Gretchen Item #3, “Make you like us,” conspicuously absent. So the Supreme Court has some consideration of gay marriage coming up, in two different forms. First there are a number of cases involving the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which may be added to the docket, which specifically would entail addressing whether the … Read more
Terror management theory sounds like a government doctrine on how to combat suicide bombers. It is actually, however, the name for a discipline of psychology devoted to the study of how people deal with being…well, terrified. How they cope, mentally, with the knowledge that they are mortal– that they will eventually die, with reminders of this occurring … Read more
This post’s title (the first part, anyway) is something my mother often said to me when I was a kid and I complained to her about someone insulting me. The meaning: Think about who said this. Are they really credible? Is it worth taking what they say seriously? If not, shrug it off. It’s not … Read more
Woman Milking Cow. Albert J. Ewing, Ohio Historical Society Farmageddon is a 2011 documentary now streaming on Netflix. I watched it last night, and will probably watch it again soon because there’s a lot to…err…digest there. I’d suggest watching Food Inc. first, except that unfortunately it is no longer streaming. Food Inc. is about how mass … Read more
My favorite show on YouTube, Tabletop, is currently on hiatus. So I’m catching up on Kid Snippets/Kid History on the BoredShortsTV channel, which reminded me to suggest them to you. One of my favorite Kid Snippets (shorter): “Lunch” One of my favorite Kid Histories (longer): “Babysitting”
[Religiously] Unaffiliated Americans are also less likely to vote in presidential elections than other religious groups. Although they make up 19% of the adult population, the AVS found that only 16% of unaffiliated are likely voters. This quote, from The Evolution of the Religiously Unaffiliated Vote, 1980-2008, made me pause for a moment. Not to … Read more
So I see that the Goodreads winner in non-fiction is Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain. I haven’t read it, but it’s now on my “want to read” list (meaning I’m now using Goodreads, so if you want to add me, feel free). Two things about … Read more
I have some things for you to read. First, please read about how Ashley Miller was disowned by her father for being in love with a black man. Then, please read this post by Ed Brayton in response, which describes how a friend of his came out to his parents as gay, with rather unexpected … Read more
Several years ago, I bounded out of a faculty building on a university campus and, in a thoughtful and optimistic mood, joined a couple of lecturers in the pub across the street. After we’d settled on benches in the garden out back, I mentioned that in the course of my studies, I seemed to be … Read more
The Atheist Experience posts that they received an email which reads: Dillahunty is off his rocker if he thinks feminism is merely the idea that men are equal to women. Feminism is a paranoid leftist ideology with a whole slew of dogmatic principles. A person can believe in equal rights and oppose feminism, without said … Read more