Pictured: a human whose dignity is highly questionable Said Michele Bachmann to members of Personhood USA on Tuesday night: I want everyone to know that I recognize and respect the dignity of every human life from conception until natural death. This is not a check the box thing for me; […]
Read MoreThe daughter test, in Egypt
From the Huffington Post’s list of 2011’s Most Absurd Quotes About Women– And Who Said Them: An anonymous Egyptian general spoke to CNN about why female protestors arrested during anti-Mubarak demonstrations were strip-searched and forced to submit to virginity tests. “The girls who were detained were not like your daughter […]
Read MoreIIWAPBK and Privilege 101
I think Gene Marks has now been thoroughly excoriated for his column “If I Were a Poor Black Kid” on the Forbes web site last week. In his effort to explain how it’s still possible for underprivileged kids to succeed, he succeeded only in displaying a shocking lack of empathy. By that I don’t […]
Read MoreCycling through symbolism: Nitpicking the Rick Perry ad mockery
AKA The post about Rick Perry’s jacket. If you somehow have missed seeing Rick Perry’s recent campaign ad, now one of the least liked videos on Youtube, here it is: Yes, that is a real ad produced by a real candidate for president of the United States and long-time governor […]
Read MoreObama “daughter tests” young women out of sexual privacy and responsibility
A few months ago I wrote about Freakonomics author Steven Levitt’s “daughter test” for legality. Levitt didn’t invent the test; he just articulated it: “If I wouldn’t want my daughter to do it, I wouldn’t mind the government passing a law against it.” The inanity and offensiveness of this standard should be […]
Read More#heblowsalot
Ah, the power of Twitter. It can help organize protests, keep people in contact in the midst of tragedy, spread news like wildfire, and allow governors to become aware of the fact that teenagers are saying mean things about them. And then take action! Emma Sullivan is an eighteen year old […]
Read MoreQuote of the day
From Dr. X, discussing whether using “crazy” as a pejorative should be considered offensive to people with mental illnesses and therefore be stricken from the lexicon of a considerate person: Political correctness most certainly is about passing tests of radicals who are more interested in group identity signifiers than substance […]
Read MoreMy favorite quote right now
TheTweetofGod is the Twitter account of David Javerbaum, author of The Last Testament: A Memoir By God. I follow it because somebody retweeted something hilarious he said one day and I decided that my day could do with some more ongoing hilarity. But he also makes some interesting observations, such […]
Read MoreSpokesgroups
Radley Balko got quite a lot of hate mail in response to an article he wrote for HuffPo on Occupy Wall Street. One letter hilariously complains I am appalled by your lack of integrity. You quoted someone from the Cato Institute but didn’t reveal that you also worked for them. […]
Read MoreBiased ! = wrong
Let me say this, right from the start: I love biases. No, I don’t love that they exist, but I think they’re endlessly fascinating. I love thinking about them, identifying them, figuring out where they come from. Studying biases is how I came to the realization that the way we generally […]
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