If you can’t follow the writing, I don’t blame you. This is what happens when you teach ugly five-buck words (“eventuates”) and business slang (“unnatural barriers to production”) to someone with the writing education of a ninth-grader. But the real sin goes deeper, because The Hunger Games emphatically is not a latter-day Atlas Shrugged for kids. Panem’s dictatorial Capitol isn’t evil because it restrains “self-interested individuals” from “creat[ing] what they’re best at so that they can trade their production for that of others.” It’s evil because it overlays a neo-feudal state — in which the Districts owe the Capitol fealty, and receive in exchange nothing but their lives — with Roman-style decadence, inhumanly maintained in willful ignorance of the suffering of others. Katniss’ continuous narrative throughout the book offers a ringing indictment of thoughtless opulence and the culture of selfish entitlement it creates, while contrasting such sins with the friendly congregationalism of the rural poor. These aren’t inobvious themes: the name “Panem,” the gladitorial pageantry of the Games, and the Capitol’s preference for Latin names (Cato, Titus, Seneca, Octavia, Cinna) all identify Panem’s rich-poor gap as a basic sin of empire, so common throughout human history, and demonstrate an artificial scarcity that’s the product of self-interested imperialism, not regulation.

Moreover, throughout the books, neither wealth nor the pursuit of wealth ever correlate with morality. Quite the opposite. During the Games, we see corporations and rich sponsors spending staggering sums of money on Tributes, but only to make the children’s suffering more entertaining, not to help them for their own sake. In books two and three, the Capitol’s rebels renounce both their wealth and privilege in solidarity with the Districts, but also of necessity. And, when Katniss herself becomes wealthy after her triumph in the first Games, she makes a point of sharing her wealth, by inviting friends to live with her in the victor’s villas. Truly, while neither really applies, the economic morality of The Hunger Games is less Rand than Marx.

The author’s not wrong to note other obvious themes, like the virtues of individualism and self-reliance (the “natural, and very American, urge to be free”). Both are plainly on display in Katniss’ idyllic hunts with Gale, conducted in derogation of the Capitol’s ban on hunting. But the Capitol’s hunting “regulations” aren’t products of a well-intentioned nanny state. They’re enacted because Panem’s imperial overlords need scarcity to keep the Districts poor and weak.

I understand Forbes’ need to build The Hunger Games into a paean to conservative economic morality. There simply are no good science fiction or fantasy stories about conservative economic values. We don’t want to hear how Ron Weasley is poorer than Harry Potter because of “the human error frequently behind poverty”; how Kvothe Kingkiller used his first silver talents to short-sell iron futures, made a fortune, and spent the rest of his life kicking beggars in Tarbean; or how Saruman’s strategy of strip-mining Fangorn and scouring the Shire improved efficiency and made him Middle Earth’s greatest job creator. These aren’t good stories, because they aren’t human stories. They don’t inspire. Maybe there’s a lesson in that.

kingcheddarxvii:

I saw this post going around and I’m really happy that it has so many notes! But none of the posts had it properly sourced, so I’d like to point out that this animation was made by my good friend pancakestein. She’s an amazing artist and it’s pretty clear that a lot of people admire her work! It really made me happy to see so many people were as amazed by this flash as I was. It’s simple, sketchy even, but it’s so well-timed with the music and it just has this wonder style to it, like a pen doodle coming to life. Really, really well done. She’s got an amazing future ahead of her.

nom-chompsky:

hermione-ganja:

queenweiner-looks:

feistyfeminist:

Illinois students grill Rick Santorum after teacher interrupts stump speech

sarahlee310:

GOP presidential challenger Rick Santorum faced three tough questions from high school students…

8bitian:

enenkay:

New York, New York by Reel Big Fish

Been listening to this song while I work on commissions.

Oh, New York. I will achieve my goals and live there soon.

Fuck I love this version SO MUCH

Always reblog

occupyallstreets:

Shell Reveals That Chief Executive’s Pay Doubled In 2011 As It Admits To 207 Oil Spills In 2011

Shell chief executive Peter Voser earned more than £10m last year in pay and bonuses at a time of near-record oil prices and in a year when the firm was responsible for 207 oil spills – considerably more than the year before.

The remuneration, made up of salary, bonuses and long-term incentive schemes, was more than double the figure for 2010 but the company said it was justified by Shell’s strong operating and share-price performance. The oil firm reported global annual earnings of $28.6bn (£18bn) in 2011 – or more than £2m an hour – a 54% increase on the previous year.

Voser’s pay was revealed in the company’s annual report less than 24 hours after directors were criticised by British MPs for alleged complacency over safety plans for future drilling in the Arctic.

Shell said in its report that the number of “operational spills over 100 kilograms” increased to 207 during 2011 from 195 in 2010, but it admitted the figure for last year could still grow. The group is still investigating a further four spills in Nigeria that it admits “may result in adjustments to the 2011 data”. A similar adjustment was made to the 2010 number.

Among the confirmed spills last year was a leak from a pipeline connected to the Gannet Alpha platform in the North Sea, plus one off the Bonga field in Nigeria. The company said that it regretted both incidents, but had taken “prompt and comprehensive response actions”.

Shell admitted that environmental problems it was still grappling with included 23 square kilometres of “ponds” containing toxic metals caused by the mining of tar sands at Athabasca in Alberta, Canada. It said it was still working with local authorities on what to do about the discovery of fresh water from a local aquifer in the bottom of one pond at the Muskeg River Mine, Athabasca.

Source

stfuconservatives:

newwavefeminism:

lau-ra-sau-rus:

thedisgruntledgradstudent:

afterromulus:

librariansoul:

icaruscalling:

Okay, I found the source for this map. It’s from here. That’s it in PDF,

This is the page about the 2012 report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and here is the full report in PDF (in just under 250 pages).

Some 2011 information.

This makes me feel ill.

Well doesn’t this just explain everything

AND… that just ruined my dinner.

dysfunction.

you mean legal levels of minimum wage at best put workers who spend their entire day laboring doesn’t even provide them with LIVABLE a standard of living? But people on welfare are parasites & freeloaders to the state? HMMMMMMMM

(reblogging for references & commentary)

8bitian:

magnoliapearl:

angfdz:

logicallunacy:

passrevoked:

This had to be on purpose, right? Where’s the source?!

:O

knitmeapony:

saathi1013:

rurone:

I literally gasped when I saw this.

Bulbasaur 4evar

For: knitmeapony, cookingbaconshirtless.

WHO IS A SWEET LITTLE BABY?  IS IT YOU?  YES IT IS!