Saturday, March 25, 2017

Weekend Reading, 3/25/2015


I was going to title this post "For the bookworms," but what I recommend in this post are not books.  So what would the online equivalent be?

In any case, you could do a lot worse than reading Masha Gessen's article on the normalization of the abnormal, on our everyday thoughts on the unthinkable, on how our minds are trying to cope with the new form of the American government where the incompetent rule, where family members (accountable to no-one) wield the kinds of powers they wield in dictatorships and where every new horror ultimately helps in getting us accustomed to this era of the end of democracy.

Gessen urges that we not follow in Trump's footsteps, that we not decide to fight fake with fake, that we not participate in the death of honest information, "infocide."

Sarah Posner writes about the fornication between Donald J. Trump and the American religious right.  She argues that the white supremacist flavor of the Trump administration does not bother some among the fundamentalists, as it's a return to their roots.  I would add that the religious right is also about the subjugation of women, and Trump's views align with that goal much better than the views of Hillary Clinton.  Still, I lost any remaining  respect I had for the beliefs of those American fundamentalists who voted for Trump.  Pharisees, they are.

 Those two are serious reads.  For something more outrageous and/or silly,  you can learn why the sexuality of women is like spaghetti and the sexuality of men is like waffles, as explained by a Christian sex educator at a school.  Munch, munch. 

Note, by the way, that those terms are justified elsewhere by a pseudo-scientific approach:  Men can compartmentalize sex, women's brains get all mushy like overboiled pasta, and that is not meant to be seen as delicious and appetizing.

Oklahoma Republican lawmaker George Faught, famous for his anti-abortion views,  gives us another frightening religious opinion about reproductive rights:

Asked by fellow state Representative Cory Williams about whether he considered rape to be the “will of God,” Faught boldly, if not necessarily unabashedly, answered in the affirmative.
“Well, you know, if you read the Bible, there’s actually a couple circumstances where that happened,” said Faught. “The Lord uses all circumstances. I mean, you can go down that path, but it’s a reality unfortunately.”
Williams then asked Faught whether he considered incest to be the “will of God” as well.
“Same answer,” said Faught. “Doesn’t deal with this bill.”

As far as I can tell, he has no religious training.