[links] Link salad has got computer, is tapping phone lines

[jaylake]

Mainspring, by Jay Lake - A mixed (at best) review, with some interesting observations.

One does not simply use iOS6 to walk into Mordor - Hahahah.

Things For Christians Not To Say To Someone Who Has Cancer - Yep. This. And frankly, speaking as an atheist, if God has anything whatsoever to do with my dancer, then He's a cruel manipulative

Comments

[andelku]

The contraception is a social ill is a load of utter crap. Why did you post it? What was interesting to you about it?

[jaylake]

I agree it was utter crap. What was interesting to me was the approach. Ie, not just screaming "evil ladyparts unauthorized sexytimes Bronze Age tribal law because God said so and He told me!"

That was sort of the equivalent of Creation science applied to women's health and sexuality.

[andelku]

Oh, okay, yeah that's totally what it was. ;)

But, the author's disclaimer aside, its not new. They've been doing this kind of things with the circles and graphs and the paragraphs on the back of each one blah blah blah since the 1980s.

[mcjulie]

The birth control thing was an interesting example of what passes for reasonable thought among conservatives (and economists) but it's riddled with unsupported underlying assumptions that ultimately render the whole thing nonsense -- a fancy economic-speak way of saying, essentially, "women give sex to get marriage, men give marriage to get sex -- but contraception messes that all up! And that's bad!"

The big glaring omission to me was the failure to acknowledge the emotional life partnership aspect of marriage. His view of marriage would *never* have couples who can't or don't wish to reproduce getting married -- and not because it's illegal (as in same sex marriage) but because they have no motivation to do so. And that is obviously ridiculous on the face of it.

Further evidence that you can't trust conservatives or economists when they theorize about human nature.