It’s already the third Friday of 2015! Have you stopped typing “2014” yet? I’ve been sick most of the week. Almost all of my time has gone to either sleeping or working. So you’ll notice that this week’s list of links is a bit shorter than usual.

Anyway, here is a collection of news and other things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:

Pastor’s Gay Brother ‘Frustrated That NPR Made This A News Story’.

Supreme Court faced gay rights decision in 1958 over ‘obscene’ magazine. A nice story of another mostly forgotten stepping stone in the gay rights movement.

Why it’s time to pull the plug on the worst awards show in Hollywood. “Broadcasting transphobia under the guise of punching up is still punching down.”

“Excommunicated Any Day”: The Real Reality Of ‘My Husband’s Not Gay’. “In reality, that choice has been dictated by the threat of being ostracized by their families, community and religion.”

Scenes from the Portland Counter-Protest That Drove Off the Westboro Baptist Church.

Dog sometimes hops on bus alone, gets off at Seattle dog park.

God, Gays and the Atlanta Fire Department.

What TLC doesn’t show on TV: Nearly 7 in 10 Mormon marriages between straight women, gay-leaning men end in divorce. Thanks to @seashellseller for the link!

What not to say to authors (and what to say instead).

132-year-old Winchester rifle found propped against desert tree in Nevada.

How secular family values stack up.

The Importance Of LGBT Visibility: Why I Want Everyone To Know I’m Gay. Awesome cartoon!

All The Little Things | Panti | TEDxDublin:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Nice Guys Finish First:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Patrick Roche – “21” (CUPSI 2014):

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Bright Light Bright Light – There Are No Miracles (Official Video):

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

It’s Friday! Already the second Friday in December. Only a few more to go and then there will be no more. Before we reach that point, Christmas day will be upon us, and I feel so unprepared!

Anyway, here is a collection of news and other things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:

Joyce Brabner’s ‘Second Avenue Caper: When Goodfellas, Divas, And Dealers Plotted Against The Plague’: Book Review.

Let’s Stop Making Jokes About Furries While Discussing That Recent Terrorist Attack on Furries.

“I won’t be a weapon anymore,” says former symbol of ex-gay movement.

Why Evangelical Christians Oppose Obamacare and Civil Rights.

The dangerous myth at the heart of conservative ideology.

FBI Understates Hate-Motivated Attacks on Transgender People.

Marriage equality in N.C. grows LGBT wedding professionals’ businesses.

Michigan House Passes Bill Allowing EMTs To Refuse Gay People.

2 Futures Can Explain Time’s Mysterious Past.

Gigantic Cambrian Shrimplike Creature Unearthed in Greenland.

Begun The Christmas Tree War Has. Fight over artificial vs cut live trees has been raging for over 100 years.

Obama’s Approval Rating Is in the Tank Because Americans Are Being Lied To.

Shonda Rhimes Delivered The Most Inspiring, Badass Speech. “How many women had to hit that glass before the first crack appeared?”

HARPERCOLLINS REFUSES TO PUBLISH BOOK UNTIL AUTHOR RENOUNCES GAY DAUGHTER.

Anti-gay N.C. church members indicted on felony kidnapping, assault of gay man.

Bobby Jindal’s Prayer Rally Materials Blame Gays & Legal Abortion For Hurricane Katrina.

Good riddance, Darrell Issa: A wasteful blowhard’s humiliating history.

After half a century of waiting – this gay couple were finally allowed to tie the knot.

Pastor Donnie Romero Says Gays Are ‘All Pedophiles’ Who Should Be ‘Put To Death’ (VIDEO).

Family Research Council Will Fix Constitutional Flaw That Allows Trans Americans Too Much Freedom.

I’m Still Bitter, Bill.

Becoming Willing to Tell Our (Tragically) Unflattering but Still (Super) Effective Stories of Trans Allyship.

Neil Gaiman recites Jabberwocky:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Carol of the Bells (for 12 cellos) – ThePianoGuys:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

The Couch Gag Before Christmas | THE SIMPSONS | ANIMATION on FOX:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

President Obama Hijacks The Colbert Report ‘I, Stephen Colbert, Have Never Cared for Our President’ – President Obama literally takes over Stephen’s job for a segment, and it’s awesome:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Mad Max: Fury Road – Official Theatrical Teaser Trailer [HD]:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Iron Sky The Coming Race Official Teaser Trailer 1 (2016) – Fantasy Movie HD:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

DANIEL J CARTIER “THIS CHRISTMAS (STAY)”:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

[Official Video] Winter Wonderland/Don’t Worry Be Happy – Pentatonix (ft Tori Kelly):

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Annie Lennox – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

It’s Friday! The third Friday in November! The year is running out fast.

This week… I don’t want to talk about this week. You don’t want to read my whining or griping about this week.

Anyway, here is a collection of news and other things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:

No Offense to Laura Ingalls Wilder.

A Dad Received Messages Of Support From Strangers After Accidentally Discovering His Son Was Gay. And then he explains how things went after…

Does Religion Cause More Harm than Good? Brits Say Yes. Here’s Why They May be Right. You can strike the word “may” from the headline…

Former “reparative therapy” leader John Smid marries same-sex partner.

Amazingly Detailed New Maps of Asteroid Vesta.

NOM CRATERS: Funding for Anti-LGBT National Organization For Marriage Drops by Over 50%. (And this is a big drop from last year’s big drop which was a dig drop from the year before…)

New subatomic particles predicted by Canadians found at CERN.

Photos: Incredible Near-Complete Stegosaurus Skeleton.

Mongoose Lookouts Carefully Weigh Risks (and Sing While They Do It).

Totally Insane! Buffalo Suburbs May Have Set a Record for 24-Hour Snowfall in a Populated Area.

Woman opens professional cuddling shop – gets 10,000 customers in first week.

STUDY FINDS STRAIGHT PEOPLE – AND EVEN MANY GAYS – ARE STILL ALARMINGLY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH SAME-SEX PDA.

This is why the iPhone 6 didn’t get a sapphire screen.

US Supreme Court refuses to block SC gay marriages.

Wingers Go Gandhi. Sort of.

WATCH URSULA K. LE GUIN’S AMAZING NBA ACCEPTANCE SPEECH.

Alas, it wasn’t all good news: Lemony Snicket Makes Series of Racist Jokes at National Book Awards.

13-Year-Old Comes Out To Best “Bro” On Instant Messenger, Melts The Internet’s Heart.

‘Darwin’s Dilemma’ May Finally Have Been Resolved.

For the Public Good: The Shameful History of Forced Sterilization in the U.S.

Why ‘Kidnapped For Christ’ Is The Most Faithful Film Of The Year.

Transgender Women In Ohio Are At The Heart Of A National Crisis.

A Texas Dad Remembers His Daughter on the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

This bizarre drone decomposes upon impact.

New Kirk Cameron Movie, ‘Saving Christmas,’ Finishes In 15th Place During First Weekend Of Release. So don’t believe those headlines at Breitbart or on Fox…

Are you participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)? Let’s be writing buddies!

Playtime with Pup 681:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Doctor Who Christmas Special Preview – BBC Children in Need 2014:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

[HOONIGAN] KEN BLOCK’S GYMKHANA SEVEN: WILD IN THE STREETS OF LOS ANGELES (the fact that I enjoyed watching is so much is probably a symptom of testosterone poisoning… just sayin’):

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here. And thanks to Cornwuff for the link!)

WATCH: University of Nottingham hockey team strip off against homophobia:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Motown legend Jimmy Ruffin, whose 1980 smash Hold On To My Love helped usher out an era of gay nightlife, has died at the age of 78: Jimmy Ruffin – Hold On To My Love (Studio, Top Of The Pops):

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here. Of course, you need to hear the Robbie Leslie Disconet remix at least once)

Alison Goldfrapp & John Grant ARE the new Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood! “Some Velvet Morning” 18/11/14:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here. If you aren’t aware of the bizarre single from 1967, this will make no sense to you.)

It’s Friday! The second Friday in November (even though tomorrow is the third Saturday, ooooooooooo)! The year is running out fast.

Last week I was worried about rain and flooding. This week, late-December/January type temperatures arrived a little early. One day my Seahawks stocking cap was too warm to keep on during the bus, the next day I was very, very glad that I’d put in the winter lining in the coat that morning, and wishing I had dug the scarf and gloves out of the bottom of the backpack before leaving the house. Weird!

Anyway, here is a collection of news and other things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:

The Sixth Stage of Grief Is Retro-computing: Networks Without Networks. This is a really beautiful piece that appears, at first glance, to be about computer nostalgia, and at second, to be about a relationship with an old friend who has passed, but while it covers both of those things, they aren’t want it’s about. It’s definitely worth reading the whole thing.

Intersexuality and God Through the Ages: The idea that intersexed bodies are “birth defects” is perpetuated by a lack of familiarity with intersexuality. But it wasn’t always this way. Name checks for both the greek god Hermophroditus and Hedwig and the Angry Inch…

10 Misconceptions Every Trans Ally Needs to Understand.

Breitbart Issues Best Correction Since Forever.

“It’s symbolic annihilation of history, and it’s done for a purpose. It really enforces white supremacy”: Edward Baptist on the lies we tell about slavery.

Comedy doesn’t belong to the a**holes anymore.

My Lesbian Mom Died Terrified of Going to Hell.

Mind-Blowing Fossil Preserves Tiny Horse Carrying Unborn Foal.

View of Comet from Lander During Descent. In case you haven’t already seen…

Mars and the Mind of Man: Carl Sagan, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke in Cosmic Conversation, 1971.

Pregnant Snake Prepares For Motherhood By Eating Toxic Toads.

How Animals Hacked The Rainbow And Got Stumped On Blue.

Imported Glass in Japanese Tomb Identified.

He’s Smart Enough to Land a Drone on a Comet, But the Naked-Lady Shirt?

Fascinating comparison of the top 10 causes of death in 1900 and 2010.

The truth about the dungeon master who disappeared in the steam tunnels.

Leonard Matlovich: The Gay Military Hero You’ve Probably Never Heard Of.

Rachel Maddow trolls anti-science Tea Party school board members in the best way possible.

Gay vets reach milestone in Boston, still struggle nationally.

My Last Words to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Tomas Young, an Iraq war vet turned anti-war activist, passed away this week in Seattle at the age of 34. Tomas enlisted in the Army just two days after the 9/11 attacks. Following his training at Ft. Hood, Texas he was deployed to Iraq and paralyzed after being shot through his spinal cord just five days into his first tour.

Controversial Texas Restaurant Becoming A ‘Highly Rated’ Gay Bar. This is a story from earlier in the year, but a friend sent me the link, this snippet: “She say she would never broadcast her personal life in public. ‘As one who has been married for 45 years to my husband, I don’t think that it’s my role to stand in the street corner and start talking about the style of private life my husband and I have.'”, and then this translation: “I would never broadcast my heterosexual personal life in public. I would never tell everyone how I have been heterosexually married for 45 heterosexual years to my heterosexual husband heterosexually.” And I had to share.

Carol Ann Susi, ‘Big Bang Theory’s Mrs. Wolowitz, Dead. (I’m old enough to remember her as Miss Marmelstein on the old Kolchak: the Nightstalker series…)

10 Times Mrs. Wolowitz Was The Best Part Of ‘The Big Bang Theory’.

Queer Geeks Unite At Bent-Con 2014: COSPLAY PHOTOS.

Writing, writing, don’t stop!.

Not forgotten.

Are you participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)? Let’s be writing buddies!

I Am Not – Brett Gleason (Official Video):

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Chicago zoo welcomes adorable rescued otter pup:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

[MUSIC VIDEO] “Darkest Magic” (Lo Pan feat. Jack Burton) by SuperVillains:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

xkdc live streamed the landing in cartoon, then animated it:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)