Rachel Ford is a programmer, and since 8:00 to 5:00 doesn't provide enough opportunity to bask in screen glare, she writes in her spare time. She was raised a very fundamentalist Christian, but eventually "saw the light." Rachel's personal blog is Rachel's Hobbit Hole, where she discusses everything from Tolkien to state politics.
As you may have heard, Target has decided to move away from gender-specific labeling in their children’s departments. Toys are no longer going to be for “girls” or “boys,” for instance. It sounds like a pretty good idea. After all, as this rather handy flowchart indicates, the process for evaluating whether we should be concerned about gender for kids’ toys isn’t very complicated: In all seriousness, kids don’t need to be told which toys to play with based on our gender constructs. Some kids like How to Train Your Dragon and Minecraft. Some like dolls. Many like both. That isn’t going to change because we stop labeling some things “boys” and some “girls.” What will hopefully change is that kids will feel less pressure to conform to adults’ ideas of what toys they should be playing with. They’ll have more freedom to explore their own interests without thinking that certain toys are “wrong” for them. That’s not the way Franklin Graham sees things, though. On the contrary, in a Facebook post that has been reshared by such luminaries as Sarah Palin, Graham not only bemoans the move, but urges shoppers to boycott the retailer. Read more
Former congresswoman and one time presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann (remember her?) joined conservative talk show host Jan Markell to discuss, among other things, how bombing Iran would be “one of the greatest acts of peace,” if not for how President Obama’s attempts at diplomacy are instead ushering in a nuclear apocalypse and end times. Oh, and we should all be celebrating that fact. Read more
When it comes to social media, there are all manner of potential pitfalls that can impact your career — from drunken posts to public boss-bashing to, well, being Anthony Weiner. And let’s not forget tweeting campaign posters featuring Nazis. While there are some legitimate concerns about what impact your personal social media postings should have on your job, it goes without saying that questionable postings directly on your company’s intranet, social media sites, or websites are likely to cause problems. At least, I thought it went without saying. Turns out that Thomas Banks, a former Ford Motors Company employee, missed that memo. As far as he’s concerned, he was well within his rights to post inflammatory anti-gay opinions on Ford’s intranet site. Why? Because they were faith-based opinions, giving him a way around the company’s anti-harassment policies — anything else is a violation of his religious liberty! Read more
