Vegan My Way

mediamattersforamerica: What are Sean Hannity’s opinions on NSA...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 20:11:08 -0400

What are Sean Hannity’s opinions on NSA surveillance?

It depends on who the President is when you ask him.

BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil are being investigated for price-fixing oil. Executives may face jail!

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:23:00 -0400

BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil are being investigated for price-fixing oil. Executives may face jail!:

The Prime Minister David Cameron says PETROL executives should be JAILED.

The London offices of BP and Shell have been raided by the European commission who’s said its officers carried out “unannounced inspections” at several offices of BP and Shell in London, the Netherlands and Norway to investigate claims they may have “colluded in reporting distorted prices to a PRA to manipulate the published prices for a number of oil and biofuel products”.

The government has also launched an investigation into potential rigging of the oil market because the price oil traders pay for oil is linked to a number of benchmark indices, the best known of which is Brent Crude.

The commission said the alleged price collusion, which may have been going on since 2002, could have had a “huge impact” on the price of petrol at the pumps “potentially harming final consumers”.

Now oil price fixing investigation have extended to trading houses Glencore, who’s merged with Xstrata, Vitol, Gunvor and Mercuria.

An EC spokesman said: “Even small distortions of assessed prices may have a huge impact on the prices of crude oil, refined oil products and biofuels purchases purchases and sales, potentially harming final consumers.”

Caroline Flint MP, Labour’s Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary: “The allegations that have been made about these three oil companies – BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil, as well as the price reporting agency Platts, are extremely concerning.

The whistleblower gave Halfon a statement in which he said the price of oil was being deliberately distorted: ‘I trade the oil market on a daily basis and every day the price is manipulated,’ he said. ‘There is ample oil in the system to satisfy demand at the moment. Profiteering seems to be the only objective.’

BP and Shell declined to comment other than to acknowledge that they were under investigation and that they are co-operating with the relevant authorities.

racismschool: Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide (pdf...

Sat, 18 May 2013 14:32:47 -0400

racismschool:

Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide (pdf & additional info)

This study done by Brandeis finds that the biggest determining factor in the wealth gap between the two races is home ownership. According to the study, the four key reason for the difference is:

Because residential segregation artificially lowers demand, placing a forced ceiling on home equity for AfricanAmericans who own homes in non-white neighborhoods.

Because whites are far more able to give inheritances or family assistance for down payments due to historical wealth accumulation, white families buy homes and start acquiring equity an average eight years earlier than black families

Because whites are far more able to give family financial assistance, larger up-front payments by white homeowners lower interest rates and lending costs; and

Due to historic differences in access to credit, typically lower incomes, and factors such as residential segregation, the home ownership rate for white families is 28.4 percent higher than the home ownership rate for black families

Also according to the study, the suggested ways to correct this injustice is: Public policy can play a critical role in creating a more equitable society and helping all Americans build wealth. College loans, preferential home ownership, and retirement tax policies helped build opportunities and wealth for America’s middle class. Medicare and Social Security have protected that wealth. While the bold vision of policymakers, advocates, and others interested in social and racial justice is needed to develop a precise policy agenda, we believe the following broad public policy and institutional changes are critical to closing the gap:

Home ownership - The data in this report clearly target home ownership as the biggest driver of the racial wealth gap. We need to ensure that mortgage and lending policies and fair housing policies are enforced and strengthened so that the legacy of residential segregation no longer confers greater wealth opportunities to white homeowners than it does to black homeowners. As our nation moves towards a majority people of color population, increasingly diverse neighborhoods must deliver equitable opportunities for growing home equity.

Income - This report identifies the importance of stable, family-supporting jobs and increasing incomes as a prime avenue for building wealth. To address the gap caused by income disparity, proven tools should be fully implemented at the national, state, and local levels, including raising the minimum wage, enforcing equal pay provisions, and strengthening employer-based retirement plans and other benefits.

Education - It is clear that differential educational opportunities and rewards are further widening the racial wealth gap. We need to invest in affordable high-quality childcare and early childhood development so every child is healthy and prepared for school. We need to support policies that help more students from low-and moderate-income families and families of color attend college and graduate. And we need to value education as a public good and invest in policies that do not leave students strapped with huge debt or a reason to drop out.

Inheritance - Due to the unearned advantages it transmits across generations, inheritance widens inequality and is a key driver of the racial wealth gap. If we truly value merit and not unearned preferences, then we need to diminish the advantages passed along to a small number of families. Preferential tax treatment for large estates costs taxpayers and provides huge benefits to less than 1 percent of the population while diverting vital resources from schools, housing, infrastructure, and jobs. Preferential tax treatment for -6-dividends and interests are weighted toward wealthy investors as is the home mortgage deduction and tax shielding benefits from retirement savings.

It is time for a portfolio shift in public investment to grow wealth for all, not just a tiny minority. Without that shift the wealth gap between white and black households has little prospect of significantly narrowing. A healthy, fair, and equitable society cannot continue to follow such an economically unsustainable trajectory.

This study is particularly disheartening in light of recent events. Those who were already at the bottom, were the target of…well, keeping them at the bottom.

"There have been 694 proposed abortion restriction provisions in the first three months of 2013..."

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:31:03 -0400

“There have been 694 proposed abortion restriction provisions in the first three months of 2013 alone.”

-

Guttmacher Institute, via ThinkProgress (via actualfactsaboutabortion)

fuckyeahfeminists: rhrealitycheck: Cost Of Birth Control...

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:15:04 -0400

fuckyeahfeminists:

rhrealitycheck:

Cost Of Birth Control Higher In Some Low-Income Neighborhoods Than In Wealthy Ones

Researchers focused on the price of seven commonly-used contraceptives — including various forms of the pill as well as transvaginal options like the ring. They cross-referenced the price information across various counties with median household incomes from the 2010 census.

Nearly every prescription contraceptive was more expensive in low-income zip codes, the researchers found.

In most cases, price differed by just a few dollars. For two of the contraceptives, the cost was significantly less in the wealthiest zip codes.

Researchers said they don’t know the reason for the price discrepancies. Certain neighborhoods may not have a large, chain pharmacy that offers lower prices and runs specials, Zite speculated.

“There is other research that has shown that a lot of needs for health, like fruits and vegetables, are more expensive in lower-income neighborhoods,” Zite added.

uh oh is this going to start another fight that healthy food isn’t actually expensive and poor people just dont try hard enough to eat well because “duh my family eats sooo many veggies with little money, so everyone is able to do it!”

sinidentidades: Hospitals Caught Deporting Sick, Undocumented...

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:04:47 -0400

sinidentidades:

Hospitals Caught Deporting Sick, Undocumented Immigrants

Hundreds of undocumented immigrants have been deported back to their country of origin by hospitals seeking to curb high costs. According to a recent report compiled by immigrant advocacy groups, at least 600 immigrants were removed over a five-year period because they were ineligible for public insurance as a result of their immigration status.

The report published by the Center for Social Justice (CSJ) at Seton Hall University School of Law and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) cites more than 800 cases of attempted or actual medical deportations across the country in recent years, including: a nineteen-year-old girl who died shortly after being wheeled out of a hospital back entrance typically used for garbage disposal and transferred to Mexico; a car accident victim who died shortly after being left on the tarmac at an airport in Guatemala; and a young man with catastrophic brain injury who remains bed-ridden and suffering from constant seizures after being forcibly deported to his elderly mother’s hilltop home in Guatemala.

“When immigrants are in need of ongoing medical care, they find themselves at the crossroads of two systems that are in dire need of reform—health care and immigration law. Aside from emergency care, hospitals are not reimbursed by the government for providing ongoing treatment for uninsured immigrant patients. Therefore, many hospitals are engaging in de facto deportations of immigrant patients without any governmental oversight or accountability,” Lori A. Nessel, director of CSJ said in a statement.

“This type of situation is ripe for abuse.” Nessel went on to say.

(Republican) Eric Cantor to propose ending overtime pay for hourly workers

Sat, 04 May 2013 18:19:00 -0400

(Republican) Eric Cantor to propose ending overtime pay for hourly workers:

In Eric Cantor’s February 2013 speech, he said he wanted to propose Federal Law that would end overtime pay for hourly workers. Currently, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, mandates that certain workers get paid “time + 1/2″ for overtime work. Eric Cantor wants to eliminate that law.

Cantor says its a policy that would allow workers to convert overtime compensation into time off. “I gave a talk today about helping people and about finally focusing on legislation that has understandable benefits right away,” He explained that it would help parents who wanted to go on a field trip or attend a teacher conference.

The GOP tried to do the same thing in 2003 in House Bill: HR 1119 “Family Time Flexibility Act”

Five Reasons Why Meat-Eating Cannot Be Considered a ‘Personal Choice’

Fri, 03 May 2013 12:47:01 -0400

Five Reasons Why Meat-Eating Cannot Be Considered a ‘Personal Choice’:

itsasecrettoeverybody:

Of all the convoluted rationalizations for eating meat in an age when eating meat is not at all necessary for our survival or health, many people today are borrowing a popular slogan I like to call “the personal choice self deception.” It goes something like this: “My decision to eat meat is a personal choice.” And it is usually followed by a statement sympathetic to their vegan and vegetarian friends, acknowledging that they too are making personal choices that are right for them. Sounds great on the surface, but it’s what lurks beyond the surface that I find deeply disturbing for five key reasons.

1. Eating is a communal, multi-cultural activity until the vegan sits down at the table

First, let’s take a closer look at what personal means in the context of the highly social human activity of eating. Personal food choices had never been discussed at the dinner table until a growing number of vegans and vegetarians — by their very presence at the table — question the legitimacy of eating animals. A person who tells you that their meat eating is a personal choice is really telling you “stay away.” They don’t want you to question their highly-coveted moral beliefs or perhaps they object to exposing their unexamined moral quandary over how one can justify using and killing animals for food in an age when it is completely unnecessary. In other words, They have made this issue personal precisely in response to you making it public.

2. There is no free choice without awareness

The irony is that while meat eaters defend their choice to eat meat as a personal one, they will nonetheless go to great lengths to defend it publicly when confronted with a vegan or vegetarian. Like some apologetic white liberals who defend themselves by defiantly exclaiming to a new black acquaintance, “But I have black friends too!”, some meat eaters will go to great lengths to explain how intimately they understand veganism since they have vegan friends, have already heard and evaluated their reasons for going vegan and respect them dearly.

They’ve considered being vegan carefully, they will assure you, and have concluded that it’s just not for them. But instead of arriving at some novel new understanding of why humans should eat meat, they simply revert back to the traditional arguments that are all pretty much centered around what social psychologist Melanie Joy calls the three N’s of justification: eating meat is normal, natural and necessary. (1) But their reasoning reveals the fact that they have sorely overlooked the big idea behind veganism which author Jenny Brown points out so eloquently in her book The Lucky Ones: “We can become prisoners of our earliest indoctrinations or we can choose to look critically at our assumptions and align our lives with our values. Choosing to live vegan is how we re able to do that best.” (2)

3. The choice has a victim and the victim is completely ignored

Let’s take a look at the issue from the animal victim’s perspective which has been completely denied by the meat eater’s unexamined assumption that animals have no interest or understanding of the value of their individual lives. Does the animal who is being bred, raised and slaughtered for someone’s food care if the person who is eating meat has given the prospect of becoming vegan any serious moral consideration? Of course not.

The notion that these conscious meat eaters think they have done their due diligence by examining the pros and cons of eating animals means nothing for those that value their lives as we do. The fact is the animals we raise for meat have at least as much of an interest in staying alive, avoiding pain and suffering and seeking pleasure as these meat eaters’ pets. As activist Twyla Francois so aptly puts it: “All animals have the same capacity for suffering, but how we see them differs and that determines what we’ll tolerate happening to them. In the western world, we feel it wrong to torture and eat cats and dogs, but perfectly acceptable to do the same to animals equally as sentient and capable of suffering. No being who prides himself on rationality can continue to support such behaviour.”

4. Many personal choices we make have dire consequence for ourselves and others

Now let’s take a closer look at the meaning of choice itself. The act of making a choice implies that the actor has free will and awareness of the options and their consequences. In the spirit of justice, we live in a society where our actions and choices are governed by what society deems acceptable. We can make a personal choice to maim, rape or kill someone, but these actions will have consequences that serve as a deterrent. It is generally accepted in a democratic society that we are free to do what we want as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else or infringe on the same rights and freedoms of others.

Yet, for the meat eater, the choice of eating animals is completely disconnected from this concept of justice since justice does NOT for them apply to other species, only to humans (how convenient). In other words, there are no visible, negative consequences to eating meat. The victims remain invisible and silent to those who eat them, and that is perhaps the greatest deception of all.

5. Atrocities are never personal

In reality, the choice to eat meat negates the very meaning of choice because the animal that had to be killed to procure the meat had no choice in the matter at all. And the notion of characterizing such a choice as a personal one is even more problematic since the choice required the taking of another’s life, not a personal sacrifice. Nothing could be more public than the taking of a sentient life that cares about his own life, particularly when the act is not necessary and therefore not morally defensible.

When 60 billion land animals and another approximate 60 billion marine animals are killed every year across the planet for “personal” food choices made by a single species that are based on palate pleasure alone, eating meat ceases to be a matter of personal choice; (4) it becomes a social justice movement to protect the rights of animals. To deny animals the right to live their lives according to their own interests is wrong and to attempt to defend our choice to eat them as a personal one is delusional.

See Seven Reasons Why Man Has NOT Evolved to Eat Meat

Vegan Starter Kit

altnonfic: Feb 28, 2013 - By wearing different colored hats,...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 02:36:58 -0400

altnonfic:

Feb 28, 2013 - By wearing different colored hats, over 2,600 employees at Genentech (in San Francisco) celebrated the 60th anniversary of the discovery of DNA, which (according to some) occurred in England on Feb 28, 1953, but knowledge of a hypercomplex macromolecule in the nucleus dates back to the 1800s, and perhaps even earlier.

louvedelenfer: linna-pee: choosechoice: Dove hired a forensic...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:01:42 -0400

louvedelenfer:

linna-pee:

choosechoice:

Dove hired a forensic artist to draw how women see themselves versus how others see them - the results are moving.

this just made me cry.

Seriously teary-eyed and I have crazy goosebumps.

Photo

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:42:56 -0400

Photo

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 01:59:57 -0400

thepoliticalfreakshow: Key Quotes From Day 1 of Same-Sex...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:59:05 -0400

thepoliticalfreakshow:

Key Quotes From Day 1 of Same-Sex Marriage Supreme Court Proceedings

Day 1: State Ballot Initiative (Proposition 8) [Hollingsworth v. Perry]

The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in the first of two gay marriage cases it is considering this week. Below are some notable quotes from members of the high court at today’s hearing:

MORE: Full audio and transcript of Tuesday’s arguments

Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy

“There’s substance to the point that sociological information is new. We have five years of information to weigh against 2,000 years of history or more.”

Associate Justice Elena Kagan

“Suppose a state said that, Because we think that the focus of marriage really should be on procreation, we are not going to give marriage licenses anymore to any couple where both people are over the age of 55. Would that be constitutional?”

Associate Justice Samuel Alito

“You want us to step in and render a decision based on an assessment of the effects of this institution which is newer than cellphones or the Internet? I mean we — we are not — we do not have the ability to see the future.”

Chief Justice John Roberts attends an event at Rice University in Houston on Oct. 17, 2012.(Photo: Cody Duty, AP)

Chief Justice John Roberts

“I’m not sure that it’s right to view this as excluding a particular group. When the institution of marriage developed historically, people didn’t get around and say, ‘Let’s have this institution, but let’s keep out homosexuals.’ The institution developed to serve purposes that, by their nature, didn’t include homosexual couples.”

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia

“When did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage? 1791? 1868, when the 14th Amendment was adopted?”

Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor

“Outside of the marriage context, can you think of any other rational basis, reason, for a state using sexual orientation as a factor in denying homosexuals benefits or imposing burdens on them? Is there any other rational decision-making that the government could make? Denying them a job, not granting them benefits of some sort, any other decision?”

it's not a party until I make a boy cry: Safety Tips for Men

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:51:00 -0400

it's not a party until I make a boy cry: Safety Tips for Men:

manhating-babyeater:

Men, are you worried for your own safety because misandry?

You need to accept that misandry happens in the real world and take some precautions.

Take a self defense class, they’re only a couple hundred dollars a month.

Don’t go out after dark unless you have a woman to chaperone you.Misandrists are less likely to attack if they see you are with another woman.

Don’t wear anything too douchey. If you’re wearing a fedora or a sexist t-shirt, etc. you’re pretty much asking to get attacked. Misandrists can’t control themselves when they see a man in a fedora, their instincts kick in and before they know it they have a dead male corpse in their hands. Just be a good boy and don’t tempt them, okay?

Don’t ever invite a woman into your home. Misandrists will interpret this as consent to physical violence.

Drinking increases your risk of being attacked by a misandrist. They target drunk men because their inhibitions are lowered.

Never leave your drink unattended. Misandrists are notorious for poisoning men at parties and bars.

If a misandrist does attack you, be quiet and just let her finish or you might anger her further and you are liable to get murdered instead of just mutilated. But also, be sure to put up a good fight because a lot of men say they don’t want to be attacked by misandrists but deep down, they really like it.

And remember, accusing a woman of abusive misandry is worse than being abused by a misandrist. So before you make accusations, make sure it wasn’t all just a silly misunderstanding.

dignified-and-old: inothernews: If you want to know what kind...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:42:15 -0400

dignified-and-old:

inothernews:

If you want to know what kind of vile, repulsive people are out there, then go read this New York Post story about a New York City emergency medical technician who talks a lot of racist, anti-Semitic, sexist shit — and what pathetically happens when he gets called on the mat by said newspaper.

Hahahahah omg cry forever and may it always be splashed across the pages of a major newspaper (even a terrible one like the Post)

“It comes less than a week after The Post exposed the vile racist and anti-Semitic tweets posted by Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano’s own EMT son. Joseph Cassano, 23, who quit the next day.” omg it took me so long to realize this was a different guy

Things Justice Scalia Has Compared To Being Gay...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:10:34 -0400

Things Justice Scalia Has Compared To Being Gay...:

Being unAmerican, Murder, Polygamy, Cruelty to Animals, Prostitution, Heroin Use, Incest, Adultery, Obscenity, Child Pornography and more…

US Senate Unanimously Votes To End Subsidies For ‘Too Big To Fail’ Banks

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:32:46 -0400

US Senate Unanimously Votes To End Subsidies For ‘Too Big To Fail’ Banks:

The bipartisan proposal “ends Too Big To Fail subsidies or funding advantages for Wall Street mega-banks with more than $500 billion in assets.”

In order to stop the financial bleeding, the U.S. government voted to rescue the big banks rather than allow them to fail and take our economy with them. Ever since, big banks have only gotten bigger on the premise that if they fail again, the government will bail them out.

But an amendment was offered as an attachment to the Senate budget bill and it received unanimous support; 99-0. The U.S. Senate voted to strip “too big to fail” banks of the taxpayer subsidies.

Two reports indicate that the banks were rolling in taxpayer dollars that they didn’t need. In February, Bloomberg News reported that the banks made an estimated $83 billion a year. But that number could be even higher. In March top banking analyst, Chris Whalen estimated that big banks rake in more than $780 billion of government subsidies every year. Banks have been making trillions of dollars over the last few years even though they didn’t need the money.

Now it falls to the House Republicans to approve the bill and send it to the President. Considering the conservative obsession with forcing the Ryan Budget upon America, passage of the Senate bill looks grim. Now would the time for everyone to get on the phone with their representative in Congress to demand passage of the Senate budget.

George Zimmerman’s Brother: ‘Black Teens’ Are Killers

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 02:42:49 -0400

George Zimmerman’s Brother: ‘Black Teens’ Are Killers:

George Zimmerman, who’s trial is scheduled for June 10, has claimed he was not acting out of racist aggression but because Martin attacked him. His brother, Robert Zimmerman Jr, is not helping his cause.

Jr. went on a Twitter tirade equating the stalked and unarmed Trayvon Martin with De’Marquise Elkins, the 17-year-old suspect in the murder of a Georgia infant.

As highlighted by Mediaite, Jr. tweeted the photo at Michael Moore, the NAACP, the NRA, and a Breitbart.com editor a photo comparison between Elkins and Martin flipping their middle fingers with the caption, “A picture speaks a thousand words…Any questions?”

Mississippi Promotes Prayer in School

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 01:44:26 -0400

Mississippi Promotes Prayer in School:

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill requiring public schools in our state to develop policies under which students will be permitted to pray at sports events, school assemblies, and even over school intercom systems. Bill, HB 638, was passed under the guise of protecting students’ religious freedom; however, it is an effort to bypass Engel v. Vitale and Abington School District v. Schempp, returning to the days before 1962 when prayer in school was inescapable.

The law was written to bypass the prohibition on formal school-sanctioned prayer. It does so by permitting students to deliver public prayers as long as they are accompanied by some sort of disclaimer from the school. But students and teachers have always had the right to pray in school, and is commonly exercised in Mississippi. What they have not had the right to do is impose their religious views on others.

David Silverman, the president of American Atheists, referred to the legislation as “an overt act of hostility against minority religious beliefs and atheists, disguised as religious freedom.” Implementing this law will further marginalize atheists and religious minorities.

American Civil Liberties Union, Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are widely expected to fight this new legislation, which takes effect on July 1. These groups will need complaints in order to act, which include letters attempting to educate state officials on the law. It seems unlikely that school officials will give in to the pressure from these groups. This means that it might take the family of a child adversely affected by the law being willing to come forward as a plaintiff. Unfortunately, children will have to be harmed and complaints filed before real work can happen.

Melissa Harris-Perry's open letter to the Steubenville survivor.

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 23:04:00 -0400

Melissa Harris-Perry's open letter to the Steubenville survivor.:

Dearest Beloved Girl,

This letter is an apology. An apology for being an adult who has failed to make the world safe for you. Because you should be safe. Even when you make the sometimes stupid, often naive choices that teens make, you should be safe.

Your vulnerability should not invite assault and attack of your body or your spirit. And so I am sorry, because we have failed to teach your male peers that they have no right to touch you without your consent or to use you to meet their needs or to discard you if your victimization does not fit their life plan. I am sorry we have failed you.

This letter is also a note of gratitude for your willingness to report this crime, to take the stand, and to endure the viciousness hurled at you this week. I know the words that run in a loop in your mind. Don’t tell. If you tell, no one will believe you. If you tell, everyone will think you are a whore. Sometimes he is the one who says them first, spewing the words like mold spores that grow in the darkness of your silence. Sometimes it’s your own voice telling you, I can’t tell. No one will believe me. It’s the reason 54%of survivors never report the assault. It’s the reason I kept my secret for nearly a decade. But not you, beloved. You demanded the right to be heard.

You may have lost your voice that night, but you found it again when you told the truth–even though you knew, didn’t you? You knew just how relentlessly they would try to silence you.

You knew that neighbors, and friends, and even members of the national media would mourn the loss of your attackers’ football careers more than the loss of your innocence. You knew that even those who claimed to be sympathetic would pass along the pictures of your assault with a tone deaf voyeurism that seeks to make you a thing instead of a person. I think maybe you knew, or suspected these things, but you spoke out anyway.

And that…that is astonishing. And I want to say thank you, because you did what so many of us never find the strength to do. You spoke for yourself. You spoke for the 44% of rape victims who are under 18–and you spoke for my 14-year-old self, who still hears that threat echoing in my head, “Don’t tell. No one will believe you.”

So, this is my apology and this is my gratitude. This is me saying, “I believe you.”

And I believe you are inherently valuable. Not as a character in some grotesque news cycle where your assault is all we know, but as a girl with hopes and dreams and ambitions and vulnerabilities and so much more growing up to do. I never need to know your name, but I need you to know you are not alone. Surviving is not a single occurrence, it is a lifetime of making choices that honor you and your right to speak. You have begun surviving. You will continue surviving. And if you ever get down, or wonder how you will go on, take out this letter and read it to yourself.

I believe you.

Sincerely,

Melissa

Vegan My Way

mediamattersforamerica: What are Sean Hannity’s opinions on NSA...

BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil are being investigated for price-fixing oil. Executives may face jail!

racismschool: Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide (pdf...

"There have been 694 proposed abortion restriction provisions in the first three months of 2013..."

fuckyeahfeminists: rhrealitycheck: Cost Of Birth Control...

sinidentidades: Hospitals Caught Deporting Sick, Undocumented...

Hospitals Caught Deporting Sick, Undocumented Immigrants

(Republican) Eric Cantor to propose ending overtime pay for hourly workers

Five Reasons Why Meat-Eating Cannot Be Considered a ‘Personal Choice’

1. Eating is a communal, multi-cultural activity until the vegan sits down at the table

2. There is no free choice without awareness

3. The choice has a victim and the victim is completely ignored

4. Many personal choices we make have dire consequence for ourselves and others

5. Atrocities are never personal

altnonfic: Feb 28, 2013 - By wearing different colored hats,...

louvedelenfer: linna-pee: choosechoice: Dove hired a forensic...

Photo

Photo

thepoliticalfreakshow: Key Quotes From Day 1 of Same-Sex...

it's not a party until I make a boy cry: Safety Tips for Men

dignified-and-old: inothernews: If you want to know what kind...

Things Justice Scalia Has Compared To Being Gay...

US Senate Unanimously Votes To End Subsidies For ‘Too Big To Fail’ Banks

George Zimmerman’s Brother: ‘Black Teens’ Are Killers

Mississippi Promotes Prayer in School

Melissa Harris-Perry's open letter to the Steubenville survivor.

(click through to watch)