Hitchens on Stupid Nasty Threats *

Mar 13th, 2010 | Filed by

‘I have just finished reading one of the most astoundingly stupid and nasty documents ever to have landed on my desk.’… Read the rest



You have got to be kidding

Mar 12th, 2010 5:42 pm | By

Oh Jesus – I give up. Taner’s taken leave of his senses. He’s not ambivalent about liberalism, he’s ditched it entirely.

I don’t know if the institutional forms that constrain communities have to have to take the shape of an external arbiter, a Bureau of Individual Rights in Communities or something. Quite possibly, given our governmental habits. Say it’s so. But then, I would also expect such a Bureau to be sensitive to political negotiations between particular communities concerning what kind of exit procedures will be realized. It wouldn’t just be imposition of a liberal individualist superstructure.

Fucking hell. The human rights body has to be ‘sensitive’ about whether or not the communities will let people leave…

It’s crazy. … Read the rest



The fresh air of the explicit

Mar 12th, 2010 12:35 pm | By

And another thing. I replied to Taner’s “We do have proposals to this effect, and they come down to communities having a good deal of autonomy in regulating their own affairs…” with “But again, that treats ‘communities’ as if they were people. ‘Communities’ don’t have affairs; people do, one at a time.” Taner replied with “I find it perfectly sensible to talk about the interests of a corporation, the affairs of a university, or the internal rules of a bridge club. And so with communities.”

Ah yes – but there is a difference. It’s not ‘and so with communities,’ because ‘communities’ are different from corporations and universities and even bridge clubs. The difference is part of what makes them so … Read the rest



Hindu ‘Activists’ Protest Wendy Doniger’s Book *

Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by

Cite ‘persistent verbal violence against Hindus.’ Doniger is a finalist for National Book Critics Circle awards. … Read the rest



ABC Blogs on Global Atheist Convention *

Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by

More in sorrow than in anger.… Read the rest



Andrew Brown on Catholic Child Abuse *

Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by

‘Whether it is more vile than the record of any other profession is not obvious.’… Read the rest



Bob from Brockley on Apologists for Iran *

Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by

Looking at Press TV’s Iran news, one would have no idea there is anything going on, let alone an uprising.… Read the rest



Mo is in Full Rebellion Mode *

Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by

The first step is to apply for a grant.… Read the rest



German Man on What Catholic Church Did to Him *

Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by

Abuse victim asked JPII for help, got letter from official: no apology, said pope would pray for him.… Read the rest



BBC Sneers at Melbourne Atheist Convention *

Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by

‘A religious gathering at the same venue in December attracted three times as many delegates.’… Read the rest



Supreme Court Refuses Lillian Ladele’s Appeal *

Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by

‘In my case, one set of rights was trampled by another set of rights,’ she says.… Read the rest



Chris Hallquist on the Perils of Multiculturalism *

Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by

The point isn’t that everyone agrees that forced marriages are bad, the point is that they are bad. … Read the rest



Three times more than you-oo

Mar 12th, 2010 11:23 am | By

Good old Beeb – make sure not to be too polite to atheism, won’t you. Yes of course you will.

Headline: ‘Atheists meet in Melbourne to celebrate lack of faith.’ Subhead: ‘More than 2,000 atheists from around the world are gathering in Melbourne, Australia, to celebrate their lack of religious belief.’ They couldn’t be there to talk about it, to explore issues related to it, to meet people who are interested in it; no, they’re there to celebrate it, and the thing they are celebrating is a lack, which makes them doubly stupid and pathetic.

All 2,500 tickets were sold out earlier this year, but a religious gathering at the same venue in December attracted three times as many delegates.

Read the rest


No more than elements of ‘bourgeois’ ideology

Mar 11th, 2010 5:39 pm | By

And also – Danny Postel on the role the Iranian Left played in its own immolation:

An account of this self-defeat can be found in Maziar Behrooz’s book, Rebels with a Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran, a salutary and, indeed, definitive reconsideration of the history of the pre-revolutionary Iranian Left.

As Maziar explains, the Iranian Left, or at least certain key fractions of it, helped fashion the noose the Islamists ultimately hung them with. According to Behrooz, the Khomeinites were able to do this in large part because the Tudeh party, the Fadaiyan Majority, and many other Iranian Marxist parties, whatever their differences with the Islamists, shared with them a profound hostility toward liberalism. Like

Read the rest


Too few questions were asked

Mar 11th, 2010 12:09 pm | By

Further to the discussion of multiculturalism and autonomy for ‘communities’ and family law – Martha Nussbaum’s ‘The Feminist Critique of Liberalism’ is relevant throughout, and particularly relevant in this bit (Sex and Social Justice, pp 63-4):

[A]s many feminists have long pointed out, where women and the family are concerned, liberal political thought has not been nearly individualist enough. Liberal thinkers tended to segment the private from the public sphere, considering the public sphere to be the sphere of individual rights and contractual arrangements, the family to be a private sphere of love and comfort into which the state should not meddle. This tendency grew, no doubt, out of a legitimate concern for the protection of choice –

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Vatican’s Chief Exorcist: Devil is in the Vatican *

Mar 11th, 2010 | Filed by

The evil influence of Satan is evident in the highest ranks of the Catholic hierarchy, he said.… Read the rest



Lars Vilks Aimed to Mock All Religions *

Mar 11th, 2010 | Filed by

Has no regrets about his cartoon, ‘which deeply offended many Muslims,’ says NY Times piously.… Read the rest



Creationist Home-schoolers Respond *

Mar 11th, 2010 | Filed by

‘It would depress my children to no end if they even thought they were evolved from an animal.’… Read the rest



NWFP: Terrorists Murder Six Aid Workers *

Mar 11th, 2010 | Filed by

World Vision said the office was targeted because it was running programs to help women.… Read the rest



They shape their traditions in turn

Mar 10th, 2010 1:12 pm | By

The latest from Taner Edis on multiculturalism.

Liberal language about “choice” and “force” is very misleading here. No one chooses who they are. Our choices take place in a context of unchosen circumstances, and unchosen but organically acquired loyalties. Particularly conservative religious people (a pretty large chunk of the human species) are very much embedded in unchosen traditions and communities. It’s not so much that they are forced into anything as that belonging to a community is an integral part of who they are.

Yes, but again, they don’t all simply accept everything that results, and they don’t all want simply to accept everything that results. We’re not obliged to just assume that everyone is happy with whatever slot … Read the rest