All entries by this author

Valerie Tarico on Plan B and motivated beliefs

Feb 14th, 2012 5:10 pm | By

Remember the caring sensitive Mummy whose disabled daughter was raped and who decided not to let her have Plan B? Because “It’s about taking the life of an innocent child”?

Well Valerie Tarico has an excellent post on The Big Lie about Plan B.

Plan B doesn’t cause abortion. It stops or delays ovulation. No egg, no fertilization, no pregnancy – no abortion. It’s that simple.

Well then why did the caring sensitive Mummy say it did? Why did she get all maudlin about the innocent child whose life had to not be taken?

So why does the Religious Right keep telling us that post-coital contraceptives function by aborting teeny babies? Because in the minds of many

… Read the rest

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

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The Women’s Ministry should exist to improve the lives of women

Feb 14th, 2012 11:37 am | By

Houzan Mahmoud will soon have a statement on Iraq’s Women’s Minister Ibtihal Kasid Alzaidi, who thinks and says that women are not equal to men. Not a good thing for a Women’s Minister to think. … Read the rest

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

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More than one valence

Feb 14th, 2012 11:16 am | By

Something I’m ambivalent about:

On the one hand, there’s the value of being reasonable, and trying to see all sides of a question. There’s the value of not getting things wrong by being too one-sided; by confirmation bias; by seeing everything the way you see everything and so becoming blind to other ways of seeing everything. That’s different from the more political value of giving everybody a fair hearing, and letting people pursue the good in their own way as far as is compatible with the rights of others. The value I mean is epistemic and cognitive.

On the other hand there’s the value of countering a very loud, dominant, hegemonic, majoritarian, conformist brand of conventional wisdom.

Those two things … Read the rest

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

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Derby: 3 men jailed for distributing gay death call leaflets *

Feb 14th, 2012 | Filed by

The leaflets showed an image of a wooden mannequin hanging from a noose, quoted Islamic texts, and said capital punishment was the only way to rid society of homosexuality.… Read the rest

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The purpose of a university: to learn to question *

Feb 14th, 2012 | Filed by

Not to shut ourselves off from ideas we find threatening.… Read the rest

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Catholic cardinal says leaks damage church’s image *

Feb 14th, 2012 | Filed by

It’s a question of dignity.… Read the rest

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Jason Rosenhouse on the trouble with theistic evolution *

Feb 14th, 2012 | Filed by

Too often the defender of reconciliation acts as though a logically possible scenario that includes both God and evolution is all that’s needed.… Read the rest

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Lawyers for Liberty are pissed

Feb 13th, 2012 5:53 pm | By

At Malaysia’s Home Minister, for one.

Lawyers for Liberty is simply astonished and outraged at Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein and PDRM’s continuing attempt to spin further lies and deceit over the illegal and unconstitutional detention and deportation of Hamza Kashgari by now alleging or insinuating that he is a “criminal” or “terrorist” wanted by his home country.

The truth is Hamza had sent a few tweets on the Prophet Muhammad which he has since deleted and apologized. It must be noted a similar poem on the prophet was published on his blog a year ago but did not receive any negative reaction from anybody. More importantly, he belongs to a group of emerging young pro-democracy activists which among others

… Read the rest

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Mukund Padmanabhan on the republic of hurt sentiments *

Feb 13th, 2012 | Filed by

“We have allowed hurt sentiment in this country to become a cover for aggressive moral vigilantism, an excuse to perpetrate violence in the name of emotional victimhood.”… Read the rest

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Roberto Malini: Poetry Before the Law

Feb 13th, 2012 4:59 pm | By

Roberto Malini, co-president of EveryOne Group, an NGO supporting Roma people and refugees, left a poem he wrote for Hamza Kashgari in a comment. I want it to be more visible than that, so here it is again.

Poetry Before the Law

on the deportation of the poet Hamza Kashgari back to Saudi Arabia

Spare the poet, O Law,

for his soul expands

beyond the sources of reason,

as far as truth.

Spare the poet, O Death,

for his heart is the brother of a quasar

that ignites the Universe.

Spare the poet, O Faith,

for his song rises like the Sun

and reawakens the eternal in stone.

Roberto Malini (English translation by Glenys Robinson)… Read the rest

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

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Warsi stands with pope in fighting for faith

Feb 13th, 2012 4:11 pm | By

Oh vomit. Sayeeda Warsi is off to visit the pope, and by way of preparation she and the Telegraph unite in telling us all that we need more religion and less “militant secularism.” Warsi says it in her own article, and the political editor says it all over again in an article about her article. Why two articles where one would do? I have no idea.

First Warsi’s bullying theocratic shit, under the sinister threatening headline We stand side by side with the Pope in fighting for faith:

Today I have the honour of leading the largest ministerial delegation from the United Kingdom to the Vatican – our reciprocal visit following the momentous State Visit of His

… Read the rest

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Sayeeda Warsi will tell the pope of need for religion *

Feb 13th, 2012 | Filed by

And how evil “militant secularism” is. Telegraph wets itself with joy.… Read the rest

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India: Former RSS activist held for train bombing *

Feb 13th, 2012 | Filed by

Many members of the group were long-serving RSS activists who became disillusioned with the Hindu right-wing’s refusal to replicate the 2002 communal killings in Gujarat nationwide.… Read the rest

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Interpol as theocracies’ little helper

Feb 13th, 2012 11:18 am | By

Interpol has said it had nothing to do with the extradition of Hamza Kashgari, but Dennis McShane MP apparently didn’t get the memo – or got the memo and didn’t believe it.

The charge of apostasy was maintained, his home was attacked and, again, sensibly enough, Kashgari decided it was time to leave Saudi Arabia. The response of the Saudis was to approach Interpol and ask them to issue an international search and arrest warrant.

Interpol is meant to be tackle serious crime, not act as the little helper for régimes that want to kill journalists.

Maryam too finds the memo not entirely convincing:

If it says so – though I am skeptical especially since its has done

… Read the rest

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The real agenda behind Kashgari’s arrest *

Feb 13th, 2012 | Filed by

Fostering a climate of fear and oppression is the best guarantee of compliance and Islam is a traditional rallying cry for the masses.… Read the rest

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Denis MacShane MP rebukes Interpol *

Feb 13th, 2012 | Filed by

Interpol is meant to tackle serious crime, not act as the little helper for régimes that want to kill journalists.… Read the rest

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Known for his reformist views

Feb 13th, 2012 10:50 am | By

PEN International on Kashgari.

PEN demands his immediate and unconditional release, in accordance with Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also calls upon the Saudi authorities to provide him with immediate and effective protection.

According to PEN’s information, Kashgari, a 23-year-old writer from Jeddah, tweeted a series of messages addressed to the Prophet Mohammed on the anniversary of the Prophet’s birth on 4 February 2012, some of which conveyed questions about his faith. Twitter registered more than 30,000 responses to his tweets, many of which accused him of blasphemy and called for his death. On 5 February 2012 Nasser al-Omar, an influential cleric, called for Kashgari to be tried in a Sharia court

… Read the rest

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

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The gap between rhetoric and reality in the Karnataka BJP *

Feb 13th, 2012 | Filed by

The hypocrisy in Karnataka is almost Victorian in its intense public sanctimony and its private flouting of those norms.… Read the rest

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BJP ministers found watching porn during meeting *

Feb 13th, 2012 | Filed by

They claimed to have been watching the clip as part of their homework on an upcoming debate on rave parties in the assembly. Riiight.

… Read the rest

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BBC apologizes for broadcasting promotional material *

Feb 13th, 2012 | Filed by

The Malaysian PM’s office had paid FBC  to promote BN and Malaysia’s oil palm industry on news shows that it was producing for the BBC.… Read the rest

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