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Yes, I do live under a rock. I’m guessing not having a TV will do this to you, but it was by chance that I happened by this release of the new BSG series blood and chrome and its awesome!
Episode 1 and 2 are already out. Dammit I’m finally going to have to learn to play the damn music from this show. :>
“Against Our Will” is an important book, I suggest that everyone read it as soon as possible.
“A world without rapists would be a world in which women moved freely without fear of men. That some men rape provides a sufficient threat to keep all women in a constant state of intimidation, forever conscious of the knowledge that the biological tool must be held in awe, for it may turn to weapon with sudden swiftness born of harmful intent… Rather than society’s aberrants or ‘spoilers of purity,’ men who commit rape have served in effect as front-line masculine shock troops, terrorist guerrillas in the longest sustained battle the world has ever known.”
| — | Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape (1975) |
With all the noise coming from the rightwing deluded conservo-nut side of the blogosphere decrying loss of all hope, I thought I would reaffirm the reason why they lost and lost big in their election. Your base is believes in magic and mythology, here and now in the 21st century. Your wacky ideas had their time in the sun and royally screwed things up.
Today we embrace modernity and evidence based problem solving. Supplicating yourself to your magic-skydaddy and turning off your higher faculties has accomplished nothing of value except highlighting your ingrained ignorance and dismissal of reason. The religiously deluded exist now to be shown as the way <em>not</em> to do things and how not to construct a caring, ethical society.
This is a new/old series featuring Carl Sagan narration and clips. I like where it is going so far and want to share it with you my faithful readership.. ;)
*TW for sexual violence.
Project Unbreakable is about the survivors of sexual assault. It is a photoblog of survivors holding up signs with messages about their experiences and feelings. Powerful stuff.
Abuse is epidemic in our societies, not thinking about it does not make it go away. Please link to and propagate Project Unbreakable’s message.
Something a little different this Friday folks. The love of music comes in many shapes and sizes, we here at DWR appreciate peoples’ dedication to their art. This fine individual has decided to pursue his love of Mozart via the crystal harp; I say more power to him.
Trigger warning for Language, Homophobia and Racism and violence in general.
This is by no means a scientific finding. This isn’t even a good sample, but lets background that for bit and look at what is going on in the video. How many times do you hear the word “Bitch” or “Fag” or even more inappropriate terms? These are examples of people at their worst, but what I find of sociological value is the idea that when we are at our most angry the blinders of everyday “polite” behaviour quickly fall to the wayside. What is left is the unvarnished raw core of feeling and emotion that can give some insight into the some of the uglier systemic features of our society.
U Mad?
The idea that being a “fag” or homosexual apparently is one of the worst insults you can direct at another male – why? Because being homosexual equates to un-masculine thus powerless, helpless; a second class citizen in our society (where men are the ideal) you know, like being a woman (the horror). The prevalence of the word “bitch” completes the circle because being a bitch is to be female and subservient; inferior in every way. (There is more to be said, but consider this a start.)
There are tonnes of vulgarity in the video, but unsurprisingly, most of it is gender or race based. One could hypothesize that video-games bring out the worst in us, but I’d rather look at the idea that video games, as a cultural artifact of our patriarchal culture, show exactly how far we still need to go to make our society a safe egalitarian place for everyone, and not just the menz.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…