Here are some of the posts and articles I especially enjoyed this week. Feel free to self-promote in the comments.
A brilliant post on who, when and how should be able to exercise the choice whether to be a parent or not: Why choice for men is wrong.
BlagHag, a great atheist blog, has moved and here is its new home.
On horrible working conditions in Amazon’s warehouses. Shame on you, Amazon!
Vatican is being predictably transphobic. Raise your hands everybody who is still expecting anything positive to come out of Vatican. Yeah, me neither.
A scientist in Canada padded his resume with non-existent studies. But, of course, honest researchers and Canadians like myself don’t have a chance in hell of getting hired in Canada.
Always make sure you don’t sign away your right to your own lectures.
A homebirth midwife pays out $1,9 million to a family whose child’s brain damage she caused during an irresponsible home delivery. Maybe this will finally send a message to money-hungry homebirth advocates who stop at nothing to make a buck.
A response to my post on whether the expression white trash is racist.
A map of sexual fetishes from which I discovered that I’m an extremely boring, conventional person. Something tells me that this will be the most popular link of all I provided here.
Clarissa's Blog 
The story about the home birth is both brutal and depressing. I don’t understand, however, how the couple managed to win the law suit. If they hired the midwife out of their own will, they must have known that they were exposing the newborn, as well as the mother, to additional risks. It is really sad that a small child is handicapped because of his parents’ desire to prove a strange point..
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These midwives often provide unreliable information to silly, ignorant dupes who buy into their sales pitch. I agree, though, that this was the parents’ decision and they only have themselves to blame.
There are many such stories published every week.
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Thanks for linking me!
I also wrote about how my understanding of beauty shapes, in part, which muscles I’m aware of and how I work them.
And I’m looking for guest bloggers.
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Is it me, or is it disturbing that “non-consenting partners” is on a chart of “fetishes”?
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Is it?? I haven’t read it in detail but if it is, that’s horrible.
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I’m guessing the chart is made just as a way to map them out, not condone them. I think that might be the case considering that the Incest and Necrophilia boxes are only partially in the non-consenting partners section (where bestiality is completely in the non-consenting partners section). Where incest is not always adult/child (I would think consenting adult/adult incest is weird but I would not call it illegal) and with necrophilia I presume they are accounting for people who only play with necrophilia (as a consenting partner soaks in cold water for the pleasure of the other partner).
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Whether or not they specifically say “I condone this practice,” they are, in a way, tacitly condoning it by defining it as a “fetish.” It’s not.
Not to mention “sleeping women” and “drunk” women aren’t in the category of “non-consenting partners,” just sort of near it. Sooo disturbing.
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Whether or not they specifically say “I condone this practice,” they are, in a way, tacitly condoning it by defining it as a “fetish.” It’s not.
I have to disagree with that. Wouldn’t that be like saying that since adult/child incest is a acknowledged as sex (non-consensual if for no other than the age difference) it is being tacitly condoned?
Take a rapist that targets a specific type of victim. A specific gender, hair color, height, build, race, etc… I don’t think its wrong to say that that rapist has a fetish for that particular characteristic but its still certainly rape.
I don’t think identifying something as a fetish is giving it any sort of okay or condoning it.
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“Wouldn’t that be like saying that since adult/child incest is a acknowledged as sex (non-consensual if for no other than the age difference) it is being tacitly condoned?”
Yes. And on that chart, is is. Trying to call crimes “fetishes” almost makes them seem more harmless, or like the criminals just can’t help themselves, or that they’re somehow related to sexual orientation. (‘Cause there really are people out there, and not just in the dark corners of the internet, who claim that being attracted to children is a “sexual orientation.”) (shudder) So no, I’m not really gonna be ok with saying pedophilia is an orientation, and rape is a fetish. No. They’re crimes. And I refuse to believe that anyone other than the worst of sociopaths is actually born with the capacity to commit them UNLESS society makes it ok with statements like that.
“Take a rapist that targets a specific type of victim. A specific gender, hair color, height, build, race, etc… I don’t think its wrong to say that that rapist has a fetish for that particular characteristic but its still certainly rape.”
This is unrelated to the discussion. The chart says that rape itself is a fetish. That’s what I take issue with.
Calling rape a “fetish” is like saying a hitter has made a “lifestyle choice.” It trivializes it and associates it with things it shouldn’t be associated with. Also, I bet people who like consensual BDSM or have other fetishes are probably offended by saying that rapists just have another fetish, just like them.
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Melissa, do you think I should remove this link altogether? It is now making me uncomfortable.
I have to confess that I didn’t look at it closely before I posted it. I just thought it would be a curious thing for people to see. And it has been extremely popular.
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No, it’s fine, yeah that part of it bothers me, but I’m sure plenty of people find plenty of other interesting things on it.
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Then we’ll have to just disagree then.
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