- Breast ironing: today in depressing – A report on the tradition of breast ironing in Cameroon, which is performed on girls to halt breast growth and keep them from attracting male attention. From ZenMonkey.
- Super heroes vs. the Westboro Baptist Church – “What do we want?” “Gay sex!” “When do we want it?” “Now!” is the best protest chant EVER. From Kimberly Champman.
- Do Christians interfere with your ability to buy beer? – A topic dear to my heart, having lived in two states with inane blue laws.
- Creepy “human fish” can live for 100 years – “Olms can live for 100 years, far longer than any other amphibian. Scientists have no idea why.”
- Cute Animal Friday! I love hyraxes, they look like something out of Star Wars. Baaaaaby praying mantises!
Re: Comic-con: OH! There’s a guy hold a “Magnets? How do they @#!$% Work?'” sign!
Re ironing – I had no idea that was even out there. Man.
@ skept & u can’t see it in those pictures, but I saw another picture of that same protest with an even better sign: “Jesus was nailed to the cross, Thor has a hammer.”
Blech now I’m going to think of that salamander every time I think about my “inner fish.”
& thx for adorable mantises <3
@Skept-artist:
That one cracked me up, too.
On the dry counties – I know so many of my Southern friends who have either had to fight their own parents or prospective in-laws about the presence of alcohol at their weddings. Solutions have been guests have stayed across county lines and people congregate there post reception, bars across the hall from reception rooms, or cash bars.
The inane thing is, it’s not even that people wanted to get trashed – mostly people just wanted to raise a glass of champagne to the bride and groom or have a glass of wine with the meal. Ridonkulous.
While I question their appeal to higher power, those mantis babys sure are cute.
Blue laws, the bane of my existence . . . OK, one of the banes of my existence.
I didn’t realize how much I hated them until I moved to Chicago (from Georgia) where I could walk into a CVS on a Sunday and buy liquor. I now live in Georgia again, and the good news is that the state legislature has been trying to pass a bill to allow Sunday alcohol sales.
I should note that you can buy alcohol at restaurants and bars in some counties 7-days a week, just not from liquor stores or whatnot.
Anyway, even if a bill passes, the tea-tottling governor has vowed to veto it. He has said that no Sunday sales encourages people to plan ahead. This is an election year for governor, so hopefully his replacement won’t be as bad. I’m not getting my hopes up, though.
OMFSM I laughed so hard at the comic-com protest. I wish I could have been there. WBC will protest anything for a bit of media attention won’t they?
I can’t even bring myself to *try* to watch that video…
When I opened to page of baby mantises, I actually said, out loud, “Shut up!” Wow. I need to sleep more.
@Skept-artist: That was my favorite sign as well. I also liked that random Bender was there for no clear reason (well, ok, cosplay was a clear reason, but there were not a lot of others in costume, so it stood out). It would have been even better if he was wearing his “Gender Bender” tutu.
We moved from Washington State to Northern NY a few years ago. We have been shocked at how backward this state is — I mean, this is New York! Grocery stores full of cold beer, yet they cannot sell the excellent wine produced here.
I am a Special Education Teacher, and I have been repeatedly surprised by the lack of separation between public and religious schooling here. Nobody here thinks anything about it, “of course school buses take kids to religion classes”. It is natural to send public school specialists into religious schools.
Maybe this is more of an East West thing than a North South thing.
@Tervuren: Wow! I moved from Olympia, WA to northern NY about 8 years ago, and I had a similar reaction. The first time I went grocery shopping on a Sunday morning and was told I couldn’t by beer until noon, I was so shocked and irritated that the following Sunday I woke up early and the first thing I did was open a beer and drink it as an act of protest. It sounds silly, I know, and accomplished nothing, but it made me feel a little better. And a lot drunker.
BLUE LAWS. How I loathe thee! In my town in Florida you can’t buy booze on a Sunday and can only get beer after 1pm, which is an eternity if you work your tail off all week (including Saturday) and want to get started early (like 6am). And it never fails. No matter how well I plan I don’t always have what I want ready to go on Sunday. Good thing these religious folk are the same ones screaming for smaller government.
@Skept-artist: Yup, it was that sign in particular that made me think, “SkepChick sooooo needs to be told about this.”