Kiss Me With A Bullet

Virginia Board of Health Approves Strict New Abortion Regulations. Conservatives Applaud.

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 20:39:32 -0400

Virginia Board of Health Approves Strict New Abortion Regulations. Conservatives Applaud.:

Remember when conservatives opposed punishing small businesses with pointless rules? (Remember when liberals didn’t think that ever actually happened?)

"I am sorry I can say nothing more consoling to you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing..."

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:18:00 -0400

“I am sorry I can say nothing more consoling to you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude, and for some people too, perhaps, a complete science.”

- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (via fellow-dasein)

Photo

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 19:32:29 -0400

Photo

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 19:19:55 -0400

Voting Law Changes In 2012

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 21:42:37 -0400

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Over the past century, our nation expanded the franchise and knocked down myriad barriers to full electoral participation. In 2011, however, that momentum abruptly shifted. State governments across the country enacted an array of new laws making it harder to register or to vote. Some states require voters to show government-issued photo identification, often of a type that as many as one in ten voters do not have. Other states have cut back on early voting, a hugely popular innovation used by millions of Americans. Two states reversed earlier reforms and once again disenfranchised millions who have past criminal convictions but who are now taxpaying members of the community. Still others made it much more difficult for citizens to register to vote, a prerequisite for voting.

These new restrictions fall most heavily on young, minority, and low-income voters, as well as on voters

with disabilities. This wave of changes may sharply tilt the political terrain for the 2012 election. Based

on the Brennan Center’s analysis of the 19 laws and two executive actions that passed in 14 states, it is

clear that:

• These new laws could make it significantly harder for more than five million eligible voters to

cast ballots in 2012.

• The states that have already cut back on voting rights will provide 171 electoral votes in 2012–

63 percent of the 270 needed to win the presidency.

• Of the 12 likely battleground states, as assessed by an August Los Angeles Times analysis of

Gallup polling, five have already cut back on voting rights (and may pass additional restrictive

legislation), and two more are currently considering new restrictions.

States have changed their laws so rapidly that no single analysis has assessed the overall impact of such

moves. Although it is too early to quantify how the changes will impact voter turnout, they will be a

hindrance to many voters at a time when the United States continues to turn out less than two thirds

of its eligible citizens in presidential elections and less than half in midterm elections.

This study is the first comprehensive roundup of all state legislative action thus far in 2011 on voting

rights, focusing on new laws as well as state legislation that has not yet passed or that failed. This

snapshot may soon be incomplete: the second halves of some state legislative sessions have begun.

Read the Rest Here: http://brennan.3cdn.net/92635ddafbc09e8d88_i3m6bjdeh.pdf

"What twisted people we are. How simple we seem, or at least pretend to be in front of others, and..."

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 00:28:56 -0400

“What twisted people we are. How simple we seem, or at least pretend to be in front of others, and how twisted we are deep down. How paltry we are and how spectacularly we contort ourselves before our own eyes, and the eyes of others…And all for what? To hide what? To make people believe what?”

- Roberto Bolano (via suvarnadvipa)

For S.

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 00:26:30 -0400

lejardinbleu:

My gift to you

My gift to you will be an abyss, she said,
but it will be so subtle you’ll perceive it
only after many years have passed
and you are far from Mexico and me.
You’ll find it when you’ll need it most,
and that won’t be
the happy ending,
but it will be an instant of emptiness and joy.
And maybe then you’ll remember me,
if only just a little.

— Roberto Bolaño

"Books are finite, sexual encounters are finite, but the desire to read and to fuck is infinite; it..."

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:10:31 -0400

“Books are finite, sexual encounters are finite, but the desire to read and to fuck is infinite; it surpasses our own deaths, our fears, our hopes for peace.”

- Roberto Bolano (via obscenescreamz)

wakeupblackpower: nice.

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:06:21 -0400

wakeupblackpower:

nice.

Sex and the Church — Black women’s sexuality and spirituality

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:00:11 -0400

Sex and the Church — Black women’s sexuality and spirituality:

wakeupblackpower:

“African-American women’s sexual history in the United States goes back to the auction block. Stripped naked, standing in full view of anyone, black women were on display as objects, slaves, property. They had no rights to their own bodies, so they had to stand there naked, exposed.

“What happened on that auction block centuries ago is still unfinished business for African-American women today,” says Dr. Gail Wyatt, author of Stolen Women: Reclaiming Our Sexuality, Taking Back Our Lives. “In a society increasingly obsessed with sex, too many people, white and black, still hold this dangerous view: that black women must either ignore their sexuality altogether or be perpetually sexually available.”

Slave women had no rights to their own bodies. At any time, a white man could force himself on a slave woman without fear of repercussions. She was his property to do with as he pleased.

A girl’s first sexual experience was likely to be rape. Therefore, virginity was not expected of black women. They had to submit to any white man who made sexual demands, otherwise they would be beaten or their family punished.

Negative image

Such demeaning experiences result in a negative image of one’s own body. The psycho-sexual trauma of slavery is embedded in our black women’s collective memory. For our foremothers, to see their nakedness was to remember the horror, pain and shame of slavery for women. These feelings have a significant impact upon one’s self-esteem in relationship to body image.

For many black women, shame and negative feelings are still associated with being naked.

Even today for many black women, shame and negative feelings are still associated with being naked. Some women will not let partners see them undress, and they can only make love in the dark.

Unfortunately, the remedy some have chosen is to cover their bodies. They don’t wear clothing that compliments their figure, because it is considered too revealing. Such clothes are what “bad girls” wear.

When I’ve visited black churches, especially in the south, I’ve seen women wearing a sleeveless dress or blouse be offered a shawl or sweater to cover their bare arms. The offer invariably comes from one of the “church mothers.”

Significant statement

In 2009, attention is being given in the United States to the arm-baring fashion choices of the nation’s first lady, Michelle Obama. I have no doubt that most people outside of the African-American community do not understand the significance of the statement that Michelle Obama’s arm-baring fashion makes. How and when did naked arms become a symbol of nakedness?

Slavery has left its toll on black people.

When did bare arms become a shame to cover and hide as if genitalia were exposed?

Dr. Cornel West, in his book Race Matters, says slavery has left its toll on black people. In the chapter, “Black Sexuality: The Taboo Subject,” he writes that slavery, “this white dehumanizing endeavor,” has left its toll “in the psychic scars and personal wounds now inscribed in the souls of black folk.” He states that such scars and wounds are “clearly etched on the canvas of black sexuality.”

The black church is the best place to see how these wounds have manifested themselves. Any talk of sexuality invariably addresses what not to do, and which sexual behavior is sinful.

The black church needs to begin embracing human sexuality, and looking at issues of human sexuality in a healthy way. Our sexuality is a God-given gift. It is not meant to be an albatross around our necks.

Most healthful path

We are born with four natural drives: hunger, sleep, thirst and sex. If we suppress any of these for too long, consequences, often not good, will result. Human beings should have balance in their lives: Whatever the pursuit, moderation most frequently is the most healthful path.

Sexuality is like a pink elephant sitting in the middle of the church.

Many church folk are sexually active, but act as if they only “praise the Lord under the sheets at night.” Yet all people are sexual creatures. When we come to church, we don’t leave our sexuality in the parking lot with the car to pick up after the benediction. Sexuality is like a pink elephant sitting in the middle of the church: Everyone sees it, but no one wants to acknowledge its presence.

No one talks about it. But everyone lives with this “unmentionable” aspect of life. It is not healthy emotionally, mentally or spiritually to deny such a wonderful part of who we were created to be. We cannot be whole people if we deny or suppress our sexuality.

We need a clearer understanding of what is meant by sexuality. It is not just about genitalia. Our sexuality is an essential part of who we are, just as much as our intellect or our personality.

Don’t suppress sexuality

I invite black women not to suppress their sexuality, but rather to strive to understand and embrace this wonderful gift from God. Sexuality is as unique and needed in all lives as our heartbeat and our DNA. Understanding sexuality, however, cannot be accomplished if we continue to suppress any candid acknowledgement that it is a God-given gift, not a thing to be associated with shame.

Shame must be replaced with joy when we think of our sexuality.

If we truly believe that we are created in the image of God, then shame must be replaced with joy when we think of our sexuality. Like Adam and Eve, we must learn to be “naked and not ashamed.” Psalm 139:14 says, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works!”

When asked which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus answered: “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 23:36-38)

Self-love is critical to a healthy attitude toward one’s own sexuality. To love oneself is to be able to love others as well as God. If black women are to be able to affirm the fullness of their sexuality, then they must claim that power of spirit within themselves that urges them towards a full life and wholeness. It is this inner power, propelled by self-love that moves women to not settle for anything less than an abundant life, mentally, physically, spiritually or sexually.

Union of sexuality and spirituality

The Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, in her book Sexuality and the Black Church, says, “For black women to be able to affirm themselves is for them to be in touch with that most profoundly creative source, … that which is female and self-affirming in the face of a racist, patriarchal, and anti-erotic society.”

A more powerful force can be a child’s parents.

When black women embrace the union of their sexuality and spirituality, then they can talk frankly to their children about human sexuality. If the shroud of silence is not lifted soon, then our children may be fated to the same shame, or finding their sexuality in the wrong ways, at the wrong times, and with the wrong people.

Popular culture can affect teenager’s behavior, but a more powerful force can be a child’s parents. Granted, talking to youths about sex is not the easiest thing to do. Adults have been able, though, with training to engage in such successful discussions using resources from various organizations dedicated to comprehensive human sexuality education.

Black Church Initiative

One organization that exists to help the African-American faith community with issues of sexuality education for youth and adults is the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and its Black Church Initiative. The initiative encourages and assists African-American clergy and laity in addressing teen childbearing, sexuality education, unintended pregnancies, and other reproductive health issues within the context of African-American culture and religion.

The program’s projects include the National Black Religious Summit on Sexuality, in which black clergy and laity continue the dialogue on critical issues affecting the African-American community. These include teen pregnancy, sexuality and religion, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS and other issues of reproductive health.

Many adults, of all races and religious beliefs, are not ready to discuss sexuality with youths because they still need to explore their own related issues. Some of our black mothers and grandmothers instructed us about sexuality out of fear of what may happen to us. They have passed down misinformation for generations.

I highly recommend seeking help from a certified sexual therapist. Therapists can be found through the American Assn. of Sex Educators, Counselors & Therapists website.

Pastors and religious leaders who want resources for sexuality education in their church can contact The Sexuality Information & Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS). This national, nonprofit organization affirms that sexuality is a natural and healthy part of living. Incorporated in 1964, SIECUS develops, collects and disseminates information; promotes comprehensive education about sexuality; and advocates the right of individuals to make responsible sexual choices.

The church cannot afford to ignore the realities of sexuality in the lives of its members, and the people we serve. The late Rev. Dr. Samuel DeWitt Proctor, pastor emeritus of Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City and professor emeritus at Rutgers University, once said, “We know what the ‘oughtness’ of religious teachings are in relationship to sex, but we must minister to the ‘isness’ of people’s lives.”

Questions for reflection

When you were a child/teenager who first explained sex to you, and what did they tell you? Was it helpful? Would you pass this same information on to a teenager in your life?

As an African-American woman, have you ever thought about the impact of slavery on black women’s sexual psychic? In what other areas of black life do you see slavery’s effect?

In what ways is your sexuality expressed in your everyday life?

What are some steps the church can take to become more affirming of human sexuality?

What issues related to human sexuality would you like to see discussed in educational seminars in your church?

“

needynefertiti: Agustí Centelles, International Volunteer,...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 19:13:48 -0400

needynefertiti:

Agustí Centelles, International Volunteer, Barcelona, January 1937. Spain, Ministry of Culture, Centro Documental de la Memoria Histórica, Archivo Centelles

As a volunteer in the International Brigades that fought in Spain’s civil war, the unidentified black soldier in the photograph was one of the first Americans to die fighting fascism.

Now Spanish authorities want to put a name to him so they can present his picture to President Barack Obama when he visits Spain next year.

The black and white picture of the African American volunteer forms part of an extraordinary collection of civil war photographs that was bought recently by the Spanish state.

“All we know is that he arrived with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of American volunteers and that he died in the battle at Brunete [in July 1937],” said Sergi Centelles, whose father, Agustí, took the picture.

The soldier is one of more than 90 African-Americans who volunteered to defend Spain’s elected Republican government from a 1936 rightwing military uprising that sparked a three-year civil war.

Germany’s Adolf Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini sent troops to back the rebel army of future dictator General Francisco Franco. Leftwing and anti-fascist volunteers from around the world joined Russians sent by Stalin to help defend the Republic.

Obama defended the concept of waging a “just war” in his Nobel peace prize speech this month.

The New York-based Abraham Lincoln Brigades Association and New York University’s Tamiment library have scoured their civil war archives to see if they could identify the man in the photograph, which was probably taken in February 1937. Two possible candidates have emerged: Milton Herndon, whose brother Angelo won a famous supreme court case against a sentence for “incitement to insurrection”, and aviator Paul Williams.

“It is one of eight or nine photographs my father took of the Americans marching through Barcelona,” said Agustí Centelles.

The photograph remained hidden for four decades after Agustí Centelles, known as the “Spanish Robert Capa”, fled Spain as Franco’s forces looked set to win the civil war in 1939.

“My father took his photographs with him in a suitcase because he was scared they would be used to identify people and carry out reprisals,” said Sergi Centelles.

The photographer used the suitcase as a pillow in a French refugee camp to prevent it from being stolen. He later moved in with a French family in Carcassonne, in southern France, but had to flee again after the second world war broke out and the occupying Germans heard that he was using his camera to take photographs for false passports.

“The Gestapo were chasing him, so he walked back across the Pyrenees into Spain,” said Sergi Centelles. “He left the suitcase behind, telling the French family not to and it over to anyone but him.

“It was passed down from the grandfather, when he died, to his son and then, when he also died, to the grandson.”

Agustí Centelles sent the French family a present every Christmas as a sign that he was still alive.

Spain did not give the photographer a passport until 1962, when the family travelled to Carcasonne to check the suitcase was still there. It was only in 1976, a year after Franco died, that he dared pick up the suitcase and bring it home.

It contained hundreds of civil war photographs, including one of writer George Orwell with a group of fellow international volunteers.

The mix of races in the International Brigades saw attempts made to observe a degree of racial equality otherwise unseen in western armies in the 1930s.

“We know there were quite a few African American volunteers and that many were treated badly when they went home, as people thought they were communists,” said Sergi Centelles.

“We have four or five names of possible candidates, but what we really want to do is to find their family.”

strongaly: African American Doctor Depicted as Gorilla at UCLA...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 19:11:26 -0400

strongaly:

African American Doctor Depicted as Gorilla at UCLA Event

“Imagine being graphically depicted as a gorilla in a slideshow photo. That alone is offensive. But the fact that the slide was publicly presented for laughs during an annual medical school sponsored event attended by more than 200 physicians, faculty, residents and guests is both shocking and indefensible.

Not only was Dr. Christian Head’s face superimposed onto the body of a gorilla standing on all-fours, but the photo also depicted him being sodomized by his Caucasian supervisor. This, unfortunately, was just one of a series of racially motivated incidents that Dr. Head has had to deal with over the past several years at UCLA. His complaints to administrative leaders at the Medical Center, the University and UC Regents have gone unanswered. In fact, his complaints have spurred additional acts of humiliation, attempts to push him out of academic medicine and retaliation.”

-Change.org

http://youtu.be/9eMwYtycb_I

thepoliticalnotebook: Hosni Mubarak was found guilty of...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:59:21 -0400

thepoliticalnotebook:

Hosni Mubarak was found guilty of allowing the deaths of at least 800 protesters in the 18-day uprising that toppled his presidency in 2011. He was given a life sentence, which he will serve in Torah prison in southern Cairo. Given a life sentence alongside him was his former interior minister Habib el-Adly. The corruption charges leveled against his sons, Gamal and Alaa, were dropped.

The picture above was taken and tweeted by Al Jazeera’s @glcarlstrom, and is of parents outside the courthouse who have dropped to their knees crying over the portrait of their martyred son after hearing the news of the verdict.

[Al Jazeera] [@RichardEngelNBC] [AP] [@glcarlstrom]

"To be grateful for all life’s blessings… is the best condition for a happy life. A joke, a good..."

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 18:51:22 -0400

“To be grateful for all life’s blessings… is the best condition for a happy life. A joke, a good meal, a fine spring day, a work of art, a human personality, a voice, a glance—but this is not all. For there is another kind of gratitude…the feeling that makes us thankful for suffering, for the hard and heavy things of life, for the deepening of our natures which perhaps only suffering can bring.”

- Thomas Mann

(via benjamin7373)

Anastasia: Each morning, we wake up and experience a rich explosion of...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 18:38:53 -0400

Anastasia: Each morning, we wake up and experience a rich explosion of...:

to-be-anastasia:

Each morning, we wake up and experience a rich explosion of consciousness — the bright morning sunlight, the smell of roast coffee and, for some of us, the warmth of the person lying next to us in bed. As the slumber recedes into the night, we awake to become who we are. The morning haze of dreams…

reminds me of @AstroLuminary

“somewhere between forever and a lifetime you begin to disappear. You see your love was as...

Sun, 13 May 2012 20:39:58 -0400

“somewhere between forever and a lifetime you begin to disappear. You see your love was as temporary as the Kadupul flower only lasting throughout midnight and dying before dawn. I was too blinded by the thought of love that laid lingering on the tip of your fingers like a promise of the sunrise. you caused me to tremble. the Earth opened its soul and held me captive whenever you told me I was everything you ever wanted. yet you were nothing but mere poison. you caused me to believe that love was as mystical as the rose that grew from concrete. and all I ever wanted was to show you that beauty hides in the simplest form and happiness tap dances on the floor of life. but I was foolish when I fell for the autobiography of your two scars. so forgive me for trying. forgive me for my dying heart.”

"When power becomes gracious and descends into the visible — such descent I call beauty."

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:05:05 -0400

“When power becomes gracious and descends into the visible — such descent I call beauty.”

- Nietzsche

~And such beauty I call all those sentient beings around me.
(via seabluescylla)

partypropagandaprofessional: (graph source}

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:01:47 -0400

partypropagandaprofessional:

(graph source}

zainyk: Photo Of The Day: President Barack Obama sits on the...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:57:17 -0400

zainyk:

Photo Of The Day: President Barack Obama sits on the famed Rosa Parks bus at the Henry Ford Museum following an event in Dearborn, Mich., April 18, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

"To say “I’m not that gorgeous” is only a reflection of the media. You are gorgeous. I’m telling you...."

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:12:17 -0400

“To say “I’m not that gorgeous” is only a reflection of the media. You are gorgeous. I’m telling you. You are what you believe you are. You are a model. You are a rapper. You are a student. You are a positive person. Don’t let these words feel like you’re different. Nobody is different, I’m telling you, and nobody asked to be born.”

- Lil B, taken from his lecture at NYU. (via the12thdimension)