Thanks for the advice! I haven’t tried that — I’ve been using Windows Media Player (I know, I know…) to move files, and of course WMP is stupid re: podcasts. Either that, or I am.

What’s scary is that they’re PARENTS. I swear to god, I need to find a set of feminist parenting blogs to add to my blogroll because sometimes the crap people spew online is fucking depressing.

Re: podcast to Sansa issues – it depends on how you get stuff on the player normally. I have a Fuze, and now know its inner workings WAY more than I’d have expected, since I’ve got a mac and wanted to make it, you know, *work* with my mac.

The simplest way would probably be to plug the player into your computer and treat it like a thumb drive, moving a saved version of the .mp3 file into your music folder. Hopefully that’ll work, regardless of your version!

Progressive Christianity is still plugging away — though it can definitely feel like a minority position in a lot of places.

P.S. The Immaculate Conception actually refers to the belief that Mary was born without sin (and thus “worthy” to be the Theotokos), not to Jesus’ being born of a virgin.

The comments on the slut-shaming link are just painful. They’re arguing she brought it on herself not because of any perceived sluttiness, but because she tattled. Fuck that shit. The brother brought it on himself by doing something against the rules in the first place. Jesus Christ, do these people teach their kids that if they see a crime taking place, they shouldn’t tell the police? Oh, right – there was that group sexual assault that everyone was cell-phone filming for two hours at a school dance. I wish there was a way to ensure that all victims of crime would be the sort of people who think that way.

I wonder if the people upset by the dark-skinned nativity are the same ones who swear Jesus was a Catholic? (A claim I have heard Christians make in complete seriousness, with NO CLUE the Catholic church wasn’t around for Jesus to be a member of.)

But then Elizabeth Sweeny gives me hope, because I can’t fathom many modern Christians being willing to examine the immaculate conception for consent issues, and it’s a valid point no matter what your beliefs are. It’s the sort of thing that I could have imagined being discussed in the church I attended as a kid, but that was before US Christianity took a serious turn toward fundamentalism and closed-mindedness.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen sexism or racism or ableism discussed in acting classes or screenwriting books, and hate to think how ignorant I’d be without all this discussion. And embarrassed at my ignorance.

(What I found myself thinking today while reading a large chunk of the links.)