The Nightstand (Dec 23rd)

LDS Women Wear Pants

To get the full scope of events related to "Wear Pants to Church" Sunday, you would have to access certain Facebook pages (some of which are no longer available).  In lieu of that, I have made a digest of several blog posts that represent distinct stages or aspects of the movement (or the reaction to it).

A decent intro into the movement and its purposes-- Mormon Feminists in Whoville and Why You Should Wear Pants to Church this Sunday (Sandra Ford, FMH)

A response to the disgusting backlash-- On Nastiness: Why Nice Mormons Can Be So Very Very Mean (About Pants) (fmhLisa, FMH)

If you acknowledge the inequality of men and women in the LDS Church and are OK with it, then go ahead.  But don't piss on my leg and tell me its raining...-- Mormon Male Privilege and How to Make Apparent Gender Disparity in the Church (Whoa-man, Exponent II)

A further refinement of the purposes and rationale behind the movement-- Feminism 101: Why Pants Matter- A Brief Primer on Social Norms (rah, FMH)

Personal preparation for confronting opposition-- Finding Your Inner Pants- Empowerment Through Self-Understanding and the Language of Authority (Anne Peffer, FMH)

A somewhat dissenting take (Welch, always the reluctant contrarian/hand-wringer...)-- Twelve hundred words on pants (Rosalynde Welch, Times & Seasons)

And another-- Pants, Doctrine and Culture, and Why Maybe We Shouldn't Worry (Rachael, Peculiar People)

Satirical response to the aftermath-- Mormonism is a Skirt, Not a Pair of Pants (Matthew Nokleby, FMH)

A response from abroad-- Less Than 1200 Words on Pants (RJH, By Common Consent)

A more biting response to the backlash-- How to Silence a(n LDS) Woman: You're Doing it Wrong (Jacob, By Common Consent)

The movement makes it into the NYT-- Mormon Women Set Out to Take a Stand, in Pants (Timothy Pratt, NYT)

A post-mortem-- What Was Pants to Church Sunday Really About? (Joanna Brooks, Religion Dispatches)

Plans for the future-- Post Pants: Mormon Feminism and inter-group cooperation (Reese Dixon, FMH)

Newtown and Guns

The Last Shot (Emily Bazelon, Slate)

This sacred text explains why the US can't kick the gun habit (Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian)

What Drives Suicidal Mass Killers? (Adam Lankford, NYT)

Video Games are Not the Problem (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish)-- See the chart at the linked article.  Also worth noting the common-sense notion that we so far have no recorded slaying of upwards of 20 people by a teenager or young adult using an Xbox to bludgeon people to death.  See also Still No Strong Links between Video Games and Violence (Jamelle Bouie, The American Prospect)

We Have the Technology to Make Safer Guns (Farhad Manjoo, Slate)

The Freedom of an Armed Society (Firmin Debrabander, NYT)

A quick rejoinder to fool Huckabee (RJH, By Common Consent)

Our Moloch (Garry Wills, NYRB)

Thinking the Unthinkable (The Anarchist Soccer Mom)

We Have Seen the Enemy and the Enemy is Us (gomw, The Mormon Worker)

Taking the Broad View on Guns (Paul Waldman, The American Prospect)

War at Home (Bob Herbert, The American Prospect)


'Politicizing' and the Rhetoric of Reaction (Ben Alpers, US Intellectual History Blog)

Mormonism


Can Books Cause Problems? Reflections on Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet (Dave Banack, Times & Seasons)


Malignant Mormon Memes- If This is Not Your Castle, You are Not My Prince (fmhLisa, FMH)-- The beginning of a potentially great series at FMH...

Education


For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall (Jason DeParle, NYT)

Who Can Still Afford State U? (Scott Thurm, Wall Street Journal)

Erik Loomis and Free Speech (Ben Alpers, USIH Blog)

Religion

One Nation Under God? (Molly Worthen, NYT)


Apocalypse Always (Emily Suzanne Clark, Religion in American History Blog)

Politics

Influential GOP group releases, pulls shockingly sensible copyright memo (Timothy Lee, Ars Technica)

Everyone is a Taker (Jamelle Bouie, The American Prospect)

Catastrophiliacs (Sasha Lilley, In These Times)

Gerrymandering Isn't the (Only) Problem (Rob Richie, In These Times)

The Will to Secede (G. Pascal Zachary, In These Times)

Economy

All the World's a Game, and Business is a Player (Nick Wingfield, NYT)

The Bribery Aisle: How Wal-Mart Got Its Way in Mexico (David Barstow, NYT)