edwardspoonhands:

pipud:

ut4ps:

Race matters.

Must reblog.

I am not saying that this is not a huge problem, nor that we shouldn’t fight it, nor that it may, in fact, be the biggest problem with today’s America and a sign of deep, systemic racism, and a kind of division between two different Americas and a desire to keep one of those Americas where it is while promoting the other one. 

BUT

I have no idea what the first statistic means. Let’s break it down. Five times as many whites are using drugs as African Americans. OK, that, at first, sounds like a surprising and damning statistic. White people are apparently INSANE drug users.

Actually, there are 200 million white people in America and 37 million black people in America. So there are 5.4 times more white people than black people. So the /rate/ of drug use is about the same among black and white Americans. That is /not/ surprising, and is a much more accurate and truthful statistic.

This is not to say that I don’t believe the war on drugs has been a terrible thing for minority and poor populations in the US. Yes, it absolutely has, and I believe it should end. There are lots of damning statistics (for example that African Americans represent 12% of the total population of drug users, but 59% of those in state prison for a drug offense (NAACP.)

There are enough shocking truths that we shouldn’t have to make the numbers look worse than they actually are.

“There are enough shocking truths that we shouldn’t have to make the numbers look worse than they actually are.”

We do this all the time with causes we think are worthy, but it is too often to the detriment of our cause.  We’ve seen it a lot in the past with climate change where we justified skewing statistics because of the importance of the issue, and yet instead we gave the skeptics reason to be skeptical.

There are enough good reasons to care for our planet without trying to shock people into action with skewed numbers.

Great movie #unbreakable #quote

Laneway
Taken wiith disposable camera

fishingboatproceeds:

A few days ago, I received an email from P. F. Kluge, my fiction writing professor from Kenyon College, saying, “Drop everything and read How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia.” 

So I did, and what a book. Brilliant and ruthless. Don’t miss it.

So I’m trying to finish 52 books in 2013 and I just finished this book (#16). It was excellent and contained probably one of my favourite passages that I’ve read this year

“We are all refugees from our childhoods. And so we turn, among other things, to stories. To write a story, to read a story, is to be a refugee from the state of refugees. Writers and readers seek a solution to the problem that time passes, that those who have gone are gone and those who will go, which is to say every one of us, will go. For there was a moment when anything was possible. And there will be a moment when nothing is possible. But in between we can create.” 

i want to go back.

thebluthcompany:

15 Episodes, May 26.

[via]

2013 is going to be a good year.

(via bettyc)

scullydesign:

A creative piece I did, after studying a module on culture jamming at University.  The original can be viewed here

Looking back on this piece I did in 2011, I’m reminded of how we are in fact a lucky county - for us Cigarettes are a national threat

edwardspoonhands:

Here’s what all the fuss was about.

this is too good.