i know no one's prolly interested, but here are a few random things that have me utterly outraged this week:

the FBI has apparently been intimidating and compiling files on peaceful organizations, including anti war groups, animal rights groups, and wtf? THE QUAKERS??

michigan, in response to the voter referendum on gay marriage, is now RESCINDING benefits for same-sex partners of their civil servants. so, you know, not only can you not get married like everyone else, we're gonna take away all the other rights that you had before this.

this jackass in alabama has introduced a law to ban and destroy ANY BOOK that has a gay character in it. in his own words, "I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them."

turns out, omg, THEY DID KNOW about abu graib months and months before the photos hit the press, and just let the abuse keep happening. CHARMING. "Herrington wrote that an officer in charge of interrogations at a high-value target detention facility in Baghdad told him that prisoners taken by TF 121 showed signs of having been beaten. Herrington asked the officer whether he had alerted his superiors to the problem, and the officer replied: "Everyone knows about it."

and then there's this little gem from the washington post. for those of you that don't want to register, here's some tasty little extracts:

Some Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says
By Ceci Connolly

Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals "can result in pregnancy," a congressional staff analysis has found.

Those and other assertions are examples of the "false, misleading, or distorted information" in the programs' teaching materials, said the analysis, released yesterday, which reviewed the curricula of more than a dozen projects aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.
...
Youngsters taking the courses frequently receive medically inaccurate or misleading information, often in direct contradiction to the findings of government scientists, said the report, by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), a critic of the administration who has long argued for comprehensive sex education.

Several million children ages 9 to 18 have participated in the more than 100 federal abstinence programs since the efforts began in 1999. Waxman's staff reviewed the 13 most commonly used curricula -- those used by at least five programs apiece.

The report concluded that two of the curricula were accurate but the 11 others, used by 69 organizations in 25 states, contain unproved claims, subjective conclusions or outright falsehoods regarding reproductive health, gender traits and when life begins.

Among the misconceptions cited by Waxman's investigators:
- A 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person."
- HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears.
- Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.

One curriculum, called "Me, My World, My Future," teaches that women who have an abortion "are more prone to suicide" and that as many as 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion, the Waxman report said.
...
When used properly and consistently, condoms fail to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) less than 3 percent of the time, federal researchers say, and it is not known how many gay teenagers are HIV-positive. The assertion regarding gay teenagers may be a misinterpretation of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found that 59 percent of HIV-infected males ages 13 to 19 contracted the virus through homosexual relations.
...
(oh, and this is my favorite part)

Some course materials cited in Waxman's report present as scientific fact notions about a man's need for "admiration" and "sexual fulfillment" compared with a woman's need for "financial support." One book in the "Choosing Best" series tells the story of a knight who married a village maiden instead of the princess because the princess offered so many tips on slaying the local dragon. "Moral of the story," notes the popular text: "Occasional suggestions and assistance may be alright, but too much of it will lessen a man's confidence or even turn him away from his princess."


i swear to god, this makes me want to drop everything and start a riot grrrl punk band. DAMMIT AMERICA, i am SO TIRED of being ANGRY all the damn time. STOP MAKING ME ANGRY. you wouldn't LIKE me when i'm angry. JAKZE SMASH! JAKZE CRUSH!