Misogyny and changing the subject

Greta Christina preaches it: It’s depressingly predictable. When an instance of misogyny gets pointed out on the Internet, in a forum big enough to garner more than a couple dozen comments, you’re almost guaranteed to see some or all of these types of comments. It’s happening now. In case you haven’t heard, there was a recent … Read more

#heblowsalot update: the fallout

Both the principal, Karl Krawitz, and Emma Sullivan are receiving all kinds of negative attention as result of the Brownback apology affair. Krawitz has apparently received some death threats from different parts of the country, while Sullivan is being bullied by peers who call her an attention whore, or just a whore, and demand that … Read more

Update

…on the April 18th beating of a trans woman at McDonald’s in Maryland: From dallasvoice: Teona Brown, 19, has pled guilty Thursday, Aug. 4, to first degree assault charges and a hate crime charge in connection with the beating of transgender woman Chrissy Polis last April in Towson, Md.  The attack was captured on video by a McDonald’s … Read more

“….Seriously?” Part: the end

…and cue the inevitable “Can’t we all just get along?” post. Hemant Mehta does a good job of summarizing the whole very high-school situation, though I’m not sure what the point is with the whole “Female 1” and “Female 2” thing. If you’re interested, read. Interest in attending any future skeptic/atheist conferences: pretty much nil.

“…Seriously?” part 2

Somebody purporting to be Richard Dawkins apparently made some rather idiotic comments on Pharyngula of the “people have it worse than you, so how dare you complain about your own situation” variety, and Jen McCreight rightly excoriates him (or his impersonator) for it.  For reference on these remarks, see this. Whether that was actually Dawkins or not, … Read more

Update

Terry Jones is on trial this morning by a Michigan jury which is going to decide whether or not he can protest at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn without having paid a $100,000 “peace bond.”  If that makes you do a double-take and say “Whaa?” I’m right there with you. If it doesn’t, … Read more

Follow-up: Jesus Chicken edition

I wrote before about how the conservative Christian-affiliated chicken chain Chik-Fil-A has received some very negative feedback about their contributions toward anti-gay political causes.  Here’s the latest on that: Focus St. Louis and the Clayton Chamber of Commerce said today that they are canceling a planned presentation by Dan Cathy, president and COO of Chick-fil-A, … Read more

More follow-up: the difference between neutrality and objectivity

Journalist Lauri Lebo wrote a book about Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, the 2005 creationism case which occurred in her home state of Pennsylvania.  Prior to the actual court battle she had been covering the situation locally in newspapers, reporting on what transpired at school board meetings and such.  During and after the trial, … Read more

Follow-up: New York Times responds to complaints about their reporting

…poorly: The Times responded Wednesday evening to The Cutline: “Neighbors’ comments about the girl, which we reported in the story, seemed to reflect concern about what they saw as a lack of supervision that may have left her at risk,” said Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for the paper. “As for residents’ references to the … Read more

More Savage loving

Conversation continues about interpretation of Dan Savage’s sexual ethics.  Savage himself responds to Lindsay Beyerstein thusly: Terry and I wouldn’t describe ourselves as monogamous-apart-from-an-occassional because we wouldn’t—couldn’t—feel comfortable using the word “monogamous” in reference to ourselves, not even monogamous-with-an-asterisks, because technically we’re, you know, not. But we kindasorta hate the term non-monogamous because when a gay … Read more