aesmael

Last week I had occasion a couple of times to be shelving and tidying near where a small group seemed to be studying medicine. As far as I could tell, this group was being led by a black man and something about his voice reminded me of the character Jar Jar Binks from the Star Wars prequels. I couldn't say in what way, as I can't think of any particular detail to pin that on.

I had known that that character was acted and voiced by a black man, but being reminded of the character 'out in the world' put me thinking about how that role was essentially caricaturing and putting up as comedy the speaking voice of many black men. It was not a wise design decision, I reckon.

Crossposts: http://aesmael.livejournal.com/672059.html

When your post was guest-posted at Womanist Musings I was sickened enough to want to stop following that blog for airing your views, for your paternalistic pre-emptive dismissal of anyone who might disagree with you as 'fun-fems' or male-identified, for the condescending superiority dripping from your every word. Your argument was barely comprehensible, but as near as I could make it out, is roughly 'If you contracted for sex in advance and were unable to fairly renegotiate or back out that would be rape, therefore all porn is objectively rape at all times and anyone who disagrees is unworthy of engagement because they've been patriarchally brainwashed'.

Okay, so I disagree that pornography (by which you apparently mean human-acted visual pornography) is innately rape (which does not mean I think it is never rape, or don't have strong issues with lots of it), find your arguments lacking, be sickened by your presentation, and get that out of my system by ranting to friends and lovers. Fine.

And then, this. ( Cut for intense transphobia and rape apologism from a feminist )

Current Mood: determined

This whitewashing thing, taking stories written by, featuring or about people of colour and twisting them, recasting so at minimum the heroes are replaced with white people and at maximum... well.

It is a pretty pervasive and appalling practice -- the link above is by no means exhaustive.

There are a couple of reasons commonly given to justify these practices. One is to claim it is not the fault of the company producing the work, they are merely doing what sells. Perhaps, but to say "We do this because racism is profitable" is far from what I would consider a laudable business practice, and it doesn't much help the argument that proper capitalism* would eschew oppression because it is economically disadvantageous, either.

Another is to say race doesn't matter, at least to them. Perhaps so, but if it really is the case then why is there a trend to recasting people of colour as white and not so much the other direction? Why change the settings of stories to be white and Anglo if this doesn't matter? And if it matters so little to the people making these things, then why not cater to the people for whom it does matter by leaving the stories, characters, settings, etc. intact? Really, if people don't care about race, then why keep replacing people of colour with white people?

Note: Originally posted at

feminist_rage

So we have a post at Bad Astronomy, where it is announced a new probe to Mars has been named Curiosity and that the name was bestowed by a sixth-grader named Clara Ma. Some of her essay was quoted:

Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone’s mind. It makes me get out of bed in the morning and wonder what surprises life will throw at me that day. Curiosity is such a powerful force. Without it, we wouldn’t be who we are today. […] Curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives. We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder. Sure, there are many risks and dangers, but despite that, we still continue to wonder and dream and create and hope. We have discovered so much about the world, but still so little. We will never know everything there is to know, but with our burning curiosity, we have learned so much.

What do we get? Some commenter complaining that "I for one am tired of this PC campaign with cutesy names for major important science missions. Jesus, I’m surprised she didn’t call it My Pretty Pony or Hanna Montana."

What? What can he* possibly draw from that to be called cutesy, to be saying apparently on no other basis than her age and gender that she is some frivolous airhead whose every contribution is automatically worthless? It doesn't seem to me to be from the name itself, or what she wrote in favour of it, so it sure looks like he is just expressing an opinion young girls are automatically worthless, attributing to them the most devalued interests and expressions he can think of.

Later on he attributes her selection to being Asian, so at least he is being efficiently bigotted? As we all know, 'political correctness' means we favour people on the basis of gender, ethnicity etc. first and only then consider if they personally have any merit, right? That belief so far is the only way I have been able to make sense of his claims, apparently that she was selected first and we just got, what, lucky that she hadn't picked the name My Pretty Pony? Am very skeptical this would have played out the same if she had been a boy, or had a perceived masculine name, since it is so much more acceptable for a boy to be thought of as holding serious interests.

Also v. unimpressed with all the people doubting she wrote that essay herself.

*self-titled as 'man' in naming, so I feel safe in attributing gender.

Edit: Now I want to scream. Am behind on my astronomical news, catching up on reading and now seen the news on two other sites which are getting the same criticism.

"At least it wasn't named Fluffy Miss Muffybunny..... (Note: NEVER give young girls unilateral naming power over anything other than rabbits or horses....)"

"So when is NASA going to stop letting little girls and fake talk show hosts name their spacecraft?

Now I am waiting for the Hanna Montana mission to Jupiter.

Or maybe the Jonas Brothers space probe to Venus."

What are these people THINKING? That she won the competition and then got to call it whatever she wanted? How does this make sense as a criticism of her being the person to name it otherwise? I just... it seems like all people are seeing is 'young girl names Mars rover' and their minds leap straight to 'frivolous', 'obsessive' and 'irritating'.

I just hope the awesomeness of the prize makes up to her for any flak she may cop personally. Well, that and that people would stop being oppressive, bigoted arseholes.

Current Mood: angry

We have a program here on Australian television called Border Security: Australia's Front Line. Rageworthy enough that it exists, focused on catering to white middle-class fear of shifty people of colour sneaking in to 'our' country for nefarious purposes, with a strong focus on 'gotcha' moments of heroically catching people out... and that the format was successfully sold to the United States. Oh, and that this is framed as the front line in some kind of war.

But the reason for posting here is the most recent advertisement I saw for it, suggesting there has been uncovered an ID irregularity in the documentation of a person entering the country. The question is asked in the ad "Is this Martha really an Arthur?" So apparently, apart from any other awkwardness, trans people travelling to or from Australia have to worry about being mocked and humiliated on national television for the entertainment of the pro-white segment of Australian society. I raged about this last time it happened too, so apparently it really is show policy to do this.

Current Mood: angry

Also a few minutes ago watching a different, non-Firefly related film, This Is England.

The subject being skinheads, it was a very tense and disquieting film with a little actual and a lot of implied or threatened violence. And this is a very short post, because what I really want to say is...

What struck me most about the film is how closely the skinhead rhetoric in the film matches mainstream media messages about race and immigration in at least Australia and I think probably other English speaking nations too. Stories on the news saying immigrants taking advantage of welfare, or talk of Asians taking jobs from hard-working 'Australians', colluding with each other in business. Or of Lebanese men as thugs and rapists... the only significant difference I saw between the skinheads portrayed in this film and mainstream media and culture is that the skinheads spoke with open intention of taking direct personal action about their rhetoric.

But the stories we tell ourselves in this white-dominated culture serve to suggest menace, danger from those who do not look like us. They refuse to learn our language. They take all the jobs, deal with each other, and keep the hard-working 'us' from catching a break in life. They are like animals, without respect for authority and after our women. These look like the stories people tell to justify and motivate racist violence because they are the stories people tell to justify and motivate racist violence. Or legislation.

These aren't secret thoughts whispered in hidden robed meetings. These are our cultural narratives, spoke openly, widely, absorbed. Default perspectives.

Two days ago, from when I begin typing these words, that was the declared Australia Day. I've not been enamoured of this day in celebration of white (our) colonisation, as I've not been of the United States' Thanksgiving, and felt no inclination to be celebrating it.

Prior to the day, suggestions of changing the date to something a bit less... blatantly colonialist were on my mind. It seemed a decent idea, though one I'd expect to get more resistance than support in the public or political eye.

And then we get this:

In the Sydney subrub of Manly, hundreds of youths draped in "Aussie pride" livery wore slogans declaring "f--k off we're full" as they smashed car windows and ran up the famous Corso targeting non-white shop keepers.

A 18-year-old Asian female in one of the cars was showered with shattered glass, giving her numerous cuts to her arms. She was treated on the scene by ambulance officers.

A taxi driven by a Sikh Indian was also targeted while an Asian shopkeeper was reportedly assaulted.

Groups of men jumped up on cars chanting race hate to the terrified passengers within, and were heard singing "tits out for the boys" at passing girls and yelled "lets go f--k with these Lebs".

What started as chants of "Aussie Aussie Aussie" at 1pm (AEDT) had in an hour had developed the potential to resemble Cronulla Beach in 2005.

And this:

"It was a mix of hoodlums who had obviously been drinking as well but, to me, there was also an underlying element of racism dressed up as nationalism," Dr Burridge, a senior lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney, said.

"When they were gathering on the [oceanside] beachfront, that's when they were screaming out 'If you're Aussie and you know it clap your hands' and 'If you're white and you know it clap your hands'."

Dr Burridge said an 18-year-old woman was traumatised when three teenagers jumped on the car she was in and smashed two windows.

The youths went on to jump over other cars and damage shop awnings as they ran through the area chanting "Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi" and "Aussie pride".

"When I was on the beach there was a bunch of them ... and these are teenagers -15, 16-year-olds - with slogans on their backs and postcodes with Penrith and Londonderry," she said.

And yet we get this sort of response:

But Commander Darcy from Manly Local Area Command said the group, most of whom were not from the area, were no worse than a rowdy "old cricket crowd".

"To suggest that there were racial overtones there is, I think, way over the top," he said.

"I personally gave them a good looking over, just assessing them. There was an intensity there that no doubt would be confronting to some but at that stage they hadn't crossed the threshold of criminality."

I'd point out that racist slurs are not exactly unknown in cricket, but that still seems a rather inappropriate comparison. Since I don't dare hope these reports to be false, I'll hope instead Commander Darcy was ignorant of the details at the time this statement was made, and / or quoted out of context. Not a hope I am confident of seeing borne out, but it would be nice.

To understate: I don't like this. Something, probably a whole lot of somethings, need(s) to be done. Australia Day, as it stands, I am inclined to think ought not continue. We might move it, we might attempt rebranding, but I think incidents like this are reflective of national identity and narrative and those need changing before any national symbol-day would cease to be associated with racist violence.

Personally I'm inclined to give up any sort of nationalist holiday, even one moved or under attempted rebranding. Might try establishing something new before phasing out the old to avoid association but I really am at a loss for devising some positive value celebration that would not readily be coopted for white nationalist violence.

Ah well. 'Tis always a long project, not a near future fix, and hopefully better minds than mine will conjure better ideas - I don't pretend to think I'd by myself overcome the world, not tonight.

Edit: I've missed a lot which ought have been said, concerning especially Indigenous issues, but though too weary now to form well my own words want not such to go without acknowledgement. So we reproduce as stand-in this comment here:

I don’t really think it’s appropriate to identify and celebrate another day, until we actually honestly address the problems that resulted from both colonisation and federation. The jingoistic blah that surrounds Australia Day offends me, but unless we partake in some genuinely honest self-appraisal as a nation, an alternative day will be just as bad.

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: nomusic

Avatar, that's a show I have been wanting to watch for a while now. Just lately

lost_angelwings has informed me a live action film is to be made from the series and, as appears to be something of a tradition, many of the characters have been cast as white in stark contrast to their original depiction.

So, um, yay? I have not even been paying attention or looking and I can name a few off-hand this has happened to, like Dragon Ball, Speed Racer and Earthsea, so it is not hard to see a trend. Because we all know white people need as many breaks as they can get in the film industry, right? If race does not matter there should have been no problem casting to match characters' original conception, surely not such a thorough problem unless we want to pretend white people are just plain better actors. And if it does matter, well, there's even less excuse then.

Icon (plus others) from here, thanks again to

lost_angelwings for the link.

Current Mood: pissed off
Current Music: nomusic

Who says there is no racism in Australia?

Current Mood: pissed off
Current Music: nomusic

As much as these public outbursts of white liberal racism in the wake of the recent US election are disgusting, I don't like better the recent Proposition 8 related shift to "Oh, it was just a right-wing misinformation campaign to sow division among their enemies; black people didn't really steal our rights after all."

Assuming for the moment the trumpeting of that falsehood were such an attempt, it wouldn't have worked if the queer rights movement were not thoroughly white and soaked in racism. If there had been more outreach all along, dialogue and inclusion with people of colour so it was allowed to be a movement of all queer persons and part of everyone's communities rather than by and for the white ones, who would have believed such a thing?

Blaming this recent exposure on conservative trickery is just another way to avoid dealing with it.

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: ABC Classic FM

Now for at least the next four years, whenever white people are disappointed in the US President, we can look forward to them saying "... and this is especially bad because he is black and should know better."

ETA 'white'

Current Mood: cynical

osakadensetsu brings to attention the recent gassing of Muslim children at a Ramadan service in Dayton, Ohio.

This sure looks like a hate crime, especially following the recent distribution of an anti-Islam DVD in newspapers, so why are police dismissing the possibility when no evidence for any other motive has been made known?

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Music: Seth Shostak - AWA: Seth's Basement August 27 2007

It's a funny thing being an immigrant. If you get a job you are awful for taking jobs away from fine, upstanding members of [nationality], but if you have no job you are a worthless drain on welfare sucking the system dry. If you are a person of colour you do not even have to be an immigrant.

Current Mood: annoyed

Again, not so much read. Didn't I used to read more? Most of it after the point I decided I was too tired to do anything productive but not yet willing to sleep. Eventually I worked out why: it is because I am doing other things with my time, often social things. If I spend a few hours on Skype with

soltice and

pazi_ashfeather, of course I am not going to doing quite so much reading in the day.

Cosmic Variance

Dark Matter and Fifth Forces [Unfortunately I know this stuff less well than I ever did, but still a moment of "Oh wow, that is really interesting" in reading.]

Google Reader Shared Items

Biodiesel Mythbuster 2.0: Twenty-Two Biodiesel Myths Dispelled [via soltice. Long, interesting. Not something I am really qualified to evaluate. Looks decent though.]
Electric Skateboard (Double Comic) [via gentle_gamer. skipped because I am not reading xkcd yet.]
Gibson intros SG Robot Guitar, new edition of Les Paul version [via soltice. My first thought was that this must be a guitar designed by William Gibson. I still do not know.]
What is the big deal about stuff white people like? [via gentle_gamer. When I started reading this I thought I would have some quick, possibly snarky thing to say in response, but it turned out to be a serious criticism of the blog, one that made a lot of sense to me. Oh, one thing to add. I am inclined to agree with the comments to this post that 'Stuff White People Like' is fairly conservative in outlook in cliche in line, but the way it is framed still does some good by jarring white people to take another look at their assumptions and culture. At least, it did for me the first time I encountered it.]
Video: Little Big Man - today is a good day to die [via soltice. A robot driving a robot. Sort of. But it tempts me to have thoughts about things so it must be art.]
Australian government wants power to snoop work e-mail, IMs [via soltice. Oh, those insidious terrorists.]
Toon: A Few Reasons Why (We Need a Transgender Rights Bill) [via gentle_gamer. Interesting. Not ever seen this site before. The rest of her work on the site seems pretty neat too.]
Libraries in crisis? [via soltice. Refers to here. Not so great news for someone hoping to work there next year. I am not convinced the writer of the article knows what ey is talking about though.]
Toon: The Joys of Tax Time! [via gentle_gamer. If this keeps up, I may subscribe myself. Or this is good too.]
Burning Car [via gentle_gamer. First thought: bored. On further examination, fascinated by the moments which might be so captured and their preservation marking dramatically the stilled moments of time marking the shifting sources of these images.]
Yuri's Planet [via gentle_gamer. Thought I had starred this for possible desktop use. Apparently not. Fixed now.]

ScienceDaily

solticepazi_ashfeatherLeishmaniasis Parasites Evade Death By Exploiting Immune Response To Sand Fly Bites [Sometimes I wonder what immune systems do when they are not being subverted. Sometimes.]

Current Mood: sad
Current Music: ABC Radio National - Science Show - 2007-09-29

In followup to this post it seems more than one author is requesting their stories be withdrawn from the site. In at least one case:

Sanders flounced off in a huff, stating that the story "never did make any sense" and that he only accepted it to "please those who admire your work"--what altruism!--"and also because (notorious bigot that I am) I was trying to get more work by non-Caucasian writers." If I were a writer currently submitting to Helix, I would kind of worry about that bit--all things considered, if a story really does suck, I'd rather have it rejected so I can fix it.

He then played psychic and claimed that I only asked for the story to be withdrawn "because, let's get real here, you feel the need to distance yourself from someone who is in disfavor with the kind of babbling PC waterheads whose good opinion is so important to you, and whom you seem to be trying to impress with this little grandstand play."

He closed with: "There was a suggestion I was going to make, but it is probably not physically practicable."

There is this too, although it seems the pages on the site itself have been taken down entirely now [Edit: Screencap available here].

This post suggests some interesting links between the behaviour of people called out on racism with stages of denial.

And I link to posts here and here because I like seeing people I respect (the others were previously unknown to me) not going along with this sort of thing.

And back to reading those latter three.

ETA: Ick, sexist too. Unsurprising by now.

Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: No Holly for Miss Quinn - Enya [Shepherd Moons]

Thanks to

lost_angelwings for pointing me to this post by Willow|Seeking Avalon.

It concerns a rejection letter sent by William Sanders of Helix, which reads as follows:

No, I'm sorry but I can't use this.

There's much to like. I'm impressed by your knowledge of the Q'uran and Islamic traditions. (Having spent a couple of years in the Middle East, I know something about these things.) You did a good job of exploring the worm-brained mentality of those people - at the end we still don't really understand it, but then no one from the civilized world ever can - and I was pleased to see that you didn't engage in the typical error of trying to make this evil bastard sympathetic, or give him human qualities.

However, as I say, I can't use it. Because Helix is a speculative fiction magazine, and this isn't speculative fiction.

Oh, you've tacked on some near-future elements at the end, but the future stuff isn't in any way necessary to the story; it isn't even connected with it in any causal way. True, the narrator seems to be saying that it was this incident which caused him to take up the jihad, but he's being mendacious (like all his kind, he's incapable of honesty); he was headed in that direction from the start, and if it hadn't been the encounter with the stripper it would have been something else.

Now if it could be shown that something in this incident showed him HOW the West could be overthrown, then perhaps the story would qualify as SF. That might have been interesting. As it is, though, no connection is shown and in fact we are never told just how this conquest - a highly improbable event, to say the least - came about.

There are some other problems with the story, but there's no point in going into them, because they don't really matter from my viewpoint. It's not speculative fiction and I can't use it in my magazine.

And I don't think you're going to sell it to any other genre magazine, for that reason - though you'd have a hard time anyway; most of the SF magazines are very leery of publishing anything that might offend the sheet heads. I think you might have a better chance with some non-genre publication. But I could be wrong.

Sorry.

William Sanders
Senior Editor
Helix

I did have Helix bookmarked as something to read, Suddenly the idea of reading, supporting, or contributing to anything associated with William Sanders is much less palatable.

And unsurprisingly he responds to the posting of this text with vicious and ablist language:

Son, hasn't anybody ever told you that public posting of a private email message is contrary to the rules both of accepted internet practice and common courtesy?

I do appreciate your efforts to be fair - certainly far more so than most of the other people in this ward, ah, group - but the fact remains that you've done something both socially and professionally unacceptable in posting it at all. So if you had any idea of submitting anything else to Helix, forget it. I won't work with people who pull this kind of shit.

I suppose this is what I get for trying to be a nice guy, and give you a little encouragement rather than the standard thanks-but-no-thanks form rejection. Silly me.

(I notice, too, the presence in the lynch mob of another person I've tried to help, and to whom I thought I'd been particularly kind. No good deed, etc.)

Of course none of these people have read the story, and so they fail to grasp the context - that I was talking not about Muslims, or Arabs, or Oompa Loompas or any other religious or ethnic group, but about terrorists and violent extremists. (That being, after all, what your story was about.)

But I don't feel any need to defend myself, or Helix, to these people; indeed I doubt that there's anybody outside their little Mutual Masturbation Society who gives a damn what they think about anything at all.

They are cordially invited to have intercourse with their precious selves. I'm sure most of them could use the practice.

That was in response to this explanation of the situation from the person who originally posted the letter, which I do not think mitigates it any:

You don't expect to get a rejection like this in your email inbox, that's for sure. I mean, I don't know him at all so I'm surprised that he would be so blatant about it. (I see that he's been referred to as William "Sheethead" Sanders on lj before...)

On the other hand, he was writing about a nasty character in my story, so I gave his email the benefit of the doubt and took it to be more character- or extremist-specific. He was also giving my story a lot of attention when he didn't have to look at it due to Helix' closed submissions policy. I usually don't try to argue with the editors for fear of getting blackballed, and it's his fiction site. I also don't want to be a nail in the coffin in one of the few professional-rate free-read SF markets out there. Plus, I think people can hold whacked-out opinions in some areas and be reasonably intelligent in others, or at least I hope they can...

'Tis a shame. I had been given to believe that Helix generally contains quality fiction by accomplished writers.

Current Mood: nervous
Current Music: Let It Be - The Beatles [1]

Yesterday I was walking back to my car and remembered a scene from a movie, in which a businessman has a cold. He is meeting with businessmen from Japan and refuses an offer of a shaken hand, citing "germs" as his reason. He then launches into a frantic, incoherent protest (really incoherent I think from memory, intent guessed from context) that he did not mean it like that, that he does not think Japanese people are diseased and please do not walk away from this deal.

It put me in mind of other portrayals of cross-cultural interactions in fiction, particularly in speculative fiction. It seems to me there is a pattern of portraying other cultures as demanding rigid adherence to their culture and rituals from outsiders. Generally in these stories the heroes (westerners/white people nearly without exception) must bow to such demands because other cultures are depicted as being unaccommodating of difference yet the heroes need something in the scene(s) in question and cannot risk angering them.

I noticed long ago and was bothered by the tendency to use parts of other cultures - real or imagined - as opportunities for jokes, yet only just now noticed that it is accompanied by a tendency to portray other cultures as intolerant of other ways of life, which the heroes must humour.

This entry is tricky to phrase. I do not want it to seem as though I am saying people must cater to the culture of interlopers, forgoing their own to accommodate others. What is bothering me is seeing Other cultures portrayed as taking advantage of opportunities to make the mainstream hero characters follow their way of life, needing to be placated with such actions and demanding accommodation from members of the mainstream while giving none in return.

What bothers me is not exactly anything I have described, but that the consistency of this portrayal seems rather xenophobic, that through the lens of these fictions groups other than the presumed audience are shown as having power and anger to be feared and forcing unwanted cultural concessions on the majority.

Perhaps I should not have said intolerant. It is seldom for an outsider to threaten the culture of the heroes even by so much as calling it into question - I do not think the your way/our way 'enlightening' exchanges count for that. It is more, this thing I am groping for how to say, that Western/white/U.S./whatever culture is portrayed as being forced to accommodate and other cultures as demanding accommodation, needing to be placated and, well, not being as understanding of difference or enlightened on such matters.

I do not feel confident at having articulated this well - it seemed so clear yesterday - hopefully discussion will help clarify thoughts.

Current Mood: frustrated

Because I did not turn it off after watching Moonlight three point five hours ago there is now one of those stupid late night quiz shows on (The Mint). I just came back from cleaning my teeth to see the male host prancing about in front of a mock-up of a vault in a brown afro wig saying "Shazam" a lot. Also some shaking of his butt at the camera. Apparently, judging by his and his co-hosts reactions, this was the most hilarious thing ever.

I try to be very cautious around matters of race because it is not something I feel at all confident on but it sure looked to me like a thoroughly awful spot of cross-racial drag.

Current Mood: blank

    I feel pleased about my sisters. We were watching television when one of those programs about the actions of border control/immigration officials in pursuing and capturing scary foreigners came on, and my oldest sister turned it off, saying it is racist. Which I agree with.

    Writing, well. Yesterday I wrote only 29 words of Discourteous Joe. Today I have written more and am not done yet. I also, when storm concerns prompted as total a disconnect from electricity as we could manage, added two new columns to my spreadsheet. One shows me the average number of words I have written daily for the month so far, the other tells me the average I must maintain to reach my target. No longer will I need to calculate these manually. Not that I ever calculated the former.

    I hope I can write the dragon story tonight. If it lets me. Other things to do first.

178 / 9,300
(1.0%)

Just one hundred more days at this rate.

Average so far: 89 words/day
Average to meet target: 314.55 words/day

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Love Me Do - Akira Yamaoka [iFuturelist]

Thanks to iGoogle, a quick sweep through the most recent entries in my feeds.

kimberella|Larvatus Prodeo in exile So much for the religious right [Family First made barely a blip in election; I think they were split with the Christian Democrats]
The Merchant of Menace|The Anti-Theist and Misoclere Society Blair Admits His Delusional Psychopathy [Faith is not a justification for anything to anyone but oneself. I do not agree with the characterisation of all religious believers as delusional or liars - I believe most are simply mistaken]
Heather Mallick|Comment is free Top quality sleaze [I know not what to make of this]
Autumn Sandeen|Pam's House Blend Beginning An Occasional Series On Hometown Activism [California Democratic Party adopts resolution supporting anti-discrimination legislation protecting transgender people]
ScienceWoman|On being a scientist and a woman Minnow 36: Old science project [Had not seen this blog before (I subscribed to the Scienceblogs Combined Feed once I realised I could not read all my subscriptions anyway. Looking forward to seeing more from her.]
David Michaels|The Pump Handle Money Changes Everything (Still More Evidence) [Links to this very interesting article on the influence of money on how doctors look at and frame the positive and negative features of drugs]
writerdd|Memoirs of a Skepchick Are ratings harmful? [I think they are pretty silly]
Tim Lambert|Deltoid Slap happy Overington [Australian journalist accused of slapping Labor candidate for Wentworth]
Ed Brayton|Dispatches From the Culture Wars Promote Peace, Get Harassed [Of all the responses to students wearing peace shirts and putting up posters, scrawling swastikas over them and wearing Confederate flags shirts in opposition is surely one of the worst]
Orac|Respectful Insolence Takin' care of business: A triple dose of...well, you don't want to know [Blog mascot picture post - man dressed as enema bottle]
Joseph j7uy5|Corpus Callosum Agomelatine: A New Approach For Depression [I often find this blog enlightening and interesting. This is not an exception.]
Austin Cline|About.com: Agnosticism/Atheism Mailbag: Purpose of Life [Go read. I tend to agree with Austin Cline. I did actually make that assumption - reincarnation is not out of line for Christians I have met. The rest I suppose flows from the language being used (English). Or, y'know, I could accept being mistaken.]
JP|SF Signal When Did Star Wars Jump The Shark? [Probably]
Jim Downey|Unscrewing the Inscrutable This is a remarkably bad idea [Just another day]
Ed Brayton|Dispatches From the Culture Wars Heisman Trophy: Tim Tebow [Not something I know or care about]
Ed Brayton|Dispatches From the Culture Wars Scalia Hires Two Orthodox Jewish clerks [The comments are... interesting]
Ed Brayton|Dispatches From the Culture Wars Michigan Protects Transgendered State Employees [I am slightly less pleased after rereading and seeing it is only state employees and not everyone working in the state{1}]
Abel Pharmboy|Terra Sigillata Docs as drug reps: a physician's inside story [Another (longer) take on the story linked at item #6]
PZ Myers|Pharyngula Faith is not a prerequisite for science [Paul Davies gets on my nerves too. PZ Myers does not. Blake Stacey, also awesome.]

{1} It often annoys me seeing trans women described as ladies. I get the impression there are not many women these days who enjoy being called 'ladies' these days and it strikes me as patronising, as in "Ladies, ladies, calm down". *shrug*

Current Mood: sleepy

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aesmael

May 2022

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Page generated 2025-07-25 05:44

Entries tagged with racism

Of backlog

This is like some kind of hat trick of fail

Things not mattering

Because young girls are all frivolous and fluffy, right?

...

More movies

Australia Day

Racist casting strikes again

Well then

(no subject)

Sigh

Isn't this wonderful?

(no subject)

Connexions 20080819

Helix again

So that's off my list...

Noticed 'superiority'?

not blinking now

Writing and Not Watching

Pretending to be informed