Week in Greed #17: Conservatives Storm the Week in Greed!
I felt it was important for Rumpus readers to hear what conservatives have to say for themselves. So I spent the past month interviewing a bunch.
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politics
The Little Tolls and Pitfalls of Modern American Racism
Abigail Fisher, a 22-year old white girl, a graduate of LSU, just pleaded to the Supreme court that the University of Texas rejected her four years ago because of affirmative action.
UT says they’d have rejected her no matter her race; regardless, her suit might lead the Supreme Court to forbid the practice.
...moreBinders Full of Women, Tumblr
The title pretty much says it all. How long did it take for a Binder Full of Women Tumblr to follow the presidential debate? Not long.
...moreBlame Game
At Clutch, Evette Dionne writes an open letter to Abigail Fisher, the young woman whose case against the University of Texas is currently being heard by the Supreme Court.
Fisher claims that her whiteness was held against her, leading to the rejection of her college application.
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The Rumpus Review of How To Survive a Plague
The response to the AIDS epidemic that ripped through the gay community starting in the early years of the Reagan administration can be best characterized by how most health and social issues are dealt with in contemporary politics today, with a marked lack of empathy.
...moreBecause He Makes The World Safer
Rumpus editor Stephen Elliott writes about why he’s voting for Obama for the 90 Days, 90 Reasons project.
“Mitt Romney… goes on the attack before he knows all the facts. He wants to draw red lines (with regards to Iran’s nuclear plan) rather than leave his options open, and he’s more concerned with national pride than with making peace.”
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A Matter of Dignity
Certain constituencies are always shoved aside, always told their issues will be addressed at some nebulous point in the future. During a lengthy debate, to see these issues merit neither discussion nor debate speaks to how little dignity is valued on the political stage.
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The Week in Greed #15: Seven Unpopular Truths About Last Night’s Great Debate
1. Mitt Romney convincingly portrayed a sympathetic human being.
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The Week in Greed #14: My Job Is Not to Worry About Those People
I remember that it was a sunny day in El Paso, as it almost always was, and I was upstairs with my girlfriend in our dusty apartment when we heard someone calling to her through the window.
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The Politics of Entitlement
To be entitled means believing you have an inherent right to something. It is very easy to feel entitled, to feel like we deserve a certain quality of life or valuable opportunities. I don’t know that anyone is immune from entitlement at one time or another.
...moreA Libyan Embassy Roundup
Yesterday afternoon, the story I knew was that an Israeli Jew filmmaker had put out a trailer that offended Libyan Muslims so much that they’d stormed the US consulate in Benghazi and murdered US Ambassador Chris Stevens and 3 consulate staff members.
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The Rumpus Interview with Sibylla Brodzinsky and Max Schoening
The editors of Throwing Stones at the Moon shed light on Colombia’s human rights crisis and the power of bringing survivors’ voices to a conversation dominated by the perpetrators and beneficiaries of the conflict.
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THE RUMPUS INTERVIEW WITH DAVID REES
With the War on Terror less than a month old, David Rees sat up in his Brooklyn apartment one night and wrote eight comic strips about the world’s newest (and vaguest) war. His frustrations were on full display. His method: a conversational comic about the state of the world,
...moreThe Post-Fact-Check Campaign
For weeks now, the Romney campaign has run ads claiming that President Obama has gutted the work requirement for welfare recipients.
The response has varied. Fact checkers Politifact and the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler have called this attack what it is–a lie.
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The Week in Greed #13: The Speech Obama Didn’t Give
Steve Almond imagines the speech he wishes President Obama would give at the Democratic National Convention:
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The Week in Greed #12: Who Let the Dog Whistles Out?
The goal isn’t just to rile white voters up, but to make them feel that their own racist impulses are merely reasonable responses to a culture stacked against them.
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The Comedian Mayor: The Rumpus Interview with Jón Gnarr
Iceland’s most famous comedian ran for mayor of Reykjavic, and won…
...moreA Rep. Todd Akins Roundup
Before yesterday, I suspect most people outside Missouri had never heard of Representative Todd Akin. I barely recognized the name myself, even though I consider myself a bit of a political junkie and I currently live in the neighboring state. All I really knew is that he was beating Senator Claire McCaskill pretty handily in her re-election bid, and that the Democrats were likely to lose that seat come November.
...moreRussian Punk Band Pussy Riot Sentenced to Two Years for ‘Hooliganism’
Today in a Russian court, three members (Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30) of the all-female Russian punk band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in prison for “hooliganism.”
(For those unfamiliar with the story, here is a round-up of links that we published last week.)
The trio had been facing up to seven years, but, after much deliberation, was sentenced to two years in prison for an anti-Putin song they performed in a church.
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THE WEEK IN GREED #11: The Ayn Rand Program
I know I’m supposed to write about Paul Ryan, because he’s the new media brand, but I’m having trouble getting the guys in the Give-A-Shit Department on board.
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Introducing 90 Days 90 Reasons
This time the bumper stickers are few. The HOPE posters are hard to find. There are no songs by will.i.am.
We are three months away from the presidential election, and there is a stunning lack of energy displayed by likely Obama voters.
...more90 Days, 90 Reasons
With time waning in the electoral race between Obama and Romney, the lack of energy and enthusiasm is striking.
Obama’s reelection seems to be met with the proverbial sound of crickets chirping — a sound indicative of apparent voter apathy. Disillusioned by unmet expectations, and unimpressed by what this president has delivered while in office, those who got him into office in the first place seem to have thrown in the towel and are standing idly by this time round.
...morePussy Riot Link Round-Up
Three women of the feminist punk collective Pussy Riot are on trial in Russia for hooliganism, which carries a charge up to seven years in prison, following their arrest in March after a performance of what they’ve called a ‘punk prayer’ critical of Vladmir Putin in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, one of the most famous Orthodox cathedrals in Moscow.
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The Rumpus Interview with Karen Prior
A formerly freckle-faced pothead with a penchant for getting arrested, Prior admits she doesn’t hide emotions well and so to some, she can be a handful.
...moreGive Money to the Arts? An Exchange with Queer Artist Tim Jones-Yelvington
The other day I received an email from Tim Jones-Yelvington soliciting funds for an art project. I questioned some of the “perks” for donors, which included an “XXXMas CD,” or having Tim kiss a victim of my choice for $100, etc.
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A Tale of Three Coming Out Stories
We are still in that time in our history where public figures come out of invisible closets largely built by a public insatiable in its desire to know all the intimate details of the private lives of very public people.
...moreA Chik-Fil-A Flap Roundup
Sorry. I couldn’t resist the chance to make a bad joke. I tried to work people having beef with the company into the title but it was too cumbersome.
Anyway, if you haven’t heard (and I don’t know how you haven’t, honestly), the folks who own and run Chik-Fil-A are conservative Christians who “support the traditional family,” which I guess means they support polygamous marriages where a patriarch can take two sisters as wives and bear children with not only them but their two slave girls.
...moreWill Durst with advice for Mitt Romney
THE BAIN OF HIS ELECTORAL EXISTENCE.
You might say it was a turbulent week for Mitt Romney. You could also say a light lemon sugar wash makes for ineffective mosquito repellent. He claims to have totally left Bain Capital to run the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics even though his company handed the government multiple signed documents stating otherwise and now financial questions plague his campaign like a swarm of dive- bombing bees in a bathroom stall.
...moreWe Support Gun Control Laws Because We’re Sane
The Rumpus Interview with Nato Green
“The first assumption people make when they think about comedy and social movements is that our role is to change the minds of people who disagree with us politically, but that’s both incorrect and simplistic.”
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