(no subject)

[gwydion]

* I had a huge post, but a glitch ate it. This is the best I can do on reconstructing.

* Re: Drug Testing welfare recipients: As the percentage of people on welfare who also use recreational drugs is a small fraction compared to the general population, in the states where they passed this the tests cost dramatically more than the state would save cutting people off. It’s pretty logial, people in deep poverty need to spend that money on things like rent, food, and bus fare, while people who are comfortable can afford luxuries like drugs.

In any case, given budget shortfalls caused by the economic policies, corporate welfare and tax cuts for the rich, I do not understand why it makes sense to run up an even bigger deffecit to punish a tiny fraction of the extremely poor. Wouldn’t it make more sense to use that money to hire teachers instead?

* George Takei testifying about his childhood experiences in an Internment camp: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/24807989920/ellewoodsinthetardis-rubato-racebending

* This had me in tears: http://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/24805864968/ryancassata-ryancassata

* "10 Conversations On Racism I’m Sick Of Having With White People:" http://www.womanist-musings.com/2012/06/10-conversations-on-racism-im-sick-of.html#idc-container

* "Ten Very Good Reasons You Aren't Married Yet:" http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/1070161.html

* "The Last Martian:" http://box-in-the-box.livejournal.com/555783.html

This is the best thing I’ve seen so far on the occasion of Ray Bradbury’s death

* I think I may have caught a minor pathogen. It’s hard to tell with my baseline state being so crappy and the meds masking the severity of things, but this fever has gone on rather longer than is normal for randomly running a fever because my body is like that, the headache and dizziness feel more pathogen than normal my body’s just like that stuff, and it would explain the double dose of sluggisness and intestinal issues. Cats and I hung out in my bed for hours after I woke up, me mostly reading Blackout or watching Dead Like Me. The episode with Mason’s punk rock idol? Ouch. My reaction to Blackout is turning out to be complex and hard to put into words, so I likely won’t have much to say until I finish and have time to digest.

* I have become fascinated with the character of Crystal on Dead Like Me. what's going on in her head? What would the story look like from her perspective.

* Voice Update: I think my falsetto is improving.

* I forget which of you recommended the Eery Autotuned Mr. Rogers: http://io9.com/5916646/pbs-autotunes-mr-rogers-the-results-are-tender-and-trippy

Comments

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

re the poor and drug testing; that's not the accepted narrative. We all know those people are only poor because they're too busy being drugged up and lazy to find real work.

I wonder how many positive results we'd get if there was mandatory drug testing for State and Federal elected officials?

[neo-prodigy.livejournal.com]

There was an official in Ga who pushed for it but then he got busted for a DUI.

And another state (I wanna say Wisconsin but I could be wrong), tried to push for drug testing to receive state benefits but when the Democrats added that elected officials also had to be tested, it killed the bill right then and there.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

It may not be the accepted narrative, but the statistics bear it out. If everyone says the earth is flat, i doesn't make it so. I strongly believe policy should be pragmatic and based on reality, not prejudice.

I know this makes me a bad American, but I still believe it.

I think you'd need to screen for alcoholism as well as drugs, but I'd wager it'd be above the average for general population.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

If everyone says the earth is flat, i doesn't make it so. There you go again, living in your fact based reality. It's that kind of thinking that will prevent South Carolina's law against sea levels rising from being properly enforced. I'm sure they're going to outlaw hurricanes next.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

That video is... powerful

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

It is. My last ex's Father's BFF was born in an Internment camp towards the beginning of the War. My Mother's generation was never told about them; she was well into adulthood before she heard of them. I went to a school with an excellent history program so I learned about them in seventh grade, bt most people my age only heard of them as adults as well. We do better now, at least out here, where school districts close to holding areas or camps will take field trips to have the kids stand in the horse stalls and imagine living there.

Mr. Takei's testimony is the first time I have heard a survivor speak about it more than in passing in a non-fictional context. It's such a shameful thing that my country did to them, to confiscate their homes, belongings, and businesses for no crime other than having the wrong last name and treating them like animals despite their loyalty, then ask them to fight for freedoms they didn't have. It scares me that we so seldom hear the survivor's own accounts and that soon there won't be any left to testify as Mr. Takei did.

I admit, I wept listening to him.