured. Unions give workers that leverage.

Unions are designed to give workers a voice in decisions that affect their jobs. They allow workers to negotiate with their employers for wages, health benefits, retirement benefits, and good working conditions. In the best circumstances, unions partner with companies - both have an interest in satisfied, happy workers.

Conservatives have slandered unions for more than a hundred years.

Most of us don't think about workplace rights. We assume that because we live in America, we have all the rights we need.

Why does that matter?

Doing Our Part

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:57:37 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: blog.sojo.net

It is a mistake to think that we cannot defeat violence. It is not an inherent character trait of humanity. It is not encoded in human DNA. We can decide. The World Health Organization tells us that violence is preventable. When we think of it as a health issue, we can identify risk factors that cause violence. When we address the risk factors, we can reduce the violence. Economic inequality on all levels is a major risk factor for violence. Complacency is another.

World change begins with personal renewal. World peace begins with personal peace.

We can agree that we want to see the end of useless violence wherever we find it. We can agree to do our part.

Karl Rove: Obama took 80 days deciding, it only 'took us 50- days to remove them from power

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:43:08 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: And then you abandoned Afghanistan to do some Empire building in Iraq, got beat up there and left your so-called Allies (including the French, remember them?) to bleed and die in Afghanistan.

Great job, Karl!

Clip Source: crooksandliars.com

Has there ever been a bigger dick in the history of dicks than Karl Rove? I mean, really.

Rove, on O'Reilly last night, after President Obama's speech at West Point:

It took him 80-some-odd days to do this, it took us 50-some-odd days to remove the Taliban from power after 9/11, and it took him some 80-odd days to say, 'I'm gonna give McChrystal three-quarters of what he requested in order to get done the job I told him to do on March 27.'

Yeah, and you guys did such a bang-up job keeping the Taliban out of power, didn't you, Karl?

There's a special stomach-churning quality to watching the people who created one of history's great clusterf--ks telling the people saddled with the job of cleaning it up that they're doing a crummy job.

Tags: karl rove, brainless, gop, bush, war, empire, afghanistan, obama, iraq, facts

For All You Wingnuts

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:11:48 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: Take a look at corporate welfare and the business of war profiteering for a change instead of trying to turn greedy I don't wanna pay my fair share of taxes bitching and moaning loud-mouthed asses into some kind of a hero for your own get rich aspirations.

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

Rush Limbaugh, is always bitching and moaning about welfare recipients

Exempt from his criticism are the rich, the politically-connected, and the corporations, who really collect most of the welfare in this country.

how many billions of dollars in closed, no-bid contracts did Halliburton alone receive in the Iraq War? And they're merely one of the pig-like, greedy corporations with their snouts at the trough of the bloated, wasteful Military Industrial Complex.

Indeed, Limbaugh's entire business is dependent on complete and total free usage of the public airwaves that we the people OWN.

If Rush's free ride on the public airwaves ain't welfare, then nothing is.

And now this fat piece of sh*t has the gall to blast any and all government programs that offer a helping hand to working people.

Oh, and to all you wingnuts who constantly bitch and moan about poor people getting a "free ride" off the taxpayers: obviously, you've never been poor, yourselves.

Banning Divorce

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:02:50 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.365gay.com

Til death do us part? The vow would really hold true in California if a Sacramento Web designer gets his way.

“Since California has decided to protect traditional marriage, I think it would be hypocritical of us not to sacrifice some of our own rights to protect traditional marriage even more,” the 38-year-old married father of two said.

Marcotte said he has collected dozens of signatures, including one from his wife of seven years.

Jeffrey Taylor, a spokesman for Restore Equality 2010, a coalition of same-sex marriage activists seeking to repeal Proposition 8, said the coalition supports Marcotte’s message but has no plans to join forces with him.

While most people would not support banning divorce, it does make sense for couples to be educated about the financial and emotional commitments of marriage

Meredith Baxter Is Out

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:13:58 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: today.msnbc.msn.com

For seven years, actress Meredith Baxter has been hiding a secret.

I am a lesbian and it was a later-in-life recognition,” she told Matt Lauer on TODAY. “Some people would say, well, you’re living a lie and, you know, the truth is — not at all. This has only been for the past seven years.”

“I said, ‘I think I’m gay,’ and my oldest boy said, ‘I knew,’ ” Baxter laughed. “The support from my family and anyone close to me has been so immediate and unqualified. I’ve really been blessed.”