Jessica Bluemke grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and graduated from Ball State University in 2008 with a BA in Literature. She currently works as a writer and resides on the North side of Chicago.
While we were all sleeping, Bill O’Reilly was replaced by Bizarro Bill O’Reilly (Rill O’Beilly?). Maybe it’s not too weird… The man has previously been known to defy all logic, eliciting this reaction from David Silverman: But here he is in a conversation about gay marriage and he’s… for it? Well, maybe not for it. But he rejects arguments made from religion, that’s for damn sure: [More…] Read more
Oh, Pat Robertson, you delightfully misogynistic old coot. You are always good for a chuckle. (Unless you say something that is actually deeply terrifying. In which case, you’re always good for a shudder.) On Monday, Robertson was hosting The 700 Club as usual when he got the following email: Why do amazing miracles (people raised from the dead, blind eyes open, lame people walking) happen with great frequency in places like Africa, and not here in the USA? What can we do to encourage those things to happen here? Is America too gone for miracles like this? — Ken It’s remarkable how a letter can be at once naive and simultaneously so close to being reasonable. Now, if I were to answer this question, I would do so in one simple sentence: [More…] Read more
Last week, I wrote about a controversy concerning a student at Florida Atlantic University, his professor, and “Jesus” written on a piece of paper. I asked the question “Did a student really get suspended for refusing to ‘stomp on Jesus’?” The answer, it seems, is probably not. If you didn’t catch it, here’s a quick recap: Junior Ryan Rotela, a Mormon, was in his Multi-Cultural Communications class taught by Dr. Deandre Poole. As a class activity, Dr. Poole asked all students to get out a piece of paper and write “JESUS” on it. He then asked them to put the paper on the ground and step on it. Rotela refused and, as a result, was suspended from Dr. Poole’s class… or, at least, that’s Rotela’s version of the story. Last week, I postulated that it seemed unlikely that this is was how the story actually went down, but we only had Rotela’s account to work off of. Normally, I really love being proven right, but this particular story has me pretty unhappy with the way it panned out. [More…] Read more
Three weeks ago, Florida Atlantic University student Ryan Rotela was suspended from his Intercultural Communication class for refusing to step on a piece of paper with the word “Jesus” on it. It’s sort of an odd story, so we’re going to go through it and try to get to the bottom of what really happened. According to Rotela himself, this is how the story went down: His professor, Dr. Deandre Poole, asked all of the students to take out a piece of paper and write “JESUS” in big letters. Poole then asked the students to put the paper on the floor and stomp on it. [More…] Read more
Hod.org is the self-proclaimed “first independent site for religious homosexual Jews,” and they are setting out to make a change in their community. As it stands, any gay members of the Haredi ultra-orthodox community are forced to undergo conversion treatments. Hod is seeking to put a stop to this outdated, pointless, and potentially dangerous treatment by posting signs on objects through the city: The sign, attached to a bike reads… Read more
