Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. 'Big Bang' Fix Puts Voyager Across the 'One Light-Day' Mark (November 6, via) It's amazing that the 2 Voyager spacecraft are still out there, plugging along, in the cold depths of space.

2. Russell Brand sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for rape and sexual assault (November 9) 

3. “Biological Men” Is a Slur (November 10) 10-15 years ago, when I first started reading about what it means to be transgender, this is what I read: "Sex" and "gender" are 2 distinct concepts. "Sex" is your biological sex, that you were assigned at birth, and it's "male" or "female." "Gender" is your gender identity, your own understanding about your identity, and it's words like "man", "woman", "nonbinary", etc. So a trans woman is male and a woman.

IMPORTANT: This is no longer the right terminology that allies of trans people should use! (And even back then, as much as the "trans 101" resources said that "male"/"female" are the words that refer to "sex", and "man"/"woman" are the words that refer to "gender", in practice people just used "male"/"female" when they wanted an adjective and "man"/"woman" when they wanted a noun.) Allies of trans people should *not* refer to trans women as "male." (The right terminology for that is "assigned male at birth" or "assigned female at birth" but obviously you should only use those if you're talking about something where it's relevant what gender they were assigned at birth. Not like, bringing it up just to fearmonger about trans people.)

4. Sheol’s Origins as a Hurrian Goddess of the Netherworld (October 29) "But over time, a number of different religious trends converged to “de-divinize Sheol” and reinvent Yahweh as a universal deity with power over the afterlife."

5. Thousands without shelter face lethal conditions in storm-hit Gaza as they wait for 150,000 tents (November 11) "'All our clothes were soaked. My kids are all sick and I can’t afford to buy them more clothes,' said Raed Jamal, a displaced Palestinian. 'Watching them suffering in the cold is heartbreaking.'"

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Links related to the antichrist, also election news:

1. Georgia Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms makes history as the first Black woman ever elected governor (November 4) Wow, I had no idea that we hadn't had any Black women governors.

And in that vein: Abdul El-Sayed becomes first Muslim elected to US Senate (November 4)

2. The Dam Broke, the River Roared: More on That Magnificent Election (November 8, via) "Because even as Trump got elected twice over the past decade, the majority of Americans still believed in climate action, reproductive rights, the rule of law, and had to be manipulated and deceived into turning on immigrants, trans youth, and other vulnerable populations to the extent they did."

3. Post-Midterm Cold Open - SNL (November 8, via) James Talarico on SNL!!!

And also this SNL skit from several months ago, which is worth watching after the election:  Mom Confession - SNL (via)

4. Incoming Texas AG Will End “Abortion Trafficking” Ordinances (November 10) "These local laws make it illegal to help someone get an abortion—including by using a county’s roads to drive a woman across state lines for care."

5. A Haitian 8-year-old was taken by ICE at routine check-in, rattling a San Diego school district (November 10) "The boy, who has not been identified by name publicly, is a third grader at Fay Elementary School. He was stripped of his immigration protections this summer after a Supreme Court decision allowed President Donald Trump to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, according to a letter school district officials sent Friday to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Office of Refugee Resettlement."

6. US citizen shot by ICE officer near children’s bus stop sues government for $25m (November 9) "Afterward, FBI agents followed Jimenez to a hospital and “interfered with his medical care”, including by pulling a nurse away and preventing him from talking to medical staff, the suit alleges. FBI agents removed Jimenez from his hospital bed, locked him in a waist restraint and drove him back to the scene of the shooting for an “interrogation” while a bullet remained lodged in him, the complaint continues."

7. Thomas Massie files articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (November 9) Don't get excited, apparently the House Republicans have already blocked it. But yes he should be impeached.

8. The Free Press Deletes Video In Which Reporter Is Scared Of The Word “Habibi” (November 9) "In the video itself, Sulkin blankly stares while footage of El-Sayed's speech rolls in a little box below her, before she says, “OK, so that is the first Muslim senator in American history, giving his victory speech in Detroit in Arabic." But he merely stated his full name, along with a couple of common Arabic words, in a speech largely delivered in English. To build her case, Sulkin also noted that El-Sayed jokingly called Vice President J.D. Vance "habibi." Concerning."

9. “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed ... and we will deserve it” (November 4)

10. Kennedys sue to block Trump’s gilded arch, saying it would ‘cast shadow’ over JFK grave site (November 10)

11. Texas voters oust Candy Noble, architect of the Ten Commandments in Classrooms law (November 10) A lot of this is a transcript of a Texas House session from a few years ago, and I think I've probably read it before, but wowwww Talarico is good. He's really getting at the fact that the Christians who want these "schools are required to post the Ten Commandments in every classroom" laws are doing it because it's part of their identity, to see themselves as people who believe in and value the bible and are therefore superior to everyone else, and it has nothing to do with actually putting effort into *following* the Ten Commandments *themselves*- in fact, they are confused by the idea.

Like here:

TALARICO: Would you be open to an amendment to the bill saying that if a member of the legislature violates these commandments, that we can no longer mandate public school teachers put it in classrooms?

Dayyammm.

And

TALARICO: The Ninth Commandment is “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Are you aware of any legislators who have lied about anything?.

NOBLE: [Long pause]… You know, there might be one coming up in a minute if you keep talking, we’ll see.

TALARICO: The Seventh Commandment is “Thou shalt not commit adultery”?

NOBLE: Yes.

TALARICO: Do you think that members of the legislature should focus more on trying to follow the Ten Commandments rather than telling others to follow them?

11. First Lawsuit Filed Against Washington Anti-Trans Ballot Measure, Days After The Election (November 11) "Likewise, the law clearly discriminates against transgender and cisgender girls more broadly when compared to boys: “No student who seeks to play boys’ sports must verify their sex,” reads the complaint."

12. A Special Post-Election Edition (November 5) Jay Kuo has a social media roundup of news and reactions to the election.