New Disqus is live (sigh)

Welp, it’s official: All those long and tedious hours of work, planning and troubleshooting I’ve put into customizing the appearance and function of this blog’s comments have been promptly rendered moot with the imposition introduction of the New and Improved Disqus 2012™.

Highlights (compared to the previous version) include:

• Inability to customize general appearance (sizes, spacing, colors, etc.);
• Inability to modify code to allow for automatic hyphenation (something I was quite happy with);
• Inability to change position of comment input box;
• Inability to change avatar size or placement (avatars now create a wide margin of wasted space);
• Inability to remove superfluous bells & whistles (fave-like “star” system, “Community” and “My Disqus” tabs, “share” buttons, etc.);
• Inability to disable comment “likes”/“dislikes” (which I’m sure spammers and trolls would never abuse);
• Inability to set a default site-wide comment thread sorting method (by date, popularity, etc.);
• Inability to set custom text colors via CSS classes (which really came in handy for moderation;)
• Inability to hide attached media (though attachment should be disabled for newer threads);
• No more one-click comment editing (now requires browsing through several menus);
• No more “absolute” timestamps (eg. “12/30/2012 12:00 AM”), though you can see it by hovering your mouse over the uselessly vague “3 months ago”;
• Automatic hiding of longer comments by default that can’t be disabled;
• Forced comment nesting (with depth limited to only three reply levels); and
• Presumably several more issues that will surface over time.

Meanwhile, basic functionality like backlinks is still inexplicably missing despite being a quasi-standard almost everywhere else.

In short, Disqus has taken what was a mostly functional and customizable system and rejiggered it until virtually every helpful feature has been either lost or buried under layers of useless, unwanted and irremovable crap, whilst stripping admins of the ability to repair virtually any of the damage. And they call it an “upgrade”.

Look, I’m not opposed to all these new gadgets and trinkets being included in the new platform. If others enjoy them, so be it. But would it really be too difficult to at least give admins the option of enabling or disabling said gadgets and trinkets on their own blogs? Many of the features that are now immutable used to be optional in the previous platform, so it’s not like they don’t know how to do it. Really, what’s more basic and commonsensical than giving users the choice of which features they want included in their product?

I realize I may sound a bit peevish and nitpicky over this, but I think I’m entitled to be. I quite liked the way I’d gotten the old system to work (despite its flaws). Then Disqus decided they wanted to appeal to the crowd’s dissonant whims and simply steamrollered all over it without any choice to opt out.

While it’s possible they’ll eventually improve the current system, I’m not holding my breath. I’m rather going to be looking into alternatives and seeing whether they might give me the control I want over my own blog’s comments system.

</rant>

More brief thoughts on civility

Godless ethicist/philosopher Daniel Fincke is once again rankling feathers around the atheist blogosphere, this time by proposing a civility pledge to encourage people to moderate the tone of their arguments when addressing individuals or situations they disagree with. Predictably, there’s plenty I wholeheartedly agree with and a fair amount I take exception to for various reasons (though none of which amount to dismissing it as “tone-trolling”, an accusation flung around far too casually and inaccurately these days). In short, I believe it depends entirely on who is being addressed: those who are open to new ideas and reasonable disagreements, versus those who have a priori closed off their minds to any different perspectives in their zeal to discriminate against others because of their ethnicity, sexuality/gender identity, religious beliefs, and so on.

As is usually the case, the always-level-headed Ed Brayton best summarizes my feelings on the matter:

There are hard bigots and soft bigots. Ten years ago when the first court ruling on same-sex marriage came down in Massachusetts, 70-80% of Americans were opposed to marriage equality. Now it’s about 55-45 in support, and a much higher percentage support equal rights and protections for gay couples as long as you call it a civil union rather than a marriage. And in another ten years, I have no doubt that the numbers will reverse themselves completely and it will be about 70-30 in favor of equality. Why? Because most of the people who were initially opposed to it weren’t really bigots, they were just ignorant. They didn’t hate gay people, they just didn’t really know any and they were scared of such a big change so quickly. Once they started seeing that same-sex marriage didn’t really change anything and that gay couples were no different from them in any meaningful way, they changed their minds. So I think that soft bigots need to be talked to in a reasonable and civil manner.

But Tony Perkins? Joseph Farah? Eugene Delgaudio? These are hard bigots, people who are absolutely committed to hatred and discrimination and will do whatever it takes to maintain their hegemony. A civil discussion with them or about them will achieve nothing. For them I reserve nothing but ridicule. And while I do take the time to break down their arguments and show why they’re irrational, I also reserve the right to call them what they are: bigoted, authoritarian assholes.

Heads and nails, as he would say himself. Those who are honestly ignorant (as opposed to dishonestly so) and simply haven’t encountered or sought out anything that might change their minds should be treated with civility, at least when making a first approach. More often than not, being introduced to new ways of thinking – usually by encountering the very people they know little about and seeing how perfectly decent and harmless they are – is the ticket to getting them to see the light.

Daily Blend: Friday, February 01, 2013

Is it just me, or are months going by faster and faster?

Tennessee’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill ^[pictured] is back, now with the requirement that school faculty out any students seeking sexuality counseling to their parents.
(via Joe. My. God.)

Unbelievable: Remember the old joke about conservatives being so anti-Obama that if the President came out against Hitler, the Right would defend the Nazis? Oh, wait, that totally just happened.
(via @radleybalko)

More on creeping Creationism in Missouri.

And finally, I am quite happy to see Jen McCreight is back in the game. And not just because it promises more Pokébiology.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

EDIT (02/01/13 9:53 PM ET) – It turns out the above is the same Creationism/ID bill I mentioned in my last Daily Blend. (via Rob F)

On Al Stefanelli’s “Atheist Cult” tirade

Al Stefanelli

As some of you may be aware (and not just because I mentioned it in last night’s Daily Blend), atheist journalist/activist Al Stefanelli recently made a video wherein he launched a veritable Gish Gallop’s worth of attacks and smears against several writers involved with Freethought Blogs (where he briefly resided), Atheism Plus, and the social-justice-oriented atheosphere in general, accusing them of being “radical extremists” out on a witch-hunt against White men and who give other, “real” activists a bad name and so on and so forth. It’s a remarkably dreary and absurd rant, and given that even my SIWOTI syndrome only goes so far, I was content to link to Ed Brayton’s excellent debunking and leave it at that (I found his comparison to the rhetoric from religious-Right cranks particularly fitting).

However, Stefanelli himself was apparently dissatisfied that I supposedly misunderstood his argument, and additionally claimed that I hadn’t even watched the video (an amusing assumption, considering that while I did skip past some of the more lengthy segments devoted to explaining in mind-numbing detail exactly why certain bloggers he disagrees with are like a “cult”, I did sit through the majority of it and understood his arguments perfectly).

But let it never be said that I’m not one to rise to such an easy challenge (even if it entails spending hours of my own freaking birthday typing down some weird rant about how myself and my allies are something like the bastard child of Jim Jones and Pol Pot of godless social justice). And so, I took the liberty of transcribing every painful second of Stefanelli’s tirade, below, in the hopes of sparing anyone else from sitting through the wretched thing:

Daily Blend: Sunday, December 23, 2012

William Kokesch

Here’s hoping that finally having a decent laptop will make tomorrow’s family reunion somewhat more bearable for this antisocial loner, eh?

Your obligatory reminder that President Obama never ended extrajudicial renditions. (Then again, he never said he would, something a number of liberals seem confused about.)
(via @jeremyscahill; RT: @greenwald)

Montreal Catholic clergyman ^[pictured] charged with you-guessed-it.

And finally, best wishes to Dispatches from the Culture Wars’s Ed Brayton, who’s having a rough time with his health.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Quick updates: I finally found how to replace the old “Older/Newer Posts” links with actual post titles, something I’ve been trying to do here for quite a while. I’ve also replaced the clunky old search bar with a Google custom search bar, so older posts should now be much easier to find. Oh, and Disqus reactions are finally working again. That is all.

The Atheist Census ^[pictured] is finally back from its DDoS-induced coma, so get yourself counted if you haven’t already.

Speaking of godless representation, a new comprehensive Pew Research Center study reveals that 16.3% of the world is religiously unaffiliated (though not necessarily atheistic, of course).

Not that you need it (I would seriously hope), but the Bad Astronomer has a write-up explaining in detail how and why the world will not end this Friday.

And finally, it looks like the new SimCity will be the first in the series I won’t be spending my money on. It’s a damn shame; I love Maxis, but to hell with EA’s prohibitive DRM fixation.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Atheism Plus now has a wiki!

For those of you who still aren’t decided on whether the fledgling movement is a fit, or for those interested in learning a little more about social justice and how to be a better person around others from different walks of life, the Atheism Plus Wiki is now online. It’s still a bit wet behind the ears, though, so feel free to contribute if you have something to add to its as-of-yet rudimentary list of resources.

Me, I’ll just be trying to wrap my mind around all these weird prefixes and suffixes that combine in to denote the intricacies of different people’s genderal or sexual identities. (Perhaps that’s another example of cis/hetero privilege – I don’t have to learn thirteen new terms to situate myself on the gender/sexuality spectrum, nor do I often receive glassy-eyed looks for explaining my leanings.)

Daily Blend: Thursday, November 15, 2012

Nate Silver

Apologies for the third link dump in a row; blogging fodder’s running a little low.

Freedom from Religion Foundation sues the IRS for failing to respond to all those tax-exemption-flaunting churches. Eventual next step: Eliminating religious tax exemptions altogether.

Nate Silver [pictured]: Brilliant with statistical analysis, apparently not-so-brilliant with climate science.
(via @BadAstronomer)

Oh noes – Ed Brayton from Dispatches from the Culture Wars has a (hilariously incompetent) stalker! (Be sure to read the comments for further, equally entertaining, updates.)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Friday, October 26, 2012

Ann Coulter

The Twitter staff reveals their utter uselessness in dealing with death threats. I understand that they can’t do much with vague statements from random nobodies, but they could at least pretend to give a damn.

Kook vs. kook: You know you’re being a weapons-grade asshole ^[pictured] when Michelle Malkin is right to call you out on it.

I am officially dumbfounded that a campaign as incompetent as to produce this galling travesty of a faked image is actually a possible contender for the White House.

I don’t think these kids are ready to graduate just yet. (Hint.)

And finally, this stalwart bridge will advise you on just how tall your vehicle should be to pass under it:
(via Roger Ebert's Journal)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Tawfiq Okasha

Welp, as of this evening, I’m officially a student again. At least I’ll be studying from home this time, which effectively nullifies 95% of all my previous issues with school. Now, if I could only remember how to hold a pencil … (It’s between the thumb and index, right? Wait, don’t tell me, I’ll get it!)

The reality: Change.org to start allowing ads from all sides. The perception: The site’s turning into a Republican-run anti-abortion corporatocracy!
(via Joe. My. God.)

This is censorship: Egyptian TV host gets four months in jail for “insulting” President Muhammad Morsi.
(via @dmataconis; RT: @radleybalko)

After Arizona, a federal appeals court prohibits Indiana from defunding state Planned Parenthood affiliates.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Monday, October 08, 2012

Martin Ssempa

Man takes photo of storm clouds, gets questioned by FBI terrorism task force.

Today’s nonsensical threat that supposedly turns men gay and destroys civilization as we know it: Women drivers (in Saudi Arabia)!

Uganda pastor Martin “eat da poo-poo” Ssempa ^[pictured], chief proponent of Uganda’s “kill the gays” bill, convicted with five others for spreading false child-rape charges against another pastor.
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

The anti-Freethought Blogs brigade really is a stupidly obsessed lot.

And finally, have a gob-smacking 3D rotating nebula.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Saturday, October 06, 2012

Simon Singh

Another bunch of quacks opt for legal thuggery to try and silence debunker Simon Singh ^[pictured]. Let’s hope that libel reform holds up?

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA): “[E]volution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory […] is lies straight from the pit of Hell.” Phil Plait: Get the f@¢k off the House Science Committee.

And finally, Wonkette live-blogs the Jon Stewart vs. Bill O’Reilly “Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium” debate that I can’t see and that had better be released on video soon after it’s over, dangit.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Why you should use Blogger: A neat infographic

Amanda Kennedy at Blogger Buster has been an invaluable resource for tutorials and reference guides regarding customizing Blogger blogs, with the vast majority of my knowledge originating from her many tutorials. She’s now come out with a neat (if somewhat cluttered) infographic detailing just why it continues to be one of the most popular blogging services out there, and by far my favorite:

Click to view the rest

Not to go all shill and stuff, but seriously, anyone looking into starting a blog should definitely check it out. Speaking as someone who’s tried out a few other free blogging platforms (including WordPress.com, the free variant of the self-hosted WordPress.org), nothing else comes even close to the level of control that Blogger grants its users right from the start, especially with the utterly countless third-party add-ons available like widgets, javascript functionality, Disqus/IntenseDebate, etc.

(It’s also nice knowing your blog is hosted on a massive server farm that would require nothing short of a well-placed meteor to disable, wannabe hackers be damned.)

Tags: Blogger • BlogSpot • Amanda Kennedy • Blogger Buster

Maddow takes on “Obama is secretly gay” wingnut claims

You know your latest conspiracy theory is particularly crazy when even most of the conservative loonisphere prefers to stay mum on the issue. But of course, that’s not stopping that all-star repository of wingnut fervor, the WorldNetDaily, from advancing the newest anti-Obama fad: that he’s secretly gay! Rachel Maddow takes a particularly amused look at their claims:

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

RACHAEL MADDOW: This is one of my favorite places on the Internet: the WorldNetDaily, sometimes referred to as “WorldNutDaily”. It’s the ultra-conservative, super-Right-wing conspiracy theory website that has made a cottage industry out of investigating whether President Obama is maybe secretly foreign!

WorldNetDaily is Birther Central. The website store has made seemingly considerable money pushing at deep discounts the book Where’s the Birth Certificate?. The author of Where’s the Birth Certificate? is named Jerome Corsi, and he’s essentially the in-house Birther on the WorldNetDaily’s writing staff.

Last spring, when President Obama released a copy of his long-form birth certificate, it essentially gutted the thin credibility of WorldNetDaily’s central mission. And that meant that Jerome Corsi needed a new reason to get out of bed every morning. And Jerome Corsi has now found one. Oh, yes. Of course he did. Did you think they would give up on this?

In recent weeks, Jerome Corsi has written a handful of articles alleging that Barack Obama, the secretly Kenyan, secretly Muslim, only-maybe-the-President guy, is also secretly gay! Yes, of course.

Look at this; this is amazing:

A prominent member of Chicago’s homosexual community claims Barack Obama’s participation in the “gay” bar and bathhouse scene was so well known that many who were aware of his lifestyle were shocked when he ran for president and finally won the White House.

And of course, he won the White House only because he had one of fis former gay lovers killed and another one paid off to buy his silence!

Birtherism: It’s not just for geography anymore.

Here's what Jerome Corsi and WorldNetDaily now say is their evidence that President Obama secretly has the gay. They say long before he married Michelle Obama, he used to wear a ring on the fourth finger of his left hand. Since that finger can only wear a wedding ring, that means he was secretly married! And that means he was secretly married, then, well, if he was secretly married, it must mean he was secretly gay married? Yeah, okay.

One source telling the WorldNetDaily that when he met Barack Obama at Occidental College in 1980, his “gaydar” went off. He believed Mr. Obama and his college roommate were lovers. Gay!

PHOTO: College-age Barack Obama and Pakistani roommate sitting casually, cross-legged, on a sofa.

MADDOW: Just look at this photo of Obama and his roommate that’s been posted on the website of another one of WorldNetDaily’s main sources. Straight males don't sit on sofas together like this! Gay!

PHOTO: Florida pizzeria owner bear-hugging President Obama.

MADDOW: Straight men also don't let Florida pizza shop owners pick them up like this! Gay!

Straight men do play golf – in foursomes – but when Barack Obama does it with young male staffers? Gay!

Every President of the United States in the modern era has mad a male personal assistant, a so-called “body man”, but when President Obama has a “body man”, that’s code for “boyfriend”. Gay!

Kal Penn, the actor who used to work at the White House? They say he was another one of President Obama’s secret gay boyfriends. Why else would anybody leave Hollywood, particularly West Hollywood, to go work at the White House? Gay! Gay, gay, gay, gay! WorldNetDaily says so.

Now, the President’s gonna have to unveil his straight certificate. The long-form one. (Love these people.)

The President is a living, walking Rorschach test for the far-Right’s delusions.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: Rachel Maddow • WorldNetDaily • Jerome Corsi • Barack Obama • homosexuality • Birthers

Daily Blend: Friday, September 07, 2012

Bill Donohue

Right-wing pundits everywhere wish to remind you they’re a bunch of lying sexist idiots.

Meanwhile, Bill Donohue ^[pictured] would like to remind you that he’s still a disgusting child-sexual-abuse-excusing jackass.

Petition to replace Columbus Day with Armstrong Day!

And finally, it would appear that the Disqus CAPTCHAs on this blog aren’t exactly language-sensitive.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Sandra Fluke • sexists • misogyny • misogynists • birth control • contraception • Todd Kincannon • Ann Coulter • Dana Loesch • Michelle Malkin • Michael Berry • Chris Barron • Jonah Goldberg • S.E. Cupp • Bill Donohue • The Catholic League • Sean Ratigan • Robert Finn • Catholic Priests • clerical child abuse • Columbus Day • Armstrong Day • Neil Armstrong • Christopher Columbus • Indians • Native Americans • Disqus • CAPTCHA

Daily Blend: Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Andrew Wakefield

Predictably enraging, but Stephanie Zvan at Almost Diamonds showcases some of the sexist victory laps over Jen McCreight’s leave.

In the single most shocking development of all time, Democrats cave in and re-insert ‘God’ into their party platform, with sources saying President Obama himself was behind the move. Almost makes all their hype about inclusivity seem the tiniest bit disingenuous.

And finally, the always-useful Cracked.com provides a decent rundown of antivaccination hero Andrew Wakefield’s ^[pictured] disgrace (and four other lies that fooled the world).

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Jennifer McCreight • Blag Hag • Stephanie Zvan • sexists • misogyny • misogynists • atheists • atheist movement • Democratic Party • Democrats • God • Barack Obama • Cracked.com • Andrew Wakefield • antivaccination • antivaccinationists • antivaccine • antivax • antivaxxers • MMR vaccine

The haters must be so proud of their latest victory

Congratulations, all you sexist assholes and misogynistic slimeballs in the atheist/skeptic community. Your years-long (albeit recently intensified) campaign of vicious hatred towards all those uppity women who have the nerve to speak up about sexist attitudes and gender inequality has successfully chased away one of the movement’s best and brightest: Jen McCreight is out.

I’m done with blogging for an indefinite period of time.

I hate to do this. After my brief vacation from blogging this summer, I felt recharged and ready to write again. But that happiness ended almost instantaneously.

I love writing, I love sharing my ideas, and I love listening to the ideas of my readers. But I simply no longer love blogging. Instead of feeling gleeful anticipation when writing up a post, I feel nothing but dread. There a group of people out there (google the ironic term FtBullies to find them) devoted to hating me, my friends, and even people I’m just vaguely associated with. I can no longer write anything without my words getting twisted, misrepresented, and quotemined. I wake up every morning to abusive comments, tweets, and emails about how I’m a slut, prude, ugly, fat, feminazi, retard, bitch, and cunt (just to name a few). If I block people who are twisting my words or sending verbal abuse, I receive an even larger wave of nonsensical hate about how I’m a slut, prude, feminazi, retard, bitch, cunt who hates freedom of speech (because the Constitution forces me to listen to people on Twitter). This morning I had to delete dozens of comments of people imitating my identity making graphic, lewd, degrading sexual comments about my personal life. In the past, multiple people have threatened to contact my employer with “evidence” that I’m a bad scientist (because I’m a feminist) to try to destroy my job. I’m constantly worried that the abuse will soon spread to my loved ones.

I just can’t take it anymore.

And the saddest part of all – moreso than Jen’s leave, and even moreso than the inevitable gleeful crowing of MRAs and assorted douchebags – is that she says she feels like she’s let her supporters down. I can safely say that she has never done any such thing. Even with the few niggling disagreements I’ve had with her now and again, she’s never been anything less than an inspiration, if not a role model in dealing with the pressures incurred by her position. She is an admirable activist, and it’s heartbreaking to see her feel like a disappointment when she is absolutely anything but. It’s the movement as a whole that has failed her, and not the other way around.

Why does the atheist movement need feminism? Because as long as shit like this continues to take place and remain condoned, explicitly or implicitly through inaction, by vast swaths of its supposed intellectuals and icons, it will never be a movement that can rightfully claim to be the home of enlightenment and openness. We need to support social justice causes. We need Atheism+. And above all, we need brave people of all kinds and colors willing to speak out and take action when certain elements get a little too comfortable with how wide their let their privilege swing.

Edit (09/05/12 1:09 AM ET) – Edited for cohesion.

Tags: Jennifer McCreight • Blag Hag • misogynists • sexists • atheists • atheist movement

Daily Blend: Friday, August 10, 2012

Phil “Thunderf00t” Mason

Phil Mason/“Thunderf00t” ^[pictured] escalates his vindictive obsession with Freethought Blogs from scorned twerpishness into raging, possibly criminal assholery. Fitting that his excuses amount to, “Okay, I broke into your house and stole your bank account and credit card info, and I told a few people what your balance is, but how dare you imply that I might steal your money?!”

13-year-old boy who tried to sell hot dogs to help his disabled parents before being shut down by a city ordinance is now homeless.
(via @radleybalko)

Old gem: “You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist”
(via @normative; RT: @radleybalko)

And finally, a handy flowchart to help determine whether your belief that gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry is well-founded:
(via Joe. My. God.)

[full size (800×693)]

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Thunderf00t • Phil Mason • Freethought Blogs • listservs • Nathan Duszynski • Lynette Johnson • Doug Johnson • food carts • Holland, MI • terrorists • National Safety Council • flowcharts • gay marriage • same-sex marriage • Christianity • Bible • Old Testament • New Testament

Anti-feminist’s threats excused because Norwegian court doesn’t understand how blogs work

Eivind Berge

Remember Eivind Berge? The proudly and virulently “anti-feminist” Norwegian chap whose contributions to the blogosphere include denying the existence of female rapists because he totally would’ve loved it if a teacher had molested him as a teenager, and that women are horrible selfish harpies ’cause they’re the sole gatekeepers of the world’s reserves of teh secks, among several other nuggets of classy brilliance? Ah, thought you would.

Well, I haven’t paid him any mind since Personal Failure pointed me in his direction for that aforelinked blog post, so it’s news to me – of the entirely unsurprising sort – that dear sweet Berge has apparently been naughty boy. As in, he’s openly blogged about his titillation at the idea of police officers being murdered as a coup against the evil feminist-sympathizing overlords, or something. And for some reason, local law enforcement took notice [Google translation of original Norwegian article]:

There were items including Police Security Service said were calls to the police homicide and specific threats, which triggered the arrest of Berge three weeks ago. Some of the most controversial statements was:

• "I wish men as a group the police inflicted such losses that the community was forced to calculate that the most hateful feminist laws are worth enforcing"

• "Do malice that even a Norwegian cop hell is killed. How should it be done when the cops come to your door "

• "(...) attack on the police is something that blends in 100 percent of everything I stand for. Other supports murder I did not. "

Berge also wrote that he "planned" to attack a policeman with a knife on a Saturday evening at Torgallmenningen in Bergen, and in police questioning, he confirmed that he supports the killing of police officers as a tool in the fight against male feminists.

- He has encouraged and glorified the killing of policemen. The police see this as an immediate threat . We feared that he would do serious of threats within a short time, said police lawyer Rudolf Christoffersen of bt.no after his arrest.

Previously, Berge has also attracted attention by seeming to give support to Breivik.

"I had no idea that a formidable activist named Anders Breivik Behring already for years had been a meticulous planning of an attack that would show the world what the Vikings are made of," wrote Berge, who later denounced the attack and Utøya stressed that there were police officers his aggression was directed against.

Daily Blend: Saturday, July 21, 2012

Now a yearling!

Off to the Loto-Québec fireworks. No pics for you! (Because I’m lazy. And my shots make photographers want to hunt me down.)

The only reaction to the Aurora, Colorado shooting worth reading.

Happy birthday to Freethought Blogs ^[pictured]! May there be many more years of vitriolic muckraking ahead.

And finally, today’s offering from our Feline Overlords: Meowbify.
(via Pharyngula)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: fireworks • Loto-Québec • Aurora, CO • Aurora, CO shooting • mass shootings • Patrick from Popehat • medical school • Freethought Blogs • FtB • FTBullies • atheists • Meowbify • cats