So on FB I posted a question on my wall--"name me the last heroic fantasy you read where there were black people in it."

Ungrammatical, perhaps, but you know what I mean.

And the responses?  Sweet green-eyed bespectacled hermaphrodite Christ.

El Cid, for the love of God.  Because, you know, Moors.  Because Moors are North African ( Read more... )

Free birth control cuts abortion rate dramatically, study finds

In other news: Things that are dropped hit the ground.  100% of all people die.  Oswald acted alone.

I am amazed that this is even a thing.

And I know y'all have you hearts in the right place, but please, don't act all surprised that the most contentious and hardcore religious right folks ( Read more... )

So, noodling around on youtube looking for cool music this morning, I found Red Baraat.  On the NPR series "Tiny Desk Concerts."  Holy camolli, was I blown away--by their sound, by their energy--and these are some good looking guys, too. Really, really exciting and nourishing stuff.

Click to view

Watching them, I thought--"wow, they look like what I would hope ( Read more... )

I"m making an effort today to put aside all negativity, jealousy, fear, resentment, and other petty feelings.

Have a splendid Easter and revitalization of your year!

Click to view

Excellent essay in the NYT Sunday Review.  Thnanks to Bob Howe for sending it to me.

Rethinking His Religion
by Frank Bruni

Excerpt:

He saw cruelties born of the kind of bigotry that religion and false righteousness sometimes abet. A teenage girl he met was dying of sepsis from a female circumcision performed with a kitchen knife. He asked the male ( Read more... )

Some of my friends are atheists.  The Teen has decided she's an atheist.  My husband is an atheist.

I'm a Christian.

This makes me feel funny.

Not peculiar in the sense of "ew, icky atheists;"  but in the sense that I identify as a Christian?  Really?  I identify with the dominant religious group in this country?  WTF?

Kinda snuck up on me there....

But I am lucky; and for the grace of God, there I am.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2078622,00.html

"I hope that I will have the honor of marrying one of these girls," he said, as
Merhi treated an almost healed gunshot wound in al-Masry's upper right thigh. "I
know that these girls suffered, they were taken against their will. I don't ( Read more... )

A huge thanks to jimvanpelt for posting this. I'm spreading it. (You may have to scroll down a bit to see it; I don't know.)

Click to view

The Taliban vs. the Sufis.

Excerpt:
Most of us are perfectly capable of making distinctions within the Christian world. The fact that someone is a Boston Roman Catholic doesn’t mean he’s in league with Irish Republican Army bomb makers, just as not all Orthodox Christians have ties to Serbian war criminals or Southern Baptists to the murderers of ( Read more... )

I know some of you may have heard me mention this, but next week I'm going to observe Ramadan.

The reaction of most people who've heard me talk about this is WHY?

Which is a fair question. I'm not Muslim. I don't need to fast--my 1200 calorie a day diet is quite sufficient, thanks! (And for those of you who worry about me and that diet, please rest ( Read more... )