How do I know he's a witch-hunter? He is dressed as one!

Oh, how like a slimer I am in aspect and in character! How viscous my thoughts, how stalker-like my attempts at forming them in context of evidence! I have committed a grievous sin, which I will admit here and hope for papal dispensation from the gatekeepers of intersectionality: I have looked at the Likes on a post on Facebook, on a post that I felt aggrieved people with whom I feel the need to side with in a particular fight.

Ophelia Benson, with whom I have stood shoulder and shoulder in a great many fights against awful human beings bent on destroying feminists for being feminists on the internet, has decreed that I am anathema, that I am like a slimepitter; I am a terrible person and very much creepy and stalkerish for my actions in deciding to disagree with her that the question of whether trans women are women is not an easy one and in my methodology in catching up in the matter. By my picking now, while she feels under assault, to disagree with her specific tack and her specific argumentation about trans women making awful terrible demands of her like asking yes/no questions for clarification, I am of course disingenuous, not legitimately asking but rather just trying to tear her down. I am “joining the mob”. And I am even indistinguishable — despite our history — from that mob.
Continue reading “How do I know he's a witch-hunter? He is dressed as one!”

How do I know he's a witch-hunter? He is dressed as one!
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Invisible Children #Kony2012 filmmaker detained for masturbating in public

No idea whether he was on something or had a nervous breakdown or what, but apparently this is, um, a bit out of character for Jason Russell. The San Diego police department has taken him to a medical facility after he apparently went something close to crazy in public. Specifically, via NBC:

Jason Russell, 33, was allegedly found masturbating in public, vandalizing cars and possibly under the influence of something, according to Lt. Andra Brown. He was detained at the intersection of Ingraham Street and Riviera Road.

Brown said Russell was acting very strange.

“Due to the nature of the detention, he was not arrested,” she said at a press conference. “During the evaluation we learned we probably needed to take him to a medical facility because of statements he was saying.”

Continue reading “Invisible Children #Kony2012 filmmaker detained for masturbating in public”

Invisible Children #Kony2012 filmmaker detained for masturbating in public

Gay marriage doesn’t threaten our marriage

I’m reblogging a post in full by an esteemed fellow Canuck, George Waye, who has asked for help in spreading the word on this laudable cause.

Photo of Derek and Tessie Forgie, holding a sign reading 'Gay marriage doesn't threaten our marriage.'
Derek and Tessie Forgie

I’d like you to meet Derek Forgie.  I’ve known Derek for almost twenty years- we were both involved in the arts community here in North Bay for many years before Derek moved down to Toronto in search of fame and fortune.  Well, mostly fame.

Derek is the most motivated guy I know.  When he wants to do something, he just does it.  When he moved to Toronto he started HSSE, Heterosexuals for Same Sex Equality, a group whose mission statement is to advocate for LGBT issues from a heterosexual angle- and to get the message out that human rights are everyone’s rights.

Continue reading “Gay marriage doesn’t threaten our marriage”

Gay marriage doesn’t threaten our marriage

The numbers don’t lie: as many long guns in Toronto as in rural areas

The impending destruction of the long gun registry has been touted by conservatives (and most especially conserva-bot sockpuppets) as being primarily intended as a sop to the rural voters who are “disproportionately affected” by the long gun registry is another demonstrable falsehood. As it turns out, there are 287,000 long guns in the Greater Toronto Area whose registration information will be bonfired when the Conservatives’ plan is carried out.

Most of the “nonrestricted” firearms registered within the GTA are in the possession of individuals — 263,000 guns — while a smaller number (nearly 24,000) are held by businesses (not including police agencies) or museums.

There are tens of thousands of urbanites — more than 85,000 — legally licensed to possess a gun in Toronto, a number that may include some police officers who possess personal firearms.

Continue reading “The numbers don’t lie: as many long guns in Toronto as in rural areas”

The numbers don’t lie: as many long guns in Toronto as in rural areas

How-to guide for male supremacists: give women acid baths

Via The Guardian (disturbing photos on the landing page):

Seventeen-year-old Neela Khatunis is one of more than 2,700 victims of acid attacks in Bangladesh over the past 10 years. ‘My husband was angry … because he claimed a dowry but my family couldn’t provide one,’ she says. ‘His plan was to sell me in Saudi Arabia – when I refused he threw acid on me then he fled’

Putting the headline image below the fold because, well, FUCK. More text, too.
Continue reading “How-to guide for male supremacists: give women acid baths”

How-to guide for male supremacists: give women acid baths

Christians laud Haitians’ godliness in face of all their oppression

Religious disaster relief: solar-powered audio Bibles.

Reader Michael Fisher passed along a post by Christian sociologist Margarita A. Mooney of Black, White and Grey (a Patheos blog) lauding Haitians for turning to God in their extreme suffering. It is apparently a repost from her post last Thanksgiving, and it seems to wholly miss the crux of the issue: that being, the more suffering there is, the more a country turns to God to ease that suffering because it seems to be their only recourse.

In other words, once earthly means of support have completely collapsed, you turn to supernatural means of support which probably do not exist, and will therefore probably not provide you a way out of the suffering you face. Religion is, after all, the sigh of oppressed people.
Continue reading “Christians laud Haitians’ godliness in face of all their oppression”

Christians laud Haitians’ godliness in face of all their oppression

Got a buck? Sponsor a rescue kitty!

My sister-in-law Teri, living in Georgia with her husband Shannon, has just rescued a ten-year-old cat she found near her place of employ. This kitty either ran away or was abandoned, was extremely sickly when Teri found her, and evidently has a lump on her thyroid.

Kitty Tapia. Yes, that's her name at the moment. Maybe send suggestions for a name, too!

Since Teri and Shannon have enormous hearts but only regular-sized wallets, the new cat’s vet bills are a bit onerous for them, and she put together a Facebook page and accompanying Fundrazr page to ask for help paying her vet bills.

So if you’ve got a spare dime, if you’re willing to downsize your Starbucks coffee from a Macro to a Normale (or whatever the hell the stupid size names are), throw it her way. Give this kitty a little comfort for her last few years.

Got a buck? Sponsor a rescue kitty!

Another thank-you note from Donors Choose

This one from Mr. Mulligan of Science Supplies to Engage and Amaze:

My project has been funded, and my students and I are all tremendously excited! With your support, we will be able to turn my class into a more engaging place, where the students will be able to get their hands on some of the more interesting labs, instead of them being done as a teacher demonstration. I am confident that this will increase interest, and thus understanding.

This funding has come right on time. Looking ahead at my lessons for the coming months, I will be able to use all of these materials in an exciting and appropriate way to fuel student learning and achievement. One more time, thanks so much!

With gratitude,
Mr. M

Another thank-you note from Donors Choose

Police in Oakland disperse crowd using a flashbang while they try to rescue Iraq vet

Way to go, you jackbooted thugs, you fascist assholes. I hope you feel really big now. These people were trying to rescue the 24 year old two-tour Iraq War veteran you just shot in the face with a tear gas canister — fracturing his damned skull, by the way — and you have the gall to toss a flashbang at their feet. The lack of empathy is staggering. I hope the 1% is willing to bring you into their ranks, because taking orders from them and oppressing peaceful protesters in such a violent manner is simple cowardice. Cowardice that should be rewarded monetarily, because you’re part of the very 99% whose throats you’re stomping otherwise.

Every protest that fights the establishment will have casualties. I hope this guy pulls through, because he’s given his body for his country three times over. It would be beyond sad if the assholes who took his life happened to be countrymen fighting for the rich.

Cuttlefish wrote a lullaby about these events. If I could find a tune, I’d use it to cry myself to sleep.

Police in Oakland disperse crowd using a flashbang while they try to rescue Iraq vet