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 Secular Hedonism Needs Social Justice–“And several people pointed out that asceticism often rises as a reaction, not necessarily to a hedonistic and pleasure-based society, but to a society in which sensual pleasure is primarily available to a few rich and powerful people at the top.”
• When I Want To Open A Jar…–“… I just give it to an octopus.”
• Law Prof Finds a Whopping 31 Cases of Voter Impersonation–“To be clear, I’m not just talking about prosecutions. I track any specific, credible allegation that someone may have pretended to be someone else at the polls, in any way that an ID law could fix.”
• The growth of atheism among the non-college educated–“It is clear that the total number of dropouts is increasing. What is happening is that those without college degrees are dropping out faster than before so that the differential between them and the college-educated is disappearing.”
• I R Scholarly Cat. This Iz Srs Criticisms.–“This is because I went to get cushions for the chair she’s making me use, I’m pretty sure.”
• When My Nan Died: Religion, Closets and Love.–“There were so many things my nan never knew about me. I couldn’t tell her. She wouldn’t have understood. She would have worried about me endlessly. My meaning and her understandings would have been too different.”
• What it is like to be a Muslim woman: Muricaversary Edition–“And all this while, and even now, it sometimes feels like I am another person living a distant dream. A phantom woman. A woman who is only pretending to do things and be things that were never hers, that were never her.”
• I wouldn’t want to contribute to “outrage culture”–“You are no longer allowed to disagree with me. If you do so, you are being divisive.”

The Wider Web

• Six Things My Abusive Ex-Boyfriend Did To Me That God Didn’t Do–“And yet, people still wonder why there aren’t more women involved in organized atheism.”
• Et tu, Caroline Criado-Perez?–“You are in a social position where you are able to sanctimoniously give other human beings a license to survive as their authentic selves under the condition that they ask nothing of you. You know what you call that?”
• Sorry, Richard Dawkins, but you did not actually hurt my feelings–“Dawkins is being particularly disappointing this round because he’s hiding behind a gambit so transparent that every shitty 18-year-old boy who wants to win an argument with his girlfriend resorts to it”
• Every outdoor mural in Minneapolis [photoset]
• A Critique of Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW)–Part 2–“Just because it serves us, that it promotes our representatives, initiatives and groups, does not make it okay to conduct ourselves and hold ourselves to a different set of standards than we would impose of others.”
• Richard Dawkins: Atheism’s asset or liability?–“On Wednesday (Aug. 6), presented with criticisms collected for this story, Dawkins added to an existing post on his foundation’s website.”
• Canceling the Kickstarter Project–“Even if I believe the concept behind the book is a valid one, the execution was poor and it upset a lot of good people. My apologies to anyone in that crowd.”
• Why Disability History Matters–“History gives us the tools to think about us—whoever that us is—as being part of something bigger; we have a past, which means that we have a present and a future.”
• Geneticists decry book on race and evolution–“Now, nearly 140 senior human population geneticists around the world, many of whose work was cited in the book, have signed a letter to The New York Times Book Review stating that Wade has misinterpreted their work.”
• Failing to address campus sexual assault robs the world of leaders it needs–“Grades do matter, often more than they should, and often without consideration for extenuating circumstances that can result in huge blemishes on transcripts — like sexual assault.”
• GOP candidates say Minnesota should be more like Kansas and Wisconsin. The numbers say otherwise–“The Republican gubernatorial candidates portray the Minnesota economy as being shackled by regulations, burdened by high taxes, and strangled by unions. Yet the data indicate otherwise…”
• Shark Week’s biggest critic is sharpening his Twitter harpoon–“He was consulted by the makers of Sharknado 2: The Second One. He did an “ask-me-anything” on the Reddit web site that drew 600 questions in three hours.”
• The Humble ‘Yeah?’–“Sometimes you do want to get away with claiming everything is just fine, thanks, when your eyes are red.”
• CU-Boulder moves to fire professor accused of retaliating against sexual assault victim–“Barnett is accused of compiling a 38-page report painting the victim as ‘sexually promiscuous’ and alleging she falsified the report of the assault, according to a notice of intent to sue CU filed by the victim last month.”
• You wanna know what pisses me off?–“He’s acting like he doesn’t care. He’s acting like it’s all so super casual. She’s smiling that smile. I shift my position so that my bag is between them. She immediately steps around me, like a bunny hopping over barbed wire. I stay put. Wait to see if he tries to push past me.”
• Of Rape graders and Hero worship.–“Once again, there is nothing reasonable about grading rape. And no, you cannot objectively generalise on the impact of rape. People are affected by trauma in different ways. We handle and cope with trauma differently.”
• Dissecting Propaganda For Fun & Profit: The Amazon Letter–“There’s NO REASON for World War II to be mentioned here, as they state everything they’re talking about happened before any of that shit. It’s a beautiful and ridiculous opening gambit for just so many reasons.”
• “Outrage culture” and manufacturing enemies–“None of this is new. These are just a couple of examples, but people like Grothe and Clint have spent years attacking people in the movement who dare to offer criticism of offensive ideas.”
• Man Knocked Unconscious After Defending Group of Women From Catcallers–“The men inside the Nissan began taunting and catcalling the women, according to investigators, prompting the victim to get involved.”
• bursting in air–“the one where we talk about suffering people *and also* the fact that we have already done our best to destroy that country”
• Remembering Nick Post–“I am lucky to live in the Twin Cities, because over decades, Nick helped build a comics community that respected women and diversity and kids.”
• In Texas, Activist Group ‘Stop Patriarchy’ Draws Criticism–“It turns out the money isn’t going to Texas reproductive rights groups, but to Stop Patriarchy to run a protest-bus tour through the state and then make a film about their efforts.”

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

• Please, taunt me some more–“The incident actually happened, and those are my words. I have no problem with that. However, it’s not making a point in their favor.”
• The “Coming Out Atheist” Donation Recipient for July 2014: Black Skeptics of Los Angeles “First in the Family” Humanist Scholarship Fund–“So I’m donating 10% of my income from this book to atheist organizations, charities, and projects: a different one each month.”
• Ohai! Your resident queer, poly, ex-hijabi, ex-Muslim here!–“I came of age in Southern Lebanese guerilla warfare culture, with the predominant religious and political power governing my social spaces being Hezbollah–I write about growing up in Hezbollah culture here.”
• Supporting Black Skeptics LA’s “First in the Family” scholarship fund–“Remind me again how social justice warriors make atheists look bad?”
• I’m Only Doing It for the Attention–“After all, when it comes to promoting a community currently as small and as besieged as the ex-Muslim community, or viewpoints as oddly controversial as being in favor of social justice, every little bit of attention counts.”
• The virtual radio silence on Brian Dunning’s fraud–“I really wish the skeptical community had not repeatedly defended Dunning’s actions, as though some level of skeptical outreach excuses gross fraud.”
• Is This Thing On?–“You ain’t here for me to talk about myself, though. You’re here for the goods, right? Here’s a few things I’ve written over the past few years to get you started and give you a taste of what I’m about”

The Wider Web

• Abortions For “Funsies!”–“They are also, for the most part, imaginary. I mean, think about for more than a second.”
• Would you be horrified to find out that you have a stalker, or flattered?–“Incidentally: if you use ‘stalking’ to mean ‘following on social media’ or ‘following publicly available works,’ I will block you so fast your head will spin.“
• My Receipt Was Not Good Enough–“I asked him what the problem was and he ignored me. I asked to speak to a manager and he ignored me. He literally acted like I was not there.”
• Tucker Carlson: IRS rules preventing church electioneering is an ‘assault’ on Christians by atheists–“On Saturday, Tucker Carlson told Pajamas Media Legal Editor J. Christian Adams that this was another examples of ‘liberal politicians, liberal groups asking the IRS to crush organizations that they don’t agree with.'”
• The Ideology of Skepticism–“What I didn’t know—and what shocked me, like finding the Minotaur in a Disneyland hedge maze—is how much of the skeptical community isn’t really about skepticism.”
• First, brief #disabilitySF chat–“Can you recommend an SF novel/story that does good things with disability and technology?”
• New York man who filmed deadly chokehold is arrested on weapons charge–“Orta was in the hospital on Sunday, police said, but refused to disclose further information about why he was there or his condition, citing privacy laws. It was unclear whether he had a lawyer.”
• Spousal Support (Part 1)–“I asked him if he really thought so, and he said yes, and did he promise, and he said yes, and there was a hug and a kiss, and I believed.”
• DIY Science Zone Fundraiser–“The zone is a hands-on, weekend-long extravaganza that makes science accessible to everyone, whether or not they have their own lab goggles at home. It’s open to all ages, and all levels of experience–and all equipment is provided.”
• Comic Artist Randy Queen Now Claims Post About His Abuse Of Copyright To Stifle Criticism Is Defamatory–“So, we go from bogus attempts to stifle criticism via copyright law, to then trying to stifle discussion of that stifling by bogus defamation threats. Someone really doesn’t like being criticized apparently.” [See this update also.
• Concom decision on Jim Frenkel-“Jim Frenkel will not be allowed to return to any future WisCon conventions.”
• How Jerry Pournelle got kicked off the ARPANET–“I’m almost tempted to let him take his marbles and floppy disks and go home.”
• “Skeptoid” Brian Dunning Sentenced to 15 Months in Prison for Fraud–“This is great news for the skeptic community at large, since it may be a long enough sentence for Dunning to fade from memory and stop publicly representing the very people who are supposedly trying to stop people from defrauding others.”
• Violation–“And because I am a queer woman, this is a normal experience with added layers of entitlement from men to not only my body and my space, but to the moments I share with women that happen to take place in public and semi-public venues.”
• In praise of GUADEC–“Marina also discussed words to avoid when talking about people and technology, something I realized I fumbled when I gave my keynote.”
• You, Sir, Are No Robert Ingersoll–“‘The men who declare that woman is the intellectual inferior of man, do not, and cannot, by offering themselves in evidence, substantiate their declaration.'”
• Moving the Goalpost on Polyamorous Success–“For as long as people are uncomfortable with poly relationships they will demand that we prove our ‘stability’ and ‘success’ by having longer and longer relationships that fulfill an increasingly narrowly defined structure.”
• Toad Words Launch Day!–“And we are live, gang!”
• Your Well-Written Anti-Harassment Policy is Insufficient–“Unless you attend the con, are harassed, and then make a report, you have no idea whether the con staff will actually take the complaint seriously or try to sweep it under the rug.”
• On the “dispute” between radical feminism and trans people–“[I]t infuriates me that I’ve had to take a break from writing a piece on the Tories’ ‘liberation’ of the NHS to write 8,500 words to debunk a sexological concept that was shown to be untenable before the start of the First World War.”
• Comfort Without Lies for Small Children–“It isn’t easy, and sometimes even people who are themselves nonbelievers succumb to the temptation to comfort children with talk of heaven and guardian angels.”
• Twitter Won’t Stop Harassment on Its Platform, So Its Users Are Stepping In–“But without Twitter’s cooperation, these developers are still focusing on selected users instead of addressing the problem on a site-wide level.”