Contemporary slave labor

Soy and other agricultural products from Argentina

palm oil for unilever and snack foods

The New Haven fire dept case

The partner/asshole asked me yesterday what I thought about the case. What I think is that the test is pretty much the same as literacy tests administered to keep the "wrong sorts" of people from voting. Seriously, my AP Gov class was barely edged out into second place in the state at a Constitutional competition, and this test is unfunnily hard. I don't even remember how long money can be allocated to the armed forces for.

Literacy tests, and the promotional test utilized and then thrown out by the city of New Haven apply a veneer of earned privilege over racism. I don't understand how the argument can be made that the test should stand, on a logical level. When a test question in undergrad was missed by a majority (usually between 50 to 75%) of the class, my professors consistently threw that question out because it was their failing as a teacher. Clearly, either the question was poorly worded, or they didn't teach the point well enough. If no one got promoted as a result of the test being thrown out, then what is the problem here?

It seems to me that Mr. White Firefighter and Ms. I was only admitted to UM Dearborn or Flint, not the A2 campus should get together and make lots of little stormfront babies. Nothing would make Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh happier.

I declare a moratorium on the following:

• Accusations of jealousy are verboten. Srsly. No exceptions. They just turn us into a stereotypical cat fight between bitches. And it's unfunny. Doesn't it remind anyone of teh menz accusing women of being jealous of their success? Anyone?



• Using the phrase "good hair" or "nice hair." Uh, unless you want to unpack for me what you mean by "good hair," you can take your white supremacist ideas about hair and fuck off.



• Getting defensive. When someone starts getting defensive with me, on one hand, I think it's a good thing because it lets me know that I've found a blind spot. And on the other hand, it lets me know that the person's got issues and fuck, there goes another potential ally I have to write off til they're done with the 101-y stuff about race/weight/age/sex (as in, you know, fucking)/gender/able-ism/genetics/LGBTQI/evolution/religion.
  
  Some variations on a theme include calling the other person crazy, oversensitive, lacking a life, jealous (see above), emotional, stupid, over-invested, and so on.

I'd also like to be able to declare a moratorium on the following, in a perfect world (in no particular order):

• legacy admissions to colleges


• foreclosures


• student loan repayments


• secret courts and jails


• regular courts and jails


• military spending


• the DEA


• border "patrols"/roving gangs sanctioned by the state


• my dog's tail whacking me in my face


• any company operating under ownership of rupert murdoch


• the occupation and "settling" of the palestinian territories


• rush limbaugh's ability to communicate with the public


• hate speech


• lobbying efforts by any organization with an operating budget over $1 mill