I’m not seeing anyone trying to “force” the Boy Scouts to accept gay members; there is a lot of social and cultural pressure on them to do so, but I’ve seen little if any rhetoric calling for them to be forced to accept gay members and leaders by law. The Boy Scouts, a private organization, [...]

That’s not the only thing under discussion here. The owners are locking out the current referees because they are in a contract dispute, and hiring scabs in their place. For those who support organized labor and recognize its necessity to society, whether or not the scab referees are going to “do a good job” is [...]

Shouldn’t that title read “SCOTUS seems to have racist Arizona immigration law’s back?”

The way it’s worded now, it’s stating that the law seems to support the Supreme Court—not that the Supreme Court seems to support the law.

It’s not as much about whether any violence occurred, and more about Zimmerman’s specific claims that he had a broken nose and that he’d been bleeding from the head due to an altercation with Martin. While you’re right that not all violence leaves external and obvious physical signs, the broken nose and a cut on the [...]

Yeah, that’s my thought too… dance seems more to me like an art than a sport. I’ve always thought of the difference between an art and a sport as lying in the emphasis on technique and skill rather than expression—which is why I’d put figure-skating in the “sport” category and dance, at least as I [...]

I don’t at all dispute that men dominate the world of chess at the moment; the statistics are undeniable, as you present them. But I continue to be skeptical that the differences between top-level chess players can be as easily (if at all) chalked up to biology as the differences between top sprinters or top [...]

I think a lot of it—aside from the fact that sports are popular, particularly with the demographics that tend to frequent bars that have televisions—is that sports shows are something that someone can watch casually or seriously. A dramatic show or comedy tends to require the constant attention of the audience, and an audio feed, [...]

Chess? The top women scrapes in around 50th amongst the men. Chess? Really? I find it very difficult to believe that the differences in chess aren’t based in culture rather than biology. Running, basketball, golf… those make sense, as they privilege strength, size, and speed, which elite men tend to have an advantage in compared to [...]

For many feminists in the US, much of the clothing marketed to American women is “a symbol of sexual oppression, one which is an archaic relic of patriarchal practices.” If we’re banning certain articles of clothing on that basis alone, we’ve got a long list to start on. If we’re really looking for the government [...]

They’re trying to prevent people from shoving their religion, any religion, in other’s faces. How is that any different from when conservatives say that same-sex couples engaging in public displays of affection are shoving their sexuality in others’ faces? Wearing a visual indicator of one’s religion is not “shoving it in anyone’s face.” Simply saying “I [...]

I don’t have any advice on dealing with your emotional/psychological situation, as I really don’t have any useful experience there, but as someone who’s administered a few blogs in my day I do have some practical advice on ending the attacks: First, it might be a good idea to set your WordPress to moderate all [...]

Consider that Virginia Thomas is a major figure in the Tea Party movement. Consider also that it’s two weeks before a key midterm that could determine not only the course of the next two years of American politics, but possibly the course of the next ten. Whose interest is served in stirring up hate now against [...]

This kind of self-protection is accessible to everyone.

Did you mean to say that it isn’t accessible to everyone? The rest of the paragraph seems to imply that you did and that this is a typo.

The video is perpetuating a number of familiar rape myths: that rape happens by a stranger, that rape is a problem of the poor and black communities, and that the victim (Antonie’s sister, in this case) will recover easily — no harm done. Except that in this case, it (apparently) was a stranger (since otherwise, one presumes, [...]