The Insanity that is Politics

(via sarahlee310)

sarahlee310:

Take that, Glenn Grothman and Donald Pridemore!

Why I Am Leaving The Empire, By Darth Vader

letterstomycountry:

TODAY is my last day at the Empire.

After almost 12 years, first as a summer intern, then in the Death Star and now in London, I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its massive, genocidal space machines. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.

To put the problem in the simplest terms, throttling people with your mind continues to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making people dead.

The Empire is one of the galaxy’s largest and most important oppressive regimes and it is too integral to galactic murder to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of Yoda College that I can no longer in good conscience point menacingly and say that I identify with what it stands for.

For more than a decade I recruited and mentored candidates, some of whom were my secret children, through our gruelling interview process. In 2006 I managed the summer intern program in detecting strange disturbances in the Force for the 80 younglings who made the cut.

I knew it was time to leave when I realised I could no longer speak to these students inside their heads and tell them what a great place this was to work.

How did we get here? The Empire changed the way it thought about leadership. Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and killing your former mentor with a light sabre. Today, if you make enough money you will be promoted into a position of influence, even if you have a disturbing lack of faith.

What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firm’s ‘axes’, which is Empire-speak for persuading your clients to invest in ‘prime-quality’ residential building plots on Alderaan that don’t exist and have not existed since we blew it up. b) ‘Hunt Elephants’. In English: get your clients - some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t - to tempt their friends to Cloud City and then betray them. c) Hand over rebel smugglers to an incredibly fat gangster.

When I was a first-year analyst I didn’t know where the bathroom was, or how to tie my shoelaces telepathically. I was taught to be concerned with learning the ropes, finding out what a protocol droid was and putting my helmet on properly 
so people could not see my badly damaged head. 

My proudest moments in life - the pod race, being lured over to the Dark Side and winning a bronze medal for mind control ping-pong at the Midi-Chlorian Games - known as the Jedi Olympics - have all come through hard work, with no shortcuts.

The Empire today has become too much about shortcuts and not enough about remote strangulation. It just doesn’t feel right to me anymore.

I hope this can be a wake-up call. Make killing people in terrifying and unstoppable ways the focal point of your business again. Without it you will not exist. Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much non-existent Alderaan real estate they sell. And get the culture right again, so people want to make millions of voices cry out in terror before being suddenly silenced.

LTMC: Goldman Sachs may have been hurt by Greg Smith’s op-ed, but how can we trust the Sith now?

Please Pentagon, tell me how well we are doing over there in Afghanistan

maritsa-met:

glossylalia:

latimes:

All red meat is bad for you, new study says: A long-term study finds that eating any amount and any type increases the risk of premature death.

Who are these people who eat steaks every day of their life (as the study suggests)?!

Ron Swanson?

mmmm Loook at that steak….soooo tasty

(via latimes)

Source:

sarahlee310:

lianamaris:

It is time to slut out the vote. 

According to the 2010 Census, 26% of 18+ women who have never been married reported they are not registered to vote.  50.6% of those registered reported not voting.  This needs to change so that women’s rights are protected.  (I found this info on the Census website.)

Women got tortured to gain you the right to vote.  Register and vote, dammit!

Slut out the vote? hmmm so like owning the word rather than feel like its a slur? well I guess if it raises awareness its a good thing, right?

latimes:

Future NASA mission to sun is a life’s dream for some: The Solar Probe Plus, due to launch in 2018, will fly much closer to the sun than any predecessor in search of answers about its corona and solar wind.

Check out that graphic full-size over here.

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thepalmerbeef:

Fuck yeah.

always reblog

(via ayoitskrista)

takingbackamericatoitsroots:

Fricken Bull

I agree people were not nearly as upset at Obama for what he said as they were with Carrie Prejean. But Obama has caught heat from the LGBT Community over this and other non actions, besides…. There are so many other things to be pissed off at him for.

(via ayoitskrista)

occupyallstreets:

15 Facts About Military Spending That Will Make Your Head Explode

1. America spends more on its military than the next 15 countries combined,

2. By 2033 the U.S. will be paying $59 billion a year to its veterans injured in the wars.

3. In 2007, the amount of money labeled ‘wasted’ or ‘lost’ in Iraq — $11 billion — could pay 220,000 teachers salaries.

4. America’s defense spending doubled in the same period that its economy shrunk from 32 to 23 percent of global output.

5. The yearly cost of stationing one soldier in Iraq could feed 60 American families.

6. Defense spending is higher today than at any time since the height of World War II.

7. The total known land area occupied by U.S. bases and facilities is 15,654 square miles — bigger than D.C., Massachusetts, and New Jersey combined.

8. Each day in Afghanistan costs the government more than it did to build the entire Pentagon.

9. In 2008, the Pentagon spent more money every five seconds in Iraq than the average American earned in a year.

10. The pentagon budget consumes 80% of individual income tax revenue.

11. Two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Defense Department still has more than 40 generals, admirals or civilian equivalents based in Europe.

12. The amount the government has spent compensating radiation victims of nuclear testing ($1.5 billion) could fully educate 13,000 American kids.

13. The Pentagon spends more on war than all 50 states combined spend on health, education, welfare, and safety.

14. The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population — but almost 50% of the world’s total military expenditure.

15. The US. must spend a full 1 percent of its GDP just to maintain its arsenal.

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