Gretchen
Good luck, Indiana
Your governor is a monster. So’s mine, of course– my governor is Sam Brownback, after all. But yours might be even worse. Why’s that? Well, because on Thursday Indiana’s Governor Mike Pence signed into law a bill that makes abortion illegal in the event that a woman seeks one because of fetal disability– any kind of … Read more
How the toupée fallacy enables judgmental jerks
The toupée fallacy is named for a particular example of the informal fallacy that goes something like this: All toupées look fake; I’ve never seen one that I couldn’t tell was fake. Like a lot of fallacies, it’s so painfully obvious when it’s spelled out that you might have a hard time believing that anyone … Read more
They’re coming back
Operation Save America, the successor to Operation Rescue, has announced that they’re returning to Wichita for a “Summer of Mercy” anniversary tour. The city is reportedly unenthused. Hundreds of people from around the country are expected to converge in Wichita this summer for a week of anti-abortion rallies, protests and prayer vigils marking the 25th … Read more
DiTHBINAD
Screenshot from Firewatch Feminist Frequency has begun producing a newsletter called FREQ, and their first edition is an interview with Jane Ng. Ng is a 3D environmental artist who most recently worked on Firewatch, which looks like an amazing game. You can read the interview with her here. My favorite part about the interview, aside from … Read more
Caught in a TRAP
Yesterday the Supreme Court heard arguments for Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. This case involves the claim that two laws create an undue burden on the right of a woman to obtain an abortion in the state of Texas. One of the laws requires that doctors at abortion clinics have admitting privileges at a hospital … Read more
Lonely universe?
I am no longer allowed to comment on creationist cartoonist Dan Lietha’s Facebook posts. Lietha does the After Eden cartoon on the Answers in Genesis website, and I’ve become somewhat fascinated with his work because it combines some quite respectable artistic talent with some absolutely baffling apologetics. And here I don’t say “baffling” to mean “difficult … Read more
Statement from the NECSS
After my last post went live, the NECSS executive committee posted the following statement to their web site: We wish to apologize to Professor Dawkins for our handling of his disinvitation to NECSS 2016. Our actions were not professional, and we should have contacted him directly to express our concerns before acting unilaterally. We have sent … Read more
Did Richard Dawkins blame his stroke on feminists?
On Feb. 5th Richard Dawkins experienced a stroke while at home, on the cusp of traveling to New Zealand and Australia for a speaking tour. Fortunately it was a minor stroke, and he was allowed to return home after four days to begin recuperating. He reported later that it was a hemorrhagic stroke in the … Read more