A federal judge denied Hobby Lobby’s request for exemption from the federal requirement to provide health care coverage which covers contraception, especially (at least, this is what owner David Green claimed to be his basis for objection) the morning-after pill. In a 28-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton denied […]
Read MoreCurrent reading and “reading”
One of the most enjoyable things about Skepticon was actually the drive there. I’m listening to the audiobook of Jeffrey Toobin’s The Oath, just as I listened to his The Nine on a long drive a few years ago. His writing lends itself particularly well to being read out loud. The […]
Read MoreDear Bill O’Reilly…
…no calculator, moral or otherwise, will make it less expensive to arrest people than to help them. Trust me on this. The more you deny it, the more ridiculous you are: Is traditional America gone for good? That’s the question Bill O’Reilly tackled during his Talking Points Memo on Monday […]
Read MoreInternet antipathy, part 2….thousand
So, one of the people I was most looking forward to seeing (and talking with, if I could come up with something to talk about) at Skepticon was Matt Dillahunty, host of The Atheist Experience and president of the Atheist Community of Austin. As it was, I only got to […]
Read MorePolitics for creative types
Matthew Inman’s comic on the creative process (which you’ve almost certainly seen already because you already read The Oatmeal; and if you haven’t because you don’t, now’s the time to start) got me thinking about creativity and political leanings. I don’t know anything about Inman’s own politics, really, aside from […]
Read MoreHow Skepticon is and isn’t like going to church
Is: Skepticon is a gathering of like-minded people on specific dates.Isn’t: The particular dates don’t matter, except that that also mostly encompass a weekend, but purely for reasons of travel and availability. There is no such thing as a skeptical Sabbath. Is: Skepticon involves speakers getting up before an audience […]
Read MoreProximate pratfall
Regarding Richard Mourdock’s “rape babies are a gift from God” comment… It’s fun to see people all over the internet making fun of Mourdock saying that a pregnancy which results from rape should be considered a gift from God, because that life is something God intended to happen. They can […]
Read MoreDigital dualism enables internet idiocy; monism motivates meaning
First things first– if you haven’t already, go over to technosociology and read Zeynep Tufekci’s excellent post Free Speech and Power: From Reddit Creeps to anti-Muslim Videos, It’s Not *Just* “Free Speech.” You can probably glean the subject matter from that title, but the post is a very nuanced and […]
Read MoreDemonology
Art by Sandro Castelli It’s getting close to Halloween, so let’s talk about demons. I’m going to define a demon as a non-human agent who works in the world– the existence we inhabit– to create evil. Now, yes, I’ve said that I don’t believe in evil, that evil is a […]
Read MoreProcotting
I can’t seem to find a word that denotes a deliberate decision to patronize a business in response to a boycott by others, so I’m going to say I’m procotting Home Depot. Here’s why: The American Family Association has announced yet another boycott, or perhaps a continuation of an already […]
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