Northwestern students given live sex show

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Michael

And all the (relevant) responses have been amazingly mature:

More than 100 Northwestern University students watched as a naked 25-year-old woman was penetrated by a sex toy wielded by her fiancee during an after-class session of the school’s popular “Human Sexuality” class.

The woman said she showed up at the Feb. 21 lecture in the Ryan Family Auditorium in Evanston expecting just to answer questions, but was game to demonstrate. The course’s professor on Wednesday acknowledged some initial hesitation, but said student feedback was “uniformly positive.”

And Northwestern defended the class and its professor.

“Northwestern University faculty members engage in teaching and research on a wide variety of topics, some of them controversial and at the leading edge of their respective disciplines,” said Alan K. Cubbage, vice president for University Relations. “The University supports the efforts of its faculty to further the advancement of knowledge.”

Fantastic. Several students and the couple consented to the showing. And it happened. I find this incredibly refreshing. I’m sure there’s plenty of rage from the sexually immature Christian right, but who cares? They aren’t relevant to adult discussions on sexuality anyway.

I agree with other comments in the article that this is rather shocking, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s reality. People really do have sex and they really do use toys and they really do role play and they really do engage in fetishes. Not everyone is required to be comfortable discussing or viewing any of these things, or even doing many of them themselves, but I think it’s great that there are people out there – especially school administrations – that are mature enough to allow this. I think the ending quote from the class professor, John Michael Bailey, sums things up nicely:

“Do I have any regrets?” he wrote on Wednesday. “It is mostly too early to say. I certainly have no regrets concerning Northwestern students, who have demonstrated that they are open-minded grown ups rather than fragile children.”

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , , | 11 Comments »

Harvard to allow ROTC

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Michael

After DADT was rightfully repealed by Congress, conservative bloggers went apeshit, attacking everything in sight. It was cute. One of their targets was higher education, something to which so many of them seem so hostile, and the institutes that haven’t allowed the Reserve Office Training Corps program on campus. Harvard was an especially big target. Well, stfu:

The university said it will formally welcome Naval ROTC, which trains students for possible service in the military, in a ceremony on campus between Harvard President Drew Faust and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus on Friday.

The change of heart follows December’s repeal of the 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, which disqualified gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military.

“Our renewed relationship affirms the vital role that the members of our Armed Forces play in serving our nation and securing our freedoms, while also affirming inclusion and opportunity as powerful American ideals,” Faust said.

Under the agreement, Harvard will resume full and formal recognition of Naval ROTC on the effective date of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, expected to come this summer.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Wow, some honesty in Biblical translation

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Michael

I constantly see Christians making excuse after excuse over certain phrasings in their cultural holy book. It always happens that they argue in favor of the particular book and views their parents favored, as if by some magnificent stroke of luck they happened upon the One True Christianity. It’s pathetic. I mean, come on, let’s just look at the actual documents and actual words and translate them appropriately. No, that isn’t going to bring anyone to any cosmic truth, but it will at least bring some honesty to such a big piece of literary history.

The Catholic Church, while not known as the most truthful institution, especially if you want to look at their boy-rape record, and a council of its members made at least one honest change to one version of the Bible:

In a change in a passage in Isaiah 7:14 that foretells the coming of Jesus and his birth to a virgin mother, the 1970 edition’s reference to “the virgin” will become “the young woman,” to better translate the Hebrew word “almah.”

Of course, they aren’t going to alter their irrational belief in the magic of a virgin birth, but at least they have the wording correct now. And for everyone else it will be easier to point out that, hey, Mary had sex. Probably many times. Because that’s what happens not too long before babies are born.

Filed under: Religions | Tagged: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Thought of the day

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Michael

I always find it so entertaining when one Christian calls another “not a True Christian” or some such thing. As if there is any objective way to tease out what makes one person a better Christian than another. lulz.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , | 3 Comments »

Supreme Court: Westboro Church can picket funerals

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Michael

I can’t say I’m very surprised with this recent Supreme Court ruling:

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a grieving father’s pain over mocking protests at his Marine son’s funeral must yield to First Amendment protections for free speech. All but one justice (Samuel Alito) sided with a fundamentalist church that has stirred outrage with raucous demonstrations contending God is punishing the military for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.

The 8-1 decision in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., was the latest in a line of court rulings that, as Chief Justice John Roberts said in his opinion for the court, protects “even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.”

I find myself torn very slightly on this one. Deep down I knew the Westboro Church was going to win, but I hoped they would lose. I hoped it would be found that they were harassing families, not exercising their free speech rights. Because, come on. That really is what they were doing. But, still, I’ve been torn. As far as the law is concerned (something the church pretends to know something about), they weren’t targeting anyone. Even though everyone knows they were.

I appreciated when I read that Bill O’Reilly offered to pay the legal bills of the family. But that was when the costs were relatively low. Now the family may be in debt to the church for around $100,000. I wouldn’t expect O’Reilly to pay that amount, but I hope he does. And if not him, then someone. The Westboro Church is made up of pure scum, one step above the religious fanatics who physically harm others. Maybe they deserved this court victory, but they don’t deserve the sick satisfaction from further hurting the families who have lost loved ones.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , , | 6 Comments »

The Republican Plan

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Michael
  • Weaken the middle class.

Check.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: | 2 Comments »

in life, in wonder, in people

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Michael

in discovery, in love.

Filed under: Atheism/Humanism | Tagged: , , | 10 Comments »

My favorite Charlie Sheen quotes

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Michael

These past couple of days have been magnificently entertaining to me.

I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen. It’s not available. If you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded bodies.

and

I’m not fair game. I’m not a soft target. It’s over. There’s a new sheriff in town and he has an army of assassins.

and

Look what I’m dealing with, man. I’m dealing with fools and trolls.

He must have been blogging when he said that last one.

They lay down with their ugly wives and their ugly children and their loser lives and they look me and say, “I can’t process it!” Well, no, you never will. Just stop trying. Sit back and enjoy the show.

And my all time favorite…

I have one speed. I have one gear: GO.

Filed under: Humor | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

Not okay, Facebook

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Michael

Facebook wants to once again screw with everyone’s personal information.

Facebook announced today in a letter to Congress that the social-media platform is moving forward with plans to give third parties access to user information, such as phone numbers and home addresses.

In a letter to Reps. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Tex.), who both expressed concerns over Facebook’s plan to make such data available, company officials reiterated their now-familiar pledge to leave it up to users to decide whether they want their personal contact information to go out to app developers and outside websites. Markey has previously said that “Facebook needs to protect the personal information of its users to ensure that Facebook doesn’t become Phonebook.”

I discovered a few weeks ago that my number was actually posted on my profile. Presumably it happened when I got a BlackBerry and added the Facebook app. I’ve looked and seen that other friends with smart phones also have their numbers available; I doubt most of them know. And now Facebook wants to take advantage of this fact. It’s horseshit. I’ve removed my number, and I never had my address up there in the first place, but this is much too far. Facebook needs to pull itself back. It has 500 million users – there’s plenty of ad revenue to be had. There is no need to give seedy companies access to this sort of information.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: , , , , | 5 Comments »

More racist teabagger rants

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Michael

As if the Teabaggers didn’t have enough trouble with that little issue of racism, one of its biggest leaders came out and said this:

The Founding Fathers originally said, they put certain restrictions on who gets the right to vote. It wasn’t you were just a citizen and you got to vote. Some of the restrictions, you know, you obviously would not think about today. But one of those was you had to be a property owner. And that makes a lot of sense, because if you’re a property owner you actually have a vested stake in the community. If you’re not a property owner, you know, I’m sorry but property owners have a little bit more of a vested interest in the community than non-property owners.

Uh-huh. This would also “make a lot of sense” if you didn’t want poor minorities voting for Democrats.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: , | 16 Comments »

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