We are for Social Justice!

We cannot sanity check our figures!

Back in high school, the local advocacy club ran a poster campaign intending to draw attention to the problem of world hunger. Problem was, they couldn't agree on a number of people affected--I saw figures citing "deaths from hunger-related causes" ranging from 8 million, to 10 million, to 12 million, and one unfortunate soul made a poster consisting entirely of the line "30 million people a year die of hunger" repeated...when no less than thirty feet away was a poster citing a smaller figure.

Now in college, I run into another poster campaign, this time for rape and violence against women. I'm not in a position to check some of their figures (31% of women report being sexually assaulted by a significant other in their lifetimes--that's 46.5 million, but since it says "in their lifetimes" and doesn't give an explicit definition of sexual assault, I'll have to take it at its word). One poster, however, caught my eye. It said "One woman in the U.S. is raped every two minutes", and cited as its source the U.S. Department of Justice.

Quick multiplication tells us that 1 woman per minute = 30 an hour = 720 a day = 262800 a year. A quick Google search for the U.S. Dept. of Justice turns up a figure that conflates rape and sexual assault and gives a figure (trending down) of just over 200000 for 2008. Another search for the FBI places "forcible rape" for 2008 at just under 90000. Depending on how generous you are, the number given by the poster is either 20% off or 200% off, which doesn't speak well for the advocacy group.

Same place, different time--an advertising group claiming environmental holiness. Its claims: Americans waste 96 billion lbs. of food per year, and 25% can feed 4 million a day. Implications--each American wastes about 10/11ths lb. of food per day, and your average person eats 3 tons of food a day.

Does claiming you're working for a good cause free you of the burden of checking your numbers or something?

Communist Party!

One of the dorms on campus is advertising a COMMUNIST PARTY tomorrow, with posters with Soviet Union propaganda pictures and slogans like "Red is the New Black" and "We Have Zeppelins!". All in good fun, I'm sure, and mocking old foes is a good way to ensure they don't rise again (see Mel Brook's repetoire [he's Jewish, by the way]), but I can't help but wonder if the school would approve of something else along similar lines. Say...

Fascist Party! Black is the New Black!

Maoist Party! Let a hundred shots be quaffed! Let a hundred minds be expanded!

Nazi Party! Heil to the King of Beers!

Old Webcomics

http://xkcd.com/601/

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

Sleeeeeeep...

Sleep is good. Especially 12 hours worth. Which my roommate gets all the time. Now I know why. Sleeeeeeeepp...

Fall Break!

Unfortunately, it's only two days, but at least I can catch up on my sleep (or maybe posting?).

And Believe Me I Am...Still Alive!

Yes, that's the second time I've made that joke. No, I don't care.

For your troubles...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww-jfygVEE0

MEET THE PYRO (fan-made, unfortunately :( )

Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Congratulations, Mr. President, but I hope you don't mind standing with the likes of Yasser Arafat. Rigoberta Menchú, Le Duc Tho, F.W. De Klerk...really, it's not all a pantheon of greats.

And would the others of you congratulating the president stop spouting that messianistic canard of "politics of hope instead of fear"? It's annoying, and probably unlikely.

Random Thoughts #9

Social Justice, nominally: a belief in various forms of benevolent progressivism, such as environmentalism, equality for all races and sexes, etc.

Social Justice, interpreted through the many acts of college: "Hey, let's get together with a bunch of people we don't know, be told what to chant by other 'higher' organizers, carry picket signs and posters with trite and populist slogans, and march up and down and raise holy hell for a cause we're fairly neutral about."

Random Thoughts #8

(Ties in pretty well to Random Thoughts #7)

Bisexuality means twice as many chances to get shot down in flames.
Blessed are the asexuals, for their skies come flak-free.

Random Thoughts #7

I am a cynic. I LIKE being a cynic.
I am a pessimist. I LIKE being a pessimist.
I am a loner. I LIKE being a loner.
They mean a lot more for my sense of identity than (lack of) masculinity, sexuality, or racial pride.