All entries by this author

Vatican Continues to Blame Irish Bishops *

Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by

While ignoring its own role.… Read the rest



Exciting Plans for Hijab Sculpture in Brick Lane *

Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by

Let’s celebrate the subordination of women!… Read the rest



Vicar Insists That Women Are Subordinate *

Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by

It is ‘an eternal principle that women are physically weaker than men’ so men are the boss.… Read the rest



‘The Muslim Brotherhood is Young at Heart’ *

Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by

Comment is Free sends another love letter to darling Islamism.… Read the rest



Kevin Rudd Rebukes Women Who Don’t Breed *

Feb 16th, 2010 | Filed by

All young women say they can’t, they’re getting a PhD. No really, he said that.… Read the rest



Iran Needs a United Democratic and Secular Opposition

Feb 16th, 2010 | By Jahanshah Rashidian

The lack of a strong and united democratic and secular movement in Iran has left the way clear for the Islamic regime for the further destruction, plunder, and bloodshed of our country. Although the panic-stricken bullets of Islamic mercenaries would suffocate any voice of protest, people are brave enough to resolutely claim their freedom despite any risk of torture, rape, and execution as “Mohareb” (heretic).

Unfortunately, the worst-ever conditions of our people have not enough stimulated responsible reactions among all democratic and secular activists to form a united movement to free the country from the plague of the Islamic regime.

Sadly, yet the people of Iran must wait; such a liberation movement has long been deemed illusory. It is however … Read the rest



Might makes right in Sevenoaks

Feb 16th, 2010 10:33 am | By

That curate in Kent is standing by what he said – he’s not backing down just because a lot of boring politically correct rightsy types are pissed off. He’s got principle. He really thinks women should be submissive to men.

Two weeks ago the curate delivered a controversial sermon at St Nicholas’s Church in Sevenoaks in which he triggered outrage by partly blaming the high divorce rate on women no longer submitting to their husbands…During yesterday’s sermon Mr Oden said he wished to make it clear that he did not believe women were “weaker intellectually” but that it was “an eternal principle that women are physically weaker than men”.

Well, it’s not the case that all women are physically weaker … Read the rest



I am shocked, shocked, that there is child-rape going on in this establishment

Feb 15th, 2010 5:25 pm | By

So the pope is doing the ostentatious hand-washing thing – though of course it would be impolite to murmur anything about Pontius Pilate.

Pope Benedict XVI will today complete his interrogation of Ireland’s 24 bishops before pontificating on one of the most shocking clerical scandals of recent times: the extensive sexual abuse of children by Irish priests and the pervasive campaign to conceal it…The Pope has said he is “disturbed and distressed” by the abuse in Ireland and shares the “outrage, betrayal and shame” felt by the Irish people…Observers note that widespread abuse of children by priests is not unique to Ireland.

To put it mildly. But what fewer observers seem to be noting is the absurdity of the pope’s … Read the rest



Crucial distinctions

Feb 15th, 2010 4:48 pm | By

Gary Rosen, the chief external affairs officer of the Templeton Foundation, reviews Timothy Ferris’s The Science of Liberty in The New York Times.

Nor is it clear, as Ferris would have it, that science furnishes the ideal template for liberal democracy. Science, he notes, is antiauthoritarian, self-correcting, meritocratic and collaborative…But crucial distinctions are lost in these comparisons. The scientific community may be open to everyone, in principle, but it has steep and familiar barriers to entry…[M]odern science is, in the most admirable sense, an aristocracy — a selection and sorting of the best minds as they interact within institutions designed to achieve certain rarefied ends. Experiment, equality and freedom of expression are essential to this work, but it is

Read the rest


Pope Scolds Irish Bishops Over Child Abuse *

Feb 15th, 2010 | Filed by

No mention of Ratzinger’s 2001 letter to all Catholic bishops telling them abuse was Church business.… Read the rest



Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World *

Feb 15th, 2010 | Filed by

New evidence that part of the history of radical Islamism was written in Berlin in WW II.… Read the rest



Hitchens on Amnesty and Gita Sahgal *

Feb 15th, 2010 | Filed by

Amnesty did not defend IRA bombers and Khmer Rouge killers and Gens. Pinochet and Videla.… Read the rest



54% of Girls in Deprived Areas Getting Pregnant! *

Feb 15th, 2010 | Filed by

Oops, make that 5.4%!… Read the rest



Jerry Coyne on Templetonian Activities *

Feb 15th, 2010 | Filed by

Shaping explanations to fit inconvenient facts.… Read the rest



Amnesty’s Sam Zarifi Backs Gita Sahgal *

Feb 15th, 2010 | Filed by

Amnesty’s decision to suspend Sahgal while continuing its support for Begg has provoked criticism.… Read the rest



Moazzam Begg Calls Gita Sahgal a Fundamentalist *

Feb 15th, 2010 | Filed by

‘A victim can also be a perpetrator,’ Sahgal says. ‘It’s a very simple thought.’ … Read the rest



It’s not a normal position

Feb 14th, 2010 5:55 pm | By

Gita Sahgal is not having an easy time.

She fears for her own and her family’s safety. She has — temporarily at least — lost her job and found it almost impossible to find anyone to represent her in any potential employment case. She rang round the human rights lawyers she knows, all of whom have declined to help citing a conflict of interest. “Although it is said that we must defend everybody no matter what they’ve done, it appears that if you’re a secular, atheist, Asian British woman, you don’t deserve a defence from our civil right firms,” she says wryly.

Moazzam Begg sets us all straight about that.

He counters Sahgal’s view by saying she is, in

Read the rest


Global Petition to Amnesty International *

Feb 14th, 2010 | Filed by

We extend our solidarity and support to Gita Sahgal, who is widely respected for her principled activism.… Read the rest



Take the Moral Sense Test *

Feb 14th, 2010 | Filed by

A series of moral dilemmas to probe the psychological mechanisms underlying our moral judgments.… Read the rest



Do Humans Have an Innate ‘Moral Grammar’? *

Feb 14th, 2010 | Filed by

Ilkka Pyysiäinen and Marc Hauser discuss the evolution of religion and morality.… Read the rest