I am very seriously having trouble not thinking about the bill that would allow employers to put employees through a genetics test. I am having trouble seeing the benefits of such a bill. I am having trouble not seeing it as a selfish allowance. I am having trouble not seeing it as literal eugenics.
You’re having trouble because there is no benefit to employees. It will only be for the benefit of employers, and will allow them to discriminate. It’s terrifying…
That is a conversation that I should have voluntarily, with my doctor, under no penalty, and kept private. It should not be permissible to sell it, and I should not have to incur a 30% fine for not participating in a ‘wellness activity’ with an unqualified person who may or may not use this information against me.
Healthcare should be affordable to everyone, regardless of their predictive health and the health of their families.
Removing the anonymity of genetic information has acutely horrifying implications.
I know I’m kind of preaching to the choir right now, but like… I can’t get it out of my head. I shouldn’t read this stuff before I go to sleep.
hello naughty children its GATTACA time
More than that, it could also be an attempt to “catch” trans people. And I know it’s going to have unexpected results…
See, once upon a time, the people running the Olympics thought they could catch cheats by checking the competitors’ chromosomes. IDK why. Maybe they thought some men were sneaking into the women’s contests so they could win gold medals. Whatever.
In order to not appear like sexist shots, they tested EVERY competitor. And they were all set to land like a ton of bricks on any cheats…
BUT…
The results showed quite a surprising amount of MALE competitors had female chromosomes.
So the whole idea was trashed in short order.
(This story comes second hand from MeMum and may be inaccurate)
Soundarajan, a female runner who was denied entry to the Olympics because of her Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (which she was unaware of) failed the required genetics testing. Mandatory genetics testing has been removed from the requirements as of 2004, but still is practiced in the event that a competitor is being investigated for a fraudulent claim.
Intentionally misrepresenting your sex or gender as a means to cheat in sports has happened before. It is not a common method because the risk is very high. It is also… rarely successful in terms of having ‘easier competition.’
The idea that this bill would effectively out trans and intersex persons at the workplace is just one of the major issues that I have with it.
There is the very obvious problem of racial bias and the prevalence of white supremacy in our country. I should not need to expound upon why I have a problem with that.
But there is also the major issue of the bill’s claimed purpose: to find congenital conditions and enact ‘preventative measures.’ There are lots of people in the work force who are on the Autism spectrum, who have Down’s Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy… who are capable of working with their symptoms and do their jobs. These are also a target for discrimination and there are employers who are more than willing to justify it.
If the only benefit to come from this bill is that companies would be able to save more money, then I am unable to find any good in this bill.
For a good summary, see the Washington Post’s article (linked below, I’m on mobile). This would be straight up breaking the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. This is absolutely ridiculous, and yet another extreme breach of our privacy.
I have a lot of personal feelings about this requirement. There’s all the above: the threat of eugenics and outing of trans people that scares the crap out of me, and then there’s the fact that it affects me personally in a way I haven’t seen mentioned here yet.
I’m adopted. I was adopted in the age when adoptions were closed. I know nothing about my genetic history. Part of being adopted for me has been to consciously choose not to look into my biological family, at all. That door is closed. It’s complicated and it’s messy and I have conflicted feelings about it, but it’s been my choice to keep that door closed. That choice is a large part of something that defines me. Something like this, then, takes that choice away from me. I no longer have control over something that makes me who I am.
And the fact is, there’s very little pay off for forcing me, or anyone else, to comply with something this invasive. I work in the medical field, but I’m not a geneticist. Maybe there’s a tumblr geneticist who can put me straight. But here’s what I know:
Medical test results are most often only helpful in explaining what is going on medically when they are interpreted IN CONTEXT, as part of a full diagnostic picture. Why? Because our science is limited. We generally only test someone’s genes if there’s a reason to, if someone in their family has a condition or they’re having symptoms that need explaining and treatment. We have a certain amount of research that tells us that people with a particular medical condition tend have certain genes, but that doesn’t mean that we know that people who have those particular genes will express the medical condition. As far as I know, we don’t have large scale studies that establish the usefulness of indiscriminate genetic testing as something to predict risk for medical conditions in the population at large.
So, because of that, then, we can’t say that the benefits to society outweigh the violation of an individual’s choice, much less share potentially damaging information with people who have power over us.
It’s Bad Advice Tuesday over at The Establishment, and if you’re wondering where people want to be when they get elaborate scoldy lectures about water use, the answer is: The gym shower!
“After 32 years of marriage, my wife went out and got a tattoo on her shoulder. It’s about 8 inches by 6 inches (quite large), and she did it without any advance discussion with me, which has left me sort of shocked. Her position is that it’s her body and she’ll do what she wants. This has driven a wedge between us, and I’m not sure if we can move forward. What is your advice?”
The Bad Advisor answers this and two other high-quality zingers over yonder.
“I have a pet peeve about wasting food or water.
At my local aquatic center, after swimming I have noticed that some bathers just stand in the shower upward of 15 minutes, allowing the water to merely run down the drain.
It drives me crazy, knowing that there’s such scarcity of clean drinking water in many parts of the world, and these clueless women are wasting so much of it! (I only use water to wet down and then to rinse off the soap. In between, I turn it off.)
I’d like your opinion on what I should say or do.
Would it be impolite to call this to the attention of the perpetrators, or should I just grit my teeth and mind my own business?”
— From “Not Water Logged” via “Ask Amy,” Washington Post, 6 March 2017
Dear Not Water Logged,
There is nothing people appreciate more than being berated while naked, unless it is being berated while naked and wet. Naked, wet people are primed to listen carefully to lengthy lectures about the solvency of earth’s water supply, all the better if said screeds are delivered by a stranger at the local gym. The prevention of humanity’s untimely and thirsty demise rests on you and you alone, and the only way to end water waste is to holler at tired, damp people who don’t know you from Adam. You can be assured that they will spread your message — probably to the gym’s management.
“We took individual atoms and electro-magnetically trapped them, levitated them in a vacuum chamber so no air could hit them, and then we poked at them with laser beams,” he said.
In which the primary investigator revealed that their research was actually an episode of Mythbusters.
So there has been a bit of “what if humans were the weird ones?” going around tumblr at the moment and Earth Day got me thinking. Earth is a wonky place, the axis tilts, the orbit wobbles, and the ground spews molten rock for goodness sakes. What if what makes humans weird is just our capacity to survive? What if all the other life bearing planets are these mild, Mediterranean climates with no seasons, no tectonic plates, and no intense weather?
What if several species (including humans) land on a world and the humans are all “SCORE! Earth like world! Let’s get exploring before we get out competed!” And the planet starts offing the other aliens right and left, electric storms, hypothermia, tornadoes and the humans are just … there… counting seconds between flashes, having snowball fights, and just surviving.
To paraphrase one of my favorite bits of a ‘humans are awesome’ fiction megapost: “you don’t know you’re from a Death World until you leave it.” For a ton of reasons, I really like the idea of Earth being Space Australia.
Earth being Space Australia
Words cannot express how much I love these posts
Alien: “I’m sorry, what did you just say your comfortable temperature range is?”
Human: “Honestly we can tolerate anywhere from -40 to 50 Celcius, but we prefer the 0 to 30 range.”
Alien: “……. I’m sorry, did you just list temperatures below freezing?”
Human: “Yeah, but most of us prefer to throw on scarves or jackets at those temperatures it can be a bit nippy.”
Other human: “Nah mate, I knew this guy in college who refused to wear anything past his knees and elbows until it was -20 at least.”
Human: “Heh. Yeah everybody knows someone like that.”
Alien: “……. And did you also say 50 Celcius? As in, half way to boiling?”
Human: “Eugh. Yes. It sucks, we sweat everywhere, and god help you if you touch a seatbelt buckle, but yes.”
Alien: “……. We’ve got like 50 uninhabitable planets we think you might enjoy.”
“You’re telling me that you have… settlements. On islands with active volcanism?”
“Well, yeah. I’m not about to tell Iceland and Hawaii how to live their lives. Actually, it’s kind of a tourist attraction.”
“What, the molten rock?”
“Well, yeah! It’s not every day you see a mountain spew out liquid rocks! The best one is Yellowstone, though. All these hot springs and geysers from the supervolcano–”
“You ACTIVELY SEEK OUT ACTIVE SUPERVOLCANOES?”
“Shit, man, we swim in the groundwater near them.”
Sounds like the “Damned” trilogy by Alan Dean Foster.
“And you say the poles of your world would get as low as negative one hundred with wind chill?”
“Yup, with blizzards you cant see through every other day just about.”
“Amazing! when did you manage to send drones that could survive such temperatures?”
“… well, actually…”
“… what?”
“…we kinda……. sent……….. people…..”
“…”
“…”
“…what?”
“we sent-”
“no yeah I heard you I just- what? You sent… HUMANS… to a place one hundred degrees below freezing?”
“y-yeah”
“and they didn’t… die?”
“Well the first few did”
“PEOPLE DIED OF THE COLD AND YOUR SOLUTION WAS TO SEND MORE PEOPLE???!?!?!?”
My new favorite Humans are Weird quote
“PEOPLE DIED OF THE COLD AND YOUR SOLUTION WAS TO SEND MORE PEOPLE?”
aka The History of Russia
aka Arctic Exploration
aka The History of Alaska
Being from Alaska, this was sort of how I felt going to college in the lower 48′s and learned that no one else had been put through a literal survival camp as a regular part of their school curriculum, including but not limited to:
1. Learning to recognize all forms of animal tracks in the wild so you can avoid bears and moose and search out rabbits and other small animals to eat.
2. Extensive swimming and climbing on glacial pieces with competitions to see who could last the longest, followed by a group sit in the sauna so we wouldn’t get hypothermia (no, not kidding, I really did this many times as a kid!)
3. How to navigate using the stars to get back to civilization.
4. How to select the right type of moss from the trees to start a fire with damp wood (because, y’know, you’re in a field of snow. Nothing is dry.)
5. How to carve out a small igloo-like space to sleep in the snow to preserve body heat and reduce the windchill so you won’t freeze to death in the arctic.
“I’m telling you, I don’t think we need to worry about territory conflicts with the humans. You know all those deathtrap hell-worlds in the Argoth Cluster?” “Those worthless rocks? Yeah.” “80% of them are considered ‘resort destinations’ by those freaky little primates.”
This would be an interesting read if this was a book.
Like, an alien invasion is about to start and the book is a chronicle of how the aliens couldn’t handle both humans in general and the range of environments and ended up being destroyed through the eyes of one of the aliens.
Like a caption from the book would be something like
“So we sent a recon team to this place called Russia, but all we’ve heard back thus far is about the temperatures, giant monsters with fur the humans call “Bears”, and that once again, we have been reminded of how heavily well armed almost ever human settlement is.
Thus far we have lost more than a good chunk of our forces through experiments gone wrong, unsuccessful fire fights, and above all else, the humans seem to be more worried about these strange variation of their species calling themselves “Clowns”.
I don’t know what a Clown is, but sounds as if it is the dominant faction of this planet, and considering we only just found out humans practically poison themselves with this thing called beer and only get stronger and more violent, I don’t ever want to encounter such a being.
I believe this invasion was a mistake.“
I’ve been reading a bunch of these and all I can think about now is aliens finding out about our insane ability to walk away from accidents.
“Human Colony SDO435**, this is Gxanimi survey vessel 3489. We regret that we must inform you that the wreckage of your ship ‘Gecko Flyer’ has just been detected on planet F56=K=. We offer expressions of sympathy for this catastrophe.”
“Shit, thanks for telling us, we’ll be right there.”
“Why?”
“To find our people, of course.”
“… you wish to retrieve the corpses for your traditional death rituals, of course, we understand. We have sent the coordinates.”
“What do you mean, bodies? No survivors at all? There must be some.”
“Official mouthpiece of Human Colony SDO435**, the ship has crashed. It has impacted the planet’s surface at speed. Moreover, this might have happened as much as five vek ago. We do not understand why you speak of ‘survivors’.”
“Oh, there’ll be survivors. There always are.”
“(closes hyperspace voicelink) How sad that they are unable to accept the reality of their loss.”
*
“Hey, Gxanimi survey vessel 3489, thanks for letting us know about the Gecko Flyer. More than half the crew made it!”
“Made what?”
“They survived! A couple of lost limbs and so on, but they’ll be fine.”
“… but that vessel was destroyed! Images have been examined!”
“Oh, well, everyone in the fore-below compartment was crushed, obviously, but the others made it out.”
“… but the crash was vek ago! Excuse we… at least eighty of your ‘days’! How could they survive without a ship? Without shelter and supplies?”
“Well, the wreckage gave them some shelter, and of course the emergency supplies kept them going until they could start growing stuff. It’s actually a nice little planet, they said. Quite a lot of edible flora and fauna. T-shirt weather, in summer, too.”
“What is… t-shirt weather?”
“Oh, you know, when it’s comfortable to go around with only modesty covering over the epidermis. Exposed limbs.”
“That planet is so cold that even water solidifies in its atmosphere!”
“Well, in winter, obviously. But we like that. Listen, our people have been raising crops down there, and that’s usually how we rule a planet as ‘colonized’…. is anyone else using it, or can we call it?”
“Er… we have claimed the warmer planets in the system, but we believe we could come to some arrangement.”
*
It was really nice, the humans thought, how carefully most of the aliens kept an eye out for downed ships after that, once they found out that humans tended to survive anything less than explosive decompression or… well, explosions generally. They’d immediately inform the nearest outpost of a wreck’s location, or even ship survivors back themselves. It was very thoughtful.
They didn’t find out until a long time later that the Gxanimi had put out the word to every species they were in contact with. It was vital that everyone knew the things they had learned about humans after that first encounter.
1. Humans can literally walk away from an impact that renders a space-worthy hull so much scrap and would have actually liquefied a Gxanimi.
2. Humans will eat just about anything not immediately fatal to them – including, in extremis, the corpses of their dead crewmates. In fact, most human vessels keep a list of those willing to be eaten and those whose socio-religious scruples forbid it. They have a ridiculously high tolerance for dangerous substances, and if they can breathe on a planet they can probably eat something on it too. They also have something they call the ‘Watney Protocol’, which requires them to carry live soil samples, seeds, and simple tools that will allow them to start farming their own native foodstuffs on any remotely habitable planet immediately in the event of an accident.
3. Once they’ve farmed a planet, they bond with it. They’ll be polite, but it’ll take significant effort to get rid of them even so.
Conclusion: If a human ship crashes on a planet you like and want to keep, get other humans to come and get them immediately. Remove them yourself if you have to. Even the worst crash can result in a thriving colony in a few vek.
And don’t, for the love of gravitational regularity, try to solve that problem by killing off the survivors. Just don’t. It won’t work and it just makes all the rest of them mad.
There’s some interesting things going on with eyes. Not sure what it means yet, but in an episode where Sam’s soul was going to be traded for the witch guy’s soul, maybe the windows to the soul matter. I dug up these pics because seemed like it might matter. I mean the voodoo doll didn’t have to have a missing eye. Seems like it might be something.
Don’t forget Scooby Doo getting shot in the eye with water – on the TV while Dean is watching – in this ep as well.
Oh, I forgot that. That was the other thing. There was a bunch of dog references. Dean’s told to “stay” multiple times in the ep, Scooby Doo…
(apologies for the utterly disjointed ramblings below. I’m pre-coffee)
In an episode about memory, in a season about thoughts and memory, we have an awful lot of missing eyes. Now i feel like I need to do a rewatch looking for ravens.
I’m going to Odin with this one. I’m not sure how he fits in (particularly since he’s dead-ish since season 5 [my thoughts on whether or not Gods can actually die is besides the point.]), but that’s where my brain is going.
Odin sacrificed one eye to drink from the Well of Poetry/Wisdom/Knowledge. It takes the loss of an eye to gain knowledge/wisdom.
That’s what Charlie and Lily have done. Lily far more literally than Charlie. Charlie too though, ‘loses’ an eye in the episode where we learn she’s started hunting, gaining knowledge.
Scooby Doo episode is Hassle in the Castle. Scooby finds a magic hat while he’s scouting ahead of the gang. First he pulls a rabbit out of the hat, then drum beats while it’s empty, then the flowers which squirt him in the eye. It’s a temporary blindness, that leads to VELMA saying she’s ‘starting to figure things out’
We never actually see Dean use the hex doll. He’s far more interested in the pins. I’m not sure what to make of that, perhaps knowledge un-used?
He does stab the doll though. He only stabs it through the head, the center of knowledge and whatnot. Did anyone notice too how the folks one eye moved about a bit oddly? Also I’m wondering who the figure represents. I’m now on the lookout for a yellow haired, one eyed enemy of Rowena.
Yeah, I saw that he did stab it in this morning’s gif sets (after I’d already responded.) I missed it last night, even while I was paying attention.
the hex doll has a googly eye, which is why it moved funny. I’m just not sure how it ties in.
Possibly Rowena wanted whoever that’s tied to (which yeah, that would be useful information! i was thinking lucifer, but all his recent vessels have been dark haired) to know what’s happening to them?
I read this a while ago (thank you to @elizabethrobertajones for helping me find it again!) and it lodged firmly into the back of my mind as “Thing to keep an eye on” (pun intended ;P) and it’s striking how often we get this visual, in particular in relation to Dean. In addition to the above examples, we have Lady Toni threaten Dean with the Sharp Pointy Stick of Ouch:
In the Foundry, the doll you’d give only to children you hate (found by Mary, so a minor exception to the rule?) is missing its left eye:
And then, most recently I believe (I’ll need to rewatch 12.15 to see if I’ve missed something there) you have this graffiti behind Ketch and Dean that may just be coincidence but the line through the eye is quite striking to me nonetheless.
Also, this might be part of the thing too?
I still can’t quite put a finger on what this symbolism is referring to, but given that I’m of the opinion that Bad Thing lies on Dean’s horizon this season, I don’t get feel good vibes from it.
Lmao this American girl walked up to a Hungry Jacks (Burger King) register with her drink and really, really loudly (I was at the other side of the place) proclaimed:
“I asked for Lemonade, you gave me Sprite” in a really bitchy, entitled voice.
The cashier (and everyone within earshot) just looked at her like “the fuck is wrong with you”
In Australia, Sprite IS lemonade as far as we’re concerned.
Yeah this is correct. Lemonade is sprite. Clear fizzy liquid type thing. Solo is closer to what American lemonade is but we don’t actually have what you guys consider lemonade anyway so she was never going to get what she wanted lmao.
Y’ALL AIN’T GOT LEMONADE?!?!??
madness…
“we don’t actually have what you guys consider lemonade“
That entire continent exists on a different realm of existence
IT IS THE SAME DAMN THING. You Yankees and your fifty brands of the same 😛
LEMONADE AND SPRITE ARE NOTHING ALIKE
Things heating up in the drink fandom
I’m pretty sure the same is true in the UK at least was in 2010 except Sprite didn’t seem to be a common brand so I’d ask for Sprite get blank looks eventually figured out to ask for lemonade
Sprite is a recognised brand here, but it’s not omnipresent, it is also considered a brand of lemonade.
This is fucked up.
Sprite: lemon-lime soda (pop/carbonated beverage).
Lemonade: lemons, water, and sugar. Still.
LEMONADE IS NOT CARBONATED WHATT HEFUCC CK ARE YOU ALL DOIGN
Living? Sensibly?
Also on what planet does Sprite have lime in it.
Sprite, the lemon-lime flavored
carbonated beverage, is made on Earth.
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, the densest planet in the Solar System, the largest of the Solar System’s four terrestrial planets, and the only astronomical object known to harbor Sprite.
The people of Earth are known as “Earthlings” or “Spriteloids” interchangeably (although not to each other).
At least in the UK, if you order lemonade you’ll sometimes get Sprite, but if it’s proper it’s a lemon soda akin to the Italian gassosa – less sweet than Sprite.
Oh shit, I’ve had gassosa, it’s AMAZING.
I just want to say that the whole ‘lemonade and Sprite are interchangeable’ is pretty common throughout Asia as well, in my experience
You guys have orange juice at least, right? Grapefruit juice? In the US, Lemonade is a juice, like orange juice, but made with lemons instead of oranges. You can buy “fresh squeezed lemonade” at many restaurants and fast food venues. Typically it’s diluted a bit with sugar water, so the sour flavor of the raw lemon juice isn’t so overpowering.
In the south, it’s very common for people buy whole lemons and make their own lemonade at home using a citrus juicer.
In Germany, you’d ask for “Limonade” and yeah, you may get a Sprite or a Fanta; it’ll always be a fizzy nonalcoholic drink and usually come in lemon, lime, orange flavor. Only in healthfood or hipster establishments would it ever be an actual juice drink.
As a fan of homemade rosewater lemonade, I am twitching at the thought of sickly sweet carbonated beverages that taste like they were invented by someone who may have been in the same room as a citrus fruit once but can’t remember what it actually tastes like being called lemonade.
Wtf did y’all think beyonce was talking about????
oh wow I hadn’t even considered that. Like millions of people worldwide hearing the album title but not understanding what lemonade means even on the most superficial level.
This is so epically disturbing. Lemonade is such an integral part of spring and summertime. I just … this breaks my brain and my heart. The cultural references too. Just, all the American shows that reference lemonade and people in other countries are thinking Sprite? There’s a reason kids do freshly squeezed lemonade stands. You can’t buy it like that from a store. And there’s nothing quite like screwing it up and getting the sugar ratio wrong. And parents grinning through the too sour or too sweet mess and praising your efforts. Lemonade Is a Thing.
Wait does that mean Aussies make Shandies with sprite?????
Does this mean a significant portion of the global population don’t know what to do when life hands you lemons?
Yes, Australians make Shandies with our carbonated soft drink lemonade, though if you’re using it as a mixer, you’re less likely to be using Sprite and more likely to be using Schweppes, which looks like this:
Like. We absolutely have a concept of flat, juice-based lemonade, but as an earlier commenter said, it’s a niche hipster speciality rather than the default, and even then, it’s still going to be premade rather than fresh.
OH GOD THAT’S WHY AMERICAN CHILDREN CAN MAKE IT AND SELL IT SO EASILY. I ALWAYS WONDERED HOW KIDS COULD MAKE A CARBONATED DRINK AT HOME.
As someone who grew up drinking Limeade (lemons were expensive) this fucking wild.
This makes me wonder how often we all *think* we’re talking about the same thing when our definitions are in fact wildly different. I thought the breadstick meme thing was the peak of food misunderstanding, but this takes it to new levels.
In case it’s unclear: Americans do not grill our pets to serve on the 4th of July.
President Trump is seeking to recruit, and where that fails, compel local law enforcement agencies to help his administration pursue its mass deportation agenda.
In response to this effort and many other Trump administration plans that fly in the face of our Constitution and norms, the ACLU is launching an ambitious campaign called “Freedom Cities.” Immigration will be the first battle we wage, but many others are coming. On immigration, just like activists organized locally to demand the release of people detained at our airports by federal authorities, People Power activists we will organize in our communities to ensure that our local law enforcement officials defend – not threaten – our friends, families, and neighbors. People Power will be a powerful grassroots force supporting the ACLU’s efforts to propose, support, and win local laws that make it more difficult for President Trump to pursue his dangerous agenda. And make no mistake about it, America’s cities, counties and towns are places we can and will win.
As part of this local grassroots strategy, the ACLU has identified areas in which municipal opposition to, or lack of cooperation with, the Trump administration will impede objectionable policies the president is pursuing.
ACLU’s “Freedom Cities” plan brings local grassroots activists together and provides a blueprint for local-level campaigns – in cities and counties – to defend our communities and block the worst abuses of the Trump administration. These are campaigns that will generate victories in the short term even as we work towards comprehensive protections nationwide in the long term.
The ACLU is calling for help on a grassroots level, with your mayor, your police chief, your city council. The ACLU streamed an online training event on 3/11/17. You can still watch a video of the event on their website and sign up for updates.
If you think your genetics are your own personal beeswax, think again. Amidst all the hoopla surrounding the Affordable Care Act this week, the House GOP quietly pushed forward a bill – HR 1313 – that would make it legal for employers to demand genetic testing from workers. Workers who refuse could be penalized for thousands of dollars.
On Wednesday, a House committee approved the bill with “all 22 Republicans supporting it and all 17 Democrats opposed,” according to Business Insider.
it’s called “american eugenics led the nazis to their plans no seriously we came up with this shit and didn’t actually stop until the seventies”
“and it directly targets the poor and minorities and disabled people and hey you know what’s really not cool is forced sterilizations which totally happened until 2010 in california”
“and- you know what, this song parody got derailed ages ago but hey seriously this is bad.
this was invasive under the ACA but adding genetic testing takes it a step further. It can impact your entire family and absolutely will be used to punish people for existing
fuck this
It was introduced by NC Representative Virginia Foxx too (the woman who questioned the validity of Matthew Shepard’s hate crimes in front of his mother).
If it doesn’t pass THIS TIME? It’ll pass once they’ve reworded/changed it. Why? Because people in this country have ALREADY given up their privacy. I mean, I watch these TV Commercials for Genealogy Services that will tell you what percentage of your genetic history comes from what part of the world. And all I can think is:
Do people not realize they are GIVING A PRIVATE COMPANY ACCESS TO/THE OPPORTUNITY TO RECORD *** YOUR FUCKING DNA PROFILE***?!?!?!?! That, once your genetic record/Genetic Identity IS OUT OF YOUR CARE/CONTROL, it’s GONE. It’s OUT THERE. There ARE NO TAKE-BACKsies.
Yet I see more and more of these services. More and more commercials which usually means money is being made. People are giving up the most basic facet of their identities for coffee table discussion fodder.
If this doesn’t pass. The next one will.
The thing is this bill repeals the legal protections that right now keep those private companies from abusing your genetic data along with giving your employer the right to demand you take a genetic test.
American Indians and their supporters are rallying in Washington against continued construction of the disputed Dakota Access pipeline.
A federal judge this week declined to halt construction of the final section of the $3.8 billion pipeline, meaning oil could begin flowing through it as early as next week.
The Standing Rock Sioux and other tribes have tried to stop the pipeline, saying it threatens their sovereignty, religious rights and water supply. The final, disputed section of the pipeline would pass under a reservoir that provides water to tribal reservations. The pipeline itself is not on tribal land.
On Friday, protesters marched from the Army Corps of Engineers headquarters to the White House. With the encouragement of President Donald Trump’s administration, the Army authorized construction of the pipeline to start again. That move canceled an environmental study ordered under the administration of President Barack Obama. (AP)
(Photos: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, Kevin Lamarque/Reuters, Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images [2], Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Hearseeno 