I saw a story that made me sad and angry. I shared it on Twitter so that others would see it and become just as outraged. The only person who replied to it, got angry at me because I didn’t change the text of the headline to fit the story’s content. I just used the headline of the story as written by the news outlet. Now I’m the bad guy.
Read More »Category: Society
Mommy Knows Best
While sitting in my living room this afternoon I heard the slamming of a door, and a woman’s voice raised in anger. Not at a boyfriend or husband, but at her child. I almost shrugged it off, until I heard what cause Mommy Dearest’s outrage. The child had, horror of horrors, swung on her in front of company. Read More »
Human Rights Watch report says DC’s police under-report sexual assault complaints
(Washington, DC) – Victims of sexual assault in Washington, DC, are not getting the effective response they deserve and should expect from the district’sMetropolitan Police Department (MPD), Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Sexual assault cases are too often not properly documented or investigated and victims may face callous, traumatizing treatment, despite official departmental policy to the contrary.
The 196-page report, “Capitol Offense: Police Mishandling of Sexual Assault Cases in the District of Columbia,” concludes that in many sexual assault cases, the police did not file incident reports, which are required to proceed with an investigation, or misclassified serious sexual assaults as lesser or other crimes. Human Rights Watch also found that the police presented cases to prosecutors for warrants that were so inadequately investigated that prosecutors had little choice but to refuse them and that procedural formalities were used to close cases with only minimal investigation. The mayor and City Council should create an independent mechanism to monitor police department response to sexual assault complaints.
“Sexual assault is the most underreported violent crime in the US, largely because many victims fear that their cases will not be taken seriously and that police will not believe them,” said Sara Darehshori, senior counsel in the US Program at Human Rights Watch and the author of the report. “Unfortunately, for some victims in DC who bravely came forward and reported their assaults, those fears were realized.”
A Wasted Vote
“”I understand how difficult it can be for an African-American in today’s society. In fact, I can relate to black people very well indeed. My ancestors once owned slaves, and it is in my lineage to work closely with the black community. However, just because they were freed over a century ago doesn’t mean they can now be freeloaders. They need to be told to work hard, and the incentives just aren’t there for them anymore. When I’m president I plan to work closely with the black community to bring a sense of pride and work ethic back into view for them.” – Mitt Romney
These are the words of a man who “thinks” he is qualified to be the leader of the best country on earth. These words, while sugar coated, indicate that a lineage of ownership over a race means you identify with its problems. They say in fact that the struggles of a race that experiences oppression in its daily life should just be thrust aside and that the man who embraces his family’s history of ownership should be the one to lead them towards prosperity.
As a citizen of this country, I am offended. Not so much by his words, but by the ignorance they represent. I am offended by the brashness he uses towards those he deems as “freeloaders,” and I feel that this shows that he is not qualified to run a parking lot let alone a nation.
Privilege is not a good lens to view through when attempting to understand poverty. Ownership does not make you qualified to feel for the common man. In fact, it makes the common man feel that you are a dictator waiting to happen.
If you choose to exercise your freedom of choice for this man, be aware that he is a fool. He has no grasp of the big picture, and only sees the details that he feels will effect a small financial margin of society. This man does not deserve a vote if he truly feels this way.
In fact, I could go so far as to say that I would rather vote for a person who is not of this nation, than for someone who feels that the history of a nation’s people is to be disregarded.
Make up your own mind. Vote for whom you choose. But please use your brain before you waste your vote.
This blog not sponsored by Obama for America.
An RVAMaverick creation.
Anger Caused by Drama
It is hard to get inspiration, when people bring down your every word.
You look for motivation, but instead there is just anger.
Anger at the struggle young brothers go through to survive.
Anger at the sisters tossed up and to the side.
Anger at the reality sensibility makes us endure.
Anger at the childhood we left to be mature.
Whatever is the source, the outcome is the same.
There is drama in the system, and anger is its name.
For each one of us who tries to rise above the storm
Another motherfucker wants to make bullshit the norm.
He is never satisfied with working day to day.
He would rather lie and steel, leaving the rest of us to pay.
He don’t give a shit that his crimes make us look bad.
He only cares about how much Marijuana is in his bag.
Whether mister criminal is cynical, my anger is the same.
There is drama in the system, and anger is its name.
For those who walk the streets of bedlam know the way is tough and hard.
They have learned it in the schoolhouse, and seen it in the yard.
They know that no one cares if they realize the truth.
That drama is a force that is best left in our youth.
I leave you with my knowledge that drama comes from shame.
That shame reinforces drama, and Anger is its name.
An RVAMaverick creation.
Keep Your Hands to Yourself
“You’ve got to be desperate to steel from a blind person.” I heard this argument from someone and it confused me. Confusion came not so much that the morality of stealing from the blind is wrong, but that from the assumption that stealing from others is acceptable.
When I was a child at my mother’s knee, I learned that the penalty of theft was a blistered behind. The lesson was not that the blisters came more frequently if the target of my sin was someone less well off than me, but that the theft itself was not tolerated. If I wanted the cookie, I requested it. If I needed a dollar to ride the bus, I asked for it. Taking that which belongs to someone else was just not done, and by the time I reached five-years-old, I had that moral lesson so firmly entrenched in my skull that even today I check to see if anyone lost any money before I pick up what I find on the street.
When did the simple morality of theft change? Why is it acceptable to rob from the rich and give to the poor? Who are today’s protected classes? I am only concerned, as I would like to know if they deserve special consideration.
I still believe in equal equality regardless of your particular situation. Keep your hands out of my effects and if you cannot afford it, please do not’ take it. To miss quote Mr. Mackey, “stealing is bad … you shouldn’t steal.”
An RVAMaverick creation.
The Casual Vacancy
The Casual Vacancy, perhaps the most hotly anticipated book of the year, will be published on 27 September and is set in a small town called Pagford, described by her new publisher Little, Brown as an English idyll “with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey”. The story is set in motion by the unexpected demise of Barry Fairweather, a stalwart of the town’s parish council who dies in his early forties. Pagford’s chocolate-box façade hides a town riven with strife, and the struggle to replace Fairweather “becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen”, with “teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils,” the publisher said.
As a J.K. Rowling connoisseurI am quite interested in her next steps into the adult oriented book scene. I doubt that she’ll make it a lust ridden toss away novel, but then again as the book is not for children, she will be able to investigate her full potential as an artist of the printed word. Rowling has won many hearts over the years with her classic Harry potter, and I believe that she will be able to win as many hearts with her next novel. I do not usually purchase books, but this one I will buy as my affirmation of support for this talented female artist. Read more : from The Guardian.
An RVAMaverick creation.
Boomerang Generation Sanguine About Staying with Mommy And Daddy
More than three-quarters of young adults ages 25 to 34 who have moved back home with their families during the Great Recession and the troubled economic years that followed say they’re satisfied with their living arrangements and upbeat about their future finances.
Those arrangements have benefited their parents as well: almost half of all boomerang children say they have paid rent and almost nine-in-ten have helped with household expenses.
One reason young adults who are living with their parents may be relatively upbeat about their situation is that this has become such a widespread phenomenon. Among adults ages 25 to 34, 61% say they have friends or family members who have moved back in with their parents over the past few years because of economic conditions. Furthermore, three-in-ten parents of adult children (29%) report that a child of theirs has moved back in with them in the past few years because of the economy.
While young adults living at home may be satisfied with their situations, nearly eight-in-ten say they don’t currently have enough money to lead the kind of life they want, compared with 55% of their same-aged peers who aren’t living with their parents. Even so, large majorities of both groups (77% versus 90%) say they either have enough money now to lead the kind of life they want or expect they will in the future.
These findings are based on a new Pew Research Center survey of 2,048 adults nationwide conducted Dec. 6-19, 2011, that explores the family dynamics and economics of multi-generational living at a time when the number of multi-generational family households in the country continues to rise.
The full report is available on the Pew Research Website.
An RVAMaverick creation.
Appeals court rejects anti-gay graduate student’s bid for reversal of her expulsion
Appeals court rejects anti-gay graduate student’s bid for reversal of her expulsion
ATLANTA — The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a decision by a U.S. district judge who ruled Augusta State University may expel a graduate student who refused to comply with graduate degree program requirements citing her Christian beliefs that homosexuality is immoral.
Jennifer Keeton, 24, who was pursuing a master’s degree in counseling, said she was ordered to undergo a re-education plan that requires her to attend “diversity sensitivity training” when the school told her that her anti-gay beliefs are incompatible with the standards of her desired profession.
Keeton sued the University in July 2010, claiming that faculty and university staff had violated her rights to free speech and the free exercise of her Christian faith when it told her that, in order to stay in the program, she would have to change her beliefs about homosexuality, which Keeton cited as “immoral, unnatural, and a ‘lifestyle choice’ that can be reversed through “conversion therapy.”
According to the lawsuit, faculty members allegedly assailed Keeton’s beliefs as “inconsistent with the counseling profession” and “expressed suspicion over ‘Jen’s ability to be a multi-culturally competent counselor, particularly with regard to working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning populations.’”
In supporting Augusta State in its actions, the U. S. District Court judge wrote, “The record suggests, and the testimony at the hearing bolsters, the Plan was imposed because “Plaintiff exhibited an inability to counsel in a professionally ethical manner — that is, an inability to resist imposing her moral viewpoint on counselees – in violation of the ACA Code of Ethics.”
In its ruling on Friday, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit agreed with the district court judge, ruling that because Keeton was unlikely to prevail in her lawsuit, a court order for her preventing expulsion was unwarranted.
The court noted that the requirements of the counseling program—needed for its continued accreditation and compliance with the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics—are similar to the rules for judges, who must apply laws even if they consider them erroneous.
“In seeking to evade the curricular requirement that she not impose her moral values on clients,” the appellate court wrote, “Keeton is looking for preferential, not equal, treatment.”
Augusta State University spokeswoman Kathy Schofe told LGBTQ Nation last month that the university had tried to work with Keeton, suggesting she take diversity sensitivity workshops and attend the local Augusta LGBTQ Pride parade, but Keeton refused and declined to
participate claiming the university’s “demands” violated her First Amendment rights.
Appeals court rejects anti-gay graduate student’s bid for reversal of her expulsion – LGBTQ Nation
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Source: LGBTQ Nation
An RVAMaverick creation.
Tip Thy Waiters Well
I have never been a waiter, bellhop, soda jerk, or anyone who accepts less pay for honest work relying on the goodwill of patrons for tips. These folks have my undying respect, and thanks for putting up with the millions of irrational customers who cannot tell a rare steak from a piece of foam rubber.
These folks do a good job of getting your food to you. They handle millions of plates, put in thousands of man-hours on their tired feet, all for the lousy 15 or 20 percent tip we give them. To give less than that is simply careless. To purposely stiff them with fake money and religious tracts is just plain wrong. They do not need your faked religiosity. They do not need your attempt at salvation through missionary work. What they need is money in order to make ends meet.
Having read an article on the rise in fake tipping from Christians, I am righteously pissed off at my brothers and sisters in Christ. I know God told you to spread the good news of his grace. He did not tell you to act like a dick while doing so. He did not say that thou should stiff one in five servers whose families need their help with a fake $10 bill with my face on it.
The bible teaches to be kind to others, and to treat others as we wish to be treated. This way lays the kingdom of heaven and a salvation bought and paid for by good works and faith. Christians, take note of these words, as they are the Truth.
Do unto others, and you will be done unto.
Stiff a poor waiter and you will get a shaft in your life as well. It may not be right away, but it will happen. When it does, that waiter you shafted will be able to have the good fortune you so virtuously withheld from them.
Waiter’s Phony $10 Tip Includes Religious Lesson – DailyFinance
An RVAMaverick creation.
Its Kevin 