Blogaround

xkcd comic which shows "Figure 6.14 The Periodic Table of the Elements" which only has H, He, Li, and Be. The caption says, "You can spot an outdated science textbook by checking the bottom of the periodic table for missing elements. For example, mine was published half an hour after the big bang." Image source.

1. Deep Song Breakdown, “Pride” (“In the Name of Love”) by U2 (April 11) "Indeed, 'What more in the name of love' rings very close to John 15:13"

2. Trinity Moravian Church Forgives Medical Debt Costs Around $3.3 Million For Triad Families (March 25) This is literally the kingdom of heaven. This is exactly what Christians should be doing. 

And there's a video here:

The members of Trinity Moravian Church in North Carolina purchased nearly $3.3 million of local residents’ medical debt for just $15,048.

Then, they held a debt jubilee ceremony and burned up the debt, canceling it all. pic.twitter.com/AntlVKC0o2

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) April 11, 2023

3. Transgender Law Center - This is an organization that supports trans people with legal issues related to housing, discrimination, immigration, etc. Recently there have been a lot of US states passing laws to restrict the rights of trans people. I think right now it is important to support trans people by donating money to organizations that fight for their rights.

4. Does Higher Sex Drive Lead to Rape? Pushback as a Learning Tool (April 10) [content note: purity-culture myths about rape]

There’s a move evangelical men make a lot when they’re talking about pastoral sexual abuse or rape that involves coercion by non-physical means where they’re trying to find this elusive “third thing” between rape and sex. There’s rape (man forces woman), there’s sex (everyone wants it), and there’s this thing in the middle where a situation just gets out of control, who can say what really happened.

Okay, let me be clear about this.

THERE IS NO THIRD THING, PRESTON. There’s no Diet Rape! There is no situation where someone has sex with someone else against their will and there’s blame to go around! There’s no situation where someone doesn’t consent to sex but wasn’t raped!

5. Florida lawmakers pursue death penalty in child rapes (April 11) Whoa, okay, I'm really not comfortable with this. For one thing, isn't Florida one of the states where politicians have been claiming that supporting the rights of queer kids is "grooming"? So now they want the death penalty for sexual abuse, but they also believe that accurate sex ed is sexual abuse, so, uh, this is not good. Also, I don't think it helps victims when people push the idea that sexual abuse is The Worst Thing Ever and only the worst monsters would do it, because then if an abuser looks like a nice person, no one will believe the victim, and people will say "oh you want to ruin this man's life and let him be executed, just because of this little thing that only happened 1 time, how could you" etc. 

6. What is a 'Gray Rhino'? It's big, obvious, and headed straight for you. (2020) "The Gray Rhino is a metaphor for the threats that we can see and acknowledge yet do nothing about: the two ton thing that should be hard to ignore, but from which we look away even though it’s in our interest to get away before it charges."

7. A ‘City’ in the Nevada desert shows the glorious human-ness of art for its own sake (January 9) "As lasting art goes, City is perfectly human: one artist with an incredible idea and the wherewithal to make it happen. One artist creating something of this unimaginable scale out of the desert for no reason at all beyond the statement it makes to the vanishingly few people who will ever see it in the flesh."