and I still write about sad things sometimes because it seems like part of the point of writing is to do that. ok.
and I still write about sad things sometimes because it seems like part of the point of writing is to do that. ok.
“Maybe there’s no way to create a coherent code of ethics in an institution designed to sanction some types of killing and to condemn others. Maybe that moral dissonance makes its way into every decision, distorting the military’s approach to situations that have little connection to the battlefield and creating a world in which downloading porn is condemned but there’s little incentive to call a rape a rape — let alone support the survivors, prosecute the cases properly, or change the fact that one in five military women has been sexually assaulted. Even Panetta recognizes it’s an “outrage.” —
Four Generals, Four Scandals, and a Sprawling Rape Case - NYmag.com / The Cut (via annfriedman)
A friend of mine was raped while serving in Iraq. She reported it, there was a sham of an investigation, nothing happened to the guy, and she was ostracized within her unit (“At least I was able to hang on for an honorable discharge,” she says now, truly happy about this in a way that only a true soldier could be).
I talked to her last week, in part because she idolized David Petraeus and I wanted to know how she was feeling about the whole thing. She was pissed that a hero of hers would do something with even a remote possibility of creating a security breach (again, a soldier to the end, and a real stickler for rules in the best way). But the more she talked, the more it sounded like what she was actually upset about was that Petraeus’ consensual sex was getting so much attention while the military’s sexual assault epidemic (ONE IN FIVE women in the military have been assaulted!) is ignored completely. “Paula Broadwell seems to mean a whole lot more to them than I ever did,” she said.
It was hard to disagree.
(via megangreenwell)
Important addendum.
(via annfriedman)
(via annfriedman)
Look! I found y’all a map. The grey countries are the ones without universal healthcare.
Have fun!
(Source: abaldwin360, via dirtypreston)
The Chick Hearn Society: My 10 favorite Lakers of All-Time. #3 -
READ THIS EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT A SPORTS PERSON IT IS ABOUT LOVE AND NO BULLYING
Lamar Odom
Lamar is very big for me for a couple of reasons. 1) Lamar married Armenian, smart. and b) Lamar was essentially the face of what the Lakers got in exchange for Shaq. Also, I believe Lamar to be the exact opposite of Kobe Bryant in every way. Lamar was open and self aware and…
[video]
The sun owns spring and summer, but it gave up fall and winter to the moon.
The moon is what gathers light from light, and hands it over as a comfort to the dark.
There is more of moon, in the best of human nature, than of sun.
[video]
Subtitle, “And why it’s hilariously apt that he’s fighting with a dead man”
Maybe you heard Bret Easton Ellis went on a twitter-rant against David Foster “literally deceased” Wallace. If not, good for you. Let’s go to the park and smell things and kiss. If so, well:
I read a not altogether crappy article in Salon (link to follow) by a gentleman who has edited both authors, and has this to say:
““Infinite Jest” […] sounded the first notes of a quest for an irony-free sincerity that has become a ruling style of David’s generation and the ones that followed.
I find Bret Ellis’ scalding, cynical, brittle, savagely unillusioned worldview curiously refreshing. He is the Loki or Trickster of the literary world (or maybe the Lou Reed), poking sharp sticks in our eyes and daring us to figure out if he could possibly mean that. Deal with it. He’s incorrigible, he’s not a nice boy, he doesn’t care if you become a better person, he is not in any way seeking your approval. Good for him. Some brave college should ask him to do a commencement address.”
Here’s what I think.
Even if Ellis’s antisocial content is insincere, his aggressive insincerity is antisocial, and society is in trouble. Which he wouldn’t notice, since, as a white male, he occupies the single most protected and privileged demographic on the planet. When this self-secure antisocial behavior is cast as toughness or stoicism, I want to puke out my reasoning brain so it can’t flood me with indignant cries of “who are you to even talk about toughness? Who are you to decide what constitutes a joke? Do you think your toughness made you liberal with dark humor, or was it only your relative unfamiliarity with dark experiences?” Darkness is not theoretical, or “conceptual,” to unprotected and marginalized people—and its exploitation doesn’t tickle, it hurts. Did you know that a tickling sensation is the way nerve endings register low-level pain? And maybe what’s low level for a white man isn’t low level for a person who has had actual threats directed at them.
I don’t want to say that Wallace is the antithesis of this, but at least he made an effort, and tried to lend his gifts to compassion. I’m afraid if you want the actual antithesis, you might have to read some Toni Morrison or something. You might have to embrace some affect, learn to feel again, since the more protected you are, the more of life is numbness, and the further you’ll go for just a tickle.
Okay.
If you want to read the other article: (http://www.salon.com/2012/09/07/i_know_why_bret_easton_ellis_hates_david_foster_wallace/)
Anjelica Huston & Liza Minnelli, 1975
DREAMS
I want to farm with them
[video]
