Ordinary citizens are poor, hungry and under-informed. The government can’t provide decent education or health services. Rape is endemic in eastern provinces.
Four-fold increase in polio in Nigeria 
Nov 21st, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In 2003, northern Nigeria’s Muslim leaders leaders opposed vaccinations, claiming they could cause infertility.… Read the rest
Who elected Grover Norquist?
Nov 21st, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
No one, but he runs the show anyway.… Read the rest
A look at Schumacher college of woo
Nov 20th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
We are told we will learn “How to use inter-disciplinary scientific information in combination with knowledge gained from sensing, feeling and intuition”.… Read the rest
Blot her out
Nov 20th, 2011 4:22 pm | By Ophelia BensonIt’s a hard job obliterating women from the landscape. People have been trying for centuries but it’s like weevils or mildew…there’s always a bit you miss and then before you know it – the big chomping jaws come through the wall and eat you.
The Saudis are struggling with this problem now, and they’ve decided there’s no help for it, they’re just going to have to cover up the eyes too. Otherwise – munch munch.
… Read the restSaudi women with sexy or “tempting” eyes may be forced to
cover them up, according to a spokesperson for the Committee for the
Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the news site Bikyamasr
reports.Bikyamasr quotes a spokesman of the Ha’eal
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Saudi religious police will cover women’s eyes
Nov 20th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The men of the committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice will interfere to force women to cover their eyes, a spokessheik said.… Read the rest
Abuse of privilege
Nov 20th, 2011 11:27 am | By Ophelia BensonSimon Singh finds Charles Windsor less than reasonable on the subject of alternative “medicine.”
… Read the restThe heir to the throne will not accept that treatments such as homeopathy, acupuncture and chiropractic therapy do not work in the vast majority of cases, according to Simon Singh.
Speaking at the Hay Festival in Kerala, India, Singh said that hundreds of scientific studies had concluded that alternative medicine is ineffective.
Yet despite this, the Prince of Wales continues to believe the therapies can help patients because of his ideological commitment to the natural world, Singh said.
‘He only wants scientific evidence if it backs up his view of the natural treatment of health conditions,’ he said.
…
‘We presented evidence that disputes the value
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Simon Singh says P Charles is fixated about alt med
Nov 20th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
PC refuses to accept the failings of alternative medicine, despite compelling evidence that it provides little benefit to patients, because he is ideologically fixated.… Read the rest
Jerusalem: women push back
Nov 20th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s an essential fact of life here: women have simply disappeared from the city space, as if it were solely inhabited by men.… Read the rest
Mehdi Hasan urges empathy for Iran
Nov 20th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Via a bold thought experiment: “Imagine, for a moment, that you are an Iranian mullah.” A mullah? Why a mullah? Why not, say, a woman?… Read the rest
You know how you tell your little woman to bring you a beer, and she brings you the dog instead?
Nov 19th, 2011 4:54 pm | By Ophelia BensonVia Dana’s open letter to Nature amiably titled “There is a Crucial Difference Between Being Contentious and Being a Misogynistic Asshole,” we read Anne Jefferson’s open letter to Nature amiably titled “You got a sexist story, but when you published it, you gave it your stamp of approval and became sexist too.”
… Read the restDear Nature,
“Womanspace” by Ed Rybicki is the most appalling thing I have ever read in a scientific journal. When I read the Futures (science fiction) piece you published on 29 September 2011, about how the hero and a man friend were unable to cope with a simple errand and how that led them to discover the existence of parallel universe inhabited by women that naturally endowed women
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Vatican to sue over pope kissing sheikh photo
Nov 19th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Benetton said the idea was to combat hatred, but the Vatican isn’t having any of that blasphemous nonsense.… Read the rest
A burgeon too many
Nov 19th, 2011 3:57 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd another thing. What does this remind you of?
The rise of the Haredim has been disastrous for the country’s economy, according to Gershom Gorenberg, author of The Unmaking of Israel.
Gorenberg writes that Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community is becoming ever more dependent on the state and, through it, on other people’s labour.
”By exempting the ultra-Orthodox from basic general educational requirements, the democratic state fosters a burgeoning sector of society that neither understands nor values democracy.
Quiverfull, and the homeschool movement. The democratic US state is fostering a burgeoning sector of society that neither understands nor values democracy – or secularism or human rights.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Deface them
Nov 19th, 2011 3:51 pm | By Ophelia BensonHow do you know when the theocrats are winning? Women start to disappear, and at the same time, the ones who haven’t disappeared yet are subject to spittle-flecked hatred…including those who are six years old.
Like that. Posters that feature women have been “defaced” in Jerusalem, the SMH article says, and by defaced it means defaced, as you can see. That poster says, “You think you’re pretty, bitch? I’ll give you pretty, you whore. How pretty do you think you’ll be after I stick a razor in your eyes, you cunt?”
That’s not “segregation”; it’s not “modesty”; it’s not “religious obligations”; it’s just loathing.
”Shut your filthy mouth, bitch.”
… Read the restNot content with segregated streets, queues and buses, extremist members
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
How the NHS could save money on homeopathic treatments
Nov 19th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Stop paying specialist homeopathic hospitals, stop buying expensive homeopathic remedies, require patients to consider a placebo instead.… Read the rest
Sam Harris is wrong about science and morality
Nov 19th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What he actually does in his book is plain old secular moral reasoning — and not very well — but he claims he’s using science to distinguish right from wrong.… Read the rest
When women and girls are the enemy
Nov 19th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Here, Jewish girls as young as six, wearing skirts below the knee and shirts to the elbow, are being targeted by the Haredi, called ”pritzas” (prostitutes).… Read the rest
It’s all the fault of the new atheists!
Nov 19th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“The extremely aggressive campaign against religion being waged by the New Atheists, led by Richard Dawkins” is why people hate science.… Read the rest
Othered and excluded from the scientific academy
Nov 18th, 2011 3:13 pm | By Ophelia BensonOh look, we’re back on this corner again. Some drearily unthinking guy writes a patronizing “funny” article story about women for Nature, people say how drearily unthinking it is, and everybody says “oh lighten up, ladies.” It’s just a joke, huh huh huh. Jokes never do any harm, any fule kno that.
In a pig’s eye, says Christie Wilcox at SciAm blogs.
… Read the restReinforcing negative gender stereotypes is anything but harmless.
It was Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson who, in 1995, first coined the term stereotype threat. It refers to how the knowledge of a prejudicial stereotype can lead to enough anxiety that a person actually ends up confirming the image. Since that landmark paper, more than 300
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Reinforcing negative gender stereotypes is not harmless
Nov 18th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
There are long-term career consequences to gender stereotypes.… Read the rest
