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the_childthe_childActs of Whimsy (redux) — My own Act of Whimsy. Heh heh heh.
Paul Cornell on (among other things) the whole Acts of Whimsy thing
Jay Lake, separated at birth?
Eat Like a Mennonite — Living a plastic-free life.
The Antikythera Mechanism — One of my favorite antiquities.
Wanted: Surrogate for Neanderthal Baby — Wow. The ethical implications of this are mind boggling.
Barnacles Mate via "Spermcasting" — It can be hard to find a sexual partner when you are glued to a rock. Reminds me of my dating life in my teens and twenties. (Snurched from Daily Idioms, Annotated.)
Restricted Movie Review: The Matrix — Feminist Mormon Housewives on the rather famous movie. Sometimes as an atheist in a religiously-dominated culture, I feel like I've taken the blue pill. Religion practice viewed from the outside is very different from religious practiced viewed from the inside.
“Happy birthday, dead baby!” and other charming tactics from “pro-life” clinic protesters — But for me, the tactic that takes the prize was arranging for a children’s choir to serenade entering clinic patients with endless choruses of “Happy birthday, dead baby!” At least one of those on the receiving end of this stunt was a woman who arrived at the clinic because she had experienced an emotionally devastating miscarriage Mother of the Child required exactly that same procedure almost two decades ago. The perversions of the doctor-patient relationship perpetrated by the forced pregnancy movement made it very difficult for us to secure a DNC, because most hospitals wouldn't permit the procedure in their ORs for fear of protestors. That's when my opposition to the so-called "Right to Life" movement hardened from a general pro-choice philosophical conviction to a deeply personal understanding that anti-abortion activists will commit any evil, persecute any woman, in the name of their narrow, unscientific religious convictions. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
NRA lied: No armed guards at Obama girls’ school — Imagine that. Conservatives lying about something important. Unpossible! Everyone knows character counts! Of course, when your entire narrative is composed of counterfactual fantasies and self-valorizing paranoia, I guess lying is essential.
3 hurt in accidental shooting at N.C. gun show — Yep. We're definitely all much safer with more guns. Plus this: Five Injured In Accidental Gun Show Shootings On ‘Gun Appreciation Day’. Yep, responsible gun ownership for the win.
David Brooks now totally pathological — Moderate Republicanism is a tendency that increasingly defies ideological analysis and instead requires psychological analysis. The psychological mechanism is fairly obvious. The radicalization of the GOP has placed unbearable strain on those few moderates torn between their positions and their attachment to party.
Kansas GOP House Speaker ‘Prays’ That Obama’s ‘Children Be Fatherless And His Wife A Widow’ — Stay classy, conservative America. It's what you do best. (Note this is not some fringe figure, this is an senior elected GOP leader. A whole lot of people who consider themselves reasonable conservatives and resent being tarred with the crazy brush voted for this man. Which pretty much voids their self-image as reasonable and not part of the conservative crazy.)
White House Rejects Petitions to Secede, but Texans Fight On — As conservatives have said for years, America: love it or leave it. I guess the Right doesn't love their country any more. (Thanks to Dad.)
Unmerited Self-Congratulation Is a Recipe for Continued Republican Failure — If you were wondering when Republicans had started apologizing for their party’s flaws, you aren’t alone. The Republican Party has many afflictions and problems today, but a lack of triumphalism about its own virtues isn’t one of them. I believe you left out the word "smug", Mr. Larison.
?otD: How's things?
1/20/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hour (2,100 words on "Monsters in the Mountains at the Edge of the World" to 4,500 words and first draft complete)
Hours slept: 7.755 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: n/a (scale out of batteries!!!)
Number of FEMA troops on my block enforcing disability rights: 0
Currently reading: The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks