The assault always happens twice

Another day, another woman reports abuse from a skeptic leader. Pamela Gay describes the aftermath of being groped in a bar.

And I hate myself for wishing this would all just go away, instead of wishing that there could be justice. But I guess I fear that justice has a price I don’t have the life blood to pay for.

Over and over, I have made the choice, “what happened isn’t worth raising a stink about. Don’t ruin everyone’s [fun/con/career]“. Over and over, I’ve made the choice, “Yeah, that guy (but he was drunk!) slapped my butt in passing, but he is a leader at what he does, so I need to just get over myself and work with him.”

I hate myself for this.

I hate myself because I made the choice that not raising a fuss was more important than my self worth.

Read that again. It’s fucked up. But it’s who I am, … and when I read the hashtag #RipplesOfDoubt a few weeks ago, I realized how often we women make that decision. I’m fucked up, but I’m not alone. Too many of us fill our heads with euphemisms and excuses. It’s so much easier to think, “It’s a drunk guy being a drunk ass.” It hurts so much more to say, “I had someone try and sexually assault me.”

It’s a double strike. First there’s the assault proper, and then there’s the unwarranted guilt and self-recrimination afterwards.

It’s awkward for a man on the outside, too: I want to say, “Fight back.” I want to say, “You don’t have to suffer; you aren’t required to speak out.” But I don’t have the right to tell the victim how to process her situation, so I just have to stand back and support whatever decision she makes.

They’re relying on faith to build their ark? Hah.

Ken Ham has tried to make excuses for all the delays and uncertainties in building their Ark Park boondoggle. It’s because it is a faith-based project, and he compares his struggles to those of Noah.

To us, the Ark Encounter, to be built on some beautiful property in northern Kentucky (south of Cincinnati), has been a giant step of faith. And yet, as I think about Noah, our endeavors really pale by comparison.

What a privilege it is that we can remind the world of a great man, Noah, and the faith-step he took, so that we can also share with the world about sin, God’s judgment on it, and of God’s love and provision for our salvation.

We’re not told how long Noah took to build the Ark—and we really don’t know when our Ark (called “Ark Encounter”) will be completed. It’s a complex project, involving complicated permits, the design of high-tech exhibits, and many legal matters.

For instance, we’ve had to spend the last few months re-doing the legal structure for the Ark project, largely because of the “ObamaCare” health care legislation. Our restructuring was done in an effort to try and avoid the same problem which the retail chain Hobby Lobby and religious-based organizations are now battling in the courts (i.e., the mandate to include abortion-causing contraceptives and drugs as part of their health insurance plan.)

He also includes this cartoon.

by-faith

I’d say that looks like an admission that they’re building on clouds in the sky. Need I point out that Noah is a legend, there was no world-wide flood, and no ark of the type described in his book of fantasy was ever built?

I also like how one of his excuses is that they’re carrying out legal maneuvers to permit them to discriminate and cheat their workers out of ethical support. WWJD? Screw over his employees.

Milholland speaks for me

If you read Something*Positive, one of the more cynical webcomics around, you might have noticed that today’s has a little commentary at the bottom.

fuckwartune

I like it and agree completely. We’ve got the same problem: misogynists, bible colleges, and various religious organizations have gone to the bottom of the trough and use the cheapest advertising medium they can, and that’s google ads. So I’m sorry if crap dribbles through.

Of course, I should also mention that we do have a new feature that lets you support FtB while turning off the ads.

Virginia done good

It looks like that kook Cuccinelli is losing.

Bad news to wake up to: Chris Christie won handily. He’s cocky far-right wing conservative with anger management issues, who yells at teachers. He’s now probably the Republican front-runner for the next presidential election, so we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this blowhard now.

Good news to wake up to: Bill de Blasio is mayor of New York. Our new mayor of Minneapolis is a Democrat, and a woman: Betsy Hodges. Minneapolis also has a new city council member, Abdi Warsame, who is now the highest elected Somali official in the US. By the way, our mayoral election used ranked choice voting, which I rather like, and would love to see in place for our presidential elections, except that our countries religious devotion to a gang of white male slaveholders in the 18th century colonies means we’ll never get out of the 1780s on that issue.

And most importantly, Illinois joins Minnesota in the 21st century by passing legislation to allow gay marriage.

rainbowillinois

I’ve got a bit of headache and general ickiness this morning, and even though that image kind of sears my eyes, I still like seeing it.

Good luck, NSC

Nonstampcollector has made an update video to let us know what he’s been up to lately. Congratulations on the familial expansion!

He also talks a bit about his departure from FtB and the deranged haters out there. He references his final post, and links to a copy archived elsewhere. Don’t bother to go there — it’s hosted on one of the lunatic anti-FtB wacko’s sites. I’ve put a copy here below the fold.

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Bruce Schneier is blessed in his enemies

A critic calls out Schneier on CNN iReports. He thinks Scheier is a phony with no serious credentials, and doesn’t like all this criticism of the NSA. He also detests irony, I think.

Weeks of research regarding Mr. Schneier’s claims have highlighted one of the most frustrating problems with the internet age. Because virtually anyone lacking serious journalistic credentials can, and often does, write or post freely on any subject, the resulting sheer volume of information available may lead people to believe that the reporting is even-handed and well-researched. Unfortunately, in many circumstances nothing can be farther from the truth.

The title of this scathing indictment of allowing any ol’ wanker to post stuff on the web? Public shoud qestion Schneier, Snowden and NSA. Spelling exactly as presented on the web page.

Taking zombies to task

Oh, good — both Tara Smith and Colin Purrington are a bit peeved with the recent episodes of The Walking Dead that have the survivors coming down with a nasty form of the flu, and their resident people sending them scurrying off to pillage local zombie-haunted pharmacies for…antibiotics. For shame.

They don’t mention the other things that bug me about that show, though. If the zombie plague is also viral, why aren’t they all turning into undead voracious brain eating monsters when they get splattered with zombie slime and goo and blood? They’re ripping up zombies right and left and practically bathing in disgusting fluids. Come on, people, hygiene.

Also, how long have they been wandering around Georgia? A year or two? Some of the zombies are portrayed as far advanced in decay, but others seem to be fairly fresh. Shouldn’t the zombie population be dropping off dramatically now? The pool of live humans from which new zombies could emerge is so drastically reduced that they ought to be dealing with little more than piles of ineffective rot and the very rare occasion when one of their own dies of natural causes and goes walking around hungrily.

Finally, Rick is a terrible, incompetent, awful leader. They’ve found one group of thriving humans in a town, led by a psycho tyrant — and there’s Rick’s poor struggling group who have been shredded by internal conflicts and have been succumbing steadily to attrition. The freakish violent Governor did a better job establishing a safe haven than Rick, and they destroyed it! When will the survivors learn that they’re being guided by a dangerous idiot?