All entries by this author

Tatchell calls pope “arch-homophobe” *

May 14th, 2010 | Filed by

Will the new coalition government think twice about welcoming this ghastly bigot to the UK?… Read the rest



Pope denounces abortion and gay marriage *

May 14th, 2010 | Filed by

Inexplicably, he still assumes he is a moral authority.… Read the rest



Paul Anderson responds to City University Islamic Society *

May 13th, 2010 | Filed by

All speaker meetings held on university premises should allow participation by all members of the university.… Read the rest



Peculiar George

May 13th, 2010 5:21 pm | By

More Pitcher. He’s an embarrassment to the Anglican church and to the Telegraph (whether the Anglican church and the Telegraph know it or not) so let’s by all means rub it in.

He was so pleased with his stupid abusive self-admiring reply to Sholto Byrnes that he re-posted it on the Telegraph blog. Well all right then, that makes it worth ridiculing.

(I’m doing what I’m criticizing him for doing, of course, and I do it all the time. But 1) I’m not an Anglican vicar 2) I write more restrainedly when I write on other people’s sites and 3) I do it better than he does. Plus did I mention I’m not a vicar?)

He starts by alluding … Read the rest



Therapists want to be free to…whatever *

May 13th, 2010 | Filed by

Fox, henhouse.… Read the rest



“Nicky”?

May 13th, 2010 12:36 pm | By

I think I’m going to start being more thorough about observing the antics of George Pitcher. I find him really remarkable, and all the more so because he’s an Anglican vicar. He’s such a bizarre ambassador for his institution.

Yesterday he extruded a little heap of sneers at Nick Clegg and atheism and Nick Clegg’s atheism.

One aspect of this new Con-Dem Government that hasn’t got an airing yet is that David Cameron is a devout Christian and his new deputy-dawg Nick Clegg is an atheist…I’ve had a right ear-bashing from Nicky’s press office in the past for describing his atheism as “numbskull”. I’m sorry, I’m sure he’s up there with AC Grayling and Dr Simon Heffer.

Really. This is … Read the rest



Psychotherapists must address failure of self-regulation *

May 13th, 2010 | Filed by

Thousands of psychotherapists are considering adopting new titles to avoid government regulation.… Read the rest



More impressive eloquence from George Pitcher *

May 13th, 2010 | Filed by

“I’ve had a right ear-bashing from Nicky’s press office in the past for describing his atheism as ‘numbskull’.” … Read the rest



MEMRI on Iran’s enforcement of hijab *

May 13th, 2010 | Filed by

“Sister, sister, the reward for wearing the hijab is Paradise,” “Violating the Islamic dress code leads to the spread of corruption.”… Read the rest



Michael Totten talks to Paul Berman *

May 13th, 2010 | Filed by

The Flight of the Intellectuals begins and ends with Tariq Ramadan, who has been glorifed by the people who talk trash about Ayaan Hirsi Ali.… Read the rest



If natural compassion

May 13th, 2010 3:02 am | By

Lynn Hunt asks a pertinent question in Inventing Human Rights:

Voltaire railed against the miscarriage of justice in the Calas case, but he did not originally object to the fact that the old man had been tortured or broken on the wheel. If natural compassion makes everyone detest the cruelty of judicial torture, as Voltaire said later, then why was this not obvious before the 1760s, even to him? Evidently some kind of blinders had operated to inhibit the operation of empathy before then.

The facts aren’t enough. Science isn’t enough. There has to be emotion too. People have to care. It’s that simple. If people don’t care, the facts are just facts, they’re inert.

This is also why … Read the rest



Brave new world

May 12th, 2010 6:30 pm | By

And then there’s this whole idea that we can make morality a science by basing it on universal desire for well-being.

One problem with that is that we don’t all have the same view of what constitutes well-being, to say the least. We don’t agree on what constitutes well-being in general and we certainly don’t agree on what constitutes it for self as opposed to other.

And suppose someone did come up with a survey that found – convincingly – that aggregate well-being was higher when women were more or less forced, by the lack of opportunity to do anything else, to be wives and mothers and nothing else, and lower when they had wider opportunities and correspondingly more freedom. … Read the rest



The detention and execution of Shirin Alam Holi

May 12th, 2010 | By Shirin Alam Holi

Shirin Alam Holi, born in 1981 in a small village near Maku, was executed in Evin Prison on May 9th 2010 after passing one year and nine months in prison. She was charged with cooperating with Pajak (the Iranian branch of PKK) on Nov. 29th 2009 and sentenced to death. Her lawyer and family had no information about her execution.

Shirin was arrested in June 2008 in Tehran by Sepah Pasdaran and transferred to Evin Prison after 21 days interrogation and torture in an unknown place. She described what happened to her completely in a letter which she gave to her family. In this letter she related many physical as well as mental pressures she endured during the interrogation and … Read the rest



George Rekers resigns in wake of rent boy fuss *

May 12th, 2010 | Filed by

Dan Savage suggests that the term “whatever floats your boat” be changed to “whatever lifts your luggage”.… Read the rest



The new war between science and religion *

May 12th, 2010 | Filed by

This one pits those who argue that science and religion are compatible worldviews against those who think they are not.… Read the rest



Rick Ungar on Palin’s ignorance of history *

May 12th, 2010 | Filed by

The truth is that nowhere in the United States Constitution can you find the word “God”.… Read the rest



Lars Vilks attacked during free speech lecture *

May 12th, 2010 | Filed by

Uppsala police say about 20 people tried to attack Vilks. He was shoved into a wall, but is unhurt. … Read the rest



Byrnes on Harris, Pitcher on Pitcher

May 11th, 2010 5:13 pm | By

Sholto Byrnes did a nice job of defending Evan Harris.

A consistently strong voice for the NHS and for science, he shared the title of “Secularist of the Year” with Lord Avebury in 2009 for their work in helping abolish the offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel. He has campaigned against faith schools and argued courageously in favour of abortion, euthanasia, immigration and gay rights…I think he has been one of the most principled MPs in parliament, sticking to his convictions and standing up for a true-liberal view of free speech and of the idea of liberty itself.

The fact that some of the policies he advocates led “one Labour MP” in this peculiarly nasty Daily Mail profile to

Read the rest


Kenan Malik reviews What Darwin Got Wrong *

May 11th, 2010 | Filed by

Ironically, it is Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini who confuse artificial and natural selection.… Read the rest



Theory was no hoax *

May 11th, 2010 | Filed by

It was intended as the most imperialist of cognitive campaigns, having designs on all the disciplines.… Read the rest