RationalWiki:What is going on in the blogosphere?/February 2015

February 2015
The search for sex-positive hentai. Spoiler: There isn't any if you don't look that hard and ignore the good stuff on those same sites. Jimmy Kimmel: A message for the anti-vaccination movement. (With actual doctors!) Part 2: Hate mail and public activism! The annotated "50 Faux News lies in 6 seconds" Vine, courtesy of The Daily Show and Politifact.

The Simpsons... they might be American, but they're not in America! Idaho Representative Vito Barbieri is not an OB-GYN

Why academia is such a toxic environment The perfect response to sexist questions Cracked: "Feminism! And with that one word, I've already set the world speed record for turning a comment section into a septic tank." N.J. judge rules ‘conversion therapy’ claims are fraud. A professor at BYU considers the ruling (which he misrepresents) "totalitarian in the extreme" and "censorial". Christian pediatrician refuses to treat baby girl because her parents are lesbians.

It actually is about ethics in mainstream journalism. Peter Oborne quits the Torygraph over HSBC whitewashing. Evidence that everyday Islam and radical Islamism aren't quite identical: the jihadists who needed to buy Islam for Dummies. 1. Use lynching imagery to sell Photoshop addons, during Black History Month. 2. When people go "whoa wtf", assert your right to free speech, and threaten to sue them. 3. PROFIT!!! [citation needed] (The proprietor is also not the sharpest spoon in the drawer regarding copyright.) Steven Novella: "While I do not know what [NBC Host Brian Williams] remembered, it is wrong and naive to assume he is lying. Williams was likely betrayed by his memory." Daily Kos: "Can a vaccine be responsible for the profoundly stupid?" (Probably not.)

Cracked talks about what it's like to be a trans man. We sceptics need to have a talk about Bill Maher and his rather unsettling views about such topics as the anti-vaccination movement. [http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31446387 Comrades! The Glorious Leader has published the latest set of slogans for the DPRK!] Let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms by making mushroom cultivation scientific, intensive and industrialised! TL;DR version of right wingers' reaction to Obama's National Prayer Breakfast comments about the Crusades: "You say 'Crusades' like they were a bad thing." "The point is that whitewashing of one of the most bloody periods in world history is troubling on many levels." (Fun fact:  Up to one percent of the entire world's population died as a result of 200 years of Crusades.) (Maybe NSFW) It's not disordered eating, it's detox! SciBabe shows the concerning parallels between the FoodBabe's new book on healthy living and pro-ana advice. The Encyclopedia of American Loons was a new one to me. It does exactly what it says on the tin, and cites RW in a manner that suggests a high degree of familiarity with RW... If you see anyone linking to an article about a feminist who aborted a baby because it was male, it's made-up BS.

FoodBabe was, for two years, promoting products containing the "evil" ingredient BHT in the Kellogg's products she protested. On vaccines, Bill Maher is being a common-or-garden-variety dangerous crank again. Time to start the Bill Maher Dead Children Ticker? For next time some foolish person asks you what feminism has ever done for men. (Way more than MRAs ever have.) Gay marriage in Alabama looms, so let's refresh the memories of everyone who's been misled by the devil himself as to what biblical marriage really is! Cracked: 5 Ways We Misunderstand Pedophilia (That Makes it Worse) potholer54 takes on the anti-biotech crazies - and owns! Guys, I wanted to let you know about a personal decision I recently made. I’m an Anti-Braker. Reformed anti-vax Mom on the journey back to sanity. Mississippi and West Virginia (of all places) are the two states that deny religious exemptions for vaccinations. And -- surprise! -- neither state has had a case of measles in more than 20 years. (Unfortunately, the writer didn't completely knock down anti-vaxxer arguments by discussing autism rates in the two states.) BuzzFeed in long-form quality journalism shock: How Men’s Rights Leader Paul Elam Turned Being A Deadbeat Dad Into A Moneymaking Movement. A week ago, liberal NYMag writer Johnathan Chait wrote a piece decrying how "the language police are perverting liberalism." Slate responds by saying that while he may be misguided on a number of things, he's not entirely wrong. Scientists to increase interference with the Church. "Wasn’t Jesus himself the result of a three-parent family? Or did I get the wrong idea there?" You always wondered: Why cats love sitting in boxes. The polygraph has been lying to us for 80 years. From Sluts Against Monsanto on Facebook: Science Denial Mad Libs! The International Team of Comics Historians (I.T.C.H.) website weighs in on the anti-vaccination movement by posting images from a 1930 anti-anti-vaxxer tract titled Health in Pictures. Three notes on religion by Wesley Morganston. In 1962, the 7-year-old eldest daughter of author Roald Dahl and actress Patricia Neal died of measles. In 1988, Dahl wrote an open letter begging parents to get their children vaccinated. The main problem with anti-vaccination parents is their 'rugged individualist' egotism. The 15 most offensive things written on ReturnofKings.com