What is the right size for a clitoris? Pharyngula (2010-06-30):

I don’t know. They seem to come in a range of sizes; when they’re as large as a small male penis, I suppose it might be unexpected, perhaps a little confusing, perhaps a little ambiguous to people intolerant of the idea that the human form is found in intermediate shapes….

Dr. Dix Poppas has attracted special notoriety for his sexually abusive experiments on the girls that he sexually mutilates. Of course, the more basic issue here is the non-consensual surgical sexual mutilation forced on girls by doctors and anxious parents, in the name of patriarchal Genital Correctness exercised at the point of a scalpel. Which is alarmingly common, and a far wider problem than the special case of Dr. Dix Poppas. There’s every reason to say something about the special awfulness of this child rapist in scrubs; but the notion that mutilating girls’ clitorises for seeming “too big” (for what purpose?) to adult observers could ever possibly be ethical medicine — rather than what it is, pointless medical torture in the service of carving patriarchy into a girl’s skin and flesh.

Book Review: Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit and Sound. catholicanarchy.org!!!@@e2;201e;a2; (2010-06-30):

Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit and Sound by Brian Peterson Revelation Records Publishing / $18.00 US (list) [Amazon] [Revelation Records] The terms "punk rock" and "hardcore punk" bring to mind a variety of images and stereotypes for "insiders" and "outsiders" alike. Cliches abound when the…

Q. How many hardcore kids does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A. 15. One to screw in the bulb, and 14 to sit around the living room complaining about how much better the old bulb used to be. (Also, the book review is really interesting.)

• 06/25/10 PHD comic: ‘Call for Papers!’ PHD Comics (2010-06-28). Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com title: "Call for Papers!" – originally published 6/25/2010 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE! (Linked Monday 2010-06-28.)

• Robert Byrd. Radley Balko, The Agitator (2010-06-28). So if I'm correctly reading the various tributes to Sen. Robert Byrd floating around the web this morning, I'm supposed to celebrate how the man atoned for his bigotry earlier in life by devoting the rest of his life to public service . . . where he used other people's… (Linked Tuesday 2010-06-29.)

• HAMP Fails: Your Tax Money At Work. pdxhousing.guestposter@gmail.com (MontyB503), Portland Housing Blog (2010-06-21). The Obama administration’s HAMP program has proven to be an exercise in futility, and largely a waste of taxpayer dollars as only about 30% of the 5.7 million borrowers who are 60 days delinquent are eligible for the program. Of those who are eligible for the program, less than 350,000… (Linked Tuesday 2010-06-29.)

• Couchsurfing: Mutual Aid 2.0. Ross Kenyon, Center for a Stateless Society (2010-06-26). Couchsurfing epitomizes a modern and hip mutual aid society.  Couchsurfing.org is an online network of just under two million users which connects hosts and travelers from around the world in order to facilitate cultural exchange, provide free hospitality through local hosts, and to make the world a better place "one… (Linked Tuesday 2010-06-29.)

• Thomas Sowell, on Ends and Means. Radley Balko, Hit & Run (2010-06-23). Here’s Thomas Sowell this week, comparing Obama’s economic policy and response to the oil spill to Hitler and Lenin: With vastly expanded powers of government available at the discretion of politicians and bureaucrats, private individuals and organizations can be forced into accepting the imposition of powers that were never granted… (Linked Wednesday 2010-06-30.)

• Scotland Anti-Rape Ad Tackles "She Was Asking For It" Myth. Cara, The Curvature (2010-06-29). Trigger Warning for rape apologism. A few months back, I wrote an article for the Guardian's Comment is Free about a U.K. study, which showed a significant number of respondents thought that some rape victims were at least partially to blame for their attacks. The various reasons that respondents blamed… (Linked Wednesday 2010-06-30.)

Sensible liberalism — featuring Chuckles! This Modern World (2010-06-30):

The Sensible Liberal’s Guide to Sensible Liberalism in the Age of Obama — now featuring Chuckles the Sensible Woodchuck!

• BP’s Brave Fight Against Camera-Wielding Terrorists. Jesse Walker, Hit & Run (2010-06-23). Mother Jones describes a creepy manifestation of the secrecy surrounding the BP oil spill: Last week, Drew Wheelan, the conservation coordinator for the American Birding Association, was filming himself across the street from the BP building/Deepwater Horizon response command in Houma, Louisiana. As he explained to me, he was standing… (Linked Friday 2010-06-25.)

• Let's Not Be Silly: The Marie Arraras 911 Call, and What It Means. three rivers tumblr (2010-06-22). Let's Not Be Silly: The Marie Arraras 911 Call, and What It Means: abbyjean: garlandgreyblog: "On May 28, Arraras called Miami 911, telling the dispatcher to send the cops right away because her boyfriend had hit her and was trying to choke her. The police did eventually come to the… (Linked Friday 2010-06-25.)

• Liberating The Pill After 50 Years. Katherine Mangu-Ward, Hit & Run (2010-06-22). Women aren’t stupid*, but the Food and Drug Administration treats them like they are. The contraceptive pill has been on the market for 50 years, but women still have to go begging every year to their doctors and every month to the pharmacist behind the high counter. An op-ed in… (Linked Saturday 2010-06-26.)

• The perils of a liberal arts education? Chris Blattman, Chris Blattman (2010-06-19). Together with representatives of the university, Bell [Telephone] set up a program called the Institute of Humanistic Studies for Executives. More than simply training its young executives to do a particular job, the institute would give them, in a 10-month immersion program on the Penn campus, what amounted to a… (Linked Saturday 2010-06-26.)