Friday April 27th MISCELLANY!

• Iran may agree to snap UN nuclear inspections. Fingers crossed.


• The Kurds are planning to separate from Iraq. I don't blame them - Saddam didn't treat them well and neither are the new regime. But there are powerful forces that don't want this to happen, including Turkey and the United States.


• Meanwhile, Syria is not complying with the UN cease fire. A formal declaration of this non-compliance is expected next week, which will lay the ground work for a Western (read: American) intervention in the near future.


• The latest trackers are in. Rasmussen: Obama up one. Gallup: Obama up seven.


• I'm a sexist pig. It's true. Among other things, I believe that women are, on average, weaker, smaller, and are an inherently attractive target for a many a less civilized man. Which is why, if anyone should benefit from the Stand Your Ground law, it should be a woman who's being pursued by a man that's attacked her repeatedly, such as a battered wife in fear of her life. So what the fuck is this shit?


• Speaking of women with guns, check out Molly Smith here. Three first-place finishes in one day at a revolver competition. Seventeen years old.


• This, timeline accurate to within a few months.


• And, oh my dear lord, not this. So, so, not this.

Friday April 27th MISCELLANY!

• Iran may agree to snap UN nuclear inspections. Fingers crossed.


• The Kurds are planning to separate from Iraq. I don't blame them - Saddam didn't treat them well and neither are the new regime. But there are powerful forces that don't want this to happen, including Turkey and the United States.


• Meanwhile, Syria is not complying with the UN cease fire. A formal declaration of this non-compliance is expected next week, which will lay the ground work for a Western (read: American) intervention in the near future.


• The latest trackers are in. Rasmussen: Obama up one. Gallup: Obama up seven.


• I'm a sexist pig. It's true. Among other things, I believe that women are, on average, weaker, smaller, and are an inherently attractive target for a many a less civilized man. Which is why, if anyone should benefit from the Stand Your Ground law, it should be a woman who's being pursued by a man that's attacked her repeatedly, such as a battered wife in fear of her life. So what the fuck is this shit?


• Speaking of women with guns, check out Molly Smith here. Three first-place finishes in one day at a revolver competition. Seventeen years old.


• This, timeline accurate to within a few months.


• And, oh my dear lord, not this. So, so, not this.

Boy-meets-girl, boy-becomes-girl, girl-becomes-lesbian, everything works out for the best, story

So what happens when a Quiverfull family becomes a lesbian family without changing any of the players? Good things, as it turns out.

The surprisingly sweet story begins with a woman named Melissa having a traditional courtship with her future husband. In this case, by "traditional," I mean "completely chaste and completely under parental supervision." When the two married, they'd never been intimate with anyone, and they lived the "traditional" lifestyle of a married couple in the Quiverfull movement — she stayed home with the kids, he went off to a Christian seminary to study to be a minister, and together, they hoped to start a church for people who home schooled their kids.

But after awhile things, as things tend to do, got more complicated. Melissa's husband began sporadically confessing to having seen "bad stuff" on the internet. And one day, they watched an episode of Tyra together featuring a transgender fashion show, her husband seemed curiously knowledgable about the vocabulary and lingo of the participants.

...

Instead of quashing his desire to present in a more feminine way, Melissa encouraged her husband to be the person he felt he should be. He grew his hair long, began working out, and began dressing differently. Meanwhile! Melissa realized that she'd always been sexually attracted to women, and that her husband's gender had no effect on the fact that she loved him. And also meanwhile! Church leaders noticed that her husband was carrying a purse around and wearing eyeliner and acting more feminine, which they attributed to satanic intervention. Melissa was over dudes, Melissa's husband was over being a dude, the church was over both of them, and they were over the church.

Seriously, what could have turned out more perfectly? I usually hate the trope about how two people are "made for each other," but in this case, I'm willing to allow an exception.

More, much more, at Permission to Live, specifically in her Unwrapping The Onion series.

Boy-meets-girl, boy-becomes-girl, girl-becomes-lesbian, everything works out for the best, story

So what happens when a Quiverfull family becomes a lesbian family without changing any of the players? Good things, as it turns out.

The surprisingly sweet story begins with a woman named Melissa having a traditional courtship with her future husband. In this case, by "traditional," I mean "completely chaste and completely under parental supervision." When the two married, they'd never been intimate with anyone, and they lived the "traditional" lifestyle of a married couple in the Quiverfull movement — she stayed home with the kids, he went off to a Christian seminary to study to be a minister, and together, they hoped to start a church for people who home schooled their kids.

But after awhile things, as things tend to do, got more complicated. Melissa's husband began sporadically confessing to having seen "bad stuff" on the internet. And one day, they watched an episode of Tyra together featuring a transgender fashion show, her husband seemed curiously knowledgable about the vocabulary and lingo of the participants.

...

Instead of quashing his desire to present in a more feminine way, Melissa encouraged her husband to be the person he felt he should be. He grew his hair long, began working out, and began dressing differently. Meanwhile! Melissa realized that she'd always been sexually attracted to women, and that her husband's gender had no effect on the fact that she loved him. And also meanwhile! Church leaders noticed that her husband was carrying a purse around and wearing eyeliner and acting more feminine, which they attributed to satanic intervention. Melissa was over dudes, Melissa's husband was over being a dude, the church was over both of them, and they were over the church.

Seriously, what could have turned out more perfectly? I usually hate the trope about how two people are "made for each other," but in this case, I'm willing to allow an exception.

More, much more, at Permission to Live, specifically in her Unwrapping The Onion series.