These tweets by Gabe Ortiz express my sentiments nicely.Yes, I posted at least two links yesterday to stories about Josh Duggar, one of the sons of the ultra-rightwing family that are the “stars” of TLC’s 19 and Counting and his admission to the charges of molesting younger children when he was a teenager. Please note that most of my ire is at his parents, who covered it up for at least a year. And I say at least because they eventually asked a friend who was a state trooper to talk to Josh about his problem, and said friend didn’t do anything official with the news. The fact that the same trooper is now currently serving prison time for child molesting himself is a weird twist I may come back to.
The closest they came to not covering it up is three years later, when Josh was still a teen, and allegations from the victim that wasn’t one of his sisters came to light. By then, the statute of limitations had run out, and while authorities looked into the matter, there was nothing they could do. At that time, the family claimed that they had earlier sent Josh off to some kind of rehab. More recently, they have admitted that all they did was send him to live with a family friend for three months. There was no counseling or therapy involved. So, the parents and at least one state patrol officer knew about the problem, but didn’t report it. When other people learned about the problem, the parents lied about what steps they had taken to handle it.
Then there is the fact that grown-up Josh has been working for the Family Research Council where his official duties boiled down to saying awful, untrue things about gay and trans people, campaigning to take away our civil rights, and raising money to continue to keep us as second class citizens. So some people are experiencing a little bit of schadenfreude: Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged, Josh Duggar!
What I am doing is saying “I told you so.” Not that I predicted that Josh was a serial child molester, but I have said many times that the kind of counter-factual, sex-negative fanaticism practiced at least a little bit by most conservative “christians” (and is practiced in spades by the Duggar Cult) makes this sort of thing inevitable. The human sex drive is not an insignificant force, and you can’t dismiss it. If you refuse to teach children how to handle it when their hormones start flowing, foster an atmosphere where they are afraid to ask questions about it when they start feeling it, and otherwise teach them falsehoods about how it all works you wind up creating situations like that of Josh and his victims.
In other words, it isn’t ironic that this has happened, it is inevitable.
And then there is the disturbing lack of any mention about the harm to the victims. Josh was sent off to live with a family friend (did I mention that this family friend, like the state trooper, is also now in prison for molesting minors?), was covered up for, and prayed for. But were his victims offered counseling? Or were they told to praise the lord that it wasn’t worse? The Problem With the Duggar Sexual Assault Cover-Up Nobody’s Talking About.
Quadruplet clouded leopard cubs were born at Point Defiance zoo and aquarium in Tacoma, Washington (Photograph: Point Defiance Zoo/Facebook)It’s Friday! The fourth Friday in May. We have family flying in from out of town, and they want to do a whirlwind tourist-y tour of Seattle, so I’m going probably going to be off the grid until sometime next week.
Anyway, here is a collection of some of the things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared. Sorted into categories with headings so you can skip more easily:
The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous. “Its faith-based 12-step program dominates treatment in the United States. But researchers have debunked central tenets of AA doctrine and found dozens of other treatments more effective.” (Thanks to geojlc for the link!)
Screenshot from msnbc video.It’s Friday! The third Friday in May. My how the time files.
Anyway, here is a collection of some of the things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared. Sorted into categories with headings so you can skip more easily:
It’s Friday! Another not very pleasant week of work is very nearly over! Last weekend I had a fabulous date night with my very sexy husband, then we had a fun movie excursion with 8 of the coolest nerds in the Puget Sound, and then we had a great time journeying to the year 1877 and meddling with the Russo-Turkish War (though by this session of the game it was all down to treaty negotions and shopping trips). This weekend we’re gaming with other friends in a land of candy-colored ponies and cosmic forces no pony was meant to understand. Some months, the weekends are the only thing that make life bearable, no?
Anyway, here is a collection of some of the things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared. I’ve decided to do the links a little differently this time, and make it easier for people to skip the sorts of things they aren’t interested in. But first up, the silliest story of the week, perhaps of the entire year:
And a follow up about why I said what I meant and meant what I said and will not be lectured by people who don’t know the situation as well as I do: Adventures in being straightsplained.
“Vacation” Red Band Trailer – I’m not really interested in a sequel/reboot (the head of the family is supposed to be a grown up Rusty Griswald) but then I heard about the R-rated final bit in the trailer with Chris Hemsworth and decided I could at least watch the trailer:
Harlem United’s H.O.M.E Program Group taking a stand in front of the notorious Atlah church sign.It’s Friday! A grueling week of work is very nearly over! It’s the first Friday in May!!! And my husband and I have an awesome date night planned for tonight. Then tomorrow I and a bunch of my nerdiest friends are going to go see the new Avengers’ movie! Wicked, right?
Anyway, here is a collection of some of the things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:
Click to embiggen!There are a few stories I linked to yesterday (or in earlier Friday Links) that have had further developments. There are also a few stories I found after posting Friday Links that I would have included if I had seen them sooner.
First, I posted about the straight high school student who, when seeing that his best friend who happens to be gay was lamenting online about the fact that once again he’s on the planning committee for a dance, but he doesn’t have a date, got together with a couple of friends to make a big banner that said, “You’re hella gay, and I’m hella Str8, but you’re like my brother, so be my D8.” Here are some more pictures. I like this because, well, just think about how far things have come. It’s been pretty amazing that so many kids are out as queer in high schools, now. And it’s cool that most of them can go to prom without hassle from fellow students, or administrators threatening to expel them (only most, there were a few of the other kind in the news earlier in the month, alas). And it’s cool that openly lesbian, gay, and trans students have been elected Prom Kings and Queens.
Click to embiggen.But when a straight guy can do this, and nobody bats an eye (look at the grins on the faces of two of the kids taking pics/vids of Anthony and Jacob), where the straight guy doesn’t worry about what people will think… well, it’s even more amazing. And in a really good way.
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a virulent anti-gay group that has been losing, and losing, and losing and refusing to admit it, is hosting their third annual March For Marriage in Washington D.C. today. Two years ago they got 2000 people, but claimed to get 15,000 (and they photoshopped a picture of the crowd from President Obama’s inauguration into one of their pictures, posted it to the web, and tried to claim it was their rally). Last year they got far less than a thousand—and half the crowd were older ladies who spoke no English who were tricked into taking “a bus ride to see the monuments in Washington DC!” by an anti-gay New York state legislator; I’m not kidding, the ladies stood around confused until all the speeches the didn’t understand were over, then they didn’t march, the left to go look at monuments on their own! Even the most conservative news sites admitted the crowd was disappointingly small. I haven’t seen numbers, yet, but Jeremy Hooper from Good As You, posted (along with a link to their livestream) “Watch live at 11:30 ET: NOM’s hilariously out of touch (and likely final) #March4Marriage.”
I listened to one of the speakers while I was catching screen caps for the first update and writing part of this post, and it is definitely out of touch. The speaker was repeating their usual claim that activist judges have forces marriage equality on all 37 states that currently have it (completely ignoring four states where the voters approved marriage equality at the polls, and the several states who have approved it at the legislature). He doubled-down on that falsehood a minute later, repeating their lie that no marriage equality measure has been approved at the ballot box and that the vast majority of americans are opposed to “gay marriage.” They’re holding the rally on Saturday this year, instead of a weekday like before. And even more hilariously, instead of Tuesday, when the Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments on Marriage Equality. Everyone is assuming that they’re holding it today and not Tuesday because they might get a bigger crowd to show up on their side on a weekend when fewer of their base would have to take a day off work, and because it is pretty certain that the pro-equality side will have huge crowds on Tuesday. 5 Reasons NOM Will Need Much More Than A Prayer At The March For Marriage 2015.
In much, much happier news, Nation Public Radio reports Transgender Teen Wins Case To Wear Makeup In DMV Photo. When will these state officials realize that, if nothing else, it’s a violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection before the law to impose dress codes and so forth based on a person’s gender. In many ways, this isn’t even about the fact that she’s transgender. Insisting that because they believe she’s a guy, she can’t wear makeup for her photo? Anyway, I’ve glad Chase has won, and hope she looks better in her new driver’s license picture than most of us do.
Costa Rican Amphibian Research CentreIt’s Friday. April is nearly over! Now I’m starting to freak out just a bit about how fast the year is careening by!
Anyway, here is a collection of some of the things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:
In 2017, Norway will be first country to shut down FM radio. Analog radio is going away, which is why last week’s story about networks petitioning smart phone makes to turn on the FM chip in more phones is another example of skating to where the puck is…
This is Officer LuKe Wilson of the Toronto Police Department, taking part in Pink Day, a day to take a stand against transphobic and homophopic bullying. His story is in the links.It’s Friday. Is it really already the second Friday in April?
Anyway, here is a collection of some of the things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:
And Now, Political Virgins. “I’m working up to a point here. The nation is becoming more rational about gay sex and more irrational about heterosexual sex. Who would have thought?”
Font Folly 