Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Something Still Could: Courage for a Turbid Anniversary (June 9) "The Declaration’s words outran the intentions of the men who wrote them. “All men are created equal” meant, in 1776, free men of property, and everyone knew it. But the sentence did not say that. Lincoln saw what Jefferson had done, perhaps without fully meaning to: created a rebuke (even to himself) timed unintentionally to detonate in every coming day. The distance between what the sentence said and what its authors meant became a standing invitation to everyone it was never meant to include."

2. 134 Days, 68 Places, Zero Internet: One Man’s Journey Through Digital China (June 23) "One of the initial challenges was hotel reservations. At his first stop, a chain hotel in Linfen, another city in Shanxi, he couldn’t get a room in person because the hotel only accepted online bookings. The front desk staffer told Yang there was nothing he could do to help him check in, though kindly drew him a map to another location of the same chain that could accommodate walk-in guests."

Also from Sixth Tone: Through the Eyes of Shop Cats (June 23) "Shop cats originally existed to drive away rats and protect goods in old, simple stores. Now, many old shops are renovated or closed, and the new commercial spaces are cleaner and do not need cats to catch rats. Therefore, the number of shop cats is decreasing year by year, especially in Shanghai."

3. Where Did All the Dinosaurs Go? Answers in Genesis and the Problem of the Missing Evidence (June 12) "We have found, quite literally, billions of fossils in the layers that young-earth geology must assign to the post-Flood world. We have found the rhinos and the horses and the tapirs and the cave bears. Somehow every last one of two hundred kinds of the most charismatic animals that ever lived slipped through that net entirely, and left behind not a fragment."

4. On Christianity and aliens (part 2) (June 23) "But the fact of the matter is that the sin and/or salvation of other intelligent creatures on other planets or in other galaxies is their business and we have no idea. We do not have their Bible, only ours, and ours is about us, not about them."

Also from the Slacktivist: God’s wrath on the jerks (June 24) "God could send a tornado to destroy the house of such a preacher — and only their house, leaving the rest of the community unharmed. And God could have that tornado carve out the full text of Isaiah 1 in deep trench letters in the remnants of that house. But God knows that it wouldn’t help. That same preacher would be back on his cable TV station the next day, explaining that this extremely localized natural disaster was clearly evidence of God’s wrath over a Girl Scout troop welcoming a trans member three states away."

5. 'If you are alive, make any noise': Venezuela searches rubble on Day 4 (June 28) "On Saturday, the government said the death toll had reached 1,430, with nearly 3,500 injured."

---

Links related to the antichrist:

1. Trump’s “Open-Border” Policy For Parasitic Worms (June 19) "So, what went wrong? Why is the average American now cursed to once again know what the [****] a screwworm is?"

2. The “Massive Human Consequences” of Ending Birthright Citizenship (March 31) "'The initial order gave the federal government a 30 day implementation window. This is the federal government that can’t even get TSA lines working at an airport. They’re going to figure out a new class of citizenship in 30 days?' He added: 'There would be really immediate and long term and probably irreversible harms to individuals, babies born here, their families, the services they they get, the quality of their lives, disrupted and impacted in ways that we can’t possibly even fathom right now. No one has ever really thought that the government could do this, and then for them to sort of cavalierly go and do it with no plan: massive human consequences.'"

From a Chinese perspective, this whole thing about "wow it would be an unimaginable bureaucratic nightmare if birthright citizenship ended" seems kind of... odd. China doesn't have birthright citizenship, and yet it's not a constant nightmare of citizens being unable to prove their citizenship. Chinese citizens all* have an ID card, that they have to show whenever they deal with bureaucracy stuff that requires real-name verification. As an immigrant, I have to show my passport instead. (This can be really annoying, though, when the systems are set up to require a Chinese ID card and they don't have an option to use other forms of ID instead.) Finding out that the US just doesn't have a way to easily verify who's a citizen sounds just unbelievable, from a Chinese perspective.

*I have heard of Chinese people who weren't able to get an ID card because of the one-child policy- ie, they were the 2nd child in their family, and so their parents just didn't report their birth anywhere official. (Apparently there are fines for violating the one-child policy. It's not in effect anymore though- it ended in 2016.) This sounds like an impossible situation to be in- you can't do much of anything if you don't have a Chinese ID card. 

(But also, I'm sure China has problems I'm not hearing about. Just because the system works fine for the people I know doesn't mean it's actually fine. What is the situation for undocumented immigrants/ stateless people in China?)

As for establishing babies' citizenship in China- well, when you apply for the baby's ID card or hukou, you have to show the parents' ID card or hukou. (I didn't even get into what a "hukou" is, basically Chinese citizens are all supposed to have a hukou, it's a document that says very officially what city you are a resident of- this may have little connection to what city you actually live in, which is fine but you have less rights when signing your kids up for public school and things like that. Having a hukou proves Chinese citizenship.)

My husband is Chinese, so our kids have Chinese citizenship through him. (Also US citizenship because of me.) *Not* birthright citizenship. If both parents are immigrants, then the kid will not have Chinese citizenship, even if they are born in China. This sounds annoying to deal with- you have to get your baby a Chinese visa, within some number of days (60 days? I'm not sure) after they're born, but they don't even have a passport yet- some countries don't issue passports to their citizens fast enough to meet China's deadline, but from what I've heard it's not really a big deal, China is okay with babies missing this deadline.

The thing is, though, the big thing that makes the overall situation in China completely different from the US: In China, no matter how long I live here, I can never *be* Chinese. And children who are born here, if both their parents are foreign, they can't *be* Chinese. It's like, no matter what, you're always *different*. The concept of being Chinese is very strongly associated with ethnicity and family heritage- if you don't have that, you aren't Chinese, no matter what you do. 

This is completely different than the concept of being American. And ending birthright citizenship would change that.

3. In reversal, Senate votes to block war powers resolution, delivering Trump a win (June 25)

4. The Supreme Court says the U.S. can turn away asylum seekers at the border (June 25) "The Obama administration was the first to try stemming the flow of asylum seekers that way. But the lower courts blocked the policy on grounds that it violated federal law by denying asylum to people who otherwise would have qualified for it, had they been permitted to literally put one foot over the border."

Because of an imaginary line.

5. 4 surprising things to know about abortion in America since Dobbs (June 25) "The number of abortions nationally has increased each year since the national right to abortion was overturned."

6. US Supreme Court rules against Haitian refugees who were given Temporary Protected Status (June 25) and Trump can begin deportations of Syrian, Haitian TPS holders, Supreme Court says (June 25) This is just so shocking and sad, why would you want to send people back to a place that's not safe for them?

7. A federal judge in Boston blocks key parts of Trump's order to limit voting by mail (June 25) "The judge also found USPS has no legal authority to control mail-in voting."

8. Does Trump Know How Passports Work? (June 27) Seems not!

(I did see a blog post that said it literally does say "Welcome, but be good" in this edition of the passport- but this has NOT been confirmed so don't believe everything you read on a blog.)

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Southern Baptists' vote to ban women pastors sparks outcry from advocates (June 12) I just have no patience for this kind of thing any more. (I used to, but not any more.) If you are in a church that wants to put restrictions on you because you're a woman or girl, leave. God lives in you, and these churches are rejecting Her.

It's very interesting that the Southern Baptist Convention has had a huge sexual-abuse-coverup scandal, and they apparently can't do anything about that, but if a woman wants to stand in front of the church and proclaim that Jesus is Lord, that's when the SBC decides to take action.

2. Waiting For The Miracle (June 18) "Family and childcare responsibilities let us take one good vacation per year. When I told her I wanted to spend it on a Bosnian village, her first reaction was 'Sure, sounds like it’ll be a good story for your blog.'" Scott Alexander has spent way too much time and money investigating this "sun miracle" and I am so here for it.

3. The Cold Crowdfunding Campaign (2020) "Save the Girl and Save Me From Having to Toss Her Out of the Airlock"

4. Sports Commentary (June 22) From xkcd. This is spot-on.

5. Disagreeing charitably with others: a guide (May 18) "I think a lot of attempts at steelmanning wind up failing to reckon with difference and deeply held disagreement. You wind up acting like other people’s belief systems are failed versions of your own, instead of something that makes sense from experiences and assumptions you happen not to share."

---

Links related to the antichrist:

1. The Kennedy Center is a reminder that we can win, it will be messy, and Trump will be petty (June 14) "A little past 1:00 a.m. Saturday, a much-rumored tarp began being affixed to the top of the scaffolding and the mood among the dedicated crew that remained — still well over 100 people — shifted yet again, as cries of “Cover up!” and “Traitors!” rung out. Over the course of the next hour, the white tarp was extended to cover all of the scaffolding — and all of Trump’s name."

2. Shared Values (June 22) Doug Muder's news roundup for this week. I didn't have the energy to follow all these stories, so just read his post.

In particular, I'll highlight these links:

What if we covered Trump's age the way we covered Biden's? (June 22) "But the nature of Trump’s personalist presidency, in which the entire government is organized around turning his whims into reality and the barest hint of dissent is swiftly punished, makes the question of his age even more important than it was with Biden, who was surrounded by competent people who could run the government even when the president was less engaged than he ought to have been."

I’m a critical care doctor. I’ve never seen the US harm its children this deliberately (June 19) "A newborn’s first hours in a US hospital used to carry a quiet set of guarantees. A vitamin K injection against catastrophic bleeding. A hepatitis B vaccination. The assumption that whatever a family could afford, the country had already decided this child was worth protecting."

3. Sunday reading (June 21) "The fact that the church of our country, (with fractional exceptions,) does not esteem “the Fugitive Slave Law” as a declaration of war against religious liberty, implies that that church regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love and good will towards man."

4. Science Shocker! It's More Dangerous To Be Pregnant In Abortion-Ban States That Don't Care If You Die (June 24) From a "pro-life" perspective, pregnant women can be neatly divided into 2 categories: the bad ones who want to kill their baby, and the good ones who would do anything to protect their baby- and they enact laws intended to stop the bad ones, assuming that the good ones would never be in a situation where the law would put restrictions on the medical care they need or want. The reality is not like that though. When you're pregnant, your life and your health are so intimately tied up with the unborn baby's- if complications arise, the best course of action is based on your own specific situation, and doesn't match this one-size-fits-all "stopping the bad ones" system of laws that "pro-life" politicians set up.

Sometimes it's surprising to me that people are claiming that "pro-life" policies are about doing what's best for pregnant women. ??? No, "pro-life" ideology treats the pregnant person as a threat to the unborn baby.

When I was a teenager and I went to a gynecologist for the first time, the gynecologist told me "we are pro-life here" and said it in a way that was meant to be reassuring (she also said "I'm sure you've heard horror stories from your friends who went to Planned Parenthood" ??? no, I had not), and I was just so boggled by that. Seriously, if I walked in here as a pregnant teenager, and you say you're "pro-life", that's supposed to make me feel safer??? "Pro-life" ideology would 100% treat a pregnant teenage girl like a terrorist who has taken a hostage and needs to be talked down. Use whatever lies and manipulation will get her to not have an abortion. All these thoughts went through my head, and *I* was "pro-life" back then. I knew being "pro-life" was about stopping those "bad" women- and I agreed with it, too- and so obviously if you *are* one of the "bad" women (for example, a pregnant teenager), you're not going to like it.

But anyway, as I've said before, from a "pro-life" perspective, when women die even though they weren't "the bad ones" and they wanted an abortion for "good" reasons, this is not necessarily slam-dunk proof that these laws are bad. Sure, we have these high-profile news stories about pregnant women who died because they couldn't get medical care, but what you don't see is all the unborn babies who are being saved by these policies. From a "pro-life" perspective, it's about trying to draw a line, to save as many unborn babies as you can (by stopping the "bad" women) while still allowing the "good" pregnant women- who love their unborn baby but had some horrible complication- to get the medical care they need and not die. It's impossible to draw that line in a way that perfectly separates the 2 categories. Maybe you need to err on the side of a few more pregnant people dying, in order to save hundreds of unborn babies.

I don't agree with this but I just want to point out that this logic exists. I don't think it's possible to really engage with and understand "pro-life" ideology if you're just looking at the shocking high-profile cases of women who were denied medical care and died. You have to also consider the unborn babies who are or are not being aborted quietly in the background.

Now, there also is evidence that banning abortion doesn't actually decrease the abortion rate. I don't know the details on that myself, but from a "pro-life" perspective, that would be relevant to the question of whether these laws are effective.

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Why was I invited to Beast Studios? (April 18, 1-hour-18-minute video from Folding Ideas) "But I just left haunted by a profound sense of tragedy. This glimpse inside a vast industrial machine that exists to produce nothing."

2. Prediction Markets: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (April 20, 32-minute video) Wow, I knew prediction markets were bad, but they are even more of a horrifying dystopia than I thought.

3. Midwives saved his mom's life — and inspired him to pursue the profession (May 5) "A study, published in the Lancet Global Health in 2020, forecast that, if the number of midwives increased to universal coverage levels, 67% of maternal deaths could be averted as well as 64% of neonatal deaths and 65% of stillbirths. This equates to more than 4 million lives saved each year."

4. Canadian fiddler sues Google after AI Overview wrongly claimed he was a sex offender (May 4, via) "If a human spokesperson made these false allegations on Google’s behalf, a significant award of punitive damages would be warranted. Google should not have lesser liability because the defamatory statements were published by software that Google created and controls."

5. Anti-poverty program is effective even in one of the world's toughest settings (May 4) "Now, research shows it works even in incredibly difficult circumstances, like in the southwestern city of Baidoa. Half of the city's 1.2 million people are internally displaced, driven from their homes by extreme drought and violence by the militant group al-Shabab."

6. H-Bomb: A Frank Lloyd Wright Typographic Mystery (February 25, via) Wow I am so into this, I really need to know if the H was originally installed upside-down.

---

Links related to the antichrist:

1. Thank you to the commenters who left comments on the previous blogaround related to the Supreme Court case about drawing districts to dilute minority votes. What I'm kind of concluding is, this is racial gerrymandering, which has a lot of overlap with partisan gerrymandering. For the Republicans who are pushing it, their motivations are "we want our candidate to win" and also "we don't want black people to have equal voting power" and those motivations are kind of intertwined with each other. Gerrymandering is already bad because it results in a set of elected representatives that doesn't statistically match the population, and this is unfair- but on top of that, because of the US's history of racist voter suppression, it makes sense to have the Voting Rights Act to specifically guard against racial gerrymandering. 

Or, put another way, it's about how partisan gerrymandering has a disproportionate negative effect on minority voters. And the Voting Rights Act recognized that reality and put protections in place, which the Supreme Court says we don't need any more. 

(I am also boggled by all the articles saying it's been John Roberts's life goal to get rid of the Voting Rights Act. Why would someone *want* to get rid of the Voting Rights Act?)

Links:

What to do with a lawless Supreme Court? (May 4) "Since intent is what matters, and a pro-Republican gerrymander looks just like a White-racist gerrymander, it’s impossible to prove racist (rather than partisan) intent. So the VRA’s protection against racial gerrymanders — effectively the last piece of the VRA still standing — is effectively dead."

The Supreme Court’s Conservatives Just Issued the Worst Ruling in a Century (April 29, via) "After the Civil War, Congress passed the Reconstruction Amendments—the 13th, abolishing slavery; the 14th, requiring that states, among other things, not deny persons equal protection of the laws; and the 15th, barring racial discrimination in voting. Despite these amendments, racial discrimination was rampant in the early 20th century, and in the American South, Black citizens were consistently denied the opportunity to vote. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which provided enough protection to vastly increase the opportunities for minority voters to be able to register and vote."

Supreme Court guts Voting Rights Act, greenlights GOP gerrymanders (April 29) "'Today… the majority straight-facedly holds that the Voting Rights Act must be brought low to make the world safe for partisan gerrymanders,' Kagan wrote in dissent."

2. He recorded his quest for tariff refunds. It shows why billions may never get repaid (May 4) "When the refund portal opened on April 20, businesses that applied did so in minutes. Brown was not among them. And he's still not ready."

3. SPLC Caved to Fascists. They’re Being Targeted Anyway. (May 1) "It’s so disappointing to see an organization that has the funding and goals and staff to make real change in the world, but the leadership decided to bet it all on cowardly compliance. We have seen this over and over and over again ever since Trump took office for his second time: the institutions that stand up to him, win. Those who give in, lose."

Yeah... I remember right after the 2024 election, I got so many emails from all these non-profit organizations that were like "we're going to fight back! send us money!" I'm sure it was a good opportunity for all of them to make money- but what are they actually *doing*? How do you know which ones are actually going to use your donation to fight in the way that you want? 

I kind of use the strategy of seeing which lawyer groups are mentioned in the news articles about standing up against these bad policies and suing to protect people's rights. Which lawyer groups have their lawyers calling a judge in the middle of the night to stop an illegal deportation flight. Those are the groups that are worth donating to.

4. Pope Bob Chooses Formerly Undocumented Dude To Be Archbishop Of Pissing Off Trump (May 3) "Throughout his career, he has worked with immigrant communities from all over the world, and insisted that all people deserve to be treated with dignity. In his last sermon at his church after becoming a bishop, he said, 'We cannot say that we love God if we do not love those who are closer to us. […] Empathy, my brothers and sisters. Empathy — putting ourselves in the shoes of others — is to realize our common humanity.'"

As 1 John 4:20 says, "For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen."

5. They Want You to Think Abortion Pills Are Illegal (May 4) "Something else to remind your communities of: informal networks of accessing medication abortion also remain in place regardless of court rulings."

6. Powell to stay on at Fed until 2028 (April 30) "This is an obvious own goal by Trump. If he had just shut his mouth, Powell would likely have also left the board in May allowing Trump to appoint another lackey to that spot."

7. Protester Banned From U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards’ McDonald’s Properties (April 17, via) "She ended up learning which six McDonald’s restaurants her congressman owns when she got banned from them."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. ‘It’s AI blackface’: social media account hailed as the Aboriginal Steve Irwin is an AI character created in New Zealand (January 15, via) "The choice to create an avatar of an Indigenous person has raised ethical concerns."

2.  Because of Who You Are - Vicki Yohe (2008) I like this worship song, but in a complicated ex-evangelical way.

Same thing for this video, of the song "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus."

I like the song. I like the singer's passion. I'm really into that. But seeing the crowd of Christians participating in this worship song, I just really feel unsafe in that kind of environment.

3. Chilean Cherries: Why Prices in China Plunge Every Winter (January 16) "To reach tables in China, Chilean cherries need to travel more than 19,000 kilometers, and for a long time, air freight was the only viable option. However, with the widespread application of cold chain technology, maritime transportation has become dominant in recent years."

---

Links related to the antichrist:

1. A Pregnant Woman at Risk of Heart Failure Couldn’t Get Urgent Treatment. She Died Waiting for an Abortion. (January 14) "As ProPublica has reported, doctors in states that ban abortion have repeatedly denied standard care to high-risk pregnant patients."

2. Rapid Response Networks in the Twin Cities (January 15) "When ICE operations switched to fast, random street abductions and door knocks, the only possible way to predict where they would act was to identify ICE vehicles as they approached, so people shifted focus to identifying ICE vehicles on the roads and staying on them. ICE needed to rely on surprise and ambush tactics, so responders employed noise—whistles and honking—to quickly give warning across distance. ICE officers don’t like to operate when outnumbered and don’t like to be surrounded, so patrollers amass cars and form impromptu traffic jam blockades."

Judge rules immigration officers in Minneapolis can't detain peaceful protesters (January 16) "The ruling prohibits the officers from detaining drivers and passengers in vehicles when there is no reasonable suspicion they are obstructing or interfering with the officers."

It’s The Videos (January 17) "Everyday citizens all over the country are racking up hundreds of millions of views with on-the-ground videos, and seem increasingly willing to film ICE agents on job sites, at traffic stops, and even on their doorsteps—even while being threatened at gunpoint. It’s a scrappy, diffuse content campaign against the Trump media machine, which likes to turn ICE arrests into highly produced hype videos that look as if they were produced by an SEC football program."

Minneapolis church has delivered more than 12,000 boxes of groceries to families in hiding (January 15, via) 

Dispatch from the occupation (January 17, via) "All of this means that the following dystopian scenario plays out in the open dozens of times per day in the Twin Cities: Multiple masked and armed agents in combat gear amass in unmarked cars outside a house or business. A bystander notices and alerts the neighborhood. A dozen or more neighborhood residents appear within minutes to legally observe, legally film the encounter, legally make sure the targeted people know their rights, and legally warn others by blowing whistles and honking car horns."

I’ve Covered Police Abuse for 20 Years. What ICE Is Doing Is Different. (January 21, via) "The lies this administration is telling about Ms. Good aren’t those you deploy as part of a cover-up. They’re those you use when you want to show you can get away with anything."

3. Expand your vocabulary: the Dual State (January 19) "But your life goes on normally, until it doesn’t."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. California considers allowing doctors to prescribe abortion drugs anonymously (September 10) "Now, as legal attacks against telehealth providers put shield laws to the test, some states have moved to strengthen the laws by allowing providers to prescribe anonymously, reducing their risk of legal or individual harassment."

2. This. Sudoku. Is. Insane. (September 11) 1-hour-35-minute sudoku solve video. This is one of those puzzles where you have to think about number theory for a while before you can place one single digit in the grid- my favorite kind! Also it has one giant arrow that squiggles around to every square- I have never seen an arrow like this.

3. America’s "Nones" aren’t as godless as you think (September 4) "While a lot of this isn’t surprising to those of us who have followed these surveys over the years, it still shows how U.S. Nones are not a cohesive bloc of secular thinkers but rather a fragmented coalition, many of whom still cling to spiritual or supernatural ideas."

Also from Friendly Atheist: Oklahoma's meaningless "America First" teacher test is just a PragerU ad campaign (September 3) "Here’s the thing about this “test”: It doesn’t matter what you answer. You’re literally unable to fail it. If you’re wrong on a question, you’re forced to keep guessing until you pick the answer they want you to pick."

4. Edelweiss from The Sound of Music (Official HD Video) My little toddler loves this song. She makes a little flower shape with her hands when she wants me to sing it. It's the sweetest thing.

---

Links related to the antichrist:

1. Senior Democrat says Pentagon didn’t present conclusive evidence alleged drug smugglers killed in strike were gang members (September 12) I've posted links about this before, but here's another one. This is really serious. So the US government can just claim that anybody is a "drug smuggler" without evidence, and murder them, that's what we're doing now?

2. SCOTUS conservatives OK Trump admin's racial profiling of Latinos in low-wage jobs (September 9) "Kavanaugh’s opinion, concurring with the order granting the stay, continues like that throughout its 10 pages. It was at varying points racist, ignorant, privileged, lawless, or some combination of the four."

3. RFK Jr.'s MAHA report on children's health leaves something out: nicotine (September 14)

4. DOJ Reportedly Uses Anti-Trans Slur In Call To Disarm Trans Americans (September 9) "A Department of Justice official said they were considering “banning guns for transgenders” and used an anti-trans slur."

Also from Erin in the Morning: We Must Not Posthumously Sanitize Charlie Kirk's Hateful Life (September 12) "Quickly, political figures and pundits rushed to denounce the killing, as they should. But some went further, valorizing and lionizing a man who built his career on contempt of people he viewed as lesser."

And: Boston Children’s Fights Back For Trans Kids: Judge Quashes Trump Subpoena (September 14) "In fact, Joun found, federal officials failed to provide 'any support' at all that the information sought pertained to allegations of fraud 'as opposed to the Government’s stated goal of ending GAC.'"

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. First things first: Biblical priorities (September 4) "This is the first thing we hear God telling us — the first thing God has to say. Religion without justice is detestable." Preach.

2. Texas lawmakers approve letting private citizens sue abortion pill providers (September 4) "Opponents see it as not only another way to rein in abortion but intimidate providers outside Texas who are complying with the laws in their states. They also say it would encourage a form of vigilantism."

3. The Super-Weird Origins of the Right’s Hatred of the Smithsonian (August 21, via) "Childress relied on Victorian reports about large bones that Powell’s team, led by Cyrus Thomas, had dismissed in 1894 as unevidenced. Hundreds of such reports littered the papers in the late 1800s, and claiming to find the bones of giants became a popular appeal to “prove” the Bible’s superiority to Darwin. The Smithsonian politely informed inquirers that these bones did not belong to the mythical Nephilim."

I never heard about this "we found the bones of biblical giants" when I was a young-earth creationist, but I gotta say I'm 0% surprised. Like, OF COURSE there's some young-earth creationist crackpot out there claiming they found the bones of biblical giants, and that scientists are trying to cover it up because they hate the bible or whatever. I've definitely heard of YECs claiming "we found Noah's ark!" and this is basically the same genre.

4. Israel is blasting through Gaza City neighborhoods, but people have nowhere to go (September 5) "The International Committee of the Red Cross says the evacuation of Gaza City cannot be done in a safe or dignified manner, calling it "unfeasible and incomprehensible." It noted that people are starving, wounded and unable to relocate, and that no area in Gaza can handle an influx of displaced people due to extreme shortages of food, water, shelter and medical care across the territory."

5. Dimensional Lumber Tape Measure (September 5) From xkcd.

---

Links related to the antichrist:

1. President Trump plans to rename the Defense Department as the Department of War (September 4) Uh, wtf

2. Senators from both parties grilled RFK Jr. on vaccines and more (September 4) "Another Republican physician on the Senate Finance Committee, Dr. John Barrasso of Wyoming, joined Democrats in criticizing Kennedy for undermining vaccines."

3. How Trump's latest crypto launch enriches his family (September 3) Corruption.

4. 'Founders Museum' from White House and PragerU blurs history, AI-generated fiction (September 3) What on earth. What. They "used AI" to make videos of the founding fathers, and they're showing these at a museum? 

5. Trump keeps moving the U.S. closer to being the fascist war machine he wants (September 5) "Earlier this week, in one of the more alarming actions of this administration, Trump ordered the murder of 11 people that the Trump administration claims were drug traffickers on international waters."

Also from Law Dork: Holding vigil in "a post-USA America" as Trump orders the vigil gone (September 6) "As The Washington Post reported last month, 'The demonstration is widely considered to be the longest continuous act of political protest in U.S. history. It has survived seven presidents, countless global conflicts, hurricanes and blizzards, heat waves and floods. It has outlasted several U.S. wars, including the Cold War, the Persian Gulf War, the War on Drugs and the War on Terror.'"

6. Trump walks back Chicago 'war' threat, but vows to 'clean up' cities (September 7) "In response to the post, Illinois' Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, wrote on X that Trump was 'threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal.'"

7. In April NPR profiled people who couldn't get their HIV drugs. How are they faring now? (September 6)

8. Judge steps up to block ICE's kidnapping of Guatemalan kids (September 4) "It was a remarkable display of judicial tenacity. It was also a testament to how thoroughly the Justice Department has shredded its credibility with the courts in just eight months." I posted a link about this before, but this gives a lot more detail. It is just shocking to me how ICE got children out of their beds in the middle of the night, with only a few hours' notice, and was going to send them to Guatemala. How can people do that, to children? But I guess this kind of cruel, inhumane behavior is what ICE does every single day.

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. New Texas law aims to save lives by clarifying the state abortion ban. Will it work? (July 19) This law is probably a good thing, but it's still based on the premise that we have to separate those evil murderous women who want abortions because they're so evil, from those good innocent mothers who want abortions for the right reasons.

2. Replication Crisis (July 18) From xkcd.

3. One Minute Park (via) This is a cool little site which shows you 60-second videos of random parks.

---

Links related to the antichrist:

1. Court Orders 19-Year-Old Asylum Seeker Released After ICE Unlawfully Arrested Him at Immigration Hearing (July 17) "This happened despite Oliver’s legal entry into the United States, lack of a criminal history, and compliance with all government orders when applying for U.S. citizenship."

2. 10 Americans are freed by Venezuela in a prisoner swap for migrants in El Salvador (July 18) I'm confused about this- so apparently now all the Venezuelans that the US sent to CECOT have been sent to Venezuela? Is that good? Why were they originally deported to El Salvador if Venezuela wanted them back? And what about getting justice for those who were falsely accused of being "gang members" and mistreated by the US and El Salvador?

More on that: Andry Is Free. Trump’s Barbarous Immigration Regime Is Just Getting Started. (July 21) "For 125 days Andry and hundreds of other men were held in a torture prison where they got a “beating for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner.” They had been kidnapped by our government and left in that hellhole to rot with no due process, no access to legal counsel, no phone call home. They were completely stripped of their humanity. In many cases their only crime was existing in Stephen Miller’s America while being Venezuelan. For some, their sin was having the wrong tattoo."

“We Were Kidnapped” (July 18) "On Friday, more than 200 Venezuelans disappeared to a megaprison in El Salvador returned home. The horror stories are already emerging."

3. Stephen Colbert Announces The Cancellation Of “The Late Show” (July 18) He says the show will end in May 2026.

4. Evidence challenging the Trump admin's immigration moves is now out in the open (July 11) "The evidence is damning on all fronts, but especially as to the Trump administration’s actions on March 15, 2025, when it attempted to begin carrying out President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act without a war and without — as was later detailed — as much process as was given to suspected Nazis during World War II."

5. Congress rolls back $9 billion in public media funding and foreign aid (July 18) "The House has approved a Trump administration plan to rescind $9 billion in previously allocated funds, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) — a move that cuts all federal support for NPR, PBS and their member stations — and about $7 billion in foreign aid."

6. “Even God Cannot Hear Us Here”: What I Witnessed Inside an ICE Women’s Prison (July 17) "No one deserves to live in cramped, unsanitary, inhumane conditions and have their medical needs ignored. No one deserves to have their religious needs ignored. And no one deserves to lack access to nutritious food. I am free, but my true freedom is interlinked with the freedom of many women I lived alongside in ICE prison." Written by Rümeysa Öztürk.

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. These evangelical men saved sex for marriage – they weren’t well prepared (June 17) "The experience has shaped how the couple are raising their six-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son. 'I want my daughter to have full information about her body – I don’t want her to go through what I did,' said Katy. As for their son, 'I just want him to understand that women are people,' said Nate."

2. This abortion method doesn't involve doctors — and many of them consider it safe (June 22) "Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the hotline has only grown. It now has dozens of volunteers, including clinicians as well as people who provide logistical support. The hotline gets thousands of calls and texts every month."

3. A cancer center in Jordan treats kids from Gaza, but only a few dozen have arrived (June 20) "All of Gaza's hospitals have been either damaged or destroyed in Israeli airstrikes."

4. Do You Want to Build a Snowman - 10 YEARS, SAME ANNA! (2024) OH MY GOODNESS this is amazing.

5. What’s the Right Way to Translate Chinese Dish Names? (June 20) "Semantic translation, on the other hand, conveys meaning rather than form. Traditionally, it prioritizes fluency and naturalness in the target language, even if that means departing from the original wording — rendering the Chinese shizitou as 'meatball,' for example. However, semantic translation can also mean literal translation, even if the result seems foreign or puzzling — such as translating shizitou as 'lion’s head.'"

Hmm. Yeah I would describe shizitou [狮子头] as a meatball, but 丸子 are also meatballs, but they are different. I guess then you have no choice but to translate 狮子头 as a lion head meatball? It's pork, though, okay.

---

Protest sign that says "No kings / Yas queens!" Image source.

Links related to the antichrist:

1. Relief and a raised fist as Mahmoud Khalil goes free – but release ‘very long overdue’ (June 20, via) I'm glad to hear this. But it's not over- his immigration case is still ongoing.

Mahmoud Khalil emerges from airport security with his wife Noor and newborn, legal team and Rep. AOC.

[image or embed]

— Gwynne Hogan (@gwynnefitz.bsky.social) June 22, 2025 at 1:37 AM

'They wanted to separate me from my family': Mahmoud Khalil speaks after ICE release (June 23) "They absolutely showed me nothing. They had over 100 days to do that, and I dare Trump, [Marco] Rubio, and their administration to substantiate these claims with anything, because they did not refer to anything."

2. One daughter's search for a father detained by ICE (June 21) "Urizar had no idea where her father was being held or how to reach him."

3. The Antisemites In and Around the Trump Administration (June 17) "I mean the kind who proudly performs a Roman salute or two on a national stage, like Elon Musk and Steve Bannon, sure, but you already knew about those. There are many, many more."

4. U.S. Supreme Court allows — for now — third-country deportations (June 23) "In a searing dissent, the court's three liberals accused the conservative majority of 'rewarding lawlessness.' Writing for the three, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said 'The government has made clear in word and deed that it feels itself unconstrained by law, free to deport anyone, anywhere without notice or an opportunity be heard.'"

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. 9 different density layers (April 18) 44-second video. Wow this is really cool! It's a science experiment about liquids with different densities, settling in layers on top of each other, and then you drop objects into it to see how far they sink.

2. Failed Soviet Venus lander Kosmos 482 crashes to Earth after 53 years in orbit (May 10) "Kosmos 482 launched toward Earth's hellishly hot sister planet in 1972, but a problem with its rocket stranded the spacecraft in an elliptical orbit around Earth. For the next 53 years, atmospheric drag pulled the probe down slowly but surely, leading to today's dramatic denouement."

3. Sell All You Have and Give to the Poor (May 3) "When Jesus then tells them that, effectively, none of the other rich and powerful are going to be persuaded to join them either, what is perplexing the disciples is how the Jesus movement can now possibly succeed."

4. Should A Woman Be Forced To Carry A Dead Fetus For Weeks? South Carolina Says 'Yes!' (May 9) "In an update, Weber explained that she was told both by the doctors and by a lawyer that the way the South Carolina law works is that, if she were to have gone to an appointment where the doctor detected a “heartbeat” (not a heartbeat), and then gone to a second appointment where they didn’t detect one, she would have been able to get the D&C or abortion pills right away. However, if you go to your first appointment and they tell you there’s no heartbeat and the fetus has been dead for three weeks, as happened with her, you have to wait two weeks to get one. If you go to the emergency room and get a more comprehensive diagnosis, they’ll shorten the waiting period to 11 days. Does this make sense? No, of course not. But it’s what happens when you have people with no medical background, who don’t know what they’re talking about, writing laws based on their own personal feelings."

5. Why Hospital Policies Matter in States That Ban Abortion (May 7) "ProPublica has documented widespread differences in how hospitals across the country have translated abortion bans into policy. Some have supported doctors in treating active miscarriages and high-risk cases with procedures technically considered abortions; others have forbidden physicians from doing so, or left them on their own to decide, with no legal backing in case of arrest."

6. The FDA approves first U.S. at-home tool as a Pap-smear alternative (May 10) !!!!!! This is great news! Instead of going to a gynecologist to have a pap smear, you can use this tool to collect your own sample and send it off to get screened for cervical cancer. Very excited to hear this, as a person who used to have vaginismus and has had a lot of problems and trauma related to gynecological exams.

(But also, I had complicated feelings reading this article, when it describes pap smears as "a procedure generations of women have dreaded and often found painful." Really? Generations of women? Since when? Then why did everyone act like *I* was the one being unreasonable when I found it to be painful and traumatic? ... I guess this is sort of a #metoo thing- it turns out that a lot of us have experienced this trauma, and we were all pressured to downplay it, and treated like something was wrong with us if we weren't able to pretend everything was fine. But it turns out that this is actually a widespread problem, and it's time to speak up about it.)

7. Pascal's Law (May 9)

8. The Moderate Case Against Transgender Sports Bans (May 12) Good article. I think for a lot of people, when they hear about the debate over trans women playing in women's sports, they imagine that the pro-trans side is saying that any man can just decide "I identify as a woman" and then immediately compete in any women's sport- and that seems really wrong. Well, no, fortunately, it doesn't work that way. That is NOT what trans people are arguing for. 

The guidelines should be different for different sports, and different for different levels (professional sports, high school teams, little kids just running around on a soccer field, etc). The sports organizations should be making their own rules based on what's reasonable and fair for their specific sport. That's not what these political trans bans are doing at all- they're just about hating trans people.

---

Links related to the antichrist:

1. Zero ships from China are bound for California’s top ports. Officials haven’t seen that since the pandemic (May 10)

But here's an update about that: US and China agree to slash tariffs for 90 days (May 12)

2. MAGA melts down over ‘WOKE MARXIST POPE’ who is a ‘Never Trumper liberal’ (May 8) A reminder that normal human decency will have MAGAs shrieking that you are a "WOKE MARXIST"- so like, don't try to contort yourself in an effort to present yourself in a way that will not lead to them saying that- it's not possible, they're going to say that anyway.

3. Rümeysa Öztürk, Tufts student held by Ice, vows to continue legal action after jail release (May 11)

4. First, do no harm—unless you're intersex or trans (May 6, via) "Lurie, however, kept its “pause” in place even then. New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell removed references to gender-affirming care from its website—even striking puberty-pausing medication from its list of services—but still promotes surgery to reduce “enlarged” clitorises on intersex six-month-olds."

5. Alliance Defending Freedom: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (May 12) !!!! Really glad to see John Oliver doing an episode on ADF. I grew up evangelical- my family got the newsletters from Focus on the Family and ADF (back when its name was Alliance Defense Fund). I read them all. They sent us the book "The Homosexual Agenda" and I read it. I really believed all their bullshit back then.

ADF wasn't just about opposing the legalization of same-sex marriage. They opposed any kind of legal protections for LGBT people at all. Seriously. It is not just about same-sex marriage. It's about queer people existing at all.

When I was in high school in the 2000's, there was this thing called "Day of Silence" when some students who were LGBT/allies would not talk for the entire day, as a way to call attention to the struggles that LGBT people face. ADF came up with a competing event called "Day of Truth," where students could go to their school and hand out literature about how gay people need to just repress themselves and follow God's law, and God will help free them from that "lifestyle" and become straight. That's the sort of thing ADF was into.

This is why I'm so angry, whenever I talk about what evangelicals think about queer issues- because I really did believe all their bullshit propaganda back then. Gay people are one-dimensional villains twirling their mustaches and plotting to destroy marriage because they hate God and they are into disgusting obscene sex stuff. Then eventually- because of the internet- I started reading what actual gay Christians had to say, and it turns out none of that was true.

I had believed ADF because... we were Christians, right? The leaders of ADF were good Christian role models, working so hard to follow God, to live the way God wanted us to live, to fight for what was right. Just like little teenage Perfect Number. And then to find out that all of it was bullshit, that their entire schtick is spreading hateful lies about a group of people. They know it's lies. They know. Is that what Jesus would want? This is why I'm so angry, as a queer Christian.

So yeah, nowadays, every lawsuit that Republicans are involved in, trying to ban abortion or be mean to queer people or generally force Christian symbols on all parts of government/schools/society- yeah, it's ADF lawyers doing it. Of course it is.

(One thing I will say about John Oliver's take, though- about the part where the conservative cake shop guy says he won't make a cake for a gay wedding, just like he won't make a pedophile cake- and John Oliver is astonished at how bizarre of a concept it is, a pedophile cake. Uh, that's one of the huge talking points from evangelical anti-gay groups- that homosexuality is adjacent to pedophilia. That gay people are more likely to be pedophiles and therefore shouldn't be allowed near kids. That if same-sex marriage is legal, there's no reason it shouldn't also be legal to sexually abuse children- there's no actual meaningful difference that would lead society to allow same-sex marriage but draw the line at child sexual abuse. This is an extremely common anti-gay talking point. I am 0% surprised this cake guy talks about being asked to make a pedophile cake as if that's the natural thing that would happen next if he made a cake for a gay wedding.)

Oh, and in case it's not obvious: They also believe trans people don't really exist.

6. “They’re Trying to Kidnap Someone” (May 10, via) "Surrounding them are a few dozen community members who were tipped off about the ICE raid and got to it before the police did. Before I arrived, they demanded to see a warrant. The ICE agents refused to provide one, so they created a human chain, which the ICE officers eventually broke through."

7. Episcopal Church leader says helping Afrikaners over other refugees is 'unfathomable' (May 13) "And the idea that we would be somehow resettling Afrikaners at this point over other refugees, who have been vetted and waiting in camps for months or even years, is unfathomable to us."

8. Rabbi and Cantor Alums of Brown Write To the University: (April 17) "President Trump’s attack on Brown and other universities has nothing whatsoever to do with combatting antisemitism. It weaponizes antisemitism and could, ironically, evoke classical sentiments of resentment toward the Jewish community, whose name is being scapegoated as a conduit for an ulterior motive."

9. Trump administration's universal flu vaccine project puzzles scientists (May 13) At first I was like, "a universal flu vaccine? Hey, if it works, that would be great!" But then I read the whole article and now I'm like, "this sounds like a bad idea."

"'We're going back to technology that was used 40, 50 years ago or more. So this is a little surprising to me why you would go backwards to this technology? It's a very old technology,' Poland says. 'This is what influenza vaccines in the 40s, 50s and 60s looked like.'"

10. A matchmaking service with a twist: Connecting big givers to programs cut by USAID (May 13) "'I think it's clear that private philanthropy is not going to be able to fill all the gaps,' says Weiss. 'But what we can do is staunch the bleeding, keep projects functioning so that it's possible for local organizations or local governments to take them over.'"

Blogaround

 Links not about that felon:

1. What does Islam have against sleep? (March 29) "Even if you go to bed right after Isha and wake up at the tail end of Fajr, you will get at the most 6 hours."

2. As measles cases rise, some parents become vaccine enthusiasts (March 30) Yessssss. Love vaccines. Love when my kids don't get measles. It's awesome.

3. ‘I Love Him’: A Suicide, a Student’s Diary, and a School’s Reckoning (March 28) [content note: sexual assault, suicide] 

4. Fed'l court rules Alabama AG's threatened abortion-fund prosecutions unconstitutional (April 1) "In short, people seeking abortions that would be legal elsewhere can do so. Ultimately, he concluded, that right protects those who seek to help them as well."

5. 'Zero to Hero' (From Disney’s Hercules) | Sung by London's West End Muses 🎶✨ (March 7) Wow, love this!

---

Links about that felon:

1. Deported over a tattoo? Lawyer claims client is not a gang member (March 28) "DHS wants the public to believe these people are criminals and gang members. So if they have proof of that, why wouldn't they release it to the public?"

And: Trump administration admits Maryland man sent to El Salvador prison by mistake (April 1) "'If they're allowed to get away with this, then it means that the immigration laws are meaningless, all of them,' Sandoval-Moshenberg said."

2. Study: Black Lives Matter Protests Beat Trump (April 2) "So if you’re wondering if it makes any sense to go out and protest your fascist overlords, the answer is “absolutely, yes.” Do not listen to the doomers who tell you it’s too late, that there’s nothing you can do, that no one will listen, that you’re too extreme, or that you’re just encouraging people to go out and buy more Cybertrucks. Show up, meet your fellow activists, and agitate for change."

3. Cory Booker breaks a 68-year-old Senate record with a 25-hour speech (April 2) "Booker's speech took aim at President Trump, White House senior adviser Elon Musk and policies that he said show a 'complete disregard for the rule of law, the Constitution and the needs of the American people.'"

4. Top scientists warn that Trump policies are causing a 'climate of fear' in research (April 1) "'A climate of fear has descended on the research community,' the letter says. Researchers fearing for their jobs are 'removing their names from publications, abandoning studies, and rewriting grant proposals and papers to remove scientifically accurate terms (such as 'climate change') that agencies are flagging as objectionable.'"

Why do we only talk about transvaginal ultrasounds when we talk about abortion?

Transvaginal ultrasound wand. Image source.

One strategy that "pro-life" lawmakers use, to make it more difficult to get an abortion, is to require that patients get a transvaginal ultrasound before they can get an abortion. For example: Wyoming governor vetoes 'invasive' transvaginal ultrasound mandate for medical abortions (the veto was then overridden).

People who speak out against these laws say that transvaginal ultrasounds can be invasive and traumatizing, especially for victims of rape. There's this paper from 2013 which includes quotes that say requiring patients to have a transvaginal ultrasound is rape.

Here's what I want to know, as a woman who used to have vaginismus and has had bad experiences with transvaginal ultrasounds because of it: Why is this the only time I'm seeing people concerned about the potential trauma of transvaginal ultrasounds? Why have I been subjected to transvaginal ultrasounds, without anybody making sure I understood what it was and that I consented to it, and I was just expected to be fine with it- but then suddenly when there's a "pro-life" law about it, people come out of the woodwork exclaiming that we can't do this because transvaginal ultrasounds are potentially such a terrible thing?

Why is it only here, in the context of talking about abortion, that people understand that it's valid to have trauma about this?

I mean, I know why. It's because these "pro-life" laws are about making transvaginal ultrasounds actually legally required, whereas in my case, I wasn't required by law to do anything. My situation was more about lack of sex ed, and about medical staff not prioritizing the idea of informed consent. I didn't need anybody to go ask congress members to change a law- I needed to know how to speak up for myself. So, I think the pro-choice people who speak out the loudest against these "requiring abortion patients to have a transvaginal ultrasound" laws would also strongly advocate for all patients to be fully informed about what's going on, and have the option to say no, when they're told they need a transvaginal ultrasound (in all situations, not just when it's related to abortion). But the average pro-choice person, who is repeating this talking point "oh no, we can't require transvaginal ultrasounds because that's traumatizing for rape victims"- well, it feels kinda fake to me. If the average pro-choice person really felt that way, I think people would have cared more about my problems with vaginismus.

Let me give you some background info about transvaginal ultrasounds: 

There are 2 different kinds of ultrasounds performed during pregnancy: transvaginal and transabdominal. Most people have seen images of pregnant women getting transabdominal ultrasounds- this is the kind where you have a huge baby bump, and the doctor moves the ultrasound tool around on your belly to see what the baby looks like in there. But, in early pregnancy, the unborn baby is so small that you won't be able to find it with a transabdominal ultrasound. In early pregnancy (maybe around 6-8 weeks), you need to have a transvaginal ultrasound instead. 

In a transvaginal ultrasound, the doctor uses a long ultrasound wand, puts a condom and lube on it, and it is inserted in the vagina. In this way, they are able to see if the embryo has implanted in the uterus correctly, and they can measure the size. They also look at the ovaries and they tell you which ovary the egg came out of, though I remember being a bit confused about what I was meant to do with that information, when I was pregnant.

Yeah, if we're not talking about abortion, if we're talking about people who want to continue their pregnancy, a transvaginal ultrasound is basically required. It's not required in the sense of being required by law, like those "pro-life" laws, but doctors will tell you it's medically necessary. And, yeah, there are important medical reasons why they need to do it:

• Check if the embryo is implanted in the uterus- this is important, because in some rare cases it implants somewhere else- this is an ectopic pregnancy and is life-threatening for the pregnant person.
• Measure the size of the embryo- this is important for dating the pregnancy and calculating the due date.
• You can see the baby's heartbeat. I know, I know, the fact that there's a "heartbeat" at 6 weeks has been massively politicized by the "pro-life" movement, and then the pro-choice side pushes back and says it's not really a heartbeat because the heart hasn't developed yet at that point, etc... so I don't really know how to talk about this... But my experience was, in the early stages of pregnancy I was so worried about everything. I really wanted a baby, and I had gotten a positive pregnancy test, but I knew there is a pretty high rate of miscarriage in those early stages- and seeing the ultrasound, seeing that little white blob with a little heartbeat, it made it feel real. (And I'm sure this is the reason why "pro-life" people want to require ultrasounds.) It made me feel less worried.

I've heard that sometimes it's medically necessary for abortion patients to have a transvaginal ultrasound, and sometimes it's not. I bet for people who want to continue their pregnancy, it's even more medically necessary, and therefore we should be even more thoughtful about how to balance the concerns of people who have trauma related to vaginal penetration, vs the benefits to the pregnant person's health and the baby's health.

(To be clear: For most people, a transvaginal ultrasound is NOT painful or traumatic. But if vaginal penetration *in general* is painful or traumatic for you, then yes, a transvaginal ultrasound will be like that too.)

If you really really can't tolerate a transvaginal ultrasound, and you have a doctor who says it's required and isn't willing to be reasonable and work with you on it, then I think you just have to completely refuse, then come back a month later when the unborn baby is big enough that they can do a transabdominal ultrasound instead. (If you're keeping the pregnancy, you have this option, whereas if you need an abortion and you're in a state that passed one of these invasive laws, well, this won't help.) But, if you do go without the transvaginal ultrasound and wait a month, you're running the risk that it might be an ectopic pregnancy and you wouldn't know it. It's a pretty small risk- and before ultrasounds were invented, every pregnant person had that risk- but yeah, it's not ideal to skip the early-pregnancy transvaginal ultrasound.

Best-case scenario is, you can talk to your doctor about your concerns with vaginal penetration, and work together to figure out a way to do the transvaginal ultrasound. One important thing I would recommend is self-insertion- ie, the patient inserts the ultrasound tool into their own vagina, rather than letting the doctor insert it. And then once it's in, and the patient consents, then the doctor can move it around to get the ultrasound images they need.

Seriously, self-insertion is incredibly important. I would advise anyone who has vaginismus to absolutely refuse, if a doctor says you can't insert it yourself and they have to do it. There is no reason why you, the actual person whose vagina it is, can't be the one to stick things in there. I can't believe I used to let doctors do that to me. Sure, you don't know how to move it around to get the right images, but if you have vaginismus, the doctor likely doesn't know how to insert it without hurting you.

Maybe it's easier to take a stand against these "pro-life" laws because there's an easy fix there. Just don't make a law requiring medically-unnecessary ultrasounds. But what if someone *does* need a transvaginal ultrasound- like a pregnant person who is *not* getting an abortion- and they have problems with vaginal penetration, maybe because of vaginismus or maybe because they are a victim of rape or abuse. What then? See, then it's more complicated. Then it's about sex ed and consent within a medical context, training doctors to be understanding about those kinds of issues, training patients that it's right to stand up for themselves.

I mean, forgive me if I find this sudden concern for people who can't tolerate transvaginal ultrasounds a bit fake. When I was pregnant, and I read all about pregnancy, I never came across anything giving advice on what to do at the early pregnancy ultrasound if vaginal penetration is difficult. Never. (I bet if you used the keyword "vaginismus" when searching, you could probably find useful information- but if you don't know that word, LOL GOOD LUCK.) And now it's a political talking point that, oh no, transvaginal ultrasounds are BAD and TRAUMATIC for rape victims who want an abortion. Okay, where was all this outrage when I was having my own problems with transvaginal ultrasounds?

Well... I know it's because what I'm asking for is more complicated. Everybody can understand that it's a bad idea to make a law requiring unnecessary medical procedures, just to inconvenience people who want to get abortions. Everyone can see the obvious solution: just don't make laws like that. But in a situation where a transvaginal ultrasound is medically necessary, and the patient finds it difficult or painful, well, what then? That's a harder problem. The people who oppose these "pro-life" laws probably also want everyone to have good sex ed, and doctors to care about informed consent- but how do you actually go about pushing for those cultural changes?

Maybe I'm being a little too harsh here, and instead I should say that opposing these "pro-life" laws is a good first step. We should take a stand against laws which require medically-unnecessary ultrasounds, and at the same time, we should take a stand for better sex ed and better training about consent for doctors.

---

Related:

Sea Monsters on Land, and My Life With Vaginismus 

A Comprehensive Pro-Choice Ethic

On Gynecologists and Angry Turtles 

Don't You Think If It Was Possible To Re-Implant Ectopic Pregnancies, We Would Already Be Doing That?

That happened to me too

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Facing up to the Price on Life (January 29) "I think it’s very important to appreciate that there is no such compulsion: you can acknowledge reality, do a bunch more good than almost anyone else, and still live an incredibly privileged—even self-indulgent—life."

Very excited to find this post- finally, someone is talking about something I've been worried about my entire life: If there are so many people in need in the world, and I have more money than I need, shouldn't I donate literally as much as I possibly can, causing huge hardship to myself? How can it be okay for me to have a savings account when there are people going through emergencies right now? And this writer comes to the same solution as I have: compartmentalize. Decide on a total amount to give- this should be pretty big, bigger than what the average person gives- and then use the rest of the money for myself and quit worrying about if I'm doing enough.

2. Two Americas, one bank branch, and $50,000 cash (March 5) "A style magazine published an account of a large cash withdrawal that didn't match my understanding of banking reality. I burned several thousand dollars and a year investigating. I now doubt that account less, because I understand the context better." Yessssssss this is the exact kind of fact-checking content I am interested in.

---

Links related to the antichrist:

1. D.C.'s Black Lives Matter mural will be erased. Look back at the iconic street painting (March 8)

2. Trump DOJ's limits on FACE Act enforcement fuel concern from abortion providers (March 9) "The law prohibits threat of force, obstruction and property damage meant to interfere with reproductive health care services, including abortion."

3. DOD Will No Longer Prohibit Contractors from Running Segregated Facilities (March 6) I don't know what to make of this- I've seen commenters on the internet talking about this like it means the government wants to allow racial segregation, but I don't think we should interpret it that way. I mean, yes these people are really racist and are undoing laws that were put in place during the civil rights movement, but I don't think *this specific example* is about that. Let's be careful we don't misrepresent what's going on. I think this- getting rid of the policies that banned segregation in the military- is because those policies included protections for trans people.

4. “Absurd, nonsensical, and unimplementable”: Students react as D.C. U.S. Attorney takes aim at DEI and Georgetown Law (March 9) "'Their definition of DEI is hopelessly vague,' David Super, a GULC professor, said. 'They’re talking about some things that are completely unobjectionable, some things that are controversial, and some things that probably don’t exist at all, all under that one heading, which is irresponsible.'"

5. Hundreds protest Trump administration arrest of Columbia student leader Mahmoud Khalil (March 11) "Khalil's attorneys said he is a green card holder married to an American citizen, and are challenging the validity of the arrest and detention."

6. Trump Makes Supporting Trans People Ineligible For Public Service Loan Forgiveness Via EO (March 11) "Clearly, many organizations could be swept up in this attempt to remove Public Service Loan Forgiveness for those supporting transgender people." This is alarming. The MAGAs aren't just being mean to trans people- they're trying to require everyone else to be mean to trans people too.

Also from Erin in the Morning: "Have You No Decency?": Republican Calls Sarah McBride "Mister," Dems Erupt And End Hearing (March 12) 

7. Love Knows No Borders: Walls, Deportations, & Tariffs (February 7) "During COVID, you may have seen on the news that some couples found ways around border restrictions. One way was to visit each other at the border. Meaning that we found a Canadian road that ran east-west, parallel to a US road. The ditch between these two roads was the actual border."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared. (February 20, via) "The surge in this life-threatening condition, caused by infection, was most pronounced for patients whose fetus may still have had a heartbeat when they arrived at the hospital."

2. How China’s ‘Ne Zha 2’ Beat ‘Inside Out 2’ to Become the Highest-Grossing Animated Film in History (February 25) There's a new cartoon movie in theatres, "Ne Zha 2" (pronounced "neh ja 2") and it's HUGE. It's breaking records. Not sure if y'all outside of China have heard about this?

3. Rain, Ruin, Repeat: The Chinese Villages Caught in Climate Chaos (February 25) "At 1 a.m. on July 27, villages across the region awoke to a relentless barrage of phone alerts, broadcast warnings, and the deafening clang of gongs — a rural alarm meant to signal immediate danger."

4. A child has died in the Texas measles outbreak (February 26) This is really sad. Everyone, make sure your kids are vaccinated.

5. Over 7,000 from scam centers in Myanmar are awaiting repatriation after crackdown (February 27) "Amy Miller, who is Southeast Asia director of aid group Acts of Mercy International and is based in Thailand's Mae Sot on the Myanmar border, told the AP she has never seen such a large-scale release of potential victims of human trafficking."

---

Links related to the antichrist:

1. Btw, I don't actually believe in "the" antichrist. I just call that felon "the antichrist" or "the orange antichrist" because it's BONKERS how the people who were always on the lookout for the antichrist (signaling the end of the world is coming), who speculated endlessly about every major world leader possibly being the antichrist (is the pope the antichrist? is Obama the antichrist???), on the lookout for a leader who is greedy and dishonest and immoral and yet the crowds love him and he's even deceived Christians - THOSE PEOPLE are the ones who are now bowing down and selling their souls to him. It's just so unbelievable to me.

Here's what I want to say to them: When Christians say, "Jesus is Lord," what we mean is "Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not." Get it right.

2. "See You In Court": Maine Gov Responds to Trump's Face Over Anti-Trans EO At Governor's Address (February 23) "In a statement, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey vowed to 'defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the president to bully and threaten us.'"

Also from Erin in the Morning: Nazis Burned Trans Books To Usher In Fascism: Now Trump Does The Same (February 25) "Trump’s digital erasure of transgender people is more than policy—it is a declaration that the very existence of certain human beings is unwelcome in the official record. This is not a hallmark of a democratic leader respecting courts and laws; it is the move of someone intent on atrocity."

The evangelical position on this has always been that being trans is not a real thing. I'm not surprised that now that they have power, they want everyone to act like being trans is not a real thing. 

We have to resist. 

3. Data Rescue Project (via) A site summarizing the efforts to archive government data because it's being removed from government sites.

4. “We’ve Been Essentially Muzzled”: Department of Education Halts Thousands of Civil Rights Investigations Under Trump (February 13, via) "Since 1979, the department’s civil rights arm has worked to enforce the nation’s antidiscrimination laws in schools. It operates under a congressional mandate to uphold the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as the federal laws that prohibit discriminating against students because of gender or disability."

5. Federal computers are hacked to show fake AI video of Trump kissing Elon Musk’s feet (February 25) "'Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs,' Kabas said, quoting an anonymous agency source."

6. Bad Bosses are not beloved (February 25) "This, again, is part of the definition of a Bad Boss — sneering contempt for whatever it is that you do resulting in interference with your ability to do it."

7. People Are Mass-Emailing Elon Musk In Response To His "What Did You Do Last Week?" Message To Federal Workers (February 25, via) Oh it turns out we can all email Elon at hr@opm.gov and tell him 5 things we did.

8. Jeff Bezos' revamp of 'Washington Post' opinions leads editor to quit (February 26) "'We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,' Bezos wrote in a memo to staffers announcing the changes." What on earth.