A while ago, The Frogger returned from a story-time/art project event with two puppets, of which she was understandably very proud. One she created under her own creative direction, with technical assistance from SuperMom. The other was created with the assistance of an adult helper, who “helped” her make a puppet. Can you guess which is which?
To my eye, both puppets have a recognizable face, but they are not equal. Continue reading “Puppets, outside the box”
I’m not even going to pretend that you care about my opinion on the Rebecca Watson/Elevator Guy/Stef McGraw debacle. If you feel that Rebecca did not have a right to feel uncomfortable or speak out about it, then you should go read Greg Laden and John Rennie, while I weep for your soul.
I have been particularly troubled by the suggestion that female anxiety over being in an elevator alone with a strange man late at night is of a piece with the anxiety of a white person who finds themselves at an urban bus stop surrounded by black people and then approached by one. The suggestion is that the anxiety felt is the product of negative stereotypes. J. Earl Davis makes some good points in his article on this issue, but this comparison is not one of them. All analogies eventually break down. This one does not even get out of the starting gate. Continue reading “Legitimate anxiety”
This is the first panel of the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip published on 7 July 1986:
What do you think the odds are that this would have made it into the papers in 2011? And, if it did, can you imagine the letters to the editor?
I can understand why some people don’t want to have public and detailed discussion about community standards about the appropriateness of an incident, rather than just gossip about it. They wind up looking like total assholes.
My theory, based on research in social psychology, is that the infighting surrounding Atheism & Skepticism is a clear indication that intelligent design/creationism is no longer a serious threat. Continue reading “When your nemesis falls…”
The Finch and Pea 