This week in The Slacktiverse, June 30/July 1 2012

The Blogaround

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Twilight: Selfish Love
Edward Cullen's plan is, essentially, to be the polar opposite of the Classic Nice Guy but with all the same essential drawbacks and creepiness.

This week Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: Proselytizing To Sick People
Two days before my surgery, a member of my family wrote me asking if I was "right with God".

Storiteller contemplates the fact that not everything is quite what it seems when growing and harvesting potatoes, garlic, and shallots in The Alchemy of Gardening, or Lack Thereof. Last week, she also led the 2nd Annual Dessert Ride, a community bike ride that stops at 3 different businesses that sell desserts in her town. In Ride Report: For a Sweet Ride, she describes the variety of people that showed up and how the group got more than just a few sweet treats out of the experience.

This week Laiima posted the tides of change have turned, part 1, part 2, and part 3.

In addition to writing about being denied clergy status, Literata reflected on why rites and rights go hand-in-hand. She also described a direct connection between evangelical tribalism and the phenomenon of the persecuted hegemon, how that tribalism confronts her with the temerity of her existence, and how it feels to accidentally come face-to-face with someone who spreads related propaganda. In other news, she announced that she will be volunteering for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and gave examples of why their work is important.

chris the cynic reports: This week I wrote about why destroying the first Death Star tends not to result in moral qualms, why one should always vote even if the options aren't to their liking, about infinite sets in the context of the Christian Trinity, told people that I want them to comment (because I do), and asked if there is software that would help me make indexes.

I continued my look at .hack//Sign with two posts. In Can't Give Up I discussed Mimiru's inability to abandon strangers in need and in (Trigger Warning: implied harm to a kitten) Color My World I talked about Tsukasa's past and his connection to Aura.

I returned to Deus Ex with a post called "Final Exam", in which I talked about the first taste of multiple ways to approach problems in Deus Ex.

Coleslaw reports: Dr. J, our pastor, gave out a relationship survey she is going to use for a sermon series. Find out what the Survey Says. I wrote a review (for real, this time) of Moonrise Kingdom. Speaking of films, I also stumbled across a thought-provoking one hour documentary about religious speech in a public school called In God We Teach.

TRiG writes: In the wake of a couple of vicious attacks on lesbian couples, [Malta has amended its hate-crimes legislation to add protection to gay and trans people].

(Trigger Warning: racism, discussion of oppression) Note: also some linguistic geekery: [Qhat does it mean for speech to be "offensive"?]. This is a discussion of the linguistic concept of "expressives"

Michael Mock reports: This week, Mock Ramblings featured a bit of humor to start the week: The Bagpiper. Meanwhile, the Deranged Cultist continues to recover (and learn more of his circumstance) in Reflections on Retrieval. On the home front, Secondborn has decided to start potty training himself; this has resulted in a bad case of Shock and Awe, Parenting Edition. And, finally, I have the third installment (out of four, I hope) of Until The Rainbow.

Last week Ana Mardoll posted:
Deconstruction: An Intersection of Privilege and Pain
And it's true: privilege makes it easier to write about marginalization. Fat Acceptance advocacy is easier when paired with romantic privilege. Disability advocacy is easier when paired with financial privilege. Feminist advocacy is easier when paired with the privileges of education, of erudition, and of articulation.

In case you missed this

(Trigger Warning: dangerous childbirth and pregnancy)

These students, all in their third semester at the Ghazanfar Institute of Health Sciences, will soon join the growing number of midwives in a country where being a mother is ranked among the worst in the world. Women in Afghanistan are 70 times more likely to die in childbirth than from a bullet or a bomb, according to Save the Children. [Helping mothers, babies in one of the worst places for survival, CNN, June 27 2012.]

From the American Red Cross: what to do if you lose power during a heat wave and what you should do to protect your home during a power outage.

Things you can do

From the American Red Cross: New Shelters Open for Waldo Canyon, Flagstaff Fires and Strong Storms Leave Millions In The Dark As Wildfires Continue To Burn In The West. The American Red Cross is accepting donations online.

kisekileia writes: This is for a longtime (10 years!) online friend of mine who's gotten a seriously rough deal in life, and could really use the help. She has a beautiful daughter and really wants to be a good mother, but she needs to be stable to be the best mother she can be. She's not asking for much relative to her needs, only enough to fund a month or two's worth of meds and psych visits. Anything you can donate would be very much appreciated by both Bethanie and me.

--Co-authored by the Slacktiverse Community

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