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Anti-Trans "Bathroom Bills"

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 Let's try announcing a big anti-trans conference, including a prominent notice that there will be restrooms organized to ensure the safety and privacy of "biological women and biological men" (use the TERFs' own made-up terms to help sell the impression that this is actually being organized by TERFs). Then when they get there, everyone gets a flyer announcing that the conference is carrying out a "complete simulation" of the proposed legislation they're sending to the state legislature. A copy of the model bill will be included, explaining it will make it a legal mandate that all public accommodations create a tiny single-seat restroom for every building. Accompanying text explains that "after all, "one should be sufficient. Even a modest restaurant should be able to pay the rent on a port-a-can, after all." That will make the TERFs positively giddy. Only when they are actually inside the conference facility do they learn that the port-a-
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The Amazing Spider-Man #33: "The Final Chapter"

https://youtu.be/laco8I-4_gE?si=eA6HIK3VGfHCNp9h I remember what an impact ASM #33 had on me as a kid. The overwhelming power of that massive weight of fallen machinery, the effort to lift it, the final success in throwing it off...the rest of the story, with the rescue of the canister, the saving of May Parker's life, the pain of Spider-Man not being credited as a hero, those things struck me very, VERY hard. It would take longer for me to fully understand the significance of things like Betty's horror at Peter's injuries, or Peter's loss of her and his willingness to let her go, of the importance of getting hardnosed with Jonah. It would literally take me until my forties to fully understand that it was all right if only one person like an intelligent doctor or a loving relative appreciates you, even if the whole world doesn't know who you are...or if the whole world thinks you're a pig.
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"A Priest, a Minister and a Rabbi..."

 This is the only "a Priest, a Minister and a Rabbi..." story I actually enjoy telling, because it turns on actual aspects of Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism, and because it provides me with opportunities to add in accent and dialect. A Catholic Priest, an Evangelical Minister and an Orthodox Rabbi were taking a break from a multifaith conference, refreshing themselves in a nearby forest. "It was in a forest much like this one," the Priest said, a trace of an Irish accent in his voice, "when I startled a very fierce bear who reared up taller than myself by about as much as my arm can reach, and raised his monstrous paws, with his claws extended quite terrifyingly. I knew at once I was beyond any Earthly hope, and only Divine aid could save me, so I fished out the vial of holy water I always carry around my neck and dashed it in his hairy face and cried, ' In nomine Pater, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti! ', and I give you my word as a man of the clo
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If You Were Going To A Halloween Party...

 Not that I am (alas), but if I were, what would I go as? Someone on Twitter asked for costume ideas for a swingers' Halloween party, and this was my suggestion: At a second-hand store, buy three or four fedoras and a toy pistol with holster. On a belt, hang the holster and the hats, decorating the hats with washable blood stains and tiny circles of black cloth to represent bullet holes (making sure that the decorations can be removed without leaving traces, so you can clean the hats and donate them after Halloween). Go as a Nice Guy Slayer. I figured that costume would be popular with women, if not with men.
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Die Gedanken Sind Frei

 I've always been fond of this old German song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCKzYmZG2ow Fierce yet also playful, no wonder the Nazis hated it so much. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j54HIGk_AEI I liked Pete Seeger's translation, which was the first version of it I heard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbwQXVcbkU0 I thought it would be better if it had a version which was entirely in English. My mind can run free My thoughts freely flower I think as I please My thoughts give me power No scholar can map them No jailer can trap them Though chained I may be My thoughts are still free I think as I please And this gives me pleasure My conscience decrees This right I must treasure My soul will not cater To duke or dictator Though chained I may be My heart is still free And should tyrants take me And throw me in prison My thoughts will burst free Like blossoms in season Foundations will crumble And thick walls will tumble No chains will we see For we all shall be free. Maybe I
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Arcadia, I

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I decided to start a new blog. Hi, folks.    // Les bergers d'Arcadie by Nicolas Poussin - Arcadian shepherds find a tomb inscribed with the incomplete phrase ET IN ARCADIA EGO, " And In Arcadia I ", which evidently means either, "And it was in Arcadia that I who am buried here died", or "And even in lovely Arcadia I, Death, am present". It was long suspected that the phrase was an anagram, but no-one was able to unscramble it. I suspect personally that it was an acronym for which the words beginning in E, T, I, N, &c., have been forever lost.
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