Gun control is a hot topic right now. All sorts of opinions have gotten thrown around about it, all sorts of issues have been connected to it, and there’s a lot of emotion around it. But one thing that doesn’t seem to get addressed too often is the efficacy of the 2nd Amendment. Many gun control advocates say that they are afraid of the day when the government tries to impose some sort... »
Warning: some adult content. Someone on my facebook page recently posted this link to a counterpoint over all the flurry about how sexist and racist and generally horrible the Oscars were. The gist of the article is that the opening song “We Saw Your Boobs” is essentially right, because no matter how serious or good a film is that features a nude actress, all that men will see is that ... »
This week is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. The goal of NEDAwareness Week is to educate and increase understanding of eating disorders, as well as decrease stigma against them. I challenge each of you to educate yourselves about some new aspect of eating disorders this week, and if there’s something you’re curious about, then please ask in the comments. As you may remember we... »
Over at Pharyngula, PZ Myers recently wrote an article in which he suggested that we remove all religious studies classes from education, because it’s “useless, distracting, and narrow”. Now as a religious studies major and someone thinking of going on in a religious studies program, I got a little pissy about this. Now why, you may ask, would a staunch atheist such as myself be ... »
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year you will have noticed that Peter Jackson has released the first of his three Hobbit moves: ‘An Unexpected Journey’, which tells the tale that spawned the world of middle earth and a big surge of fandom that inspired generations of fantasy writers and nerds alike. There’s one thing that gets a lot of complaints about these books however, and ... »
There have been many, many blog articles written about the shootings in Connecticut, addressing all sorts of questions. However I’ve been deeply upset by a number of the ideas and thoughts expressed in my facebook feed and to my face about what this tragedy should teach us. “We need to deal with the problem of mental illness in this country” “He must have been crazy” “He definitely was menta... »
Christmas is filled with a lot of stuff. Literally – STUFF. People buy things for other people that the other people don’t want and people buy children so much crap yet the children still cry that they didn’t get the crap that they requested and adults just search for something (ANYTHING) to buy for that brother-in-law one sometimes cuts your lawn so you feel obligated to give hi... »
In the last post on this topic I covered three characters from the ‘Song of Ice & Fire’ series of books by George R. R. Martin (popularized by the brilliant Game of Thrones on HBO) and how their character arcs and personalities were affected by the patriarchy present in their fictional world (as well as its reflections on our own). This time I’ll focus on some of the more gla... »
