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Indigenous People’s Day: Columbus didn’t discover America, he invaded it
“Columbus didn’t discover America, he invaded it!” I’ve written a couple times before why I support renaming Columbus Day. Yes, I’m a pasty-white-skinned blue-eyed guy whose ancestors came from places...
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Thanksgiving Links (ritual sacrifice, with pie edition)
(click to embiggen)In the U.S. it’s Thanksgiving, a day which most of us were taught in school was to commemorate a peaceful feast between the the Pilgrims and their neighboring Native Americans. Of...
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Misleading notions my teachers taught, Part 1: Democracy’s Not What You Think
U.S. population isn’t equally distributed, which wouldn’t be a problem except that the Constitution apportions several important thing by state. (click to embiggen)I believe that it was one of my...
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What are you doing for others?
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?” —Martin Luther King, Jr.As a white-bearded pasty-pale very white old guy, I feel I shouldn’t do anything to drown out the...
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The viaduct is being demolished at last — good riddance
This is not how a tunnel boring machine works…I’ve written a time or two before about the extremely aging elevated highway in Seattle that was severely damaged 18 years ago in a severe earthquake. For...
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St. Patrick’s Day parades used to be political riots…
Anti-irish sentiment was rampant in the U.S. during the 19th Century, with political cartoonist portraying them with ape-like features destroying “true american values.” (Click to embiggen) The current...
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Weekend Update 4/20/2019: 20th Anniversary of a Horrible Precursor
Excerpt from “Influences on the Ideology of Eric Harris” by Peter Langman, Ph.D.,Today is the twentieth anniversary of the day that two teen-agers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered twelve of...
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Misleading notions my teachers taught, Part 2: Protestors were small,...
People always mis-remember the famous flower in the gun barrel photo as being a young woman. It wasn’t. The photo, taken by Bernie Boston, is of George Edgerly Harris III better known by his stage name...
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You only gave us rights because we gave you riots: thoughts on Pride
“You only gave us rights because we gave you riots. Queer Power” (Click to embiggen)I’ve had three partially-written blog posts about Pride sitting here in the queue for a few weeks, but kept changing...
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Weekend Update 7/6/2019: Miss Major, still leading the trans revolution
I had several news stories that either didn’t make the cut for this week’s Friday Five, or that I found after posting. And there was even a good strong theme emerging. And then I saw something that had...
View ArticleHard Times reap hard lessons, or when did cyberpunk really begin?
If you search the web for the history and definition of cyberpunk, most places will tell you it is a dystopian sub-genre of science fiction which came into being in 1983 when Bruce Bethke published a...
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The Dark Domain, or a queer ex-evangelical looks at an agent of intolerance...
One day in the summer of 1981, I was walking around the inside of a huge church sanctuary in Virginia, every now and then stopping to clap once, then listen to the echo. It was something I did just...
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Serious topic: and one I still can’t write about
“18 years ago, a group who believed diversity is evil and that violence redeems hurt us as badly as they could, in hopes we’d embrace their extremist beliefs, and hurt ourselves a thousand times worse...
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Celebrate Indigenous People’s Day — and recognize that Columbus was a violent...
I used to work for a man who was born on Columbus Day. He said that what he loved most about it was that where he went to school it was a day off, so he and his friends always got to go to the movies...
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The 11th day of the 11th month…
We’ve called it Veteran’s Day since 1954 — a day to honor those who have served in the military. Our allies still refer to this holiday by its original name: Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. We...
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May the Fourth…
This and other greatness available here: http://www.lastkisscomics.com/comic/may-the-fourth-be-with-you/My husband is the punster in the family. And his Good Twin (yes, he is the Evil Twin) is also a...
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The Missing History of Decoration Day
Today isn’t the day to say ‘Thank you for your service.’Once again it’s Memorial Day, and once again I find myself having conflicting feelings. There is, of course, the part of me that gets irritated...
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The First Pride Was a Riot —Don’t Forget Who Got Us Here
“The Stonewall Riots were started by trans women of colour and no one is allowed to forget that.” (Click to embiggen) I’ve written more than once before about how who owe a huge debt to the people who...
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None of those statues mean what you think they mean—bless your heart
(click to embiggen) Studying history means actually studying it—not looking at statues that were put up for non-historical reasons with misleading if not outright false plaques on their bases. When we...
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Four years after the Pulse massacre, the White House kicks us again
49 people were murdered that night. Don’t forget them! https://people.com/crime/orlando-pulse-shooting-tributes-to-49-victims/ Because I almost always compose my Friday Five on Thursday evening, I...
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