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I was disgusted by the things I read in Angie Epifano’s account of the sexual assault she experienced at Amherst College and the silence of the administration in response. Today, students from all five colleges in the Valley came together at the Frost library on the Amherst campus to show support for survivors of sexual violence and rallied to end the silence.
Mitt Romney brought up being able to pursue our dreams and then talked about how it’s not the government’s job to be part of that.
And…with all that bullshit about how much he cares…it all rings hollow.
You don’t CARE. You don’t give a FUCK.
My dream is to go to medical school and be a doctor…
66 zlot:
I don’t know what other people’s feelings are like. Does anyone else find this part as horrifying as I do? Or is it supposed to be sweet? Admittedly I am not a Marauders fan. OOOH UNPOPULAR OPINION OOH ugh whatever.
Oh, it’s definitely supposed to be horrifying. There’s no way to read this as sweet. I really, really don’t like Book 5, but in the context of the series, Book 5 is when shit begins to get Real. Cedric died in what the Powers That Be deem an isolated incident and shy from acknowledging that another war is coming, and otherwise that’s the unequivocal warning shot of the second war. Book 5, though? It’s Order of the Phoenix for a reason—yes, it’s about the new Order of the Phoenix gathering to fight Voldemort, but so much of the book is about looking back at the first Order and the real cost of going to war, the one beyond the body count, and why they have to defeat Voldemort, for real this time so he’ll never come back again.
Book 5 introduces That Photograph of the original Order, and has Mad-eye Moody introduce Harry to everyone according to the manner of their grisly demise, which is such a fucking Moody thing to do, but it’s such soldier thing to do. You can’t look at this photo of those people you fought with and whose bodies you found, whose kids you had to whisk out of the house before they were murdered, too (and sometimes you didn’t get there in time) without thinking of why you’re telling this kid anyway—Moody has to be one to tell him all this because everyone in the photo is too dead or too gone to speak for themselves.
And that’s the other thing we get in Book 5: the survivors of the first war. By Book 5, we’ve met Remus, Sirius, and Peter, but Book 5 has the Longbottoms at St. Mungo’s. Shit, dude. Harry’s parents are dead and never to return; Neville’s parents are still very, very much alive, yet not at all the famous Aurors they were when they were taken out, and not even capable of recognizing, let alone caring for, their son.
Then there’s Sirius. It’s impossible to see until the above moment in the movie and this point in the story that Sirius is as much a casualty of that first war as the Longbottoms. By the time of the fight in the Department of Mysteries, Sirius has been hiding in 12 Grimmauld for more than a year, only allowed out when he transforms into his extremely distinctive animagus form (a bear-sized black dog and Moody reprimands him for coming along to see Harry off because SIRIUS-IS-THE-DOG-STAR BLACK, YOU ARE FOOLING LITERALLY NO ONE), so he can’t even leave the house anymore. He can’t run missions like the rest of the Order, either; it’s him locked up in the house he thought he had escaped forever when he ran away as a teenager, with the portraits of his ancestors shrieking abuse at him all day long while everyone else has a life. Sirius’s life is back somewhere in 1979, when he and his bff James were handsome, popular 19-year-olds living off family money by day and cackling through their spying adventures at night, while their friends were plucked off one-by-one in murders that disgust even a grizzled one-eyed Auror 20 years later.
So, it’s subtle. I don’t have the book in front of me so I can’t remind myself of Harry’s reaction in the narrative, but this little glance of “uhhhh what just happened”—that’s the brief realization that even though your godfather really means well and you would love nothing more than to live with him in some nice house and you two will be the only family you’ll ever need—Harry, he doesn’t even know who you are right now.
ALSO: SIRIUS BLACK IS STILL AN ASSHOLE. THEN AGAIN, SURPRISE: BEING SENT TO AZKABAN FOR TWELVE YEARS AND LIVING AS A DOG FOR MOST OF IT TO KEEP YOUR SANITY IS NOT THE BEST CURE FOR BEING A DICK!!!!
Gotta reblog for the awesome absurdical action. That penultimate paragraph! Swooninggg.
(via impuretale)
The current Republican platform seeks the opposite of democracy. It seeks to create a permanent aristocracy—an entitled gentry that has greater access to this dream than most of the rest of America.
Literally every policy position of the Republican party can be explained in this light:
Obstructing or denying equal access to healthcare, public education, equitable taxation, legal protection; obstructing or denying marriage equality, workplace safety, voting rights, a living wage; obstructing or denying a woman’s right to choose, and a fair-minded Supreme Court that would value the freedom of the individual over the power of corporations—this is how you create a permanent aristocracy, where only the rich can afford “equality.”
Here is a list of five lies that Paul Ryan told when he gave his speech at the Republican National Convention last night. Every single news outlet should report on these lies.
1. Lie: President Obama is the “greatest threat” to Medicare.
Truth: Obama didn’t make any cuts to Medicare benefits; he made cuts to provider reimbursements, to improve cost efficiency and extend the fiscal security of Medicare by eight years. According to the Medicare actuary, “[Obama’s] Affordable Care Act makes important changes to the Medicare program and substantially improves its financial outlook.”1
But Ryan actually does want to cut benefits. He proposed dismantling Medicare and replacing it with a voucher system, leaving millions of seniors to come up with more money to pay for care out of pocket.2,3
2. Lie: President Obama didn’t save a General Motors plant in Wisconsin.
Truth: First, Obama wasn’t even in office when the GM plant closed. Second, Obama never made a promise to save it.4
3. Lie: President Obama ignored recommendations of a bipartisan debt commission.
Truth: Paul Ryan actually sat on that commission. And he led Republicans in voting down the commission’s own recommendation. So the commission never gave a report to Obama, because Ryan himself voted to kill the report before it could.5
4. Lie: President Obama is responsible for the downgrading of the U.S. Credit Rating
Truth: House Republicans, including Paul Ryan, held the full faith and credit of the United States hostage to try to ransom it for trillions of dollars in cuts to social programs without increasing taxes on the wealthy one dime. Standard & Poors said specifically, “We have changed our assumption on [revenue] because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues.” That’s why our nation’s credit rating was downgraded.6,7
5. Lie: Ryan wants to protect the “weak.”
Truth: Ryan’s biggest feat in his political career was proposing a budget with dramatic cuts to programs benefiting the poor. He’d cut Medicaid by one third, take away health care insurance from 30 million Americans, and cut Pell Grants for 1 million students. All so that he could give more tax breaks to the rich.8
Sources:
1. “Fact check: Paul Ryan at the RNC,” USA Today, August 30, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279602&id=50188-6946044-2ROTBZx&t=8
2. “Undoing Obama Medicare cuts may backfire on Romney,” The Boston Globe, August 18, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279597&id=50188-6946044-2ROTBZx&t=9
3. “Romney-Ryan Medicare Plan Would Cost 29-Year-Olds $331,200: Report,” Huffington Post, August 27, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279596&id=50188-6946044-2ROTBZx&t=10
4. “Paul Ryan Misleads With GM Plant Closure Tale,” Huffington Post, August 29, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279598&id=50188-6946044-2ROTBZx&t=11
5. ”Fact Check: Paul Ryan misleads on debt panel’s spending cut plan,” CNN, August 30, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279608&id=50188-6946044-2ROTBZx&t=12
6. “Top 5 Fibs In Paul Ryan’s Convention Speech,” Talking Points Memo, August 30, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279595&id=50188-6946044-2ROTBZx&t=13
7. “Paul Ryan Address: Convention Speech Built On Demonstrably Misleading Assertions,” Huffington Post, August 30, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279604&id=50188-6946044-2ROTBZx&t=14
8. “4 Ways Paul Ryan’s Budget Would Devastate The Poor,” ThinkProgress, August 17, 2012
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=279605&id=50188-6946044-2ROTBZx&t=15
Plus you get to hear about all the awful anti health/abortion/Planned Parenthood laws that are being passed.
(via bebinn)
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