Link Log for March 11

Today's Categories: Animals, Armed Citizen, Books, Censorship, Christianity. Crafts, Excuses, Food, Phenology, Philosophy, Quiz, Videos

Animals 

Happy-faced dog:

http://www.dogpawsitivetidbits.com/2015/03/happy-hound-dog-on-gulf-shore.html

Author Mei Lian Hoe, whom I discovered just now through AsexualArtists, shares a video of a cat who knows how to get attention...

http://thecutestofthecute.tumblr.com/post/104906796145/bucky-oh-bucky-whatsbetterthanfantasy

(Irene does something similar; when I step out onto the porch she'll climb onto the stepladder to catch my finger with one paw and try to guide me to the part of her head she wants to have stroked.)

Armed Citizen Foils Crime 

Some web pages and newspapers don't feature these stories. So we do.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/mother-opened-the-door-for-a-person-she-thought-was-a-ups-deliveryman-then-he-put-the-gun-to-my-face-thats-when-her-brother-with-a-shotgun-stepped-in/

Books 

"Author is she? Why have I never heard of her?" someone said when reading the reference to Mei Lian Hoe. Possibly because publishers don't do much to promote new books and authors these days; they'd rather sit around wailing about the drop in book sales, thereby marketing illiteracy instead of marketing books. Anyway, I've not read it or even peeked inside it (warning: there's some offensive language on her blog), but here's the link to MLH's murder story:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unremarkable-Murder-Mei-Lian-Hoe/dp/1495976211

Censorship

When a baby is definitely on the way, it's too late to scold the baby's mother for taking chances. Still, the position of this web site is that failure to support Chaplain Modder's freedom of speech--especially, in his position as a chaplain, speech about his understanding of the Bible--is "shaming [all of us] in the eyes of God." Something much worse than young people's tender little feelings about themselves is at stake here. Feminists really scored an own goal with that blather about the "right" to abortion, as Germaine Greer observed, and homosexuals will really score an own goal if they are allowed to continue this insane babble about their "right" to censor any speech with which they don't agree: as with the pro-abortion feminists, their own blood is likely to be the first spilled.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/military-chaplain-was-praised-as-the-best-of-the-best-until-he-expressed-his-biblical-views-now-hes-battling-the-govt-to-keep-his-job/?

Y'know, just for the record, I think Ms. Flunder has the right to speak too. At a Christian college? I think that depends on whether the college is paying her, or merely letting her speak.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/included-in-a-christian-college-presidents-explanation-for-inviting-lesbian-pastor-to-speak-is-a-very-controversial-claim-about-christianity/?

Christianity

Here's a good example for Christians to follow. Seriously.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/i-hiredsome-prostitutes-preachers-shocking-blog-confession-comes-along-with-a-major-twist/?

Crafts 

+Marsha Cooper shares more quilts. Does the Internet need another "The Dress" sort of meme? This web site demonstrated, last fall, how one image can show up in different colors on different computer screens...I'm seeing the "wall hanging" as mostly a shade of pinkish brown that I consider beautiful, like cedar heartwood. Are you?

http://marshasspot.blogspot.com/2015/03/wip-wednesday-31115.html

Excuses 

He didn't shovel his sidewalk because he doesn't have a sidewalk. Good enough? Should he have shovelled a path, anyway? Should his neighbors have shovelled it for him, noticing that he's 70 years old? There are serious ethical ramifications here...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/city-repeatedly-tickets-man-for-failing-to-shovel-his-sidewalk-man-does-not-have-a-sidewalk/?

Food 

"Federal food police"? It's not just a joke any more.

http://fauquierfreecitizen.com/fresh-local-real-life-hunger-games/

News of the Weird 

Several of these stories are sort of weird if you think about it, but how weird is a marathoner running across North America to raise money for missions in Ethiopia? He's run as far as Illinois, and he's recruiting volunteers to run with him in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. (Thanks to Liz Klimas for sharing the story.)

http://www.rundarenrun.com/about

Phenology 

+Marsha Cooper gives thanks for the March thaw weather, which we're now enjoying too. Yesterday and today have been drizzly, but warm.

http://www.bubblews.com/news/9891022-gratitude-journal-31015

Did youall know that Google + has a label for phenology? Not as well used as it could easily be, but still...

https://plus.google.com/u/0/explore/phenology

Philosophy 

+Theresa Wiza reflects on the nature of love:

http://philosophicalmusingsandinsights.blogspot.com/2015/03/why-we-marry-have-children-or-own-pets.html

Billy Hallowell asks whether men who smile and open doors are guilty of sexism. I think the problem here is defining "too much." There's nothing sexist or otherwise bad about being nice; there is a fairly well known (and easily recognized, most of the time) pattern in which people act too nice as a camouflage for covert nastiness. In real life I think most women can spot the difference, oh at least nine times out of ten, between a genuine smile that says "I'm glad to see you" and the hateful smirk that says "Walk into this trap, fool." And so can men. At least, nine times out of ten, Highly Sensory-Perceptive people can. If that's one of the things extroverts genuinely aren't able to see, at least that would explain why people are still urging other people to tell themselves to "smile" when they're not actually pleased or amused...(Does this even have anything to do with sexism? Only about as much as it has to do with every other form of ill will.)

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/are-men-who-smile-too-much-at-women-and-hold-the-door-for-them-guilty-ofsexism/?

Quiz 

Quick and easy word-association game with some people who are trying to map the "mental dictionaries" of the English-speaking countries:

http://www.smallworldofwords.com/en/

Can you remember, without looking, which way the Apple logo faces? I mirror-imaged it, myself.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/11/can-you-correctly-identify-the-apple-logo-more-than-half-of-individuals-cant-study-finds/?

Video 

Revisiting the question whether people's confrontations with the law should be videotaped, this Greyhound passenger videotapes a woman violently attacking a female officer:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/10/woman-caught-brutally-beating-state-trooper-during-stop-but-see-how-the-rest-of-the-bus-reacts-to-the-brawl/?