Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. A third of kids want to be a YouTuber. Is that a problem? (November 10) "Except this whole thing is silly, because kids do not actually want to work these jobs more than other jobs."

2. How Online Privacy Has Been Championed by Dreamwidth (November 23, via) "In other words, the stated rationale for many of these laws as pro-privacy consumer safety laws is contradicted by Dreamwidth’s very existence."

3. Viola Ford Fletcher, oldest survivor of Tulsa Race Massacre, dies aged 111 (November 25) "Nobody was ever held accountable for the violence and deaths and efforts to rebuild the neighbourhood were stymied by city officials."

4. In a new book, Rep. Jim Clyburn highlights the Black politicians who paved the way for him (November 25) 

5. ‘Do You Want Help?’: Inside Orange County’s Bet on Voluntary Mental Health Care (July 17) "It could take 20, 30 or 40 visits before a client accepts a bottle of water, let alone a prescription for antipsychotic medication, but Orange County officials say this is the only way to build trust with a population that is paranoid and distrustful by nature, or has had very real traumatic experiences of being forcibly treated or hospitalized in the past."

6. Watch China's Shenzhou 22 rescue ship arrive at Tiangong space station (video) (November 25) "Shenzhou 22 is an unprecedented mission for China — an emergency flight mounted on a short timeline to help out three astronauts who have been "stuck" on Tiangong for the past 10 days."

I try to keep informed about any stranded astronaut news. If there's ever a stranded astronaut news story and I miss it, please send me a link.

7. NZ Right-Wing Government Bans Puberty Blockers: "Sacrificing A Generation Of Trans Youth" (November 20) "'By pinning the resumption of prescribing to a UK trial result expected in 2031, the Government has effectively sacrificed a generation of trans youth. They are demanding a level of evidence for trans healthcare that they do not demand for hundreds of other treatments routinely used in paediatrics,' said civil rights organization Rights Aotearoa in a press release." Hopefully this gets challenged in the courts.

8. You don't want to date multiple people who are monogamous with you (November 27) "Your four wives are constantly sabotaging each other to try to cement their positions as your favorite."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Judge's ruling on feds' use of force in Operation Midway Blitz accuses Border Patrol's Bovino of "outright lying" (November 21) "The judge wrote body-warn camera video showed agents 'shoot pepper balls and tear gas at them without any apparent justification,' in direct contradiction to an agent's report claiming 'protesters were becoming increasingly hostile.'"

2. The kingdom of heaven is like: As immigration enforcement surges in North Carolina, Chicagoans share advice, whistles (November 18) "Enriquez said his group met virtually with several dozen political and nonprofit leaders in North Carolina last week. On the agenda were the whistle campaign in Chicago and the “magic school bus,” a volunteer group that escorts children of parents who fear being detained during school pickups and drop-offs."

3. Judge tosses Comey, James cases after finding prosecutor unlawfully appointed (November 24)

And related to that: “Anna, Lindsey Halligan Here.” (October 20) "When I received the 1:20 p.m. connection request on Signal—an encrypted messaging service that many journalists use to communicate with sources—my first reaction was that the user identified as “Lindsey Halligan” couldn’t actually be Halligan."

4. Pentagon investigates Sen. Mark Kelly for telling troops to refuse 'illegal orders' (November 24) ??? Not sure what there is to "investigate" here. 

5. Donald and the sexist, offensive, blatantly illegal, brazenly unpresidential week (November 22) "Those with the ability and power to push back on Trump’s crude authoritarianism make us all better off when they actually do so. It works."

6. Trump signs Epstein bill he once labored to kill (November 19) 

7. Green Card Interviews End in Handcuffs for Spouses of U.S. Citizens (November 26, via) "Their interview last week was going smoothly, he said, until three ICE agents walked in and informed them that Ms. Paul, who was holding her infant, was under arrest."

Okay as a US citizen married to a non-US citizen, I have some feelings about this.

They're just trying to deport as many people as they can. This has nothing to do with setting up an immigration policy which is actually fair and reasonable. 

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Maybe Don’t Talk to the New York Times About Zohran Mamdani (November 7, via) "God, did I love this. An “alienated view of the world”! Not by, like, trying to pay rent or having an insurance claim denied—no, no, it was probably the Foucault you read in 2003."

2. I get knocked down, but I get up again (November 12) "But I’m not sure those writers fully appreciate that they’ve written an accurate summary not just of this one weird individual, but of the overwhelming character of white evangelical discipleship and white evangelical devotion, practice, hermeneutics, orthodoxy, orthopraxy, spirituality, piety, ethics, and soteriology."

This is spot-on.

3. 2024 Ace Community Survey Summary Report (October 20)

4. Why housing shortages cause homelessness (2024) "Her story echoes the widely repeated observation that ‘people don’t become homeless when they run out of money, they become homeless when they run out of relationships’."

5. Scientific study on types of detransitioners (November 16) "I think, the vast vast majority of the time, if someone mistakenly believes they’re gender dysphoric, they will sort it out within a year or two. We need to create norms where this mistake, most of the time, doesn’t have severe negative consequences."

6. Life After Death: A Widow’s Fight for Her IVF Baby (November 17) "At the time, sperm banks and medical institutions in China were banned from providing unmarried women — which Guo technically now was — with services involving assisted reproductive technologies under technical and ethical guidelines introduced in 2003 by the Ministry of Health."

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Image source.

Links related to the antichrist:

1. How We’re Taking Trump’s Deportation Machine to Court (October 29) "The administration’s agenda is clear: forcing immigrants to endure months or even years of detention under inhumane conditions while their cases make their way through the backlogged immigration system ensures that people will give up and agree to return to their home countries. Even when their cases are likely to succeed, eventually giving them the right to remain lawfully in the U.S., many are unwilling to endure the squalor and uncertainty."

2. Veterans Group Urges States To Pass Protective Policies In Response To Trump Trans Bans (November 14) "Roughly 3,500 newly discharged transgender service members have been forced out of their jobs and stripped of health and housing benefits by the federal government."

3. “I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime (November 13) "Federal prosecutors have not filed criminal charges against anyone who was arrested. Nor have they revealed any evidence showing that two immigrants arrested in the building belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang, or even provided their names."

4. Feds Pepper-Spray 1-Year-Old In Cicero, Use Tear Gas On Little Village Neighbors (November 9)

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man (September 20) "'When I found out an image of her has been exploited in what felt like a sexualised way by a massive company like that to market their product it left me feeling quite disgusted,' [the father of a 13-year-old] said."

2. U.K., Canada and Australia recognize a Palestinian state, despite U.S. opposition (September 21) "More than 140 of 193 UN member states already recognize Palestine as a state."

3. A neuroscientist explains how to break free from romantic infatuation (September 20) Ooh, there's a book on limerance. 

4. Fox News host Brian Kilmeade apologizes for saying mentally ill homeless people should be executed (September 15)

5. Flipping the Script on the Parable of the Dishonest Manager (September 21) "If we don’t understand that the whole system within which Reuben works is corrupt, we’ll miss what Jesus is really saying."

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Links related to the antichrist. I read a lot of NPR, you may have noticed.

1. Trump’s NYT Lawsuit Tossed for Now as ‘Inexcusably’ Long (September 20)

2. Plane to purgatory: how Trump’s deportation program shuttles immigrants into lawless limbo (September 10) "'It seems the goal is to make people desperate enough so they decide not to fight their case, so they decide that the quickest way to see their other children or make sure they don’t have to deliver their babies in shackles is to accept a voluntary deportation,' said Toczylowski. 'It is particularly cruel.'"

3. California bans masks meant to hide law enforcement officers' identities (September 20)

4. Social media is shattering America's understanding of Charlie Kirk's death (September 20) "But nuance fails in online platforms designed to boost and sustain engagement and promote content likely to provoke a reaction from users. Already, social media pundits on the left are questioning whether the texts and interviews in the charging documents are real. Meanwhile, those on the right are agitating to declare left wing activists as terrorists."

5. Trump's new $100K fee on H-1B visas will hurt the tech companies trying to woo him (September 20)

6. 'We are all Jimmy Kimmel': What late night hosts are saying about Kimmel's suspension (September 19) "If ABC thinks this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive," Stephen Colbert said.

7. Defense Secretary Hegseth requires new 'pledge' for reporters at the Pentagon (September 20) "Going forward, journalists must sign a pledge not to gather any information, including unclassified reports, that hasn't been authorized for release." WTF

8. What Public Officials Are ICE Goons Arresting Today? (September 21) "At least a dozen state and local officials in the great state of New York were among the 71 people arrested Thursday during a protest at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, the federal building where ICE has been grabbing people as they leave their scheduled immigration hearings. Among those arrested was NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, who was also arrested in June while escorting an immigrant from a hearing room. The officials were hauled off after they requested to see the detention cells, where conditions for arrested immigrants are so bad that a federal judge on Wednesday ordered DHS to limit the number of people held, provide adequate food and clean conditions, and to ensure detainees’ access to attorneys."

"Faith" means "doing something that is a bad idea"

Image with the word "Faith" on a black background. Image source.

I saw this article, from Hemant Mehta on the Friendly Atheist blog, An Alabama church secretly sent kids to evangelize in a homeless encampment, and I want to talk about it.

Basically what happened is, there was a kids' church camp run by an Alabama church, which at one point took the kids into a homeless encampment to evangelize there- even though the homeless encampment was very much NOT part of the trip that these kids had signed up for. These church leaders just kinda sent the kids to talk to people, without much adult supervision or awareness of safety concerns.

Afterward, one of the leaders, Mike Webb, had this to say:

… When we went to Tent City, I'm not gonna lie, when we first pulled up, we went to the food bank. When we left, I knew that we needed to go serve the homeless, not just in the food bank where it was safe. We needed to get out of our comfort zone and go… As we were leaving, I Googled "Where can I find the homeless population in Houston?" First thing pops up? Tent City. So that's where we're going.

We drive over there in the vans. We pull in.

Ain't no way I'm getting these kids out of this van. I will be fired. Mamas will be beatin’ down my door. We're not getting out.

We pulled to the end. We circled the cul-de-sac. We're pulling back out.

Guys…?

I even… I even tried to justify it.

Guys, I just want you to see what's here. I want you to see how people live. I need you to understand how fortunate you are. This is what it is, guys. All right, let's head back to the ranch…

…

[After decided to return]

But let me just tell you: We get out, we walk through, and we didn't have anything, because we didn't know what we were doing. That was another piece of it: I didn't want to walk in there with 75 people, into a homeless village, and we ain't got anything to give. Like, we're just invading your space, you know what I mean?

But we had that older couple that walked with us, and we began talking, and I said, "Guys, we're coming back tomorrow. We're going to put together some food. We're going to put together some sandwiches. We're going to come back. We're going to feed, and we're going to open doors."

And everybody was, you know, hearing this message, and we started promoting it amongst the people. We started telling them that was kind of our… our initial welcome.

Hey, we're going to be back here tomorrow…

Oh... this is so real. I know this way of thinking.

This is so common, for Christians to talk this way, to think this way. As if "faith" means God is telling you to do something wild and ill-advised, and you know a lot of people are going to tell you it's a bad idea, but the right thing to do is jump right in, trust God, say yes to the amazing terrifying adventure that God is calling you on.

I feel like the way Webb tells the story is a little hard to follow if you're not familiar with this ideology- he's describing the conflict within himself as he tries to decide whether to take the kids into the homeless camp or not. He feels like God wants him to, but he also knows a whole lot of reasons why it's a bad idea. ("I even tried to justify it" means "I felt like God wanted us to let the kids get out of the van there, but I didn't want to do that, so I tried to tell myself that it was good enough to just drive through and let the kids look at it without letting them get out- but that wasn't full obedience to God.") He struggles and then eventually decides to do it.

He *knew* that the kids' parents wouldn't be happy. He *knew* that none of them really had any training about how to help homeless people. All of that just makes for a more exciting story. What an amazing Christian role model, having faith so big it overcame these concerns that a reasonable person would have had.

The way he tells the story, the point is that it's thrilling because God wanted him to take the kids there, even though it seemed like a bad idea, but you need to trust God and do it anyway, even when you're scared. That's what faith is. Supposedly. The more it seems like a bad idea, the more it shows just how committed you are to God. God wants you to get out of your comfort zone!

I don't believe in this anymore, this religion that glamorizes reckless, one-off gestures, where it's more important that you personally had a wild adventure with God, than that you helped people in the real world. The way to actually make a difference is to do the really boring stuff. Do the work of listening to people, learning, caring about people. If you show up with nothing- no resources, no experience, no idea what you're doing- with nothing but the belief that God is sending you there, well, that doesn't help. That doesn't make you a hero of faith.

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Related:

Renee Bach, who had no medical training, opened a clinic in Africa. Just like missionaries are supposed to.

Evangelism and Deception 

This is so normal. We just don't usually say it in front of other people.

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Chess Grandmasters Do Not Burn 6000 Calories Per Day (June 28, via) "Robert Sapolsky then cited this thesis in his popular book, dropping the distinction between maximum and average to give a 3X breathing rate."

2. How a Nazi Helped the New York Times Smear Zohran Mamdani (July 29) "So the New York Times accepted hacked data that a 'scientific racist' got from a violently racist Nazi and chose to publish the data as an indictment of a Brown African-born South Asian Muslim man who wants all children to have access to pre-K education, instead of asking themselves, 'Hey, is the real story here something about how a self-described violently racist Nazi currently has the private data of millions of people, including their Social Security numbers, addresses, family members’ information, and citizenship status?'"

3. ChatGPT will apologize for anything (August 8, via) "I'm sorry for advising you to accept the trade of your cow for three beans."

And: Stop Pretending Chatbots Have Feelings: Media's Dangerous AI Anthropomorphism Problem (July 22) "Think about that. A product owned by the world’s richest man was spewing Nazi propaganda on his social media platform. That's a scandal that should have Musk answering tough questions about his company's engineering practices, safety protocols, and values. Instead, we get 'Grok issues apology.'"

4. The Scholars Helping to Keep WWII Sex Slavery From Being Forgotten (August 14) [content note: rape] "The history of 'comfort women' represents one of the most horrific, systematic violations of women’s rights in modern history."

In high school history class, I remember reading that the Japanese army had "comfort women"- I think there was 1 line about it in a textbook- but somehow I didn't get that it meant sex slavery. It meant rape.

5. New study: State medical examiners wrongly excused homicides committed by Maryland police officers (July 21) "And of course all of this has been really complicated by the emergence of bullshit medical theories about about deaths in police custody, and particularly this theory of excited or agitated delirium."

6. The Existential Horror of Thomas Riker (August 13, 18-minute video) "Then, he finally gets rescued off of that planet, which should have been the happiest day of his life, but the first face he sees is you. And then he finds out what happened, and he realizes that in the eyes of the rest of the world, he's not Will Riker- you are."

7. What is identity? (August 17) "However, sometimes when people talk about identity, they simply mean, 'this word describes what I am'. Under this definition, you could identify with a word even if you never actually heard of the word. Therefore, if a survey asks you whether you identify with a word you’ve never heard of, you have to look it up to discover the answer."

8. One neurosurgeon, 8 million patients (August 17) "'Before Dr. Kamara, there was no hope,' said Dr. Kehinde Oluwadiya, acting chief medical director of the University of Sierra Leone Teaching Hospital Complex. 'If you are lucky and rich, you will go to another country and be treated. But if you are not, it's either you die or you live with a lot of disability.'"

9. Amid growing 'scandal' of elder homelessness, health care groups aim to help (August 16) "'It's a national scandal, really, that the richest country in the world would have destitute elderly and disabled people,' Culhane said."

10. Al Jazeera reporter's death a 'significant escalation' of dangers media face, CPJ says (August 15) "Al-Sharif was among six journalists killed in a targeted Israeli strike on Aug. 10. The Israeli military said al-Sharif was the head of a Hamas 'rocket-firing brigade,' and published spreadsheets that it said showed he was on Hamas' payroll. Salah Negm, Al Jazeera's director of news, rejected those allegations calling them 'completely fabricated' in an interview with Morning Edition, adding al-Sharif was 'a journalist doing his job, nothing more.'"

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Understanding MAGA’s Obsession With Pedophilia and No Other Sex Crimes (July 24) "A friend asked me recently: how is it that MAGA is so over the top about finding out which rich and powerful men may have had sex with 16 or 17 year old girls when it’s apparently fine that the leader of their movement is a longtime sex abuser and serial predator? On the one hand, this person was saying, how is one thing so beyond the pale and the others are completely fine? On another level, this person was asking, is it really so hard to believe that a guy who appears to have routinely assaulting women just over 18 did the same with those just under?"

2. Hundreds march to White House to protest Trump's D.C. crackdown (August 16) 

3. Our leading papers failed to stand up to Trump's criminal justice authoritarianism (August 18) Wow, look at this completely wild sentence from the New York Times, in a paragraph supposedly giving background on the trends about crime, in relation to that felon's claims: "A close presidential election eventually led to a violent attack on Congress."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Snake-in-the-Box Problem (August 6) From xkcd.

2. There are now more than half a billion mobile money accounts in the world, mostly in Africa — here's why this matters (July 7, via) "As the chart below illustrates, the percentage of people in Sub-Saharan Africa with a mobile money account grew rapidly, from 12% in 2014 to 33% by 2021."

Also from Our World in Data: Two billion people don’t have safe drinking water: what does this really mean for them? (June 23) "The vast majority of the two billion — around three-quarters of them — do have access to a piped water source or protected well that is probably safe to drink. But it’s either not located in their home, is not always available, or there’s no guarantee it’s completely contamination-free. That usually means they must travel to get there; whether that round-trip takes less or more than 30 minutes determines whether they fall into the 'basic source' or 'limited source' category."

3. You Can Now Buy Eggs From In-Ovo Sexed Hens! (July 17, via) "Most people are surprised, and often disturbed, to learn the truth: in the United States alone, approximately 350 million male chicks are routinely culled each year, typically by methods such as maceration (being ground up alive)."

4. The Element Song by Tom Lehrer

Posting this because Tom Lehrer, influential musical satirist, dies at 97 (July 27)

5. More than 1,000 rabbis and Jewish leaders denounce starvation in Gaza (August 1) The letter says they agree with Israel fighting this war, but don't agree with using famine as a weapon.

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Cynicism Is the Enemy of Action (July 1) "I think back to the phrase climate journalist David Roberts coined a decade ago, the 'doing it wrong brigade,' for those people on the sidelines who tell those who are doing the work that they should be doing it differently, criticizing their tactics, goals, alliances, or some other thing that falls short of perfection since as Hayes and Kaba point out, when you're not doing anything you can set impossible goals and then lounge about figuring out how those doing the work fall short."

2. Federal agents spread out across D.C. streets amid Trump's vow to crack down on crime (August 11) "He offered no explanation for where homeless people would be sent, but in a social media post last week Trump suggested he is considering a federal takeover of policing in Washington."

3. Asylum-seekers thought they were following the rules. Now some are told to start over (August 10) "'You're literally making documented people, again, undocumented, and they're already in here,' said Michelle Marty Rivera, an immigration attorney who has dozens of clients who have received these letters. 'You are canceling employment authorization. You're virtually converting people that are following the normal traditional asylum rules and leaving them without a status and without protection and asking them to show their faces to ICE.'"

So the strategy that the MAGAs are using is to find some minor thing where somebody's asylum-seeking process didn't go exactly according to the "rules" (even if this was the government's fault for not having availability to do interviews) and then saying that means the entire thing is invalid. It comes across as "the government is out to get you" rather than "there should be a system where people with genuine reasons are able to claim asylum."

(I have some thoughts about the similarities between this and conservative Christian ideology about sin and hell. Maybe if I have time I'll write a post on that. See also: ICE and Hell)

Update, I wrote the post: When You Believe God is Out to Get You

4. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposts video of pastors saying women shouldn't vote (August 9) Ah, the pastor in question is Doug Wilson. How will I explain Doug Wilson to my children?

5. A family's fishing trip ends with the dad at 'Alligator Alcatraz.' Here's their story (August 9) "Unable to show a driver's license, the couple were arrested and taken to a local jail where they were separated. M. says this was the last time she saw her husband, before he joined the hundreds of detainees at the controversial makeshift detention center, which has been dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz." She told NPR their story on the condition of anonymity for the entire family, because she fears retaliation from immigration officials."

6. Texas Showdown (August 6) "When people ask, 'But what are Democrats actually doing to save our country from MAGA fascism?' point them to the brave men and women of the Texas state Democratic House caucus. They are risking their political careers and even their personal freedoms, not to preserve their seats and their power, but to preserve our right to a fair and representative system."

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Doctors urged to treat pain for IUD insertion and other procedures (May 20) Hey, this is great. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is now saying that doctors need to inform patients about the possible pain of procedures like IUD insertion, and give patients options about anesthesia/ pain management. I'm all for that. Informed consent in a medical setting.

2. The Chicago Sun-Times Published an AI-Generated Summer Reading List Full of Fake Books — And This is Just the Beginning (May 20) "Let's connect the dots here. Media company cuts 20% of its staff, including experienced editors. Two months later, AI-generated nonsense makes it into print without anyone catching it. Are we really surprised?"

3. Gatsby’s Secret (April 7, via) "The more Thompson read, the more convinced he became that Gatsby was about a man “passing” for white."

4. Supreme Court sidesteps religious charter school question for now on 4-4 deadlock (May 22) "No religious charter schools. For now."

5. No more pennies: In big change, Treasury will stop minting them (May 22) "The Treasury Department has placed its last order for blank pennies and plans to stop minting the one-cent coins as soon as that's exhausted."

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Political cartoon that shows the White House (with a flag that says "King Donald") with a sign out front that says "Please wipe your feet!" pointing to the Constitution laying on the ground. Image source.

Links related to the antichrist:

We've got a lot of links today. If it's too stressful, you don't have to read all of them, but here is an important action item: Contact your senators and tell them to vote no on the Republican budget bill.

1. Supreme Court says Trump can strip protected status for Venezuelans for now (May 19) "'From what we can tell, this is the single largest action in modern American history, stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status,' Ahilan Arulanantham, the co-director for Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA, and one of the lawyers representing the Venezuelans, told reporters Monday."

2. DHS secretary misstates meaning of habeas corpus under Senate scrutiny (May 20) "Responding, Senator Hassan corrected the secretary, stating, 'Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.'"

3. Judge says Trump administration violated court order on third-country deportations (May 21) "'No meaningful opportunity at all was provided to him to express a fear of being sent to South Sudan,' Ryan said."

And an update on that: White House agrees to keep migrants in Djibouti for now, blasts federal judge's ruling (May 22)

In this specific case, the immigrants being deported actually have committed serious crimes. I think people have a tendency to think "well why does it matter if they're sent to some random other country, since they are violent criminals?" No, not cool- if people commit crimes, you sentence them according to what the law says. We have laws for this! The government can't just make up whatever punishment they want.

4. Charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver spark backlash after incident with ICE agents (May 21) "'This administration will never stop me from working for the people in our district and standing up for what is right. I am thankful for the outpouring of support I have received and I look forward to the truth being laid out clearly in court,' she added."

5. U.S. sends 68 migrants back to Honduras and Colombia in first voluntary deportation (May 20) 

6. These students protested the Gaza war. Trump's deportation threat didn't silence them (May 21) "'All of us international students, we had this thought of, 'what if it was me?'' she said of her reaction to the first few students that ICE agents arrested. 'Students that were higher risk, they all started to talk to their lawyers and make arrangements for if that were to happen.'"

7. Alliance Defending Freedom Sues Minnesota To Mandate Trans Discrimination (May 22) "While the immediate impact would be limited to Minnesota, an appeal could escalate the case to higher courts—and if the Supreme Court takes it up, this fringe legal theory could become the basis for mandating anti-trans discrimination in schools nationwide, from bathroom bans to sports bans and more."

8. These Are Not My Thoughts On Banning GAC (May 22) [content note: violence against intersex children] "So when the GOP includes intersex exceptions to genital reconstruction laws that ban gender affirming care for trans kids, This is what they’re preserving. Not care. Not concern. Not empathy. They are preserving the right of parents to rip apart children’s bodies with pliers, and the right of doctors to support them in their demented, evil efforts."

9. Trump administration revokes Harvard's ability to enroll international students (May 22) Holy crap. 

10. Lawsuit challenges USDA demand for food stamp data as some states prepare to comply (May 22) "'If you're trying to design a public benefits program that supports the most vulnerable people and makes sure that nobody in our country goes hungry, this is obviously not the way to do it,' said Ami Fields-Meyer, a senior fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University specializing in the intersection between civil liberties and technology, and a former senior policy adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris. 'But if you're trying to integrate critical assistance into a machinery for hunting immigrants and breaking up families and deporting people without due process — this is exactly how you do it.'"

11. Educators fear their homeless students could become a target for Trump cuts (May 22) "Amid all the moves, one thing has been constant for Dayana: her school. That's because a federal law, known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, allows students like her to stay in their school even when their housing takes them far from where they originally enrolled."

Blogaround

A candy heart that says "Remember U R Dust" with caption "Ash Wednesday is on Valentine's Day. You can't spell Valentine without Lent. United Methodist Churches of Indiana." Image source.

1. Differing Weights And Differing Measures (January 31) "So if, for example, you’re trying to show that 'evangelical Christians' are a fearsome voting bloc that politicians are compelled to show deference to, then you want the largest, most expansive definition of 'evangelical Christians' that you can find. That’s going to include everybody you can plausibly toss into the category, including both Pentecostals and anti-Pentecostal fundamentalists, including every faith-healer and magician, snake-handler and tent-revival charlatan you can find. It’s even going to include evangelical Christians who aren’t even white." This is SPOT-ON.

2. ‘Rage’ abortion donations dry up, leaving funds struggling to meet demand (January 28, via) "But now, the fund needs to spend between $1000 to $1500 just for people who need an abortion before 12 weeks’ gestation. If they are further along, the costs are significantly higher."

There's a time and place for one-off donations because you see something in the news and have feelings about it. Yes, that should be part of one's donation budget. But more important is to give recurring donations- make a rational decision about which organizations you feel it's important to support, and then set up automatic monthly payments to them. This helps the charities plan their budgets much better.

Also from The Hill: The dangers of spotlighting the ‘perfect’ abortion patient (January 31, via) "Unfortunately, all too often only the most extreme stories with 'good' reasons for abortion — the horrific cases of sexual violence, life endangerment or fetal abnormalities — enter public discourse to highlight the 'perfect patient' whose story is easiest to sympathize with."

3. Florida barring gender changes on driver's license puts trans residents at risk, critics say (January 30) This is really bad.

4. Study: Abortion Bans Creating OBGYN Crisis (February 2) [content note: it's about the trauma that obgyn doctors are experiencing when they're not legally allowed to give patients the healthcare they need. This is hard to read.] "You have somebody hemorrhaging with an intrauterine pregnancy with a heartbeat…I [didn’t yet] have legal coverage for that, but there’s only so many times you can transfuse somebody and they’re begging for their life before you say, ‘This is unconscionable.’"

5. “It Was the Most Violent Thing I’ve Ever Seen” (February 1) [content note: death penalty] An interview with the Rev. Jeff Hood, spiritual advisor to Kenny Smith and other death row inmates.

6. Who is Alistair Begg, and why are American fundamentalists so upset with him? (February 1) A detailed article about why evangelicals want to "cancel" pastor Alistair Begg for not being mean enough to queer people.

7. Religious trauma still haunts millions of LGBTQ Americans (January 29)

8. Outdated Jackets Get a Second Life (February 5) 1-minute-37-second video. Making old down jackets into comforters in China.

Also from Sixth Tone: AI Game Mimicking Nosy Relatives Takes China by Storm (February 5)

9. An Ohio pastor was punished for opening his church to the homeless. He deserves it. (January 23) Okay so maybe this story is more nuanced than what I initially thought. "Imagine if there was an actual emergency in the building. A place like this would jeopardize the lives of the people inside because of these kinds of deficiencies. The Fire Chief gave Avell well over a month to fix the most serious of these problems, but follow-up checks on January 9 and 16 found '5 violations that had not been properly corrected.'"

10. Breaking bread: Houston tries to punish feeding the homeless—and fails (February 2, via) "So far, no matter how many tickets the city writes, they can’t find a jury willing to convict anyone over it."

11. Leonard Nimoy The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins FULL VERSION best quality (via) Wow, I can't believe I never knew this existed.

12. Relationship Advice (February 5) xkcd comic. !!!!! Oh my goodness, this is so real! I side-eye anyone who makes a big deal about "marriage is hard."

13. VeggieTales' cucumber star LarryBoy to get his own faith-based feature film in 2026 (February 6)

Here's what Phil Vischer has to say on it:

Apparently there's a new LarryBoy movie in development? Somewhere? By... someone? No idea who, where or how. https://t.co/62SRaYSoaL

— Phil Vischer (@philvischer) February 6, 2024

Not sure what to think of this- is it even real VeggieTales if Phil Vischer is not involved?

14. Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs Perform Fast Car at the Grammys (February 6) 

UPDATE: Here's the full video: Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs Deliver Gripping Performance Of "Fast Car" | 2024 GRAMMYs

Blogaround

1. The Performative Sexuality of Matt Walsh (January 19) 8-minute video from Jessie Gender. "Okay, obviously on its face this is the funniest ****ing thing I've seen this man say, and I have seen this man say some really fun, dumb ****, amongst all the horrible horrific fascist nonsense that he says and [transmisic] bullshit."

2. This Cat Is NOT "Totally Normal"!! (January 20) 1-hour-37-minute sudoku solve video. Wow, this is amazing. "It's absolute nonsense and yet you can actually find a way through this!"

3. 7 Ways to Be An Ally to Autistic People (January 2) "Joking around and whatever is perfectly fine, but sometimes when I can’t figure out if people are being serious or just joking and ask for a quick clarification, they either refuse to answer or actively make my question part of the banter like it wasn’t meant to be serious.  Don’t do this to people, it’s rude."

4. Google promised to delete location data on abortion clinic visits. It didn’t, study says (January 17, via) "A year and a half has passed since Google first pledged to delete all location data on users’ visits to abortion clinics with minimal progress. The move would have made it harder for law enforcement to use that information to investigate or prosecute people seeking abortions in states where the procedure has been banned or otherwise limited. Now, a new study shows Google still retains location history data in 50% of cases."

5. What It's Like to Be Denied an Abortion in Your State (January 18, via) [content note: pregnancy loss] "I just could not believe it. It was already hard enough dealing with the fact that my baby wasn't going to make it. This was a wanted pregnancy; this was a planned pregnancy."

6. Tim Scott Quoted Fannie Lou Hamer At A Trump Rally And Now I Want To Punch My Fist Through A Wall (January 22) "At that time in Mississippi, if you registered to vote, your name and address ran in the paper for two weeks so the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists could terrorize you if you were Black."

7. Ohio pastor charged for housing the homeless in his church sues city in federal lawsuit (January 24)

8. The Biden Administration Is Ending Bank Overdraft Fees as We Know Them (January 18) "Under the new rule, overdraft fees at large banks will be limited to the service's cost–expected to be as low as $3 per incident. Currently, the typical consumer is charged $35 for each overdraft."

9. Focus on the Family's Scary Stance About Men Jailed for Domestic Violence (January 22) [content note: abuse, domestic violence] "Why is there no testimony from a man saying, 'I learned that trying to control my wife wasn’t okay'?"

10. Take a Hint! How Chinese Officials Are Subtly Promoting Having Children (January 24) "The challenge even prompted the China Family Planning Association — formed in 1980 to help implement the one-child policy — to seek the public’s help in formulating new propaganda slogans for the three-child policy in 2021." Oh yeah that's what we need, propaganda slogans. That'll do it. [/sarcasm]

I find it a bit goofy that this article is framed like "the Chinese government is promoting these images of families with 3 children, hoping it will convince people to have more kids" [my paraphrase, not an exact quote] which is, uh, how shall I put this, obviously ridiculous. Can you imagine any parent being like "well I have 1 child, and WOW childcare is expensive, but oh look here's a statue of a family with 3 children, I should totally have more kids!!!" LOLLLLLL.

It would make a lot more sense to frame it as "Because the one-child policy was in place for 30-some years, in Chinese culture it's now seen as 'normal' to only have 1 child (for example, the typical image of a family is a mom, dad, and 1 child). Now that China has changed to a 3-child policy, the government is trying to promote more images of families with 2-3 children, to show that this should also be seen as 'normal.'" Like not with the expectation that this is going to *convince* people to have more kids (lol what on earth), but simply as a way of helping people see that there can be different sizes of families and that's all fine.

11. Journal Club: Has Virginity Lost Its Virtue? (January 24) "Study 2 took data from a national survey to see how likely people were to consider a relationship with a virgin."

12. Raped, pregnant and in an abortion ban state? Researchers gauge how often it happens (January 24, via) [content note: rape statistics] "As an abortion provider in Montana, Dr. Samuel Dickman has seen patients routinely who tell him they became pregnant after a rape." This study estimates 64,000 pregnancies from rape in states where abortion is banned, since Roe v Wade was overturned.

13. Call for Submissions | February 2024 Carnival of Aros | The Meaning of “Romance” Across Time and Place (January 18) Good topic! I haven't written anything for the Carnival of Aros before, but I will probably write a post for this one, because I have some things to say about the differences in romantic traditions in Chinese and American culture.

Blogaround

1. The kingdom of heaven is like: “We Keep People Alive”: As Summers Get Deadlier, a Tiny Church Is Fighting Back (September 21, via) "On June 1, they set up a 'Cooling Center' sandwich board sign out front on Southern Avenue, and soon, 15 to 25 unsheltered, exhausted, and often addicted visitors were showing up each day, frequently with dogs."

2. Genetically Modified Pig’s Heart Is Transplanted Into a Second Patient (September 22) "The heart transplanted into Mr. Faucette came from a pig that had received 10 genetic modifications. Scientists removed three pig genes that cause rapid rejection of pig organs by the human immune system, while inserting six human genes that allow the immune system to accept the organ."

3. Penguins, Postcards & Preservation: Antarctica's Hidden Postal Gem! (September 25, via) The southernmost post office in the world, surrounded by penguins.

4. An Attempt At One Of The All Time Greats (September 27) 1-hour-22-minute meidjuluk/fillomino solve video. If you don't know what that is, don't worry, Simon will explain it.

5. Texas’ ban on certain drag shows is unconstitutional, federal judge says (September 26, via) "'The Court sees no way to read the provisions of SB 12 without concluding that a large amount of constitutionally-protected conduct can and will be wrapped up in the enforcement of SB 12,' the ruling reads. 'It is not unreasonable to read SB 12 and conclude that activities such as cheerleading, dancing, live theater, and other common public occurrences could possibly become a civil or criminal violation.'"

6. MEGAMIND and Nice Guy™ Syndrome (2022) 34-minute video from Cinema Therapy. I love the movie "Megamind" so much.

And also this one: Villain Therapy: LOKI (2021)

7. The Hollywood Writers Strike Proved That Collective Action Works (September 27, via) "They thought the general public wouldn’t support the writers. They were wrong. They thought they could starve the writers out. Once again, they were wrong."

8. What’s the worst job? (September 22) "Human beings are not adapted to microgravity and high radiation. We’ve got enough data now on the consequences of long-term living in space (where long-term is a matter of months — no one is going to be able to live their lives in space)."

9. I hate this article from "Christianity Today": Shannon Harris Wasn’t Content with Being a Purity Culture Stagehand (September 28) It's a review of Shannon Harris (ex-wife of Joshua Harris)'s new book, "The Woman They Wanted," which is about how she was required to give up her own dreams in order to fit the church's idea of what a good pastor's wife is supposed to be. The review starts out well, talking about how it was wrong that the church forced Harris to fit this role. 

But then it starts getting into how Harris has now come to an incorrect view of Christianity. When I say "incorrect," I mean incorrect by Christianity Today's standards. Like, oh now Shannon Harris is advising people to connect "to our own wisdom, to nature and our bodies, to our own fulfillment in work and pleasure, and to our own ways of being and doing." This is, apparently, according to Christianity Today, wrong.

So... basically, what Christianity Today wants to say is, it was wrong that the church forced Harris into a very narrow view of how she was supposed to live. It was wrong not because it was narrow, but because it wasn't the right narrow view. Instead, she is supposed to believe whatever narrow view Christianity Today has about what "the gospel" means.

Ugh, why can't you just let people live their lives? Why can't you just let people tell their own stories, and find meaning in the things that feel meaningful to them? 

Why is it that good Christians can only support survivors up to a certain point- yes, we can listen to them talk about the bad things that happened to them, yes we can agree that those things were wrong, but then when the survivor starts to talk about how their beliefs have changed as a result, oh no, stop, we have to write articles to warn people away from listening to this heresy! Come on.

It's like I said in my post When Christians Say "We're Sorry":

If Christians really are sorry, they know that people need to heal on their own terms.

But of course, like I said earlier, believing in hell screws this all up. Because how sorry can you really be, and how much freedom can you really allow a victim to have, when you believe in a God who won't care about that on judgment day? When you believe in a God who doesn't care that church people hurt this person, and for their own mental and emotional health, they never went to church again... when you believe in a God who says you're out if you don't believe these specific doctrines about Jesus- no excuses.

How sorry can you really be when you worship a God who puts "the gospel" above caring for victims?

How sorry can you really be if you still believe you have all the right answers and everybody better listen to you?

Anyway, I'm definitely interested in reading Shannon Harris's book.

Blogaround

1. Oklahoma sheriff, commissioner, accused of discussing killing a reporter and returning to Black hangings (April 16) [content note: violent racist language] WTF.

(That link and several others in this post I got via the Slacktivist's Postcards from the class & culture wars (4.17.23))

2. A Good Friday funeral in Texas. Baby Halo's parents had few choices in post-Roe Texas (April 6) [content note: child death/ pregnancy loss] "'Where is the state of Texas to provide the safety net for her, after forcing her to give birth to a child that didn't survive and never would?' she asks."

3. Doctors Warned Her Pregnancy Could Kill Her. Then Tennessee Outlawed Abortion. (March 14) [content note: explicit medical details about pregnancy complications] "ProPublica spoke with 20 Tennessee medical providers about life under the ban, on condition of anonymity because they feared professional and personal repercussions; some said that they had witnessed a new trepidation in their ranks. 'I’ve seen colleagues delay or sit on assessing the clinical data longer when they know the diagnosis is probably ectopic,' one said, referring to pregnancies that implant outside the uterine cavity, which are always life-threatening. 'People were like, 'I don’t want to be involved because I don’t want to go to prison,'' said another. 'It’s crazy — even assessing the patient or having a role in their care makes people scared.'"

4. City leases property to 'Safe Ground Sacramento' for a self-governing 'safe parking shelter' (March 31, via) "The cost of the lease is $0, and its length is 120 days, renewable in increments of 120 days until all the residents obtain permanent housing." An agreement between the city of Sacramento and a group advocating for the rights of homeless people.

5. Recovery of Black teen allegedly shot by White homeowner after ringing wrong doorbell is a miracle, attorney says (April 19) "A Black teenager who authorities say was shot in the head by an 84-year-old White homeowner after going to the wrong Kansas City address received a positive prognosis but still faces a long road to recovery, according to his attorneys."

6. Parler shuts down as new owner says conservative platform needs big revamp (April 15) "'No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,' the acquisition announcement said, promising a revamp."

7. BMW’s Mini apologizes after meltdown over ice cream at Shanghai auto show (April 21) So, there was a car expo in Shanghai this week, and apparently the BMW booth was handing out ice cream, and there's a video of the BMW employees telling Chinese people that all the ice cream is gone, and then a white guy shows up and they give him ice cream. (The news articles say "foreign" or "western" or 外国人 but let's just call it what it is, whiteness.)

Umm. Okay. I'm white, I live in Shanghai, and the first thing I wanna say about this is it rings true. In this kind of business-event context, Chinese people definitely do give preferential treatment to white people. I've experienced that.

BMW issued an apology and said that actually the reason the white guy got ice cream is he's a BMW employee. Who knows if that's true. I don't think the Chinese internet masses are buying it.

8. UMC clergy reportedly face complaint, church trial after marrying nonbinary couple (April 19) When people get married, the correct response is "congratulations!" Rejoice with those who rejoice. But the church is butting in and making it into a problem instead.

9. This whole twitter thread about why abortion care is very important for people who are struggling with infertility and trying to have a baby. It's common for people to have miscarriages when they're having these problems, and they need to have access to health care that can handle miscarriage in a reasonable way, instead of "pro-life" health care which doesn't connect to reality.

I liberalized two college age girls last night.

Two students were told by their teacher to shadow a support group. I run an infertility support group.

They mostly observed with a few questions. They were visibly floored when I told them how abortion care was critical to us.

— Angel of the Ozarks (@AngelSSMO) April 21, 2023

10. Religious Authorities Are Not God (March 10) "In more cynical terms, I remember feeling suspicious that the ministry organization was trying to frame something as a call from God on Grace’s life that was really just their own best attempt at having enough staff at all the different schools."

11. P!nk - F**kin' Perfect (Lyric Video) I know I've posted this several times before, but I'm ex-evangelical so I need to post this song a lot.

Blogaround

1. Was Jesus Homeless? Yes, No, and Kind Of (December 2) "When I worked as a housing case manager, part of my job was to determine if clients were literally homeless, according to the HUD definition."

Also from the same blog: “I Think I Might Not Die Now” (December 22) "I am blessed to work for an organization that believes in Housing First.  What that means is, once a person’s housing is taken care of, suddenly their medical needs and expenses go down."

2. Can the Star of Bethlehem be scientifically verified? (November 28) Part 1 of a blog series critiquing the video "The Star of Bethlehem," a documentary providing a scientific explanation for the star from the Christmas story in the bible. I actually have seen this video before (a long time ago, when I was evangelical). Perhaps some Christians would, after seeing the video, sum it up as "they found the star." [I just rolled my eyes so hard.] I now view it more like "here's a fan theory about what the star could have been." It's just somebody's idea, and there's nowhere near enough "evidence" to be making claims that this really is what the star actually was. (Honestly, for any date in history, you could probably look at the constellations and make up a story about how it totally means something.) Fun to make fan theories though!

Part 2: The Star of Bethlehem, a real event?
Part 3: Critique of ‘The Star of Bethlehem’ video
Part 4: Jupiter, Venus, Regulus, and Revelation: the fireworks of a real Star of Bethlehem?
Part 5: How did the Star of Bethlehem move like Tinker Bell?

3. A Few Math Problems for Mothers (July 13) "Felix had an accident during nap time and doesn’t have a spare pair of pants at school. If Felix’s father is listed as the primary point of contact on all documents, how many times does the school call his mother?"

4. Star Wars Christmas Parodies - "Padme Did You Know" and "I'm Dreaming of a New Death Star" (2015) This is AMAZING.

5. One Of The Most Astonishing Sudokus Ever (December 15) 1-hour-37-minute sudoku solve video. I love it.

6. Mary and Jesus in the Eyes of Chinese Painters (December 24) "He reinterpreted Da Vinci’s famous 'Last Supper' in traditional Chinese style, featuring a table, stools, tableware, windows, lanterns, and clothing unique to China."

7. Noncon Porn Taught Me About Rape (2016) "When I was a young fan, I remember reading a bunch of posts that said something like this: 'When you write fanfic, warn for rape if you’re treating the subject seriously as something that traumatizes the victim. Warn for noncon if it’s treated as sexy or if the victim starts consenting part of the way through. Warn for dubcon if the characters’ ability to give consent is dubious– for instance, fuck-or-die, sex pollen, one character being another character’s boss, emotional coercion, or sex where one character is extremely drunk. Of course, in the real world, all of those are rape!'"

Also from the same blog: The Thrill of the Chaste, or Why Dawn Eden Should Not Have Casual Sex (2015) I love this, because it takes an argument like "you shouldn't have casual sex because xyz" and changes it to "if you are the sort of person that would have xyz result if you had casual sex, then you shouldn't have casual sex." It's about knowing yourself. Know what you want or don't want. Not about making rules about "this is how EVERYBODY feels."

8. So, at the beginning of December I posted Square Root's Advent Calendar, and said I would give an update on Square Root's opinions on it. Here's the update: He was very interested in the puzzle, and could do parts of it by himself. He seemed to totally ignore me when I read the bible verses to him. But hey, little kids do pick up on things, so maybe he listened even though he didn't act like it. *shrug*

Blogaround

Blood moon total lunar eclipse. Photo taken in Hong Kong. Image source.

1. 11/4 Flashback: Except Steve (November 4) "'Steve' has emerged as a central figure in American theology."

2. The Hardest Sudoku Of Them All: Simon Vs Phistomefel Live (2021) A 2-hour-15-minute sudoku solve video (which was livestreamed). This is incredible.

3. Does Lightyear Prove Wall-E Never Happened? | Pixar Film Theory (November 5) I love this! The Super Carlin Brothers have taken the Pixar theory so incredibly far that now they are asking questions like, "Could this be the reference to the next in-universe Pixar movie to be released? If that's the case, then what would that actually mean? Like, does that suggest that 'Wall-E' never happened on the Pixar timeline?" Completely bizarre questions that only make sense if you've bought into the "Pixar theory" ideology and followed it so many levels deep- but treated like these are the obvious concerns that come up when anyone just simply watches Pixar movies. I love it SO MUCH. I've said before that the Pixar theory is EXACTLY LIKE biblical apologetics. I very much do not believe in the Pixar theory, but it's fascinating seeing how far they can take it- how far away they get from the actual stories told by the actual movies.

The Super Carlin Brothers have taken the Pixar Theory and have gone soooo far off the deep end, and I am here for it.

4. Why Americans living abroad are a voting bloc with untapped political potential (November 6) YES! Very good article! All of this is very true. "That's part of why overseas citizens' turnout is so low, because they don't have that logistical support, and they're on their own with figuring out how and when to vote."

5. How Your Church Can Help With the Housing Crisis (posted November 6) These are good ideas, and in general this should be a role that churches take on. But also, I want to say, this isn't like just a simple "we have extra space so we can let people live here" and you don't put any more thought into it than that. Being a landlord is an actual job. And for people with low income, who are just 1 unexpected expense from disaster, as the landlord you also get pulled into those disasters. Before you become a landlord, you have to educate yourself about how it works, and have a realistic plan about what to do if there are problems. When you get people dependent on you because you provide their housing, it's immoral to stop providing that- even though you're within your rights to evict them- even though you lose money if you let your tenants not pay rent.

So, count the cost.

And yes, the writer of that blog post points out these issues: "It almost goes without saying that congregate living of this nature is going to result in chaos or conflict on some level. As a housing case manager, I came to expect this. Many in the church might not be prepared to deal with the soap operas that result from this kind of living. But isn’t that what the church is called to do—assisting those in need, and helping them to live better lives? To address this, the church could assign a particular deacon to work with the families who live on church property."

Yes, churches should definitely use their extra space to help people who can't afford housing. That's what Jesus wants us to do. But don't do it in a naive way. Do it in an educated way. Count the cost first.

6. The origins of circumcision: Was it a mark of slavery? (July 20) "First, people don’t normally submit to such procedures without coercion. Not initially."

7. In China, Millions of Women Never Learned to Read. Can TikTok Help? (November 4) "'They say it never occurred to them that they could read and write in their lifetimes,' Liu says. 'That’s when it hits me that what I’m doing is truly meaningful.'"

8. Amazing photos of the last Blood Moon lunar eclipse of 2022 (gallery) (November 8) This was so incredible. Here in China, the total eclipse began at 6:18 pm. The moon was rising- I talked to family in the US, and they were able to see the first part of the eclipse but then the moon set for them. Anyway, I saw it, showed it to my kid, it was so incredible.

And if you want to see the 1-hour-43-minute stream of the entire thing: WATCH LIVE: ‘Blood moon’ total lunar eclipse in Asia (November 8)

9. Oh my goodness, this entire thread is SO GOOD:

Purity culture ≠ asexuality.
PURITY CULTURE ≠ ASEXUALITY.

Purity culture is where asexual teens camouflage and asexual adults are increasingly exposed. 🧵🪡

— Ellen Huang (Ell) ♠️🐇🍀☂️ (@nocturnalxlight) November 10, 2022

My favorite part is: "Purity culture emphasizes a virginity-to-consummated-marriage pipeline without preparing anyone for anything."

Blogaround

1. The kingdom of heaven is like: Legal quirk allows gay couples in China to get married online in conservative Utah (October 6). I love this!

2. You CANNOT and MUST NOT Solve This Sudoku (October 3) 1-hour-35-minute sudoku solve video, with a very advanced ruleset. (This puzzle illustrates the concept of a "deadly pattern" very well.) I love this. Here are my favorite quotes:

• 55 minutes, with not one single digit in the grid yet: "And if this doesn't work, I'm turning the camera off, because my brain, my brain is already shot to pieces."
• 1 hr 03 min: "Have we been doing sudoku? That is a philosophical question."
• 1 hr 19 min: "What an extraordinary puzzle this is. Imagine if I don't manage to solve it now. I will probably cry, actually. I will probably cry, because this is, it's amazing. It's amazing."

3. Biblical Womanhood T-Shirt. I love this!

T-shirt that has a drawing of a tent peg through a skull, and says "Biblical Womanhood, Judges 4-5"

4. Sign o’ the times, mess with your mind, hurry before it’s 2 late (October 4) "We were 16 years old and our pastor, youth pastor, and the Bible teacher at our Christian school were all assuring us that we’d never be 26."

5. Forced Birth is Torture. (September 22) [content note: medical/pregnancy trauma. Mother and baby survive, fortunately] "What happened next was several hours of careful cutting and suction and burning and stitching while I lay with my arms strapped down and the baby wailed."

6. If the Media Are Reluctant To Properly Label the GOP’s Racist, Christian Nationalist Ideologies, We’ll Have Trouble Hanging on to Democracy (May 20) "Every time a Republican who has voiced “Great Replacement” views in the past is interviewed, he or she needs to be explicitly asked about it—and if they don’t actively disavow their past claims, it needs to be stated that they subscribe to white nationalist ideology—an ideology that has killed hundreds in the US in the last years alone, and millions in the last century worldwide."

7. The New York Times Has Badly Lost Its Bearings (May 13) 

8. I Opposed Abortion Until I Fought To Defeat Personhood In Mississippi. Here’s Why. (May 25) "'We’re just trying to get the amendment on the ballot. That’ll all get figured out later.' The brush-off chilled me. I had an ectopic pregnancy in 2004 and, unfortunately, that is not a pregnancy that will survive. It must be terminated, or the mother will die."

9. What Jesus Said to the Homeless Man (October 2) "In my experience, one hundred percent of people experiencing homelessness battle demons every day."

10. ‘Graduation Day’ for Guide Dogs Highlights Their Rarity in China (October 10) "However, the number of guide dogs in the country is grossly inadequate — a 2019 report by the China Association of the Blind said there were fewer than 200 guide dogs for a country with about 17 million people with visual impairments."

11. Rochester to pay $12M to settle lawsuit filed by Daniel Prude family, largest civil rights settlement in city's history (October 6) [content note: police brutality] "The settlement is not an admission of liability, the court documents show."

12. Angela Lansbury, 'Murder, She Wrote' and 'Beauty and the Beast' star, dies at 96 (October 12) 

13. How SEO Is Gentrifying the Internet (2020) "'Can Cats Eat Blueberries?' was a masterpiece by SEO writing standards and an absolute turd by regular writing standards. A reader might spend five minutes reading the article and still have no idea if it’s OK to roll one (1) blueberry across the floor for their floofy pouncemonster to chase. However, as long as the reader spends those five minutes looking at the page—and more importantly, the ads that are placed on it—then mission accomplished. This is where the SEOification of the internet has brought us, and it [****]ing sucks."

14. Sex Work and the Power of Choice (2011) "When you think about this for ten seconds, you should realize that it makes no sense. People in any other service profession can, and do, turn down customers they don’t want to work with."

15. Sex-Positivity, Compulsory Sexuality and Intersecting Identities (2012) "There are too many issues of power and privilege at play which are not adequately challenged and criticised. The institution of compulsory sexuality still underpins sex-positivism."

16. that female athlete doesn’t look feminine enough (August 18) "Girls looking insufficiently feminine is now a complaint that the government takes 'seriously', and that the government then investigates."

17. The City of Philadelphia Apologizes for Decades of Medical Experiments Performed on Black Inmates (October 11) "From 1951 through 1974, Dr. Albert Kligman, a dermatologist from the University of Pennsylvania, conducted 'the dermatological, biochemical and pharmaceutical experiments that intentionally exposed about 300 inmates to viruses, fungus, asbestos and chemical agents including dioxin—a component of Agent Orange.'" And the article goes on to describe experiments even more disturbing than that. WTF????

18. Epidural-Induced Births ‘Far Behind’ in China, Says Top Expert (October 12) "Mi Weidong, an anesthesiologist at the country’s top health authority leading the taskforce in promoting epidural anesthesia, said that only 30% of female respondents in a nationwide survey were offered anesthetic services during childbirth, despite a large majority of them opting for a more painfree delivery method."

19. (Chill) Ex-Ace Narrative 1: Validation (August 14) "Amidst this chorus of voices, ace communities were the only ones to consistently say 'The subjective experiences you're having are real and okay-- even if they're non-normative and statistically uncommon. You can articulate your own relationship to sex and sexuality on your own terms. You don't need to change your behaviors/desires/attitudes to more normative ones for the sake of fitting a relationship or an ideological ideal. You don't have to organize your life around the expectation that you're someday have a more normative relationship to sexuality.'"