By Iris Vander Pluym on 02.14.16
[CONTENT NOTE: harassment, domestic terrorism.]
Q: Should Anti-Abortion Activists Be Allowed to Harass Preschoolers?
A: No.
THE END.
I hope this edition of Ask Iris has been helpful.
Have a nice day.
Read MoreTHAT GOD, THO.
By Iris Vander Pluym, January 10, 2016
[CONTENT NOTE: mass shootings, domestic terrorism, description of a rape, domestic violence. No violent images.]
A longtime Loyal Reader™ sent us an image of a recent New York Daily News cover, which we found quite interesting.
The New York Daily News, in case you are blissfully unacquainted, is a New York metro-area tabloid that could perhaps best be described as the unholy offspring of the city’s two other daily rags, the New York Times and Rupert Murdoch’s bird cage liner The New York Post. Its editorial slant is yawningly predictable and pro-status quo; its coverage of the pope’s recent visit, for example, fawning. In a word: conservative. That is why it is extraordinary to see this headline in giant screaming letters: “GOD ISN’T FIXING THIS.” The “this” refers to the recent shoot-’em-up that left 14 dead in San Bernadino.
Read MoreConservatives ruining lives as usual, this time in Myanmar.
By Iris Vander Pluym on 12.13.15
As far away as Myanmar is from the US—and given the relative dearth of Buddhists here—see if any of this sounds oddly familiar to you.
Ma Ba Tha is a group of hardline, ultranationalist, racist Buddhist monks in Myanmar. The name Ma Ba Tha is an acronym for, roughly, “Association for the Protection of Race and Religion.” They are not the only Buddhist monks in overwhelmingly Buddhist Myanmar (also known as Burma), but they have seized an outsized amount of power and influence in the Southeast Asian country.
Read MoreHow To Be a Minimally Decent Human Being 101.
By Iris Vander Pluym - 11.08.15
[CONTENT NOTE: racism, sexism.]
Once upon a time I was a “legal secretary.” I toiled for years at NYC law firms—and, with apologies to my veteran friends—for what we in the staff ranks called "combat pay."
The gig pays well in part because it requires a specific skill set, including fluency in legalese (and esoteric dialects thereof), superhuman abilities in deciphering horrendous writing, software proficiency across the entire MS Office suite and more. But let's face it: that job pays well because lawyers.
Read MoreIRIS HAS A TERRIBLE HEADACHE FROM DRUGS.
By Iris Vander Pluym on 10.11.15
Here we have a Washington Post story highlighting a recent "scandal": Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of an off-patent AIDS drug by over 5,000 percent. The Post reports:
The major pharmaceutical and biotech industry groups have portrayed Shkreli's actions as totally repugnant and the work of just one company, acting alone, with a flippant young chief executive who doesn't reflect the broader values, practices, or trends of other companies.
Read MoreDrones vs. anti-drone laser cannons for fun and profit.
By Iris Vander Pluym - 09.13.15
People, prepare to be dazzled—if unsurprised—by my astonishing prescience.
On a Monday I was dining out with my partner, so of course the topic of drones naturally came up. We were discussing a recent article by The Washington Post’s Craig Whitlock; thanks to a whistleblower at FAA, we now know about the 700 near-collisions between planes and drones this year (so far).
“But don’t worry about it!” I scoffed. “Drone manufacturers will surely come up with a perfect solution to the very drone menace they created! Then our tax dollars will not only pay for drones themselves, we’ll also happily pay America’s Owners for the technology to neutralize them! WIN-WIN!”
Read More