derivative work

“I’m pro-choice and I shoot back.” It’s not strictly true since I don’t own a gun. I love how Bill O’Reilly freely tosses around incendiary rhetoric (arguably, “inciting violence”) but is so incapable of taking responsibility or acknowledging his own words. Why is he a frickin’ pundit talking head if he thinks his words are [...]

Apparently, Dayton, Ohio, officials think that tossing pepper spray* into a mosque nursery, filled with infants and directly in the face of their ten-year-old babysitter, is nothing more than a random chance chemical irritant attack. Certainly not a hate crime. In fact, it was probably motivated by love — James Dobson-style “tough love” for those [...]

Source: More Clarity About Abuse, Intermarriage, Child Breeders, andthe Fundamentalist Churchof Later Day Saints, Sara Robinson, Orcinus, 2008/4/25 [Warren] Jeffs was convicted last year in Utah of forcing a 14-year-old girl into marriage with an older cousin. I’m sick of these quotes that just talk about “marriage” and accept the use of that word. If [...]

Just a list of links for the flurry of postings on this topic: * Bug Girls’ Blog, Weekly WTF: More threats by Creationists, 2007/7/12; related Pharyngula, 2007/7/11; Bug Girl’s blog, 2007/7/20 * Bug Girl’s Blog, Creationist Death Threats, Part 2 (2007/8/24) * Pharyngula, Another example of amoral religiosity, 2007/8/24 * Sunclipse, Creation, Power and Violence [...]

It’s a bit dicey to find anything funny in the sexual slavery / prostitution ring known as the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, aka, the Mormon child abuse cult). Bill Maher managed to do it by pointing out the discrepancy between society’s treatment of misbehavior by “cults” and misbehavior by “religions”. If you [...]

For the record, the menacing presence of very large german shepherds is not a plus at a train station. And when you hear their barks, whimpers, and howls nearby it makes you worry whether they’re attacking someone, upset or excited at someone’s lunch, etc. Word is they’re sniffing for bombs but I don’t think for [...]

I haven’t heard any recent updates about Fawza Falih Muhammad Ali, the woman sentenced to death for witchcraft. A Saudi Arabian court issued the death penalty in 2005 for a woman who allegedly made a man impotent, through witchcraft, among other sins. According to Human Rights Watch, she was beaten until she signed (by placing [...]

South African inventor Sonette Ehlers has developed the “rapex”, a barbed female condom aimed at discouraging rapists. A coordinator for Rape Crisis cautions that the device could backfire, and rapists in penile pain might respond with increased violence. Of course, Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash (1992) was all over this idea: his teenage protagonist wore [...]

I’m almost always infuriated when I hear about publicly licensed networks and stations refusing to air political ads. The latest: A media critique ad that aims to bring attention to the Darfur genocide. Be A Witness. Link from Ann Bartow @ sivacracy 8/25

This article is the first time I have seen NYT coverage of the missing women in the maquiladoras towns along the border — a rash of killings and disappearances that has affected literally hundreds of women, many of whom worked in US-owned factories. Searching the NYT archives since 1996 (“missing women maquiladoras”, “missing women Juarez”) [...]

jimmy swaggart boasts manfully that he would kill a queer who looked at him cross-eyed: I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry. [Swaggart laughs; audience laughs and applauds.] And I’m gonna be blunt and plain: if one ever looks at me like that, I’m gonna kill him and tell God [...]