Weekend link dump for June 1

Neil Gaiman visits a refugee camp in Jordan. You should read about it.

On a completely not-coincidental note, there’s over $100 million lying idle in the campaign accounts of former members of Congress. You could feed a lot of refugees with that kind of money. I’m just saying.

“Let’s be real though, I have no idea if we’re doing the right thing. My younger boys are teenagers living at home, and the oldest is just about to blow this joint, so the jury’s still out. But I do hope that by regarding our children’s individuality and by allowing and engaging with them in the right-of-passage wrestling of souls, we are managing our family in a manner worthy of respect.”

RIP, Bunny Yeager, pinup model and best-known photographer of Bettie Page.

“It’s interesting that many evangelical groups are quick to break ties with anyone who does not believe that being gay is a sin, yet are cautious and claim that it’s not their right to “adjudicate” when it comes to sexual abuse of children.”

What TBogg says.

“The war against euphemism and cliché matters not because we can guarantee that eliminating them will help us speak nothing but the truth but, rather, because eliminating them from our language is an act of courage that helps us get just a little closer to the truth. Clear speech takes courage.”

The most horrifying wedding cake ever.

“Dating advice of the sort you find in Cosmo magazine and other women’s media usually starts from the premise that the advice-seeker has flaws that need to be fixed in order to make her more attractive. But pick-up artistry argues that men who can’t get laid are fine the way they are, and it’s women—the entire lot of them—who are broken. And that by accepting that women are the ones to blame here, the student of PUA can finally start getting the sex he feels entitled to.”

The kids are all right. And they very likely will continue to be.

“Bob Newhart is the rare straight man who gets laughs all on his own.”

“Cops carry around holstered guns all the time. Accidents happen; but it’s pretty rare to have something like this happen. It seems increasingly common, though, in the new open carry era where your average doofus decides it’s a hot idea to bring his loaded weapon to the local Walmart. So just what is the law and balance on negligence, aggravated derp and criminal responsibility?”

RIP, Seth Popper, Director of Labor Relations for The Broadway League and a high school classmate of mine. We weren’t friends but we had friends in common and took at least a couple of gym classes together. Condolences to family and friends.

“Earthing” is a load of crap.

Who needs Shark Week when you can have Sharknado Week?

“In any event, the legal tussle over the ONE TRUE HUMMUS rages on.”

The Reading Rainbow is coming back.

Turns out all those apocalyptic predictions about the imposition of clean air standards on power plants were a bunch of overblown hooey.

In fact, even the Chamber of Commerce’s own numbers show that we can achieve a lot of climate protection for a fairly low cost.

RIP, Maya Angelou, national treasure.

“There’s no evidence that countries that provide free or low-cost healthcare to their citizens, even those who provided it to all their citizens, end up spending more. Quite the contrary.”

Sixteen questions Edward Snowden wasn’t asked.

“It doesn’t look like Obama is doing much to move the country in a more liberal direction, but in his slow, methodical, pragmatic way, he’s doing just that. A lot of people might not know it, but they’re attracted by his no-drama approach to incremental social change. It frustrates those of us who want to see things change faster, but in the end, it might turn out to be pretty effective.”

When poorly conceived social media campaigns go horribly – and hilariously – wrong.

Related Posts:

This entry was posted in Blog stuff and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.