A totally unscientific test

Here’s something only I would find amusing: A test that ranks your proximity to a dozen thinkers in meta-ethical questions!
After taking it twice, I got the same results. I was closest to the Epicureans (100% on a curve), Aristotle (92%), and Spinoza (90%). These results seem on the mark; with the Epicureans, Spinoza and I quantify [...]

Update: LGBT youth and homelessness

In the comments section of my last post about gay teens and suicide, a reader commented parental abuse is also responsible for the disproportionate representation of homosexual-oriented youth among homeless and vagabond teens.
The first two pages in a Google search for variations on the theme ”gay youth homeless[ness]“ yielded only websites with “gay” in their title; there appears [...]

Holiday Depression Watch III

Lots of family time lately. Makes me twitchy.
I realized a long time ago the only thing I have left in common with these people are genetics, and about eighteen years worth of stimuli we witnessed together. (My impressions and interpretations are my own.)
If I’d ever learned to argue with my sister or talk back to [...]

Family’s harsh response to coming-out multiplies likelihood of suicide attempts up to eight times

A San Fran State University study, as relayed by teh APL
Young gay people whose parents or guardians responded negatively when they revealed their sexual orientation were more likely to attempt suicide, experience severe depression and use drugs than those whose families accepted the news, according to a new study.
…Among other findings, the study showed that [...]

Female genital mutilation widespread in Kurdistan, parliament refuses to outlaw practice

Observers have long been optimistic about Kurdistan, the northern region of Iraq first to achieve such stability in security and economics that it is actually a popular Middle Eastern tourist destination. But now that this has come out, I can’t believe this society can sustain any democracy worth having.
Given how widespread the practice is, it [...]

Worth reading in full

Working off only tenuous local ties, the Wisconsin State Journal discusses the trafficking of children for domestic slavery in hte US and Africa.

Beat Feministing to it!

Sarah Haskins reflects on a year of advertisers’ outreach to women.
Thanks to Femmemeister, from whose Facebook profile I stole this from.

Threats persist against Pakistani girls’ schools

Via the Times Online:
The Taleban have ordered the closure of all girls’ schools in the war-ravaged Swat district and warned parents and teachers of dire consequences if the ban is flouted.
In an announcement made in mosques and broadcast on radio, the militant group set a deadline of January 15 for its order to be obeyed [...]

Belly dance as self-expression in Vietnam

Via The Peninsula Online:
HANOI: A belly dance craze is sweeping the capital of communist Vietnam, dropping jaws, lifting spirits and — the dancers say — empowering women through a new mode of self expression.
Since the Oriental dance arrived in Hanoi two years ago, six dance groups have popped up and more than 1,000 women have [...]

Merry Christmas

Probably Lennon’s most hubristic song. He proposes to bring about world peace and racial reconciliation through the observance of a holiday he didn’t, strictly speaking, believe in. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that…

John Lennon’s birthday is bigger than Christmas.