If You Could Read My Mind ...

May 25

“

God we fuck up teenagers’ heads. We tell them that biological conditions are moral punishments and then we get all shocked when they don’t practice rational risk management of biological conditions. We teach them “sex is super desirable and all the cool kids do it, and it’s hideously shameful and will destroy your life” and we wonder why they act an eensy bit neurotic about it. If you tried to design a system for making sexually active kids confused and unsafe, you couldn’t do much better than the American media and school system.

And for once, the answer is relatively simple. Just talk about sex like it’s a part of life. Some people have sex and some people don’t, because people are different. STIs aren’t bad because they’re Dirty Crotch Rot; they’re bad because they’re contagious illnesses like strep throat or whooping cough, and you can ask a doctor to check for and treat them just like you would with strep throat. Unwanted pregnancy isn’t a scarlet A; it’s a mostly-preventable accident that sometimes occurs when people are going about their normal business of having sex. You can ask the school counselor about a variety of topics, including career planning, problems at home, questions about sex, or conflicts with teachers.

If we could just get the goddamn stick out of our collective ass and accept that sex is a human activity and teenagers are humans, maybe there wouldn’t be quite so many plaintive “I don’t understand my body and I’m confused and scared and I don’t know anyone I can ask in person” messages flying out into the world.

” The Pervocracy - “Teenage Panic.” (via klonazepam)

(via detrea)

May 24

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” Douglas Adams (via hypersexualgirl)

May 23

abaldwin360:

inothernews:

blossom-bamford:

stfuconservatives:

smdxn:

Eliz. Warren wants to cut student interest rates to near zero

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has introduced her first piece of legislation. It’s called the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, and would reduce the rate students pay on federally-subsidized student loans for one year, from 3.4% to 0.75%.

Without congressional action, on July 1 the rate is set to double from 3.4% to 6.8%.

Warren brings up an interesting point – her bill simply asks students to pay the same rates that big banks pay for borrowing.

She’s literally just asking if college grads can get the same deal as bank CEOs. The exact same interest rate. Not even a bailout or anything fancy (pipe dreams!) - just the same interest rate.

BLESS YOU ELIZABETH WARREN.

YOU GOTTA FIGHT! FOR OUR RIGHT! To pay no interest on our bullshit college loans.

I wish politicians gave as much of a shit about us as Elizabeth Warren does.

We definitely need more politicians like Warren.

(via riotlady)

May 22

“Following in the footsteps of former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, conservatives faced with these self-evident facts have taken to Fox News to cite the problems previous flat budgets have already created to call for a wholesale elimination of the National Weather Service. It’s a classic self-fulfilling sophistry of the right: Ignore the positive work an agency does, keep the agency’s budget flat so that its capabilities do not keep up with the times, then cite the agency’s reduced capabilities as justification to keep cutting it.” Anyone regret slashing National Weather Service budget now? (via wilwheaton)

(via wilwheaton)

May 21

ncpssm:

kileyrae:

The Whitehouse getting sassy on Twitter today.

Read our viewpoint on the Affordable Care Act here.

(via upworthy)

thepoliticalfreakshow:

And Then There Were Twelve: Minnesota Becomes Twelfth State To Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

With Governor Mark Dayton’s signature on Tuesday, Minnesota officially became the 12th state in the nation — and the second in the midwest — to legalize gay marriage. They’re the third state just this month to do so, joining Delaware and Rhode Island in making marriage equality the law this May. Minnesota’s law takes effect on August 1st.

As we’ve noted before at The Atlantic Wire, the wave of states legalizing gay marriage in recent months follows two big anti-gay pushes during the Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies. So, even though the current President, a majority of the Senate, and a majority of the American population support it, the fight for same-sex marriage in the U.S. is far from over, as our updated GIF map clearly shows. In fact, Minnesota voters were asked just six months ago to vote on writing the state’s then-existing ban on gay marriage into its constitution. That effort, obviously, failed. Sorry, Michele Bachmann.

So, what’s next? A measure to legalize same-sex marriage is currently pending in Illinois. If the bill, which passed in the state Senate on Valentine’s Day, also manages to pass the House (which is far from a given at this point), Governor Pat Quinn has vowed to sign it into law.

(via upworthy)

Mysterious Poop Foam Causes Explosions on Hog Farms

motherjones:

greenpeacesemester:

you read that right.

poop

foam

poop foam.

“The foam grows to a thickness of up to four feet … a vile-looking substance seeping up from between the slats that form the floor of a hog barn …

And here’s the catch: Scientists can’t explain the phenomenon.”

Yeah, sorry to gross everyone out, but we figured you’d rather know about the existence of unexplained exploding poop foam (UEPF) than not know about it.

New App Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart

cognitivedissonance:

A new app allows you to scan a product in the supermarket aisle and learn who exactly is behind that box of cereal. More impressively, you can join user-created campaigns to boycott groups of companies who may have lobbied against a cause you believe in.

I heard Darcy Burner pitch this last year at Netroots Nation and now it’s a thing! Marvelous!

(via upworthy)

Florida teen Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, is seeing her young life turned upside down and her future jeopardized simply because she fell in love. Unfortunately for her, she fell in love with a younger girl who has vindictive bigots for parents.

wilwheaton:

She was kicked off the basketball team because of the potential for “drama” her presence created. She’s been vilified by fellow students, called “criminal,” “rapist” and “child abuser.” She was expelled from school. And far worse. She’s facing a lifetime label of “sex-offender,” because the other girl’s parents brought criminal charges against her despite the fact that the relationship was consensual. What’s more, according to Hunt’s parents, Hunt was 17 when the relationship began, but the other girl’s parents waited until after she turned 18 to go to police.

Unbelievably, prosecutors have decided to press the criminal charge.

Emphasis mine.

So the prosecutor’s office in Sebastian River, Florida thinks this is a worthwhile use of taxpayer money and the court’s time.

Fuck everything about this.

upworthy:

Want To Travel The World? The Map To See The Countries You May Want To Avoid.

America seems like a pretty safe place when you see the millions of people worldwide who are internally displaced by conflict and violence.

msnbc:

Millennials maintain vastly different world and social views. Melissa Harris-Perry’s table discussed whether it is possible that this generation could succeed in ways that past generations haven’t in building a more inclusive and diverse democracy.

(via upworthy)

John Green's tumblr • Will hankgames be affected by Nintendo’s recent announcement claiming ad revenue generated by fanvids on youtube?

wilwheaton:

John Green:

Nintendo’s announcement (and YouTube’s acquiescence) is a disaster. It hurts Nintendo, and it hurts the independent creators who through their Let’s Play videos create a unique and valuable experience of a game.

I completely agree. Nintendo is being greedy, stupid, and shortsighted. Nintendo makes money by making great games and systems to play them. YouTube makes money by selling advertising and nurturing an environment where creators can share their creations.

Nintendo is, surprisingly, grabbing a small amount of money (relative to their earnings) and alienating countless customers.

YouTube is, unsurprisingly, being cowardly and not supporting the content creators who have made it worth billions. YouTube is, once again, on the wrong side of an issue with regard to its content creators.

psych-facts:

Find out which Chapman’s love language you are here -http://neurolove.me/post/49772974208/which-love-language-do-you-speak

(via staypozitive)

May 20

“Finance is the art of passing money from hand to hand until it finally disappears.” Robert Sarnoff (via hypersexualgirl)

brucesterling:

*He also predicted that Yahoo! would buy Tumblr