All entries by this author

Another blogger attacked in Bangladesh

Mar 7th, 2013 11:39 am | By

Tasneem found a report in English on that blogger attacked in Dhaka.

Saniur Rahman, 28, was stabbed in the  head and legs at around 8:30pm near Purabi Cinema Hall.

The Shahbagh  uprising activist was returning to his home in Rupnagar Eastern  Housing.

Residents of the neighborhood rescued Shamiur and rushed him to  a local hospital, he added.

Saniur said that he used to write articles in blogs against  communalism and the riotous activities run by rowdy activists of the  Jamaat-e-Islam and its student wing Islami Chattra Shibir.

Asif  Mohiuddin, another blogger and online activist who was also stabbed seriously in  the city’s Uttara on the night of Jan 15, commented about the criminal attack on  the latest assault in his

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Floral shunning

Mar 7th, 2013 11:25 am | By

And right here in Washington state – a florist joins this fun new trend of florists refusing to supply customers they dislike or disagree with in some way. Remember that florist who refused to deliver roses to Jessica Ahlquist? And got sued by the FFRF as a result? Like that. This time it’s not freedom from religion, it’s gay marriage.

For nearly a decade, Robert Ingersoll and his partner, Curt Freed, had bought bouquets from local business Arlene’s Flower Shop, owned by Barronelle Stutzman, reports the Tri-City Herald. So it was Stutzman the men sought out when they recently decided to get married. (Same-sex weddings became legal in Washington State in December 2012.)

But when Ingersoll asked Stutzman

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Some governments outlaw the very existence of atheists

Mar 7th, 2013 10:48 am | By

The International Humanist and Ethical Union put out a report last week on the criminalization of atheism in many parts of the world, as a presentation to the UN Human Rights Council.

States sometimes play on concerns about Islamophobia and religious intolerance to support laws which go far beyond their legitimate concerns, instead rendering any form of religious skepticism, or the expression of a positive humanist philosophy, effectively illegal. The IHEU submission relates to its report published in December, Freedom of Thought 2012, on the same subject of discrimination against the non-religious around the world.

“This discrimination comes in two forms. Firstly, discrimination against non-religious communities through a nation’s constitution and/or legal system. For example, some governments outlaw

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Anything but a saint

Mar 7th, 2013 10:08 am | By

The Times of India reports that a study by Canadian researchers catches up to what Hitchens told us years ago: “Mother” Teresa did very bad things. The study calls her

“anything but a saint”, a creation of an orchestrated and effective media campaign who was generous with her prayers but miserly with her foundation’s millions when it came to humanity’s suffering.

The controversial study, to be published this month in the journal of studies in religion/sciences called Religieuses, says that Teresa - known across the world as the apostle of the dying and the downtrodden - actually felt it was beautiful to see the poor suffer.

According to the study, the Vatican overlooked the crucial human side of Teresa -

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Katha Pollitt on PBS documentary “Makers” *

Mar 7th, 2013 | Filed by

There are plenty of ads and articles and talk show clips to remind us of how trivialized women were, and how exhilarating were what seem today like very modest steps.… Read the rest



Napoleon Chagnon talks to eSkeptic

Mar 6th, 2013 11:40 am | By

What happened to and about Chagnon is a fascinating (and appalling) example of ideological policing in anthropology. He tells a little about it in the interview.

SK: Most importantly, let’s turn to the science. What were the two heresies you proclaimed in your publications on the Yanomamö that went against the prevailing orthodoxy in anthropological community?

NC: Well, I didn’t realize until I began committing these heresies, how entrenched that orthodoxy was. The first reaction was to my having described the Yanomamö as having wars and being quite violent in the absence of provocations from outside societies or the presence of military units from organized political societies, like a nation-state, first punishing them. At that time, they didn’t

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Guest post: Young, Sick, and Invisible

Mar 6th, 2013 10:50 am | By

Guest post by Ania Bula. Ania blogs at Scribbles and Rants.

When I was 18, I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis. The following year, I lost the ability to walk, and was ignored by doctors who looked at my age before my symptoms. I struggled with finding a treatment and getting some mobility back.

When I was 20, I started experiencing some mysterious symptoms, including rapid weight loss, pain, bleeding, and more. I desperately searched for an answer, and eventually, a treatment. What would turn out to be Crohn’s disease came very close to killing me. I was flushing my life down the toilet.

The journey itself, to diagnosis and treatment, was incredible, difficult, and enlightening. Chronic illness is … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Pattern detection

Mar 5th, 2013 5:34 pm | By

There’s a pattern in the harassment that I want to point out for the sake of the record. The pattern is to harass and mock and monitor and taunt, and then to blame the target for reacting.

It’s so childish. It’s the kind of thing children do in the 3d grade, and then they grow out of it. It’s bizarre watching adults do it, as if no parent or teacher had ever sat them down and told them to stop.

Adam Lee tweeted the same thing to me earlier today:

The pitters’ MO is to say something rude and then call you too sensitive when you object. Do they think it’s not obvious?

Precisely. It’s the perennial bullies’ move: bully … Read the rest

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They establish a pattern

Mar 5th, 2013 4:38 pm | By

People talked about this Qualia Soup video on workplace bullying yesterday.

It’s good.

A lot of it is unpleasantly familiar – especially the bully’s ploy of claiming to be the victim.

With bullying, all incidents remain relevant, because they establish a pattern.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAgg32weT80

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



No marathon for Gaza

Mar 5th, 2013 10:14 am | By

It’s been called off. Why? Because Hamas says women can’t particpate.

“We regret this decision to cancel the marathon but we don’t want men and women running together,” Abdessalam Siyyam, cabinet secretary of the Hamas government, told AFP news agency.

“We did not tell Unrwa to cancel the marathon and we haven’t prevented it, but we laid down some conditions: We don’t want women and men mixing in the same place,” he added.

Which means, of course, that the women are shut out. It doesn’t mean the men are shut out, or they can run different routes. Of course not. It never means that. It means the women are kicked out (kicked to the curb, as John Loftus would … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Gaza marathon canceled because women not allowed to run *

Mar 5th, 2013 | Filed by

The UN Relief and Works Agency said it had taken the decision after “discussions with the authorities in Gaza who have insisted that no women should participate.”… Read the rest



A note on diminutives

Mar 5th, 2013 9:50 am | By

Vacula did a post claiming to reply to Michael Nugent’s post that asked him two questions. Vacula’s post didn’t reply at all; it ignored Nugent’s questions entirely and instead went on and on about how horrible I am. That’s not what Nugent asked, so it’s silly to say

This post will address Nugent’s most recent post and continue our ongoing dialogue.

One thing Vacula said was about my objection to his and Porter’s calling me “Ophie” – I pointed out that I don’t call them Justie and Karlie.

One should notice that the only reason Ophelia Benson was being called Ophie was because Karla Porter used the name in a satire piece, an episode of ‘As The Atheist World Turns,’

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Mooney takes issue with Shermer’s claim

Mar 5th, 2013 8:52 am | By

Uh oh – batten down the hatches. Board up the windows, hide all the knives, tie down everything loose. Michael Shermer tweets

Chris Mooney takes issue with my claim that there’s a liberal war on science: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/theres-no-such-thing-liberal-war-science …

So in a few minutes there will be a 5000 word piece up at eSkeptic, right? Ripping Mooney a new orifice and calling him a Nazi McCarthyite witch-hunting inquisitor? Right? Because it’s not permitted to take issue with a claim of Michael Shermer’s?

A small sample:

Shermer’s article ends with a statement that, as far as I can tell, is just incorrect: “Surveys show that moderate liberals and conservatives embrace science roughly equally,” he writes. I’m not sure where he gets this,

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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Locked up in a room with her hands, mouth and face bound for four days

Mar 5th, 2013 8:24 am | By

More horror in Nigeria. A man tortured, imprisoned and starved his six-year-old daughter because a woman at his church who purports to be a “prophet” told him his little girl is a “witch.”

Edidiong was beaten by her father and locked up in a room with her hands, mouth and face bound for four days before she was rescued by neighbours.

It was learnt that Etok-Akpan started beating her on February 19 after an unidentified prophetess in their church told him that Edidiong was the witch responsible for the stagnancy in his life.

Narrating her ordeal to PUNCH Metro on Monday, Edidiong said after the beatings which lasted for some days, her father on February 21 tied her hands

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Father tortures daughter, age 6, as a “witch” *

Mar 5th, 2013 | Filed by

She was beaten by her father and locked up in a room with her hands, mouth and face bound for four days.… Read the rest



Crude examples of the genus Homo

Mar 4th, 2013 5:16 pm | By

Eric has a post about The mad anti-feminist stance of the male atheist fringe. Guess what: he doesn’t find the stance entirely impressive.

I have been following — at a distance — the dispiriting farrago of abuse and obscenity aimed at feminist atheists and their supporters. All the completely contemptuous remarks and stultifyingly offensive use of scatological and twatological language to try to get women freethinkers and sceptics to shut the fuck up. It’s simply bizarre, and, from what I can tell, quickly becoming an obsession of a small marginal group of rather crude examples of the genus Homo who seem to think they have a right to use whatever insulting language they choose.

And not just a legal … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Can anyone explain?

Mar 4th, 2013 4:07 pm | By

Stewart gave me a graphic he made. Everybody’s giving me graphics today! It’s a good day – albeit busy, what with one thing and another. The to-do list is lengthening.

 … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)



Laudable aims?

Mar 4th, 2013 12:10 pm | By

Peter Tatchell is outraged that Reading University’s Muslim Society invited Abu Usamah at-Thahabi to speak, given that Thahabi has endorsed the murder of gays and “apostates.”

A joint statement by the Reading University Muslim Society, Reading University Students Union and the University of Reading praised the “laudable aims” of the Muslim Society.

Laudable aims? Are the university authorities and student’s union bonkers or bigots? Do they, too, justify murder?

I find it impossible to believe that the Muslim Society was not aware of Thahabi’s extremist opinions. He is a well publicised hate preacher. How can an organisation be laudable if it hosts a person with such intolerant, murder-endorsing views?

Well…because if you don’t say the aims are laudable, maybe someone … Read the rest

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She sees all

Mar 4th, 2013 11:50 am | By

Ania Bula made me a picture.

Beware the Masked Pineapple – it never Goes Home!

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“People trying make a name for themselves by posting fluff”

Mar 4th, 2013 9:37 am | By

Another week begins. Mayhew is still at it, still publicly fuming about the way I blog. It’s on Google+ this time, and she did some research. She also did some attempted argument.

Yesterday 8:25 PM  -  Public

I pointed out the lazy blogging habits of certain Freethoughtblogs authors because it bothers me to see people trying make a name for themselves by posting fluff, when there are so many quality, hard working science advocates and educators out there.

That’s the argument part.

It’s a stupid argument.

One, “trying make a name for themselves”? How does she know that’s what we’re doing? How does she know all of us or any of us are doing that? How … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)