Primus inter spinas

IS IT JUST ME OR…

thatdeafchick:

mackenziegracedonaldson:

Does anyone else love watching youtube videos of little kids hearing for the first time? Seriously those videos bring out the tears. Their little confused faces once they turn on the  implants and hearing aids are heartbreakingly adorable. I think its safe to say that if those videos don’t warm your heart than you just don’t have one. 

its not just you. its a large percentage of the Hearing population. and this reaction is actually quite frustrating, angering, even triggering to d/Deaf/HOH EVEN other hearing people.

‘confused faces’?!? really? thats cute and sweet?? getting blasted by sound?? its actually not FUN, its painfull, shocking, disorienting, its annoying and frustrating. 

i have a heart. i am quite empathetic. i am kind and caring. i put others needs before my own. but these videos dont warm my heart, they annoy me because of the reactions like yours that are worse than the videos themselves. 

think next time and educate yourself before spouting ridiculous offensive nonsense. 

sincerly, a deaf girl.

What Israel’s anti-African pogroms tell us about Zionism

A week ago, on the night of Wednesday 23rd May, South Tel Aviv erupted, becoming the epicentre of an attack by an angry, violent mob against members of the city’s African migrant population, deliberately targeted  because of no other reason than their ethnicity.

African-owned businesses and homes were destroyed and looted. There were no fatalities but many were injured. Social media was alive with images and information regarding the attacks, pointing out the absolute apathy, even complicity, of the authorities.

This attack on the African minority in Tel Aviv is not an isolated event. Wednesday night’s violence was the culmination of a series of racist attacks, including the firebombing of homes and a kindergarten in south Tel Aviv neighbourhoods. In fact, these attacks illustrate the prevalent high level of racial tension within the city and in Israel as a whole.

One cannot fully understand the events of Wednesday without an understanding of the various contexts at play, historical, political and ideological. Steven Salaita writes in The Electronic Intifada that Zionism is ‘an ideology that can accommodate liberal and humanistic discourses, (but) cannot be practised without a concomitant abrogation of the rights of those who are not Jewish.’

Zionism, in other words, dictates racial and religious supremacy. Israel, a state built on ethnically cleansed land, thus operates under the veil of a democracy in which the Jewish population is the exclusive beneficiary of the democratic process.

However, Israel’s Jewish population is itself stratified within an ethnic hierarchy, where the prosperous Ashkenazi (white Jews of European descent) dominate the economy, media and politics. In comparison, the Mizrahi and Sephardi (Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent) suffer socio-economic hardship.

Ethnic and religious minorities are uniformly oppressed, from Palestinian Muslims and Christians to African migrants. The disparity is well-documented. Human Rights Watch states that in Israel’s segregated school system ‘Palestinian Arab children get an education inferior to that of Jewish children, and their relatively poor performance in school reflects this.’

Discrimination continues into higher education, employment, healthcare and housing. If we consider the core principle of Zionism, the construction of a Jewish homeland in order to preserve Jewish identity and ensure Jewish security, this oppression is inevitable. However, it is the treatment of black Jews that reveals most about the racism ingrained in Israeli society.

Hanan Chehata writes, in the Race and Class journal, that ‘the Falasha, Ethiopian Jews … brought to Israel in mass transfer operations, have found themselves relegated to an underclass.’ Chehata argues that black Jews are not only racially discriminated against but are also used to bolster the populations of illegal settlements.

In 2010, the Israel lobby group FLAME (Facts and Logic About the Middle East) ran an advertisement in Jewish American newspapers in an attempt to refute claims that Israel is an apartheid state. The advertisement argued that ‘Israel has brought in about 70,000 black Ethiopian Jews, who despite their backwardness have become fully integrated citizens of Israel.’ The advertisement perpetuates the image of the uncivilised savage; we might expect to find such language in nineteenth century European colonial texts.

Jonathan Cook wrote an extensive piece for The National, an English language newspaper, published daily in Abu Dhabi, that examines Israel’s treatment of Ethiopians. Cook writes that ‘Health officials in Israel are subjecting many female Ethiopian immigrants to a controversial long-term birth control drug.’ He further states that ’57 per cent of Depo Provera users in Israel are Ethiopian, even though the community accounts for less than two per cent of the total population.’

The drug has a wide range of damaging side effects and was used by the South African apartheid government to limit the fertility of black women. Yali Hashash, a researcher at Haifa University said similar practices were used against Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews in the 1950s and 1960s because ‘Israel’s leading gynaecologists regarded Arab Jews as ‘primitive’ and incapable of acting ‘responsibly’.’ The evidence is difficult to refute and presents a compelling conclusion: the preservation of Jewish identity in the eyes of the state appears only to encompass white Europeans.

Although oppression takes on many guises, the language of oppression is universal. From the top down, prominent Israeli parliamentarians have fanned the flames of racial hatred and undoubtedly incited violence. In a cabinet meeting last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described African migrants in Israel as ‘illegal infiltrators flooding the country … threatening our existence as a Jewish and democratic state … our national security and our national identity.’

A familiar tune: in 1915, the CUP described the Armenian minority in Ottoman Turkey as a threat to Turkish security and identity. The Ottomans’ chief propagandist, Ziya Gokalp, insisted Turkey could only be revitalised if it rid itself of its non-Muslim minorities, arguing that Armenians were ‘a foreign body in the national Turkish state.’ A few years later, Nazi propagandists Goebbels and Rosenberg propounded the central notion that Germany needed to be Judenfrei (free of Jewish presence) in order to revitalise itself. In both instances, these fabrications created the cultural space for racial hatred and were the pretext for genocide.

(Source: so-treu)

The Jenny McCarthy Body Count | kottke.org

goldenheartedrose:

patrixio:

The Jenny McCarthy Body Count site tracks the number of vaccine-preventable illnesses and deaths in the US since June 2007.

[Keep reading @ kottke.org]

This is actually something that is a good information but at the same time? It’s really something that will make you angry if you think about it for too long.

As are most SJ issues, really.  But there’s your warning.  Visit at your own risk.

Truth: Target has pledged $120,000 in cash to promote the legalization of homosexual marriage.

archer-and-anders:

Just saw this in an email from one of my professors who is an adviser for the Lesbian and Gay Vet Med Association at school. Target’s website says it will donate 100% of T-shirt sales from customers during the month of June to Family Equality Council.

See the t-shirts

loser-guy submitted:

face-down-asgard-up:

mcavoyhasladyhips:

the-science-alliance:

deliciouskaek:

abaldwin360:

loser-guy: 

I think its kinda funny the way most religious conservatives are against social services. Here in California, (a very liberal state). Religious organizations benefit from social services. I’m currently receiving services from the state. First of all anyone who thinks you can sit back and pop out more kids and get more money is wrong. Clinton took care of that. If you are currently receiving services and are pregnant, that child will be ineligible for benefits. Also the social service programs are work first programs. They give you job experience. That translates into a few things. They help you with resumes education and such. You are required to participate in activities of those kinds in order to keep getting aid. Once training and education is up to par, you are required to “volunteer”. Here in our county the only places I was told I could volunteer at was, The Salvation Army, A Christian Fellowship program, Or a Christian program to help developmentally disabled adults. I declined the latter saying its against my views. I was asked if I was refusing to participate, (wich would get me sanctioned and my benefits would cease.) I took the Salvation Army position in order to be able to feed my family. In doing so I found out 80% of the SA’s work force is “volunteers”. As is most of the other organizations the county cooperates with. Basically the state is making me work for an organization, if that organization knew my beliefs they would terminate me. This I dont understand.

This is kinda off topic, but you also have to list all assets. If you possess items worth a certain dollar amount you have to liquidate them. 401K’s, burial plots, vehicles, homes, and firearms. Basically if the state finds out I own guns they can deny me of my second amendment rights in order for me to receive wellfare. I have done nothing wrong, just down on my luck in the job market.

This is exactly how it works. You can’t own SHIT if you want to be on welfare for any reason. You. Can’t. Have. Shit.

And they don’t care what bills you have to pay, how high your student loans are, whether or not your lights are about to get shut off, because you WILL burn through your assets, or you WILL be denied.

And if you had that shit in the bank, and had to take it out? Bring receipts. You WILL need to prove you spent that fucking money.

But yeah, folks are just sitting back happy to be broke.

Yup.

:/

Thank you for writing this. I hate how the welfare system works. Every asshole thinks that you can just sit on your ass and get money. Yeah fucking right. No one ever wants to be on welfare. You can’t escape it once you’re in. My mother gets some heating assistance and help with housing(HUD). We barely make enough to cover the bills. Once, my lowlife father decided to actually send about $100 in child support. We had to report it of course, and we lost some of our benefits. They don’t even bother to take into account that he NEVER sends his damn money. Basically, we got screwed for getting a little something that went towards bills anyway. You cannot escape this system once you are in it. I don’t understand why people keep bitching that so many people are on welfare. They have no idea what it’s like to actually be on it. As OP said, you can’t have a goddamn thing. You are NOT allowed to pull yourself out of poverty. You have to report any asset you have, even if it’s a few bucks. So people who complain about those on welfare, shut your fucking mouths. Try living in someone’s shoes that’s on it. Realise that you aren’t allowed to save up for things or if you’re a young adult a part of a family that gets assistance, you can’t work unless you leave. Oh hey, guess what, if you leave, your family gets screwed over because they will now get less money even if their bills stay the same(but more than likely they will go up in price because of your absence). 

Welfare, it’s not a free ride. You’re essentially selling your soul to the devil. So assholes, quit your griping because we want to be on our own two feet and support ourselves. It’s the government that won’t allow us to do so. You can’t get out of the hole that is poverty if you aren’t allowed to have assets. Just because I have a few bucks in the bank, it doesn’t mean I’m abusing the system. It’s most likely going to go to a bill or an emergency anyway. 

Absolutely the same here in Texas. I really have nothing to add, other than this is the most accurate post I’ve ever seen about this horrible system and I’m extending the warm hug of apology and sympathy to my fellow welfare people. 

Yes. Yes to all of this. Read this.

pressurized metal container blues: the funny thing about "autism speaks; it's time to listen"

liveloveandmath:

andromedalogic:

what they don’t tell you is that autism knows how to save you.

if we’re going to do this, going to split ourselves up and extract the autism and hold it up to the light as a separate entity with a voice: we might as well do it right.

autism is the first thing to rear its head, intact, from the rubble of a wrecked self. autism is a safety valve, and it knows what to do when the rest of you has forgotten.

autism says: you haven’t moved in two years. did you realize that? we need to start moving again. start with little movements. and so you copy the motions it provides, you rock and do handflaps until you remember that you used to pace, and twist your hands in other weird ways, and your breathing starts to work again.

autism says: stop talking. that’s how they get to you. hide away and be silent, because speech is an unstoppable font of lies, let’s make it impossible until we can say our own words again. limit your responses. they want in; don’t give them the satisfaction.

be quiet, and thereby remember to scream.

autism says: you are in the wrong place. this light, this sound, this touch is hurting you. maybe something else is right, but until we find it, we need to withdraw. you know pain is a bad thing, don’t you? that over there, that’s pain. this is your body. you are located in a body. we can tell because we’re moving, now.

autism says: look at this one thing. this one thing makes sense, so we’ll focus on it and block out everything else. we need something to stabilize us. you can grab onto this, and only this, and if you gaze at it long enough the universe will contract and make sense again. then we’ll be able to widen our gaze, by degrees. this will give us the strength to venture beyond it.

autism is a toolkit to protect your body and mind. the world twists it, confuses it, but alone it makes the right decisions. it wants you here; it wants you alive.

you put a bullet in your mouth, and autism spits it back out.

um so if we could all read this, it is one of the best-articulated pieces about autism i have ever read. even more so since right now i am in no way capable of communicating this but i have been feeling this all day for some reason.

“autism is the first thing to rear its head, intact, from the rubble of a wrecked self. autism is a safety valve, and it knows what to do when the rest of you has forgotten.”

This is a really interesting take on autism as an adaptation; it’s really great.

"Most girls are stupid"

queenofthenorthx:

In last week’s Game of Thrones, Arya told Tywin Lannister that “most girls are stupid.” When we heard that line, were we supposed to think, “This is why Arya is awesome”? After watching The Prince of Winterfell, I can’t help but think that the answer is “yes.” While the books series presents a huge range of dynamic and well-developed female characters, the show writers seem determined to edit the story so that all normal women seem weak and worthy of disdain. Girls, like Arya, who fight to throw off femininity and become “one of the boys,” are the only ones who are really strong or worthy of respect.

Although some of the show’s changes to the story have been positive and potentially even improve on the novel, many edits in the last few episodes have reduced the series’ selection of varied, challenging female characters into cliches and walking confirmation of the idea that “most women suck.”

Read more…

Grow your own: 'Same space, more vegetables: companion planting to increase productivity'

From The Vancouver Sun:

Companion planting has been around for centuries, a method that many organic gardeners use to try to protect certain vulnerable crops from insect predation, for instance, using marigolds to deter beetles and carrot fly.

Or — less believably — to improve the flavours of certain vegetables, such as planting basil among tomatoes.

But you can use an amped-up form of companion planting — succession interplanting — to double the output of each of your garden beds by pairing up plants that will grow together in close quarters without interfering with each other and then following with a full second crop for fall and winter. It is possible to get as many as four crops per bed in a single growing season.

You won’t end up with nice rows of identical plants like you see in magazines, those mini-mono-crops. But the esthetic loss is diversity’s gain and it’s not so hard on your soil.

If you have a lot of space, try some or all of these mixed bed plans. If space is tight, try one to start and see how it works for you.

There are no tomatoes in this plan. Grow them in a separate bed with plenty of space around them. Some plants can’t be crowded and few are more likely to disappoint when things don’t go their way than tomatoes.

Check out the rest of the article here and Wikipedia for a list of companion plants.

(Source: plantedcity)

Article: I Didn't Know There Were Cities in Africa!

africanbeats:

greenactivista:

Please substitue the word “children” for “99 percent of the idiots using the #peace tag on tumblr.”

I always get too angry to articulate why images of malnourished African children bothers me. Why it is racist. Why it’s wrong.

This article above helps.

The way you think about Africa is wrong.

The way you think about the entire world beyond you is probably wrong.

But let’s start with Africa. Because chances are you paid the 30 dollars for that stupid fucking Invisible Children starter kit. That at one point in time you participated in a 30 Hour Famine at church. Or you “adopted” a starving child with a few friends after you saw a 5 minute infomercial. Possibly you really like Bono. Or Blood Diamond made you feel really bad. Hotel Rwanda made you cry. Maybe you have one of those shirts with the heart in the middle of the continent. Or that you really want to internationally adopt an “orphan.”

The way you think about Africa is wrong.

Did you know that the UNICEF definition of orphanhood as the loss of one or both parents. Did you know that children are adopted by white parents all the time when their biological parents are still alive. Did you know that foreign adoptions happen all the time because parents see themselves as too impoverished or incapable to raise their children on their own. Did you know that Madonna, the supposed savior of Malawi, abducted her child because international adoptions aren’t even legal in that country. 

Did you know that the never-ending stream of donations you send to Africa is destroying local economies and small businesses. Did it ever occur to you that your donations are putting people out of business. Did you consider that you might be creating poverty just for participating in a capitalist system that steals from the poor and then throws them whatever is left over and calls it “charity.” Did it never occur to you, while you were donating money and feeling good about it, why it is that your dollar is needed in the first place.

Did you know that organizations like World Vision (the asshats who brought you the 30 Hour Famine) have set up camps for survivors of war and violence in Uganda, where they regularly impose Christian teachings and values through a process called “sensitization,” in order to get survivors to think more like they do. Did it ever occur to you that there are thousands of languages, cultures, and lives that are being homogenized by “charitable” organizations, and that it’s on your dime.

Did you know that money you donate comes with strings, and sometimes it doesn’t even come at all. Did it occur to you that organizations don’t spend their money unless they want to, and that frequently comes with stipulations. Did you consider that maybe there are places in Africa and elsewhere that really need your money or economic support, but don’t give a fuck about your hegemonic religious values. Did you have any clue that organizations like Invisible Children take in millions of dollars annually, but don’t even spend a third of it in Uganda.

Did you have any idea that countless charities, hospitals, adoption agencies, etc., set up in Africa are illegal, and done without credence to national or local government. Have you heard of volunteer tourism? Did you have any idea that completely untrained and uneducated people are hauling ass to Africa, and building charities that board, educate, and treat young children illegally with absolutely zero recognition of the law of the land in which they are in.

Did it ever occur to you that maybe some people in Africa are doing just fucking fine. They have a house. They own shoes. They have parents and siblings and food and an education and a favorite restaurant and hobbies and ambitions and a happy life. Did you consider that maybe your stupid generalizations and conceptualizations bother and insult them, and make it more difficult to be them.

Did you ever consider that Africa is a living, breathing continent of millions of people who are different. Economically, socially, religiously, lingually, culturally, ethnically different. And that your stupid fucking pictures of malnourished kids, your idolization of Angelina Jolie and Madonna, your ridiculous Invisible Children bracelet, your idiotic KONY 2012 posters are racist. They’re simplifying a place that is not simple. They’re portraying an enormous continent as singular, backward place. Instead of more complicated than you have ever bothered to understand.

You operate autonomously, offering your “help” where it has not been asked for. Blindly donating your dollars and your time without having any idea how it is being spent. 

There are people there. Governments. Cities. There are people living their lives in a continent that you do not understand, but you claim to help.

This rant was long-winded but I’ll conclude.

Just please if you take nothing else away from this. Be critical of the shit you are fed. Africa is a continent. And at least take the time to learn about it before you even consider throwing money or used books or Toms sneakers at it.

I am now officially in love with whoever wrote this!

Ideas and Opinions.: Dear "Colorblind" people,

ladyatheist:

Sciences says you’re probably racist:

http://news.illinois.edu/news/10/0421online.html

“If you subscribe to a color-blind racial ideology, you don’t think that race or racism exists, or that it should exist,” Tynes said. “You are more likely to think that people who…

Do You Hear the People Sing?: CAPITALISM’S BIG LIES

arielnietzsche:

1. Competition generates jobs. Right?

WRONG! Competition may initially create jobs but leads inevitably to over-production of the same commodities or over-provision of the same services by competing companies, resulting in takeovers, redundancies or export of jobs to countries providing cheaper labour. This is what is casually accepted as ‘the economic cycle’.

2. Competition offers greater choice and diversity. Right?

WRONG! Everyone knows that the multiplication of television channels just creates more of the same. Similarly competition among manufacturers of cars and most other commodities leads not to greater diversity but to greater standardisation. That is why vast sums of money need to be wasted on ludicrous advertising – to create a grand illusion of distinctiveness between virtually identical products and services. ‘Brand identity’ replaces true diversity and choice.

3. Competition results in cost-efficiency. Right?

WRONG! The pursuit of profit and low-cost production results in the greatest imaginable wastage of natural resources and human potentials. For example the production of one ounce of gold produces thirty tons of toxic waste and depends on labour so cheap it is a form of slavery – thus also wasting the productive human potentials of every worker involved.

4. Capitalism can create full-employment. Right?

WRONG! Capitalism can only ever create anything near full-employment by massively under-employing the potential skills of its employees – instead employing ever-more workers in exportable, low-skill, low-paid work – and employing even university graduates in ‘McJobs’, call-centres and the like. And when capitalism is in crisis the first thing it slashes is jobs – except those of corporate bosses.

5. Capitalism protects women’s rights and the family. Right?

Wrong! An economy such as America’s, in which millions of mothers have to leave their children alone and travel often long distances to do two or more minimum-wage shift jobs – and still not afford decent housing or even medical care – is hardly ‘family friendly’. Protecting ‘women’s rights’ and the family means protecting the right of women to be minimum-wage slaves.

6. Capitalism values the individual. Right?

Wrong! Capitalism buys the individual, and values them according to their market value alone. What made capitalism different from earlier forms of market economy is that people don’t sell products they make themselves, they sell themselves as employees – they sell their bodies, brains and time to be ‘employed’ as instructed by their employer. Capitalism is economic prostitution of the individual.

7. Capitalist societies are mostly democratic. Right?

Wrong! The most politically powerful and important institutions in capitalist states – and the ones in which most people lead their lives – are private companies in which there is no democracy, no elections of any sort and rule is principally by management decree – it is determined by financiers and corporate shareholders.

8. Capitalism could reduce its energy needs and cope with ecological problems with the right will. Right?

WRONG! Firstly, no gas, oil or nuclear energy corporations would ever tolerate losing their profits to community groups or towns that decided to declare energy independence – to go ‘off-grid’ and generate energy from their own wind generators, solar, wave or waste-generated energy sources. Secondly, capitalism relies on increasing economic growth for its own sake – irrespective of the waste produced by industrial production and over-production. Thirdly, the greed for short term financial gain from exploiting natural resources will lead inevitably the total devastation of the oceans, forests, water supplies and farming land of the world.

9. Capitalism means a free trade and a free market. Right?

WRONG! Capitalism just can’t cope with global free trade, and ‘globalisation’ is the biggest attempt to restrict it – for example by imposing unfair trading agreements and by subsidised agriculture which restrict imports from and impoverishes developing countries. Capitalism certainly can’t cope with a global ‘free market’ economy – for that would mean free movement not only of capital but free movement of labour (‘immigration’) across countries and continents. Not even the European Union can allow a free market – ever tried getting low-cost mortgages or loans from Germany or lower-cost cars from Europe?

10. Capitalist societies are free societies. Right?

WRONG! Capitalism forces individuals to sell their time to their employers. Freedom means being free to use one’s time to engage in freely chosen creative activity that fulfils an individual’s unique potentials and allows them to contribute to society through them. But the only types of productive, creative activity or work allowed in capitalism are those with market value in the creation of profit for employers. Education in capitalism does not cultivate each individual’s gifts so that it can transform them into a valuable contribution to society. Instead its focus is only on skills with a market value in the creation of profit. The capitalist press and media are no more ‘free’ than those in so-called totalitarian societies, all disseminating the same ‘news’ and ‘issues’ and never questioning the ‘Big Lies’ which shape how they are analysed and interpreted.

11. Capitalism is wealth creating. Right?

WRONG! Not only is more than 90% of the wealth of capitalist economies owned by less than 10% of the population, but is gained by creating general time-poverty and by exploitation of low-wage labour, both here and in developing countries. The type of labour that has the market value to create most monetary wealth tends to be of a purely self-serving, calculative or mind-numbing type that impoverishes the soul and distorts, demeans or denies time for human relationships. Wealth in capitalism is a ‘Faustian’ bargain – selling all richness of soul to the Devil in order to attain material gain. Yet throughout the ‘boom years’ of the Western capitalist economies the income of the majority effectively fell by 30% - except for the richest 10% of the population.

12. Markets are needed to know what people want. Right?

WRONG!  How about just asking them? Today’s information technology provides the perfect means of finding out what sorts of products people want, in what variety, with what new features or changes, and at what sort of prices. Markets only offer them ranges of products to choose from over which they have no democratic choice. Worse still, it uses advertising to make them think they can fulfil their deepest spiritual needs by buying material commodities.

13. National governments depend on taxes or borrowing from banks to finance public expenditure. Right?

WRONG! This is one of the biggest lies of all. National governments could, as Lincoln attempted to do, issue their own money, interest-free, to pay for public expenditure – were it not for the fact that they are effectively puppets of international banks and banking cartels, and forever afraid of upsetting what they call ‘the financial markets’.

14. National governments accumulate financial deficits through overspending on public services and investment. Right?

WRONG! This is part of the same Big Lie. Financial deficits arise principally from ever-increasing debts to the private banking sector, a problem which could be overcome by nationalising the banks, re-establishing control of the nation’s money supply and funding industry itself directly.

(Source: nationalpeoplesparty.wordpress.com)

Two Women

arielnietzsche:

I am a woman.
I am a woman.

I am a woman born of a woman whose man owned a factory.
I am a woman born of a woman whose man labored in a factory.

I am a woman whose man wore silk suits, who constantly watched his weight.
I am a woman whose man wore tattered clothing, whose heart was constantly strangled by hunger.

I am a woman who watched two babies grow into beautiful children.
I am a woman who watched two babies die because there was no milk.

I am a woman who watched twins grow into popular college students with summers abroad.
I am a woman who watched three children grow, but with bellies stretched from no food.

But then there was a man;
But then there was a man;

And he talked about the peasants getting richer by my family getting poorer.
And he told me of days that would be better and he made the days better.

We had to eat rice.
We had rice.

We had to eat beans!
We had beans.

My children were no longer given summer visas to Europe.
My children no longer cried themselves to sleep.

And I felt like a peasant.
And I felt like a woman.

A peasant with a dull, hard, unexciting life.
Like a woman with a life that sometimes allowed a song.

And I saw a man.
And I saw a man.

And together we began to plot with the hope of the return to freedom.
I saw his heart begin to beat with hope of freedom, at last.

Someday, the return to freedom.
Someday freedom.

And then,
But then,

One day,
One day,

There were plans overhead and guns firing close by.
There were planes overhead and guns firing in the distance.

I gathered my children and went home.
I gathered my children and ran.

And the guns moved farther and farther away.
But the guns moved closer and closer.

And then, they announced that freedom had been restored!
And then they came, young boys really.

They came into my home along with my man.
They came and found my man.

Those men whose money was almost gone.
They found all of the men whose lives were almost their own.

And we all had drinks to celebrate.
And they shot them all.

The most wonderful martinis.
They shot my man.

And then they asked us to dance.
And they came for me.

Me.
For me, the woman.

And my sisters.
For my sisters.

And then they took us.
Then they took us.

They took us to dinner at a small private club.
They stripped from us the dignity we had gained.

And they treated us to beef.
And then they raped us.

It was one course after another.
One after another they came after us.

We nearly burst we were so full.
Lunging, plunging—sisters bleeding, sisters dying.

It was magnificent to be free again!
It was hardly a relief to have survived.

The beans have almost disappeared now.
The beans have disappeared.

The rice—I’ve replaced it with chicken or steak.
The rice, I cannot find it.

And the parties continue night after night to make up for all the time wasted.
And my silent tears are joined once more by the midnight cries of my children.

Read More

(Source: regrettoinform.org)

thoughtfulcynic:

Terminatexualology: 20 obsolete English words that should make a comeback

Whenever a hoddypeak is ludibriously quagswagging their tongue with some mind numbing perrisology likely to jargogle my mind to a state of widdendream, after kenching freely, I feel the urge to freck back to my illecebrous scriptation corraded from various books and to deliciate with it under the twitter-light.

anti-teachings:

DURING MY UNDERGRADUATE studies as a Linguistics major, one of the things that struck me most is the amazing fluidity of language. New words are created; older words go out of style. Words can change meaning over time, vowel sounds shift, consonants are lost or added and one word becomes another. Living languages refuse to be static. 

The following words have sadly disappeared from modern English, but it’s easy to see how they could be incorporated into everyday conversation. 

Words are from Erin McKean’s two-volume series: Weird and Wonderful Words and Totally Weird and Wonderful Words. Definitions have been quoted from the Oxford English Dictionary.

1. Jargogle
Verb trans. – “To confuse, jumble” – First of all this word is just fun to say in its various forms. John Locke used the word in a 1692 publication, writing “I fear, that the jumbling of those good and plausible Words in your Head..might a little jargogle your Thoughts…” I’m planning to use it next time my husband attempts to explain complicated Physics concepts to me for fun: “Seriously, I don’t need you to further jargogle my brain.” 

2. Deliciate
Verb intr. – “To take one’s pleasure, enjoy oneself, revel, luxuriate” – Often I feel the word “enjoy” just isn’t enough to describe an experience, and “revel” tends to conjure up images of people dancing and spinning around in circles – at least in my head. “Deliciate” would be a welcome addition to the modern English vocabulary, as in “After dinner, we deliciated in chocolate cream pie.” 

3. Corrade
Verb trans. – “To scrape together; to gather together from various sources” – I’m sure this wasn’t the original meaning of the word, but when I read the definition I immediately thought of copy-pasting. Any English teacher can picture what a corraded assignment looks like. 

4. Kench
Verb intr. – “To laugh loudly” – This Middle English word sounds like it would do well in describing one of those times when you inadvertently laugh out loud while reading a text message in class and manage to thoroughly embarrass yourself. 

5. Ludibrious
Adj. – “Apt to be a subject of jest or mockery” – This word describes a person, thing or situation that is likely to be the butt of jokes. Use it when you want to sound justified in poking fun at someone. “How could I resist? He’s just so ludibrious.” 

6. Sanguinolency
Noun – “Addiction to bloodshed” – Could be a useful word for history majors and gamers, as in “Genghis Khan was quite the sanguinolent fellow” or “Do you think spending six hours a day playing Postal 2 actually fosters sanguinolency?” 

7. Jollux
Noun - Slang phrase used in the late 18th century to describe a “fat person” – Although I’m not sure whether this word was used crudely or in more of a lighthearted manner, to me it sounds like a nicer way to refer to someone who is overweight. “Fat” has such a negative connotation in English, but if you say “He’s a bit of a jollux” it doesn’t sound so bad! 

8. Malagrugrous
Adj. – “Dismal” – This adjective is from Scots and may be derived from an old Irish word that refers to the wrinkling of one’s brow. An 1826 example of its use is “He looketh malagrugorous and world-wearied.” I’m tempted to also make the word into a noun: “Stop being such a malagrug!” 

9. Brabble
Verb – “To quarrel about trifles; esp. to quarrel noisily, brawl, squabble” – Brabble basically means to argue loudly about something that doesn’t really matter, as in “Why are we still brabbling about who left the dirty spoon on the kitchen table?” You can also use it as a noun: “Stop that ridiculous brabble and do something useful!” 

10. Freck
Verb intr. – “To move swiftly or nimbly” – I can think of a lot of ways to use this one, like “I hate it when I’m frecking through the airport and other people are going so slow.” 

11. Brannigan
Noun – “A drinking bout; a spree or ‘binge’” – Brannigan was originally a North American slang word, but it is now rarely used. “Shall we go for a brannigan on Friday?” can be a more sophisticated way to discuss such activities. 

12. Perissology
Noun – “Use of more words than are necessary; redundancy or superfluity of expression” – A useful word for editors: “Thanks for your 4,000-word submission. Unfortunately there is too much perissology in this piece for us to publish it.”

13. Quagswagging
Noun – “The action of shaking to and fro” – This can also be used in verb form, to quagswag, and is pronounced like “kwag swag.” It could definitely work as the name for a new type of dance, or possibly serve as an alternate way to describe a seizure. 

14. Hoddypeak
Noun – “A fool, simpleton, noodle, blockhead” – This one doesn’t need any explanation as to how you could use it; you may already have someone in mind who fits the description. 

15. Bibesy
Noun – “A too earnest desire after drink.” – “Bibesy” may have been completely made up in the 18th century and it’s unclear whether it ever made it into common use, but it could easily be used today: “Wedding guests waited anxiously for the bar to open; bibesy should be expected after such a long, dull service.” 

16. Scriptitation
Noun – A 17th-century word meaning “continual writing” – Matadorians taking part in this year’s National Novel Writing Month are getting good practice at scriptitation! 

17. Widdendream
Noun – “A state of mental disturbance or confusion” – I can start using this obsolete Scottish word right away: “While working on writing my thesis, I find I am constantly in widdendream.” 

18. Yemeles
Adj. – An Old English and Middle English word meaning “careless, heedless, negligent” – Pronounced as “yeem-lis,” this is another word that could prove useful for teachers around the world: “Handing in messy and incomplete work just shows me you are being yemeles, and I won’t hesitate to give you a zero for the assignment.” 

19. Twitter-light
Noun – “Twilight” – Used in the early 17th century, “twitter-light” sounds like a romantic way to refer to the hours as the sun goes down. 

20. Illecebrous
Adj. – “Alluring, enticing, attractive” – Alright, so at first this word kind of sounds a way to describe something diseased, but if you put the stress on the second syllable for emphasis, it does sound like a compliment: “That girl was so illecebrous; I’ve got to figure out how to see her again.” 

[Source]

There are always these lists of cool and interesting words that “you didn’t know” or should be used more/brought back/whatever, and they’re always obnoxious sesquipedalian faux-latin jargon or nonsense words like these (some of dubious origin); they never talk about the cool, interesting, pretty words that were lost from plain English. Words like wone, swain, barrow, lich, yare, dey, bower, were, kith, harry, and many others that have either changed/lost meaning, been relegated to idioms and medieval fantasy, or been forgotten completely in most dialects.