Perusing Jessica Ahlquist’s Twitter timeline, where the small-minded and nasty go for exercise.

Texas Pride @TXPride80

@jessicaahlquist typical spoiled brat. Wanted attention along with her tree hugging, Obama worshipping parents. Just another welfare junky.

That one’s impressive for touching a lot of bases in a small space.

LibTURDS r Heartless @carrietony35

jessicaahlquist  YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE HUMAN RACE…YOU AND YOUR PARENTS HAVE DEEP ROOTED ISSUES

Interesting idea of what “heartless” and its opposite might be.

Jesterfaze @Jesterfaze

.@jessicaahlquist – It’s so sad that the selfishness of atheists has led to a persecution like political atmosphere for Christians.

Uh huh.

Cranston High School West has a new mural, and it had a party to celebrate.

To celebrate its 50-year reunion, the Class of 1963 gave the school the 5-by-10-foot mural on Saturday to replace the one that was taken down last year after a federal judge ruled that its references to religion made it unconstitutional.

It was the Class of ’63 that made a gift in 1959 of the original banner, which contained the words “Our Heavenly Father” and “Amen,” as well as a message to grow mentally, morally and physically. [Read more…]

Al Stefanelli responded on Twitter with an example of someone talking about acid in the face.

Al Stefanelli @Stefanelli

@OpheliaBenson asks “Who’s been telling Stefanelli he deserves to have acid thrown in his face?” Here you go, Ophie: http://goo.gl/WyXig8

“Ophie”? Really? I don’t call him Ally or Steffie.

The link is to a Storify. There indeed is a tweet.

So there it is: he did get such a threat. I was wrong, he didn’t confabulate it.

(I have no idea who “Misandry Bee” is.)

I spotted this on a long and heated Facebook discussion of free speech and Freeze Peach (and the conflation of attack with disagreement, and the duty to educate people who keep uttering familiar backlash tropes over and over again, and the need or desire to have more interesting and productive discussions as opposed to squandering time educating people in the basics ad infinitum, and other related subjects), and it got my attention.

And so the dance continues. Free speech in regard to government is not the issue, but the ability to discuss all ideas and opinions without censorship, regardless if they make us uncomfortable or particularly disagreeable. I’ve no issue with someone not holding to my opinions or agreeing with whatever facts I put out in any given course of debate. I don’t even necessarily mind being told I can no post on someone’s personal blog. What I do mind is when my points of view are met with personal attacks or being told I deserve to have acid thrown in my face.

Well naturally; who wouldn’t mind being told that?

Wait. What? Has anyone ever told Al Stefanelli he deserves to have acid thrown in his face? Ever? I’ve certainly never heard of it – and it’s not the kind of thing that decent people say. It would be a surprising and non-routine thing to happen. If it did happen, wouldn’t the people who spend all day on Twitter blaming “FTBullies” for everything except the weather have told us all about it at least seven million times? Wouldn’t it be its own hashtag by now? Wouldn’t we all know about it?

I don’t think anyone has ever told Al Stefanelli that. I think he must have remembered that someone said that to someone, and confabulated that into someone saying it to him.

Which is pretty pathetic from my point of view, because you know who the someone is who was told that? I am. I was told that. Not Al Stefanelli; me. I was told it would be an improvement, too.

Interesting, isn’t it? They’ll not only deny that we get any harassment, not only endlessly insist that it’s not harassment it’s just disagreement aka criticism – they’ll even steal the actual harassment and pretend it was done to them.

Update: I was wrong, it did happen to Al Stefanelli. Details on the follow-up post.

I got another fun piece of email! I’m in luck these days. It came in via the Contact Form, so it’s from someone (or somebot) who trawled for B&W specifically, as a suitable market.

To whom it may concern,

We specialise in modest P.E kit for Muslim school girls. Our sportswear is ideal for various physical activities such as swimming, aerobics and gymnastics. We currently supply 3 schools in the UK and are growing rapidly due to demand.

We would like to become your uniform supplier in order to encourage participation in P.E without religious boundaries.

I look forward to your response.

Kind regards

[redacted]

Well spotted! I’m just the person to invite to buy modest P.E kit for Muslim school girls. Got any cut-price crucifixes while you’re at it?

 

The death toll is at at least 68 in Nairobi, with 175 injured. So that was Saturday’s work; Sunday’s work was at least 75 people killed in Peshawar, in two suicide bombings at a church. And good morning to you too, religion of peace.

Two bombers blew themselves up as worshippers were coming out of the city’s historic All Saints church after attending Sunday Mass, police say.

Relatives of the victims gathered at the scene to protest against the government’s failure to protect them.

Militants linked to Pakistani Taliban have said they carried out the bombing.

The religion-testosterone cocktail strikes again.

 

Fun’s over.

Nick Cohen wonders

how many lives will be lost so that the Fifa World Cup™ can live up to its boast that it is the most successful festival of sport on the planet.

It’s not a rhetorical or playful question.

Qatar’s absolute monarchy, run by the fabulously rich and extraordinarily secretive Al Thani clan, no more keeps health and safety statistics than it allows free elections. The Trade Union Confederation has had to count the corpses the hard way. It found that 83 Indians have died so far this year. The Gulf statelet was also the graveyard for 119 Nepalese construction workers. [Read more…]

This is an interesting test to take – it’s a shades of color discrimination test.

I like shades of color, especially among the reds and purples. I’m not great on the test though.

Update: link removed because of reports of malware.

So now that you’ve had time to rest after the first dog video here is the next one, dog wants a kitten.