Displaying comments 1 to 50 of 678
MeFi post:
Cats Defending Henhouses
I think it's important to clarify something that these links are omitting. Ullyot may have been at the White House when the Torture Memos were first proposed by Yoo and Bybee, but there's really no way he had a hand in them. The insider's account of The Terror Presidency by Jack Goldsmith makes it quite clear how Yoo and Addington employed secrecy to make sure that the only people involved were those who would never fight back.
So the real question is this: do we want... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 2:13 PM on September 30, 2008
MeFi post:
For a Prosperous Tomorrow
A link to Whole Foods or the Obama campaign would have been just as effective. Er, I mean just the Whole Foods. *runs for cover* *oh noes, they're everywhere!*
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 9:34 PM on September 16, 2008
MeFi post:
Life as an asexual couple
The immediate denial of liking boys stood out to me. I've often wondered if a large percentage of self-professed asexuals were individuals struggling with desires they didn't want to accept and therefore "turned off" that part of their person. I'm not saying you can't be asexual, but my instinct is to always assume that someone is struggling with something, not that someone is missing something.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 9:28 AM on September 9, 2008
MeFi post:
"For the rest of the evening my name will be Violetta."
I'm so sick of this wave of ivy-league callgirl stories. Whether or not this is true (highly doubt it) it should have no bearing on any discussion of prostitution. If a bunch of wealthy Manhattanites decided to work in an asbestos mine because they loved the independence, and like, totally hated safety regulations, they shouldn' be able to impact policy discussions. Every time I read an article like this I feel like a dozen or so discussions on trafficking are silenced by statistical... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 5:09 PM on September 7, 2008
kid ichorous, the analogy holds whether it kills your erection or not. The widespread abuses of sex workers and the extreme indignities suffered both by women who are trafficked and by other women who find themselves in sex work have nothing to do with zero-tolerance thinking and everything to do with the fact that we live in a patriarchy that chews up and spits out these women. Blaming second-wave feminists is just laughable and a pretty rough defense mechanism; similar to blaming... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 10:35 PM on September 7, 2008
Where exactly do you get the idea that these women constitute the majority of sex workers?
Numbers are numbers. The vast majority of women in prostitution were abused as children. The overwhelming majority of prostitutes want to leave the job (The Elizabeth Fry Society found that over 90% of women in street prostitution want to leave but cannot). Finally, data exist that 60-80 percent of prostitutes are raped while on the job. Doesn't sound like... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 5:08 AM on September 8, 2008
MeFi post:
St. Paul Police say Democracy? No.
As someone who has attended many protests like this and has been arrested at a few, I can say that this is nothing new and has nothing to do with the Republicans. This is really the problem of the St Paul police, which is a nice way of saying the people of St. Paul. Middle-class white Americans have gleefully watched as local police forces are transformed into Swat teams and have had no problem locking up tons of black people in order to feel a little safer. These tactics are nothing new and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 7:49 PM on September 1, 2008
or in other words: if Kent State happened today a majority of Americans would support the national guard and a smaller minority would have been ok if the students had been waterboarded first. Absent any pressure from the people, of course the police are going to do this.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 7:52 PM on September 1, 2008
MeFi post:
Obama/Kennedy?
Obama/Kennedy is good, I'll give him that. What I really want to see though is Bill Bradley. Tallest ticket ever. They'd dunk McCain. And he's an intelligent elder statesman who can credibly represent progressive change. But mostly the height. Americans love tall people.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 5:41 PM on August 19, 2008
MeFi post:
Hatecrimes
That is some godawful reporting by the Salt Lake Tribune and it's almost as though they want him lynched. Significant facts, such as the victim's sexuality and the location of the children are presented as ambiguous or purely sympathetic to the attackers. Whether or not the children were located in the bedroom certainly seems important to the commentators, but instead of discussing the issue, Alberty lets the attackers tell the story. Twice they mention the bedroom, with no dissent. But the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 12:24 PM on August 8, 2008
MeFi post:
Toilet Confessions
So I once urinated on the statue of Christopher Columbus in front of a hundred thousand people. I really had to go and there were cops everywhere guarding the kind of places that would have public bathrooms. This wasn't intended as a political statement, despite being at a protest. I just had to go and had few options. Anyway, despite asking my friends to "cover me" (it made as little sense to them as it does typing), people started noticing and joining in. I suspect others were... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 7:49 PM on August 6, 2008
MeFi post:
Let's Go Exploring
This seems like pretty straightforward copyright violations and like those that came before it, will hopefully go away soon. Bad form and subpar post.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 2:25 PM on August 5, 2008
MeFi post:
"Are we in the midst of a coup?"
Dear Most of the rest of the world,
Please don't pity us. Instead, take our guns away. We're never going to learn and we need to be stopped before we lose it again.
XO
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 10:27 PM on August 3, 2008
MeFi post:
Van Doren Gives Answers
The passivity of the article left a bad taste in my mouth. I enjoyed the movie when it came out and this has always been a fascinating subject to me. As such, I liked hearing a new recollection from a central figure. That said, he doesn't seem to see himself as someone who was in the wrong - merely as someone who somehow ended up in a complicated situation that ultimately came crashing down around him. I know there are people who think that this was a good thing for Americans, teaching them... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 1:20 PM on July 29, 2008
MeFi post:
Gaza: The Killing Zone
What we want is a good debate on the I-P conflict IN AMERICA.
Unless Paula Abdul is judging it, no such kind of debate exists in America. It's not even clear we'd want the average American weighing in on this one. even if you screen for the millions who either hate A-rabs or hate Heebs, you're still going to be stuck with a population that's overwhelmingly willing to bomb and torture the rest of the world so that they feel safe while driving their Hummers.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 12:06 PM on June 23, 2008
MeFi post:
Blue Collar Babies
I honestly think that the aid the women receives plays into it
These women wanted babies so badly they went to a homeless man. What makes you think they had anything resembling a decision process that took this piece of information into account in such a manner? The facts of this case absolutely scream against your conclusion.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 7:03 PM on June 19, 2008
MeFi post:
Fritzl, all too nonfictional
The Spice piece is stunningly good. Jokeefe does a good job with it, but the piece out to speak for itself to any reader willing to approach it honestly.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 1:47 PM on June 8, 2008
Reading reactions to this piece by people who've never read Jelinek and who have a knee-jerk reaction to nearly anything that challenges their views on women (and unsurprisingly don't bother to read on the subject either) is my second favorite thing in the world, behind Austria. Wait, I think I fucked that joke up.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 5:14 PM on June 8, 2008
MeFi post:
What am I, chopped liver?
Chopped liver is not foie gras and I shudder at the thought processes of those who sought to undo this regulation. The commitment to cruelty runs deep it seems.
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 2:13 PM on May 14, 2008
Oh for fuck's sake. Advocating killing people who challenge you in the slightest. Threads like this are why I support animal rights and animal rights activists. The extreme overreaction and refusal to allow anyone to disrupt your established practices means that these groups must be on to something.
You threaten to take away someone's porn or their precious meat and they flip out and masturbate over their sad little fantasies. Hurf Durf I eat three and all that. The... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 3:51 PM on May 14, 2008
MeFi post:
Free the Amazon One-Click! Long Live Open Source Genes!
Project F - your comment is no more complicated than "there exists a status quo" and it's woefully uncomplicated. Yes, powerful people generally want existing patents upheld and they would also benefit the most if they were all overturned. Guess what, that's what makes them powerful. Believe me, Microsoft and GE would just love it if they could pillage the intellectual property of much worse-off inventors and entrepreneurs.
There would be no tech start-ups... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by allen.spaulding
at 11:25 PM on May 7, 2008
