Josephine's Notebook

May 28

Willamette Falls next to industrial ruin (Taken with instagram)

May 22

[video]

[video]

May 18

“

(trigger warning: rape, rape jokes) Here is why I refuse to take rape jokes sitting down…

Because 6% of college-aged men, slightly over 1 in 20, will admit to raping someone in anonymous surveys, as long as the word “rape” isn’t used in the description of the act—and that’s the conservative estimate. Other sources double that number (pdf).

A lot of people accuse feminists of thinking that all men are rapists. That’s not true. But do you know who think all men are rapists?

Rapists do.

They really do. In psychological study, the profiling, the studies, it comes out again and again.

Virtually all rapists genuinely believe that all men rape, and other men just keep it hushed up better. And more, these people who really are rapists are constantly reaffirmed in their belief about the rest of mankind being rapists like them by things like rape jokes, that dismiss and normalize the idea of rape.

If one in twenty guys (or more) is a real and true rapist, and you have any amount of social activity with other guys like yourself, then it is almost a statistical certainty that one time hanging out with friends and their friends, playing Halo with a bunch of guys online, in a WoW guild, in a pick-up game of basketball, at a bar, or elsewhere, you were talking to a rapist. Not your fault. You can’t tell a rapist apart any better than anyone else can. It’s not like they announce themselves.

But, here’s the thing. It’s very likely that in some of these interactions with these guys, at some point or another, someone told a rape joke. You, decent guy that you are, understood that they didn’t mean it, and it was just a joke. And so you laughed.

Or maybe you didn’t laugh. Maybe it just wasn’t a very funny joke. So maybe you just didn’t say anything at all.

And, decent guy who would never condone rape, who would step in and stop rape if he saw it, who understands that rape is awful and wrong and bad, when you laughed? When you were silent?

That rapist who was in the group with you, that rapist thought that you were on his side. That rapist knew that you were a rapist like him. And he felt validated, and he felt he was among his comrades.

You. The rapist’s comrade.

And if that doesn’t make you feel sick to your stomach, if that doesn’t make you want to throw up, if that doesn’t disturb you or bother you or make you feel like maybe you should at least consider not participating in that kind of humor anymore, not abiding it in your presence, not greeting it with silence…

Well, maybe you aren’t as opposed to rapists as you claim.

(via rabbleprochoice)

May 17

“This is the problem with Christian religion: it establishes unrealistic, and irrational, and immoral criteria by which to live. And then it creates a loophole so that you don’t ever have to be responsible for those actions. Christianity is not a moral system, it is an immoral system. Because it specifically says that there aren’t necessarily consequences that you’re going to have to pay, because of a loophole. And what is the loophole? It has nothing to do with how good you are, or how morally you act or anything else, it has to do with whether or not you’re willing to be a sycophant to an idea. And if you are, then there is now an exception for which you no longer have to suffer a penalty for this. So the idea that “secular morality offers no guarantee that people will never pay for their crimes and their atrocities” is not an argument against secular morality, because that is a TENANT of Christianity. It is the foundation.” — Matt Dillahunty, The Atheist Experience

May 15

thedailywhat:

George Lucas Strikes Back of the Day: Star Wars creator George Lucas has been trying for years to convert a large parcel of land in Marin County, California into a 300,000 square foot movie studio, with amenities including a day care center, restaurants, a gym and a parking garage, only to be shot down by his wealthy neighbors.

Because the local homeowners’ association has refused to let Lucas move forward with the studio, he’s decided to put the land to good use by transforming it into low-income housing, simultaneously doing a good deed and trolling his fellow landowners.

“If everyone feels that housing is less impactful on the land, then we are hoping that people who need it the most will benefit,” Lucas snarked.

He’s even donating the various studies and surveys he paid for while working on the movie studio project, to help the new housing development get underway more quickly.

That might be almost enough to outweigh creating Jar Jar Binks.

[movies.]

Ah, my hometown politics and shenanigans :-) Such a long history. He’s actually done some really nice things in San Anselmo lately that I don’t think have been widely publicized.

May 11

[video]

May 01

May Day was in full swing here in Portland

I’ve felt like King Kong was on my office building all day due to the constant helicopters flying around :-)

But seriously, it was awesome to watch the high school students march in protest of all the cuts in education. An even bigger, general march should be starting about now too…

Apr 30

Homeopathic Lemonade - Skepchick -

Feeling a little chilly? Homeopathy can help! The principles of homeopathy tell us that minute traces of something refreshing, like lemonade, diluted over and over again in water and shaken a certain way should have you warm and cozy in no time. It’s like magic!*

Recipe for homeopathic lemonade at Skepchick ;-)

Apr 18

(via Tree Lobsters!: #365 Accomplishment)

Apr 16

When a rich woman wants to stay home with her kids, she's lauded, and parenting is called one of the hardest jobs you can do. When a poor woman wants to stay home with her kids, she needs to learn the "dignity of work." A rich, white woman who stays at home is a good mother. A poor, black woman who stays at home is welfare queen. -

wewantrevolutiongirlstylenow:

SO FUCKING IMPORTANT

(Source: eamcintyre, via stfuconservatives)

Apr 15

(Source: justinspoliticalcorner, via jonathan-cunningham)

Apr 11

[video]

Apr 09

[video]

Apr 07

Lovely flowers from my boss (Taken with instagram)