Skimpy Sunday

(Via Roids and Rants [NSFW]; Mr. S Leather [NSFW])

An Appreciation

I am not as politically active as I perhaps should be. Many, many people have made many, many brave, courageous sacrifices in the cause of civil rights. Some because they had no choice, and some because they simply could not stand the world they lived in any longer and worked to change it. Many have and do pay with their lives for such courage. I have been fortunate in my relatively trouble-free, comfortable life to reap the benefits of their determination, and mostly cheered from the sidelines as they continue. I could do more; I should do more. It is my shame that I don't.

But I just want to say, even if it's just in this inconsequential blog post, that I admire those people. I love those people. I wish I had their strength and determination. I am with them in spirit, if often too lazy in practice. Thank you to all, past, present, and future, who fight for love, for respect, for equality, for humanity, for not just gay rights but all rights. If too often their opponents show the worst of us, they show the best, especially because they are not (always) perfect and their opponents are not (always) devils. 

These good wishes don't particularly mean much, but it's what I feel compelled to share right now.  It is almost quite literally the least I could do.

Skimpy Sunday

(Via Bill in Exile [NSFW]; Mr. S Leather [NSFW]; Roids and Rants [NSFW])

Fred Awwwwwwwwwstaire

Let's get the weekend started right, with a tapdancing English bulldog.

The Spiders Are Coming! The Spiders Are Coming!

Even the cold can no longer stop them!  They literally parachute in!  First Europe, and then the world!!!!!!

Skimpy Sunday

(Via Roids and Rants [NSFW]; Overnight to London [NSFW]; Mr. S Leather [NSFW])

I Think My Allergies Are Acting Up A Bit...

Leonard Nimoy's letter to a biracial Star Trek fan in the 1960s. 

Prehistoric Penis

I think everyone's inner 12-year-old has to snicker a bit at this ancient worm. 

To Boldly Bark Where No Dog Has Barked Before

This list pretty much pushes all of my squee buttons. 

Skimpy Sunday

(Via Roids and Rants [NSFW]; Mr. S Leather [NSFW])

Canadian Camels, Eh?

Mega-camels in the arctic! 

Green Genocide

To be Irish in America is to have at least a vague inkling of the Great Famine.  But the role of the English in the Famine is a particularly fraught aspect of Anglo-Irish history.  Some go as far as to say the Famine was a genocide against the Irish by the English.  I've always been more of "the English government was callous and monstrous" camp, but genocide?  I'm not totally sure.  I must say, though, I'm interested in Coogan's argument.  Perhaps I'll pick up the book.

There is a part of me, though, that is... not ambivalent about Irish history and my Irish ancestry, but a bit conflicted, mostly because there is strong, though not conclusive, evidence that my direct, Y-chromosome, surname line (I have several sets of Irish ancestors) is actually Scots-Irish from Ulster, who had a different history, in many ways, than the Catholic majority, especially vis a vis the English occupation and colonialism.  Like, that portion of my ancestors were complicit in the oppression?  Which, of course, I don't actually know.  Still, the notion bothers me a bit when Irish history comes up.

Skimpy Sunday

(Via Mr. S Leather [NSFW]; Overnight to London [NSFW])