Gore Vidal died yesterday.

I loved Gore Vidal’s book Creation: A Novel for its interesting and quirky perspective of history, human nature, and religion. He wrote some other good books too, and was an important figure in Humanism. The CFI has a word or two about him here.

It has been a while since this has been discussed, and I’ve realized that a lot of people have joined the conversation since, so I’m reposting this project. Also, some details have changed and some links need to be updated.

The More than Men Project is an effort initiated by Women Thinking Free Inc. to develop a space where men, often white and/or straight and/or Of Priv, could spend a little time and energy telling their fellow Hetero-occidentaloid-Y-chromosomists something useful or interesting about diversity, and to encourage the promotion of said diversity.

When I was asked to contribute to this project (which was being cooked up July 2011) I had some concerns. I wasn’t sure if I needed a space to do this, since I have a widely read blog in which I am constantly telling my fellow Hetero-occidentaloid-Y-chromosomists how to behave, and they pretty much do whatever I tell them to do. Hetero-occidentaloid-Y-chromosomists are so compliant and all. So, I thought, why should I bother with another effort like this? Just let the other guys have a space.

But then I decided to take advantage of the offer to try something entirely different. The project is self explanatory, but since you may need some encouragement to pay attention to it, here are the opening sentences in the first of three videos I made for More than Men:

The More Than Men Project is a campaign by the Women Thinking Free Foundation. This is for white men (usually straight, often privileged, etc.) to take an active role in diversity advocacy. This is my chance to tell my fellow white guys what I think about what they should be thinking.

But I get to do that all the time. So, I thought I’d ignore the instructions and try something a little different.

A short memo …. with attachments. It is the attachments that matter.

Dear Straight White Male with Privilege:

This is not hard.

You just need to pay attention to the voices in your head. You supply the head. Below, please find the voices, in three parts, which I call Part I, Part II, and Part III.

Part I: Sheril Kirshenbaum, Desiree Schell, and Jafsica.

Part II: Asha.

Part III: C. Anderson, Stephanie Zvan, Natalie Wagner, Serena

And here are the videos:

The videos are also shown at the More than Men web site.

Seven Minutes of Terror is right around the corner. 5:24 UTC on August 6th. Nature has just come out with a short but nice overview including some very interesting graphics that I know you’ll want to see. Click Here.

I wonder, do these crazy Republicans realize how utterly dumb they sound, and that every time they say something like this the rest of us start humming that song?

A House Republican lawmaker likened the implementation of a new mandate that insurers offer coverage for contraceptive services to Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.

Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly (R), an ardent opponent of abortion rights, said that today’s date would live in infamy alongside those two other historic occasions. Wednesday marked the day on which a controversial new requirement by the Department of Health and Human Services, which requires health insurance companies to cover contraceptive services for women, goes into effect.

“I know in your mind you can think of times when America was attacked. One is December 7th, that’s Pearl Harbor day. The other is September 11th, and that’s the day of the terrorist attack,” Kelly said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “I want you to remember August the 1st, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. That is a day that will live in infamy, along with those other dates.”

That’s from HERE where you can read more.

Meanwhile …