"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
Fighting for hearts and minds
Most times, we on the left can safely laugh off the manufactured controversies of our brothers and sisters on the right. We know they don’t really believe Barack and Hillary killed four Americans in Benghazi. We know they know allowing Medicare to cover end-of-live counseling isn’t “death panels.” We know and they know it’s just about scoring points. But we don’t […]
That’s my latest Facebook cover photo, which a friend (thank you, Pat Shields!) helped colorize in honor of Friday’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of marriage equality. After I put it up on my Facebook page, another friend told me she didn’t get it. What’s not to get? The right says everyone in favor of marriage […]
James Comey, the director of the FBI, says the murder of nine African-American churchgoers at a prayer meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, is not terrorism. His reasoning? Terrorism is act of violence done or threatens to in order to try to influence a public body or citizenry so it’s more of a political act and […]
Man. This church shooting in South Carolina. This white guy. Whose middle name is Storm (as in Stormtrooper or Stormfront?). Who sported an apartheid-era Rhodesian flag on his windbreaker. Who (but of course!) was given a gun for his 21st birthday. Pardon me if I roll my eyes the next time someone tells me everything’ll be […]
Whoa, two posts in one day. Guess I wasn’t done earlier. I’m back from my dry run at the museum. I borrowed the volunteer golf cart and drove the tram tour route, talking about all the aircraft I plan to cover on live tours with visitors once I certify. If anyone saw me putting around, gesticulating […]
The city of St Louis, Missouri integrated its public swimming pools in June, 1949. The experiment was short-lived. When I was five, my grandfather waded into a creek I was playing in and yanked me out. Some black kids my age had followed me into the water. “You’ll catch a disease,” he explained. This was in my home town […]
This showed up on the io9 website today: I’m suffering from cognitive dissonance, because io9’s choice of a graphic to accompany its story about women dominating the Nebulas is the cover of a Nebula-winning book written by a man, Jeff Vandermeer. Granted, the strongest and most well-drawn characters in Annihilation, as in Authority and Acceptance, the other books […]
This, from an article in the Columbia Daily Spectator: “During the week spent on Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses,’ the class was instructed to read the myths of Persephone and Daphne, both of which include vivid depictions of rape and sexual assault. As a survivor of sexual assault, the student described being triggered while reading such detailed accounts […]