I’m going on vacation for the July 4 holiday, so I’m planning to run some reposts this week. There will be a new Fountainhead post on Friday, because I love you all that much. In the meantime, here are some amusing stories:
• First up, please enjoy meeting Skylar Ittner, a young more-Catholic-than-the-Pope ultra-fundamentalist.
His private Catholic college expelled him – for putting up unauthorized anti-gay posters all over campus, and then being extremely hostile and defiant toward campus administrators who removed them, to the point where they felt frightened for their safety – and now he wants to sue them for stifling his religious freedom. (Help, help, I’m being repressed!) He was outraged to be turned away by “over 50” lawyers, came to the internet seeking a 51st, and argued at length with the many, many people who told him he has no case. Here’s his personal website for additional comedy.
• I’ve written about how the FLDS, a nasty Mormon splinter cult, is struggling to stay cohesive while facing federal prosecution on many fronts, including allegations of running a food-stamp fraud ring. One of their leaders, Lyle Jeffs, was charged in this scheme but slipped out of a location-tracking ankle bracelet and went on the run. He was just captured in South Dakota.
• Another story about irrational religious beliefs about contraception ripping apart marriages and families.
• Slacktivist has a great find: a Christian apologetics book from 1975, two years after Roe v. Wade, but before evangelicals decided they were anti-abortion.
• If you’re not listening to my wife Elizabeth’s Feminist Coffee Hour podcast, you’re missing out on some great guests. Here’s a recent episode on school-based health centers and the kinds of care they provide, including reproductive health care (did you know about these? I didn’t!), and another with journalist Lindsay Beyerstein talking about her new abortion documentary Care in Chaos.