I think you’d be surprised at just how few Catholics follow this specific rule! According to the NCHS, 98.8% of sexually experienced Catholic women had used contraception at some point in their lives. (“sexually experienced” in this context means ever had vaginal sex, and the sample size was 10,122 people)

Here’s the direct quote:

Across religious affiliations, 99.7% of women with no religious affiliation, 99.3% of Protestant women, 98.8% of Catholic women, and 97.6% of women affiliated with other religions had ever used a contraceptive method

8% of people think contraception is morally wrong?!

Yikes - that’s practically 1 in 12 people.

Both produced in South Korea? 🤷‍♂️

I used to enjoy Penny Arcade when I was younger and much more into the game space. I still have a couple of Penny Arcade t-shirts in the rotation which have got to be over twenty years old by now!

Back then there was lots going on - starting the Child’s Play charity, starting PAX, the whole Jack Thompson saga. Also I got the gaming references in a way that I no longer do…

I dip into the strip now and then, but don’t follow it like I used to. The art has gotten really good now, but I do miss the 2005 style.

Maybe another thing worth considering is that rectangular flags are just bigger and easier to see than other shapes.

Also, maybe it just became “normal” to have square flags. The Romans conquered most of Europe, and they flew rectangular banners from their standards. Following the fall of the empire, the different parts of Europe were at war with each other for one and a half thousand years. I suspect all having had this original template, then the subsequent fighting / conquering / reconquering / reconquering, probably lead to this shape becoming normalised.

Not just mass-manufacturing - because of how they work, the rectangle is the default shape of cloth produced on any loom.

A coworker once told me a trick for knowing where the line is when referring to marginalised groups.

(Please remember that this is before the big Hamas attack in 2023 led to the current state of affairs).

His advice, replace the group you’re referring to with jews, and reread the sentence. His reasoning is that we have a much better feeling for what’s acceptable. So, this would be:

Is it antisemitic of me to completely filter out jew-related topics from all the media I consume?

So how to answer?

If you’re blocking a ton of topics that don’t interest you, to create a highly personalised feed, then that probably wouldn’t seem that weird. If it’s the only thing you’re blocking, then that might be more easily explained by prejudice.

At the end of the day, though, you’re the only person who knows whether you’re transphobic or not. It’s easy for someone to say that being indifferent to a marginalised group’s suffering is as bad as actually persecuting them, but that ignores the fact that some people are barely keeping it together as it is. We live in horrible dangerous times - your feed is your own business, but I’d suggest trying to keep abreast of the broad strokes of what is happening in the world.

I see four white rectangles there. If that’s not proof of snow, then I don’t know what to tell you.

I mean, the red robes and glowing orb do have a certain appeal.

Not surprising. Keeping these clubs going requires a lot of paper work.

The world (or at least the Anglosphere) has always called the # symbol the hash sign. I have no idea why Americans called it the pound sign - most places call the £ symbol the pound sign.

The term “hashtag” was not invented by an American. For the rest of us this makes sense - it’s a tag denoted by a hash sign - but I can see how it seemingly came out of nowhere if you used different words.

Not to anywhere near the same degree. Also, just a few decades ago, you guys didn’t have them at all. The 1980s is where everything went bad for you guys.

In the first Robocop film, there’s even a scene where the board members of the evil megacorporation OCP are discussing traditionally non-private sectors where they’re making inroads, and prisons are listed.

The UK has a handful, and the contractor that runs them, G4S, is the name everyone instinctively listens out for in news reports about escaped prisoners, event security disasters and probes into site mismanagement.

This hits the nail in the head.

I have a friend who grew up in the USSR. From what she’s told me, the social pressure around pulling your weight can’t be overstated.

For example, her school uniform had a scarf, and the punishment for most offences (being late, not doing homework etc) was to have your scarf taken away for a day or two. Instead of being trapped in detention away from everyone after school, you had to spend the day publicly marked out as someone who’s let the side down. You’d spend the day subjected to disapproving looks, and then when you got home have to explain to your parents why you had your scarf taken away.

Yep, second one is the worst by miles. There’s lots of cool bits in it, but the overall narrative is a mess. The basilisk is also seriously dodgy-looking in several shots.

The first one is significantly more kiddy than the others, but it’s really well-executed.

deleted by creator

Oooh, you said the 愛 word. A million downvotes for you.

In fairness, this one isn’t cropped - the artist didn’t include any signature deets. And they’ve linked to the original artist’s post.

That said, I’d also much rather the OP didn’t post at all than continue to remove artist credits like they do in other posts.

Both of their orders are wrong.

The first person’s doughnut (pictured) has a single grain on it, so instead of getting “hundreds and thousands”, they’ve got a “one”.

The second person’s order has been messed up in a more surreal way - instead of rainbow sprinkles, they’ve received a single sprinkle that isn’t actually any of the colours of the rainbow.

I think it may have been over-complicated by having two punchlines in the last panel. Either of them could have stood on their own but having both on the last panel takes some of the impact out of the punch. Also, having two separate strips about this shop messing up orders would help establish this location in the comic’s world.

And here comes the guy with unsolicited advice…

“I keep sleeping…”

And

“I keep sleeping with dead people”

Would work a lot better, because “sleeping with” is an actual euphemism for “having sex with”.

It’s probably worth mentioning that this doesn’t just stop at legislation. A lot of things in the UK are the way they are, just because that’s the way they’ve always been.

What’s the official flag of the UK? It doesn’t have one. The Union Jack was a naval flag that became our defacto national flag. Before WW1, people could have lived their entire life without seeing a Union Jack.

What’s the official national anthem of the UK? It doesn’t have one. God save the King / Queen is our defacto national anthem. It was a song that gained popularity and people adopted it unofficially.

OK then. What’s the official language of the UK? You probably guessed - it doesn’t have one. English is only the defacto language of the UK. In fact, the only official language anywhere in the UK is Welsh, in Wales (obviously), where the vast majority of people speak English as their first language anyway.