All entries by this author

Two “honor” killings in Pakistan *

Oct 24th, 2012 | Filed by

In one, a brother killed his sister; in the other, an uncle killed his niece. Both were said to have been in an “objectionable situation.”… Read the rest



Heeeeeere’s NSC

Oct 24th, 2012 11:29 am | By

Remember I’ve been dropping all those tantalizing hints about the new blogger in our future?

Well allow me to introduce -

Non Stamp Collector

Booyah!

 … Read the rest

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



Rebecca’s article at Slate

Oct 24th, 2012 10:28 am | By

Rebecca has an article in Slate about misogyny among the skeptics. That should blow some windows out.

When I first got involved with the skeptics, I thought I had found my people—a community that enjoyed educating the public about science and critical thinking. The sense of belonging I felt was akin, I imagine, to what other people feel at church. (I wouldn’t exactly know—like most skeptics, I’m an atheist.) I felt we were doing important work: making a better, more rational world and protecting people from being taken advantage of. At conventions, skeptic speakers and the audience were mostly male, but I figured that was something we could balance out with a bit of hard work and good

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



Nick Cohen reads Joseph Anton *

Oct 24th, 2012 | Filed by

The honourable left-wing response was then and is now to fight back and support Muslims and ex-Muslims around the world who want to resist theocratic politics.… Read the rest



LSE student atheist society and ex-Muslims *

Oct 24th, 2012 | Filed by

People of a Muslim background face unique difficulties in abandoning their religion, both in predominantly Muslim countries and in Europe.… Read the rest



A million gods

Oct 24th, 2012 9:22 am | By

Say hello to a new arrival at FTB: Avicenna.

He tells us a little about himself.

I am Avicenna (named after the islamic golden age Doctor) and I am terrifyingly weird and am a giant nerd. I am a british indian medical student doing my clinical rotations in India. I basically qualify in a year and a bit and then I plan to continue to work for charity here before I go back home and have a career. However to keep sane I started blogging. And it kind of got out of hand…

I am (naturally) an Atheist (otherwise me joining here would probably win the “biggest misunderstanding” award) but Hinduism is the religion I don’t believe in.

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



Slate: Rebecca Watson on speaking out and rape threats *

Oct 24th, 2012 | Filed by

“It wasn’t until I started talking about feminism to skeptics that I realized I didn’t have a safe space.”… Read the rest



Ed Miliband supports the Libel Reform Campaign‏

Oct 23rd, 2012 4:06 pm | By

Catching up. From Sense About Science a few days ago -

Dear Friends

We told you yesterday that the Libel Reform Campaign would be meeting with the Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband, with Simon Singh, performer Dara Ó Briain and representatives from Index on Censorship, Sense About Science and English PEN.

The meeting was a great success with Ed Miliband backing our call to add a new public interest defence to protect scientists and bloggers into the government’s Defamation Bill.

Ed Miliband told us: “The key to a healthy democracy is the right to free speech. But to defend this we need a modernised defamation law that protects citizens and honest discussion from the stifling threat of legal action. … Read the rest

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



Head of Italy’s disaster body quits over L’Aquila *

Oct 23rd, 2012 | Filed by

Prof Maiani, a physicist, said the Serious Risks Commission could not work “in such difficult conditions.”… Read the rest



Just a shy kid with holes in his socks

Oct 23rd, 2012 11:37 am | By

Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear – there’s an excerpt from Chris Stedman’s much-dreaded new memoir Faitheist at Salon, and it’s as maddening as I’d expected, if not more so.

The excerpt is, of course, on the ever-popular subject of The Awfulness of atheists. That’s not what’s so skin-crawling about it though. What I really, really can’t stand is his shameless style of self-presentation – his unbearable self-regard and self-display. It’s worse because it’s dressed up as its own opposite – it’s all about how humble and shy he is. I want to say that doesn’t work, but sadly I know from experience that it will work all too well: lots of people will take him as … Read the rest

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



Shame that girl

Oct 23rd, 2012 10:33 am | By

A familiar problem. A 15-year-old girl sends an entry to the Everyday Sexism project; it’s about the way looks trump everything else for girls (and, as she’ll find out, for women).

I always feel like if I don’t look a certain way, if boys don’t think I’m ‘sexy’ or ‘hot’ then I’ve failed and it doesn’t even matter if I am a doctor or writer, I’ll still feel like nothing…successful women are only considered a success if they are successful AND hot, and I worry constantly that I won’t be. What if my boobs don’t grow? What if I don’t have the perfect body? What if my hips don’t widen and give me a little waist? If none of

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



The pineapple is to be disciplined

Oct 23rd, 2012 10:15 am | By

The student union at Reading University has informed the RU Atheist, Humanist and Secularist Society that it has come to the conclusion that the Society acted in breach of the behavioural policy. Its decision is that the Reading University Atheist, Humanist and Secularist Society should be referred to a disciplinary panel.

You remember what this is about, I trust. The RU Atheist, Humanist and Secularist Society had a table at the student fair; on the table it had a pineapple with the label “Mohammed.” Some students said it was offensive. The Society members were ejected from the fair.… Read the rest

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



Marcotte on right-wing misogynist feeding frenzies *

Oct 23rd, 2012 | Filed by

How dare a woman talk in public?… Read the rest



“Ugly girl”: growing up female *

Oct 23rd, 2012 | Filed by

There is lip service to “you can be anything” but the real message is be hot or go away.… Read the rest



#justthewomen

Oct 22nd, 2012 4:30 pm | By

The BBC’s Panorama was just on, and Twitter lit up like a plane with a wing falling off. It was about Jimmy Savile and how the Beeb looked the other way for a few decades.

I haven’t seen the episode, but I saw a lot of tweets about it, and then the hashtag, which led to some very pungent comments. I gather the gist of it is, the Beeb couldn’t (or wouldn’t?) do anything about it, because the sources were

just the women.

Ah.… Read the rest

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



Public figures who make their controversial opinions known to the world

Oct 22nd, 2012 12:58 pm | By

After all these somber and/or infuriating items, a funny one. Justin Vacula on Facebook.

A lengthy post I authored months ago concerning what certain Freethought Bloggers are calling ‘stalking’ and ‘cyberstalking’ is below. This is especially relevant considering Ophelia Benson’s recent post “It’s all trolling, when you come right down to it” in which she claims that the “pro-misogyny crowd” stalks bloggers “day in and day out.”

TL;DR – criticism, even when it is excessive, isn’t stalking or cyberstalking. Public figures who make their controversial opinions known to the world will get responses. Reductio ad absurdum: Major cable news networks must be stalkers for their coverage of Obama and Romney.

Well thank you! That is very flattering. I’m as important … Read the rest

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



Flip the terms

Oct 22nd, 2012 11:48 am | By

The New Yorker has an article on billionaires who’ve convinced themselves they’re “victimized” by Obama.

A hedge-fund billionaire called Leon Cooperman wrote an open letter to Obama which has been “widely circulated in the business community.”

Evident throughout the letter is a sense of victimization prevalent among so  many of America’s wealthiest people. In an extreme version of this, the rich  feel that they have become the new, vilified underclass. T. J. Rodgers, a  libertarian and a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, has taken to comparing Barack  Obama’s treatment of the rich to the oppression of ethnic minorities—an  approach, he says, that the President, as an African-American, should be  particularly sensitive to. Clifford S. Asness, the founding partner of the hedge 

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



Paul Kurtz

Oct 22nd, 2012 10:52 am | By

As you probably know already, Paul Kurtz is gone.

The Center for Inquiry marks with great sadness the passing of Paul Kurtz, founder and longtime chair of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Center for Inquiry, who died at the age of 86. A philosopher, activist, and author, Kurtz was for a half-century among the most significant and impactful figures in the humanist and skeptic movements.

“Impactful”…ah well, I won’t do a fogeyism about it. Anyway yes, he was.

Kurtz’s legacy includes the above organizations, the creation of the skeptics’ magazine Skeptical Inquirer, the secular humanist magazine Free Inquiry, independent publisher Prometheus Books, and a library of books and scholarly articles

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



Italy makes fallibility a major felony

Oct 22nd, 2012 10:13 am | By

Hey kids! Got dreams of being a scientist? Well don’t do it – because if you do, you risk being thrown in prison for six years, barred from public employment for life, and liable for court costs and damages, all because you failed to say exactly when an earthquake was going to happen.

Yes really.

Six Italian scientists and an ex-government official have been sentenced to six years in prison over the 2009 deadly earthquake in L’Aquila.

A regional court found them guilty of multiple manslaughter.

Prosecutors said the defendants gave a falsely reassuring statement before the quake, while the defence maintained there was no way to predict major quakes.

The seven – all members of the National

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



Italy: earthquake scientists sentenced to 6 years in prison *

Oct 22nd, 2012 | Filed by

All have been barred from ever holding public office again, and ordered to pay court costs and damages.… Read the rest