Tag Archives: Girl

Badass Little Girl Confronts Climate-Denying Congressman With Brilliant Question

by ViolettBugden Posted on April 14, 2017

Mother Jones

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Voters aren’t letting their representatives get away with climate change denial, especially at their town halls this week. Even those too young to vote are getting in on the action, like at a Wednesday town hall in Colorado Springs, where one girl confronted her congressman.

“You don’t want to pursue renewable energy, but please reconsider,” the girl, who identified herself as Haven, said. Haven made her thorough case for solar and wind, noting that these fast-growing jobs were a retraining opportunity for veterans, while reliance on coal, which has the downside of making people sick, is declining. She concluded with an invitation to Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) to join her science class next Friday, receiving cheers and applause from the 110 people in attendance. The class will include a presentation on climate change, she added.

In the past, Lamborn has rejected the scientific consensus on climate change and opposed legislation to address the problem. In 2013, according to The Mountain Mail, Lamborn said there are “a lot of contentious facts and claims about global warming and whether it is man made,” adding there is “not much unanimity.” He’s pledged to the Koch-funded conservative political advocacy organization Americans for Prosperity to oppose any climate legislation that leads to more government revenue and, in 2014, argued that the federal government should not issue regulations for the domestic energy industry “designed to curb the possibility of climate change hundreds of years in the future.”

The House Natural Resources Committee member only addressed the first part of Haven’s comment, which focused on supporting renewable-energy jobs for veterans. He told Haven he supported all kinds of jobs and believed “in an all-the-above energy policy,” including hydrocarbons, nuclear, hydropower, and solar. His answer prompted another woman to shout, “How can you sit here and lie to us? You’re lying to us.”

Watch the encounter below:

In response to Mother Jones, Lamborn’s spokesperson, Jarred Rego, declined Haven’s offer. “Congressman Lamborn will be out of town next week and unable to attend,” he wrote in an email. “However, he really appreciated Haven’s question and her involvement in our civic process.”

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Badass Little Girl Confronts Climate-Denying Congressman With Brilliant Question

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Here’s Why Oral Rape is Not Rape in Oklahoma

by MellissaA42 Posted on April 28, 2016

Mother Jones

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In Oklahoma, it’s legal to have oral sex with someone who’s completely unconscious, the state’s highest criminal court has ruled.

In a unanimous decision, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals found that a teenage boy was not guilty of forcible sodomy after having oral sex with a teenage girl who was so intoxicated after a night of drinking that she had to be carried to his car. “Forcible Sodomy cannot occur where a victim is so intoxicated as to be completely unconscious at the time of the sexual act of oral copulation,” the judges ruled on March 24. The decision was reported by the Guardian on Wednesday.

Local prosecutors were shocked, saying the court’s ruling perpetuated victim-blaming and antiquated ideas about rape. Benjamin Fu, assistant district attorney in Tulsa County, described the decision as “insane,” “dangerous,” and “offensive.”

But some legal experts note that Oklahoma’s forcible sodomy law only prohibits oral sex with someone who’s unable to provide consent because of mental illness or mental disability, not because of intoxication or unconsciousness. Therefore, they say, the court’s ruling was appropriate. The state has a separate rape law that protects victims who are too drunk to consent, but only in cases of vaginal or anal penetration, not oral sex. “We will not, in order to justify prosecution of a person for an offense, enlarge a statute beyond the fair meaning of its language,” the appeals court wrote.

The incident occurred in 2014 after the two high school students had been drinking and smoking marijuana with friends at a Tulsa park. The boy, who was 17 years old at the time, gave the 16-year-old girl a ride home; blood tests later showed her blood-alcohol level was .341, indicative of severe alcohol poisoning, Oklahoma Watch reported, citing court records. She was unconscious when he dropped her off at her grandmother’s house and taken to the hospital, where she woke up in the middle of an examination for sexual assault. The boy’s DNA was detected around her mouth. He claimed she had consented to have oral sex, but she says she can’t remember anything after leaving the park, the Guardian reports.

Sexual battery might have been a more appropriate charge than rape or forcible sodomy, Shannon McMurray, an attorney for the defendant, told Oklahoma Watch. She added, however, that it would be difficult to show there had been no consent, since the girl could not recall what happened after leaving the park.

The court’s decision was an “unpublished opinion,” meaning it can’t be cited as legal precedent. But according to Fu, other defendants are asserting the same interpretation of Oklahoma law in a bid to avoid charges in similar cases.

“This is a call for the legislature to change the statute, which is entirely out of step with what other states have done in this area and what Oklahoma should do,” Michelle Anderson, the dean of the CUNY School of Law, told the Guardian. “It creates a huge loophole for sexual abuse that makes no sense.”

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Here’s Why Oral Rape is Not Rape in Oklahoma

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The Pure Pleasure of "Getz/Gilberto ’76"

by VirgilMuse Posted on February 24, 2016

Mother Jones

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Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto
Getz/Gilberto ’76
Resonance

Courtesy of Resonance Records

In 1964, with America in the throes of Beatlemania, “The Girl from Ipanema” breezed into the Top Five and sparked the bossa nova craze. This unlikely hit was a collaboration between American tenor sax great Stan Getz and Brazilian singer-guitarist Joao Gilberto (with enchanting vocals by his soon-to-be-ex-wife Astrud Gilberto), who would continue to work together on and off in the 1960s and ’70s. The previously unreleased Getz/Gilberto ’76 is pure pleasure, as inviting as a gentle summer breeze (something especially welcome this time of year). Recorded at San Francisco’s Keystone Klub—you can hear glasses clinking in the background, with no detriment to the music—this delicious live set features Gilberto’s shimmering acoustic guitar and gentle singing unaccompanied on some tracks; elsewhere, he’s supported by Getz’s gorgeous sax and deftly understated band, which includes pianist Joanne Brackeen, bassist Clint Houston, and drummer Billy Hart. Either way, it would be almost impossible to overstate the silkily seductive charms of this wonderful set. For those who prefer a straight-ahead jazz experience, the same cast, minus Gilberto, shines on the companion release Moments in Time, also previously unheard and recorded at the same venue.

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The Pure Pleasure of "Getz/Gilberto ’76"

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Most of the Suspects Accused of Attacking Malala Yousafzai Were Secretly Acquitted

by EloisaDesaillly Posted on June 5, 2015

Mother Jones

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Eight of the ten men accused of shooting of education rights activist and Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai were secretly acquitted, according to reports released today by the Pakistani government. Following a trial at a military facility in April, news spread that the 10 Taliban gunmen who were accused of involvement in the 2012 attack on Yousafzai had confessed and were sentenced to 25 years in prison—the longest possible sentence in Pakistan.

But after reporters from the British newspaper the Daily Mirror were unable to locate the 10 in Pakistani prisons, the court published new findings that revealed only two had in fact been convicted and the rest had been quietly released due to “lack of evidence.”

The Pakistani officials who failed to correct the initial reporting now deny confirming the convictions, and the New York Times reports that the government will likely seek an appeal for the decision.

Yousafzai was 15 at the time of the attack and has since become a global voice for girls’ education rights. In 2013 she published a memoir, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, and the following year, at the age of 17 she became the youngest Nobel Peace Peace Prize winner. She is currently attending school in Britain, where she and her family have relocated.

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Most of the Suspects Accused of Attacking Malala Yousafzai Were Secretly Acquitted

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Today Is the 151st Birthday of All-Around Feminist Badass Nellie Bly

by JaniBesskhuhnk Posted on May 5, 2015

Mother Jones

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Today would be the 151st birthday of Elizabeth Cochran—the groundbreaking journalist better known as Nellie Bly. In 1885, Bly wrote a furious letter to a Pittsburgh newspaper denouncing a column titled “What Girls Are Good For” that described the working woman as a “monstrosity” and said that women were best suited for domestic chores.

Impressed by Bly’s letter, Pittsburgh Dispatch editor George Madden hired her as a full-time reporter under the pen name Nellie Bly. She was a trailblazing journalist, an unwavering champion for women and the working poor, and a brilliant muckracker. One of her most famous assignments was for the the New York World where she posed as a mentally ill woman and exposed the horrors of a women’s asylum on Blackwell’s Island.

Bly also achieved worldwide fame with her 1889 trip around the world, which was inspired by Jules Verne’s novel “Around the World in Eighty Days.” She completed her journey in seventy-two days. Below is the front page of the New York World from January 26, 1890 and the lead article was about her record-setting trip:

AP

To celebrate Bly’s birthday today, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s has written a song in her honor, which is featured in a lovely Google Doodle created by artist Katy Wu.

Google

“We gotta speak up for the ones who’ve been told to shut up,” the lyrics go. “Oh Nellie, take us all around the world and break those rules cause you’re our girl.”

To check out the song and animation, skip to Google’s homepage here.

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Today Is the 151st Birthday of All-Around Feminist Badass Nellie Bly

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Winnie the Pooh Banned From Playground For Wrong Reason

by LoreneFairley Posted on November 21, 2014

Mother Jones

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Goodmorning. Here is something stupid:

Winnie the Pooh has been banned from a Polish playground because of his “dubious sexuality” and “inappropriate” dress.

The much-loved animated bear was suggested at a local council meeting to decide which famous character should become the face of the play area in the small town of Tuszyn. But the idea soon sparked outrage among more conservative members, with one councillor even denouncing poor Pooh as a “hermaphrodite”.

“The problem with that bear is it doesn’t have a complete wardrobe,” said Ryszard Cichy during the discussion. “It is half naked which is wholly inappropriate for children.”

“The author was over 60 and cut Pooh’s testicles off with a razor blade because he had a problem with his identity,” she said.

Here’s the thing, Winnie the Pooh should be banned but not because he doesn’t wear pants. He should be banned because he glamorizes stealing honey and tells children to play with bees. It’s like he’s never even seen My Girl.

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Winnie the Pooh Banned From Playground For Wrong Reason

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How Does a 9-Year-Old Come to Shoot a Fully Automatic Weapon?

by TraceyTearle Posted on August 28, 2014

Mother Jones

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A nine-year-old in Arizona accidentally killed her gun instructor on Monday when the Uzi he was teaching her to fire recoiled out of her control and shot him in the head. A video of the incident shows 39-year-old Charles Vacca switching the gun into automatic mode, then standing at the girl’s side as she pulls the trigger and the weapon’s force wrenches her arm in his direction.

Many commentators have since expressed disbelief—though not the NRA, which was busy talking up fun for kids at gun ranges—that a child was permitted to wield a weapon with such firepower.

But the shooting lesson was just normal business at the firing range where Vacca worked. Its “Bullets and Burgers” website advertises vacation packages like “Extreme Sniper Adventure”: “At our range, you can shoot FULL auto on our machine guns,” it reads. “Let ’em Rip!” It also says children between 8 and 17 can use its guns as long as a parent is present. The mother and father of the girl, whose name has not been made public, both were on Monday. Still, questions linger about the tragedy.

How did Burgers and Bullets get all those weapons in the first place? Isn’t it illegal to possess fully automatic weapons in the US?
Under the federal Firearm Owners’ Protection Act of 1986, it became a crime for civilians to own machine guns, but with a huge exception: Any gun made before the law went into effect is exempt. It’s fine for civilians to resell and buy those old guns, too, as long as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives approves the sale. The approval process involves a $200 transfer tax and an FBI background check. A few states have banned automatic weapons entirely, but Arizona, one of the most gun-friendly states, is not one of them.

Can it really be legal for an elementary school kid to shoot an Uzi?
“Assuming it was a pre-1986 machine gun and the sale was legal, then yes,” says Laura Cutilletta, senior staff attorney at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Federal law prohibits children under 18 from buying guns, but they can still fire them with adult supervision.

Less than three days after the tragedy, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said it didn’t expect to file criminal charges, according to CNN. Arizona authorities say the situation is being treated as an industrial accident, and job safety officials are investigating. So is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

How hard is it to handle one of these guns?
Quartz’s Gwynn Guilford did the math: With the average American nine-year-old girl weighing about 60 pounds, and the average Uzi weighing seven to nine pounds, “That would be roughly equal to a 40-year-old man firing a 25-pound gun like, say, the Hotchkiss M1909 used in trench warfare in World Wars I and II—a weapon so heavy it sat on a tripod.” (Ironically, the Uzi is designed to be relatively light in the hands of an adult, which can also make handling its powerful recoil more tricky.)

The shooting range’s manager said that the girl’s parents had signed waivers and understood the range’s rules. Still, he told the Associated Press, “I have regret we let this child shoot, and I have regret that Vacca was killed in the incident.”

Has anything like this happened before and what might it mean for the national gun debate?
Sadly, this tragedy is not the first of its kind. An eight-year-old Massachusetts boy died at a gun show in 2008, when an Uzi he was firing at pumpkins kicked back and he shot himself in the head. The former police chief who organized the show and provided the child with the weapon was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter.

That incident did have one positive outcome, in Cutilletta’s view: It inspired neighboring Connecticut to pass a law banning anyone under 16 from using a machine gun at a shooting range.

Shannon Watts, the founder of the advocacy group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said in a statement Wednesday that she hopes the Arizona case will galvanize the national debate about guns specifically with regard to children. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victim and the young girl involved in this tragedy,” Watts said. “We hope this event spurs dialogue on the importance of gun safety and responsibility.”

Do deadly gun accidents involving children usually result in nobody being held legally responsible?
Indeed, that’s the outcome in the vast majority of cases. A recent Mother Jones investigation found that out of 72 cases in 2013 in which kids handling guns accidentally killed themselves or other kids, adults were held criminally liable in only 4.

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How Does a 9-Year-Old Come to Shoot a Fully Automatic Weapon?

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Watch Stephen Colbert Give Great, And Completely Unironic, Advice to Teen Girls

by BernardoLuna Posted on August 2, 2014

Mother Jones

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Stephen Colbert’s wife of two decades, Evelyn McGee-Colbert, once told Oprah she didn’t like his TV alter-ego—someone she calls “that other guy.” In this video, as he offers advice to teenage girls wearing a plaid button-down and thick-framed hipster glasses, he’s definitely left the other guy behind.

When Loretta, 14, asks why some guys are jerks, he says to confront them (they may just be trying, badly, to get her attention), but also:

For this kind of thing to stop, boys have to be educated. Does our society educate boys to be misogynistic? It probably doesn’t value girls and women as much as it should, and boys probably see that as a signal that they can get away with things like devaluing women.

For Maria, 19, who asks how you can tell when someone likes you, he ends up defining love: when someone thinks “your happiness is more important than their happiness.” And cookies. “Cookies are also a really good sign that somebody likes you.”

The video is part of the girl-positive Rookie Magazine‘s series “Ask a Grown Man.” Earlier last year, Rookie’s fashionista founder, then 16-year-old Tavi Gevinson, was the youngest person ever to appear on The Colbert Report, where she gave the self-proclaimed “pear-shaped” Colbert style suggestions and called him a “Cool Dad” (capitals hers).

At the time, Colbert—a father of three, including 18-year-old Madeleine—wasn’t thinking of dispensing sage advice for Rookie. Instead he proposed a dad-inspired magazine project in which he would veto pictures of teen girls’ skin-baring outfits in a column called “You’re Not Wearing That.”

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Watch Stephen Colbert Give Great, And Completely Unironic, Advice to Teen Girls

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for April 17, 2014

by N0bodyh56 Posted on April 17, 2014

Mother Jones

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Marines put out a controlled fire on a mobile aircraft fire training device at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma April 7 during a visit from Girl Scouts. The firefighting display showed how the Marines respond to an emergency situation. The mission of Girl Scouts of America is to build the courage, confidence and character of girls, who can then make the world a better place, according to their website. The Marines are aircraft rescue and firefighting specialists with ARFF, Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, MCAS Futenma, Marine Corps Installations Pacific. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. David N. Hersey/Released)

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for April 17, 2014

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Meet the Artists Behind the Giant Poster Targeting Drone Pilots

by BradleyClune Posted on April 9, 2014

Mother Jones

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On the night of August 23, 2010, an American drone destroyed a home in Danda Darpakhel, a village in North Waziristan, Pakistan. The strike was meant to target a Haqqani network compound, but also killed Bismillah Khan, his wife, and two of their sons, aged 8 and 10 years old. The family’s two young sons and daughter, whose names and ages are unknown, survived.

Now Khan’s daughter’s face has become part of the first-ever art installation aimed at an audience watching from the sky: American drone pilots. Two weeks ago, artists spread out a large poster of the girl in Khyber Pakhtunkwwa, the Pakistani province that Wazirstan is part of. The image on the sprawling poster comes from a photo (below) taken by Pakistani photographer Noor Behram a few hours after the strike on the girl’s home.

The artists call their project #NotABugSplat, a reference to “bug splat,” drone-pilot lingo for kills.

A girl and her two brothers after surviving a drone strike in August 2010 Noor Behram/ Reprieve

The artist collective, which includes artists from France, Pakistan, and the United States, set up the poster with the help of the British charity Reprieve and a Pakistani NGO, the Foundation for Fundamental Rights. They hope that the poster will make drone operators empathize with the people who live under their gaze. “We were considering whether to put words in the poster, but decided against it, since the photograph already speaks a thousand words,” one of the members of the collective, who asked to remain anonymous, told Mother Jones, “Her eyes say everything.”

When the artists arrived in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, they were greeted by “warm, welcoming” villagers, who helped them unfold the gigantic image. The 90-foot by 60-foot poster took an hour and a half to unfurl. At ground level it looked like a bunch of pixels. But once the villagers saw a photo of the image taken by the artists’ own remote-controlled mini-drone, they were ecstatic.

Unfolding the image #NotABugSplat

Villagers with the poster #NotABugSplat.com

The poster as seen from the artists’ own drone #NotABugSplat

To get a sense of the scale of the poster, it helps to look at the road winding besides it, dotted by miniscule people who are “about the size of bugs”, says one of the artists.

The strike that killed most of the girl’s family also destroyed or badly damaged five other houses, killing at least nine civilians who were part of a community of Afghan refugees that had been there for two decades. The girl and her brothers were taken in by family members on the other side of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

More than 100 days have passed since the last American drone strike in Pakistan. The #NotABugSplat artists hope there they won’t have to make any more such posters. “But if the need is there, we will do more,” says the collective.

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Meet the Artists Behind the Giant Poster Targeting Drone Pilots

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