Jill Lepore on Ben Franklin’s sister *

Apr 30th, 2011 | Filed by

Bright but uneducated, married early, constantly pregnant. She wanted more and never got it.… Read the rest



Despised is despised

Apr 30th, 2011 12:35 pm | By

I sometimes see indignation about claims that atheists are a despised minority, on the grounds that other despised minorities had it much worse. That was one of Karla McLaren’s many claims.

As you may recall, this word [“accommodationist”] was first used by black Americans in the Voting Rights era against people who were seen as being too subservient and too accommodating to whites. I could write a whole ‘nother post about how interesting it is for atheists to imagine that their struggle is similar to that of African Americans.

But not everyone considers the comparison obviously wrong.

Long after blacks and Jews have made great strides, and even as homosexuals gain respect, acceptance and new rights, there is

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Mugabe in Rome for “beatification” of JP2 *

Apr 30th, 2011 | Filed by

Hoping it will rub off on him?… Read the rest



Blood of pope JP2 to go on display *

Apr 30th, 2011 | Filed by

It will be used for his “beatification” tomorrow. The blood is from his body, so it is a “relic of the first degree.”… Read the rest



Why do Americans still dislike atheists? *

Apr 30th, 2011 | Filed by

“Our nonreligious compatriots should be accorded the same respect as other minorities.”… Read the rest



Assisted suicide abroad puts families in legal limbo *

Apr 30th, 2011 | Filed by

Eric MacDonald knows all about that, CTV British Columbia reports.… Read the rest



The savage shaming stunning sullying gleeful fist

Apr 29th, 2011 5:14 pm | By

I got in a slight brawl with Chris Stedman at Facebook just now. I’m a brawler…but then so is Chris, in his way, only he thinks he isn’t.

He started a thread about “shock horror that atheists sometimes compare the atheist movement and the civil rights movement.” There was lots of obliging shock-horror from his friends – oh yes that is shocking and horrible; that kind of thing. I blew my nose and then commenced brawling, by saying it’s not about saying atheists have it as bad as blacks, it’s about pointing out similarities in the way the movements and the backlashes against them play out. We brawled for awhile, then he had to go get a haircut, but just … Read the rest



Ignore that man between the pictures

Apr 29th, 2011 4:54 pm | By

Nick Cohen on republicanism v the monarchy in Time is very droll, because of a certain inconsequence on the part of the editors. It goes like this:

When the 18th century English dissenter Richard Price, friend of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, warned that fawning before royalty produced “idolatry as gross and stupid as that of the ancient heathens,” he aptly titled his denunciation “A Discourse on the Love of Our Country.” (See pictures of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding day.)
Ha! Never mind all these pesky words about something or other, just look at the pretty snaps. Oooooooo she don’ahf look luvley in that tyara.
But whatever the complicating factors, only royal propagandists doubt that the
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Nick Cohen on the royal pain *

Apr 29th, 2011 | Filed by
Charles Windsor constantly interferes in politics and promotes every variety of reactionary superstition and new-age quackery.… Read the rest


Want to drive on the sabbath? Get a thought car *

Apr 29th, 2011 | Filed by

It totally works, because thought is not action, so you’re allowed to use the thought car.… Read the rest



Katha Pollitt on the bitter tea of Greg Mortenson *

Apr 29th, 2011 | Filed by

Afghanistan and Pakistan have many honest aid workers, including many locals—they just don’t get the celebrity media treatment or the celebrity-sized budgets.… Read the rest



Blair and Brown not invited to the royal wedding *

Apr 29th, 2011 | Filed by

Palace explains. We forgot. No, they’re not knights of the garter. No, it wasn’t a state occasion. No, they’re not Vic’s great-great-great grandsons.… Read the rest



Pop culture interlude

Apr 29th, 2011 12:28 pm | By

So James Spader is one of the group of possible successors to Steve Carrell. That would be fun. I thought he was brilliant in Boston Legal.

I liked the red mittens. The oven mitt thing was really mean. The red mittens repaired that.… Read the rest



China scolds Salman Rushdie about human rights *

Apr 29th, 2011 | Filed by

Rushdie called for the release of Ai Weiwei. China calls this “blatant interference in China’s judicial independence.”… Read the rest



Jerry Coyne on the archbish on evolution *

Apr 29th, 2011 | Filed by

Buried within the leaden prose is a deep and abiding dislike for evolutionary biology and genetics in particular.… Read the rest



Charles Freeman on reliquaries at the British Museum *

Apr 28th, 2011 | Filed by

Glittering opulence risks concealing the anguish poured out at the shrines as those desperate for salvation pleaded with a saint to intercede with God for them.… Read the rest



This is not a job for bomb makers

Apr 28th, 2011 4:43 pm | By

Another thought about “Why Do We Need New Atheists?” (subtle way of announcing a desire to get rid of us, that title). The post is actually a pretty rich study in scapegoating and other forms of disguised hostility, so despite its nastiness and wrongness, it repays a close look.

(The disguised part really interests me. I’ve said before, probably more than once, that one thing I really dislike is hostility or rivalry that tries to dress itself up as its own opposite. I really hate it when people are obviously brawling or competing but pretend that they’re just joking or “teasing” or being absent-minded. I especially hate it when women do that, because it fits a stereotype about us.

This … Read the rest



God is loving and holy

Apr 28th, 2011 11:13 am | By

Greta Christina pointed out a little nightmare of a post by William Lane Craig at his wittily-named blog “Reasonable Faith,” saying that genocide is ok because God decided.

I haven’t properly read Greta’s article yet because I wanted to read Craig first. I’m doing that now.

He says about the genocide of the Canaanites.

These stories offend our moral sensibilities.  Ironically, however, our moral sensibilities in the West have been largely, and for many people unconsciously, shaped by our Judaeo-Christian heritage, which has taught us the intrinsic value of human beings, the importance of dealing justly rather than capriciously, and the necessity of the punishment’s fitting the crime.  The Bible itself inculcates the values which these stories seem to violate.

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Hitchens on the upcoming nuptials *

Apr 28th, 2011 | Filed by

By some mystic alchemy, the breeding imperatives for a dynasty become the stuff of romance, even “fairy tale.”… Read the rest



Stupid “birther” ravings carry on regardless *

Apr 28th, 2011 | Filed by

“It’s easier psychologically to come up with a rationalization than it is to admit that you were wrong,” said Ronald Lindsay.… Read the rest