I share a lot of links on Twitter and Facebook that I don’t blog about because I don’t have much to add. The reading list is a periodic feature where I share those links with my blog audience too. Of course, you’re still welcome to follow me on Twitter.

Around FtB

• That he had personally witnessed–“Slime pitters are all agitated, asking me in unapproved comments if I have a source for the non-anonymous allegations of Shermer’s sexual harassment.”
• The Latest Word On Mabus–A Second Guilty Plea–“There is much more there if you want to read it, but the gist is, he couldn’t keep from making threats.”
• “I just want to rape you,” “you dirty piece of property”–“Still more joy from Twitter, in response to my #YesAllWomen tear.”
• I wonder if there’s a gene for thinking there’s a gene for everything–“It’s all fruit of a rotten tree, carrying the taint of human xenophobia, and now all tied up in a twisted view of the all-powerful gene.”

The Wider Web

• Wishing for Alternate Universes on the Nebulas Panel “Writing About Other Cultures”–“I recognized many of the names on the panel, but in my excitement and preparations I did not notice the problem that was immediately brought up once all of the panel members appeared together at the same table.”
• It’s not just Jill Abramson: Women everywhere are getting pushed out of journalism–“What we’re ultimately talking about is a serious consequence – the type of news we get stands to be less diverse and ultimately, may fail to capture some of the diversity of experiences that need to be reflected in journalism to tell a complete story of social life.”
• I Am Not an Angry Feminist. I’m a Furious One.–“I’m furious that walking alone at night feels more like an act of rebellion than a simple act of transit.”
• Lessons From a Day Spent With the UCSB Shooter’s Awful Friends–“How many times do they have to tell us before we believe them?”
• Separating wheat from chaff in gluten sensitivity–“Some might say that this study’s results mean that gluten sensitivity in general is ‘bogus.’ But the study authors propose that something else entirely is to blame for gastrointestinal distress in IBS patients.”
• The Secret of Calm–“Why aren’t you freaking out!?”
• A Clockwork Clarion–“When it first started happening, I couldn’t believe it. Literally couldn’t believe it. It was when they put the tape on my mouth that I freaked out.”
• The Erasure of Maya Angelou’s Sex Work History–“The most detailed accounts currently online are making sure to emphasize that she spent a ‘brief stint,’ a ‘short time’ in the sex industry, so as to, without explicit words, solidify the shame they believe she should have felt, the shame we should feel as well.”
• Somaly Mam And The Cult of Glamourized Victimhood–“It’s easy to see why non-profits trying to fundraise, as well as the media industry used to raise attention to various social justice issues, are drawn to the ‘heroes beating the odds’ stories that Mam told not only of herself but of the various girls she used for media and fundraising appeals.”
• In Historic Move, Medicare Lifts Ban On Sex Confirmation Surgery–“National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) Executive Director Mara Keisling said in a statement that today’s ruling ‘represents the medical community’s clear understanding that gender dysphoria is a serious medical condition, and the government should not stand in the way when doctors recommend treatment.'”
• Science fiction’s real-life war of the worlds–“What the conservative authors protesting the Hugo awards perceive as a liberal clique is simply science fiction outgrowing them, and their narrow conception of the genre’s worth.”
• ‘Slut-shaming’ has more to do with class than sex, study finds–“‘Surprisingly, women who engaged in less sexual activity were more likely to be publicly labeled a slut than women who engaged in more sexual activity,’ Armstrong said.”
• Here Are the People Who Wanted Shinseki Fired but Didn’t Vote for VA Funds–“But some of these hecklers themselves aren’t so blameless. In 2013 many of them voted against the appropriations bill (later passed) that increased funds to the Veterans Benefits Administration, granted money for construction of state extended care facilities, and released funds to operations of Defense Department/VA medical facilities.”
• Mike Thompson tries again on gun violence–“He said the bill would improve crisis intervention efforts, give law enforcement more tools ‘to enforce laws and keep guns away from those who shouldn’t have them,’ and improve ‘the submission of mental health records into the criminal background check system.'”
• San Diego Comic-Con Responds To Fan Petition Asking For A Formal Harassment Policy–“Glanzer seems to be saying posting signs about harassment would make it seem as if there’s a harassment problem which in turn, is implying there is no harassment problem. That is the opposite of true.”
• Bigotry, Cognitive Dissonance, and Submission Guidelines–“First, all stories are political. In fact, the paragraph banning ‘goddammits,’ ‘shit,’ ‘asshole,’ etc. is a political decision. When someone says they’re not political, what they really mean is that their politics belongs to the status quo, and they don’t want to challenge that.”
• How A Troublesome Inheritance gets human genetics wrong–“Their samples from chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans each had two to three times as much DNA sequence variation as a human sample from multiple continents. In fact, the worldwide human sample had less variation than three subspecies of chimpanzees.”
• #YesAllWomen, and Why We Need To Keep Discussing Sexism–“In general, ‘Stop politicizing this tragedy’ seems to mean, ‘I don’t like your conclusions about the causes of this tragedy.'”
• Dean Baquet Confirms He Played A Role In Jill Abramson’s Ouster–“However, after Folkenflik pointed out that Baquet was known to have punched several holes in the walls of the Times’ Washington bureau, he acknowledged that he has a ‘temper,’ though he added, ‘in each case I was mad at somebody above me in rank.'”

I share a lot of links on Twitter and Facebook that I don’t blog about because I don’t have much to add. The reading list is a periodic feature where I share those links with my blog audience too. Of course, you’re still welcome to follow me on Twitter.

Around FtB

• People of Color Beyond Faith – Please Support!–“People of Color Beyond Faith are a new coalition of atheist/humanist of color organizations whose primary focus is social justice. They’re planning several national and local projects which focus on humanist issues that deeply impact communities of color.”

The Wider Web

• The wages of low pay–“Unless we change our public policies, that price will explode as a significant number of children grow up without proper care and diet, and with no reason to believe their own initiative will make their lives any better.”
• Why I Miss Being A Born-Again Christian–“Many people would call this a good thing, this kicking of the ‘opiate of the masses’ habit, and I would too. Putting on my existential big-girl pants. Confronting the fact that God didn’t get me through any hard times. I did.”
• #YesAllWomen–“Oh, and then I’ve had it happen that the guy acts like you were LYING to them by HAVING A FUN CONVERSATION AND BEING INTERESTING. HOW DARE I BE FUN IF IM NOT WILLING TO FALL IN LOVE/AND OR HAVE SEX WITH THEM?!?!”
• Male Entitlement Is a Deadly Drug–“Similarly, when Christian terrorists shoot abortion providers, or Islamist fanatics bomb schools or marketplaces, we don’t leap to blame mental illness. But in this case, there are people who disregard the murderer’s own clearly stated motivation, because that would force them to admit that sexism is a much more serious danger than they’d previously believed.”
• NE mayor challenges atheists over faith-based event: ‘Take me to f-cking court — I don’t care’–“One of the group’s members, Robert Fuller, said he gave his business card to Mayor Douglas Kindig and asked to speak with him later about his concerns, but the mayor indicated he wasn’t interested.”
• Wiscon 38 Guest of Honor Speech–“So. If they think we are a threat? Let’s give them a threat. They want to call us savages? Let’s show them exactly what that means.”
• A Series of Portraits From Women in Secularism 3–“I did something at this year’s event that I really wish I had done in the years prior. I brought my camera.”
• Global Warming’s ‘Useful Idiots’–“Take George F. Will, who helpfully explains that the reason behind these reports is a global conspiracy so immense that it encompasses approximately 97 percent of the world’s scientific establishment.”
• “Where do your characters come from?”–“Because I seriously have no idea how to answer this question. At least not in a way that makes me sound sane.”
• Trigger warnings are not censorship–“Likewise, David M. Perry, an associate professor of history at Dominican University, notes that informing students of potentially triggering content makes them more able to engage with and learn from the material as opposed to being surprised by it. He writes, ‘Spoilers might be bad for entertainment, but they are good for education.'”
• When I was a freshman, my sister was in eighth grade.–“When he was arrested, some of my sister’s friends (some female, even) told her that she was selfish for saying no so many times.”
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Misogyny, Entitlement, and Nerds–“Classic nerd fantasy, right? Immensely attractive to the young male audience who saw it. And a stock trope, the “bed trick,” that many of the nerds watching probably knew dates back to the legend of King Arthur. It’s also, you know, rape.”
• 5 Questions with The Curly Hair Mafia–“The way that the stories in horror are populated tells us a lot about how we identify with characters, how we sympathize with them (or how we are entertained by their suffering).”
• Machine Gun Misogynists: How Open Carry Texas Tried To Silence Me–“My initial feelings of fear and anxiety were founded – if calling 911 is in itself a dangerous act, where can I turn?”
• #WisCon Post, Part the Second: The Elephant in the Room or #FrenkelFail–“But nice guys do not view women as property, as objects they can do anything they like to regardless of consent. And this is WisCon, the premier feminist science fiction and fantasy convention, which means the stakes are much higher.”