PunkAssBlog.com

Folks, the internet has been won.
Background: Something Awful commentators react to recently-released footage of then 16-year-old Omar Khadr being cruelly interrogated by Canadian officials at Guantanamo. Their reactions range from sympathetic to death threats—these soft children of privilege who never leave the comfort of their parents’ basement, let alone face unending hell in an illegal […]

“Geronimo,” or “Something people say when they jump out of airplanes.”
It’s funny because I think if I wasn’t actually of Native American ancestry, I’d write more about them–as it stands, though, I suppose I feel like there is much less excuse for my lack of real in-depth knowledge about the history and culture–I’ve always had […]

Whatever side one falls on in the gun control debate, most people agree that handguns should not be in schools. It’s just a bad mix—volatile, trapped kids and deadly firearms. Any sane person ought to feel a bit uncomfortable at the thought of guns in a high school.
Unfortunately, sane people aren’t in charge in my […]

I hold Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton personally responsible for having seriously overloaded the collective “oppression” brain circuitry of America. Bad, bad candidates for the supreme leadership of what is still the richest and most powerful country in the world. Naughty! You’re both grounded! Now go to your rooms and think about […]

Just completely gross.
Short version: Sarasota Planned Parenthood and Habitat for Humanity team up with a plan that will help Planned Parenthood with some zoning issues and help Habitat get some almost-free land. For their altruism, they’re repaid with the nastiest of the nasty anti-choice contingent:
“We could have put up any building we wanted,” said […]

I wonder at what point a country accumulates enough of the markers—surveillance, botched elections, out-of-control law enforcement, and so on—that citizens and government alike can just shrug their shoulders and say, “Yep, we’re living in a police state. Can someone please liberate us now?”
The U.S. is pretty well there, I think. Check out this story […]

Jessica linked an article from Robert Jensen about masculinity. The jist: in mixed company, people of both genders describe what it means to be a man with words like “strong, responsible, and loving.” When it’s just the boys, though, the definition of masculinity changes:
To be a man is to be a player, a guy […]

I don’t like bananas, but even if I did, I wouldn’t eat them. United Fruit, the reason that we have the bananas that we have today, is basically the template for ruthless, evil corporations, pursuing unimaginable profits as the cost of human rights and the environment.
Within the next few decades, short of a scientific miracle, […]

Here’s one, from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, that should put a smile on your face:

Of course, we here in Canada recognize this as satire. I’m not sure that it reads that way to Americans. What do you think?
Hat tip: Audra Williams
And here’s one that really won’t put a smile on your face: American […]

A few people have asked for my thoughts on the TDSB’s decision in favour of black-focused schools. Sonjaa and Troubleinchina both wrote good posts on the subject, and I recommend reading those too.
I’ll preface this by saying that this is a divisive issue in Toronto, particularly within the black community and the activist community. It’s […]

…where you can get a high school diploma by working in McDonald’s
Do I need to point out everything that’s wrong with this? Corporate sponsorship of public education is a vicious cycle. First, the government cuts funding to schools. Next, a corporation approaches the desperately underfunded school to bail it out—Nike will build you a new […]

Over at Boundless Webzine, Focus on the Family’s source of hip, Candice Watters is reminded by the New York Times to warn science to beware, bee–waaarrreeeeeee!!!!!!!! That is, beware to continue to be aware that scientific ethics are a good thing.
Also, did you know that in the past, scientists were sometimes wrong? And […]