Thanks for the accurate citation. Sad to know that 4 times, millennia ago, men wrote a phrase that is being used as a governing principle in modern times to make sure women's rights are consistently denied.

And I swear I heard something that, until Roe v. Wade and the rise of Jerry Falwell, Evangelicals tended to believe life began at birth, not conception (the latter was a Catholic thing). I need to find a source for this.

Thats what I don't get. Even if we go with the Bible, it says "first breath" not "when sperm meets egg".

Here's what I don't get (well one of many, many things). This is all rooted in the idea of life beginning at conception (and, obviously, the value of a woman's life being absolute shit). What religious teaching does that come from? By Jewish law a fetus isn't considered its own person until the head is out and the…

Most regions of the world also lack legalised, structured same-sex relationships. These are still legitimate relationships and not correlated with the degree of misogyny present in a given culture. Most places don't recognise polyamorous relationships. They still exist. The degree of misogyny inherent in them is…

I hope he can't sleep at night knowing he's a murderer. I just can't.

Technically, the only people who believe that the soul inhabit every organ are the Ancient Egyptians and a small minority of the Roma (the Shintos are against organ donation because they believe the dead can pollute the living—i.e. they are fine with you taking the organ, but they won't accept a donated organ). The…

those who believe that are wrong.

Well, there's no right address to go to to shoot up a bunch of people.

Religious beliefs are a terrible reason to exempt your corpse from saving a live person.

Even if you do have religious beliefs that prohibit it, you should still donate your organs. Your religious belief are a pretty bad reason to let someone die.

... Shit, I can't find the right "in communist Russia" joke for this situation.

Can trans people legally change their gender in Russia? It seems like the kind of thing that wouldn't be allowed there. If they want to be homophobic about this, they first have to accept that trans women are women. If they want to be transphobic about this, there are no legal grounds to object to this gay marriage,…

Above all, I hope they remain safe. Good on them for finding themselves, each other, and happiness in such a virulently LGBTIAQ-hating country.

I get to not deal with children AND be lazier? WIN.

Thanks for bringing class into it, because at my job (caretaking) moms tend to have diminished productivity and it's not their fault at all. We can blame the shitty maternity leave policies, shitty health insurance, company policies that make no allowances for the specific needs of working moms, a government that…

Ah ok. I didn't realize Gawker Media was running so low on bandwidth they had to start rationing letters 6 at a time.

It is always baffling to me how some people cannot differentiate between ethical non-monogamy and cheating. And how many people seem to lump poly in with cheating. People that have difficulty with these concepts often have difficulty understanding the role of consent and are generally people to stay away from.

Seems pretty fucked up to arrest someone for feeding the homeless (humanitarian aid) even if there is a law against it.

No. There are a few statutory sex crimes where where they are consenting, like a 19 year old sleeping with a 16 year old, but that is a whole different ball of wax than saying "There are many situations where a sex crime can be illegal but consenting or nonviolent." No no no no. There are very few cases like that and…