Traveling Today – Have Some Links to Other People’s Work

B and I are off to Mount Baker, because summer is short and it’s hot. But not hot on top of Mount Baker. Which is the point. And I’d have stuff of substance for you, only I’ve be doing the deep-dive cleaning and organizing in order to turn the house into a place where I can work full-time. This is complicated, and involves a lot of standing around staring at piles in despair, and going to the store for Yet Another Necessary Thing, and hunting round places for inexpensive yet useful compact storage stuff, and then attempting to store stuff in it. And then it’s back to the store because you forgot the labels to label the storage stuff so you know where stored stuff is…

Then a day off for throwing apples for cats, and watching MMA and kickboxing, and planning for said trip up to Mount Baker. Which you will love.

While I’m gone, here are a few of the blog posts I’ve been meaning to highlight for half of forever. Enjoy! And when I return, thee shall have brand-new pictures of Mount Baker to treasure.

Image is three photos of a very excited English spaniel. Caption says, "ERMAHGERD."

Alethian Worldview: Everything we need to know about God

I was a conservative, Bible-believing Christian until I was in my early forties, and as a believer, the one thing I wanted more than anything else was to understand God. Ironically, it’s only now, after a decade and a half as an atheist, that I’ve finally reached an understanding that truly does explain everything that seems odd or mysterious about God.

It’s not that I’ve discovered anything that’s really all that new. I’ve just found a way of framing what I know that immediately expresses exactly what we need to know about God in a way that’s both obvious and unavoidable.

A Veil and a Dark Place: A Tirade of Snark to My Clueless Muslim Critics

But the mindset is there, it’s prevalent and rote and you know, sometimes I feel like I wonder if I’m being uncharitable in my positions but there’s such a brewing of disgust within me at the insidious self-righteousness of these sorts of responses that this does not seem at all like a low enough jab but I’ll say it:

You can string out the same tired sentences and stances a thousand and one times and they’ll still be as flawed and dishonest and inhumane as ever, these phrases, ‘oh, Islam grants women her rights, don’t you know, preserves honor, dignity, and doesn’t condone mistreatment’ and seriously, I ask you, do we live in the same world?

A Million Gods: Islamic Economics of Sex

The problem here is not women who do not wear Burkhas but men who wish for women to wear them under the notion of concern and the guise of honour and chastity.

Alternet: Bible Verses That Atheists Love

As a young adult, I struggled to recover from the crazy parts of my childhood. I once had a therapist who said, “You’ll know you are independent from your parents when you can do what you want for yourself even if they want it too.” To my mind, the Bible writers are like dysfunctional parents to our whole society, parents we have turned to, collectively and individually, for guidance. but who all too often instead have caused harm or trauma. One of the ways we will know that we have truly outgrown them is when we are able to claim what we believe to be useful and beautiful, even if they said it.

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Ee’s Not Dead, Ee’s Resting

The richest guru in India died of a heart attack in January. Doctors have declared him dead. But his followers insist that he isn’t dead, he’s just in an incredibly deep state of meditation. So deep that he has no heartbeat or brain activity and has to be kept in a freezer.

All right, that’s enough to keep ye busy for the moment. See you tomorrow, my darlings!

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Traveling Today – Have Some Links to Other People’s Work
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3 thoughts on “Traveling Today – Have Some Links to Other People’s Work

  1. 2

    Mt. Baker is one of my favorite mountains. I get to see it every clear day as I commute to/from work near Abbotsford, BC. I’m just jealous it’s not in Canada :)

  2. 3

    I used to be able to see Mt. Baker from my office window. This was back in the late ’70’s, when it was thought to be the volcano most likely to succeed. On a good day, you could actually see the steam from the summit, which was why I began calling it Mt. Steamer. It still hasn’t baked anything I know of. Looking forward to pics!

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