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
- No intention of providing the full range of services–“They’re taking over. No not Martians, not gremlins, not chemtrails, but anti-abortion people going into health care work in order to undermine it.”
- You said it yourself, you’re a writer, not a diplomat–“Why would I have to ask her what she meant in her video when her video is already out there? What is made public is what is made public; it doesn’t matter what the intentions were, what matters is what is made public.”
- On that quote purported to be by The Amazing Atheist–“It’s not particularly fair to damn him for what he no longer believes, nor is it fair to take something you can’t prove he said more recently and damn him for that.”
- I’m not sorry atheists are divided–“I’m sorry we need to be.”
- It’s not personal–“It’s about the fact that public discourse is public discourse, and we get to respond to public discourse in public rather than in private.”
- Review: the Slymepit’s new photoshop of me is stylish, but fails to convince–“The trousers, on the other hand, are a highlight even if I could never squeeze into them.”
- “Had I known about them ahead of time, I wouldn’t have posted his video”: Hemant Mehta on The Amazing Atheist–“I do wish he would say it more publicly: it doesn’t do a huge amount of good buried in a comment thread where very few people will see it. But further discussion of this issue should continue with an awareness of this fact.”
- Defending the Indefensible–“And if a Christian said things remotely like that, I highly doubt that any of the people defending him would accept ‘oh it was a joke’ or ‘but he hasn’t done it lately.'”
- Is There Any Line You Think Should Not Be Crossed? The Amazing Atheist, and What the Atheist Community Apparently Is Okay With–“Will you really support the work of absolutely anyone, regardless of how vile their behavior has been, as long as they say one thing you happen to agree with?”
- Nerp. Still Not Deep Enough–“I don’t fancy wading hip-deep in festering hatred just to get a larf at creationism. Why, all I need for that is to read their very own textbooks.”
The Wider Web
- Special Needs in Strange Worlds: Paul Weimer on Rolling Perception Plus Awareness and Characters with Special Needs–“There will always be players who try to ‘min-max’. However, some recent roleplaying games explore the development and playing of disabled characters in a more nuanced and careful manner.”
- Inclusive event resources–“The Ada Initiative strives for inclusive and safe events, and would love for other events to adopt our resources, which we license them CC BY-SA for use by the community.”
- Of Allies, Outliers, and Invisibility–“This isn’t always the case, and I’ve watched others get hate for overreaching as an ally…while knowing the ‘ally’ in question…wasn’t, and also couldn’t out themselves.”
- How Big of a Problem is Harassment at Comic Conventions? Very Big.–“People in my survey report being harassed by fans, journalists, publishing employees, and comics creators, so there are issues at every level of the industry.”
- Why were there so few women among the Beat writers?–“In the ’50s if you were male you could be a rebel, but if you were female your families had you locked up.”
- How One Careless Tweet Turned My Life Into A Living Hell–“It wasn’t until three weeks later that this careless tweet — which, to be fair, shouldn’t have said ‘hate;’ ‘frustrates me’ might have been a better choice of words — was turned into a hit piece against me.”
- No skin thick enough: The daily harassment of women in the game industry–“Later that day, someone texted me my address — telling me they’d ‘See me when I least expected it.'”
- Things Go From Bad To Worse for Mitch As Kentucky GOP Leader Resigns To Protest McConnell–“Sen. McConnell is using the same playbook that he has been following for decades, but this time it isn’t working.”
- Amazon Makes Plea to Authors to Quiet Down–“‘Every time [the authors] make a statement, it makes Hachette less willing to compromise,’ Grandinetti is reported to have said.”
- $190 Million Can’t Buy “Closure” for the Victims of Johns Hopkins’ Abusive Gynecologist–“The Levy case is just the most recent incident that lays bare the long-standing ‘racial discord between black communities and white medical institutions,’ as Thomas put it.”
- The Ben Stein sexting scandal that will make you want to pour Lysol in your eyes–“It was all pretty creepy sounding. But, um, nothing close to this.”
- CFI’s Michael De Dora Elected President of UN Religious Freedom Committee–“The Committee, working from within UN headquarters in New York City, is dedicated to defending and promoting the international agreements that protect the rights to freedom of religion or belief.”
- Twitter releases its diversity stats. And boy, are they embarrassing.–“Twitter actually lags far behind its peers on some key measures. For instance, only 1 out of every 10 Twitter tech employees is a woman.”
- On unsolicited criticism–“We continued our poll. The male presenters we asked received no unsolicited feedback (other than ‘that was great!’). Some women I spoke with, however, had received feedback on their tone as well.”
- Comic Con 2014: Outcry against harassment grows.–“There are signs Comic-Con is heeding some of the criticism — a last-minute email sent to badge-holders late Tuesday prominently highlighted its anti-harassment policy, and encouraged attendees to enlist security if they feel unsafe.”
- Panel rejects Entenza’s voter ID claim in state auditor race–“Of the two bills, Otto voted against one that would require voter identification and in favor of another requring voter ID. However, the Voter ID language was stripped from the language in conference committee and Otto voted in favor of the revised version.”
- What do you call a “male feminist” who only wants to pick up women? Meet the “macktivists”–“The general consensus is that men can and should call themselves feminists. It’s good for everyone. But claiming an ideology is not the same as putting that ideology into practice.”
- My son has been suspended five times. He’s 3.–“Then, two months later, I was called to pick up my 3-year-old son, Joah. Joah had hit a staff member on the arm. After that incident, they deemed him a ‘danger to the staff.'”
- Dem poll: Majority of women oppose Hobby Lobby decision–“That includes 73% of Democratic women and 60% of independents, and 35% of Republicans. Also, 57% of these total female respondents — including 55% of independents — say they would be more likely to support a candidate who opposes the decision.”
- Kathy Etchingham, former partner of Jimi Hendrix, speaks out against new biopic–“Curtis Knight admitted that he had never interviewed me and all copies of the book in the UK were destroyed. My legal costs were paid. Unfortunately the book continued to be sold in the USA and extracts are on the internet.”
- First Take Discusses A Woman’s Responsibility To Avoid Being Beaten–“‘Not that there’s real provocation, but the elements of provocation, you got to make sure that you address them, because we’ve got to do is do what we can to try to prevent the situation from happening in any way.'”
- A Major Music Festival Is Cracking Down on One of Our More Mindless Modern Trends–“‘For various reasons,’ the announcement reads, ‘Bass Coast Festival is banning feathered war bonnets, or anything resembling them, on-site. Our security team will be enforcing this policy.'”