Blogaround

Photo from a drag show at HUNT bar. Image source.

1. Help support LGBTQ bar in Shanghai, China! (posted June 16) This is a GoFundMe for HUNT, a bar here in Shanghai which has been a huge supporter of the LGBTQ community, and is now having a bad time because of the Shanghai lockdown. It had to close in early March because of the lockdown, and now even though the lockdown is over, there are still restrictions on businesses in the food and beverage industry.

If you want to help the queer community during Pride Month, this is a good way to do it. We need HUNT. It's difficult for people who are openly queer in China; they need to have safe spaces like this to be themselves.

2. My 2022 Reader Survey is still open (until June 30). Thanks so much to everyone who has already taken it!

3. How to support abortion access in a post-Roe America (posted June 25) This article covers a bunch of different areas. Lots of suggestions here.

4. Rent: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (posted June 20) "That is the core issue with rental housing in this country though: people who think that investments deserve more respect than basic human needs." PREACH!

(Also, John Oliver shows a clip of Dave Ramsey being ... being ... how shall I put this ... when Jesus comes to separate the sheep and the goats, and he says "I was a stranger and you did not invite me in", Dave Ramsey is going to be in big trouble.)

5. Tom Cruise and Scientology: A lesson in cognitive dissonance (posted June 17) "Former Scientologist Chris Shelton paints Tom Cruise as a complete narcissist, adding, 'I won’t diagnose Tom Cruise [as being a psychopath] but I will say that he is not a good person…. It’s just people have no idea. The guy has such good looks and a winning smile that everybody just falls to pieces over him. He’s a monster. And we really need to be clear about that: Tom Cruise is a monster.'"

6. Why Are Police So Bad at Their Jobs? (posted June 2) "Not for nothing, clearance rates have dropped to all-time lows at the same time that police budgets have swollen to all-time highs, suggesting that more funding has actually resulted in police being less effective. 'It is a great public mismatch in understanding, training, and expectations,' Baughman told me. 'Increases in police officers or police budgets have not been shown to reduce crime or make us safer.'"