Florida: Targeting the poor, refusing to protect children
Two new laws on the books in Florida: One to require drug tests for welfare recipients, and one that makes it illegal for doctors to ask patients about their firearms. Interesting priorities. Testing welfare recipients for drugs is a massive waste of taxpayer dollars, and a major privacy invasion. It’s been found unconstitutional in some [...]
...read more#DearJohn: The GOP Seeks to Re-Define Rape and Restrict Reproductive Health Care
It’s not surprising that with large numbers of Republicans elected to Congress, we’re seeing major assaults on reproductive rights. What is shocking is how aggressive and heartless they are. A new bill, which has a good chance of passing, will deny abortion services to rape survivors; cut abortion care from private insurance policies; and remove [...]
...read moreOn second thought about Kermit Gosnell
He does tell us a few things about abortion. They just aren’t what William Saletan thinks. The Gosnell case shows us the worst of what happens when abortion isn’t accessible. Gosnell’s “clinic” was nothing short of a house of horrors, and he preyed upon women who couldn’t get abortions anywhere else or who were unfamiliar [...]
...read moreMatthew Boyle steals from the government to prove that poor people don’t need food.
Wow, this is really horrible you guys: Did you know that you can use food stamps to buy actual food? Thank goodness right-wing investigative “journalists” are on the case. Matthew Boyle lied on his food stamps application, thereby defrauding the government and receiving social services to which he was not actually entitled. He then went [...]
...read moreOn Generosity
This is the third in a series examining issues raised by a blog post from Chamber of Commerce Senior Communications Director Brad Peck, where he suggested that women’s interest in closing the gender pay gap amounted to a “fetish for money,” and the subsequent apologies for it by himself and Chamber COO David Chavern. Part [...]
...read moreTransit cuts hurt car drivers too
The Post-Gazette has a story today detailing the costs of transit cuts in the city of Pittsburgh. The city’s Port Authority needs $47 million to avoid cuts of 35 percent. According to the P-G, the Port Authority would have to reduce services hours by 35 percent, lay off 555 employees, and eliminate more than 40 [...]
...read moreMore on Fast Fashion
To follow up on my previous post, let’s discuss a few more things about Fast Fashion. Who says women love to shop? It’s obviously not true that every woman everywhere loooooves to shop. Personally, I hate shopping. I think it’s boring; it’s time consuming, tedious and expensive. If I have absolutely have to, I prefer [...]
...read moreRetail: It’s Complicated
You can blame Barbie, Mall Madness, the sexualizing and gendering of kids and their toys, but there’s no denying that women love to shop. Got a date? Buy a new dress. Feeling sad? There’s a sale at the mall. Your boyfriend broke up with you? These new shoes will show him! Women are socialized from [...]
...read moreGot a hot date in Oakland tonight…Much of it will be silent
The East Bay Meditation Center from East Bay Meditation Center on Vimeo. (Description and transcript, to the best of my beginner’s ability, below the fold — additions and/or amendments appreciated!) Friends, I’d like you to meet the East Bay Meditation Center, one of the dopest sanghas (dhammic spiritual communities) I have ever had the good [...]
...read moreDon’t Resist: Resist!
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt. ~Audre Lorde Hey y’all, thank you so much for all the incredibly thoughtful comments on my first two posts. (For those just now hopping on board, they are here and here — the first one, which has my comment guidelines, might [...]
...read moreTANF Not Providing Needed Assistance to Domestic Violence Victims
Last week, Legal Momentum and the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence published a study on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and how it assists, or specifically frequently fails to assist, victims of domestic violence who are living in poverty in the U.S. The full study, entitled Not Enough: What TANF Offers [...]
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