Links of the Week – March 20, 2015
* Justice System to 13-Year-Old Girl: It’s Not Rape Because You Have Curves – (Women, if you’re not enraged yet, you’re not paying attention.)
* Cops On An 11-Year-Old Who Says She Was Raped: “Child’s Promiscuous Behavior Caused This”
* Pope Francis’s Pledge Of Zero Tolerance For Child Abusers Being Tested In Chile
* Alpha Males And Sexual Abuse Of Women
* Understanding Abusers: There Is No Stereotype For Offenders
* “I Am Called A Whore”: Ashley Judd Unloads On The Internet’s Grossest Trolls
* “Son Of A Bitch!” Jon Stewart Hammers “Disingenuous” GOP And “Dumb-Ass” Dems Over Anti-Sex Trafficking Fiasco – (As he should. Fuckers.)
* National Organization Of Women – (Stand up for women! God doesn’t seem to be helping.)
* Behold The Unexpected Awesomeness Of The Taco Doughnut
* Racist Oklahoma Video A Sign Of Regression In Race Relations In America
* Millennials Are More Racist Than They Think
* PostSecret: If Jesus Were Here – (He does…)
* Find A Death: The Death Of Jeanine Deckers: The Singing Nun – (“It took fourteen years for Jeannine to give up the ‘friend’ thing and sip from the furry cup and join the Order of the Practical Shoes.” And then I died! 😀 )
* Find A Death: The Death of Greg Plitt – (Leg day! 😀 )
* For When You Think That No One Will Ever Love You
* Disenchanted With Losing, Andy Landers Calls It Quits After 36 Years Of Coaching The Lady Dogs – (A pioneer in women’s basketball, and the only Lady Dog coach I’ve ever known.)
* Psalm 37: How To Receive The Desires Of Your Heart – (As long as God decides it’s OK. And he doesn’t have anything better to do. And he really exists. Now does that really sound like granting the desires of MY heart? No. It does not.)
* A Boy And Her Dog: Mail Is Not A Gender
* A Boy And Her Dog: Topless In The Locker Room
* A Womanonymous: Wild Offering – (Post of the Week)
* Black Bear Lodge Adventure Therapy – (I wonder how much this costs…)
* Workplace Suicide Rates Rise Sharply
* 21 Harsh Truths No One Tells Teens
* 5 Reasons To Suspect That Jesus Never Existed
* Catcher David Ross’ Approach To Game Anything But Routine – (Oh, Rossy! My favorite!)
* Contributions Of David Ross Go Beyond The Numbers
* Joe Maddon Is Binge-Watching ‘The Office’ At Cubs’ Spring Training – (Oh, Joe! My favorite!)
* Largest Group Of U.S. Presbyterian Churches Allows Same-Sex Marriages – (OK, Methodists. We’re starting to look like backward-ass snake handlers now! Left behind, indeed!)
* From Patrick Stewart’s Birthday Party – (Can I get these guys to come to my birthday party?!?)
* When People Ask Me About My Job
* For The Bodybuilder/Weightlifter/Harry Potter Fan In Your Life
* Sheetcake Arrives At Banquet Saying “Stewardshit” – (Also, DAVID TENNANT!)
* Fake Self-Help Books – (!!!)
* “Life’s Lil Pleasures” Mini Book – (The. BEST! ❤ ❤ ❤ )
* Nine Handy Curses Appropriate For Modern Life – (“May your coffee always be decaf.”)
* Creekside Cabin: Pet Friendly Cabin On The Creek – (It may be time to plan a vacation week…)
* You Can Now Anonymously Send A “Bag Of Dicks” To Your Enemies (Or Your Friends?)
* Awesomely Luvvie: “Pastor” Creflo Dollar Is Trying To Raise $65 Millon For A Plane
* Awesomely Luvvie: Dear Fellow Christians, About This Christ Crutch We Use To Justify Foolery…
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“Humans will always place our trust in things that will fail us. We will always insist on giving pieces of our heart to things that simply cannot love us back.”
– Nadia Bolz-Weber, “A Sermon On Addiction…”
“How come if you don’t give up on the person you love, the Hallmark Channel calls that ‘romance;” but on the Lifetime Network, if you don’t give up on the person you love, they call it ‘stalking?”’
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Links of the Week – February 27, 2015
* 10 Ways To Be Her True Life Superhero
* How I Feel About My Responsibilities
* Christianity Without The Cross
* 24 Times Your Favorite Kids’ Cartoons Suddenly Got Really Deep
* Fun With Kirk And Spock – (WHY do I not own this book?)
* 27 Times Tumblr Used Art History Perfectly To Make A Point
* How We Talk About Our Teachers – (Turns out we use different descriptors depending on if they’re male or female)
* Star Trek Spock With Ears Socks
* The “Golden Years” Are Gone: Why Retirement Is Hell For Women – (Oh good. Something else to look forward to.)
* How Much I Was Distressed During “Fox and the Hound”
* Game Day Program – Ohio State vs. Indiana – Thanksgiving Day 1903 – (So cool!)
* When I Hide In The Bathroom Stall Until I Hear My Coworker Leave So I Don’t Have To Make Small Talk With Them – (Every time.)
* Check Out Ambidextrous Pitcher Pat Vendittes’ Chthulu-Like Glove
* Adventure Time Oreo Necklaces
* Subway Riders Can Be Animals – (Awesome paintings!)
* You’re Not Happy Because You Never Learned To Be
* The Emory Wheel Editorial Board: Gender Neutral Pronouns Necessary For Inclusivity
* Just Let Them Kiss Already: Why Are TV Shows Are So Weird About Male Relationships?
* I Can Haz Cheezburger?: Extrovert vs. Introvert – (As illustrated by cats…)
* Why Each Sign Is Dangerous – (Scorpio)
* Stained Glass Backboards Are Completely Unnecessary And Beautiful
* 10 Things I Wish I Knew At The Beginning Of Sobriety
* 19 Anti-Social Motivational Posters That I Really Want To Hang In My Office
* Study: What Are The Most Addictive Foods? – (This is why I have frozen pizza six nights a week…)
* “My Mom Can Kick Your Ass” Kid’s T-Shirt
* After His Brother’s Suicide , Writer Seeks Comfort “In All The Wrong Places”
* Get The Picture: Stubborn Is As Stubborn Does – (You can only do so much)
* 19 Pictures That Will Hurt Your Fragile Soul – (Owwwwwwwwwww!)
* The Refuge: A Healing Place – Depression
* The Center: A Place For Hope
* Photos: Evan Gattis The Astro
* Unlocking “The Woman Code”: 4 Tips To Know Your Value
* Unexpressed Emotions, Rage And Depression
* NASA Sees “Bright Spots” On Dwarf Planet In Our Solar System – ( OoO )
* This Wondrous Dutch Light Installation Mimics The Northern Lights – ( ❤ ❤ ❤ )
* A Tortured Soul, Josh Hamilton’s Battle Was Never Over
* GPS In Shoulder Pads: Vanderbilt Goes High Tech
* The Frisco RoughRiders Have Your New Favorite Presidential MiLB Logo – (Must have a cap with Big Head Teddy!)
* Reviewing My 2015 Goals Thusfar – (11 out of 26. Eh.)
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“As other girls prayed for handsomeness in a lover, or for wealth, or for power, or for poetry, she had prayed fervently: let him be kind.”
– A Spy In The House Of Love, Anaïs Nin
“I turned over in bed and listened to the traffic in the rain. A few cold, clear truths rose one by one through my consciousness like a flock of birds: I wasn’t even remotely worthy of William and I wasn’t ever going to have him; I’d asked my mother to lend me money and she’d said no; I’d given all the change to the cabdriver; no one was going to pay off my debts; no one would save me from myself. I fell asleep to the soft beating of wings in my head.”
– In The Drink, Kate Christensen
“One fine spring morning I awoke in my own bed alone, with an ache in every orifice and a memory of bending over on the Christopher Street Pier at four in the morning with my drawers around my ankles while John stood behind me, holding my hips. As I gripped a piling to keep from tumbling into the Hudson, I gazed down into the filthy water and thought gaily to myself, Well, here I am, and this is me.”
– In The Drink, Kate Christensen
“Throughout these long afternoons outside with her, I was always conscious of being a speck at the bottom of a vast, ragged bowl of rock under the empty sky, buried in the silence and heat, surrounded by blank sand. The foothills, with their gray-green mesquite fur, rolled away to faraway mountains that sat sharp-spined on the horizon, unconnected to the valley floor, as if they’d been set down ready-made. The buttes and mesas to the west glowed deep red; veins of magenta and green spidered along rock formations shaped like tablets or giant hands, stacked in layers of cinnabar, crimson, brick. Masses of clouds echoed the rock shapes in their charcoal or ocher strata, wind-shaped crags so dense they looked mineral. The air was thick with the breath of sage and hot dust. At sunset the air hung low, striated like a weird plowed field of pigmented earth, backlighting the mountains with shirred, neon clouds, leaching all the color from the rocks, abstracting the bushes to dark cutouts. The wind moved like a huge hand through the valley, filling me with a restless, empty impatience I later identified as loneliness.”
– In The Drink, Kate Christensen
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Links of the Week – February 13, 2015
* Spock Riding An Alicorn Over A Rainbow
* PostSecret: Not My Fault – (Me too)
* PostSecret: Every Day – (Been there. Done that. Don’t forget your baseball cards.)
* Health Experts Recommend Standing Up At Desk, Leaving Office, Never Coming Back
* Mother Provides Adult Son With List Of Questions To Ask Doctor
* FISTICUFFSANDSHENANIGANS: I Shall Apply A Password To My Communication Medium Post Haste
* Chocolate Cheesecakes + Salted Caramel Sauce
* Chief Features Of Self Destruction
* 28 Ooey Gooey Cookies That Took It To The Next Level – (O!M!G!!!)
* 17 Terrible Valentines For People Who Are Dead Inside
* Grave Cages And Medical Murder: The Body-Snatching Era In Scotland
* Company To Experiment With Valuing Employees
* New Study Finds Majority Of God’s Blessings Burn Up On Entry Into The Atmosphere
* What Draco’s Father Will Hear About
* Running Helps Young Girls Cope With Pre-Teen Stress
* Down With The ‘Notorious R.B.G’ – (Who knew a Supreme Court Justice could have such a following?)
* Help Find The World’s ‘Loneliest Whale’ – (I literally had a sudden, stabbing pain in my heart when I read this.)
* Supreme Court Upholds Little Caesar’s Right To Feed Christian Employees To Lions
* 10 Reasons Jesus Would (Probably) Be An Outcast In Today’s Church
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“John is often afraid, but he doesn’t know it.”
“I am at the center of an immense system. I keep the planets in orbit around me. I keep everything in balance.
I am a perfect daughter, student, girlfriend, woman. I’m admired.
I have roles. I’m a social human. I follow the rules.
I easily follow rules.
Men want me. Right? They’ll want me more when I’m thinner.
I’ll be unstoppable.
Then, I will always be happy.”
“Some nights I stay awake expecting he’ll call me to say that he’s dead.”
– Binary Star, Sarah Gerard
“I had never intended to make such a mess of things. It had happened incrementally and gradually; every day, I’d felt the gap widen between me and that parallel universe that contained the life I’d meant to create for myself, that exciting, interesting whirl of travel and fabulous dinner parties and satisfying work. Over the years, I’d begun to take a perverse pleasure in seeing just how bad my life could get before the whole thing blew and, as an interesting corollary, just how severely I could punish myself for having been so arrogant as to think that my untapped potential and vague desire to succeed were of interest to anyone but me. Since I had run out of other options, this experiment served as a sort of substitute for ambition.
– In The Drink, Kate Christensen
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The Divine, The Dumbasses And The Dickholes
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’
‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.‘”
There’s a storm blowing in Houston that involves a city equal rights ordinance, religious liberty, and the separation of church and state.
On May 28th, Houston’s Lesbian mayor signed an ordinance into law that, according to the Houston Chronicle:
[B]ans discrimination based not just on sexual orientation and gender identity but also, as federal laws do, sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, pregnancy and genetic information, as well as family, marital or military status.
The ordinance applies to businesses that serve the public, private employers, housing, city employment and city contracting. Religious institutions would be exempt. Violators could be fined up to $5,000.”
After the anti-discrimination bill was signed into law, opponents began a petition drive to launch a referendum that could overturn the measure. The problem arose when preachers at several Houston churches began to speak from their pulpits and instruct their members to sign the petition.
The petition drive fell 2000 votes short. Opponents of the equal rights policy then, in conjunction with “the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group focused largely on opposing same-sex marriage and abortion,” (http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/houston.asp) sued the city and placed the law on hold. The city of Houston, in return, subpoenaed the sermons of many of the pastors who had campaigned for the referendum from their pulpits, in order to investigate if the churches had violated the city’s charter rules, and if those churches should maintain their tax exempt status in light of their violation of the laws regarding the separation of church and state. The case continues….
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I found out about this story when someone told me their church would be showing a video about the case at Sunday night services. This video would most certainly attempt to paint the story as one of evil liberals attempting to quash and oppress right-thinking and morally upright Christians. I almost jumped up and down this made me so angry.
First, don’t ANYBODY dare try to justify equal rights for some and not ALL in the name of MY Jesus. I can’t imagine anything less Christ-like. Everyone is entitled to their own religious opinions about issues of morality. I respect that as much as I want people to respect my own beliefs. But no one who calls themselves a Christian should be for discrimination towards any of God’s creations or against loving your neighbor as yourself.
In the version of this Greatest Commandment story in Luke 10:25-37, the practitioner of Torah law goes on to ask Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”. And Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. In the parable, the “clergy” – the Jewish Priest and the Jewish Levite – pass the beaten Jew, crossing over to the other side of the road. The Samaritan, whose people are sworn enemies of the Jews, stops and through his actions, becomes a minister and a neighbor to the injured, helpless man.
“The question is not ‘Who is my neighbor?’ but ‘To whom am I being a neighbor?'”
Dear Houston, dear Christians, dear world, in the words of Jesus, “Go and do likewise.”
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Now for my REAL rant.
If your preacher ever tells you how to vote, stand up, march out of the sanctuary and don’t come back, first for the simple, vital importance of upholding the separation of church and state.
Conservative Christians like to say the United States is a “Christian country” and should be governed thusly. But why can’t those people have the foresight to see the danger in religion becoming entrenched in national policy. Christian government might sound great to you if you’re a Christian, but how would you feel if you were Islamic or Buddhist or Jewish or Atheist?
Can’t picture that? Let’s talk about ISIS and the other extreme Islamic groups who want to impose their religious beliefs on the people of their countries? That’s not religious freedom. That’s the imposition of religion. That’s all the Caliphate which ISIS is fighting (read: slaughtering) to institute is – a region ruled entirely by Islamic law.
Think that doesn’t matter because your Christianity is going to remain the majority religion in the United States? Guess again. According to a survey conducted in 2012, numbers of Americans self-reporting as “Christian” continue to drop, while Mormonism (Are Mormons Christians? I don’t know. I’m not here to argue that with you.) and Islam are the fastest growing religions in the US. So all you folks who wouldn’t vote for Mitt Romney because he was Mormon? Give that a think. And what happens in 20 years when the majority claims that the U.S. is a Muslim nation. What do you want your religious freedom as a United States Christian to mean then?
Finally, the other reason you need to run for the hills if your preacher gets political is that God created you in God’s image to think for yourself – to love God with all your MIND.
Many people believe that being a minister gives you a special Batphone to God that the laity don’t have. That’s some bullshit.
If you go to a mainline church, your preacher has probably gone to theology school and graduated with a Master’s degree. That may give them more theological education that you. But it doesn’t make them holier or smarter than you.
If you go to a specious church, your pastor might be, well, just anybody.
I, myself, went to theology school for a few years, but left short of my Master’s. But let me tell you, there were plenty of folks studying there who were dumbasses and dickholes – some of them already serving churches. I think the moment I became totally disillusioned and decided to quit school was one night in my “History of American Theology” class. We were supposed to read something by Adrienne Rich and be prepared to discuss it in class.
When it was time for the discussion to begin, the good ol’ South Georgia middle aged white men in the back of the room drawled to the teacher, “We didn’t read that Adrienne Rich crap. She was against the war in Viet-NAM!”
I don’t want those morons who can’t even have an open-minded discussion, who are afraid to even read something that might challenge their preconceptions, telling me how to vote or how to think. Your pastor right now very well could be one of those close-minded, small-minded, feeble-minded dumbasses or dickholes.
So open your mind. And open your eyes. Embrace the true depth and meaning and power of the Commandment to love God with your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. Imagine being a minority, being excluded, being passed by. Understand that God has called us all to a purpose in this life, not just those who minister with a title from the pulpit. And know that we all have direct, open lines of communication to God, our creator and our image, 24/7. And don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.
Selah.
UMC Rev. Frank Schafer’s Final Hearing Tomorrow
Keep Reverend Frank Schafer, the United Methodist Church, LGBTQA clergy and laity, and the members of the Judicial Council in your prayers as this important hearing goes forward tomorrow in Memphis. The hearing will determine whether Rev. Schafer is able to keep his credentials as an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church after officiating at the marriage of his son and his son’s partner. The outcome may also have ramifications regarding the future of the “United” Methodist Church.
The Judicial Council of The United Methodist Church will conduct an Oral Hearing in the case of the Rev. Frank Schaefer at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 22, at the Doubletree Hotel at 185 Union Avenue in downtown Memphis, Tenn., according to a media release from the Judicial Council.
The Judicial Council is the highest judicial body or “court” of The United Methodist Church. The Judicial Council determines whether the actions of the denomination’s official bodies conform to church law, either on appeal of lower rulings or through requests for declaratory decisions. The nine-member council is elected by the General Conference, the denomination’s legislative body. Decisions of the Judicial Council are final.
The Rev. Christopher Fisher, who served as counsel for the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference in a church trial against Schaefer in November 2013, appealed the decision of the Northeastern Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals to overturn the trial court decision and reinstate Schaefer’s ministerial credentials at a hearing in June 2014.
Schaefer, former pastor of Zion United Methodist Church of Iona in Lebanon, Pa., was charged under United Methodist church law for having officiated at the same-sex marriage of his son in 2007. A trial court made up of 13 ordained United Methodist clergy from the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference found Rev. Schaefer guilty of the charge of conducting a ceremony that celebrates homosexual unions and a majority also found Rev. Schaefer guilty of disobedience to the order and the Discipline of The United Methodist Church. The trial court ordered a 30-day suspension for Rev. Schaefer and provided that he surrender his credentials at the end of that period if he determined that he could not uphold the Discipline in its entirety.
On Dec. 19, 2013, Rev. Schaefer met with the Eastern Pennsylvania Board of Ordained Ministry, at which time he was stripped of his ministerial credentials. Schaefer appealed that decision to the Northeastern Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals, which found the penalty fashioned by the trial court to be unlawful.
The Judicial Council ‘s Oral Hearing will be open to the public; however, the committee’s deliberations following the hearing will be closed. Individual Judicial Council members will not be available for interviews and will not issue statements. A decision is not expected to be announced until several days after the full meeting concludes on Oct. 25.”
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Update from October 27, 2014
Methodist Panel Upholds Reinstatement Of Pastor Who Presided Over Son’s Same-Sex Wedding
A Long Run 
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