Blogaround

1. The Zone of Interest is about the danger of ignoring atrocities – including in Gaza (March 14, via) [content note: genocide, the Holocaust] "The film follows Höss’s idyllic domestic life with his wife and children, which unfolds in a stately home and garden immediately adjacent to the concentration camp."

2. What Republicans Want (March 25) "But the report is 180 pages, and you can’t really appreciate the steady drumbeat of wrongheadedness until you read the whole thing (which I did)."

3. Pastor’s wife-turned-activist Beverly LaHaye dies at 94, helped defeat Equal Rights Amendment (April 16)

4. So uh there was a Christian men's conference, and there was some *drama* there. First of all, everything about this event screams toxic masculinity, there's a tank driving around, Mark Driscoll was one of the speakers (eww how will I explain Mark Driscoll to my children?). And the event opened with a sword swallowing performance, and Driscoll was mad because he felt it was kinda like a stripper pole dance, and Driscoll said some things about it on stage, and got kicked out.

You may be saying, "what." Yeah, same.

What happened when Mark Driscoll and Josh Howerton showed up at the Stronger Men’s Conference this weekend (April 15) My FAVORITE part of this is how the conference organizer brings up Matthew 18. 

(See also, the Slacktivist's 2014 post on Matthew 18 [via]. "The problem here is not with the passage itself, but with how it is used and abused. Christians who have treated others badly — who have, in fact, sinned against their brothers and sisters — treat this text like it’s their Miranda rights.")

Also love Hemant Mehta's post: Christian Men's Conference descends into chaos over sword-swallowing acrobat (April 15) Especially this bit, which is spot-on, about the things that Driscoll *should* have been criticizing the conference for: "He could have condemned the conference’s other poor decisions, like inviting a guy like him to speak there at all."

5. In Year Of Our Lord 2024, White-Sounding Names *Still* More Likely To Get Called Back For Job Interviews (April 12) "Remember that very famous study from 20 years ago, in which researchers submitted practically identical resumés to various want-ads — with the only difference being that the names attached were either especially Black-sounding names or especially white sounding names? Well, it was replicated again and once again researchers found that those with white-sounding names were more likely to be hired than those with Black-sounding names. An average of nine percent higher, across the board."

6. The Scholar Bringing Marco Polo Back to China (April 19) "Yet despite Marco Polo’s widespread recognition in China, there exists only one rigorous Chinese translation of 'The Travels of Marco Polo.'"

7. Hidden 3D Pictures (April 18) Wow this is fantastic. Telling an AI to generate magic eye pictures, and, well, "How do you end up with a result that sounds so confident and yet is so completely wrong?"