4) What becomes clear by the end of Wilkerson's book is that America's response to the Great Migration was to enact a one-sided social contract. America says to its citizens, "Play by the rules, and you will enjoy the right to compete." The black migrants did play by the rules, but they did not enjoy the right to compete. Black people have been repeatedly been victimized by the half-assed social contract. It goes back, at least, to Reconstruction. 5) The half-assed social contract continues to this very day with policies under the present administration, like the bail-out of banks that left the homeowners whom the banks conned underwater. The results of the housing crisis for black people have been devastating. The response is to hector these people about playing video games and watching too much television. Or to tell them they've have "an achievement gap." It is sickening, dishonest, and morally repugnant.

Departing from this Foucault-inspired analysis of the radical alterity of BDSM practice, I show, instead, the way BDSM sexuality – indeed all sexuality – is a social relation, linking subjects (private desire, identity, autonomy, fantasy, embodiments) to socioeconomics (public community, social hierarchies, collectivity, social power). I call this linkage a circuit in order to emphasize the productivity of the exchanges between realms imagined as subjective or private and those understood as social or economic. In chapters on BDSM rules and classes, toys and other commodity exchanges, gender play and "cultural trauma play" (play with race and ethnicity), I show the ways SM community, practitioners, practices, and scenes are linked in complex ways to the social and historical formations of race and gender in the United States, but also to the subject positions produced within late capitalism.

"Our goal in the Civil Rights Movement was not to injure or destroy but to build a sense of community, to reconcile people to the true oneness of all humanity," said Rep. John Lewis. "African Americans in the 60s could have chosen to arm themselves, but we made a conscious decision not to. We were convinced that peace could not be achieved through violence. Violence begets violence, and we believed the only way to achieve peaceful ends was through peaceful means. We took a stand against an unjust system, and we decided to use this faith as our shield and the power of compassion as our defense."

In other words, fascism is corporate government – a Libertarian's wet dream. It's a government in which the Atlas's of industry are given free rein to control the economy, just how they're regulated, how much they pay in taxes, how much they pay their workers. It should be noted here that, ironically, John Mackey describes himself as a Libertarian. In 1938, Mussolini finally got his chance to bring fascism to fruition. He dissolved Parliament and replaced it with the "Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni" - the Chamber of the Fascist Corporations. Members of the Chamber were not selected to represent particular regional constituencies, but instead to represent various aspects of Italian industry and trade. They were the corporate leaders of Italy. Imagine if the House of Representatives was dissolved and replaced by a Council of America's most powerful CEOs – the Kochs, the Waltons, the Blankfeins, the Dimons, the Mackeys, you get the picture.

Responding to public statements by actors Ed Asner, Martin Sheen and David Clennon urging Academy members to refrain from voting for Zero Dark Thirty, Columbia Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal said "to punish an artist's right of expression is abhorrent." So it's "punishing" to merely criticize a film because of its perceived political effect? Kathryn Bigelow is supposed to have unfettered free speech but Ed Asner doesn't? It's understandable for those involved with Zero Dark Thirty to fight for their movie, but there is no such thing as a moral "right" to win an Oscar.

I grew up in Hawai'i, my childhood spent near a cluster of U.S. military bases during the height of the Vietnam War. I watched representatives of the U.S. government killing people who looked like me on T.V., and then faced the hostility of their real life counterparts on the street where I withstood the indignity of being called names like "baby gook" by men in uniform. I knew from a young age that Hawai'i was a colony of the U.S., won through an act of rebellion that, though illegal under the U.S. Constitution, was sanctioned by the United States Congress. I wasn't exactly trusting and innocent. Instead, even as a fourth grader, I secretly worried and fretted. All that worry was channeled into anger as I reached puberty and testosterone kicked in. By the 1980s, when the AIDS epidemic (and Ronald Reagan) started taking the lives of people I knew, my anger turned to rage. I viewed myself as a victim. Doing so released me from accountability and justified taking my rage out on those ...

As a general rule the science fiction of the pre-1929 years is fairly literary; the author's intent was to produce intelligently-written fiction which aspired to more than to mere entertainment, if not Art itself. Salvador de Madariaga's La Jirafa Sagrada (1925) is set on the African island of Ebony in the 70th century, and examines a matriarchal African society existing centuries after Europe sank into the sea and the white race was exterminated. De Madariaga's intent is to satirize modern Spanish culture, politics, and academic scholarship.

It is a very strange way to live or work. There are four states in this country where there is only one abortion clinic in the whole state, including Mississippi, which is facing the prospect of becoming the first state where abortion access is, effectively, gone.

Literally every time I get asked to find a Chinese restaurant, it's the same description. "I want a place with really over-the-top Chinese decor," our director will say. "Remember that one in Seinfeld? That'd be great."

Quiz: Jay-Z Lyric or Line From The Great Gatsby? -- Vulture

Posted: 15 Jan 2013 07:12 AM PST

Both describe struggle and dejection, gender roles and social ills, the glamour and trappings of wealth, and the allure of the American dream. Plus parties and cars and fashion! Take our quiz and see if can tell your West Eggs from your Hello, Brooklyns.

The Brutal Truth About How Childhood Determines Your Economic Destiny | Alternet

Posted: 15 Jan 2013 05:22 AM PST

But who has a chance to get the cash? Americans are aware of class, but they overestimate mobility, which, according to numerous studies, is going the way of the wooly mammoth. In fact, mobility in America is among the lowest in developed countries – just about on par with the UK. In the "land of opportunity," children from low-income families have only a 1 percent chance of reaching the top 5 percent of the income distribution. Children born in France, Germany, Canada, and the Scandinavian countries have a better chance of moving upward.

The Knife - Neverland

Posted: 13 Jan 2013 07:57 PM PST

Mulholland Dr Llorando Crying

Posted: 13 Jan 2013 07:50 PM PST

Maculate | Dirty South (Maculate Remix)

Posted: 13 Jan 2013 05:05 PM PST

All this changed after the Notting Hill Carnival in 1977, when a group of black youths entered Pyat's shop seeking charity donations; this proved overstimulating for Pyat, who had a heart attack and died on the spot. Coming into possession of Pyat's papers, Moorcock decided to press on and finish the job - a task he wouldn't complete until 2006. The novel we get, then, consists of a mixture of material from the tapes and Pyat's papers, lashed together into a sensible order by Moorcock and edited to improve their English and scale back (but not excise) the more incomprehensible sections. They reveal a life story which begins in Tsarist Kiev and takes us through a maelstron of war, revolution, child prostitution, pedophilia, rape, murder, drug addiction, pornography, slavery, racism, fascism, Nazism and persecution. On top of all that, the series is a comedy.

I am big fan of typography myself and was surprised I haven't done any good font collection yet! While doing research I was amazed how many really high quality fonts are available for free.