Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. Why Frozen Food Gets an Icy Reception in China (September 26) "Chinese consumers are wary of, and even resistant toward, pre-made food. Western consumers don’t mind the convenience of a frozen pizza, and Japanese convenience stores sell countless pre-made meals. So why China’s reticence?"

Yeah, this is definitely a thing. Chinese people going to the market every morning to get fresh vegetables. I mean, not everyone- if you have a full-time job, obviously you're not doing that. I didn't know that some people took it to the extremes that this article says... in contrast, it's also normal in China to have a bunch of meat in your freezer... frozen dumplings, etc... but maybe the point is that people expect restaurant food to be higher quality than what you would make at home, and frozen food is NOT seen as good enough for that.

This was a real issue during the 2022 Shanghai lockdown. People didn't have, like, a stash of canned/frozen food. The government was, on the fly, coming up with systems to distribute food to everyone locked down in their homes- and it was fresh food, so there were some cases where delays in the delivery meant all the food went bad.

2. Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time (September 24, via) "An emotional research team became tearful as they described how data shows the disease was slowed by 75% in patients."

3. Voddie Baucham, Jr., Preacher and Educator Who Courted Controversy, Dies at 56 (September 26)

4. Wyoming town erects new monument to violent, anti-immigrant history (September 28) I think the wording of this headline is very strange; it should say something more like "monument for the victims of its violent, anti-immigrant history." Anyway, it's about this: "After burning several blocks once made up of homes and shops, the mob killed 28 Chinese people and injured another 14, in what is one of the deadliest incidents of anti-Chinese violence in U.S. history."

5. “War Criminal”: Thousands Call to Arrest Netanyahu, March at U.N. Against Gaza Genocide (September 29) "Despite the fact that Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes he has presided over in Gaza, he was able to travel to the U.N. without incident, as the United States says it does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC. We spoke to protesters demanding Netanyahu’s arrest and an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza."

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Links related to the antichrist:

1. Jimmy Kimmel’s reinstatement shows the power of noncooperation (September 23, via) "No business can handle a large-scale consumer withdrawal, and no government agency can handle widespread worker withdrawal. So even though the Trump administration has been moving methodically to consolidate power, the people of this country have the power to make it an exercise in futility."

2. Trump Posts an Absolutely Bonkers AI Video in Which He Promotes a Magic ‘Med Bed’ That Can Cure Any Disease (September 28)

And more on that from CNN: Trump shares apparent AI video promoting ‘medbed’ conspiracy theory (September 29)

3. Hegseth says Wounded Knee massacre soldiers will keep Medals of Honor (September 26) "'Only an administration intent on committing war crimes in the present and future would stoop to calling Wounded Knee a ‘battle’ rather than what it truly was,' Columbia University history professor Karl Jacoby posted on Bluesky."

I saw a comment about this, where someone said they just couldn't understand why on earth Hegseth would do this. Here's why: It's because acknowledging the atrocities that the US committed against Native Americans is "woke." Everything was fine with the history that Hegseth learned in school, and now these Native American activists are saying something is wrong and the US should apologize, ugh how annoying, can they just stop? Hegseth's decision here has nothing to do with "did US soldiers massacre innocent people" and everything to do with "why would we bother talking about things that don't affect us regular [white] people?"

4. Lower Than Cowards (September 25) "Now we know most titans of industry won’t be fighting right-wing authoritarianism as fiercely as they would a tax hike on private equity."

5. 'I want his name to be known': Wife of immigrant injured at ICE facility shooting speaks out (September 27) "He's on life support after being critically injured on Wednesday in the shooting at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas. He was being detained there after being arrested on Aug. 8 for driving under the influence. He is in the U.S. without legal status."

6. Hundreds protest at ICE building after Trump’s announcement of troop deployment to Portland (September 29) 

7. YouTube agrees to pay Trump $24 million to settle lawsuit over Jan. 6 suspension (September 29) "Law professor Goldman said but for 'an attempt to curry favor with the president,' there is 'absolutely no reason to believe Trump would have gotten anywhere with these suits.'"

8. Trump's new $100,000 visa fee sets off panic and confusion (September 21) "Tech companies and banks sent urgent memos advising employees not to leave the country. Bags were packed, tickets bought and families left behind as visa holders scrambled to beat what they believed was a looming deadline."

9. U.S. Revokes Visa for Colombian President Petro After He Joined Palestine Protest at U.N. (September 29, via) "After the U.S. revoked his visa, Petro wrote online, 'Revoking it for denouncing genocide shows the U.S. no longer respects international law.'"

Blogaround

Links not related to the antichrist:

1. ChatGPT is the new appeal to authority for right-wing Christians (July 21) "Right-wing Christians perform an ecstatic devotion they call speaking in tongues, and then try to get ChatGPT to guess the language they used."

2. Did this Kid Use AI to Fake Research About How Great AI Is? (August 21) "But this is not another case of a few fudged numbers. This is a case of a guy who just straight made up an entire study and convinced the world that it was real."

3. Ministry of Violence (August 22) [content note: physical abuse of children] One of the biggest things James Dobson was known for was his teaching about how to "discipline" your kids, ie, kids are evil little tyrants, and if they are ever stubborn or disobedient about anything, that's a power struggle that the parent needs to win, by hitting the child until the child totally surrenders. He gave detailed advice on how exactly to go about hitting your children.

I didn't mention it in my post because that aspect of his teaching didn't have much effect on me personally. But yes, I'm glad people are writing about this. This was a huge part of what he was teaching.

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Image text: "In The Lion King (1997), Scar makes false campaign promises by guaranteeing to eliminate hunger, but actively makes the problem worse instead. This is the most realistic part of the movie." Image source. (Fact check: It was 1994.)

Links related to the antichrist:

1. Living in the shadows: Why stateless people fear Trump's immigration crackdown (August 21) "An estimated 218,000 people in the U.S. are stateless or at risk of becoming so, according to the Center for Migration Studies."

2. Judge orders DOJ to give more info on subpoenas targeting trans minors' medical care (August 21) "The subpoena in question, issued to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia1 (referred to in court documents often as “CHOP”), is extremely invasive — not only as to the medical providers but, relevant here, as to their patients."

3. Special Report: U.S. Immigration Policy and the Mental Health of Children and Families (July 25) "Forced family separations, particularly those resulting from immigration enforcement (e.g., detention, deportation), introduce acute psychological risks. A national study of 547 U.S.-born adolescents ages 11 to 16 found that having a detained or deported family member was associated with elevated risk for suicidal ideation, externalizing behaviors, and alcohol use (Roche, et al., 2020). In young children, abrupt caregiver loss has been linked to sleep and appetite disturbances, emotional dysregulation, and developmental regression (MacLean, et al., 2019). Forcible separation from a caregiver is recognized as an adverse childhood experience (ACE) that contributes to toxic stress, ambiguous loss, and long-term risk for psychiatric disorders (Roberts, et al., 2014; Lu, et al., 2020)."

4. Kilmar Abrego Garcia detained by ICE during Baltimore check-in (August 25) "'God is with us. God will never leave us. God will bring justice to all of the injustice we are suffering,' Abrego Garcia said, fighting through tears."

5. ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ may be shut down before Halloween. Florida already has a backup plan (August 24) "The Miccosukee Tribe, a Native American tribe whose reservation lies within miles of the facility, raised serious concerns about the impact the facility will have on their land and the environmentally sensitive area, including the plants and animals that inhabit the Everglades."

6. Concentration camps are not just part of our past, but our present and future (August 22, via) "...the most important aspect of recognizing this history is not so those of us descended from settlers or who have otherwise benefited from the legacy of colonialism feel shame, but rather 'to recognize that these tactics, [a division into] savage vs. civilized, continues to inhabit our society. At any moment, these sentiments are still there and this way of thinking emerges.'"

7. Trump Admin Bans Coverage For Trans Govt Employees, Mandates Conversion Therapy Coverage (August 21) "On Friday, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management issued a memo announcing that, beginning in 2026, all federal employee health plans will be barred from covering gender-affirming care—including hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgeries—for both transgender youth and adults."

Blogaround + Happy Year of the Snake!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! January 28 was the big night, and it is now the year of the snake!

For Chinese New Year, there is a tv show called 春晚 [chūn wǎn] (which I like to call "Chinese New Year's Rockin' Eve"). Here are the performances I liked from this year's 春晚:

Magic tricks from Lu Chen (刘谦). The first one, about swapping around the cups and chopsticks and whatever, is boring and not even really a magic trick. The second trick is really clever if you can read Chinese- I loved it! (And there's a joke at the beginning where one of the hosts (小尼) says "please give me another chance"- this is because at last year's 春晚, that same guy was one of the hosts, and Lu Chen was doing a magic trick about instructing all the audience members to move cards around in a certain way, and this guy must have messed up a step and his turned out wrong- all the other hosts got the right result at the end, except him, and this was on live tv and he just kind of pretended it was fine, but we all noticed. Anyway this year he didn't mess up, so all is good.)

Anyway, highly recommend this video if you can understand Chinese! Actually, back when I was first studying Chinese, I watched a lot of Lu Chen videos- magic tricks are a good tool for language learning, I would say, because the magician is always talking about what they are physically doing, or describing the objects they are using.

And if you want to watch something in English, here's One Republic performing "Counting Stars". This is really cool! 春晚 has had international performers before, but I don't think any of them have been, like, big famous pop stars I've actually heard of.

These dancing robots:

This song, featuring athletes from China's Olympic team:

Also, Sixth Tone has a photo roundup of public snake structures for the new year: Collage: The Year of the Snake

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Okay now on to the blogaround links!

Here, I sorted the links. Here are the links not related to that felon:

1. New York becomes the first state to close schools for Lunar New Year (January 29)

2. AlphaMove (January 31)

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And I sorted all the links about the latest fascist nonsense down to here. If you are too burned out, you don't have to read them. Donate to a group that supports immigrants and then do something to make yourself happy.

1. Amazon removes 'equity for Black people' and 'LGBTQ+ rights' from company policies (January 13, via) So... big companies only care about diversity and equality when it's the politically popular thing to do.

2. The Chilling Line Trump Just Crossed On Transgender People (January 29) "The attacks on transgender people are no longer cloaked in the faux respectability of “evidence,” “science,” or “protecting kids.” They never truly were, but now even the pretense has been abandoned."

3. Quakers sue to keep US immigration agents out of houses of worship (January 28) "The lawsuit by five Quaker groups said the policy was infringing their right to practice their religion by sowing fear among congregations and leading to the cancellation of services."

4. Fearing encounters with ICE, tribal leaders offer guidance to their members (January 29)

Blogaround

1. Egypt is certified malaria-free by WHO (October 20, via) This is great!

2. Lauren Stratford, The Survivor Who Never Was (October 15) "True change cannot be built on falsehoods, and people who try to do so create more victims, not fewer."

3. China’s Solution for Trash-Strewn Mountains: Robot Dog Porters (October 24) "The four-legged robots could be seen trotting up and down the steps of Mount Tai, or Taishan, in eastern China’s Shandong province last weekend, often laden with huge bags of garbage, sparking amusement among the hordes of tourists at the site."

Also from Sixth Tone: What’s Chinese for ‘Midwest Nice’? (October 24) LOLLL oh this is so real. You text with customer service on Taobao (Chinese shopping app) and they constantly call you "qin" [亲]. A dictionary will tell you this means "dear"- and I have seen plenty of Chinese people using "dear" in English the way they use "qin", which just sounds odd, like "Dear, can you bring in these documents next week?"- but I've always felt like it shouldn't be understood as "dear" but more like a polite title you use in administrative sorts of interactions. Loved reading this article about how Chinese people also find it weird to be called "qin" on Taobao all the time.

And also: Signs of Unity: Can China’s Deaf Community Find a Common Language? (October 28) "China’s large size, coupled with a history of sign language use dating back at least 1,500 years, have made China’s sign languages especially fragmented."

4. Former envoy says Americans in Canada ‘could determine’ next president (October 20) Love this! Americans living abroad, VOTE VOTE VOTE!

5. Nazi shit (intra ecclesiam nulla salus) (October 23) "'Round them up and put them in camps' is unadorned Nazi shit. It just is. There’s no way of qualifying or caviling or weaseling out of that. 'Round them up and put them in camps' is the essence of the thing itself."

6. What NOT To Say To People Trapped In The MAGA Cult (October 24) "One day he’ll be gone [hopefully very soon] and you’ll need to be there to help them process what happened and perhaps find a way back to sanity."

7. Police and poll workers train for possible election threats (October 24) 

8. American Airlines fined $50 million for its treatment of passengers with disabilities (October 23) "Duckworth said airlines routinely damage her own wheelchairs and others. In fact, Duckworth says they broke 892 wheelchairs in a single month last year. 'Imagine if the American public saw that the airlines broke 892 pairs of legs in a single month. There would be hue and cry, but there hasn't been.'"

9. Biden apologizes for forced Native American boarding school policy that caused abuse and deaths of children (October 26) "President Joe Biden delivered an apology Friday for a United States policy that forcibly separated generations of indigenous children from their families for more than 150 years and sent them to federally backed boarding schools for forced assimilation."

10. MAGA’s Closing Argument: Dad’s Coming Home (October 28) "The core MAGA message is that all these problems are really one problem: The world feels wrong now, because people don’t know how to behave."

11. Your Fave Is Problematic Politics (October 18) "This is an annoying approach to media analysis. It is a batshit approach to getting people to vote for a candidate."

12. Relatable: AOC Doesn't Want Four More Years Of Waking Up To Trump's Bullsh*t (October 29) "We should not have to live that way again. We shouldn’t have to wake up every morning and think “OK, what’s it gonna be today?” Our elected officials shouldn’t be spending their time crafting responses to everything he says or does, only for no one to even remember what they were the next day because the next day we’re onto another horrible thing."

13. Many state abortion bans include exceptions for rape. How often are they granted? (October 26, via) "Bertram Roberts says she’s never seen anyone in that state get an exemption — for any reason, let alone rape."

14. New Acquisitions: 1933 and the Definition of Fascism (October 25) "Indeed, an unprecedented number of Donald Trump’s closest, handpicked aides and advisors have refused to endorse him, many warning publicly that Trump was a danger to democracy. It is rare for any advisor or official so close to the president to refuse to endorse them; nearly half of Trump’s have so refused."

15. 《目标是宝可梦大师》中文版MV 腾格尔 (October 26) For fun, here's a Chinese song about pokemon!

Blogaround

1. Reach, Throw, Row, Go (January 18) "A lesson in 'How to Save a Drowning Person' that started with an argument for Why You Should Want To Do That would meet with a kind of puzzled anger." It's about this: Feds demand Texas stop blocking Border Patrol agents access to border 

Also from The Slacktivist: We Don’t Live In ‘Bubbles’ (January 25) "Heck, if Chester A. Arthur had even said something so completely stupid in such an arrogant tone, then that’s all he’d be remembered for today. Historians would refer to President Arthur as 'the magnets guy' instead of just as, um, one of those guys who came between Grant and Teddy and probably won’t be on the final."

2. The Lives of China’s Hidden Workers, Through Their Own Camera Lens (January 25) "Instead, it is narrated by the people Sun calls the documentary’s 'co-directors,' from truck drivers and construction workers to fishermen and rice farmers — typical users of Kuaishou, which is more popular in China’s smaller cities and countryside than rival platform Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok."

(One quibble there: Tiktok is the international version of Douyin. Not the other way around.)

Also from Sixth Tone: Endangered Xizang Cattle Cloned For the First Time (January 30) "The latest national survey of livestock found only 19 Zhangmu cattle and 39 Apeijiaza cattle left in the country, with just one breeding bull remaining. According to Xinhua, the breeds are considered strategic resources for the country due to their ability to live on the snowy plateau at altitudes of more than 3,500 meters."

3. China, Singapore agree visa-free deal for travel stays of up to 30 days (January 25) China keeps adding more countries to the list! Great news for people from Singapore who want to travel to China.

4. American Family Radio Drops Alistair Begg Following Controversial Remarks About LGBTQ+ Weddings (January 24) "After confirming that the woman’s grandson understood that she doesn’t affirm his choice to marry a trans person, Begg said, 'Well then, okay. As long as he knows that, then I suggest that you do go to the ceremony. And I suggest that you buy them a gift.'" Oh look, pastor Alistair Begg, who very much believes being trans is wrong, advises a grandma to go to her grandson's wedding to a trans person. Apparently this is not good enough for American Family Radio- what if someone thinks that attending the wedding means Grandma thinks being trans is okay? We can't have that!

Remember when I said that being evangelical means you have to throw queer people under the bus? This is exactly what I'm talking about.

5. Alabama man shook violently on gurney during first-ever nitrogen gas execution (January 27) [content note: death penalty]

6. From Scrooge McDuck to Zacchaeus to 21st century wealth inequality (January 29) "For far too long we’ve sequestered Zacchaeus inside a children’s song."

7. Brittany Watts, Ohio woman charged with felony after miscarriage at home, describes shock of her arrest (January 26) [content note: miscarriage] New details about how the hospital did not give her the medical care that she needed.

8. Uranus and Neptune are actually similar blues, 'true' color images reveal (January 5) Cool!

9. Red Lake considers a future without blood quantum (2023, via) "It's really not our traditional way. And in fact, it's a tool that was meant to divide our people to eliminate our people."

Blogaround

1. My 2023 Reader Survey is open until June 19~

2. How Mae Martin Is Reshaping the Way Trans/Non-Binary Individuals Are Viewed in Comedy (April 21) Cool!

3. The Politics of Nothing: Visualizing Wasteland and Restoration in Terra Nil (June 4) "As I wrote about in Who Gets To See The Future, arid lands have long been viewed by colonizers as 'wasteland,' and this is a view with devastating ecological implications. To see land as 'wasteland' is to see it as worthless and disposable. In practice, this means viewing it as an always-appropriate site for everything from uranium mining to nuclear detonation."

4. How Scooters Caught China’s Urban Planners Off Guard (June 6) "In 2022, there were 350 million scooters in use in China, compared to approximately 230 million private cars. Some industry insiders believe that the true number of scooters may be much higher, as smaller cities rarely bother to register the vehicles even though they are one of the main forms of local transportation in the country’s vast interior."

5. Stack Overflow Moderators Are Striking to Stop Garbage AI Content From Flooding the Site (June 5)

And also these posts, on the Stack Exchange site itself:
Moderation strike
Moderation Strike: Stack Overflow, Inc. cannot consistently ignore, mistreat, and malign its volunteers "Content posted without innate domain understanding, but written in a 'smart' way, is dangerous to the integrity of the Stack Exchange network’s goal: To be a repository of high-quality question-and-answer content."

6. Pat Robertson, broadcaster who helped make religion central to GOP politics, dies at 93 (June 8)

7. “Love is love” (June 8) "In my experience, some of the most passionate haters of 'love is love' are aromantics. After all, all the stereotypes of loveless people are laid directly on their doorstep. 'Love is love' is used to legitimize queer love, but at the cost of tying legitimacy to love."

Blogaround

Shakira and J Lo perform at the Superbowl LIV halftime show. Image source.

1. New York City votes to ban cashless businesses in step against discrimination (posted January 24) "Supporters of the ban argue that electronic-only payments discriminate against low-income people, undocumented immigrants and people of color, who are less likely to have a bank account or access to credit."

2. Here Are the Most Common Airbnb Scams Worldwide (posted February 1) "In a surprising number of stories, the new house was often full of a weird number of beds, laid out in bizarre configurations."

3. the homeschool reading gap (posted November 5) "Every book I read included a protagonist I was intended to emulate; every book was aspirational and morally correct."

4. As a 28-Year-Old Latino, I’m Shocked My New Novel, Memoirs of a Middle-Aged White Lady, Has Been So Poorly Received (posted January 31) "The name Chab was not a typo. There are plenty of 8-year-old white American boys named Chab. I googled it."

5. Report: Outbreak of idiocy spreading 10,000 times faster than coronavirus (posted January 28) "Public health officials in Toronto have confirmed its first 50,000 cases of being a misinformed fuckwit as xenophobic conspiracy theories and tales of false cures continue to spread across social media."

6. Did Any Medieval Knight Ever Actually Rescue a Damsel in Distress? (posted January 29) [content note: rape] "Well to be completely honest, despite our best and extremely lengthy efforts of our quite experienced team researching this to try and find one single definitively-known instance of that supposed bastion of chivalry, the medieval knight, rescuing a woman in peril, we couldn't find one- with one possible exception we're going to get into in a bit."

OKAY this gives me FEELINGS about complementarianism. Complementarian Christians be like "oh remember the good old days when women knew their place and men valued them and treated them with the utmost respect, those idyllic days of traditional gender roles when women were safe and loved, oh if only we could get back to then, instead of now when women are exploited and sexualized because feminism says men no longer have to protect them." And the "knight rescuing a damsel in distress" is one of the most iconic symbols of that. (I seem to remember the purity-culture book "Captivating" made an EXTREMELY BIG DEAL of that.)

And now I happen upon this video that says, actually, we don't have any evidence that ever happened. And instead, that video contains one story after another after another of women being raped and forced into marriage, while men in power did NOTHING.

Complementarianism is a load of shit.

7. Shakira & J. Lo's FULL Pepsi Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show (posted February 3) Oh my god they are AMAZING.
It has come to my attention that some conservative Christians are criticizing them for being "sexualized" or something? Wow so glad I don't care about that any more.

8. The Super Bowl Is Over. The Discrimination Indigenous Peoples Face Is Not (posted February 3) "Like other teams that have mascots that they claim 'honor' Indigenous peoples, many Chiefs fans proudly sport their headdresses and tomahawk chops, perpetuating the stereotypes that we are primitive people who either no longer exist or only exist as savage warriors."

Blogaround

A baby wearing an Ironman costume. Image source.

1. TobyMac’s Oldest Son, Truett, Has Died at Home (posted October 24) Oh no.

2. Why I Was Forced to Resign from Southwest Church (Indian Wells): Pastor Gerald Sharon’s Story (posted October 24) "One of the people who had signed up was a gay man, which caused panic among the elders and leadership staff. ... So they instructed the staff to put his name at the bottom of the list and to tell him, 'There is a long waiting list and we just haven’t gotten to you yet.'"

3. theological foundations: trauma theology (posted August 8) "Trauma theology helped me see all that, revealing it all in an intuitive, natural way. I can see it everywhere now, too– in every single one of Jesus’ healing miracles, when Moses flees Egypt, the interactions between Paul and Barnabas, or Mary Magdalene at the Tomb."

4. Trump Tweets Faked Photo of Hero Dog Getting a Medal (posted October 30) This is odd.

5. This tweet from @ToriGlass:

This is extremely important.

If you have a food or travel budget for Thanksgiving, you need to be giving at least an equal amount to Indigenous people or orgs

Otherwise just don’t participate in colonizer holidays. I’m not even kidding. https://t.co/ULvhWqFf4O

— Tori Williams Douglass (@ToriGlass) October 21, 2019

6. John Piper: Scare the Bejesus Out of Your Children (posted October 29) Ah yes, my reaction was the same as Libby Anne's: "What in the blazes is this."

Blogaround

A pigeon. Image source.

1. The weirdly innocent part of the Jerry Falwell Jr. scandal (posted September 19) "The pictures don’t show them doing anything wrong or immoral or unethical — not to a normal human."

2. Disabled People Cannot Be “Expected Losses” in the Climate Crisis (posted September 23) "The structural barriers that disability communities face every day — inaccessible infrastructure, subpar public transportation systems, refusals to provide communication access, endemic poverty and a limited voice in civic governance — become a matter of life or death during disaster."

3. A Pastor Used the Death of an Atheist Mom’s Baby as a Sermon Illustration (posted October 12) [content note: child death] Heartless.

4. Real Rent Duwamish "Real Rent calls on people who live and work in Seattle to make rent payments to the Duwamish Tribe. Though the city named for the Duwamish leader Chief Seattle thrives, the Tribe has yet to be justly compensated for their land, resources, and livelihood." Ooooh this is a very interesting concept. I like it.

Blogaround

Baby goat. Image source.

1. Cold Reading, and the Christians Who Told Me All the Things I NEVER Did (posted November 13) "I had a strong reputation for spouting remarkably-accurate cold readings of people. None of us called it that, of course. We called it prophecy."

2. Why Most of America Is Terrible at Making Biscuits (posted November 22) "If you’re on the West Coast, forget it. Displaced southern bakers have been known to stuff a bag in their suitcases when visiting home. You can order the flour for delivery on Amazon, but it’ll cost you anywhere from $10 to $15 for a bag, many times the in-store retail price of around $2.50." Ha this reminds me of living in China and having SO MUCH TROUBLE finding "normal" things like vanilla extract or a meat thermometer.

3. The obsession with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s finances only amplifies her power (posted November 21) "After her win in November, Ocasio-Cortez said she couldn’t pay for a Washington, DC apartment until her congressional salary begins in January."

4. Science Stopped Believing in Porn Addiction, You Should Too (posted August 21) "In fact, they cite numerous studies showing that even feeling like you struggle to control your porn use doesn’t actually predict more porn use. What that means is that the people who report great anguish over controlling their porn use aren’t actually using more porn, they just feel worse about it."

5. 3 Children’s Books about Thanksgiving from Native Perspectives (posted 2017) Cool!

6. Why You Should NOT Choose Operation Christmas Child (posted November 26) Good post- and the point about kids in other cultures literally not knowing how to play with some of the toys blew my mind. I can't believe I never thought about that before. Simple little objects that are so familiar to us and immediately bring up feelings of childhood nostalgia may be completely unknown to people in other cultures.

I'm in China, and recently somebody from the US visited the company where I work and brought candy from the US for everyone. There was a big pile of mini Reese's cups. I wasn't even aware of the steps my mind went through to identify them as Reese's cups- little foil-wrapped things in that certain shape, obviously they are Reese's cups, I didn't even need to think. But then some of my Chinese colleagues came and were looking at them curiously, absolutely no idea what kind of candy they were. I said "it's chocolate and peanut butter" and they were like "ohhhhhhhhhhhh" like this is completely new information for them.

Same thing must happen when kids get their Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, with little toys we think are so normal that of course everyone understands how to play with them and no explanation is needed. I never realized that before. Back when I lived in the US, I couldn't *really* understand what cultural differences were.

And another thing: Chinese culture doesn't celebrate Christmas. The concept of a huge gift-giving holiday just completely DOES NOT EXIST in Chinese culture. So if Operation Christmas Child is running ads about "isn't it SAD how these kids are too poor to have Christmas gifts", well, no, maybe it's not sad. Maybe they don't feel bad about not having Christmas gifts because there was never any cultural expectation that such things should even exist.

7. Party Rock Anthem = Trading My Sorrows Wow what a fun video!



8. The kingdom of heaven is like: A Dutch church has been conducting religious services for 27 days to protect a refugee family (posted November 21)

9. Unheard, Unimportant, and Untreated: Why We Need to Talk About Vaginismus (posted November 22) "I went to several doctors for help with my problem, feeling stupid, and got palmed off with a number of excuses: that it was normal for first-time penetration to be painful for people with vaginas, that I was probably just inserting the tampon wrong. That the fact that it felt like someone was trying to prop me open with a brick was normal, somehow."

10. The COMPLETE Pixar Theory (posted October 30) Personally, I don't believe in the Pixar theory, but I LOVE it because this is EXACTLY how apologetics works. Take a bunch of different works, produced for different reasons over a long period of time, claim that all of them are happening in the same universe and telling one giant logically-consistent story, spend tons of time and energy making up convoluted explanations for the contradictions, absolutely refuse to abandon your theory no matter what new evidence comes out, and end up with a bizarre understanding of the material that the creators certainly never intended... all the while believing you understand it better than anyone else because you got there by treating every single tiny detail as irrefutable fact.

Blogaround

1. Las Vegas Is Only the Deadliest Shooting in US History Because Black Lives Aren’t Counted (posted October 3) [content note: white supremacist violence]

2. How to Win at Monopoly and Lose All Your Friends (posted 2016) "If you want to see these people again, I recommend not gloating, but simply state that you're playing to win, and that it wasn't your idea to play Monopoly in the first place."

3. Just Who Was Jesus? An Exploration of Early Christianity (posted October 11) "I read the New Testament straight through probably twenty times, but each time I read it through I did so on the assumption that each book was inspired by God, and that they thus could not be in conflict." Yeppppppppppppp. So amazing the new things you learn when you're no longer required to believe the bible is inerrant.

4. Canadian Government Announces $800 Million In Reparations (posted October 9) "The welfare workers exercised these powers often; around 20,000 [Native American] children were taken away in all. This is now known as the Sixties Scoop."

5. India's Supreme Court Rules That Sex With A Bride Under 18 Is Rape (posted October 12)

6. Everyone Knew Houston’s Reservoirs Would Flood — Except for the People Who Bought Homes Inside Them (posted October 12)

7. What Filthy Old Birds Can Tell Us About Air Pollution (posted October 10) "By analyzing sooty birds housed in museum collections, scientists have been able to track patterns of US air pollution over the last 135 years."

8. A Trans Faith Resource List. List of resources related to trans people and Christianity. Very cool. :)

9. Maybe I’m Not Really Asexual, Because…: An Exploration of Doubts. Ooooh I really like this blog series! Especially Maybe I’m Not Really Asexual But It’s Really Just My Religious Upbringing, Maybe I’m Not Really Asexual Because Isn’t Everyone Like This?, and Maybe I’m Not Really Asexual Because I Have No Idea What Sexual Attraction Is So How Do I Know If I’m Feeling It Or Not. Yeppp I've been there.

10. This is still one of my favorite worship songs:


Have a good week~

Blogaround

A bunny sitting on a stack of pancakes, with another small pancake on its head. A cat stares at it with a very disturbed expression. Image source.

1. 'Monopoly man' crashes former Equifax CEO's Senate hearing (posted October 4)

2. Hallowed Be Thy Name (posted September 27) "These words are actually a petition, a prayer for God to act in hallowing God's own name."

3. 5 Reasons for Writing about Polyamorous Families (posted October 5) "It is a vile and, to me, incomprehensible thing that so many people view the destruction of families as a lesser sin than the living out of fruitful, covenantal love between more than two people."

4. Here Are The Cities That Celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day Instead of Columbus Day (posted October 8)

5. Voices in Your Head: Evangelicals and the Voice of God (posted October 10) [content note: murder of children] "But when I met someone who was hearing voices in her head, as a young evangelical adult, I thought it was normal because that was the template my religion had provided me." Yep, Libby Anne's experiences are pretty much the same as mine.

Blogaround

Two dogs, dressed as a bride and groom. Image source.

1. By releasing his killer, Louisiana just said that Joe McKnight’s black life didn’t matter (posted December 2)

2. The Daily Show - The Dakota Access Pipeline's Reservation Reroute (posted December 2) "The conversation seems to go 'the pipeline is completely safe' and it's like, well then why didn't you build it under the white people's houses? 'well, because it might leak.'"

3. Concordance-ism backfires for anti-gay preacher (posted November 26) "It’s quite effective. That concordance search for “slavery,” after all, won’t ever turn up any of that “loose the bonds of injustice” and “break every yoke” business. Nor will it show you how Jesus made such a passage the mission statement for his ministry. Nor will it remind you of the freaking title of the second book of the Bible."

4. Satanists Say Texas Rule Requiring Funerals for Aborted Fetuses “Violates Their Religious Beliefs” (posted December 3) "If Texas is going to treat the disposal of fetal tissue differently from the disposal of any other biological material, in contradiction to our own religious beliefs, they need to present a compelling state interest for doing so."

5. White evangelicals cannot allow themselves to understand miscarriage (posted November 30) "Recognition of that can shape — and improve — our ability to respond pastorally to the heartbreak of miscarriage. But recognition of that is not permitted. And so our pastors become cruel."

6. In Victory For Protesters, Army Halts Construction On Dakota Pipeline (posted December 4) and A timeline of the year of resistance at Standing Rock

7. In White America, Girls’ Clitorises Were Cut Off Because Christian Parents Feared Masturbation (posted December 6)

8. US Border Patrol uses desert as ‘weapon’ to kill thousands of migrants, report says (posted December 7) "'The known disappearance of thousands of people in the remote wilderness of the US–Mexico border zone marks one of the great historical crimes of our day,' the group said in a blistering report, the first of three reports documenting alleged abuses by Border Patrol."

[links below are all about he-who-must-not-be-named and the associated apocalypse]

1. Hundreds of Jewish scholars of holocaust history call on Americans to 'mobilise in solidarity' against Trump (posted November 18)

2. Questioning Safety Pin Solidarity Revealed Why I Can’t Trust White People (posted November 13) "A small symbol that so many white people have been eager to point out is “work friendly” is not enough. How about you make a few privileged people uncomfortable at work?"

3. Five myths about the electoral college (posted 2012) "The electoral college distorts the political process by providing a huge incentive to visit competitive states, especially large ones with hefty numbers of electoral votes."

4. N.C. man told police he went to D.C. pizzeria with assault rifle to ‘self-investigate’ election-related conspiracy theory (posted December 5) "The restaurant’s owner and employees were threatened on social media in the days before the election after fake news stories circulated claiming that then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief were running a child sex ring from the restaurant’s backrooms."

5. Now Is the Time to Talk About What We Are Actually Talking About (posted December 2) "Now is the time to resist the slightest extension in the boundaries of what is right and just."

Blogaround

Billboard in China for the movie "Dr. Strange" (“奇异博士”)

1. How to Talk About #NoDAPL: A Native Perspective (posted October 28) "Every Native at Standing Rock -- every Native on this continent -- has survived the genocide of 100 million of our people."

2. A Survivor Of Gay Conversion Therapy Shares His Chilling Story (posted November 17) "The first step ― which usually lasted six months ― [is] where they “deconstruct us as a person.” Their tactics still haunt me. Aversion therapy, shock therapy, harassment and occasional physical abuse."

3. The GOP’s Anti-LGBT, Anti-Women ‘Religious Freedom’ Law on Steroids (posted November 17) Oh god this is bad.

4. 5 Self Care Tips for Activists — ‘Cause Being Woke Shouldn’t Mean Your Spirit’s Broke (posted in April)

5. Area Man Considers Self Ally To Women Unless They Threaten His Status In Literally Any Way (posted November 14) Ha.

6. An Ex-Muslim’s Peek Into the Mind of an Islamic Terrorist (posted November 22) "The most chilling aspect of all of this was that everything he was talking about was what I had been taught growing up as a child: this life is temporary, just a test, heaven is infinitely preferable to life here and lasts forever, and death is not the end, but a transition to the afterlife." The exact same thing is true for Christianity.

7. The Issue that Dare Not Speak Its Name (posted in May) "What is considered a legitimate religious viewpoint and what is considered obvious bigotry is a reflection of whose humanity you respect and whose is negotiable: and right now, in these interfaith settings, my humanity is negotiable."

[content note: the rest of the links are about, uh, he-who-must-not-be-named and related things]

1. Dear Trump Supporter Who Says They Love Me (posted November 17) "A man actively promised to dismantle and harm my family. To destabilize the security of my child. To harm relatives and friends and you still voted for him."

2. 'Hail Trump!': White Nationalists Salute the President Elect (posted November 21) HOLY SHIT THIS GUY IS RACIST. They are ACTUAL NAZIS.

Dakota Access Pipeline

Protesters standing in waist-deep creek water in front of a line of police in riot gear. Image source.

There is a protest going on in North Dakota over the Dakota Access Pipeline. This is important, so I've gathered a bunch of links with information about it:

What to Know About the Dakota Access Pipeline Protests

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline since first learning about plans for the pipeline in 2014. But it’s only been in recent months that the issue has gained national attention, as thousands of protesters—including many Native Americans—have gathered in North Dakota in attempt to block the 1,200-mile project. And, with both supporters and opponents vowing to fight through the harsh North Dakota winter, the battle shows no signs of ending anytime soon.

Here’s what you need to know:

What is the Dakota Access Pipeline?

The pipeline is to be built by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners and is designed to transport as many as 570,000 barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota to Illinois. The pipeline would be a key conduit connecting oil wells in the state’s Bakken Shale, where the development of fracking has opened billions of gallons of new oil to recovery, to other valuable consumer markets, including the Gulf Coast, Midwest and East Coast. The nearly $4 billion project was first proposed in 2014 with an anticipated completion of this year.

Why are the Sioux and others protesting the project?

The pipeline has united a number of different interest groups with a variety of objections, but Native Americans have been at the center of the opposition. The pipeline would travel underneath the Missouri River, the primary drinking water source for the Standing Rock Sioux, a tribe of around 10,000 with a reservation in the central part of North and South Dakota. Builders of the pipeline insist that they have taken extraordinary measures to safeguard against disaster, but opponents point out that even the safest pipelines can leak. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has reported more than 3,300 incidents of leaks and ruptures at oil and gas pipelines since 2010. And even the smallest spill could damage the tribe’s water supply. The Standing Rock Sioux also argue that the pipeline traverses a sacred burial ground. And while the land being used for the pipeline is not technically on its reservation, tribal leaders argue that the federal government did not adequately engage the Standing Rock Sioux during the permitting process—a requirement under federal law.

Video Captures Saturday’s Police Attack on Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters

Dakota Access Pipeline Fight Watched on Facebook Live Around World

Standing Rock: Police Arrest 120+ Water Protectors as Dakota Access Speeds Up Pipeline Construction

The Dakota Pipeline Could Devastate Some of the Poorest People in America

4 ways the Dakota Access Pipeline could be stopped

Guards for North Dakota pipeline could be charged for using dogs on activists

Dakota Access pipeline protesters crowdsource for $5,000, get $1 million

'Water is Life': Al Gore, Jesse Jackson Support Dakota Access Protesters

The Avengers Assemble to Support Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters

The dismal science of the Standing Rock pipeline protests

Blogaround

Image source.

1. 16 Vintage “Gay” Advertisements That Are Funny Now That “Gay” Means “GAY” (posted 2012) "What a gay assortment!"

2. When Chinese children forget how to write (posted August 26) This is so true. People are so used to typing- which doesn't require you to remember every stroke of the character- so it's easy to forget how to write some of the more difficult characters by hand. Like how autocorrect ruins people's ability to spell, but worse.

3. 4 Ways To Honor Native Americans Without Appropriating Our Culture (posted August 26) "Many Americans have a disconnected relationship with indigenous peoples: We’re fine as romanticized historical centerpieces and entertainment props, but mocked and ridiculed when we decry the materialistic use of sacred objects like headdresses or call to remove a dictionary-defined racial slur like redskin from the NFL lexicon."

4. This made me lol:

Image source.

5.  This too:

Image source.

6. Autopsy Report Indicates Police Cover-Up of Man Who ‘Shot Himself’ While Handcuffed (posted August 27) Lord have mercy.

7. This story. I lolled. (posted August 22)

8. Queering Theology: Christ in Stilettos (posted August 18) "But part of the issue, too, was that I didn’t have the language to talk about gender as a performance – as a staged play we all put on that has varying social cues and signals."

9. Face it, blacks. Michael Brown let you down. (posted August 21) "I’d offer myself, honestly. I would. But I got a D in Calculus once, so I don’t think I qualify. I’m not good enough." And see also the Slactivist's take on it.