Month: June 2016

(Repost) Adventures in ACE II: In Which We Inherit the Earth

Dana Hunter, , , , , , , , , , ,

All right, then, my darlings: time to start acing ACE. We’re right at the beginning of our 8th grade-ish* science edimicashun. What has Science PACE 1085 got to teach us about?

  • “Earth and Its Neighbors,” in which we learn the earth is our inheritance. Just like the Bible says!
  • “To learn to be willing to work or dwell with others in unity – to be cooperative.” M-kay.
  • “To memorize and say Psalm 133:1.” Oh, yes, very sciencey.

This is a very… interesting… table of contents for a science text.

Image is a white and brown kitty looking upward, caption says, "LOL WUT"
Right, let’s move on. Page (two) 2 has a cartoon wherein creepy-looking boys in identical clothes, Reginald and Pudge, tell us how interesting our current PACE will be. Pudge is skeptical at first, the little devil, but is soon won over by Reginald’s Facts™. Many facts. Like the geochemistry terms “sial” and “sima,” which I did not know, because in all my time palling around with geologists, I’ve never seen them use them. Hooray, facts! I’m amazed I’ve learned some actual ones from an ACE PACE.

Let’s see what else we can learn about God’s world. Continue reading “(Repost) Adventures in ACE II: In Which We Inherit the Earth” →

(Repost) Adventures in ACE II: In Which We Inherit the Earth
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(Tier 1) Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education XXVIII: Wherein We Experience Astronomical Buffoonery

Dana Hunter, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Last time, we watched the Earth Science Fourth Edition authors butcher the birth of the solar system. They’re so very bad at telling the secular story, but bless them, they’re trying. We left them just as our Sun began to shine, and planetary potential swirled around it. Let’s watch as they continue to mangle the secular science story.

Gravitational attraction starts clumping matter into wee little proto-planets in what’s left of the protoplanetary disk. Of course, the disk is still turning. That original spin (ha) has translated into rotation and orbits and such. We know that a star’s going to suck up most of the gas in the inner solar system, leaving the planets closest to it rockier than the ones further out. These are the basics, and ES4 gets those basics basically right.

But then they claim that we claim that “other planetesimals were captured by planets as moons.” LOLWUT? They sound like we think that’s the only way for moons to happen. But in the case of our lovely gas giants, we know some of their moons couldn’t have been captured, but had to have formed from amterial orbiting the giants in rings. Other moons, like ours, formed from collisions. What’s the difference? The material thrown up by a collision contains a lot of rocky debris, but not a lot of gas, while the stuff orbiting the giants contains plenty of gas. Therefore, we see moons around the giants that are far more gassy than ours. Continue reading “(Tier 1) Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education XXVIII: Wherein We Experience Astronomical Buffoonery” →

(Tier 1) Adventures in Christianist Earth Science Education XXVIII: Wherein We Experience Astronomical Buffoonery

Saturday Song: PRIDE

Dana Hunter2 Comments

It’s Pride month. This June, we saw one of the most horrific hate crimes ever perpetrated against the LGBTQ community in the United States.

We won’t let hate defeat love.

So let’s make a playlist of Pride songs, indomitable songs; songs that celebrate queerness. Share your favorites from musicians who have come out. Share the songs that helped you navigate an often-hostile hetero world. Share the songs that you have danced to, or loved to, or cried to. Continue reading “Saturday Song: PRIDE” →

Saturday Song: PRIDE

Supernatural S1 E8 Analysis: Curses! It’s Cultural Appropriation 100

Dana Hunter1 Comment

You know, fellow white storytellers, we need to stop being so fucking lazy. Okay, so a lot of us grew up on particular cultural tropes that we probably thought were cool: the Indian curse; the mystical, inscrutable Indian; and so forth. When we’re writing and want a little variety, some of us sprinkle that crap in without thinking. If we get really ambitious, we may throw in an Indian from a lesser-known tribe, then pat ourselves on the back for being all diverse and stuff.

It’s garbage.

A lot of people don’t yet grok cultural appropriation. I’m still working on grokking it, myself. Some of it can be kind of complicated! But what happens in SPN’s S1 E8 episode “Bugs” is like Cultural Appropriation 100. It hasn’t even reached the college level, it’s so basic. Let’s look at the elements here: Continue reading “Supernatural S1 E8 Analysis: Curses! It’s Cultural Appropriation 100” →

Supernatural S1 E8 Analysis: Curses! It’s Cultural Appropriation 100

Islam’s Homophobic Teachings Cannot Be Ignored as a Factor in the Orlando Mass Shooting

Dana Hunter, , , , ,

Hiba Krisht posted a series on Facebook asking us not to ignore the part Islamic teachings on homosexuality played in the horrific shooting at the Pulse. LGBTQIA Muslims and ex-Muslims all too often get erased, their struggles ignored, as we try to counter Islamophobic bigotry. It’s important that we recognize the dangers and challenges they face, even as we rightly point out that Muslims at large shouldn’t be attacked for the actions of a few.

This is not impossible. We manage not to target Christians for bigotry even as we argue against toxic ideas and teachings within Christianity. Finding the way to thread this needle starts with listening to the voices of LGBTQIA Muslims and ex-Muslims.

Hiba has given me permssion to collect and post her series here. Please add her blog to your regular rotation. Continue reading “Islam’s Homophobic Teachings Cannot Be Ignored as a Factor in the Orlando Mass Shooting” →

Islam’s Homophobic Teachings Cannot Be Ignored as a Factor in the Orlando Mass Shooting

Supernatural S1 E8 Spork: “Bugs” – Worst Episode

Dana Hunter, , , ,

Because Zeroth is genius, he has expounded upon all of the things that are horribly wrong with “Bugs.” He has noticed patterns that I didn’t see, even.

We can learn something from dissecting what went wrong here.

So first, check out Dana’s excellent breakdown of the last time Supernatural was egregiously bad with cultural appropriation: “Wendigo”

Notice a pattern? Laziness. No research and no respect for NDN peoples and their cultures. Once you start with that attitude in one aspect of the writing, it can invade the rest quite easily. And that’s what happened here. A lackluster and frankly lazy script followed up by shoddy camera work and exploitative filming.

So let’s expound on what is lazy with the script.

But that’s not all! Continue reading “Supernatural S1 E8 Spork: “Bugs” – Worst Episode” →

Supernatural S1 E8 Spork: “Bugs” – Worst Episode

(Repost) Supernatural S1 E8 Summary: “Bugs”

Dana Hunter, , , ,

(Reposting due to social media sharing issues with the last one)

We’re not going to do a traditional summary for this episode, because both Zeroth and I can’t stand it. It’s one of the worst SPN episodes ever. I’d rather spend an afternoon with Gwyneth Paltrow learning how to steam my vagina than watch this episode again. At least then I could have a different reason for rolling my eyes until they sprain. And hey – Galadriel. I could tolerate steaming my intimate bits in exchange for an afternoon with Galadriel.

“Bugs” is a poorly-written, poorly-executed attempt to show us what evil lies in store when we trigger ancient Native American curses. And it could have been good: death by bugs is really gross and awful, and there’s a lot to say about the appalling way white people have and continue to treat indigenous folk. Instead, we get Continue reading “(Repost) Supernatural S1 E8 Summary: “Bugs”” →

(Repost) Supernatural S1 E8 Summary: “Bugs”

Supernatural S1 E8 Summary: “Bugs”

Dana Hunter, , , ,

We’re not going to do a traditional summary for this episode, because both Zeroth and I can’t stand it. It’s one of the worst SPN episodes ever. I’d rather spend an afternoon with Gwyneth Paltrow learning how to steam my vagina than watch this episode again. At least then I could have a different reason for rolling my eyes until they sprain. And hey – Galadriel. I could tolerate steaming my intimate bits in exchange for an afternoon with Galadriel.

“Bugs” is a poorly-written, poorly-executed attempt to show us what evil lies in store when we trigger ancient Native American curses. And it could have been good: death by bugs is really gross and awful, and there’s a lot to say about the appalling way white people have and continue to treat indigenous folk. Instead, we get Continue reading “Supernatural S1 E8 Summary: “Bugs”” →

Supernatural S1 E8 Summary: “Bugs”

(Repost) Teenagers Stampede to Avoid Marriage – Escape Chapter 4: “New Wife, New Mother”

Dana Hunter, , , , , , , , , , ,

This chapter of Escape is a welcome break from the last. It’s practically sunshine and puppies in comparison, although there’s still plenty to be horrified by.

Content note for forced marriage, sexual harassment, mentions of child abuse.

When you hear the words “new wife, new mother,” do you immediately think of a newlywed who’s just had her first child? Then you’re probably not FLDS. In this chapter title, Carolyn’s talking about her dad, Arthur, getting another wife, who will become Carolyn and her siblings’ new mother. Fortunately, the FLDS prophet has paired her dad with a woman everyone already likes: their mom’s niece Rosie.

Yep. Niece. Carolyn tells us that it’s “not at all unusual for sisters to be married to the same husband, and it was certainly not unusual for a niece to share a husband with her aunt.” Oof. We also learn that some men never get a second wife. Those who do generally wait 10-15 years after their first one. The more wives a man has, the more powerful he is.

Lovely. Continue reading “(Repost) Teenagers Stampede to Avoid Marriage – Escape Chapter 4: “New Wife, New Mother”” →

(Repost) Teenagers Stampede to Avoid Marriage – Escape Chapter 4: “New Wife, New Mother”