Blog Archives
Jury cop out post
I have jury duty today, which means you get whatever I could toss together quickly last night. Since for me it’s “last night” right now as I write this, I’m having a little trouble with tenses.
Jen at Blag Hag is having her annual blog census this week. I took it, and was fascinated by the “Gender” question. It said “Check all that apply” and offered these options:
- Male
- Female
- Genderqueer
- Transgender
- Transsexual
- Agendered / Neutrois
To be honest, it makes me feel a little boring. Read the rest of this entry
Objecting to Science Education 2 (Religious Boogaloo?)
Ok, so we have creationists claiming that evolution is a lie and that their religion’s creation story is an accurate & factual account of the beginnings of life, the universe, and everything. Let’s talk a bit about some of the things that they do with this idea.
“Intellectual freedom” is a phrase found on many bills working their way through many state legislatures right now. Almost without exception, these bills are designed to either bring some form of creationism into classrooms or to muddy up science education by suggesting that evolution is somehow optional. (Evolution’s about as optional to biology as gravity is to physics.) The idea here is that teachers are having their freedom restricted by being expected to teach science in science classes.
I suppose in the strictest sense, that’s true. Teachers would have more freedom if they could teach anything they felt like without having to consider the truth or accuracy of their lessons. But I have trouble getting behind the idea of the freedom for state-sponsored institutions to lie to children. Read the rest of this entry
What’s up with NPR’s comments?
A friend sent me this NPR article about the origins of Valentine’s Day. Despite my usual love of history it didn’t strike me as especially interesting, I like my historical info much more in-depth. Preferably with citations. But then I looked at the comments.
Great Scott the comments are insane! People claiming the article slanders catholics, people bragging that NPR will soon be defunct, people howling that history wasn’t like that and in one memorably bizarre instance, someone claiming that the dark ages were the time before religion “stopped the heathen practices of their uncivilized, ancestors”. Exactly what that’s supposed to mean is unclear to me, but it sure was a strange thing to read. Read the rest of this entry
Traveling
At this time tomorrow I should be on a train approaching misty San Francisco Bay. Since I have lots to do to get ready for that, I’m not going to post much right now. I’ll try to have something more substantial up tonight if I can get everything done early enough. If not, well I’m sorry but this will just have to do for today. I’ll probably write tomorrow’s post on the train.
It’s a little sad that I’m so excited about this short trip. In days gone by I more than once left for other time zones on an hour’s notice, sometimes with no clue how I would get home. Once I called a friend who I heard was visiting a nearby area to ask for a ride back.
That’s all for now, though. Too many things to do to spend time reminiscing. Have a great day everyone.
Changing my mind
For a long time I’ve had the impression that the Girl Scouts were another organization that taught girls that they shouldn’t think much about anything but cooking & cleaning & having babies.
Clearly, I was wrong. Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen the Girl Scouts in the news several times and it seems more and more that they’re a much better organization than I thought. What’s really interesting is that part of the reason this came to my attention is people calling for a cookie boycott because their view of the GS is changing… in exactly the same way mine is.
One persons virtue is another’s vice. How interesting.
Anyways, in part to apologize for my misconception, but mostly because it’s a fine idea on its own merits, I’m going to promote one scout’s project, Rani’s Roses Against Racism.
You didn’t expect a long post after that 1100 word novel I posted yesterday, did you?
Insomnia for fun and profit!
Haven’t been able to sleep at all tonight (last night?) so this might be a little more surreal than usual. But I’m looking forward to shutting off the blog reminder the very first time I see it today.
First, this article by Joshua Holland responding to the Naomi Wolf Guardian piece I linked yesterday. I can’t do this subject justice right now, I don’t know enough off the top off my head and I’m too tired to trust myself researching both articles. I may post more about this later, but for now I wanted to put this opposing viewpoint link there in case I totally forget about this after I see a shiny object or something.
So let’s turn to something else. Stephen Fry tweets this link about a Catholic exorcist who says that Harry Potter and yoga are evil. Seriously. Read the rest of this entry
Should I try to schedule these?
Getting started on tomorrow’s daily post, and thinking about trying to put them up more or less on a set schedule. What’s a good time to read on of my posts every day? Late night? Early morning? Noon? Or just whenever I have one ready? One idea that appeals to me is to publish them at Midnight on the International Date Line, which I think is 5 in the morning here in California.
Anyways, sound off and let me know what you think!
The Adventures of Leo Tarvi 