This story involves the Koch brothers, so you’ve been warned that by the end you will want to kick someone, hard.

In exchange for a 1.5 million dollar grant to Florida State’s Economics department, Charles Koch gets to screen and sign off on any new hires.

You want to know why economists are such doouchenoodles (both in theory and in real life)? This is why. No one who has a different opinion from the standard “give rich people everything and suffer the small folks” can get hired. But because we’ve massively defunded education publicly, universities gotta make up the difference somehow. And people are catching on that maybe needing to take out 50k worth of loans to get an basic bachelor’s degree and still not get a job is a bad idea, so schools can’t wring any more cash out of their students. So corporate shitbags get to set the agenda from the very beginning by making sure that the only theories out there are theories that benefit them. They pay off the theory makers and educators. Students never see another side.

This story gets a h/t to Ruth, who didn’t know until she went to college that people had died for the right to organize their labor. She didn’t get that info in the very good public schools she attended as a kid, even though she was a geek like me and read all of the assigned history books. She got a different view of how the world could be from a community college prof. If the Koch brothers, or even Miscrosoft, was funding that school, she might never have learned about it.

In other higher ed news, the other day 50 University of Washington students stormed the president’s office to protest the fact that the school contracts with Sodexo, known for their human rights abuses. 25 of them got arrested.

Blogger has eaten the last 2 days of posts. Fuck you blogger.

I had my long waited for furniture appointment today. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, and they would have delivered big stuff, but if I wanted anything small (lamps for example) then I would have to carry it home with me. I was gonna get a ride but my ride has recently joined the ranks of the disemployed and overindulged last night. So I took the bus. I figured I’d skip the little stuff. What I really need and can’t fit in a car is a bed for me and a sofa & loveseat.

But there wasn’t a single bed available. Not a sofa either. I get to reschedule and come back (which means at least 2 more months sans furniture). I was a bit disheartened.

So I called my caseworker and since I tried to get a second hand bed and couldn’t, I could go to a mattress store and buy one (as long as it’s under $600). The only store she knew of is way far south, but I thought they had one downtown. And they do. And in a week or so I will have, for the first time in my entire life, a brand new mattress and boxspring. A brand new bed of my very own. A bed after 6 months of sleeping on a loveseat or an airmattress. A BED FUCK YEAH.

So for the 2 hours of bus time, 5 bucks in bus fair, and the $2.20 that my bed went over $600 I have a bed. I think that was a well spent morning.

I found this at Abagond. Go read, it is dead on.

Workers stand in the pouring rain today holding a sign that reads “Ross Dress For Less Hurts Our Communities”.

Kid and I were downtown today when I spotted these nice peeps with their banner. It was very wet out, and yet there they were braving the rain to get fairness for workers. I asked if I could take a pic and write a post and here it is. These are members of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters who are in the middle of a labor dispute with several subcontractors of a company called SD Beacon. The contractors are in trouble for not paying area standard wages, including skipping out on health and welfare benefits for workers and their families. SD Beacon is bidding on a Ross project.

The Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters is asking that we call Micheal O’Sullivan at (925) 965-4400 and tell him that he needs to do all he can to see that area labor standards are met for ALL Ross stores’ construction projects.

So pick up your phone and give a holler. You can also get more info from PNWCoC by calling (877)235-3184

So I clicked on one of BLCKGRD’s links about Obama’s new post-killin’ poll numbers. It took me to TPM and damn you should warn a girl before sending her into cult land. These are the people who talk about politics like it’s a game to be won, while ignoring that the field they are playing on is made up of the backs of us little folk.

Fuckers.

There’s only one more thing left to say:

Someone actually donated money just to keep hearing dog stories. No story this time, just a cute picture of the best damn dog in the world- Winifred P. Cooper (I don’t know why her middle initial is P, I just call her that and her human doesn’t mind). I can tell you that this dog will lick my toes if I’m not wearing shoes. She rolls over on her back and demands belly rubs when she sees me. And she may love Sylvie slightly more than she loves me, or she could just be extra excited because Sylvie smells like C-A-T. That’s what Amanda, Winnie’s human says anyway. She may be sparing my feelings.

(Look at that face. It’s soooooooo cute and plead-y. Don’t ya just want to snorgle her to bits)

Apparently May 21 a whole bunch of planets will align.

Since I am a godless whore, I am thinking of making a trip up to Ballard to liberate property left behind by the assholes of the uber-conservative + tattoos Mars Hill Church. I figure if I find a truck first, then all my furniture needs will be taken care of.

So the end times mean interior decorating for me. What do you peeps plan on doing when the end times come? “shopping”, drinking, continuing on like nothing happened (I think most of us will be doing that).

So I got bedding, the most delicious dark gunmetal grey sheets and a comforter that was supposed to be pale pink, but is actually peach.

Peach, fucking peach. Non-returnable peach.

Is it too retro 80’s? Will I have to put a nagel posterover my bed and get black lacquer furniture?

So there’s this post up at Feministe (I know, I hear the groans, I share the groans) about the band Odd Future and misogyny in their lyrics. The author (whom I believe is a dude going by name alone, but I could be wrong) spends a fuck load of screen space trying to figure out if a song about kidnapping, raping and torturing a girl because the rapist likes her and she doesn’t like him back is misogynist.

It’s pretty simple dude. Rape is kinda the ultimate expression of misogyny. Doesn’t matter how oppressed a rapist may be in other aspects (age, race, class and even sexual orientation) because one form, or even multiple forms of oppression don’t cancel out another. No need to twist and turn, hem and haw. It’s pretty simple. Rape is always bad. Kidnapping and torture are always bad. Always.