The Italian Bishop’s Conference (CIE) has issued guidelines on child protection that inform its bishops that they are ‘not obliged to report illicit facts’ of child abuse to the police.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Italy: bishops ‘not obliged’ to report sexual abuse to police
May 29th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMorocco: more than 30,000 children employed as servants
May 29th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe “little maids” are for the most part “badly paid and submitted to physical and economic violence.”… Read the rest
Woman convicted in faith-healing death of son
May 29th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn relying on prayer to heal her diabetic son, Grady, a member of the Church of the Firstborn, told police, “I didn’t want to be weak in my faith and disappoint God.”… Read the rest
The Taliban comes to Foggy Bottom
May 28th, 2012 5:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonIs sexual harassment a thing? Is it just a fantasy of whack-job feminists (who of course are all way too ugly to be sexually harassed)? What about the military, for example? Lots of discipline there; probably there’s no sexual harassment in among all that discipline, right?
Well, one third of women in the military reported being sexually harassed in 2008. That seems like a thing. Maybe they were all whack-job feminists, but given the bad press feminism gets, I kind of doubt it.
The ACLU considers it a thing.
… Read the restWhile it is estimated that over 19,000 sexual assaults occurred in the military in 2010, a rate far higher than among civilians, the government has failed systematically to investigate
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Bleaching away the autism
May 28th, 2012 5:02 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnnals of horror. “Recovering” children from autism by dosing them with MMS, “Miracle Mineral Solution” aka bleach.
Basically, MMS is 28% sodium chlorite in distilled water. In essence, MMS is equivalent to industrial strength bleach. Proponents recommend diluting MMS in either water or a food acid, such as lemon juice, which results in the formation of chlorine dioxide.
MMS is what got Rhys Morgan started on his anti-quackery career, when he encountered people online recommending it for Crohn’s disease.
David Gorski has learned that now people are recommending it for autism.
… Read the restAutism One, whose organizers claim that their conference is “all about the science,” featured a talk by a woman whose preferred form of therapy, besides hyperbaric oxygen,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
David Gorski on “Miracle Mineral Solution” and autism
May 28th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s bleach. People give it to children with autism. Bleach.… Read the rest
One of these things is not like the other
May 28th, 2012 4:00 pm | By Ophelia BensonIs a no harassment policy like the Taliban?
Let’s start a little farther back. Is feminism like Nazism?
No, feminism is not like Nazism.
Nazism tried to kill all the Jews in Europe. Feminism does not try to kill all the Jews in Europe.
Nazism killed gays, gypsies, people with disabilities, and political enemies.
Feminism doesn’t kill gays, gypsies, people with disabilities, or political enemies.
Nazism rounded up its enemies and put them in camps.
Feminism does not round up its enemies and put them in camps.
Feminism is not like Nazism. Rush Limbaugh is wrong.
Is a no harassment policy like the Taliban?
No, a no harassment policy is not like the Taliban.
The Taliban forcibly keeps girls out … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
I get options
May 28th, 2012 2:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonI just took my temporary housemate, a black Lab named Cooper, to the beach for a good vigorous outing with the chuckit and tennis ball. We came back. I sat down at the desk, and he asked to go outside. I let him outside. He went around to the garden and then came back and sat outside the sliding screen door staring at me and making a low growly noise in his throat, as he does when he wants me to grasp that he wants something.
I got up to open the sliding screen door so that he could come in. He didn’t come in, but stood still staring up at me, with his roadkill toy* at his feet. I … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Which political ideals and which customs?
May 28th, 2012 10:34 am | By Ophelia BensonI’m reading Martha Nussbaum’s new book The New Religious Intolerance, and finding it as exasperating as I expected.
For one thing, there’s what (or who) is not in the index. She puts much of the focus on Islam and what she uncritically calls “Islamophobia,” but who is missing from the index? Maryam. Irshad Manji. Kenan Malik. Taslima. Tarek Fatah. Deeyah.
She argues that “European nations tend to conceive of nationhood and national belonging in ethno-religious and cultural-linguistic terms” [p 94] and that that makes it hard for immigrants to be seen as belonging.
… Read the restAs we’ve seen, there is another option, realized in a wide range of nations around the world: to define national belonging in terms of political ideals,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Atheism and Human Rights Abuses in Africa
May 28th, 2012 | By Leo IgweSara Azmeh Rasmussen
May 27th, 2012 6:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonHey how about this – Melody tweeted a link to a story about two women honored in Norway
for their outspokenness across cultural lines. Both have immigrant backgrounds, from Algeria and Syria…
Oh! thought I, I might know one of them, and hastily skimmed down the page, and sure enough!
Sara Azmeh Rasmussen, who immigrated to Norway from Syria in 1995, has been carrying on her efforts to promote tolerance, improve the rights of persons regardless of sexual identity and criticize Islam over what she views as its lack of tolerance and repression of women and homosexuals. Rasmussen has been a frequent participant in demonstrations and commentator in the media, not least in newspaper Aftenposten.
I know her. When … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
So you’re saying gay people are only born of other gay people?
May 27th, 2012 5:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonHave you seen Stacy Pritchard talking to Anderson Cooper?
Of course that was taken out of con – I mean yes, he said that, but of course he would never want that to be done. Of course people are going to take it and make it their own way and what they want to. But – ” more cheerfully – “I agree with what the sermon was, and what it was about.”
Orilly, says Anderson: he said the thing about keeping gays behind electric fences until they die out; how do you know he didn’t mean what he said?
She didn’t; it just seemed like the right thing to say to a fancy pants silver foxy smooth-talking hoity toity … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The “ignore and it will go away” myth
May 27th, 2012 11:25 am | By Ophelia BensonIndigo Jo takes a look at that myth via the report on sexual harassment in London.
… Read the restThe second [striking thing in a discussion on BBC London] was the suggestion (which I recall Simister saying the police had given to her after her assault) that women should “just ignore it”, which prompted me to write an email to the show (which Feltz read out), because the police have said the same thing to people suffering from the anti-social behaviour of local yobs and to people with disabilities who are being harassed by yobs or haters. It’s a fallacy particularly beloved of teachers as well, who will say the same to a child who complains of being teased in the playground
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Life on the streets
May 27th, 2012 10:17 am | By Ophelia BensonSurprise shock revelation: there is sexual harassment in London.
The harrassment ranges from wolf-whistling and lewd comments to physical groping and sexual assault.
Campaigners say that reported cases represent “the tip of the iceberg” and that authorities can no longer afford to ignore the issue.
Research released today by the End Violence Against Women (EVAW) coalition shows 41 per cent of women under the age of 34 have been on the receiving end of sexual harassment in the street.
Blacklist! Witch hunt!! Innocent until proven guilty!!! Feminazis!!!!
Plus, you’re ugly!!!!!
… Read the restThe true extent of sexual harassment across Britain is difficult to judge. Campaigners say there is an acute shortage of academic studies looking into women’s experiences. But anecdotal evidence
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Sharia for Timbuktu
May 27th, 2012 9:43 am | By Ophelia BensonMore bad news – two warring rebel groups in northern Mali have decided to resolve their differences by…turning northern Mali into an Islamist state. Yeah, that’s the way to do it!
Two rebel groups that seized northern Mali two months ago have agreed to merge and turn their territory into an Islamist state, both sides say.
The Tuareg MNLA, a secular rebel group, and the Islamist group Ansar Dine signed the deal in the town of Gao, spokespeople said.
Ansar Dine, which has ties to al-Qaeda, has already begun to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, in towns such as Timbuktu.
Creep creep creep, Islamism expands its stranglehold week by week.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Catcalls, whistles, groping: sexual harassment in London
May 27th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNearly half of young women in London were sexually harassed in public last year, with many forced to endure unwanted male attention on buses and trains, a new study shows.… Read the rest
Publishing the norms
May 27th, 2012 8:53 am | By Ophelia BensonFor a comic interlude (with uncomic implications and underpinnings, but never mind that for now) – the Vatican goes public with its formerly sekrit and super-technical Roolz for authenticating authentic sightings (or apparitions, as it helpfully calls them) of “the Virgin” Mary.
The “Norms Regarding the Manner of Proceeding in the Discernment of Presumed Apparitions or Revelations” have been in use since 1978, but until now had been available only in Latin, never officially published and only circulated among bishops and specialists.
Ya specialists, who have had like years and years of specialist training in how to tell the real apparitions from the fake ones.
… Read the restThe Vatican document has now been translated into English and other languages to
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Mali Tuareg and Islamist rebels agree on Islamist state
May 27th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Islamist group Ansar Dine, which has ties to al-Qaeda, has already begun to impose Sharia in towns such as Timbuktu.… Read the rest
Vatican publishes rules for apparitions of Mary
May 27th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBecause there are totally rules about it.… Read the rest
I’m suddenly a fan of Lady Gaga
May 27th, 2012 8:15 am | By Ophelia BensonLady Gaga has canceled a concert in Indonesia after religious bullies (Islamist chapter) threatened violence against her.
Attaboiz – you do that – get together in a big bunch and threaten a woman for performing, and express a wish that she be tortured for eternity. Sucks to be you.
Police in Indonesia had refused to issue a permit for the US pop star after Islamic groups objected to her show, claiming it was too vulgar.
The hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) had threatened to try to stop Lady Gaga getting off the plane.
Islamists 1, secularism 0.
… Read the restThe Islamist FPI had threatened violence if the concert went ahead, calling Lady Gaga a “devil’s messenger” who wears only a “bra and
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)