Tosh and the Problem with “Rape Culture”
By now you have no doubt heard that Daniel Tosh suggested it would be funny if a woman in his audience was gang raped and the internets are ablaze with talk of rape culture. I wasn’t planning on...
View ArticleBeware of Strange Men on Airplanes
It seems that Virgin airlines has a policy that unaccompanied children cannot sit next to men on their airplanes. An Australian man, who was assigned a seat next to two boys he did not know, was asked...
View ArticleVictims, Villains, and Heroes
When I first started delving into the drug war and criminal injustice system, I saw it as a process of dehumanization that I couldn’t ignore. While I had friends who were caught up in the system, as...
View ArticleThoughts on Societal Mental Illness
Make a claim that one snort of cocaine makes you irredeemably insane and people will line up behind laws that lock cocaine users up for life. But read that 73% of incarcerated women have mental health...
View ArticleShut Up, Be Perfect
This weekend I got into an argument about music. The person I was arguing with was blasting gangsta rap for glorifying behavior that was ruining their own communities. He even went so far as to say...
View ArticleReally, Laura, Really?!
I had no intention of writing anything about the school shooting in Connecticut. Maybe Pablo Neruda could have found words to talk about something like that, but it is beyond my capacity. I understand...
View ArticleThanks NRA
On Friday, Wayne LaPierre of the NRA held a press conference about the school shooting in Sandy Hook. Naturally, his suggestion was to put armed guards or police in every school. The liberal internets...
View ArticleSome Thoughts on Violence, Self Defense, and Consent
You can’t be amongst radicals for more than 9 seconds without getting into a discussion about whether or not people should use violence or whether or not property destruction is violence. As I’ve said...
View ArticleIdentity, Decolonization, and Justice
A friend of mine posted this to facebook. One of the commenters asked how far back we are supposed to go. The thing about colonization, land grabs, genocide, slavery, gentrification – whatever...
View ArticleThe Tulsa Riot: Violence and Erasure
A while back I came across this article about freeway removals. My first thought was – cool. My next thought was – I wonder what was there before the freeways. That got me thinking about Tulsa,...
View ArticleIf You Haven’t Read This…Graeber on Bullying
Someone tweeted David Graeber‘s piece on bullying from last year and, on the chance that there is someone out there who has not read it, I’m going to put it up here with my most heartfelt...
View ArticleThinking of Calling 911? Reconsider.
In 2012, Prison Culture posted a little story.* The author’s friend wrote: I saw a toddler running down Ashland barefooted and wearing very little clothing. No one was in sight. A month ago, I know...
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