Okay, so we’ve pretty well covered how not to talk to and about people you disagree with, right? It can be summed up pretty easily by asking yourself the following question: Does this thing I’m writing/saying/drawing/etc. actually address the substance of what the person I’m talking about is saying/writing/drawing/etc.? Or […]
Read MoreIt should go without saying
Yesterday Ophelia Benson and Richard Dawkins both published, on their respective blogs, a brief joint statement on how atheists should disagree. It’s really unfortunate that such a thing should be necessary, but encouraging that it happened. The statement condemns bullying and harassment generally, and then goes on to cite specific […]
Read MoreThings you might not want to say about hot car deaths
I live in Wichita, Kansas. Kansas is a place of extreme temperatures– it can get bitterly cold in the winter, and deathly hot in the summer. Today, for example, the high is supposed to be about 106. On Thursday, a baby died here in the heat. Another hot car death. She […]
Read MoreSex without fear
“Consequence” is one of those words that has taken on a connotation of the negative, even though the denotation does not require it. Strictly speaking, a consequence is an effect, an outcome, a result. That’s all. Consequences are the reasons we do things– if our actions had no outcomes, there […]
Read MoreHappy Father’s Day
This year’s Father’s Day card: Gorilla dad. I say “This year’s,” like I do it every year. Actually this is the first year– the first time— I’ve designed a greeting card. But I really like how it turned out, even though it lost some detail by the time I uploaded […]
Read MoreThe anti-homeless spikes
This Slate article has a collection of photos of “bum-free” additions to buildings and structures in public areas intended for the same purpose as the controversial “homeless deterrent” spikes in a London apartment block (the ones pictured below). Apparently they’re a pretty common thing. In Manchester I recall seeing shards […]
Read MoreBeliefs? I’ve got ’em.
This meme spotted on Facebook. It’s far from the first one I’ve seen…hence this post. Hat tip to Ed Brayton for pointing it out in annoyance. I have beliefs. Some of them are almost certainly false, but I still have them. I do the best I can to hold onto […]
Read MoreWhat (I think) #TrustWomen means
Five years ago today, Dr. George Tiller was murdered. In my family’s church in Wichita, the church we’d been members of since…’92? Something like that. Before they moved into the newly built church at 13th and Rock, back when it was a smaller building on Kellogg next to Hooter’s. My […]
Read MoreThe saga of learning a new craft
Update: I’m now selling freeze peaches at my Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Rillion I haven’t been writing much lately, I know. That’s due to a lot of factors, but one of them is something I have the opportunity to now write about and show you. I’ve been learning how to make things with […]
Read MoreWhy #WeNeedDiverseBooks
Or, why good storytelling requires good representation: When the story doesn’t contain the “why,” the audience looks to the author. Let me back up. Writers are often advised to “write what you know.” That’s good advice, because you can’t write believably about what you don’t know. However, authors who took […]
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