ASK Musings

Guns

– “The next one struck just five weeks later, in Oregon. The 26-year-old man who murdered nine and wounded nine others at Umpqua Community College last Thursday had posted comments expressing admiration for the Virginia killer, apparently impressed with his social-media achievement: “His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet, all in the course of one day. Seems like the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight.”” How the Media Inspires Mass Shooters (via @MotherJones)

– “Probably the worst thing Ben has said is that “I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away.” Jesus. Can you imagine having this guy as your doctor? “Sorry, you have brain cancer. Yeah, I know it’s sad. But it’s not as sad as a waiting period to make a purchase at a gun show!” The thing that I find craziest about Ben is that he actually means what he says, unlike Donald Trump who clearly just says whatever he knows will get attention. When someone challenges Ben, he just shrugs and agrees with himself.” Ben Carson Prefers Dead Bodies to Gun Control (via @strangerslog)

– “I don’t want guns anywhere near me, and that includes gun-toting shitlords who think it’s their right and obligation to “save” me, but might end up killing me instead.” More Guns! (Said No Sensible Person Ever) (via @shakestweetz)

Police Violence

– “To authoritatively examine the issue in Washington, The Times used public-records requests, death certificates, interviews and other research to collect, measure and analyze a decade of killings by police in the state’s 39 counties. The numbers of people killed by police from 2005 to 2009 averaged 16 deaths per year. From 2010 to 2014, it averaged 27 per year. Shielded by the Law (via @SeattleTimes)

Prison Violence

– “After HRC published its report, the organization mailed Jacobs a copy to his cell at SCI Dallas. Correctional officers intercepted the document and read through its allegations. Then they used the names of contributing prisoners as a checklist. Within days, the threats began. “This time, we’ll break your teeth,” a guard allegedly warned Kelly. On April 25, according to the inmates, guards began denying Kelly food.” What Happens When Inmates in Solitary Confinement Blow the Whistle on Their Abuse? (via @mollycrabapple)

Racism

– “Depending on which counties you count as being in Alabama’s Black Belt, either twelve or fifteen Black Belt counties soon won’t have a place to get a driver’s license. Counties where some of the state’s poorest live. Counties that are majority African-American. Combine that with the federally mandated Star ID taking effect next year, and we’re looking at a nightmare. Or a trial lawyer’s dream. When the state passed Voter ID, Republican lawmakers argued that it was supposed to prevent voter fraud. Democrats said the law was written to disenfranchise black voters and suppress the voice of the poor. Maybe, maybe not. Voter ID and driver’s license office closures black-out Alabama’s Black Belt (h/t @RadleyBalko)

– “The British feminist experience with race was somewhat different—but it was still fraught. As Vron Ware, author of Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and History, said in a Playboy interview, “The British movement for women’s rights that emerged in the second half of the 19th century was closely aligned with the imperialist project of bringing ‘civilization’ to colonized territories.” People in the colonies were characterized as inferior, or in need of civilizing, because of what was seen as their poor treatment of women. At the same time, white women in Britain were figured as a civilizing force, and as a result could sometimes obtain jobs or opportunities in the colonies that were unavailable at home.” We Need to Talk about Those Suffragette ‘Slave” Shirts (via @hoodedu)

Reproductive Health

– “Indeed, even Fiorina’s super-PAC’s effort to manipulate the grossly manipulated and misleading Center for Medical Progress videos—videos that have been conclusively debunked—with its own YouTube version of the Fiorina claims surprised me. The video uses spliced footage from the Grantham Collection, an unsourced image of a stillborn, and a CMP image of a Pennsylvania woman’s stillborn baby, used without her permission.” Carly Fiorina’s Big Lie (h/t @JamilSmith)

– “I’ve also noticed that because I’ve decided not to have children, my time is considered less valuable. I work in accounting and my hours recently changed so that I’m now working later into the evenings. In conversations, I’ve had several people ask me, “Well, what did you do with that free time anyway? You don’t have kids.” Let’s be clear on something: Just because I don’t fill my time with picking up children from day care, taking them to swimming lessons and birthday parties, and packing lunches until 11 p.m., does not mean that my time is misspent.” Why a couple chose to be childless (h/t @nothavingababy)

– “After five days it showed no sign of improvement, so I started looking for alternatives and came up with Planned Parenthood. I had never considered Planned Parenthood before, and I didn’t want to then. The last thing I needed en route to yet another doctor was a horde of protesters brandishing photographs of aborted fetuses and screaming at me. But I gathered my wits and called. I was seen the same day.” Planned Parenthood saved my vagina (via @millicentsomer)

– “Why the intense focus on the activities of an organization that hasn’t broken the law, and on the compensation of someone who makes a fraction of what the executives of Lockheed Martin and JP Morgan take home? Mr. Cummings’s answer: “This whole defunding fight is just a pretext for the real Republican agenda” — to “take away the constitutional right of women and their doctors to decide what is best for them.”” Republican Hypocrisy on Planned Parenthood (via @nytimes)

– “This is a dangerous problem, because while women of color are being ignored by many in the mainstream abortion rights movement, they are also being exploited by the anti-abortion movement. Prominent politicians like Ben Carson talk about “black genocide” with Planned Parenthood setting up shops in black neighborhoods to “control the population.” This talk is not new. For decades, anti-abortion activists have tried to manipulate black populations — and take advantage of white liberals’ desire to not seem racist — by implying that abortion rights are part of a vast racist conspiracy.” Women of Color deserve a voice in the debate over Planned Parenthood (via @IjeomaOluo)

– ““Look … she can have her own position about abortion, and people have deeply personal feelings about that. But you don’t get to lie about an organization. That has stunned me,” [Richards] said, inviting Fiorina to visit a Planned Parenthood health center to get more information. Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards blasts GOP ‘total lack of civility’ (via @politico)

Sexism

– “The media refuses to connect these dots. And the women who do are called man-hating hysterics, despite the fact that many of these men, like Christopher Harper-Mercer, participate in a public culture of violent misogyny in which entitled men blame women’s failure to fuck them for their woes and for their dysfunction and for their abusive behavior.” The Media Is Failing Women (via @shakestweetz)

War Crimes

– “Without directly mentioning the claims, MSF made clear it saw the contention was nonsense. “Not a single member of our staff reported any fighting inside the hospital compound prior to the US air strike on Saturday morning,” MSF said. The charity also pointed out the claims that the grounds around the hospital were used by Taliban fighters don’t stand up to scrutiny. On Twitter, MSF noted that the hospital itself was “repeatedly and precisely hit during each aerial raid, while the rest of the compound was left mostly untouched.”” Doctors Without Borders Says U.S. May Have Committed War Crime (via @slate)