ASK Musings

Health

– “Were it not for physicians who tried to treat something beyond my fat, physicians who saw my whole health rather than make assumptions in an otherwise healthy 20-something, I would still have cancer inside of me. I would still be sick. I would still be sitting in showers at night, coughing and vomiting.” My Cancer Pt. II, Medical Fat Shaming Could Have Killed Me. (h/t shakestweetz)

– “Parents would no longer be able to cite personal or religious beliefs to decline the vaccinations, although children with certain medical problems, such as immune system deficiencies, would be exempt. Those who decline the vaccinations would have to enroll their children in a home-based private school or public independent study program based off campus.” California Legislature passes mandatory vaccination bill (h/t @allisonkilkenny)

State-Sponsored Killing

– “When a journalist with the paper, Maya Lau, asked Cox for his response, he said that he thought courts should be imposing the death penalty more, not less. “I think we need to kill more people,” he told her. “We’re not considered a society anymore—we’re a jungle.” Cox does not believe that the death penalty works as a deterrent, but he says that it is justified as revenge. He told me that revenge was a revitalizing force that “brings to us a visceral satisfaction.” Revenge Killing (h/t @monaeltahawy)

Police Abuse

– “They too found it extremely amusing to debilitate colleagues with painful shocks. Lots of young men would react similarly, hence my reluctance to let them put devices they approach with jocularity rather than seriousness on people that they disdain. I am hardly alone in finding stun-cuffs creepy and suggestive of evil––for goodness sakes, Darth Vader seems to have pioneered their use on the Death Star.” The 80,000-Volt Handcuffs That Let Cops Shock Prisoners (h/t @brookpete)

– “Nationwide, police have shot and killed 124 people this year who, like Page, were in the throes of mental or emotional crisis, according to a Washington Post analysis. The dead account for a quarter of the 462 people shot to death by police in the first six months of 2015. The vast majority were armed, but in most cases, the police officers who shot them were not responding to reports of a crime. More often, the police officers were called by relatives, neighbors or other bystanders worried that a mentally fragile person was behaving erratically, reports show. More than 50 people were explicitly suicidal.” Distraught People, Deadly Results (via @WesleyLowrey)

Diversity in Tech

– “Imagine what it’s like to be constantly receiving these subtle messages from your colleagues, that something is wrong with the idea that you work here, that you are attending this event, that you are in this classroom. You wonder if maybe you made a mistake when you thought this profession was a good match for you, because as everyone keeps pointing out, you don’t have the expected background, or the expected personality traits, or the expected opinions about things, or the expected head start. On their own, each subtle message might simply be a harmless doubt, but at the scale with which we’re sending these messages, we might as well be brainwashing people into thinking that they don’t belong here.” Stop Acting So Surprised: How Microaggressions Enforce Stereotypes in Tech

Women in Sport

– “I am tired of having to remind people that yes, there is still a women’s professional soccer league in the US, it’s called the NWSL. (Even if the league’s athletes, which include national team stars Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, and Hope Solo, are paid so little they have resorted to using host families to subsidize player housing costs.)” – Americans should care much more about women’s soccer than men’s. Here’s why we don’t. (h/t @scATX)

Separation of Church and State

– “In a 7-2 decision, the court said the placement of the monument violated a section in the state’s constitution, which says no public money or property can be used either directly or indirectly for the “benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion.” Oklahoma Supreme Court Orders Removal Of Ten Commandments Monument From State Capitol (h/t @FatChickinLA)

Economic Disparity

– ““Our legislators heard the human cry from constituents who were very dismayed to see that there was a loophole in the previous legislation that allowed the developers to build a segregated building even though taxpayers’ dollars were involved,” Rosenthal said. “Now that indignity won’t happen.”” New York bans ‘poor doors’ in win for low income tenants” (h/t @deray)