I Heart Quakers

In more news on reproduction, The New York Times Magazine published this awesome article about a progressive sex education class at a Quaker high school in Pennsylvania.  American high schools needs more  teachers like this: honest, open, informed, sensitive, and feminist.  I wish I was a.) Quaker and  b.) Still in high school, so I could take this class.  Shout out to my few but cherished "Friends" out there...keep on with your kick-ass Quaker ways.

Read this. Love it. And then be sad that this quality subject matter will never be allowed to be taught in public schools. 

The conservatives have robots. Woman-hating robots.

I recently came across this article on a friend's facebook and screamed in horror. All of you out there that have used your new iPhone 4s "Siri" feature to search for the nearest abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood center, or even just some gosh darn birth control, know about the iPhone's narrow-minded views (Can a cell phone have "views"??) on reproductive rights and safety.  Apparently, Siri, the new iPhone feature that answers when you talk to it, can tell you where to find good food, where to change your oil, where to hide the body of that person you just capped, where to get good drugs, and where you can buy sex. It will not, however, tell you where the nearest abortion clinic is, or where to obtain emergency contraception. Even technology is discriminating against me.

To those of us who remain in the dark with our lowly, stone-age, un-smart phones, this news was twice as frightening: iPhones can TALK to you?? AND they are pro-life?!?!?

The scariest part of all this is that Siri not only ignores all abortion clinics in the area it searches, it has actually sent users instead to the nearest "crisis pregnancy centers". If you don't know about these phony, far-right Christian, anti-abortion-centers-posing-as-real-health-clinics, read about how prey on and trick women into buying their propaganda.

Before you go blaming Apple and cursing Steve Job's grave, keep in mind that it was likely not Apple that programmed Siri to lie to you about your reproductive choices, but the company that developed the artificial intelligence for them. For now, people are working to bring it to Apples attention.

Just like US health insurance, Siri has no problem helping it's clients find all the Viagra they need, but when it comes to women's health, you're on your own.

Shopping bags

An aware and informed consumer is, for all intents and purposes, a consumer without culpability, right? I want to be aware and confident in knowing that I will do the right thing. That I will buy the right thing; however, I struggle with the connection between the object in a store and the painful origin it most likely holds.

When consumers snatch up their purchases only discover that these same goods contributed to civil war, to genocide, to rape, to rebel leaders and their radical campaigns, they (the consumers) are held accountable. I know I have purchased things that I feel pretty damn shitty about, but was it not the deceit of corporations that led to these issues? There’s very little redemption in knowing this since the circumstances prevail.

You’ve heared of conflict diamonds. Kanye West made two songs about his ambivalence…and then replaced his bottom teeth with the ostentatious stones. I wonder if they’re conflict-free. I doubt his dentist thinks so.

Ever heard of conflict gemstones? Yeah, that’s a thing. Conflict electronics? Also a thing. Despite my efforts I feel guilty and exploited. I don’t want to fund civil war and/or fuck people over. I don’t want to support an economy that irrevocably destroys natural resources to increase revenue. I sure as hell won’t support an industry that promotes diamonds as a homogenized bling encrusted representation of love. Diamonds are allotropes of carbon mined by poverty-stricken, war torn communities and processed by children in bondage. Maybe the customer isn’t always right, but I know for sure that this is bullshit.