The "Save Yourself Survival and Tactical Gear Store" turns out to be the Shoot Yourself Survival and Tactical Gear Store. Plus: John Piper as the face of pro-life feminism; Jennifer LeClaire: sex-demon hunter and TV critic; and liking Batman for the wrong reasons. Read more
Nina Simone learned the song "Sinner Man" from her mother, who was a revivalist Methodist preacher. White revivalist preachers sang that song too, but even though most of the words were the same, the meaning was very different. Read more
"I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold." Read more
From GeekAesthete, an analogy explaining why "All lives matter" is a dishonest response. Samantha Allen on the fragility of conservative gender ideology. David Roberts picks 10 false statements from Carly Fiorina's cornucopia of climate lies. Margo Kaplan on the revealingly inconsistent regard for IVF. And Rebecca Traister on "The Big Secret of Abortion." Read more
I read Sarah Zagorski's article on Zachary King at LifeNew.com and I am, frankly, bored by Zack King. But I am fascinated by Zagorski, and by her bosses at LifeNews.com, and by the huge audience of "pro-lifers" who create the demand-driven market for clichéd con-men like Zack King. King is only telling Zagorski and her audience what they want to hear. And what they want to hear -- what they want, they desire, they wish for and hope for -- is a horror story. Read more
In the year 2000, about 30 percent of the world's population was under the age of 15. That's about 1.8 billion people. But Buck Williams, investigative journalist, doesn't notice that all the children vanished in the disappearances until Hattie points it out to him. Twice. Read more
Huge, if true: "Just after I turned 14, the coven members came to me and said that I was going to be involved in an abortion in about nine months. There was a sex party with all the male members between 12 and 15 and a female member over 18 and her purpose was to get pregnant, and then she was going to have an abortion in nine months.” Read more
I wouldn't guess that either Rubio or Huckabee -- or most of their fellow anti-abortion, "personhood begins at conception" proponents -- would want to extend this claim of full personhood and full citizenship to this unviable unborn twin. The problem, for them, is that they haven't got any clear rationale for exempting that fetus in fetu from the categorical, absolute claim they are making about human personhood from the moment of fertilization. Read more
I've updated the blogroll here. This is your chance to escape the tour bus and ditch the official itinerary. Explore. Click on old favorites you haven't visited in a while because the Facebook buses don't include them on the guided tour. Wander. Stray. Get out of line. Read more
Memes are made by fools like me, but only evolution can make a 9,500-year-old tree. Also: Franklin Graham, George Zimmerman, the Party of Calhoun, the mindset of the Class of 2019, and what does the USGS have against Oakland? Read more
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