(no subject)

* Republicans are demanding we drastically cut SNAP/EBT/Food Stamps and school lunches for low income children in order to pay for corporate welfare for big Agrobusiness. Charming. We know that hungry children have a hard time learning. We know that 75% of the people getting EBT are families with children. The idea is, that children in poverty should be made to starve to punish their parents for the fact that as a society we've decided that it is fair for people working full time to get not enough money to subsist on in recompense. (Minimum wage is stagnant and has been for a very long time while prices go up. There is no state in the US in which it is possible for a single person working full time on minimum wage can afford rent on a two bedroom apartment.) Yes, the EBT rolls have gone up dramatically because of the Bush recession and Republican austerity policies. A majority of that increase was under BUSH. Nearly all of it was caused by the recession. The Republican idea of taking responsibility for the damage they caused is to decide the innocent children suffering should be also starved, therefore ensuring long term health issues and their inability to take advantage of what little education the Republicans haven't cut yet, thus pretty much ensuring that they will never be anything other than poor. This is good for Republicans as they can then blame those same children when they grow up for failing to magically raise themselves out of poverty which Republican policies pretty much ensured. Similarly, Romney is advocating cutting the number of teachers down even further as he insists large class sizes don't hurt children. (You've likely read my debunking of that). He's also arguibng that we should cut the number of people receiving subsidized loans for college in half and giving the rest of the ,money as corporate welfare to banks. After all, people in deep poverty can simply borrow money from their parents or liquidate their stock options to pay for college. Riiiiiight.

* Why Big Bird Matters:

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* "Teens Protest "Teen Vogue" Photoshop Use; Editors "Rude" In Response [Updated]:" http://www.buzzfeed.com/amyodell/teens-protest-teen-vogue-lack-of-ethnic-diversit

* A History of Trousers: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/q-why-do-we-wear-pants-a-horses/259696/

* "The Worst Marriage in Georgetown:" http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/magazine/albrecht-muth-and-viola-drath-georgetowns-worst-marriage.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

* Everything took like three times longer than it needed to yesterday. Sigh. Today the howling started less than two hours after I finally fell asleep and Hector was cleverly employing the tactic of waiting until a started to drift off to start howling again, thus cleverly causing an extra three or so hours of insomnia early in my sleep cycle. I finally got him to take a nap so I could sleep, but there's been hours of howling after I got up. I didn't even try to do bureaucracy as I'm having trouble concentrating with all the howling and trying to do complicated paperwork on top of that? No. The meds finally kicked in well enough for me to break out the goosh, as it's a goosh distribution day. (I do not give out the goosh when he's howling as that rewards the behavior.)

* "U.S. Olympics Uniforms Were Made in China, and Harry Reid Is Mad:" http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/12/u-s-olympics-uniforms-were-made-in-china-and-harry-reid-is-mad/#ixzz20eX636Un

* ""Only You, Mary Lou": In Search of the Olympic Moment:" http://thehairpin.com/2012/07/only-you-mary-lou-in-search-of-the-olympic-moment

* "The 20 Most Beautiful Museums in the World:" http://www.flavorwire.com/306801/the-20-most-beautiful-museums-in-the-world

(no subject)

* Republicans are demanding we drastically cut SNAP/EBT/Food Stamps and school lunches for low income children in order to pay for corporate welfare for big Agrobusiness. Charming. We know that hungry children have a hard time learning. We know that 75% of the people getting EBT are families with children. The idea is, that children in poverty should be made to starve to punish their parents for the fact that as a society we've decided that it is fair for people working full time to get not enough money to subsist on in recompense. (Minimum wage is stagnant and has been for a very long time while prices go up. There is no state in the US in which it is possible for a single person working full time on minimum wage can afford rent on a two bedroom apartment.) Yes, the EBT rolls have gone up dramatically because of the Bush recession and Republican austerity policies. A majority of that increase was under BUSH. Nearly all of it was caused by the recession. The Republican idea of taking responsibility for the damage they caused is to decide the innocent children suffering should be also starved, therefore ensuring long term health issues and their inability to take advantage of what little education the Republicans haven't cut yet, thus pretty much ensuring that they will never be anything other than poor. This is good for Republicans as they can then blame those same children when they grow up for failing to magically raise themselves out of poverty which Republican policies pretty much ensured. Similarly, Romney is advocating cutting the number of teachers down even further as he insists large class sizes don't hurt children. (You've likely read my debunking of that). He's also arguibng that we should cut the number of people receiving subsidized loans for college in half and giving the rest of the ,money as corporate welfare to banks. After all, people in deep poverty can simply borrow money from their parents or liquidate their stock options to pay for college. Riiiiiight.

* Why Big Bird Matters:

( Embed: )

* "Teens Protest "Teen Vogue" Photoshop Use; Editors "Rude" In Response [Updated]:" http://www.buzzfeed.com/amyodell/teens-protest-teen-vogue-lack-of-ethnic-diversit

* "The Worst Marriage in Georgetown:" http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/magazine/albrecht-muth-and-viola-drath-georgetowns-worst-marriage.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

* Everything took like three times longer than it needed to yesterday. Sigh. Today the howling started less than two hours after I finally fell asleep and Hector was cleverly employing the tactic of waiting until a started to drift off to start howling again, thus cleverly causing an extra three or so hours of insomnia early in my sleep cycle. I finally got him to take a nap so I could sleep, but there's been hours of howling after I got up. I didn't even try to do bureaucracy as I'm having trouble concentrating with all the howling and trying to do complicated paperwork on top of that? No. The meds finally kicked in well enough for me to break out the goosh, as it's a goosh distribution day. (I do not give out the goosh when he's howling as that rewards the behavior.)

* "U.S. Olympics Uniforms Were Made in China, and Harry Reid Is Mad:" http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/12/u-s-olympics-uniforms-were-made-in-china-and-harry-reid-is-mad/#ixzz20eX636Un

* ""Only You, Mary Lou": In Search of the Olympic Moment:" http://thehairpin.com/2012/07/only-you-mary-lou-in-search-of-the-olympic-moment

* "The 20 Most Beautiful Museums in the World:" http://www.flavorwire.com/306801/the-20-most-beautiful-museums-in-the-world

* A History of Trousers: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/q-why-do-we-wear-pants-a-horses/259696/