Blogaround

An adorable black kitty. Image source.

1. Out gay Olympic swimmer to Daily Beast: You just put my Olympic friends' lives at risk (posted August 11) "In the article Hines, a straight man, bragged about going on the gay dating app Grindr and getting Olympic athletes to reveal their identities to him."

2. Katie Ledecky wins gold, shatters 800m free world record (posted August 12)

I think this tweet summed it up nicely:

Katie Ledecky, pictured with the 7 next best swimmers in the world. pic.twitter.com/3C08xu9DL7

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger_sherman) 2016年8月13日

3. what hast thou wrought: Christians and Trump (posted August 10) "They have to take that chance. They have to because being anti-abortion is all they’ve got."

4. Patriarchy and Performance: Olympic Gymnastics is SO UNFAIR (posted August 12) "Men get to do their thing in pants. Pants! Women have to wear sparkly leotards that they have glued to their hinies so nothing rides up their butt on national television. Because even if Simone Biles can do things with her body that literally no one else in the world can do, you know if she picked a wedge that would be the only news worthy thing for the next twenty-four hours."

5. Black People Deserve the Same Compassion We Give White Allies Who Screw Up (posted August 11) "I am NOT here for calls to show grace to white people for “trying” if there is ZERO acknowledgement that Black folks aren’t treated the same way."

6. Kenny Baker, actor behind R2-D2, dies (posted August 13)

7. Sinister rumors connect Hillary Clinton with tree-planting in Malawi (posted August 9) "He’s not interested in what the charity is doing, but he’s very, very interested in insidious speculation about what it maybe possibly could be imagined to maybe possibly have done."

8. NYC Muslims "outraged" over imam's daylight murder (posted August 14)

9. the brand new NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible-- some first impressions (posted August 15) "There are certainly debates about the composition of Isaiah, but every biblical scholar in the solar system, outside of some (by no means all) evangelical circles, agrees that the 8th-century prophet is not responsible for all 66 chapters, and that the final form of the book dates to the exilic and postexilic periods."

10. Trump’s “Obama founded ISIS” comments are outrageous. They’re also deeply ignorant. (posted August 11) "The issue here is that this plays into actual conspiracy theories about the founding of ISIS. Many people within the Middle East believe the United States is secretly helping ISIS in order to weaken states in the region. Trump’s phrasing just puts more fuel on the fire."

11. 'It's because I had my period': swimmer Fu Yuanhui praised for breaking taboo (posted August 15) "Chinese sports fans used social media to praise Fu for breaking the silence surrounding the menstrual cycles of female athletes. Many said they had not realised it was possible for a woman to swim during her period. “Our Ms Fu dares to say anything,” wrote one user of Weibo, China’s Twitter." Also, Fu Yuanhui's interviews have been shared a lot on Chinese social media this week, because she is HILARIOUS.

12. The media vs. Donald Trump: why the press feels so free to criticize the Republican nominee (posted August 16) "A case in point was Trump barring the Post from his rallies. Rather than endangering the Post’s reputation, it made the Post a symbol of free journalism within the profession. When editor Marty Baron (correctly) said Trump’s action was "nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press" and that the Post’s coverage of Trump would continue "honorably, honestly, accurately, energetically, and unflinchingly," every journalist I know cheered him for it."

13. A Conversation with Nate Parker about 'The Birth of a Nation' (posted August 11) "When you think about Nat Turner and what he did, if you're able to view this film without the baggage of racism, then it's very clearly a story of someone that was compelled by his faith to act as the hand of the God through his interpretation."

14. If abortion is murder, then you shouldn’t be a single-issue voter against it (posted August 15) "Someone is murdering a baby! Quick, let’s register some voters for a party that we hope will one day pack the highest court with enough justices to ensure that, some day in the future, such baby-killing is illegal."