HISTORY - How forcibly assimilated Indians made football!

http://www.historicalsociety.com/

It's the end of the 19th century -- the Civil War is over, and the frontier is dead. And young college men are anxious. What great struggle will test their character? Then along comes a new craze: football. A brutally violent game where young men can show a stadium full of fans just what they're made of. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn -- the sons of the most powerful men in the country are literally knocking themselves out to win these gladiatorial battles. And then the most American team of all, with the most to prove, gets in the game and owns it. The Carlisle Indian School, formed in 1879 to assimilate the children and grandchildren of the men who fought the final Plains Wars against the fathers and grandfathers of the Ivy Leaguers, starts challenging the best teams in the country. On the football field, Carlisle had a chance for a fair fight with high stakes -- a chance to earn respect, a chance to be winners, and a chance to go forward in a changing world that was destroying theirs. 

To listen to the podcast: http://www.radiolab.org/story/who-are-we-carlisle-carlisle-carlisle/

HUMOR - Black Friday - Movie Trailer

CULTURE/SOCIETY - Police Report Spike in Violent Crime Over Weekend Due to Early Christmas Music

Shadyside, November 24 — The Shadyside Police Department reported a sharp spike in violent crime over the weekend, attributed to the early start of Christmas music in area stores.

The Department reported 7 aggravated assaults, 2 robberies at gunpoint, 3 car thefts and 24 arrests for public intoxication.

At a press conference late Sunday evening, Police Chief Jim Burgles remarked, “It appears that many subjects have been provoked by near-constant playing of Christmas carols throughout the city.”

One victim of one such a crime, Martha Vanderwhip, told of her horrifying experience. “I was shopping in Target, looking at the salad spinners on sale, and this man came up to me and started screaming,” recounted Mrs. Vanderwhip tearfully. “He was saying, ‘I can’t take it any more, I can’t take it any more,’ and he smelled like eggnog. He was holding this pink Christmas tree and waving it around like a weapon, knocking over all the candy cane displays.”

Store security staff managed to tackle the man and restrain him with strands of tinsel, according to Shadyside Target Manager Bing Whitman. The deranged man has not been identified by police.

The City Mental Health Commission also noted a rise in the volume of calls to the Municipal Crisis Hotline over the weekend. “People with fragile mental health may be driven over the edge by the unseasonably early excess of holiday spirit,” said Commissioner Luisa Gonzalez, “and they should not be afraid to seek help.”

Origin site - http://shadysideusa.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/violent-crime-spikes-over-weekend-due-to-early-christmas-music/

HUMOR - When statues attack!

http://twentytwowords.com/34-people-who-saw-a-statue-and-knew-what-they-had-to-do-next/

HUMOR - Guy In Philosophy Class Needs To Shut The Fuck Up

HANOVER, NH—According to students enrolled in professor Michael Rosenthal's Philosophy 101 course at Dartmouth College, that guy, Darrin Floen, the one who sits at the back of the class and acts like he's Aristotle, seriously needs to shut the fuck up.

Floen (inset) is known to make his insufferable comments during class at Thornton Hall.

His fellow students describe Floen's frequent comments as eager, interested, and incredibly annoying.

"He thinks he knows about philosophy," freshman Duane Herring said. "But I hate his voice, and I hate the way he only half raises his hand, like he's so laid back. We're discussing ethics in a couple weeks, but I don't know if I can wait that long before deciding if it's morally wrong to pound his face in."...

Among the 40 students who regularly attend Philosophy 101, the one who has endured the most suffering is freshman William Deekes.

"Some people know Darrin as just 'that guy in philosophy class who needs to shut the hell up,'" Deekes said. "I, however, also know him as 'the douche in African history who seriously needs to chill' and 'the a-hole in environmental sciences who could really use a girlfriend.'"...

For more - http://www.theonion.com/articles/guy-in-philosophy-class-needs-to-shut-the-fuck-up,1804/

HUMOR - Stop hitting yourself. Amen!

CULTURE/SOCIETY - Transgender Day of Remembrance: Anatomy of a Memorial

GET GAY VOICES NEWSLETTERS:

SUBSCRIBE

Tell me, what is it you plan to do 
with your one wild and precious life? 
--Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day" (1992)

This is the anatomy of remembering in the context of November. The date for the Transgender Day of Remembrance was chosen because Rita Hester was murdered in November. In a sense, it is an arbitrary date, but it occurs in a month when death and dying are so visible in nature, when darkness comes too early. It occurs in a month full of and surrounded by relevant observances and seasons: All Saints and All Souls, when we remember the dead; Thanksgiving, when we express gratitude; Advent, when some of us anticipate Word-made-flesh.

Every year we gather on or near Nov. 20 and honor our siblings whose lives have been taken by anti-trans violence. When we meet on this occasion, we remember our dead taken not by disease or natural causes, not by accident or age, but by violence. We name our dead, and we name the hate that killed them. Even though we despise this service and our need to hold it, we come. We come to say their names and talk about why they died, and how. We try to touch both our grief and our anger. We try to resist fatigue -- so many names, so much hate -- to resist apathy and shutting down in the face of the horror.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-miller-jen-hoffman/transgender-day-of-remembrance_b_4304629.html

CULTURE/SOCIETY - Transgender Day of Remembrance: Remembering Naoimi

On International Transgender Day of Remembrance ZIMBABWE’S GALZ Pays Tribute to Naoimi

We pay tribute to Naomi, Zimbabwe’s very own trans woman who championed the struggle for LGBTI rights in so many ways. She came out at a time when there was very little to no information on transgender people. Born 4th in a family of 8, Naomi a very active member of GALZ, Naomi never shied away from controversy. In her hometown of Mabvuku, a township about 25km outside Harare, most people considered Naomi’s behavior feminine.

Naomi fought for inclusion and acceptance even within the GALZ women’s program.  She was never included in these activities. She was a victim of violence in public spaces owing to her gender identity. She attempted suicide three times in her life, following a period in which society shunned her. But nothing stopped her tenacious fight for LGBT awareness, rights and freedoms.

http://oblogdeeoblogda.me/2013/11/20/transgender-day-of-remembrance-remembering-naoimi/

CULTURE/SOCIETY - Commentary: Why the Transgender Day of Remembrance Matters to Black People

The African-American transgender community disproportionately faces violence and homicide. 

Since 1998, November 20 has commemorated the International Transgender Day of Remembrance, which memorializes those who have been killed as a result of anti-transgender violence. This day is also aimed at bringing attention to the continued violence endured by the transgender community through out the world.

And while this day may not get the media attention that it deserves, hundreds around the country in places such as New York City, Kansas City, Boise and St. Louis will gather and hold vigils for those whose lives ended way too soon.

And while it’s easy for many of us to ignore this day, we have to face the facts: Violence against the transgender community is most definitely an African-American problem.

http://www.bet.com/news/health/2013/11/19/commentary-why-the-transgender-day-of-remembrance-matters-to-black-people.html

HUMOR - Instrumental violence!

POLITICS - Ain't that the truth?!

POLITICS - Freedom Day 2013: The South African dream, still deferred

Perhaps there were too many noble ideals. Perhaps the founding fathers were too romantic about our future and therefore set unrealistic and unachievable goals. Maybe we ran out of good luck, or good leaders, or good faith. What if we were never the miracle nation anyway, but just an average people who attained freedom because the status quo was no longer sustainable? Maybe that’s why we are failing to be what we envisaged we would be 19 years ago? Democracy shaped a united thriving nation, which is now turning on itself. Freedom Day 2013 is a world away from that beautiful day in 1994. By RANJENI MUNUSAMY.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-04-26-freedom-day-2013-the-south-african-dream-still-deferred/

CULTURE/SOCIETY - What happened after MLK died?

On Thursday, April 4, 1968, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stepped out onto the balcony of a Memphis hotel and was killed by an assassin's bullet. The story typically ends there, with the slain civil rights leader on the ground, surrounded by blood-stained colleagues left to carry on his vision. Rebecca Burns' new book, Burial for a King, begins that day in Atlanta, as the news passes through restaurants and telephones, from radios and televisions, over symphonies and street corners, and ends as his body is laid in the ground the following Tuesday, April 9. Through enormous research and a careful narrative hand, Burns has crafted this week of history into a vivid, microcosmic moment. Spanning from Auburn Avenue in Atlanta to the mountains of South Vietnam, Burial for a King makes the reverberations of King's life and death feel raw and clear again.

http://clatl.com/atlanta/what-happened-after-mlk-died/Content?oid=2668606

MY LIFE: So true! Even worse when you're 50!

CULTURE/SOCIETY: American woman gives domestic abuse a face, and voice, in China

"I made a conscious decision. I used a Chinese lawyer, I used Chinese courts," she says. "To be honest, a lot of my American friends did not understand this. They were like, 'You're crazy. You're American. Go to the embassy immediately.' But I did not want to teach my daughters, 'No one can beat you because you're American.' I wanted to teach them, 'No one can beat you because you're a person, you're a woman.' "

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/07/171316582/american-woman-gives-domestic-abuse-a-face-and-voice-in-china

HUMOR: Christmas pics - The religiously offensive edition

HUMOR: From "The Onion": Why Are We Hosting Thanksgiving?

From "The Onion"...

http://onion.com/bcWLiz

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Transgender Day of Remembrance: Why We Remember

Transgender people are those whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. In 1999 a handful of transgender people sought to highlight the need for awareness around anti-transgender violence, which refers to attacks against people who are perceived as transgender -- regardless of how one may personally identify. To that end, we held the first Transgender Day of Remembrance event in the Castro district of San Francisco, holding the names of those we'd lost in silent testimony.

That was 13 years ago. Today, Transgender Day of Remembrance will be presented in the United States and Canada, Australia, Poland, Russia, the Philippines, South Korea and many other locations across the Earth. The notion of remembering our dead reaches into places that those few who gathered in 1999 could hardly have envisioned.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/gwendolyn-ann-smith/transgender-day-of-remembrance-why-we-remember_b_2166234.html

HUMOR: Nation Celebrates Full Week Without Deadly Mass Shooting

NEW YORK—Cheers filled the streets and American flags waved triumphantly through the air today as the nation turned out in full force to celebrate an entire week having passed since the last time a madman opened fire on innocent civilians in some kind of fatal mass shooting.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-celebrates-full-week-without-deadly-mass-sh,29293/?ref=auto

HUMOR: What sharks watch during Shark Week!