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If My Words are Worth Nothing, Why Are You Stealing Them?

Sharing is caring.

days like crazy paving

A few days ago, I noticed that people were sharing around my blog post “Muslim, queer, feminist: it’s as complicated as it sounds” without including my Twitter username. Not a huge deal – they were linking back to my blog, so I was still getting clicks and page views out of it – but it was a little disconcerting (not bad, just disconcerting) to realise that my work was being shared around by people who didn’t even know me and therefore couldn’t directly credit me as the creator.

People keep telling me this is a consequence of “fame” (I wasn’t even aware that I was famous!) – that people will share your work without letting you know about it. I suppose I can live with that, as long as people aren’t just copy-pasting words of mine without any kind of course or attribution…

…which is exactly what happened to me…

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An Open Letter to Elinor Burkett

crayborck

Elinor Burkett begins her recent New York Times editorial,

“Do women and men have different brains?

“Back when Lawrence H. Summers was president of Harvard and suggested that they did, the reaction was swift and merciless. Pundits branded him sexist. Faculty members deemed him a troglodyte. Alumni withheld donations.

“But when Bruce Jenner said much the same thing in an April interview with Diane Sawyer, he was lionized for his bravery, even for his progressivism.”

In so doing, she holds up the perspective of the once-president of arguably the most elite university in the world next to the perspective of an olympic athlete and reality television star, as discursively comparable units, as though the two perspectives bare the same weight on feminist debate, gender politics, or the real lives of women. This is her second mistake. Her first was the mis-gendering of Caitlyn.

Burkett continues,

“This was the prelude to a…

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Milky Way, Northern Lights and a Cool Tent

North Western Images - photos by Andy Porter

The New Moon is marked every month on my calendar. As it gets closer I start watching the weather service map, looking for where there will be clear skies. Last month was a complete dud, the 5-night window only saw overcast and rain.

But this weekend the sky was clear. I had three people sign up for my Night Sky Photo Tour on Saturday night.

Officially the New Moon is tonight, June 16th, but if you are close, one or two days plus or minus, you will get the lighting you want.

Camped under the Milky Way Camped under the Milky Way

This first shot I have been dreaming of for some time. My son is 10 years old and he likes to go camping with his friends, swimming and being goof balls. Of course they always bring their electronic devices. I made sure to tell them to save some battery life for dark.

The…

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Sunday Column: Small town summer…

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Summer is in full swing up here in North Dakota. School’s out. Wedding’s have begun. Garden’s are in and a full line up of summer fairs and festivals are marked down on the calendar.

Last weekend during a little tour across the state promoting my album, I got the privilege of being a guest of honor at a small town in the middle of the state. I was hired to do a concert with the band there during their Dairy and Ag days celebration,

and in addition, I was asked to be the Grand Marshall of the parade…

I took my job very seriously…

AND to help judge the Little Miss Farmer/Rancher contest.

This was right up my ally, such and honor and pretty much the most adorable thing ever.

So of course I had some things to say about it. I could have written a book on all of…

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