And some more...

[moominmuppet]

Finishing up clearing out email now that I'm home:

Canon and Sheep Shit: Why We Fight.
I hate the Doctor Who canon like Dawkins hates God.

Like him, I'm convinced the target of my animus doesn't exist, but that doesn't stop me spending half my life writing about how dreadful it is. (from marnanel)

Road Kill: It's Fresh, It's Organic, It's Free -- Honestly, perfectly sensible. I'd have to get over some of my cultural food limitations, and it'd be important to know how fresh the animal was, and what communicable diseases could be an issue, but I would have to get over the "ick factor" for one of my other favorite protein production ideas too -- developing an american taste for bugs and grubs. I like lobster, and they're basically giant sea bugs. I bet I'd dig roasted insects of various sorts, too. (and in response to someone's comment about cannibalism in the original post: If I die, and you're starving, eat me with my blessings. Please save and tan the tats; my friends have plans for them.)

Will Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Continue to Defy Selling Out to Corporate Culture? -- I hope so!!

Teen pregnancy and disease rates rose sharply during Bush years, agency finds

Mainstream Media Reinforces Unexamined Arguments Against Public Funding for Abortion

Open Thread: When Art and Ideals Collide -- an issue I struggle with a lot.

Yes. This. Dawkins, get off of my team!

On the importance of midwives

I mean, there is a lot of (IMHO) woman hating in the following group of words. The topic, porn, the statement: “Do I want to look at some plastic-surgery enhanced woman who doesn’t even look human being porked”, the subject, how women who perform in porn (or are in the sex industry at large) suffer from Stockholm Syndrome.

Now see, that just chaps my ass in all the wrong ways. I mean, a huge thing that you see coming from anti porn feminists is that they hate the porn because it dehumanizes and degrades the women in it. But see, I am not sure how someone saying those very women do not even look like human beings is anything but dehumanizing and degrading? -- Amen.

Zombiechocolate has important stuff to say about that state of the economy in Ohio, and what that's meaning to people on a day-to-day basis. I'm so incredibly lucky to be in one of the safest job positions I possibly could be. My housemates and friends are being hit right and left. I'm still being hit directly by the public service cuts, especially RTA. A big factor in our move location was not only "is this on a bus line?" but "is this on a bus line we can be sure won't be cut?"

The Complex Sexualities of Young Women -- I haven't finished this one yet, adding partially for my own reference.

10 Things You Need to Know to Live on the Streets

Why I'm not watching Dance Your Ass Off

A really good piece on finding a gyn provider after sexual abuse

Gay and straight: parallel poly worlds

Tuning into Crisis Pregnancy Websites

Obama says not funding abortions is "tradition"

Condom ads from the UK

Whew. All done. Bed now.

Comments

[tasharowan.livejournal.com]

So I clicked the Feministe link, in part because of the mention of Stockholm Syndrome. I've never heard of it before. I read that post, but no explanation. So I clicked the link "Stockholm Syndrome." Dear god I want to strangle whose ever blog that is. I don't think I've heard anything so disgusting since I was working on a project involving porn in college. Why the fuck do these people think they have any right to speak for another person? How dare anyone oppose their view! I would question their humanity, but unfortunately, I only know humans to be that stupid.

And I still don't know what Stockholm Syndrome is.

[minniethemoocha.livejournal.com]

I saw an episode of DYAO by accident last week and loved it. I thought Marissa was hot and cute, I thought the contestants were hot and cute, and I thought the costumes were not ill fitting or trashy (they're DANCE costumes -- dance costumes are sometimes a little gaudy). Also the partners seemed not skinny and I enjoyed watching people who hadn't been able to do, say, deep squats, pole pullups or dips before get confident and strong enough to do so with attitude. I didn't find the judges mean or patronizing especially by reality TV standards. Marketing a show that seems less about weight loss than about becoming mobile and confident in one's sex appeal doesn't seem evil to me. A drop of 2 to 4 pounds in a week, which is what many of them seem to accomplish on these "drastic" diet and exercise regimes, is not beyond the pale -- I've done it myself without becoming unhealthy when I wanted to lose weight. And losing weight a little at a time while the main goal seems to be improving strength, muscle control, endurance, and grace really doesn't seem bad to me. I didn't see it as an opportunity for fat-haters to gawk. Unlike "Biggest Loser" I didn't see their fat depicted as grotesque. Just because they want to lose weight doesn't mean they aren't learning to move and feel sexy as fat people in a way they probably didn't know they could before. I weigh 200 pounds now, have weighed a lot more and a lot less at times, and I have loved and had great sex with women and men of various sizes, and I dug getting to see people who'd felt bad about their weight learn to work it and show off in a way that feels good. Am I missing something?

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Open Thread: When Art and Ideals Collide

I don't have much trouble with this, largely because I've found serious (modern) misogynists and homophobes (like Card) tend to be sufficiently annoying in their storytelling that I'm rarely interested in the stories they tell. I'll put up with mild problems, and I'll easily put up with anything that isn't exceedingly egregious from work that's from before 1970, but anything after 1980 that's into the sort of serious misogyny or homophobia territory (from my PoV, one or both of these describes all of Card's work) is something that I have no interest in. I've regularly put down a book out of annoyance or boredom and then later found that the author was a raving nutball libertarian conservative or similar variety scum (John C. Wright & Peter Hamilton are both excellent examples of this phenomena). One of the useful things about reading almost exclusively SF is that most SF authors wear their ideologies on their sleeve and so reading books by modern or near-modern authors whose politics and social belief that I later find out are horrid essentially never happens.

Gay and straight: parallel poly worlds

Aaron has talked about this at length. He's largely a part of gay male culture now and straight/bi poly culture strikes him as very weird. It's definitely a case of there being a major gay & lesbian culture vs. bi & straight culture divide. I find it sort of sad that bi people always (IMHO at least) seem to be part of straight poly culture rather than gay or lesbian poly culture.

Yes. This. Dawkins, get off of my team!

Yes! I have much sympathy and respect for atheists. I have little respect for Dawkins as a scientist and none for him as a loud-mouthed ideologue.