I share a lot of links on Twitter and Facebook that I don’t blog about because I don’t have much to add. The reading list is a periodic feature where I share those links with my blog audience too. Of course, you’re still welcome to follow me on Twitter.

Around FtB

• Why I Would Wish Religion Away–“I obviously should have done a better job at clarifying that I didn’t think our problems would magically vanish once religion was gone. Let me do so now.”
• Things that are not postmodernist–“Not everything is postmodernist. Not even everything you dislike is postmodernist.”
• “It’s sad I can’t take my kid”–“Just when I was feeling the strain of the sisyphean task of combatting harassment in a community that would rather we have a “big tent” that includes the harassers, this email came to bolster my spirits.”
• Getting into bed with Christian fundamentalism: Behind the APPG report–“Perhaps the most troubling detail is barely mentioned in the report itself.”
• Which atheists get exemption from criticism?–“JT Eberhard has invented a series of rationales for why people had the temerity to question the president of American Atheists (and he didn’t call me up to ask if any of them were valid!).”
• David Silverman’s “Darwin Was Wrong” Moment–“Surely New Scientist’s terrible choice in creating the “Darwin Was Wrong” cover happened not so long ago that the skeptical community has forgotten the sturm und drang that rightly came after it. And yet, here we are.”
• Taking Boys Out of the Box–“But that was a line rarely crossed, that dividing line between girls and boys. We girls could wear anything, any time, but the boys never put on a dress outside of playing dress-up in the house.”
• What really matters…The So-Called Secular Arguments Against Choice–“Groups like Secular Pro-Life, that openly cooperate with and have members from the Religious Right, can rightly claim that he said there is a secular argument for their cause. One already has.”

The Wider Web

• Returning Force With Equal Force–“Oftentimes I also find that the Sage Wisdom offered by my dear shrink is applicable not just to my personal life but to the larger currents in the skeptical, atheist, or feminist movements.”
• The ‘Oil Pulling’ Health Craze Works, Just Not in the Way You Think–“That word is basically this: Oil pulling is not magic — your mouth is magic! At least, when it’s working properly it is, and it’s also a kind of gateway to overall health.”
• Report: Paul Ryan’s ‘brown bag’ CPAC story stolen from a book about a homeless child–“On Thursday, Ryan recounted nearly the exact same story, attributing it to Wisconsin Department of Children and Families Director Eloise Anderson, who was appointed by Gov. Scott Walker (R).”
• Guns N’ Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine” Retooled as 1920s New Orleans Jazz–“Thanks to the efforts of Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox and singer Miche Braden, the world now knows how heavy metal rockers, Guns N’ Roses sound with their knees rouged up and their stockings down.”
• Who Wants to be a Rocket Scientist? Race, Gender, and the STEM Divide–“Criminal. Gangbanger. “Baby daddy.” Drug dealer. Ball player. Brainstorming recently about the psychological impact of media images with a group of African-American ninth graders in my Young Male Scholars program, these caricatures were the primary images they associated with black men.”
• The Woman Who Thinks She Can Will Herself Out of Her Body–“‘Hold on just a second,’ you’re thinking to yourself (I am not a psychic but I occasionally play one in blog posts). ‘Didn’t I already read this article on Popular Science?'”
• Fan Expo Canada’s “Cuddle a Cosplayer” Controversy and Ignorance Of Convention Harassment–“But if you’re a cosplayer headed to the show, you might need to keep an especially close eye on your fellow attendees. Why? Because an email blast sent out by the convention proposed physical contact with cosplayers as a way to sell tickets.”
• Courting atheist conservatives: a misguided strategy, statistically–“Abortion isn’t “as clear cut” as those other issues. Compared with school prayer, it’s more clear cut that Secular Americans favor abortion rights.”
• Germany offers frightening glimpse at copyright trumping privacy–“At my new address, the scientist – passive-aggressively polite – told me I had to sign a retroactive rental contract.”
• How to support abortion providers–“Several people have asked me how to support abortion providers. My responses, which boil down to, ‘Treat abortion as health care.'”
• On Fit Judging, and that “Fatty at the Track” Piece–“Some folks are calling it ‘inspirational.’ I’m calling it just plain fucking assholish.”
• You say good bye, and I say hello.–“What I wasn’t quite prepared for was Cathy Brennan’s bizarre political ineptitude. Her strategy, as far as I can tell at this point, is to act so strangely that we’re constantly distracted and confused.”