Another online rec

The Japanese Cute Overload.

You should probably have your Japanese-language pack installed before you visit, or it will probably all be boxes or something.

(Navigation tip:

犬 is dog,

猫 is cat.)

The site is ADORABLE! The cute dog category was my favorite. It was also a good place to practice my rudimentary Japanese. But mostly, very very cute. A sample:

Read this.

It's short and it's cute. Marry Me.

Also, the RIAA is stupid. They want to charge radio stations for playing music. Err... I always thought of the radio as advertising. How else are people going to know when new music is coming out? But then, just as my faith in the music industry had completely gone, I was able to download the entirety of Nine Inch Nails new album from the internet for free. Thank you, Trent Reznor. Your music is angry, but damn if you don't know how to make and distribute music.

I didn't think people could actually be perfect

even in concept. I was wrong.

My favorite online comic

Everyone with even a little bit of fantasy geek in them should read The Order of the Stick.

This is a filler comic from the series, and one of my very favorite things ever:

The Pill kills babies?

Stupid things I have read today:

"Planned Parenthood is a multi-million dollar industry interested in making money off contraception." Planned Parenthood often gives out contraception for FREE, has a large sliding scale, volunteers, and WILL help young women, regardless of their ability to pay.

In other Planned Parenthood quotes: "Planned Parenthood pumps hundreds of thousands of dollars into advertising and getting children to have sex." Just... wow. Way to be willfully ignorant. That's like me saying the Catholic Church exists to give men an opportunity to have sex with little boys. Both are extreme falsehoods.

It's amazing how in the name of religion people will lie and twist facts, but say that it's ok because they are doing it for their religion. The two Planned Parenthood quotes I found on a Facebook group called "The Pill kills." Which, according to their definition of life, I suppose it can, very very rarely. However, instead of saying "In our view of life, which begins the instant a sperm fertilizes an egg, anything that might prevent the implantation of that egg into the uterus is murder," which is a very weighted statement, but not inherently false from their point of view, the group spends most of it's time talking about the evils of Planned Parenthood, quoting statistics about weight gain and permanent infertility caused by the pill, but are unable to give any facts supporting those statements. Why not just stick to what you know? I'm sure a Catholic who believes in the same view of life as you is more likely to be swayed by religious arguments about the instant a soul enters a cell, and less likely to be swayed by non-factual statements about the HIV virus being able to permeate condoms.

Religious arguments should be made on the basis of religion. Throwing science in their is often counter productive, since they tend to quote religious-based "scientific" papers instead of scientific journals.

As a side note, I can't get behind the idea that life begins the instant the egg is fertilized. It's my understanding that fertilization is much more common than implantation in any woman, regardless of birth control method or lack thereof.

Ok, I fact checked on Wikipedia (they referenced articles, so I'm going to assume they did their research.) "Current research suggests that fertilized embryos naturally fail to implant some 30% to 60% of the time.^[20][21] Of those that do implant, about 25% are miscarried by the sixth week LMP (after the woman's Last Menstrual Period).^[22] As a result, even without the use of birth control, between 48% and 70% of zygotes never result in established pregnancies, much less birth."

So, if that scientific research is accurate, AND we go by the Catholic churches definition of life and souls, between 48% and 70% of souls are never born. I suppose whether or not this seems silly to you depends on your religious views.

My biggest problem with the whole thing is religious-based science (doctors who are quoted because of their religious beliefs, "scientific studies" that mention God or his plan, etc.) and the dismissal of actual scientific fact. If you feel that oral contraceptives are against your religious beliefs, that's fine. But make your point quoting scripture or religious authorities, since you are dealing with a religious matter. When you invoke science, be prepared to deal with people asking you to back up your statements with quotes from studies published in scientific journals. Them asking you to do that is not cheating. You are the one who moved the discussion from a faith-based argument to a scientifically-based one. Live with it.

Interesting Addendum: Evidently, breastfeeding helps prevents implantation, not fertilization. In essence, it does what this Facebook group considers killing, but it's hard to imagine them accusing breastfeeding of being immoral.