Dan Savage is Angry

And rightly so.

I really like his latest take on straight marriages.

How about it? Until gays are allowed to get married, nobody in a straight marriage is allowed to have gay sex. No more DL, no more "working late" at the bathhouse, no more consensual infidelities with members of the same sex. If you are queer, and live in a jurisdiction where you cannot marry a member of the same sex, you should refuse to have sex with any member of your sex who is in a straight marriage.

This is sort of like the idea that women who live in places where there are restrictions on abortion should simply stop having sex with men until they have the rights they need. I mean even taking into consideration the women whose male partners don't give them any choice in the matter, you'd still have a solid majority of straight/bi-and-partnered-with-a-woman men who aren't getting any. And that would sure as hell motivate them to vote pro-choice.

Of course, neither of these ideas would ever work, for the same reason that abstinence-only education will never work. But it's nice to dream.

Adventures in Reinventing Flatbread

So far, my adventures in reinventing flatbread have included:

- A dead sourdough starter
- Way too much whole-wheat flour
- A HOT blender (tip: don't use your blender to mill grain. Sometimes the internets lie)
- Leaving the yeast out of the pita recipe (steam-rising my eye!)
- Putting it back in the oven after dropping it on the floor
- The hottest damn oven I have ever used
- Excessive amount of aluminum foil

What have I learned?

Dense, unrisen, brown-edged flatbread is yummy, but proper sourdough and pitas with pockets would be yummier.

And 500F is really fucking hot.

Hold Your Nose with Your Left Hand

It'll leave the right one free for shaking Pat Robertson's.
Look, the guy's an asshole, a racist, a homophobe, a misogynist, and I have no intention of calling him a friend or even an ally generally, but we need him.

He has finally accepted the reality of global warming. His reason (it's been really fucking hot this summer) is as unscientific as they come, but people listen to him and we need him. I know, I know, fucking Pat Robertson, but we need him. People listen to him. He's enough of a bigot and a moron otherwise that people take him seriously, and if he starts supporting Kyoto, and encouraging Americans to reduce their CO2 outputs, and telling people to invest in renewable energy, it could make a huge difference.

Mourn your personal integrity later. Right now we have a planetary ecosystem to save.

Those Mean Ol' Homos

Just can't stop picking on the Christians.

clicky.

Cool!

Someone's reading my blog in Arabic!

I found this link in my site stats.

That's really neat. Google rocks.

I Knew Fundies Were Crazy

But this is laying it on a little thick.

Okay, I knew hell was all fire and gargoyles and agonized screaming, but did you know heaven was all bad techno music with worse dancing and ugly apartment blocks? Me neither.

Fundies are really fucking weird.
Also, they can't spell.

Hot Pasta Salad

This is a great recipe year-round, because it's flexible about what veggies you can put in it. It's simple to make and takes very little time. Here goes:

For two people you need:
1 tomato
1 leek (1 thing of leeks?)
2 in season veggies (I used 1 zucchini and a couple handfuls of mushrooms)
some goat cheese
coarse salt
enough pasta for two people (you want smallish pasta like macaroni or fusili)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 pot for pasta
1 cast-iron frying pan

You want to time things so that the pasta is ready just as the veggies are cooked. When you should start the pasta water depends on the size of your pot, the amount of water you're using, and which veggies you chose. I used a large saucepan, 2/3 full of water, and I started it just after I turned the heat on under the oil.

Pour your oil into the frying pan and turn the heat on low-medium. Slice all the white part of the leek into circles and toss it into the pan. You want the heat low enough that the leeks will turn transparent and sweet, not brown, even if you ignore them for a few minutes.
While the leeks are cooking, chop the other veggies into bite-sized pieces, stopping occasionally to flip the leek circles.
When the leeks are sufficiently done that all your veggies will finish at the same time, add the other veggies. Chop your tomato into bite sized pieces and reserve it. Saute all of the stuff in your pan, adding the pasta to the water when appropriate, until it's all cooked. If you've timed things right, the pasta should be done at approximately the same time.

Drain the pasta, but don't shake out too much of the water, and then add it to the frying pan. Dump the tomato on top, and add a sprinkle of course salt. Stir the whole mess around just until the salt is all dissolved, then turn the heat way down. (If you're using an electric stove, now would be a good time to turn the burner off, but leave the pan on the burner.) Let it sit in the pan for the time it takes you to crumble half the desired amounts of goat cheese into the bowls. Divide the pasta and veggies between the bowls, crumble the rest of the cheese on top, and stir to melt the cheese.

The noodles and veggies need to be quite hot to properly melt the cheese, so this is a dish you want to serve as soon as it is done.


A word on choosing your veggies:
Since salt is the only seasoning in this, you want to choose vegetables that can really hold their own, but are light enough not to bog down the dish, which is supposed to be light. I don't recommend green peppers, which are kind of blah when cooked, or any kind of fall or winter squash, which will overpower the dish in flavour, and be too heavy in texture. If you cook them only lightly, red, orange, or yellow peppers would probably be okay. I find mushrooms a really good choice because their juices tend to coat everything, which ensures that all your pasta will have some flavour, provided you stir sufficiently. To replace the zucchini, you can use asparagus, spinach, or pretty much any brassica (broccoli, cauliflower, red or green cabbage). Just make sure, if you use cauliflower especially, that it's fully cooked but not overdone. You can also use carrots, but if you do you'll want to put them in before the leeks. Carrots take a damn long time to cook.

cross-posted at Knife-Wielding Feminists.

Bestest. Website. Evar.

Finally, a community to call my own. A group of people who understand the pain and suffering of being me. A group of people who hate cilantro every bit as much as I do, and aren't afraid to show it.

Also, if anyone felt like contributing to my kitchen, an IHateCilantro.com mug or apron would not be amiss.

A Call to Arms

I've written previously about the American Religious Right's war on satire.

Before now, our enemies in the holy battle had as their primary weapon a tendency to act in such a dunderheaded way that no parody was possible that didn't run the risk of coming true. While this weapon was a potent one, to be sure, I was comforted by the fact that there was an obvious defense against it. If only we could give the enemy independent motivation to stop acting like Neanderthals, the war would be ours.

But now a new tactic has been developed, and I should have seen it coming, but I didn't. The enemy has started believing the satire that's written about them*. Now that the enemy sees our satirical accounts and true and reasonable characterizations of their thoughts and actions, I'm afraid the war has been lost. After all, convincing them to stop acting like Neanderthals was one thing. But convincing them to stop *thinking* like Neanderthals? I don't see a way out. I'm not yet ready to lay down arms, but winning this war is now going to take some serious out-of-the-box thinking.

Any ideas?

---

*Link via Pharyngula

Googlebombs Away!

There is a serious problem on the internets. When I google the word "abortion" the first hit is for an extremely creepy website, www.abortionfacts.com (these assholes get no link-love from me). Abortionfacts.com is creepy because it isn't immediately obvious what they're about, but 10 seconds of clicking and reading reveals them to be of the pregnancy crisis centre variety. A bunch of pretend-compassionate assholes who try their darnedest to deceive women who are pregnant and don't want to be out of getting abortions. These people are scary.

Unfortunately, the only way to get them off the front page is to get enforced childbirth supporters to stop linking to them, and we can't do that (at least not without some 1337 h4xx1n9 5k1llz, and certainly not legally). What we can do, however, is googlebomb something else so that these assholes are no longer the top hit.

I recommend the National Abortion Federation. They're already the second ghit, so we don't have far to go. It's real simple. All you gotta do is put a link to the National Abortion Federation, using the word abortion as the link (just like I've been doing here), on the front page of your blog or website. So, whaddaya say? Shall we bump these low down dirty deceivers off the top of the list?

Neglectful Blogger

And it's not going to get much better. Summer's just way to interesting to spend indoors rambling on the internets.

I do have a couple of announcements, however.

1) There is now a Canadian Hollaback site!! This is very exciting. They need as much publicity as possible, since they don't have any submissions yet, so if you're reading this and you have a blog of your very own, please make an announcement. HBCan is accepting submissions at hollabackcanada@gmail.com.

2) There's a new blog by and for pro-feminist men. It's pretty cool. I especially like this post of Dave's (who also has his own blog here). Be sure to read the comments thread.

Both these links will be going into the sidebar whenever I get around to it.

Already?

The 36th Skeptics' Circle is up.

The first post, by Skeptico, should be required reading for anyone who thinks "you never know, just because we can't see it doesn't mean there's nothing to this psi stuff."

Also, here is an excerpt from the Science Creative Quarterly's Creationist FAQ.

Q: Is there any other evidence for creationism besides the Bible?
A: Yes.

Q: Can you give us some?
A: Yes.

Q: Could you give us a specific example?
A: Yes.

Q: What would be a specific example of evidence for Creationism?
A: I’ve already answered that question.

Getting some serious deja vu here.

Oh. My. Bob.

So. There is now a video game out, by, as I understand it, the same nutbars who are behind the Left Behind book series. This exciting and terrifying game has players playing the role of Christians who are on a mission to turn the USA into a Christian theocracy. Their job is to convert as many as possible, and kill the rest.

How fun and exciting.

Now let's just step back a moment and imagine the outcry this game's creators would raise if an identical game had been made featuring Muslims instead of Christians.

All together now:
H-Y-P-Oh, forget it.

Assholes.

Better late than never

There's a new Skeptics' Circle up. My post I Think I Blew A Fuse is featured, and it's in embarrassingly good company. There's a lot of good reading in this circle (as usual).

Also, Vegankid has sent out a call for submissions for this month's Big Fat Carnival.

and dat's it-dat's all, as the francophones say.

Lovely

I'm glad Anigael's cat, Dylan, likes me. But I'd rather he didn't express it by dropping wet catfood at my bare feet first thing in the morning for me to step on.

Thanks, Dylan.

Ew.

Genius!

If the glasses I just found out I need were for all the time instead of just sometimes, I would totally consider this.

via PZMyers

I Think I Blew A Fuse

I've had a revelation and it's nearly caused me to give up my fight. In reading a comments thread over at Radaractive, I came across a comment that left me in stunned disbelief for hours. I realised the size of the gulf between people like me and people like him, and it almost made me cry.

In a context that clearly showed he thought this was cheating, Radar said this:

Hey, macro[evolutionist]s studied the rocks and fossils and then came up with a hypothesis that matched what they observed.

That's right. The fact that scientists studied the evidence before they came up with their hypotheses is here being presented as a bad thing. I have not the words.

Okay, maybe I do.

There is something very wrong with a society that can produce a vast number of educated, adult, contributing members of society who are so lacking in understanding about how science works. I would dismiss this as an isolated idiot, except I've seen similar things before. I've seen scientists being accused of "moving the goalposts" in arguments with creationists, because the hypotheses had changed in the time since the evolution/creation argument started. I've seen creationists take contradicting quotes from scientists as evidence that all scientists are wrong. I've seen creationists quoting Einstein or Newton to scientists as if the scientists would view their writings in the same way a creationist views the Bible. And seeing these things makes me want to cry. Seeing these otherwise intelligent people completely fail to grok science (and, indeed, skepticism in general) makes me despair for the future of my species.

Because, see, here's the thing. Science is about making testable hypotheses. Generally there is more than one hypothesis concerning a given phenomenon. It necessarily follows from this that there will be more hypotheses that are wrong than are right. And that's okay. Because that is how science works. When a scientist makes a hypothesis, she expects to be wrong. And when a hypothesis is disproved that is an exciting moment. It means there is more information to work with, and therefore more new and exciting ways in which to be wrong.* That's how science works.

That is not how religion works. If you could prove, to a fundamentalist's satisfaction (hey, I said "if"), that some part of the Bible was false, that fundamentalist would mourn.

On the other hand, there is a scientist, right now, trying to prove Einstein wrong. And it will be exciting if he succeeds. It will be a glorious moment for science.

The first (and tenth, and millionth) step to being right is to be wrong. Scientists know this. Skeptics know this. And for this we get accused of cheating. It makes me want to cry.


____________
*Hat tip EAC for the framing

Meaty Gender Post

Over at Pandagon, Amanda Marcotte has an excellent post about the gendered politics of eating meat.

While this idea isn't a new one to me, this is the first time that I've seen it explicitly stated. Up until now I only had it internalized, and a vague awareness of that internalization.

What I mean is that it's always surprised me when I find out that a man is vegetarian. The more manly and heterosexual that man is, the more surprising I find it (and the more effeminate the man is the less surprising I find it). I've been aware that it surprised me, and I've often wondered why that's the case, but I'd never consciously made the connection between eating meat and manliness.

Amanda does an excellent job of pointing that out, and of tying it in with other ways in which misogyny is used to market (self-)destructive products or behaviours (like newer, faster cars, and joining the army) to men*.

Not having a television, I'm generally not in a position to know what's going on in the world of TV marketing, but I have to say that Amanda's descriptions of the fast food commercials hardly surprised me.

____________
*Any commenters of the PHMTAIWJTFI variety will be spanked.

Question

Can anyone give me the etymology and correct use of the term "mark 1 eyeball"?

Thanks.

I Don't Mind

Being slightly-more-atheist-than-thou'ed by PZ Myers. Really I don't.

The Ardent Atheist The results are in, and it appears that you have scored 75%...

You are an atheist, pure and simple. You think God is just one big lie, and consider religious people to be both annoying and beneath you. Ardent atheists will argue tooth and claw for their position, and have no truck with people that won't listen. You think being an atheist is the only way to lead an honest life, and see no reason to accept the pleas of faith. Ardent atheists are the backbone of atheism. Be proud.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on pentagrams

Link: The Atheist Test written by chi_the_cynic on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test