flybythroughthenight:

atheistme:

the REAL golden rule

This has been my golden rule for eons.

For their new study, published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics, researchers Nanette Gartrell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco (and a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles), and Henry Bos, a behavioral scientist at the University of Amsterdam, focused on what they call planned lesbian families — households in which the mothers identified themselves as lesbian at the time of artificial insemination. Data on such families are sparse, but they are important for establishing whether a child’s environment in a home with same-sex parents would be any more or less nurturing than one with a heterosexual couple. (See a gay-rights timeline.) The authors found that children raised by lesbian mothers — whether the mother was partnered or single — scored very similarly to children raised by heterosexual parents on measures of development and social behavior. These findings were expected, the authors said; however, they were surprised to discover that children in lesbian homes scored higher than kids in straight families on some psychological measures of self-esteem and confidence, did better academically and were less likely to have behavioral problems, such as rule-breaking and aggression. “We simply expected to find no difference in psychological adjustment between adolescents reared in lesbian families and the normative sample of age-matched controls,” says Gartrell. “I was surprised to find that on some measures we found higher levels of [psychological] competency and lower levels of behavioral problems. It wasn’t something I anticipated.” In addition, children in same-sex-parent families whose mothers ended up separating did as well as children in lesbian families in which the moms stayed together. The data that Gartrell and Bos analyzed came from the U.S. National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS), begun in 1986. The authors included 154 women in 84 families who underwent artificial insemination to start a family; the parents agreed to answer questions about their children’s social skills, academic performance and behavior at five follow-up times over the 17-year study period. Children in the families were interviewed by researchers at age 10 and were then asked at age 17 to complete an online questionnaire, which included queries about the teens’ activities, social lives, feelings of anxiety or depression, and behavior. Not surprisingly, the researchers found that 41% of children reported having endured some teasing, ostracism or discrimination related to their being raised by same-sex parents. But Gartrell and Bos could find no differences on psychological adjustment tests between the children and those in a group of matched controls. At age 10, children reporting discrimination did exhibit more signs of psychological stress than their peers, but by age 17, the feelings had dissipated. “Obviously there are some factors that may include family support and changes in education about appreciation for diversity that may be helping young people to come to a better place despite these experiences,” says Gartrell. It’s not clear exactly why children of lesbian mothers tend to do better than those in heterosexual families on certain measures. But after studying gay and lesbian families for 24 years, Gartrell has some theories. “They are very involved in their children’s lives,” she says of the lesbian parents. “And that is a great recipe for healthy outcomes for children. Being present, having good communication, being there in their schools, finding out what is going on in their schools and various aspects of the children’s lives is very, very important.” Although active involvement isn’t unique to lesbian households, Gartrell notes that same-sex mothers tend to make that kind of parenting more of a priority. Because their children are more likely to experience discrimination and stigmatization as a result of their family circumstances, these mothers can be more likely to broach complicated topics, such as sexuality and diversity and tolerance, with their children early on. Having such a foundation may help to give these children more confidence and maturity in dealing with social differences and prejudices as they get older. Because the research is ongoing, Gartrell hopes to test some of these theories with additional studies. She is also hoping to collect more data on gay-father households; gay fatherhood is less common than lesbian motherhood because of the high costs of surrogacy or adoption that gay couples face in order to start a family. (emphasis added) This is robust research. Any banal “WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?!1?” battle cry about the sanctity of marriage as an institution solely for manufacturing humans in a ‘good environment’ is not an argument; it’s an opinion. It is something used to justify discrimination and statism in the private matters of parenting. Neocons, meet science.

Why I’m tired of people demanding government ‘protect’ traditional marriage ‘for the kids’.

jeffmiller:

“On Monday, a 5-4 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court approved strip searches of everyone entering jail after arrest for even the most minor offense. The ruling exposed a disturbing insensitivity.
The plaintiffs in the case, Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, were arrested for relatively minor offenses, such as walking a dog without a leash. Their lawsuit challenged a policy in two New Jersey detention facilities where all arrested people are strip-searched before joining the inside population.
In one facility, this means “a complete disrobing, followed by an examination of the nude inmate … by the supervising officer, which is then followed by a supervised shower with a delousing agent.” In the other facility, the booking process “required groups of 30 to 40 arrestees to enter a large shower room, simultaneously remove all of their clothing, place it in boxes and then shower.”
If you have ever driven over the speed limit in New Jersey, it could be you in that shower.”

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Court ruling on strip searches is unjust – CNN.com

I think the Court’s decision is beyond disappointing, but it has helped to expose a real problem in America.  Too many Americans expect only the Court to guard their civil liberties.  Americans need to demand that all branches of government guard their civil liberties.  If your local police department is strip-searching people who speed, you need to vote all responsible office-holders out of office.  You need to do this even if you agree with them on hot-button issues like abortion, over which they actually exercise no actual control.

This is horrifying.

And while I would certainly not compare it to what went on in concentration camps during WWII, the imagery this invoked for me was eerily reminiscent of a scene I think was from ‘Schindler’s List’. Perhaps that’s unique to my neural synapses, but this is still dehumanizing and should not be tolerated.

libertarians-and-stoya: The top hedge fund guru, Raymond Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, hauled in $3 billion, which comes to a whopping $1,442,308 an HOUR, (assuming he worked 40 hours a week for 52 weeks.) It would take the typical U.S. family 29.2 YEARS to earn as much as Mr. Dalio earned in one HOUR. How much is $3 billion per year? It’s hard to wrap one’s head around a number as large as a billion. Here’s some context… That’s as much as 60,673 typical U.S. families earn: Just think about that for a moment. One person earns as much as sixty thousand hard working middle class families. That’s enough to hire 85,911 entry level teachers: While we’re laying off teachers right and left to close budgets that were destroyed by the Wall Street crash, Wall Street’s top hedge fund manager earns as much in one year as tens of thousands of entry level teachers who on average earn $34,920 a year. That what we get for failing to rein in Wall Street. That’s enough to hire 17,143 pediatricians: How is it possible for money managers to be as “valuable” as thousands of doctors who protect the heath of our children and earn on average $175,000 a year? That’s enough to wipe out the student loan debts for 120,000 graduates. The average loan burden for graduating students is now $25,000. One year of income from Mr. Dalio could wipe-out the entire average student debt of 120,000 graduates. That’s enough to wipe out the negative equity of 46,153 average homeowners: Today there are approximately, 11.1 million homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than the home is worth. The average negative equity is $65,000. The top hedge fund guru’s yearly income would cover the negative equity of 46,153 of those homes. And the irony is that Wall Street crash is directly responsible for the creation of the housing bubble and the crash of home value. That’s enough to cover the per person average health care costs of 397,984 Americans. America has the most expensive health care system in the world at a per capita cost of $7,538. Yet one hedge fund manager makes enough to cover the health care costs of nearly four hundred thousand Americans.How can that be? That’s more than the Gross Domestic Product of the 5 poorest African nations combined: The following countries have a combined GDP of less than $3 billion as of 2010; Liberia, Seychelles, Guinea-Bissau, Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe. Together these five nations have a population of 6.3 million. One American equals 6.3 million Africans? That’s enough to feed 62 million hungry school children for a year: Our obscene distribution of income becomes even more obscene when compared to world hunger. What a top hedge fund manager makes in one year could feed 61.9 million school children from all over the world for one year. What he makes in one HOUR is enough to provide a nutritious meal to 29,748 hungry kids every day for one YEAR. >implying hedging is as easy as teaching >implying people should make more than the value of services rendered Money envy. Money envy everywhere. I talked to a hedge fund manager once. Shit looks incredibly hard to do. Haha, ‘assuming he works 40 hrs per week’. That’s a joke, right?The opportunity cost for missing your kids grow up and spending your youth crunching numbers is pretty damn high. Just saying.

A Single Hedge-Fund Hustler Makes More Than 85,000 Teachers: Why Are Our Priorities So Messed Up?

conza: kileyrae: conza replied to your post: Apparently Ron Paul was on campus today. I found a beautiful post for you. And this one too. One more. That was fun. 1. A “beautiful post” consisting of absolutely no arguments. Wow, you clearly have ‘high’ standards! So… The bit on sanctions is particularly worth reading. Sanctions create a stronger dependence on the authoritarian regimes they supposedly fight, because they artificially concentrate market share between fewer producers and result in the high level of nationalist sentiment which crises and authoritarianism thrive under.

Conza: An Obama 2012 Supporter Attempts to Engage

lalibertarienne: Radio program “This American Life” has retracted a “partially fabricated” story about author and actor Mike Daisey’s visit to a Foxconn factory in China. The retraction was announced in a blog post written by show host Ira Glass. “We’ve learned that Mike Daisey’s story about Apple in China…

Raison et liberte: American Life retracts partially fabricated story about Foxconn factory

George Takei at Rohwer Camp in Arkansas, where he and his family were imprisoned during World War II. More info.

Regardless of your personal politics, do not ever claim that Ron Paul is racist. You may disagree with the man, perhaps you just don’t like him, but to make blatantly nonsensical personal accusations at any individual is to commit intellectual fraud and it does, in fact, call into question your integrity.

Can someone tell me what ‘non-faith’ even means?

The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.

Milton Friedman  (via libertyidaho)

Discrimination is inefficient; if it persists, government intervention is likely the problem.