Strollerderby : protest

Parents Forego Circumcision to Save Money

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 22:00:00 GMT

Foreskin may be making a comeback. In these dire economic times, more and more parents are choosing to opt out of the costly and medically unnecessary procedure.

According to a UCLA report, circumcisions are down by 24 percent in the 16 states where foreskin removal is not covered by Medicaid. The average cost of circumcision is 300 bucks, more than enough money to dissuade parents who are having trouble scraping up the rent.

Although studies have linked circumcision to a lower risk of contracting certain STDs, no medical professional would argue that foreskin absolutely must go. According to Dr. Andrew Freedman, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, “The $300 is a luxury.”

For some, like those who recently marched on Washington in honor of Genital Integrity Awareness Week, that $300 is less of a luxury and more of an abomination. Perhaps anti-circumcision activists will not have to yell quite so loudly so long as the economy continues to plummet.

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Kids Color to Save Alaska's Wolves

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:30:00 GMT

The nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife Fund has started a unique way to get kids involved in activism. In protest of Governor Palin’s support of aerial wolf killing—which has caused the deaths of 109 wolves just this hunting season—the Fund is collecting drawings of wolves from kids all over the country, and will mail them to Governor Palin’s office. Perhaps her overwhelming maternal instincts will override her passion for senseless wolf slaughter?

Aerial hunting is carried out by private citizens who shoot wolves from their jets, often after chasing them to the point of exhaustion. Then they make money off the pelts and get to brag about their hunting skills, since shooting a large animal from a jet after that animal is too exhausted to move is totally manly and impressive.

If you and your kids would like to help protect Alaska’s wolves from such a fate, visit Eye On Palin, where you can print out a permission slip and a wolf picture for your kids to color in—unless they’re inspired to draw their own. Then mail your artistic activism to the address given and hope that Palin is serious about how much she loves children.

Photo: Defenders of Wildlife Fund

Students Make Rev. Phelps Followers Run Away

Kelly Mills — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:35:00 GMT

Feel-good story? Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, gathered a small protest near Omaha Central High School. The church is led by the Reverend Fred Phelps, and I'm sure you know who these folks are. They became famous when they protested at the funeral of Matthew Shepard, and have gone on to protest everywhere it would horrify you to see picketers, including the funerals of slain service members. You know, the "God Hates Fags" people. (Biting tongue now...)

However, when the group held up anti-homosexuality and anti-Obama signs near the high school last Friday, they were met by hundreds of student counter-protesters. The students chanted "Diversity" and "Gay is OK" and even busted out the Pledge of Allegiance. And, well, the kids got a little riled up, and they threw hamburgers and lemonade bottles and milk at the Westboro protesters. Ahem. Maybe I'm supposed to feel bad about the sort of violent reaction, but I really don't.

The police then advised the Phelps folks that the situation was getting a little out of hand and they might want to leave for their own personal safety. And so they did, ahem. So far no students have been disciplined, and the school spokeswoman said, "This hate group came to Central High at dismissal to provoke students... To some extent, we need to understand that these are young people, and we have to take into consideration this kind of extreme provocation." Totally. I'm with you, lady.

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Elderly Chinese Women Sentenced to "Re-Education"

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:17:00 GMT

Chinese authorities have sentenced two elderly women to a year of “re-education” through labor because they repeatedly sought permits to protest in one of the official Olympic protest sites—areas that Chinese authorities designated as the only places where protests were allowed during the Olympic games, but which have yet to see a single protest.

The women, Wu Dianyuan and Wang Xiuying, are 77 and 79. They went to the police five times seeking permits to protest inadequate compensation after their Beijing homes were demolished for a redevelopment project. Instead of being given a new home in the new development, as the women thought would happen, they were moved to a dilapidated apartment outside the city. Although the New York Times did not mention whether the redevelopment was linked to the Olympics, it's possible that it was part of the Chinese government's Beijing makeover in preparation for the games.

Wu’s son, who says that his mother is nearly blind, has worked hard to seek justice for his mother and her friend, and he is outraged that two women in their 70s would be sentenced to re-education, which often involves hard labor in agriculture or factories and forced confessions. Although the women were allowed to return to their homes, officials said that they could be whisked off to a re-education center at any time. Re-education sentences are handed out without trials or means of appeals.

Such a sentence is perhaps one of the lighter punishments for seeking an Olympic protest permit: some of the applicants have disappeared.

Photo: A Chinese labor camp (New York Times)

Stay out of my room or I'll pee on your tree

Brett Singer — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT

I've tried to write a summary of this story but I haven't been able to come up with a better intro than this one (from the New York Times):

When the men of the Phoenix Country Club saw their feeding ways in peril, they did not tarry. Some sent nasty e-mail messages, hectored players on the fairway and, for good measure, urinated on a fellow club member’s pecan tree.

As you can probably guess, it was that last one – the whole "urinating on a tree" thing – that grabbed my attention. What caused otherwise civilized men to make pee-pee on the pecan tree? Why, it was the women! They want to eat in the same dining room as the men! Well, if some chick wants to do that, I'm going to take a leak on her tree! That'll show those nosy broads.

The specifics are as follows: the Phoenix Country Club in Arizona does not allow women to eat in the men's grill room. According to the New York Times, this grill room is where high-level business deals are conducted, not to mention more pedestrian activities such as lunch. Well can't these persnickety hens go somewhere else? Actually, no. The "ladies' grill" has "a hot plate, some card tables and no bar." That's right. A hot plate.

Now, Arizona, Arizona… who's from Arizona? Oh! John McCain! Well, he's not a member. His son Andrew is, and so is Alice Cooper. (Kids, Alice Cooper is this rock star-type guy who used to really upset people because his act featured images of death and stuff. Yeah, we were pretty silly back then. Check out his Muppet Show episode, it's a lot of fun. And for those of you who remember Alice Cooper, yes. He's now a member of a country club that doesn't let women eat with men.)

This issue came to a head when Barbara Van Sittert and her husband Logan "appealed to the board of the club" to change the rules so they could have breakfast together. When they were told to stuff it, they went to the Attorney General's office, which recently issued an "advisory legal opinion that the club needed to comply with the state's antidiscrimination laws." That doesn't mean anything yet; the club has 30 days to try and settle the matter before the AG gets all legal on them.

So remember guys. If women want to do something you don't want them to do, whip it out and pee on their lawn. That'll show 'em.

image: progressivemajoritywisconsin.org

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Detention Double Standard

Brett Singer — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:30:00 GMT

Following up on PennyGate, it's worth noting that this sort of bizarro school discipline has happened before: in November of last year, Megan Coulter was given two days of detention for the henious crime of hugging. While Megan actually served her time, our commenter Tracey points out that the Penny Gang got a reprieve. The incident has also been downgraded from a "protest" to a "prank" according to the school Superintendent Jorden Schiff. Interesting side note: in 1995, Schiff was one of the youngest people ever to become a high school principal in New Jersey, at age 28.

Here's the best quote of the whole thing: Schiff says that the kids will serve the detentions "if parents ask that their children serve them." Next time I take a flight, I'm going to ask to fly the plane. Hey, why not?

image: merchbot

8th Graders Get Detention for Paying with Pennies

Brett Singer — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:02:00 GMT

Not sure what to make of this one: a group of 29 eighth-grade students at Readington Middle School in New Jersey will have to serve detention (one hour of silence, after school) for paying for their lunch with pennies. Apparently the lunch period had been shortened and paying with pieces of copper was the kids' method of protest. The school said that they weren't punishing the protest; they were responding to the "lack of respect" the students showed to the lunchroom staff, who apparently spent so much time counting the coins (200 per kid), they were unable to serve tuna mushroom casserole to everyone. (The tuna mushroom casserole part is made up, but that was always the most disgusting thing at my school cafeteria. I actually ran for student body president on a "eliminate tuna mushroom casserole" platform. But I digress.)

The comments are, as is often the case on sites other than this one where we have the greatest commenters on the planet, as revealing as they are bizarre. Some examples:

the kids that dreamed this up should all be given a free lunch and an “A” for creativity. Instead the school is about to smother their creativity!
All the stuff about being a bully, this is it! The principal is being a bully to 14 yer olds. Parents have not only the right, but the absolute responsibility to intervene on this.
Kids are Kids, get over it.....
Instead of the administration doing something responsible, like taking the 29 kids and discussing why the Lunch period has to be short on snow days, I.E. State regs, They use their "power" to come up with a trumped charge of "disrespecting" lunch aides to discipline them. They (principal) needs to grow up. ... Are you running a prison? or a school?

Looks like the parents are hopping mad, or at least some of them are: according to the article, it was parents who alerted the media to the story, which received national coverage.

What do you think? Does the punishment fit the crime?

UPDATE: Make sure to read Kelly Mills post about a girl who was punished after stopping a bus full of schoolkids from crashing into traffic. Yowch.

image: merchbot

Bonus video: for no particular reason, here is a clip from Whose Line Is It Anyway, featuring a bit called "Songs of the Lunch Lady."

Family-Friendly Peace March on the Pentagon This Saturday

Patti — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:35:00 GMT

Anti-war protestors have scheduled a peace march on the Pentagon this Saturday, March 17. That day will be the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq, and 2007 marks the 40th anniversary of the 1967 march to the Pentagon in protest of the Viet Nam conflict. Along with demanding an end to the war, the march will include rallies calling for the impeachment of the President.

Peace marches are often anything but peaceful and not necessarily a safe place for children, but organizers will be setting up special children's activities including sign-making stations, and anti-war balloons will be available (the war on bird-killers, apparently, will have to wait). Several student and other youth groups are expected to have a presence at Saturday's march, which is projected to draw hundreds of thousands of participants.

So if you're in the hood and you're so inclined, check it out and let us know how it goes.

(via, in a delicious spirit of irony, The Free Republic)