moominmuppet

I've got a ridiculous backlog, so there'll probably be several linkety-linkety posts as I work my way through them.

Your definition of “anti-sex” is not like mine.

We'll Drink To That: Beer Was Invented By Women

Sexual Freedom Group Charges RNC With Hypocrisy -- that's about all I find worth saying about the bondage club RNC adventures, either.

Obama Signing Student Loan Reform In Virginia -- this makes me thoroughly happy, though.

Growth of Unpaid Internships May Be Illegal, Officials Say -- real internships can be valuable, but it's also worth noting that this really privileges people who are in a situation to be able to take an unpaid job. Those are not generally the folks most in need of extra privilege.

Anna Paquin announced that she is bisexual while taping a public service announcement for the True Colors Fund, an advocacy group dedicated to LGBT equality. -- Rock On, Anna!

Is a Biometric Identity Card the Key to Immigration Reform? -- I really friggin' hope not.

Geneva atom smasher sets collision record -- Hoorah!

Color me a bit confused. Did the same person who once wrote a book entitled The Neglected Voter: White Men and the Democratic Dilemma also just write an editorial entitled Note to Liberal Elite: It's Not About Race? -- Oh, Nate Silver, keep talking that mathy goodness!

Health-Care Reform More Popular After Passage than Before -- Not exactly shocking. Winning this, even as mediocre as it is in some ways, was essential for the politics, and for the chance to keep moving forward.

Census caught in anger toward Washington
Officials worry low response rate is a form of protest -- Way to keep yourself from being represented by your government officials.

Modern Slavery Museum Is an Eerie Reminder of How Little We've Progressed -- largely about agricultural slavery in the modern US.

Vanderboegh has a physical ailment, so instead of working, he's turned to the government to supply him with a modest income. Whether Vanderboegh appreciates the irony of a radical libertarian, who demands that a small government leave people alone, getting taxpayer-financed checks from the government not to work, is unclear. -- on Tea Partiers and cognitive dissonance.

Films like “Precious” present the stories of the poor and there is almost always transformation, realization, redemption, accompanied by moving theme music. Lives are changed in the span of two hours, usually through the intervention of a teacher, a social worker, one person who believes they can make a difference. I wanted to be that person. But reality is a much grimmer affair.

Despite the Maybelline close-ups, Allergan's new drug Lattise is not mascara, but a glaucoma drug repurposed as an eyelash grower. And its side-effects are frightening. -- Oh, yeah. So shocking. We've been mocking the ads in general horrified disbelief for months now.

Seven-months-pregnant Malaika Brooks suffered repeated 50,000 volt shocks for refusing to sign a speeding ticket, and a federal court of appeals ruled it justified. -- Is there anyone out there who still isn't disturbed and horrified by what's been happening with taser usage in recent years?

Breaking News! Appalachians Hail EPA's Great Victory for Clean Water Act and Justice -- This could spell the end for mountaintop removal; I've got all my digits crossed that it really does.

Are Americans as stupid as the Media Thinks we are? Maybe -- This is one of many reasons I would like to see elementary education placing primary focus on researching information and evaluating its accuracy/relevance. We need to be teaching our entire population how to handle the information onslaught created by the internet and frequently abused to mislead people. This means talking about citations, about peer review, about statistics and advertising/PR tactics. And it means doing it from an extremely young age, so it's an integral part of how they analyse the world around them.

Why Are We Afraid of Saying "Socialism"?
Knee-jerk reactions to words like "socialism" and "capitalism" get us nowhere. We need to first define the terms. -- How refreshingly sensible.

Far from being a war between hippies and police, the fight to legalize marijuana in California centers on whether decriminalizing cannabis can help fill the state's fiscal hole. -- Oh, I'm watching this one closely.

And this just in: Justice Stevens says he'll retire in Obama's term

As the Pentagon tries to move forward with studying the effects of repealing the ban on openly gay troops serving in the military, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is finding hurdles at almost every corner.

As part of that study, Gates asked for the opinions of gay troops. However under the current "don't ask, don't tell" law, gay troops cannot reveal their sexual orientation, and the law prevents the military from asking about it. -- Whoops. Well, what a tangled web we weave...

FAA to allow pilots to fly while on antidepressants -- I hadn't actually known this wasn't allowed, but I'm glad to see them catching up with the times.

North Koreans Use Cellphones to Bare Secrets -- things like this, and the remarkable use of cell phones during the Iranian uprising are large parts of what gives me hope for the future, and for the role technology can play in achieving greater freedoms.

Charmed Obsolescence -- oh, I have such an incredible weakness for these kinds of little historical details.

New Doctor Who stopped at Heathrow airport with sonic screwdriver -- Hee!

Former WCW/WWE wrestler Chris Kanyon dies of apparent suicide -- I just learned about this _as_ I was learning that he was the first of the pro wrestlers to come out as gay (although after he retired). What a sad thing to discover at the same time, when I was looking for context to post about Orlando Jordan. I don't follow wrestling at all, so I don't know all that much about context here, but I am pleased to hear that a bi character is being played by a bi man, and not a straight man. It gives me a bit less of a worry that it'll be played exclusively for laughs/humiliation.

The Sex Scholar
Decades before Kinsey, Stanford professor Clelia Mosher polled Victorian-era women on their bedroom behavior—then kept the startling results under wraps. -- Ooh, yay! She and her work are really fascinating, and I'm glad to see it written about.

Kal Penn’s reps confirm that the actor will leave his post as Barack Obama’s associate director of public engagement to return to his acting career. -- I have to admit to being deeply curious about his reason. Just time for another change or some extra income, or is this a disillusionment issue?

NEW ORLEANS -- Thousands of U.S. homes tainted by Chinese drywall should be gutted, according to new guidelines released Friday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The guidelines say electrical wiring, outlets, circuit breakers, fire alarm systems, carbon monoxide alarms, fire sprinklers, gas pipes and drywall need to be removed.