Oh my God, you guys. I am so, so sorry that this has been happening to you. And I want to thank you for what must be truly non-stop effort to keep it out of the comments, because I have yet to be confronted with this awfulness.

We went to the Highland Games a couple of years back to watch my friend's husband compete in the caber toss (and have awesome beer). He was wearing a "sporting kilt". I was really jealous of my friend that day.

I'd be more worried about the growing python population, myself.

This week's edition of Everyday Sexism:

I loved that book! The thing was, he told her he couldn't sit on any surface she had made "unclean," and she casually informed him when he came home later that she had made a point of sitting on every seat in the house while he had been gone. I loved her for that!

Well, Afghanistan is land-locked and I don't know if it has any big lakes, so I'm guessing it hasn't come up much. But I'm willing to bet they wouldn't even give people the right to parasail.

That makes more sense, thanks. What about music?

I thought the same thing when I found out the Taliban didn't allow music or kite-flying. It's like they had focus groups to determine how best to be joyless fucks.

I don't believe hell happens after you die. I believe we create hell on earth for ourselves and others. A cursory look at my FB newsfeed confirms this view. :)

No, I understood that you're agnostic from other comments you've made on this story. I was just making a point about some Christians who (unlike myself) do claim to take the bible literally. They never seem to take the "love your enemies" part literally.

I am very suspicious of anyone who espouses biblical literalism, because what they usually mean is that God, to them, is about rules and smiting. They typically use stories from the Old Testament as their justification.

Ugh. I just had a vision of him joining Sarah Palin's YouTube network or whatever. Though it would be funny to see how long it would last before the name-calling started!

The baseball thing was... Interesting.

That's what appalls me about people like Beverly LaHaye, too: women who use actively use their faith to undermine other women!

Jesus said "love your enemies." That was pretty radical for the time. There is a reason Christianity spread first amongst those oppressed by Rome (Jews, slaves).

The Next Big Thing: repackaging crib sets as "demi-throws with matching book cushion". And because we would sell them in the most hipstery stores in the world, no one would EVER HAVE TO KNOW they came from Babies R Us! Even better, we get old beat-up ones and sell them on Preserve!

Me too. You're not alone. :)

Coming this fall to Saturday mornings on Cartoon Network...

You know, I gotta say that if following Bieber causes them to find out about Malala (because they're not likely to read about her in Tiger Beat or whatever), it's a win. File this under "people doing the right thing possibly for the wrong reasons".

There are companies whose entire business model is based on helping businesses keep their credit card servicing fees as low as possible, true.