Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
We’re not going to mince words here: It’s really freaking hard to get the average person to care about some civil war in the Middle East. The news from that part of the world is an endless barrage of images of bombed-out buildings and broken people — it just becomes white noise after a while….
ISIS — the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — is one of the least funny organizations on the planet. From child trafficking to attempted genocide, everything they touch turns into a big steaming pile of tragedy. Things seem to be going pretty well for them, too. The West’s new boogeymen captured the city of…
War is the perfect setting for roughly 100 percent of our Call Of Duties and our Rambos. It is a less-than-perfect setting for the civilians who happen to live in those war-torn countries. Cracked sent a writer, a photographer, and a translator near the front lines of the war in Ukraine (yes, seriously — why…
If you’ve been on an airplane in the last few decades, you’ve had a close encounter of the TSA kind. We’re all annoyed about taking our shoes off, throwing out our sweet pocket machetes, and emptying all of our delicious exotic liquids just to please The Man. We sat down with someone who spent most…
Men and women have been power-starting their work day with coffee since the 1600s when the new settlers of New Amsterdam began to drink it instead of tea. We chug it steaming hot from paper cups on commuter trains, we sip it from insulated thermoses while speeding along the highway, we wait on line to…
Claim: A photograph shows a young Syrian child “surrendering” to a camera after mistaking it for a gun. TRUE Example: [Collected via email, November 2015] Syrian child holding her arms up in surrender because she thought the camera was a gun? Any idea if this is true? Origins: As fear of refugees reached fever pitch…
Learning how to act like a lady online is hard. Revealing swimsuits and underwear are okay, unless you happen to be plus-sized. Breastfeeding wasn’t okay to show, but now it is. Body hair is acceptable for men, but not so much for women. Even if you’re fully clothed, you could still be censored if it’s…
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Many of America’s political leaders are warning of the dangers posed by Syrian refugees. They are underestimating, though, the much greater danger: dumbass hicks, in charge of things. The mayor of Roanoke, Virginia approvingly cites Japanese internment camps in a statement explaining why Roanoke will not accept Syrian refugees. The mayor of Jacksonville, Florida says…
During a press conference this morning, President Obama used the term “pop off” in reference to people making uninformed and patently ridiculous claims about what should be done with France and ISIS. And, unless I go outside today and witness a Sojourner Truth hologram double dutching with Marilyn Mosby, I’m very confident in declaring that the Black…