Link salad

[holzman_tweed]

Some days there's too much to give each its own post.

• One can argue whether the jury that convicted Johannes Mehserle for manslaughter with a gun enhancement should have convicted him of murder instead, but that's kind of moot at this point. When the judge elected to overturn the gun enhancement and sentence Mehserle to a paltry 2 years, with double-credit for time served, there's a very clear message sent that the law doesn't think brown skinned people's lives matter and that it's not afraid of saying so. It's hard to count the number of ways that's bad message to send.
  
• Hey geekboys! Stop harassing women at our events. Stop excusing the harassing of women by focusing on their behavior rather than the behavior of the harassers. It shouldn't be necessary to say any of that, but apparently it is. Here's some resources for those who have to deal with the folks who have chosen to disregard the memo -- no one hasn't gotten the memo.
  
• Once upon a time, same sex marriage was a Christian rite.
  
• Via delux_vivens, a history of lies told to make you afraid of Muslims, starting with the song of Roland.
  
• I love having good authors for friends
  
  
  
  • tithenai has an excellent story in the all-Muslim edition of Apex magazine.
    
  • shweta_narayan has an excellent story in Three Lobed Burning Eye magazine.