Day: June 14, 2016

  • Untitled post 14402

    spacebuns:

    saw this on Twitter, may already be posted here….regardless, PLEASE spread the word! this mans kindness could help so many grieving families right now.

  • Ex-Vanderbilt football player pushed teammates to rape unconscious woman

    Ex-Vanderbilt football player pushed teammates to rape unconscious woman

    unicornempire:

    yayfeminism:

    “Prosecutors say a former Vanderbilt football player encouraged his team-mates to rape an unconscious woman whom he had been dating.

    During opening statements Monday in the retrial of Brandon Vandenburg, a prosecutor said the former player even passed out condoms to three team-mates before the woman was raped.

    But one of Vandenburg’s attorneys blamed the three other players, saying that maybe Vandenburg could have stopped the June 2013 attack but he shouldn’t be held responsible for what others did to her.

    The defense attorney said Vandenburg had been drinking all day, and the 19-year-old new recruit had asked players he didn’t know to help him carry the unconscious woman to his dorm. He said the others were on her as soon as they got her in the room.”

    Horrific.

    I know most of the guys I argue with on Reddit about this kind of stuff would never once look at it this way, but whenever I see this kind of story (and we all know at what frequency they happen, sickening) all I can think is ‘Wow, it’s so bizarre, and so strange, that men are constantly asking us to trust them, and that it’s only a few bad apples ruining the reputation of the bunch, but… There’s four men, four random men, from different households, different parents, different siblings, different walks of life- teachers, school districts, friends… Four different men who come together and all of them are rapists at heart.’

    Like, think about that- how all four of these guys didn’t have the conscience, the scruples, morals, ethics, whatever you want to call it, to not rape an unconscious and defenseless woman. If you got four random men together and had one of them posit that they should murder someone, do you think they’d all just go along with the murder? Or would one of them go ‘Um, yeah, maybe let’s not murder someone tonight Chad, that sounds like a really horrible idea’?

    But rape, that’s on the table apparently. He didn’t even know those guys, he couldn’t have cherrypicked the ‘rapiest’ guys in the group or anything, they were new recruits that he didn’t know, and yet all four of them… Just, fucking hell.

  • nymaulth:

    Our wedding photos are here!!! I married Emily, the love of my life, Dec 23 in Orlando and we had our photos in Winterpark by the lovely, talented ladies of Live Happy Studios! 

     I’m so excited because we have about 98 pics that we really really love-literally! Thought I’d share a few highlights :)

  • constable-connor:

    lanius:

    quietasides:

    Mark: Whether I’m gay or not has no reflection –

    Owen: No, it does. Just listen –

    Julia: I don’t think that you have ownership of horror of this crime.

    Owen: Can I just say, I find this, I find this astonishing.

    Julia: I’m not Jewish and I’m not gay, I’m not French, but I still am equally horrified by these crimes.

    Owen: This was a – I’m being yelled at, which is incredible.

    Julia: Stop talking so [we hadn’t do].

    Mark: That’s the headline: ‘Isil wages war on gays in west’. Now you share that view, that basically this was deliberately targeted on one part of the community rather than the freedom to enjoy yourself no matter what your sexual orientation is.

    Owen: What are you talking about?!?

    Mark: I’m talking about the coverage in the newspapers.

    image

    Owen: It’s not some abstract, kind of, he just picked a random club out of nowhere. He picked a club because it was full of people he regarded as deviants. That’s why he attacked the club.

    Julia: It’s a hate crime, this is an act of terrorism, it was an attack on gay people, absolutely, it was horrific. However, my mind guesses this man probably would be as horrified by me as a gobby woman as he would – genuinely, genuinely – this is the thing. We don’t know right now. We can speculate, but we don’t know how much of this is motivated by just his homophobia.

    Owen: We heard from his own father about his revulsion – why are we trying to deflect? Why are you both pick-

    Mark: We are not trying to deflect. We are trying to reflect what is being said by the authorities here and –

    Owen: Can I ask, what argument are you trying to pick here?

    Mark: I’m now going to quote from what The Telegraph is saying…’his father said…[he] may have targeted the gay community after becoming angry when he saw two men–’

    Owen: ‘May have’? He did! Why are you saying this?

    Julia: ‘After seeing two men kissing in Miami some months ago’ – he may have been angered by many other things since then!

    Owen: I’m sorry. I just find this the most astonishing thing I’ve ever been involved with on television. If he’d walked into a synagogue, and massacred dozens of Jewish people, you wouldn’t be saying what you’re saying now.

    image

    Owen: This bizarre attempt to deflect from this –

    Mark: We are trying to draw parallels in terrorist attacks on people who are being attacked whether they are enjoying rock music in Paris, whether they are gay people in Florida enjoying a night out.

    image

    Julia: I completely accept it, as [Mark] does, that it was a homophobic attack, but for me the issue is there are going to be homophobic people, there’ll be people who hate black people, or who hate gay people, or hate Jewish people. There are going to be people, who are lunatics, who are fanatics –

    Owen: Who are “lunatics”! Stop using these words, Julia!

    Julia: Is it possible for me to finish one sentence?

    Owen: If you stop using words like “lunatic” to talk about homophobic terrorist attacks!

    image

    Julia: Well thank you. Whoever these people are, and whatever their motivations are, the key thing is we’re always going to have mad and bad people in the world.

    Owen: Mad and bad people. Okay.

    Julia: And the key issue is, that they can’t do too much or any harm. When you have free access to assault weapons in a country like America, then they’re able to put their hatred of other people –

    Owen: Yes! Obviously!

    Julia: – into effect, and do damage. That’s the issue for me.

    (discussion between Mark and Julia on gun control and the U.S. …Julia: It is absolutely absurd, if America were not going to do something about gun control after Sandy Hook in 2012, if you’re going to watch six- and seven-year-olds being massacred and you don’t think you need to act, they are never going to act.)

    Mark: There’s something else here in The Telegraph coverage, which I think we need to bring up, Owen, in relation to your point. And that is, I think that we’ve got at least a call from a spokesman for Stonewall saying that people would be feeling vulnerable, and basically indicating –

    Owen: Oh, you’re going to have an LGBT voice talking about it. Interesting.

    Mark: Sorry?

    Owen: Nothing, carry on. Go on.

    Julia: Owen, seriously.

    Owen: I’ve had enough of this. I’m going home. Sorry. No way.

    Julia: Owen, genuinely, we’re trying to have a civilized conversation.

    Owen: I know you’re having it, I don’t want it!

    Julia: I know you’re upset, you’re very upset –

    Owen: Yeah, I am, I’m very upset. I’m very upset.

    Julia: Everyone’s upset and angry about this, but storming off a TV set –

    image

    Owen Jones, Mark Longhurst, and Julia Hartley-Brewer discuss the Pulse nightclub shootings, 12 June 2016

    this infuriated me to watch, it’s so disgusting the way they just talk over him with complete arrogance and completely minimised his pain at the end

    was so shocked that this was a british broadcast and not some right wing broadcast in america if i’m honest

    I was surprised this WASN’T Fox News.

  • kendakumala:

    Hey, may I ask you a question? Do you honestly believe that every child should be vaccinated despite the many contaminates including mercury and artificial chemical compounds with unknown side effects that they are being found to be contained in them. It’s a valid concern that some parents have. Another question I have is how is it logical that a person who has been vaccinated can catch virus from an unvaccinated person? Isn’t it more logical to assume that vaccinations aren’t quite as effective

    vaspider:

    please-standby-for-now:

    invisiblespork:

    shinethewaythrough:

    amireal2u:

    dynastylnoire:

    pvivax:

    soyeahso:

    dynastylnoire:

    You can ask it but I’m from a generation that got our vaccinations and never caught any of the diseases above or got mercury poisoning. So isn’t it more logical to assume it’s safer to vaccinate children instead of putting people with lowered immune systems at risk because you saw something on Dateline?

    From what I understand, if enough people are not vaccinated, herd immunity disappears.  So yes, it would likely start with the unvaccinated, including people who can’t have vaccines for other health reasons.  But this also allows the bacteria to mutate and form new versions of the disease that the vaccines aren’t effective against.  Then you run the risk of the vaccinated getting the disease and the cycle will repeat.  Herd immunity is super fucking important. 

    pvivax can you weigh in on this? 

    Why,  soyeahso yes I can!

    First, unless there is a medical reason a child should not be vaccinated (such as an allergy to a compound in the vaccine), yes I think every child should be vaccinated!

    Mutation of the pathogen can and has occurred, that is not the main reason for the vaccinated becoming sick. 

    So WHY do the vaccinated get sick?

    An EXCELLENT question with a variety of answers.

    1. Some vaccines wear off with time.  That is why you are supposed to get your tetanus (and pertussis aka whooping cough!) shot every 10 years or so.  Think of it as a shirt, some shirts wear out quickly and have to be replaced over and over.  Then there is that one shirt that you’ve had since like middle school and 14 years later it’s still going strong.
    2. Different vaccine formulation have different effectiveness.  In the mid 1990s the USA switched from using whole cell pertussis vaccine to aceullar pertussis vaccines over concerns about safety. Though the safety improvements are pretty much negligible from what I’ve seen.Those who had the whole cell vaccine are less likely to develop pertussis then those who had the acellular vaccine.
    3. Vaccines are designed to do different things. Some vaccines work so that should the person be infected the disease is milder/survivable (Those with the aceullar pertussis vaccine for example may still get sick but their illness won’t be nearly as bad as if they were unvaccinated) or protect the child long enough to be strong enough to survive it
    1. The Bacille de Calmette et Guérin (BCG) vaccine is a very good example of this. BCG vaccine is given to children to prevent tuberculosis. The BCG vaccine is really ineffective in adults and its effectiveness in children can be a crapshoot. HOWEVER it is very good at preventing miliary TB. And this gives children a chance to survive so that they may fight off the infection. (I’m not going to go into the pathogenesis of TB though it’s really interesting! Umm to me…)
  • But the BIGGEST reason is
  •            It’s a numbers game.

    What the fuck does that even mean pvivax?

    It means you have to take into account

    • The effectiveness of a vaccine, none of them 100%
    • How many people around you are vaccinated?  If everyone is vaccinated and you are one of the people where the vaccine didn’t ‘take’ your chances of getting sick are really low.  Contrariwise if a LOT of people aren’t vaccinated then your chances increase.  
    • An imperfect analogy: think of it as being shot at.  Someone shoots at you once and your bulletproof vest doesn’t work, you have a pretty good chance that the bullet will miss you and you’re good. But if you are shot at over and over and over, pretty soon there is good chance that you’re gonna get hit. 

    Now for an example!

    Herd immunity (the percentage of people that are vaccinated in order to for the disease to not spread and protect the vulnerable) is 98%.

     The MMR is about 97% effective, right? Let’s begin!

    You have a school in Mississippi of 2000.  Mississippi has very strict vaccination laws. Only medical exemptions are allowed.  Therefore of the 2000 students, 1994 are vaccinated, a rate of 99.7%.

    All of these students are equally exposed. If you are exposed to measles you have about 90% chance of getting measles.  It is VERY infectious.

    Rounded down, since you can’t have a fraction of a person: 5 of the unvaccinated children will get measles.

    54 of the vaccinated children will be sick.

    OMG VACCINES SUCK THE FUCK SCIENCE!

    Wait, wait, wait a moment!

    Look at the numbers again!  5 of the 6 unvaccinated children developed measles, that’s a 83%.

    54 of 1994 children developed measles, that’s 2.7%

    But when you look at that, what do more people see?  The fact that 91% of measles cases were in the vaccinated, not that 1940 children were spared measles while only 1 non vaccinated person was spared infection.

    Same scenario in Colorado where the MMR vaccination rate is 81.7%

    366 vulnerable children

    1634 covered.

    All exposed and 329 of unvaccinated children will be sick (90% infection rate) and 45 of the covered children will be sick, again a 2.7% infection rate.  In this case however, only 12% of the sick children were vaccinated.

    The more unvaccinated people walking around, the more reservoirs there are for disease and for the disease to linger and expose more people.  If very few people are unvaccinated, the disease dies out quickly, there is nowhere for it to go.  The more people that are unvaccinated, the more places there are for the disease to go, exposing more people to the virus.

    image

          Footnotes: 54 came from. Multiplying 1994 by .97 (the effectiveness of the MMR).  1-(1994*.97)=60. 60*.90(likelihood of getting measles once exposed)=54.

    45 came from: 1634 by .997 (the effectiveness of the MMR). 1634-(1634*.97)=49 49*.90(likelihood of getting measles once exposed)=44.118 (round to 45)

    Oh wow instant follow cause facts

    Honest to god you have MORE CONTAMINANTS IN YOUR BREAKFAST EVERY DAY. No I am not kidding. Industrialized society baby.

    You also eat a lot more of other people’s spit over the dinner table than most people realize. Which makes vaccines like, triple important.

    But seriously, the contaminants most people complain about aren’t actually contaminants. And they most certainly aren’t in doses large enough to do all that much of anything. I get more mercury in my morning corn flakes. And that’s real mercury, not a derivative that has been driven out of vaccines because of over reactive parents who don’t understand how the scientific method works.

    VACCINATE YOUR KIDS.

    Exactly. If you’re freaking out so much about the chemicals in vaccines, why don’t you direct some of that outrage towards the fact that there is currently no limit for the allowable amount of arsenic in infant rice cereals.

    Re: mercury. It’s…not actually mercury. What’s actually in the vaccine was a mercury compound. What does that mean? It means it’s joined with other atoms to create a whole NEW thing with whole NEW properties completely unlike mercury. It’s just like table salt. Sodium chloride. Sodium by itself as an atom reacts violently with water. I’m sure you’ve noticed that salt does not, in fact, explode in your mouth. That’s because it’s part of a completely different compound. Same thing with mercury compounds.

    Oh, and guess what. Despite the fact that those compounds have never been shown to harm people, vaccine manufacturers have removed those compounds due to public pressure. Great, right? Except wrong. Those harmless compounds acted as a preservative agent, so now they have to use different preservatives that are more expensive or less effective which is making it much more difficult and expensive for people without easy access to a medical facility to get for their children.

    Also regarding toxins, the harm of any toxin comes from a combination of amount and time. With a very high amount you don’t need a lot of time. For lower amounts you need a long exposure for it to build up because your body has an organ specifically designed to filter toxins out of your body. It’s called your liver. Think of it like drinking, because that’s exactly what’s happening with toxins building up in your body. You drink one beer over several hours it won’t have much effect. You drink steadily for several hours you will get drunk. You slam ten shots in ten minutes you will probably get alcohol poisoning. The point of this explanation is that there is nothing in vaccines in any sufficient quantity to harm you (and anything in sufficient quantity can harm you). I’m not even kidding when I say you eat more toxins and heavy metals in a piece of tuna than you would get in an entire series of vaccinations.

    None of these are scary compounds with unknown side effects. They’re only scary and unknown because you don’t know what they mean and haven’t bothered to look them up or do any research outside a think-piece about The Study That Even The Author Admitted Was Completely Fabricated To Sell HIS OWN Vaccine by Not A Real Doctor of the school of I Slather Oregano Oil On My Children’s Feet To Prevent Pneumonia.

    Vaccination is important!

    Please vaccinate your kids. If people like me with shitty immune systems are powering through it, you fucking need to unless you medically can’t.

  • activistnyc:

    Vigil for ?#?OrlandoShooting? victims at the historic Stonewall Inn. #OrlandoStrong #loveislove

  • Untitled post 14450

    aidn:

    officialhuman:

    can somebody explain to me how something like this could happen

    the car is part of the “punk” subculture and is striking out against authority and parents with outlandish hairstyles

  • cstia:

    laurelcastillo:

    i just found that people massacred a gay bar in veracruz mexico that left 7 dead and 12 injured and nobody in this country even talked about it 

    english version for anyone who wants to read up on it. spanish version 

  • justintaylorr:

    “We will survive.”