How old is the model in this photo?
And if I tell you your reputation and your freedom depend on the answer, does it change? Now how old is she? Continue reading “"Are All Men Pedophiles?"”
Month: May 2012
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An Upvote for Reddit
When the uncontrolled, unedited, “We are the internet” culture of Reddit does something incredibly anti-social, we talk about it here. It’s nice to be able to offer props sometimes as well. In this case, the founder of Reddit is standing up where few tech companies have been willing to. Continue reading “An Upvote for Reddit”
On Long Fights and Short Celebrations
Today I’m celebrating President Obama’s statement this week that he personally supports gay marriage. Yes, celebrating.
I’m a little late, I know. I wasn’t ready yet, not that soon after the passage of North Carolina’s Amendment 1. Everything was still too raw and painful. Even good news hurt. But I’ve rested and given myself time and put in a bunch of manual labor (which makes a difference). Now I’m ready, and I’m going to celebrate.
When I put up a post on Thursday mocking the idea that Obama’s statement would undermine heterosexual relationships. Someone came along then, decided I was celebrating, and told me it was “fucking offensive”. To those who would like to do that now: Knock it the fuck off. Continue reading “On Long Fights and Short Celebrations”
Atheists Talk: Ron Lindsay on CFI
Tune in this Sunday May 13th when we interview Ronald A. Lindsay, the president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry. Ron Lindsay is a philosopher, lawyer and the author of Future Bioethics: Overcoming Taboos, Myths, and Dogmas. He blogs on important current issues that affect the atheist and skeptical movements at No Faith Value as part of the Center For Inquiry’s blog network “Free Thinking”.
During Dr. Lindsay’s time as CFI’s president and CEO, the organization has been involved with campaigns that have garnered significant media coverage. In 2011 the CFI launched two phases of a popular billboard and bus ad campaign. They also submitted petitions to the FDA (which were authored by Lindsay and colleague Barry Karr) requesting that the FDA require homeopathic medications to be tested for efficacy.
Related Links:
Listen to AM 950 KTNF this Sunday at 9 a.m. Central to hear Atheists Talk, produced by Minnesota Atheists. Stream live online. Call in to the studio at 952-946-6205, or send an e-mail to [email protected] during the live show. If you miss the live show, listen to the podcast later.
Saturday Storytime: The Paper Menagerie
Ken Liu is everywhere as a short story author and sometimes as translator recently. This story, like a number of the other Hugo-nominated shorts this year, deals with the complexities of family.
One of my earliest memories starts with me sobbing. I refused to be soothed no matter what Mom and Dad tried. Dad gave up and left the bedroom, but Mom took me into the kitchen and sat me down at the breakfast table. “Kan, kan,” she said, as she pulled a sheet of wrapping paper from on top of the fridge. For years, Mom carefully sliced open the wrappings around Christmas gifts and saved them on top of the fridge in a thick stack.
She set the paper down, plain side facing up, and began to fold it. I stopped crying and watched her, curious. She turned the paper over and folded it again. She pleated, packed, tucked, rolled, and twisted until the paper disappeared between her cupped hands. Then she lifted the folded-up paper packet to her mouth and blew into it, like a balloon.
“Kan,” she said. “Laohu.” She put her hands down on the table and let go.
A little paper tiger stood on the table, the size of two fists placed together. The skin of the tiger was the pattern on the wrapping paper, white background with red candy canes and green Christmas trees.
I reached out to Mom’s creation. Its tail twitched, and it pounced playfully at my finger. “Rawrr-sa,” it growled, the sound somewhere between a cat and rustling newspapers.
I laughed, startled, and stroked its back with an index finger. The paper tiger vibrated under my finger, purring.
“Zhe jiao zhèzhi,” Mom said. This is called origami.
How Do You Stack Up?
One of the fun things about living in a cold climate as we do here in Minnesota is that the street preachers go away for several months out of the year. People are still walking to get around downtown, but that group of guys with their soapbox, megaphone, and white robes disappear. So do the rest of the people who assume that God’s will™ is somehow more convincing the more decibels there are behind it. Even the abortion protestor I’ve walked passed on Friday mornings for the last nine years gets scarce.
So it’s something of a rite of spring when they come back. We greet them as we do the Canadian geese. They’re noisy. They’re messy. They’re ours. And now we have a new batch. Continue reading “How Do You Stack Up?”
Let's Talk Trolls
Registration for CONvergence 2012: Wonder Women (at which SkepchickCon will be held, along with three nights of FtB room party) is about to go up in price. Register by May 15, it’s $60 for an adult. Register at the door, it’s $100. They really want to know ahead of time how many people to prepare for.
Dithering about whether to pay for a weekend of geeky goodness? Well, the schedule is just up, so I’m not spoiling anything when I tell you you don’t want to miss this.
Don’t Feed the Trolls
Friday, 2 p.m., Atrium 4Sexism, misogyny & the internet. A discussion about the recent wave of internet bullying against women and what we can do about it.
Who will be on this fun little panel of pro tipsters?
- Rebecca Watson
- Greg Laden
- Heina Dadabhoy
- Jason Thibeault
- Yours truly
It should be a staid and sedate discussion, I’m sure. We’re all so…polite. Sweet even.
So, come on. Register. You know you want to.
Jesus Christ Superhero
No, this isn’t about the big news that Tim Minchin will play Judas in a new production of Jesus Christ Superstar. (JT for Jesus, anyone?) This is about Pastor Mark Driscoll who recently decided that popular culture had given him a great idea for a sermony blog post. That’s always a dangerous decision to make. Continue reading “Jesus Christ Superhero”
What Obama Hath Wrought
As you’ve probably heard by now, President Obama has come out (as it were) to endorse marriage equality, first in a simple response to a question, then in a more formal statement to supporters. For some, this came too soon after the adoption of Amendment 1 in North Carolina to be easily celebrated. For some, it was a simple, joyful release. For some, it was considered a cynical political move.
For still others, it was exactly the opportunity they’d been waiting for. Continue reading “What Obama Hath Wrought”
You Can't Always Get What You Need
The Secular Coalition for America’s damage control over the announcement of Edwina Rogers as their new Executive Director continued yesterday. Yes, I’m calling it damage control at this point.
There are things to be done to manage expectations when an organization makes an unusual choice. There’s nothing dishonest in that, simply an effort to make sure that interested parties understand as fully as possible the perspective of the people who made the choice because that perspective won’t be obvious. If it were, the choice wouldn’t be considered unusual.
In Greta’s interview with Roy Speckhardt of the SCA board (and a huge thank you to Greta for her work to get information on this to the secular community quicky), we can see that getting a very clear message to the SCA’s constituency wasn’t a big consideration. Continue reading “You Can't Always Get What You Need”