(via harlequinfairy)
People’s Summit: An Alternative to UN Convention
June 21, 2012While presidents and prime ministers gather at the United Nations sustainability conference in Brazil to seek a balance between economic development and environmental protection, 200 non-government groups are hosting their own alternative event.
The nine-day People’s Summit is fostering conversation between social movements, including indigenous groups, environmental activists, unions and land rights groups.
They came to Rio to search for alternatives to those proposed by world leaders, which they say have accomplished little since the last UN summit 20 years ago.
The movement spawned two marches drawing tens of thousands. One protested the removal of communities to make way for projects connected to the 2016 Olympics. The other opposed alleged capitalist appropriation of the Earth Summit.
(via anarcho-queer)
"In time, however, the 21st century happened, and a new era of Sex and the City feminism entered. Suddenly, women were saying, yeah, we can be slutty, just like guys. After all, guys go out and try to get laid and brag about it, and society encourages them to do so. I’m going to do that too! Suddenly, you had college girls tweeting about blowjobs and wearing their sexuality on their sleeves, thinking that they were supposed to go out and ride the world for the sisters or they were somehow being oppressed. And though I would imagine this brand of feminism is a lot better for guys looking to get laid, it still makes me sad. It’s still putting a pressure on women that shouldn’t be there.
The whole premise is wrong. Yes, men are jealous of guys who get a lot of women, but women are wrong to think it’s a trait that garners much respect. No one says, “We need to calm corporate unrest — be sure to tell the shareholders how much tang our new CEO is getting.” It might surprise women, but do you know what we call guys who go out and try to screw everything? Whores. Know what we call the guy who’s always going on and on about all the women he’s landed? An asshole. And in my experience, even guys who are legitimately good at having a bunch of promiscuous sex wouldn’t make a big show of it.
It’s a subtle distinction. Yes, feminism is about women having the same right as men to be irresponsible, brash and slutty, I’ll agree. But being brash, irresponsible and slutty doesn’t make you a feminist. It doesn’t make you empowered. It just makes you as irresponsible, brash and slutty as some of the dudes we don’t like."
3 Mistakes Women Make When Dealing With Men. (via libertarians)
@1 year ago with 152 notes(Source: robotbutler, via libertarians)
Why I perform abortions: A Christian obstetrician explains his choice 
Willie J. Parker, an obstetrician based in Washington, D.C., didn’t always perform abortions. He’s a Christian from Birmingham, Ala., who initially refused to even consider the procedure.
But about halfway into his 20-year career, he changed his mind. Now, he’s one of those rare doctors who is willing to push the limits and provide abortions at 24 weeks of pregnancy. That places him among only about 11 percent of all abortion providers who will do the procedure that late in the second trimester.
Click through to read more.
“Q. Explain why limitations on abortion trouble you.
A. It forces women to take into account the sensibility of people who don’t have firsthand information about what the circumstances are in that woman’s life. It creates a duty and obligation for a woman to make her decision in a time frame acceptable to people other than herself. That time frame may or may not be realistic, and it fails to take into account the complexity of decision-making when it comes to abortion.
As people sit around, and theorize and debate about what should be a reasonable or common ground, the voices of the people who are most affected by this decision are lost. They aren’t represented in these dialogues. Their specific realities don’t count.
So conversations that feel like progress actually end up with restrictions in place on women in desperate circumstances. They don’t reduce unintended pregnancies, they don’t create more access to medically accurate sex education and modern forms of contraception — but they do result in restrictions and rules that push women to desperate measures.”
YES. FUCKING YES EVERYWHERE.
READ THIS.
(via whitedenial-ontrial)
The way US handles other countries
| US Government: | So we heard you needed our help? |
| Africa/The Middle East: | No, we're fine. |
| US Government: | No, we really think you need our help. |
| Africa/The Middle East: | Fuck off, we're fine! |
| US Government: | Ah, they're hostile! They hate our way of life! We have to stop them! |
| Africa/The Middle East: | EVERYTHING WAS FINE UNTIL YOU GOT INVOLVED WHERE YOU'RE NOT WANTED. |
| US Government: | TERRORISTS! THEY'RE TRYING TO KILL ALL OF US! WE NEED TO INVADE! |
We don’t usually start articles with warnings, but some of the pictures in the gallery are incredibly distressing. We omitted some on the grounds that they were just too upsetting, but the ones that we do run, we do so with full permission, and because we feel that this is an important story.
Karlos Zurutuza show us his photos of the medical fallout of the Iraq War (including suspected white phosphorus and depleted uranium and specifically its effects on children in Fallujah.
View the gallery, and read the interview with the photographer here.
