A very insightful post on why some women distance themselves from other representatives of their gender and the price they pay for it.

If you only very vaguely heard of the conflict between the Koch brothers and the Cato Institute, here is a very good explanation of what is happening from a blogger who actually knows about this stuff.

International Women’s day: A Purim story.

If people realized that Russia is not a passive agent of the US actions, they would not have to write stupid and long-winded posts like this one on how the US was to blame for the plummeting of the relations between Russian and the US. Russia is a big, powerful and rich country that has an internal need for the animosity towards the US. This need does not depend on the actions of the US. It’s just there. Seriously, folks, hasn’t time come to realize that not everything that happens in the universe is either the achievement or the fault of the Americans?

A brilliant, incredibly creative post on women’s rights. Do take a look because it rocks.

How one brilliant teacher saved her career by blogging.

Can a nuclear attack on Israel be compared legitimately with the Holocaust?

Will US sanctions deter Iran from its project of getting nuclear weapons? This blogger says not likely, and I tend to agree.

Yet another ad campaign that presents fathers as inept and helpless.

More baby turtles! God, I love this blog.

It’s very funny to see how a person struggles with his overwhelming sexual loneliness and then starts zombifying himself with silly phrases like “Women are different from us. We cannot interact with them as if they are the same as us” that guarantee he will live a completely lonely and pathetic existence forever. Remember, folks, “men / women are different and incomprehensible” is a ticket to loneliness. Of course, the rest of the post is even more pathetic. I have to ask, did such people’s parents not try to socialize them at all?

Why didn’t menstrual synchronicity evolve out of existence? I never thought about this but the topic is fascinating. What do you think?

And the title of the stupidest post of the week goes to the unintelligent defender of inarticulate ramblings who came up with the following gem: “For the conservatively inclined there is no need to justify that loyalty is good, cheating is wrong, being kind is better than being cruel, and that killing infants is murder.” This weird freakish creature has still not figured out that the progressively inclined not only hold these very beliefs but also actually do something to uphold them.

Getting (and keeping) girls interested in science and math.

“Women’s intuition” and patriarchal veil-making.

A Purim giveaway organized by a fellow blogger.

“Don’t you miss the good old days, back when abortions in the USA happened about as often as they do nowadays, but thousands of women died every year?” Why isn’t anybody hearing people who make this important and obvious point?

“”All can agree that rape is a horrific act of violence that no one should ever undergo. But abortion after a rape robs an innocent victim of a very beautiful life.”” I had to read this statement five times before I finally managed to deduce who is supposed to be having this beautiful life in this kind of a situation. It’s scary that so many certifiable people are roaming the streets.

And this is how real Conservatives see Santorum: “Santorum increasingly brags about his working class roots.This is a terminological inexactitude. Working men and women are decent hard-working, law-abiding individuals. Rick Santorum  was born in the gutter, lives in the gutter, and is most likely to die in the gutter.” Didn’t I tell you that true Conservatives were very angry at the religious fanatics that are making the entire Conservative movement look bad?

Danny has written a great post on the Friend Zone.

In case you worship Canada as the place where crazed fanatics who despise women and abhor progress do not exist, read this unhinged set of ramblings documenting a fit of hysteria from a Canadian hater of freedom, life, and love. The moral of the story: the points of view manifested in the post are evidence of psychopathology that has nothing whatsoever to do with where the unhealthy person in question lives.

For those who loved the photos of baby turtles last week, here are more photos! My love of turtles borders on pathological.

And this is the street where I spent my youth, being studious and responsible. Or, to be more precise, boozing and partying. The bar on the second floor (where you can see people see on the balcony) is my favorite cigar and martini bar that makes 100 different martinis. I miss home, people.

How to survive jury duty while autistic.

“Many public choice schoilars – myself included – view many voters as being rationally ignorant – there is a negative return to becoming well-informed about political elections.. A few of my more sceptical colleagues at George Mason University – Bryan Caplan* foremost among them –  argue that many voters are rationally irrational and vote as though they are  simply stupid.”

A great post on the TMI. I agree completely that pulling a TMI on a person is a passive-aggressive method of manipulation.

I will not be writing on the Koran burning in Afghanistan but here is a good and detailed post on the subject instead.

Reflections on EcoNuttery. It’s sad to see essentially good causes overrun by fanaticism.

A great comic strip on personhood. I dislike comics passionately, but this one is good.

The 2012 Oscars and the Bechdel Test.

Approval Rate for GOP Among Women Takes Nosedive. We do have the right to vote these days, Messrs. Romney and Santorum. Maybe it’s a good idea to keep that in mind. Or not, because you have lost this election already.

What a talented blogger this is: “Organics were good. Walking was good. Cloth diapers were good. Doing things the way they had been done for hundreds of years was good. Conventionally grown food, driving, disposable diapers, industrialization, was all bad. The framework served several purposes: it served as a secular moral code, and it allowed me to feel good about myself when I adhered to it. . . And it wasn’t because I was anti-science exactly. It was that I needed my heuristic to work. Because how else would I know how to live?” The entire post is fantastic. I highly recommend.

A really brilliant takedown of Rush Limbaugh’s recent outpouring of hatefulness: “As for you, Limbaugh, you are society’s intellectual garbage can.  Nothing but shit spews from that anus that you call a mouth.  Nothing you have ever said is of any societal worth, and I hope you end up alone and miserable.  Of course, you never will.  There is no shortage of conservative idiots to listen to your stupidity.  They don’t believe in birth control, after all, and so they are producing large hordes of offspring who are just as slack-jawed and stupid as their parents.” I really like this passionate and direct style of writing.

Finally, a good, informative post on rape, consent and disability.

A great deconstruction of Libertarian arguments. Insightful and funny.

And what did I tell you? Reasonable Conservatives are horrified at what their party has been turned into by crazy folks.

And the post of the week is definitely the following: “The Supreme Court did not grant women the right to an abortion. Nor did any of the other men in various parliaments and legislatures around the world. Abortion is. It always has been, and always will be. It is as much a fact of life as menstruation, masturbation, and sex. . . Men have not “given” it to us, nor can they take it away.”

P.S. The link encyclopedia looks a lot better and is easier to use in this new template, don’t you think?

Religious fanaticism is defeated in Quebec. Note that the Libertarians, once again, stand on the side of barbarity and religious indoctrination. Because for them, as we well know, it’s all about defending the people’s complete and utter liberty to be bamboozled by fundamentalist brainwashing.

Are you sure you don’t have defiant hair? Because it’s supposed to be a huge danger to your marriage.

Racism hasn’t disappeared and racist terminology still hurts people. And more on the same subject based on the slur that was directed at Jeremy Lin. Two very good posts from different bloggers.

A talented writer and a popular blogger points out the Libertarian hypocrisy on the subject of “rape by the government” legislation. You’d think that Libertarians would rise up in protest when presented with such an egregious violation of individual liberty by the government, right? Well, not really. This is why I insist that North American Libertarians are just religious fundamentalists in a quasi-rational disguise.

The sad reality of women in Japan.

“The mistaken belief that “desire” is “supposed” to be spontaneous – like, you’re walking down the street or having lunch and you go, “Hm! Sex please!” – can cause a person to believe that if they have responsive desire they’re BROKEN. And if people believe they’re broken, then you get into medicalization of what is in fact perfectly normal, healthy, functional sexuality.”

Brilliant insights into writing: “The number of days that you go without actually writing something on your project equals the number of hours (one hour for each skipped day) that it will take you to actually write something once you sit down to do it. Five days = five hours at the desk before my brain really engages.” There is more, so do visit the link.

I missed this post when it first came out on February 10, but I’m very glad I have found it since then. This post on the egregiously stupid attitude of both the Republican and the Democratic governments towards the mortgage market is definitely the post of the week: “In 2004, President George W. Bush led the way with a bid to move four million additional US households into home ownership that they could not remotely afford. In 2012, President Barack Obama leads the way to try to limit the return of some or all of those households back into the US rental market where they truly belong.”

This is the kind of student every prof lives for.

New York Times pretends that fathers do not exist.

“In other words, hegemonic heterosexuality is the vast cultural conspiracy to describe all heterosexual relationships as the unending war between stupid people and crazy people. If that’s really the model of love you want to aspire to, then okay, you have that right. But don’t piss down my neck and tell me it’s raining, and don’t show me toxic relationships and tell me they’re normal.  I reject this model and encourage others to do so as well.” A very impressive post.

The official Spanish-language definition of autism is finally getting changed from its old and egregiously offensive definition to a better one. And who do you think gets all the credit? (Hint: it isn’t autistics.) The post is in English, so click away.

Why creative writing classes are useless.

This post is short but it makes a brilliant observation on what the problem is with the debate on the value of the Humanities education: “It’s missing the distinction between “intellectual pursuits” and “easy majors.” Highly recommended.

“There are people who complain instead about the low quality of the food people buy with their EBT cards, like using it at gas stations to buy Doritos and frozen pizzas.  How dare they? people say.  I don’t give my hard-earned money to them so that they can live off junk food!  People have such an attachment to their tax dollars when they see individuals using them in ways that they don’t specifically approve of, but a significantly smaller number seem anywhere near as angry with the way that governmental institutions use their tax dollars.” How very very true. It’s easier for many people to dump on food stamp recipients than to question the real black holes in the federal budget.

If you are (or are planning to be) on the academic job market, do read this detailed and extremely enlightening post on how to prepare a job talk. I only wish I knew all this when I was on the market. After reading the post, I realized how badly I have messed up some of my job talks.

A Dutchman’s observations on the differences between saying good-bye in his culture and in the US.

If you adore turtles as much as I do, make sure you check out this beautiful post with photos of newborn turtles. They are beyond cute. They have belly buttons!

A great strategy for jump-staring your writing.

A beautiful post on when one becomes on adult.

Research is important but taking care of yourself is even more important. I couldn’t agree more with this great post. Physical and mental health comes first, people.

When your husband can’t put a fire in your belly, maybe his career can. A funny interview with Santorum’s wife who “defended her husband’s performance” while loving a talk show host more than her husband. And I really understand her. With a husband like that, even Glen Beck seems like a sex symbol.

When you start following a blog, do you read its entire archive?

Finally, an intelligent analysis of a situation in Russia. Most Western sources have no idea about what is going on in FSU countries. Instead of researching and analyzing, they just make stuff up by the bucketful. The recent celebration of a musical group that was simply trying to make a quick buck as “feminist” is an example of such shoddy reporting. When it comes to more serious issues, Western media comes up with even more egregious stuff. This is why I’m glad to find a post that addresses the current situation in Russia insightfully and correctly.

Some people have such an unhealthy relationship with food, that even slicing a cucumber is too much work for them. So they dream of, get this, prefabricated salads and sliced cucumbers.

And, last, an observation: my blogroll has been populated by very long, gushy, poorly written and excruciatingly boring posts by male, formerly progressive bloggers who are trying to come up with extremely convoluted scenarios of how “pregnancies should not generally be permitted” or should generally be permitted, or whatever. Which is hilarious, given how pregnancies are not something they are ever likely to experience. So if you think that this unhealthy obsession with female reproductive system is limited to Conservatives, you are wrong. The desire to rummage (or verbally masturbate on the subject of rummaging) in women’s uteri is not about politics. It’s about profound psychological issues of folks who like to mask their problems behind pseudo-political and philosophical concerns.

A brilliant post: “I hate this “I choose my choice” feminism. We do not have choices, in a lot of cases. The decision to participate in the nuclear family, to work in the waged labour force, to make sacrifices in one’s career for the sake of raising children, even the decision about what kinds of clothing to wear are constrained by material circumstances, they are not made in a vacuum.”

Yes: “This may be the first time many of you have heard this, given the high pedestal parents are put upon in American culture, but read my lips: you are not a fucking saint for providing for your own fucking children, that you chose to bring into this world. For whatever reason, under whatever circumstances, you chose to become a parent. . . Expecting that your child is obligated to worship at your feet for providing her basic needs is indicative of a very sociopathic, abusive mind. . . I’m sick of parents bestowing sainthood on themselves, and losing their shit when their children don’t treat them as such.” Once again, yes.

“Romantic notions of farming as being some sort of “pure” work which is spiritually and emotionally enduring compared to city life has transformed into an entire cottage industry, appealing to city dwellers’ romantic notions of farming. . . It would appear that people who romanticise life in “the East”, or who wish to get “back in touch with nature” misunderstand nature and “the East” more than any other group.” I couldn’t agree more. What a great post this is. Highly recommended.

The Republicans in a major meltdown: “As Republicans lose ownership of what had been their strongest issues — national security and business — all the ugly muck at the depths of their ids are rising to the surface. Finally, there is nothing left but the primordial concern gnawing at their bones all these years — sex.”

A very stupid person makes fun of a passage from the Bible (my favorite one, actually) and seems extremely proud of being an unintelligent, hateful jerk who thinks that being incapable of understanding complex texts is a badge of honor.

An insightful essay on why campus-wide smoking bans are stupid, endangering, offensive and wrong. The brilliant professor who wrote this essay is one of the very few people to point out that the current anti-smoking hysteria is paid for by pharmaceutical companies that want to peddle their smoking-cessation pills and patches.

Nice Guys aren’t found in the wild. But where do they come from? This is the question this great post answers.

A brilliant parody of the “What Are Women For?” article.

You don’t need to be a jerk to be an atheist. An important post on disturbing trends in the atheist community.

Seems like we have not seen the end of the Kennedy reign in the American politics. Now a representative of the new generation of Kennedys is running for office. I agree with this blogger who says enough with the nepotism in politics. Being somebody’s child, grandchild, wife or niece was only a good qualification for political office in times of monarchy.

Of course, it’s easy to disregard in the midst of the Republican anti-women campaign but President Obama keeps making these very disturbing sexist jokes about his daughters. And this helps reinforce the environment where women’s bodies always belong to some man.

Ron Paul: Trying to Take Away Constitutional Protections since 2004.

A short but wonderful post on how one blogger doesn’t let the Komen people pretend like no revelations about them have been made recently.

Is capitalism in crisis? “I do not believe that capitalism is in a real crisis, partly because the defects in financial and housing markets can be corrected to a significant extent. More importantly, reliance on competitive capitalism has been the only way that countries have been able to reduce poverty and continue to grow over long periods of time.”

And this is the most beautiful skyline in the world. Disagree with me on this at your own peril.

A very good (and a very short) short story.

“Millions of Americans – despite witnessing an extremely loud and incredibly close prescription pill epidemic – seem wedded to a sense of themselves as chemically dependent.”

Experiencing chronic pain is not “just part of life” and people who suffer from chronic pain should not be dismissed.

The similarities between Obama’s, Santorum’s and Gingrich’s economic policies. I’ve never read any similar analysis anywhere before but it rings very true to me. Politicians love to distract us by loud screeching about sex and religion from the sad truth that they are bought and paid for by the same group of lobbyists.

“Rick Santorum attacked President Obama on Saturday for his theology. Although people assumed that Santorum was, like other conservatives, hinting around that Obama is not a Christian but rather a secret Muslim, Santorum denied this allegation. . . What is remarkable is that it is Santorum who sounds like a Muslim fundamentalist. And ultimately maybe what he is saying is that Obama isn’t Muslim enough.”

A beautiful post on stimming.

And the title of the best post of the week goes to this brilliant post on patriarchal projections: “Patriarchal projections might not appear obviously what they are — which is to say, projections — just because they often rely upon a framing device to change the meaning of an event, depending upon whether the subject is male or female.  What is projected it the idea of female inferiority, which seems to be confirmed by any unusual event in the life of any woman.”

“If middle-class women ever thought they’d lose access to legal abortions entirely, the game would be over, and the Fetus People would find themselves swiftly and eternally cast into political purgatory. What was done to Komen was just a preview.” From this blogger’s keyboard and to God’s blogroll.

This is so well-put that I want to kiss this entire paragraph: “To blog one needs a very thick skin, and I think this is especially true in the social justice blogosphere, with the mob like mentality of many of its participants.  There seems to be this pervasive belief that group think is necessary for participation. This is absolutely counter to who I am and what I believe in. Mistakes require one to prostrate oneself and at any moment. A mistake you made years ago will be thrown into your face, as though your worst day is representative of who you are as a person.  None of you are Jesus for me to beg eternal salvation from. The level of perfection demanded is ridiculous.”

Is the Tea Party dead? A very good post by a young journalist who, undoubtedly, has a brilliant journalistic future ahead of her. Oh, I love reading blogs by brilliant young people. It gives me so much hope.

A very insightful post on the uses of the words “boyfriend” and “girlfriend.”

I really love it when people rant about how the entire concept of student evaluations of teaching is wrong. It always makes me want to say, “Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah. You’d change your tune pretty fast if only you were a good teacher who knew how to get the students to love you.” Clarissa’s Rule of Teaching: If most students say you suck, you probably really do. If anything, students are too kind on evaluations.

If we are to be bombarded by inane studies of “working mothers”, where are the equivalent studies of working fathers? Or is a woman who has a career and children some kind of a rare phenomenon akin to a pink elephant? I especially loved the following part of the post: “I imagine child care would be more interesting, and easier, if it were shared among a group of sisters, cousins, mothers, and aunts who lived and worked together.” As you can see, men don’t even make an appearance. All of these women must have come into existence and procreated by osmosis. Bleh, and this is the kind of rubbish that gets published in Inside Higher Ed.

And this is an assignment I would have totally failed if I had a prof silly enough to give it to me. Discuss your most salient identity label? Like I’m supposed to have one? Sheesh.

Shopping in Canada sucks. And don’t we, the Canadians, know it all too well. I love Canada but this blogger is right. When my sister came into an American mall and discovered what a huge selection of very reasonably priced baby clothes there was she started exclaiming, “What?!?” and continued to do so until her voice turned into a croak.

“Lynda Laughlin of the US Census Bureau’s Fertility and Family Statistics Branch is explaining why is it that the Census Bureau assumes mothers to be the “designated parent” in a two-parent household, and why further it considers a father providing childcare while mother is at work/school to be a “child care arrangement” but a mother providing childcare while father is at work/school to be designated parenting.” Yes, mothers are parents and fathers are easy-to-substitute dime-a-dozen care providers. Still wondering why the baby’s father isn’t taking equal care of the baby? Because the government is telling him he is not even a parent, that’s why.

“SB 1467, newly introduced in the Arizona State Senate, would force schools and universities to suspend, fine, and ultimately fire any teacher or professor who “engage[d] in speech or conduct that would violate the standards adopted by the federal communications commission concerning obscenity, indecency and profanity if that speech or conduct were broadcast on television or radio.”” Mind you, not publicspeech or conduct. Any speech or conduct. Got it? So mind your language when you slip in the bathtub because your neighbors might hear and there goes your job. As Angus Johnston points out, “If this law passes, it will be illegal for any “person who provides classroom instruction” in the state of Arizona to have sex. Or pee. Ever.”

“In the new Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Evita, Che Guevara will be played by no other than Ricky Martin!!! When I read the news yesterday, I couldn’t stop laughing. An openly gay singer playing the most commercialized Latin American icon of the past 50 years. Ricky Martin playing America’s favorite macho revolutionary.” Spanish prof finds this casting choice fascinating. I find it plain weird. What do you think?

How the field of mathematics in the US was impacted by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

An inventive response to academic rejection.

A stolen Taras Shevchenko statue returned after 10 years. My Ukrainian heart rejoices.

“As the new research suggests, conservatism is largely a defensive ideology – and therefore, much more appealing to people who go through life sensitive and highly attuned to aversive or threatening aspects of their environments. By contrast, liberalism can be thought of as an exploratory ideology – much more appealing to people who go through life trying things out and seeking the new.”

A beautiful post on marriage equality.

Should Plan B pills be available in vending machines?

A beautiful post on the American Constitution versus the Canadian Charter. I want to print out this post, give it to my students and tell them, ‘The young woman who wrote this is a physicists. And you, folks, are in the Humanities. So how come you can’t write nearly as well as she does, eh? Eh?” It makes me very happy to see young people write well.

If you have trouble concentrating on your work, here is a list of great suggestions.

Nominatissima’s response to my beauty products post. This post is a lot better than mine, so I highly recommend.

As you will see, many of the links this week turned into mini-posts. Once again, if you find that annoying and just want no-frills links, let me know. This is something I’m very willing to change if it bothers.

A brilliant post on homeschooling. I’d say this is the best post I have read all week long. Highly recommended.

In defense of publishing your stuff in a free access format. What this writer says makes a lot of sense to me.

“The typical PhD program is a great place to develop bad work habits.” I know mine was, that’s for sure.

Another disgusting instance of homophobia in Russia.

There are very weird people in this world. This blogger, for example, doesn’t distinguish between not wanting to see your parents naked and being a prude who cringes at the sight of a nude body. This must mean that if I like pornography, I should be totally fine with watching a porn flick with my parents starring.

A blogger responds to my recent and very popular post and solves a curious politico-linguistic mystery for me.

This blogger continues to churn out the best academic advice I have ever read in my entire life. Reading this blog and following this advice has transformed my scholarly existence in the best way possible and I will never tire of sharing this joy with everybody.

Did you know that Facebook closes down accounts that writers start under their nom de plume? This is all shades of crazy. I can just imagine what would have happened if Mark Twain and George Eliot lived in the times of Facebook. The blogger I refer to is no George Eliot or even Jack London (just like I’m not either) but since when can’t authors use writing pseudonyms? Just this week I was told by two different people I know in RL that they have trouble thinking about me as anybody other than “Clarissa.” One more reason to hate Facebook, I guess.

If you need any more proof that some pageant parents are a public menace, read this article. And then please share what makes you think you need any more proof. Does Toddlers and Tiaras ring a bell? If you ever eat something bad and need to induce vomiting, two minutes of this show do the job. (I want to reiterate that not all pageants are horrible and not all pageant parents are creepy. There are perfectly good, fun pageants where kids really enjoy themselves and parents do all they can to let their children have fun in a healthy way.)

“An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if: c) the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents.” Want to know which barbaric country introduced this regulation? Read the details here.

I hate pickup trucks, never want to know anything about military insignia of any country, don’t want to have friends who are Evangelical Fundamentalists, hate any kind of beer, and have no way of knowing if my neighbors have college degrees. If this makes me a “disconnected” snob, then I’m happy to be one. I’d rather be a snob than the stupid person who came up with this ridiculous, meaningless questionnaire.

If you enjoyed the quiz referenced in the preceding link, take note that it was created by the jerk who “has argued that a) blacks, b) Latinos and c) all women are intellectually inferior creatures. The man who has argued that poverty cannot be helped by anything the government could do, because that breeds indolence and poor work habits and in any case poverty is caused by the innate stupidity and bad work ethics of the poor.” Still feeling good about yourself?

“A friend zone is a myth.” And I agree completely. This is a very insightful and talented young journalist writing. What does it say about me that whenever I read a post by a brilliant young person, I immediately think, “I wish this were a student of mine”?

The winners of “The Best of Russian Photography” competition. The captions are in Russian but who cares? The photography is beautiful.

Are there really people who ask their partners not to masturbate outside of their presence? And, more importantly, are there people who tolerate such controlling partners? What’s next, “If you dare have an erotic dream that doesn’t involve me, I’ll divorce you”?

Another stupid, essentializing and offensive piece about Asperger’s that attempts to be funny and fails miserably.

On the history of the expression “I’m just sayin‘”. What a beautiful expression it is, too. I love it.

A rational person humiliates a fanatic in a debate on abortion. It’s a very short video but it rocks, people.

In the wake of the Komen people being defeated by the blogosphere and punished for their bigotry, a stupid fool is shocked that those vile Liberals actually consider the right of a human being to decide what happens in that human being’s own body to be a sacred right. Yes, how totally vile of them! The jerkwad who wrote this stupid post got so flustered by commenters challenging him on his hatred of women that he closed down the comments after just 23. Yes, it must suck to be called out on being a woman-hater.

Are the young becoming excessively cautious? (I blame this phenomenon on helicoptering parenting more than on the economy. What do you think?)

An instant test that reveals a lot about the person taking it. I can’t say more for fear of spoiling it. But it just takes a second. All I can say, I’m proud of how I did.

“Saraba Magazine is accepting short fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and excerpts that reflect the diversity of sex and sexuality. Note that the publishers and editors have a bias for experimental writing.” Maybe there are people reading this who are looking to publish their work.

King of the Kovbasa! (Ukrainian sausage.)

“Academic journals that decide which research discoveries count as important are practising widespread “coercion” to gain influence, at the expense of their own credibility.”

Honor killings in Canada. The last sentence of the post will speak to all people trying to escape their abusive families: “If you do manage to leave, don’t look back.”

Danny continues his fascinating discussion of profiling.

A transwoman is turned away from a women’s shelter after being interrogated about how she pees. This is hugely offensive to everybody, not only the transgender community. Since when is a person considered a threat just because they have a penis (even if they identify as female)? Why should women at the shelter feel traumatized by the presence of a transwoman among them? This is egregious, folks.

A promotional image of a Playboy bunny made out of hundreds of naked models. Trust it to Playboy to drain all eroticism out of naked people. They look like larvae. Bleh. (And I bet this will be the most visited link of all I provide here. 🙂

The insane folks who keep insisting that Sarah Palin faked her last pregnancy are now creating weird rumors about Beyonce’s pregnancy also being faked to prove their theory about Palin. No, I don’t see the logic either.

“The natural birth is like anorexia and neither is feminist.”

Is a career at quaint college for you?

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success.

You know what caused the collapse of the British Empire? No, you only think you do. The leading presidential candidate for the Republican party (or as I call him, the Republican flavor of the week) says it was the NHS.

Redefining rape.

“2012 will see an American election between Mitt Romney and President Obama, and the winner will be whichever one of them manages to best avoid questions about Social Security.  Unless by November we are finally at war with Iran, Social Security will be the only topic worth discussing, which means we’ll be discussing gay marriage.”

“The survey of 195 expectant mothers revealed they believe there is a 56.2 per cent chance of an uncomplicated birth, which means a baby being born without the use of forceps, suction cups, caesarean section or induced labour. The data. . . shows the chance of having a medically uncomplicated birth is 21 per cent. A further 30.7 per cent said they believed women would have uncomplicated births without needing sutures. The actual figure is 8 per cent.”

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide facilitates a sexual assault on an American businesswoman in Finland. I’m recording the name of this hotel chain here to make sure I never travel to one of their facilities. The story is egregious, people.

“Myriad prescriptions for antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs reflect a widespread tendency to sweat the small stuff, a failure to recognize time-honored sources of happiness, and a reliance on material acquisitions that provide only temporary pleasure.”

“More men worry about their body shape and appearance – beer bellies, “man boobs” or going bald – than women do about how they look, according to research.” I don’t know about “more”, necessarily, but it is undeniable that worrying about one’s appearance has nothing whatsoever to do with gender.

I’m addicted to salads, which is why I’d read any post that has the word “salad” in it. For instance, check out this great post on how to get yourself to eat salads, if you are not a huge fan. The post made me so ravenous that I immediately devoured a huge salad.

An interesting contribution to the debate on whether newspapers should engage in regular fact-checking.

Can Canada hope to become a world leader?

A hilarious post with funny photos of road signs. OK, I know it doesn’t sound hilarious when I describe it but the post is very very good.

A letter to Canada’s Stephen Harper that many of us would love to write in response to his recent efforts to destroy the gay marriage in Canada.

This blogger is spreading nasty lies about Kindle Fire. Yes, you totally can buy anything on Kindle without a credit card. My husband has never had a credit card in his life and he doesn’t have a problem buying anything for the Kindle. And Amazon’s customer service is truly the best in the universe. And you absolutely do not need to purchase the Prime to use the Kindle Fire. You can purchase it if you want (with your debit card, like I did) but the device has a bizillion uses without the Prime. Kindle-haters make my blood boil.

For academics: how to write every day. VERY good, useful, completely realistic advice. Since I started following this blog, my academic productivity skyrocketed.

A priceless parable about the value of politicians’ promises.

According to some folks, seeing women as fully in control of their sexuality is actually offensive to women: “The assumption of woman as an autonomous actor, fully in control of their own agency, sexuality and bodily autonomy is to ignore the structural forces at work.” This is supposed to be a feminist piece, folks. Truly, no patriarchal ogre can be as offensive to women as some pseudo-feminists.

Yet another way Facebook spies on you. What a lovely company, that one.

Let’s all root for Amazon Fresh to succeed and become ubiquitous, people! What a sorely needed service.

And my favorite post of the week: “One of my biggest issues with liberal discourse on societal problems is its proclivity to diminish or erase entirely the concept of human agency. (Some) liberals talk as though society just makes people do things without them actually processing information and deciding how to act on it.” This is exactly how I feel.

The first week of the new year brought a surge of enthusiasm to the blogging universe. As a result, I have a pretty good crop of posts for your reading pleasure. Enjoy and don’t forget to self-promote!

The magic of literature. This post needs to be printed out and distributed to all students who say they hate reading and don’t understand the point of literary studies.

Another weird explanation of what “causes” autism. I think I need to start collecting them because they are always too hilarious.

A disgusting string of anti-Muslim acts of  vandalism in Montreal. Shame on you, fellow Montrealers! (Please do not read the comments that follow the article I linked to. They will make you want to vomit.)

An absolutely brilliant post on spanking.

It would be great if all Conservatives were this way. However, as often happens with most political movements, a screeching and raging minority of fanatics is a lot more vocal than such reasonable representatives of a movement. As a result, the entire group becomes associated with its most loud members.

A very insightful analysis of how newspapers undermine our society with what they choose to cover.

Want better students? Can the SATs!

If girls in school can wear high heels, why can’t a boy?

How the American Psychiatric Association makes its money. What a disgusting organization. Freud, who was horrified by psychiatry and set out to create an alternative for its barbaric methods, would be shocked to see how people are still enslaved by it.

The psychology of doppelgängers.

A really great cilantro lime mahi mahi recipe. Every word in the recipe’s title makes my mouth water. I’m totally addicted to cilantro.

Even Legos get stereotyped nowadays. What a crazy world.

When you try to analyze what happens in a couple of which you are not a member, the result is always very stupid.

The wave of let’s-dump-on-Schwyzer hysteria continues. Now he is being blamed for referring to a girlfriend of his as a “human being.” He did that twice, too. Just imagine that. Instead of calling her a woman, he calls her a human being. He also – prepare yourselves because this is too heavy – called her a person. The outrage, the horror! This is where feminism might lead you, folks. You might start referring to women as human beings. Beware!

Another obsessive post about Hugo Schwyzer. This blogger should have been told by somebody that first-person writing is still fiction. Do you think he will be able to deal with a revelation that Jane Eyre is a character in a book?

Another ignoramus blabbering on about Ukraine and Byelorussia: “Other scenarios that Brzezinski connects with U.S. “decline” that seem very unlikely include the Russian absorption of Belarus (why would Moscow want the hassle?), and exposing Ukraine to “Russian designs.” What these “designs” might be are never spelled out.” Erm, what else do you need to be spelled out to you, Mr. I’m-clueless-but-talkative? What day of the week it is? How to get your head out of your own ass? How Brzezinski writes for people who know at least some very basic stuff about the region and not for idiots like yourself?

What shamanism isn’t.

For those ignorant folks who still somehow manage not to realize that a fetus is a part of a woman’s body and not a person. Of course, I’m wasting my time here because those few anti-choicers who actually can read will not be able to comprehend the complex two-syllable words in the article.

Did you know that in some European airports there are smoking booths sponsored by tobacco companies? That is very civilized. Why is our continent lagging behind yet again?

“He is too delicate who is delighted with his own country only : He is a courageous man whose own country is the world : But he to whom the whole world is a place of banishment is a saint.” Beautiful, eh?

A 26-year-old woman writes a letter to herself aged 12. A very powerful narrative which is also an incredibly useful technique of psychological hygiene. I highly recommend this to everybody. The post is long but extremely inspiring and insightful. And the author is obviously gifted.

An Indiana bill that would fine performers $25 for not meeting state-defined performance standards of the national anthem. Beware that elementary school kid who makes a mistake in the text of the anthem or that performer who tries to offer their own musical rendition of the anthem. Good to know that Indiana has no real problems to address!

Conservatives and pseudo-liberals have one thing in common: their desire to “protect” women (who, as we all remember, are poor, pathetic victims of everything) from pornography. Of course, women are so useless and stupid that we can’t decide on our own how to engage with porn without some guy somewhere wanting to take care of us. Here is an example of this ecstatic Conservative-Liberal union of despising women. Is there a woman who actually sleeps with this blogger? Of her own free will? If so, then I’m sure she only preserves her sanity through regular use of porn.

A great review of Murakami’s 1Q84.

How to become a feisty Leftist political blogger.

How “gender differences” are manufactured by the media because there are still Neanderthals around who can’t accept (or understand) the scientific findings proving that gender differences do not exist.

The approach to the penis-shrinking anxiety highlights the bias that informs psychiatric definitions.

The subway in Russia is a form of art. See these beautiful photos of new subway stations in a provincial Russian city. The post is in Russian, but you can just skip the text and look at the pictures.

“Dear Republican candidates: You are campaigning on talking points that do not actually appeal to us. Why are you doing that? Who told you we want these things?”

Sexism in the atheist community is just as present as it is everywhere else.

A brilliant deconstruction of arguments against same-sex marriage.

A great post on the war on drugs.

“Who could possibly view the term “breast cancer” as sexually arousing? What self-respecting medical team, seeking to produce an easy-to-understand booklet to promote early detection of breast cancer, can write phrases like: “The cancer in the organ under discussion” so as to avoid using the word “breast”.” Find out who has this completely insane attitude to breast cancer here.

Traditional upbringing in Zimbabwe. Eye-opening!

Will the young voters turn out for Obama in the 2012 election like they did in 2008?

“The most vocal critics of my decision to let my kid “decide” for religion has come from my academic atheist friends who are aware of my own (lack of) beliefs.  They seem as eager to inculcate atheism into their kids as the religious are to instill certain beliefs in their.” What we need is more amazing parents like the author of this post.

I wish more people understood this: “Until we learn that people around the world are not necessarily the same as we are, don’t necessarily think in the same way and don’t necessarily appreciate the same things, we will continue to muck up foreign policy terribly.”

I like this blogger because she always has an original take on things and delivers it in a very concise, to-the-point manner. Check out this post on the different styles of feeding the homeless.

Fun Christmas reading: a great long post ridiculing a book of marriage advice from religious fanatics in a truly miserable marriage. I know one should be compassionate towards people who are this brainless but I can’t muster any good feelings towards them. maybe you will prove a better person than I am.

And if there is anything more ridiculous than books of marriage advice from religious fanatics, it’s dating advice from same religious fanatics.

Is teaching “cost efficient”?

“It is clear that what most people in pursuit of ‘higher education’ want is not an education, strictly speaking, but a credential that will gain them admittance to a certain social and/or economic status. Education as most people  use it nowadays is a euphemism for a ticket to success, where the latter is defined in terms of money and social position.” I know exactly what this brilliant blogger means. All I wish for in my work is to meet more of those students who are looking for an actual education and not for a set of formal credentials. There are so few of them, though. . .

Copyright insanity keeps growing and spreading.

Iraq is about to disintegrate into a Civil War. Does anybody feel surprised? If so, I have to ask what rock you’ve been sitting under for the past fifteen years.

If you are as obsessed with reading lists as I am, check out this list of books that feature translators or interpreters as characters.

“[Feminism] is also the radical notion that men are people too, complete human beings, with the same range of emotions and the same capacity for empathy and self-control as any woman.” In this brilliant statement Hugo Schwyzer echoes my own profound belief and the subject of the most unpopular post I have written recently. Let’s see if Hugo manages to attract more attention to this idea than I did.

Ron Paul’s “extreme bet on an economic catastrophe.” Note that Ron Paul really needs our economy to collapse completely. Any other scenario will lose him money. If you know anybody clueless enough to vote for this religious fanatic, share this article with them.

For everybody who celebrates Christmas:

Merry Christmas!!!

 

And for those who don’t: 

Have fun perusing this link collection!

I’m not the only person to be appalled by the recent speech of the MLA’s new president.

Are you still celebrating the Arab spring? Look what it brought to Egypt. I don’t want to say “I told you so,” but really, folks, I told you so.

For my fellow introverts: “10 Myths About Introverts.”

Fashion in 1824. The pictures are beautiful.

Macy’s fires a transphobic employee who has the gall to pretend that her hatred of peaceful customers has something to do with Christianity. Good job, Macy’s! I hope this bigot doesn’t get employed for a position where she would come in contact with human beings.

Weird and creepy Christmas photos. Some of these are quite disturbing.

“Circumcision is Africa’s best weapon against AIDS.” Erm, seriously? Has anybody heard of this really cool thing called a condom? For how much longer will we be messing with people’s penises for fear of angering the barbaric Catholic Church?

A great easy recipe of how to make candied orange peel. I eat clementines and oranges in industrial quantities in winter, so it’s great to have some use for the peel.

Dear Abby believes that kids should never be left alone. A talented writer and a great mother responds to this stupid assertion.

A prof conducts an experiment on establishing a socialist system in the classroom. Try to predict the results before reading the post. Of course, it was easy for me to do, given that I was born in a society that was run just like this classroom.

Obama is trying to buy popularity from the fundamentalist fanatics by making really idiotic statements about the morning-after pill. Because this pandering to the crazies has worked so well for his Democratic predecessors. Oh, wait, it didn’t. Well, hope springs eternal. Seriously, is he trying to make himself unpalatable to every progressive voter in the country on purpose?

And here is a brilliant response to the above-mentioned stupid statement from President Obama: “Anyone who is more concerned about a pregnant child being hurt by contraceptives than they are about that child being raped, pregnant, and forced instead to undergo an abortion or a full-term pregnancy and delivery, is living in a silly, stupid, unserious bubble of self-deceit, and no one should listen to anything they have to say on the subject of reproductive rights ever again.” My thoughts exactly.

Obama is trying on a role of the benevolent patriarch. And that stinks.

A very interesting post on online dating in France.

Should the opponents of same-sex marriage have their children taken away?

McDonald’s tries to look non-racist and publishes an ad that makes it look extremely racist. No wonder these idiots can’t even get a hamburger right.

Dr. Mankiw offers a brilliant response to the students who walked out of his classroom because they didn’t like what they decided his ideology must be. I really admire his calmness and composure in response to this nasty prank.

An intersex mayor in Australia. I’m currently starting to do research on intersex gender identities (more on that later) and it’s really good to see how intersex folks can find acceptance and live good lives in some places.

How to offer support to a person who suffers from depression. This is really good, practical, insightful advice.

“The beginning of the decline of the American Empire began in  AD 2000, with the accession to office of a ‘free’ bread and circuses president. Wake up America, read the history books, and move swiftly to put an end to wealth-degrading popularity-buying by corrupt politicians.” Hear, hear!

In a world of intolerance. A great post from my colleague. See how smart we all are at my university?

Evidence of a caste system in the US.