Every now and then people spot a search term in their stats that is too funny (and puzzling) not to share.
At last I have one.
soxs with sandles over them for dogs
All the odder because I don’t know any dogs who wear soxs, or sandles either…let alone both at once.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
A week ago a Canadian woman, Sheila Nabb, was found beaten and unconscious in a pool of blood in an elevator at a resort hotel in Mazatlan. Every bone in her face was broken.
According to Mexican police, the suspect has confessed. Making him repeat the confession at a press conference is horrendous legal procedure, but his account of what happened is…interesting.
… Read the restPrior to the assault, Quintero said he had been drinking with a Canadian friend and “doing a line of cocaine.” He told reporters that he got into the elevator with the intention of riding to the top floor and gazing down at the lights of the resort city.
He says he encountered Nabb, who he said wasn’t
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Hmm, I don’t know. It’s very sweet of Alain de Botton, but I don’t know. A temple to atheism…
The philosopher and writer Alain de Botton is proposing to build a 46-metre (151ft) tower to celebrate a “new atheism” as an antidote to what he describes as Professor Richard Dawkins’s “aggressive” and “destructive” approach to non-belief.
One, De Botton is not a philosopher. (He writes poppy books that mention philosophers here and there. That doesn’t make him a philosopher.) Two, as we all know to the point of mind-numbing tedium, Dawkins’s approach is not destructive (destructive of what? what’s he destroyed?) and it’s usually not all that aggressive. Forthright, yes; sometimes acerbic, yes; but aggressive, no, not really.
So … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The New York Times reports on the bullying of Jessica Ahlquist…sort of.
… Read the restA federal judge ruled this month that the prayer’s presence at Cranston High School West was unconstitutional, concluding that it violated the principle of government neutrality in religion. In the weeks since, residents have crowded school board meetings to demand an appeal, Jessica has received online threats and the police have escorted her at school, and Cranston, a dense city of 80,000 just south of Providence, has throbbed with raw emotion.
State Representative Peter G. Palumbo, a Democrat from Cranston, called Jessica “an evil little thing” on a popular talk radio show. Three separate florists refused to deliver her roses sent from a national atheist group. The
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
William Dalrymple tells us what last Tuesday afternoon in Jaipur was like.
… Read the restIt was the last afternoon of the Jaipur Literature Festival, of which I am co-director, and more than 10,000 people were milling around the grounds of Diggi Palace, the festival venue, eagerly waiting to hear Salman Rushdie speak by video link from London. For three weeks we had waited anxiously for this moment, ever since Maulana Abdul Qasim Nomani of the Deoband madrasa had called for the Indian Muslim community to oppose Rushdie’s visit to our festival…
Then at about one o’clock a large number of Muslim activists appeared in the property and gravitated to the back of the lawns where a huge crowd had gathered
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Someone commenting on Scofield’s Tikkun post endorses the claim that “new atheists” are totes privileged.
The literature, social spaces, and most widely recognized voices of atheism are predominantly populated by Western, white, male, heterosexual, cis, middle class (and above) people…[T]he lopsided demography of our communities tends to draw upon otherwise privileged life experiences, and as you have illustrated, this privilege inadvertently shines through in our literature and our actions.
True up to a point, but there’s another way to view that, which Scofield seems to be not just overlooking, but perhaps self-disabled from even recognizing.
Many of those “voices of atheism” are privileged, but what is the most conspicuous kind of privilege they have? It’s actually not anything mentioned … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Primrose Hill is lovely.
But for some strange reason, it’s going to have a replica of Rio de Janeiro’s Jesus statue stuck on it to celebrate the end of the Olympics.
Blasphemy.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Breaking news – the LSE Student Union vote is in: 339 for, 179 against, 24 undecided.
As one of the ASH people said, they went up against a Union whose sole consistent voting bloc consisted of the far left and Islamic societies. It’s impressive that they got 179 votes against.
I would just add: it’s strange that it’s the “far left” that votes this way, because there is nothing far left about Islamism. It’s as if the far left were voting for fascism…rather as the Stalinist “left” did at the time of the Nazi-Soviet pact.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Be Scofield tweeted me about a new article of his at Tikkun, apparently hoping I would dislike it enough to give it publicity by saying why I dislike it. Ok, sure, why not. I do dislike it. Why do I dislike it? Well because it quite unbashfully calls “the New Atheists” racist.
It also claims that “New Atheists” see everything from a privileged point of view.
… Read the restRacism In the New Atheist Movement
When Greta Christina says that religious people should be actively converted to atheism or Dawkins likens religion to a virus that infects the mind they are effectively saying “we know what’s best for you.” This is the crux of the problem with the New Atheists. They’ve identified
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
How dare women be in Tahrir Square? Especially filthy foreign women?
… Read the restAccording to Heather, an Arab-American living in the Egyptian capital, she and her Swedish and Spanish roommates took to Tahrir as thousands were converging there to mark one-year since the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak.
“They started fighting over who was going to do what,” Heather told Bikyamasr.com in an exclusive interview. She came forward after seeing the report on a foreign woman who was stripped naked and assaulted only hours after her own incident.
“My roommates and I fell to the ground when they attacked us. The people pulled our pants off even as we yelled and tried to fight,” she continued.
…
She said that
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The trial of Baltasar Garzón is very sinister.
… Read the restObservers from the world’s main human rights groups are in Madrid to monitor the second trial of the Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón, who is accused of abusing his position by opening an investigation into the deaths of 114,000 people during the Franco dictatorship.
…
Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the International Commission of Jurists (IJC) have all sent observers amid concerns that Garzón is being targeted because of his innovative use of international human rights laws.
…
Reed Brody, of HRW, warned that judges in less developed countries were also watching nervously to see whether the developed world was happy to accept that limits be put on human
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The LSE Atheists, Secularists and Humanists Facebook page has a new logo.
There’s more, but I’m not sure they want me quoting them; I’ve asked and I’m waiting to hear back. The logo however is publicly visible.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
And in case we haven’t seen enough screaming bullies yet, let us change the scene to Jaipur.
It’s Rage Boy again. There’s nothing like religion for spawning Rage Boys.
… Read the restSalman Rushdie’s virtual participation at the Jaipur Literature Festival was canceled at the last minute Tuesday, after Muslim groups attending the festival threatened violence if his image was shown.
Mr. Rushdie was scheduled to address thousands of Lit Fest attendees by video conference Tuesday afternoon, after cancelling an in-person appearance.
‘‘There are a large number of people adverse to this link in and around this property and they have threatened violence,’’ said Thakur Ram Pratap Singh of Diggi, the owner of Diggi Palace, the festival venue. ‘‘This decision is necessary
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Even Irshad Manji, who loves Allah herself, deserves to have her neck broken according to some suave fellows from an outfit called Sharia4Belgium who mobbed her book launch in Amsterdam.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The LSE student paper reports on the cartoons and free speech and “Islamophobia” and shut-uppery affair. It has details.
… Read the restOn 20th January, members of ASH Society met with Stanley Ellerby-English, Students’ Union Activities and Development Officer, who explained “the situation, the complaints that had been made and how the action of posting these cartoons was in breach of the Students’ Union policy on inclusion and the society’s constitution.” The society agreed to certain outcomes, though these have not been disclosed yet; however, the Students’ Union will “now be telling the society that they cannot continue these actions under the brand of the SU.”
Chriss Moos, President of the LSE’s Students’ Union ASH Society, responded to the formal complaints that
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Jesus and Mo are watching current events. (Well they would be, wouldn’t they.) (That is one good thing about all this; Streisand effect; lots of new fans of J and M.)
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Oh for god’s sake.
I was looking at something (reluctantly) in the Daily Mail, and noticed another headline, so took a look at that…
Young girl has short hair shock-horror!!!1111!!!!!!!!!!!
I know the Mail specializes in being as stupid as possible, but honestly………….
Angelina Jolie’s little tomboy Shiloh unveils her very short haircut
Angelina Jolie has said daughter Shiloh prefers to ‘dress like a boy’ and ‘thinks she’s one of the brothers.’
And now the five-year-old has a new short back and sides like her older male siblings.
Shiloh dressed in utilitarian black for the fun day out with her mother and two of her brothers, Knox, three, and eight-year-old Pax, which exacerbated the effect.
Exacerbated the effect?? Made a … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
