A few days ago, former pastor Joshua Feuerstein posted a video announcing a campaign against Starbucks due to their switch from festive holiday cups in previous years to a new plain red look for the 2015 holiday season. In the video, Feuerstein claims that Starbucks wanted to “take Christ and Christmas off of their brand new cups” because, […]
Category: Good stuff
[Reblog] 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice
50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice
APRIL 17, 2009
April 16 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of a little book that is loved and admired throughout American academe. Celebrations, readings, and toasts are being held, and a commemorative edition has been released.
I won’t be celebrating.
The Elements of Style does not deserve the enormous esteem in which it is held by American college graduates. Its advice ranges from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense. Its enormous influence has not improved American students’ grasp of English grammar; it has significantly degraded it.
The authors won’t be hurt by these critical remarks. They are long dead. William Strunk was a professor of English at Cornell about a hundred years ago, and E.B. White, later the much-admired author of Charlotte’s Web, took English with him in 1919, purchasing as a required text the first edition, which Strunk had published privately. After Strunk’s death, White published a New Yorker article reminiscing about him and was asked by Macmillan to revise and expand Elements for commercial publication. It took off like a rocket (in 1959) and has sold millions.
Ted Cruz, Dominionism and Jesus
Fantastic
Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
As a Jew who is familiar with “The Gospels” there is something perplexing about some Christians in America who have risen to power in our political process within the last four decades. Much of Jesus message, as detailed in “The Gospels” has been one of sympathy to the poor, enmity to the rich and love for humanity. I can give you the time tested quotes but just about everyone is familiar with them. Indeed through my childhood and formative teen years Christmastime every year would yield endless repetition of “Peace on Earth, Good Will to All Men”. Sometime in the 1970’s people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell gained prominence and political power preaching their version of Christianity. These Christians became Kingmakers as it was assumed and actually true that their millions of followers would vote as a bloc. The Christianity that they preached…
View original post 1,918 more words
2015 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,300 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 38 trips to carry that many people.
Great Idea! The Barking Lot (Doggy Parking Bays)
If you have ever wanted to go shopping but had nowhere to leave the dog, IKEA may have come up with the perfect solution.
The Swedish furniture giants have created doggy parking bays where customers can leave their pooches while they have a wander around the store.
The dedicated spaces, complete with artificial grass, water bowls and a secure place to tie them, have been set up outside stores in Cologne, Germany.
It gives customers with pets a place to leave them while they negotiate their way around the furnishings shop.
The company is well known for its childcare areas and even set up a special installation – complete with a flatscreen TV showing sports and computer games – for retail fatigued men in Sydney, Australia, one Father’s Day.
This latest concept, which has proved popular with social media users, is designed to stop people from leaving their dogs inside…
View original post 89 more words
Love wins!
Oh my gods!
In all sincerity it has taken this long to convince myself I’m not dreaming … I got a text from a rights group that announced the decision the moment it was given, but … wow.
I expect, once it’s sunk in, I shall have more to say in days to come but right now I’m too overwhelmed. Also I’m busy baking in a daily hell of record breaking GEORGIA summer highs. 110°F in the shade is terrible for cognitive thought and/or creativity (which potentially explains a great deal about the deep south).
Congrats to all the newlywed couples out there and all the ones whose marriages have been properly accepted and respected by the laws of our supposedly free nation.
Related articles
- #LoveWins Celebrities React To Today’s Historic SCOTUS Marriage Equality Ruling! (worldofwonder.net)
- Apple’s Tim Cook Praises SCOTUS Marriage Equality Ruling (macobserver.com)
- 2016 Presidential Candidates React to SCOTUS Marriage Equality Ruling (talkradionews.com)
- Here Is The Supreme Court Ruling That Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage In The US (pinkisthenewblog.com)
- Whiny Mike Huckabee Thinks SCOTUS Can Go Fuck Itself (crooksandliars.com)
Gay teen, valedictorian delivers coming out speech that was blocked by school
Happy Mothers’ Day!!
I know it’s not Mothers’ Day all over the world. Sue me, I’m in the U.S. and I didn’t even realise it was this weekend here until Friday leaving work, okay?
Anyway, Love or Lust is 100% off anywhere I could set it. Ready or Not is 50% off in all the same places. Oh, did I mention this sale is going to run all week?
As usual I’ve too little practical control over Nook and Kindle pricing. Amazon will probably eventually price match me, but I can’t say when. Kindles and Nooks can read the files you’d get from All Romance eBooks, so I recommend users of those devices consider that source.
I know, a Lesbian Teen Romance, what kind of Mother’s Day gift is that?
I don’t know. I suppose I was thinking about all of those lesbian mothers out there who in the past year have seen their lives validated and vindicated somewhat in … is it 38 states, plus DC and Puerto Rico now? Some people prefer YA/Teen fiction; I mean some of the best new books I’ve read in the past decade was the Harry Potter series. Maybe it could be a way for some of my lesbian/bi female readers to prime their mother(s) for letting her/them know about the new fiancée and future daughter-in-law they’ll be meeting today? Give me a break, it makes more sense than some of the places out there having a sale this weekend.
And, whether you’re a mother of human kids or furry/feathered/scaly ones have a happy Mothers’ Day whether you grab a copy of my books or not.
Related articles
- Geek deals: Unlimited VOIP calls for $9.99 per month for the first year at Vonage (geek.com)
- Coke’s Interactive Mother’s Day Story Lets You See Life Through The Eyes Of Mom And Daughter (fastcocreate.com)
- Deals of the Day (5-04-2015) (liliputing.com)
- 40% OFF Mother’s Day Sale! (smileandwave.typepad.com)
- Mother’s Day Tribute (anne-writingjustbecause.blogspot.com)
In Which Edmund Schubert Withdraws From the Hugos
Truly awesome and exceedingly well said.
Edmund Schubert, editor of Intergalactic Medicine Show, has withdrawn from consideration for the Best Editor Hugo (short form). He posted a letter about it on Alethea Kontis’ site, but technical problems have made it difficult to access. So I am resposting it here for him and for Alethea. What follows here, unedited, is his letter and Alethea’s intro paragraph. Comments are off.
—————–
Edmund Schubert is a dear friend and has been since IGMS was but a twinkle in Orson Scott Card’s eye. For this reason (and because he has no true platform of his own from which to speak), I am posting this on his behalf.
I fully support Edmund in his decision. He continues to have my love and respect.
–Alethea
************************
My name is Edmund R. Schubert, and I am announcing my withdrawal from the Hugo category of Best Editor (Short Form). My withdrawal comes with complications…
View original post 1,148 more words
[Reblog] It’s Tonka Toys! All the Way Down!
A bit of brilliance from Laura J Mixon that just had to be shared.
BY LAURAJMIXON | APRIL 17, 2015 · 2:40 AM
It’s Tonka Toys! All the Way Down!
I keep pondering Tade Thompson’s recent post at SAFE: “I Own SFF Fandom (and so do you).” He cuts to the heart of something that has been very much on my mind.
The Sad/Rabid Puppies claim a moral basis for their attack on the Hugos. They say that identity-based politics have polluted our storytelling traditions. They long for a return of the good old days when SFF stories
were not about race, or gender, or sexual orientation, or cultural appropriation, or all those other pesky social-justice matters, but instead favored just-great-romps, without all the politics injected into them. And at this point my Spock ears appear and my right eyebrow floats up. I think, Fascinating.
You know what? When I read a story about a woman, especially an older woman, kicking ass and taking names in an exciting space opera or fantasy setting, I certainly don’t see politics. I see an exciting space opera or fantasy with characters I can really relate to. And I’m willing to bet my friends in the LGBTQI, dis/ability, and POC communities don’t see politics, either, when they read a story that has someone whose demographics match their own. They see that person who, like them, is fighting to find their way in the world, despite all the obstacles they face. (Obstacles that can differ, based on who we are and what we’ve encountered in our lives.) Who struggles to hold onto their humanity in the face of implacable hostility. Of denial of who they are.
The Sad/ Rabid Puppies seem to think of themselves as the true descendants of the grand masters of our modern pulp SFF tradition. I find this…interesting. The idea that stories about white guys overcoming obstacles—struggling to hold onto their humanity in the face of implacable hostility and denial who they are—is somehow less political than anyone else undergoing all those struggles—is simply so illogical to me that I can help but shrug and go, whaaaa? Because you know, the Grand Masters of SFF are my forebears, too.
Seriously, dudes. What would Spock say? (WWSS???)
I wrote recently about how the books of SFF writers like Heinlein and Silverberg and Simak and Asimov and Vance and Bradbury and Tolkien saved my life, when I was young. I was an abuse survivor (post1 | post 2), not to mention a really weird kid who didn’t fit in, and those science fiction stories I found in Prospect Branch Public Library saved my life. I didn’t care if they were written by a bunch of white guys. I cared that, like me, they spent all their time gazing at stars and poring over old tomes, dreaming up all these wild tales. Connecting our future with our past. Imagining all these different rich, complex, beautiful, scary worlds. Showing me that I wasn’t the only person who thought that way, and that my life wouldn’t always be crabbed and limited as it was then.
Speaking of Spock, I had the great good fortune of being around when the original Star Trek series ran, in 1966-1968. Only my parents were really strict about bedtimes. I was too little for ST seasons 1 and 2—my bedtime was 7:30, and the show came on at 8. By the time it started, sleep had gotten hold of me. But by the time the third season came on, my bedtime was bumped up to 8 pm!! So they would send me to bed, and turn out the light, and I would crawl into the hall, creep into the living room behind the couch, and watch the show—terrified of being discovered, but unable to resist the pull. And so I had the great good fortune to watch the last season of their original run. (continues)
Related articles
- William Shatner Rivet motorcycle to go into production (slashgear.com)
- The beautiful majesty of the Star Trek theme song … as sung by Will Ferrell (polygon.com)
- Shatner rises above recent backlash over missing Mr. Spock’s funeral (theglobeandmail.com)
- We Will Miss You Leonard Nimoy (bagogames.com)
- Japanese Americans halt controversial auction of Second World War internment camp photos and memorabilia (ibtimes.co.uk)
Jaye Em Edgecliff 