It’s Friday! Under our original plans for the year, we were meant to be attending NorWesCon with a bunch of friends. But we put down a deposit on a new apartment a few days ago, and we’re scheduled to sign the lease on the day Friday Links posts, and we would like to start moving in to the new place. Earlier in the week, when we were still waiting to hear whether we would get this place, we decided that if we did get it, we didn’t want to have to leave the con and drive back to Seattle and then out the other side of Seattle to the neighboring community where the new apartment is just to sign papers and not start moving. And if this somehow fell through, then we needed to spend these days of paid time off I already had scheduled at work scrambling to sign one of the other places we’d looked at or a new place altogether.

Because we have so, so much stuff packed into our current living space, despite the fact that there are piles of packed boxes taller than me in most of the rooms, there is still a lot of packing to do. Which will be easier to do if we get some of this stuff moved this weekend to make room to pack in.

Anyway, here are the links I found interesting this week, sorted into categories.

Links of the Week

Get Out Perfectly Captures the Terrifying Truth About White Women.

Beverly Cleary, Author of Ramona the Pest, Turned 101 Years Old This Week.

Crucified man had prior run-in with authorities.

Say no to Christian seders.

This Week in Restoring Our Faith in Humanity

Ludhiana man thwarts robbery bid in Jammu Mail, rescues 3 women.

This week in the war on trans people

Anti-transgender bathroom legislation has been filed in 15 states so far, but it’s only a coincidence that all 15 bills contain the same typo.

MINNESOTA: Hate Group Drops Lawsuit Seeking To Bar Transgender Students From School Locker Rooms.

Beyond the bathroom: Report shows laws’ harm for transgender students.

This week in international hate crimes

Chechnya detains 100 gay men in first concentration camps since the Holocaust.

Chechnya has opened concentration camps for gay men.

CHECHNYA: STOP ABDUCTING AND KILLING GAY MEN.

This week in the World

Russian ‘Open Skies’ spy plane flew over the US.

The United States Just Dropped a 21,600-Pound Bomb In Afghanistan. “That bomb cannot be targeted, it cannot be proportional and it cannot but kill civilians.”

UK Foreign Secretary condemns alleged detentions of gay men in Chechnya.

This week in awful news

United Video and San Bernadino Shooting Made for a Violent Day in America.

News for queers and our allies:

Why It Took Barry Manilow So Long to Come Out. “When someone in their 70s comes out as gay, especially a famous someone like singer Barry Manilow, the first question is always, what took so long? But there are very good reasons.”

Republican bill that would have banned marriage equality in North Carolina is DOA.

Nebraska Supreme Court: Ban on Gay Foster Parents Is Indistinguishable From a “Whites Only” Sign.

Science!

Newfound Tusk Belonged to One of the Last Surviving Mammoths in Alaska.

The Art of Plasma at Museum of Neon Art.

Are These Trilobite Eggs? Mystery of trilobite reproduction may at last be solved

Science Proves Trans People Aren’t Making It Up.

Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculation!

Creatyvebooks: 7 THINGS I HATE ABOUT FANTASY.

Why clipping.’s Hugo Nomination Matters for Music in Science Fiction.

TOP 5 DEAD OR ALIVE: EARTHA KITT (CATWOMAN).

Why You Should Read Romance.

FRESHLY REMEMBER’D: KIRK DRIFT.

GUEST OF HONOR MONICA VALENTINELLI WITHDRAWS FROM ODYSSEY CON AS ‘KNOWN HARASSER’ IS ON EVENT’S STAFF.

In which Mary takes off her gloves and discusses the OdysseyCon fuck-up.

Cons Need to Stop Using the “We’re Just Fans” Defense When Things Go Terribly Wrong.

OdysseyCon and Why Serial Harassers Are Safe In Our Community.

Rocky Mountain Fur Con canceled following neo-Nazi associations, tax irregularities. And don’t forget, sending threatening letter to a fan!

THE BIZARRE FALL OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN FUR CON. Best line, regarding the Furry Raiders: “So yeah, they say they’re not Nazis, but they’re totally Nazis.”

And an actual lawyer who had not connection to the fandom weighed in hilariously: Free Furry of The Land: When Sovereign Citizens and Furries Collide.

The Fallacy of Agency: on Power, Community, and Erasure.

Things that are technically “Addams Family” canon whether we like it or not.

And even more reactions to the 2017 Hugo Finalists.

This week in Topics Most People Can’t Be Rational About

NRA employee shoots himself by mistake during firearms training at the NRA’s headquarters.

Culture war news:

5 Fast Facts You Need to Know About Kenneth Adkins, Anti-gay pastor who said Pulse victims ‘deserved’ massacre and has now been found guilty of 8 counts of child molestation.

Kevin Swanson: Pastors Who Have Gay Children Must Resign.

This Law Firm Is Linked to Anti-Transgender Bathroom Bills Across the Country.

What Do We Know About the Top Ten Challenged Books of 2016?

VIRGINIA: State Supreme Court Rejects Hate Group’s Attempt Overturn School District’s LGBT Protections.

NORTH CAROLINA: GOP Rep Melts Down Over Blocking Of Marriage Ban, Compares Abraham Lincoln To Hitler.

This Week in the Resistance:

The big civil rights protest in Dallas that you missed over the weekend.

This week in so-called Christians

Anti-gay pastor who cheered Orlando nightclub massacre found guilty of child molestation.

Alabama Governor Resigns After Allegations He Used State Money To Cover Up Love Affair.

Bigoted Christians Are the Most Special Snowflakes.

This Week Regarding the Lying Liar:

Robert Reich: There are at least four grounds to impeach Trump.

One Missile Strike Does Not a Syria Strategy Make.

Chinese media: Trump ordered strike to overcome accusations that he was pro-Russia.

Trump Admits Health Care Cuts Needed For Tax Cuts To Billionaires.

Donald Trump’s Six Flip-Flop Wednesday – It was a bad day for Trump campaign positions. NATO? Not ‘obsolete.’ China? ‘Not currency manipulators.’ Janet Yellen? ‘I like her.’.

The Sessions speech at the border and the leaked DHS plan make it clear: the nativists are going for broke.

Donald Trump Says He Didn’t Realize North Korean Diplomacy “Isn’t So Easy”.

The U.S. Military Just Dropped the Largest Nonnuclear Bomb in Its Arsenal on Afghanistan.

News about the Fascist Regime:

Is Trump gonna ax Bannon and Priebus?

A Battle Between Nepotism and Nationalism. Stephen Bannon’s right-wing populist project is at odds with the interests of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

Twitter Drops Lawsuit Against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection – Because the government backed down on its summons requesting information about an anti-Trump account.

State Dept. mum on gay ‘concentration camps’ in Chechnya.

Jeff Sessions’ prepared speech at the border referred to immigrants as ‘filth’.

FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page.

This week in Politics:

Mitch McConnell, the man who broke America.

Alabama governor resigns after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges.

How Alabama’s ‘Luv Guv’ Broke New Ground in a Scandal-Plagued State.

This Week in Racists, White Nationalists, and the deplorables

Why Trumpian Conspiracy Theories And Anti-Semitism Are Intimately Connected.

Who Needs Alt-Right Conspiracy Theories About Jews When You Have Politico? Politico has written an indictment of an entire sect of Judaism, getting basic facts wrong and making wild implications about a Jewish conspiracy in Russia tied to the Trump family.

Charleston Church Shooter Dylann Roof Pleads Guilty to 9 State Murder Counts. The 23-year-old white supremacist already received a federal death sentence earlier this year for killing black churchgoers in hate crime.

Trump faces ‘open warfare’ with Breitbart if Bannon is fired, says former executive of the far-right website.

This Week in Hate Crimes

Pulse shooter’s wife pleads not guilty to federal charges.

Farewells:

Dancer-actress, ‘Laugh-In’ regular Chelsea Brown has died. (She also played Rosie Gier’s girlfriend in the movie _The Thing with Two Heads_)

Dorothy Mengering, David Letterman’s Mother, Dead at 95. “Dave’s Mom” was a ‘Late Show’ fixture, appearing in cooking segments, “Guess the Pie” and as Winter Olympics correspondent

J. Geils, Longtime Leader of The J. Geils Band, Dies at 71.

Things I wrote:

Weekend Update 4/8/2017: Show of farce, anti-gay judge, and clowns.

Confessions of a guy who cries….

Confessions of a guy who likes the rain.

Videos!

The Try Guys Wear Boob Weights For A Day:

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THOR RAGNAROK Trailer (2017) Marvel:

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Bohemian Rhapsody – Pentatonix [OFFICIAL VIDEO]:

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Trey Pearson – Silver Horizon (Official Video):

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