Mmmm yep that's definitely why 64% of millennials, the least religiously-affiliated generation ever, wouldn't vote for an atheist. Because atheists are in charge. OKAY.

Couldn't one also flip the law— if a religious statement has to be given equal weight to a secular one, can't students then say "Well my secular statement must now be given equal weight to the religious rant that other student just went on?" and start just, like, reading Dawkins out loud for fifteen minutes or…

...at a low estimate, 80% of the US is Christian and under 2% is atheist. Care to try that one again?

If I were a high school student in TN right now, I'd be doing some serious research on how best to use this law for trolling/repealing purposes. High school students: use your powers of mischief and undercutting authority for good!

I feel so fortunate that, at least in my European History classes, people had their shit together enough that we managed to cover the Reformation without anyone losing their shit. Of course, World History the year before made a confirmed atheist of me. The most "religious expression" I ever got was reading a peer's…

YUP. And they open late too. It is PROBLEMATIC (only because I'm bad at keeping track of time).

Apparently!

No, the Royal Family (and fellows of St. John's College, Cambridge) are the only ones in the UK allowed to eat swans.

IT'S THE LIBERAL IMMIGRANT FEMINISTS RUNNNNNN. But actually, I think they really do have this notion that these people, these Others, are going to take all their power away. I also think that's part of the resurgence of "we're so persecuted" narratives from the religious right. Of course they aren't, at all. But they…

Something's got to give. I just hope we don't end up turning into the Wild West, semi-permanently. I kind of think the Republican Party's dying and will end up turning into something else, and part of the insanity is that that's a really tumultuous thing to have happen. We're also seeing the traditional holders of…

Why is "yes, it's your right to carry your gun on public property and any private property whose owners allow it. And it is our right not to allow you to carry your gun onto our property. This is how rights work" so hard for them?

That's the thing, right? As soon as one side is carrying giant guns around, dissent gets silenced. Especially because the people waving assault rifles around a parking lot are probably not the responsible, sane gun owners.

And this is why it bothers me that gun nuts say "It's to defend our way of life." Excuse you, I want a way of life where I don't have to worry that someone's going to shoot me if I accidentally step in their way in the grocery store or they get pissed off by my bumper stickers in the parking lot. That is INSANE.

Just like how free speech only applies to them? Yeah, figured. Ugh, that's unfortunate. I wonder what it'll take to get a lot of businesses to ban guns. Probably organized protests against going to businesses that have people with guns in them, which doesn't seem likely, unfortunately. Or something far worse, like…

The Starbucks thing confuses me. As a private business, don't they have the right to say "No, you can't bring guns on our property"? My understanding was that concealed and open carry only apply to public property and those private places that don't disallow it. Can businesses not say "We do not allow guns on our…

I wonder if firstborn girls are more driven than firstborn boys because girls are more likely to be put in a caretaker role for younger siblings? I know my siblings were the first people I directed in a play, whether they wanted to be in it or not...and I was always playing school with them where I was the…

I so miss the discussions we had in college (I went to a women's college) where we could actually work together at getting to the heart of something without all the ego and fatuousness that overconfident dudes bring to the table trying to show off. If it doesn't actually further the discussion, don't bring it up.

I hate Austen and adore the Brontes, though Wuthering Heights is my favorite. I didn't hate them either. I felt bad for Cathy and Heathcliff because their lives sucked and her brother was so abusive and awful, and bad for everyone else because of what Cathy and Heathcliff put them through. And Cathy's dream about…

Wait, were we all in AP English together? That book was the WORST. Our teacher even kind of admitted it. WHY.

I don't know that the scenarios are that different in terms of how they would be perceived (except in that someone crying in a bathroom is just sad, whereas someone throwing a phone at his employee is cruel)— both are public displays of disruptive emotion that would make other people uncomfortable. If I saw a man hurl…