for thoughtful thoughts

planets-bend-between-us: can I just voice a few unpopular opinions regarding my take on...

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 04:45:36 -0500

planets-bend-between-us: can I just voice a few unpopular opinions regarding my take on...

I've Moved

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:21:07 -0600

I've Moved: same person, new blog. follow? also my fandom blog is new firstquestion-who.tumblr.com

Moving!

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:57:25 -0600

Moving!

fauxprophetess: “Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:35:01 -0600

fauxprophetess:

“Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something, in any case.” - The Night Circus

thedailywhat: On Kony 2012: I honestly wanted to stay as far...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:36:06 -0600

thedailywhat:

On Kony 2012: I honestly wanted to stay as far away as possible from KONY 2012, the latest fauxtivist fad sweeping the web (remember “change your Facebook profile pic to stop child abuse”?), but you clearly won’t stop sending me that damn video until I say something about it, so here goes:

Stop sending me that video.

The organization behind Kony 2012 — Invisible Children Inc. — is an extremely shady nonprofit that has been called ”misleading,” “naive,” and “dangerous” by a Yale political science professor, and has been accused by Foreign Affairs of “manipulat[ing] facts for strategic purposes.” They have also been criticized by the Better Business Bureau for refusing to provide information necessary to determine if IC meets the Bureau’s standards.

Additionally, IC has a low two-star rating in accountability from Charity Navigator because they won’t let their financials be independently audited. That’s not a good thing. In fact, it’s a very bad thing, and should make you immediately pause and reflect on where the money you’re sending them is going.

By IC’s own admission, only 31% of all the funds they receive go toward actually helping anyone [pdf]. The rest go to line the pockets of the three people in charge of the organization, to pay for their travel expenses (over $1 million in the last year alone) and to fund their filmmaking business (also over a million) — which is quite an effective way to make more money, as clearly illustrated by the fact that so many can’t seem to stop forwarding their well-engineered emotional blackmail to everyone they’ve ever known.

And as far as what they do with that money:

The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces. Here’s a photo of the founders of Invisible Children posing with weapons and personnel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission. These books each refer to the rape and sexual assault that are perennial issues with the UPDF, the military group Invisible Children is defending.

Let’s not get our lines crossed: The Lord’s Resistance Army is bad news. And Joseph Kony is a very bad man, and needs to be stopped. But propping up Uganda’s decades-old dictatorship and its military arm, which has been accused by the UN of committing unspeakable atrocities and itself facilitated the recruitment of child soldiers, is not the way to go about it.

The United States is already plenty involved in helping rout Kony and his band of psycho sycophants. Kony is on the run, having been pushed out of Uganda, and it’s likely he will soon be caught, if he isn’t already dead. But killing Kony won’t fix anything, just as killing Osama bin Laden didn’t end terrorism. The LRA might collapse, but, as Foreign Affairs points out, it is “a relatively small player in all of this — as much a symptom as a cause of the endemic violence.”

Myopically placing the blame for all of central Africa’s woes on Kony — even as a starting point — will only imperil many more people than are already in danger.

Sending money to a nonprofit that wants to muck things up by dousing the flames with fuel is not helping. Want to help? Really want to help? Send your money to nonprofits that are putting more than 31% toward rebuilding the region’s medical and educational infrastructure, so that former child soldiers have something worth coming home to.

Here are just a few of those charities. They all have a sparkling four-star rating from Charity Navigator, and, more importantly, no interest in airdropping American troops armed to the teeth into the middle of a multi-nation tribal war to help one madman catch another.

The bottom line is, research your causes thoroughly. Don’t just forward a random video to a stranger because a mass murderer makes a five-year-old “sad.” Learn a little bit about the complexities of the region’s ongoing strife before advocating for direct military intervention.

There is no black and white in the world. And going about solving important problems like there is just serves to make all those equally troubling shades of gray invisible.

[kony2012.]

stupidbloodyidiots: do any of you smell your hair after your get out of the shower #like when...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:07:56 -0600

stupidbloodyidiots: do any of you smell your hair after your get out of the shower #like when...

Some thoughts about Kony 2012.

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:53:28 -0600

dream-within-a-dream: Unless you don’t have Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr…. you’ve seen the video made...

Dance, Dance // String Quartet Tribute to Fall Out Boy

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:57:47 -0600

Dance, Dance // String Quartet Tribute to Fall Out Boy

aseaofquotes: E. Nesbit, The Enchanted Castle

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:30:08 -0600

aseaofquotes:

E. Nesbit, The Enchanted Castle

iamsonotahipster: Please, watch this video right now.

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:30:57 -0600

iamsonotahipster:

Please, watch this video right now.

aseaofquotes: — Andre Berthiaume

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:28:22 -0600

aseaofquotes:

— Andre Berthiaume

nightmare-kisser: trelela: maryroman: artboxconcepts: ARTBOXM...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 02:45:59 -0600

nightmare-kisser:

trelela:

maryroman:

artboxconcepts:

ARTBOXMagazine: Detroit’s abandoned houses.

I really like the third house it’s so pretty.

Abandoned buildings have such a weird charm I always loved.

3, 5, and 7 are gorgeous, omg. <3

aseaofquotes: Kaye Gibbons, Ellen Foster

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 02:34:38 -0600

aseaofquotes:

Kaye Gibbons, Ellen Foster

best love story ever

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 02:18:00 -0600

best love story ever

warbyparker: Whoa. The MLA has officially devised a standard...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:54:27 -0600

warbyparker:

Whoa. The MLA has officially devised a standard format to cite tweets in an academic paper. Sign of the times.

Photo

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:24:21 -0600

Photo

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:53:45 -0600

Photo

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 22:53:52 -0600

totallymydivision: captainbowties: miaman: losingedge: Craig...

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 22:51:23 -0600

totallymydivision:

captainbowties:

miaman:

losingedge:

Craig Ferguson explains why everything sucks. And he makes sense.

I have been searching for this clip for so long.
Everyone watch this. Just…watch.

Have I mentioned lately that Craig Ferguson is my favorite person ever to exist?

Because he totally is.

Same.

Reader: Dear Mr. Snicket, What is the best way to keep a secret?

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:05:39 -0600

Reader: Dear Mr. Snicket, What is the best way to keep a secret? Lemony Snicket: Tell it to...