Mr Martin was ordered to pay the LSE’s legal costs subject to a financial assessment.… Read the rest
Rock Beyond Belief wins a victory
Mar 16th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf you care about the constitutional rights of our nation’s armed forces personnel, and you most certainly should, make the trip out to Fort Bragg, N.C., and witness history unfold.… Read the rest
Mark your calendars
Mar 16th, 2012 3:52 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd speaking of going to things – for people in the Seattle area – Richard Dawkins, Elisabeth Cornwell, and Sean Faircloth will be doing a talk in Bellevue on April 1. Details at RDF.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Well that went awry
Mar 16th, 2012 3:47 pm | By Ophelia BensonRock Beyond Belief has an official statement from Fort Bragg saying they are allowed to be critical of organized religion. Chris Rodda explains how that happened.
… Read the restSo, why are we thanking Major Dowty? Well, because it was his blog post about his “concern” over the lyrics of a Rock Beyond Belief performer being picked up by FOX News that caused Fort Bragg officials to scrutinize the Rock Beyond Belief lineup and attempt to require additional promises from the performers and speakers that they would not be critical of religion.
But Justin stood his ground, as he always does, and got it in writing that the speakers and performers at Rock Beyond Belief can be critical of religion (just like
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Hazlitt
Mar 16th, 2012 3:32 pm | By Ophelia BensonWe were talking about Hazlitt on the Baggini/de Botton thread, and it appears that some of you know not of him. Do not die before you have remedied this!
There is a sample of his essays online along with entire books. From The Spirit of the Age, the chapter on William Gifford, editor of the Quarterly Review:
… Read the restMr. Gifford, in short, is possessed of that sort of learning which is likely to result from an over-anxious desire to supply the want of the first rudiments of education: that sort of wit which is the offspring of ill-humour or bodily pain: that sort of sense which arises from a spirit of contradiction and a disposition to cavil at
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US religious group holding “vigil” at London abortion clinic
Mar 16th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRobert Colquhoun, a campaign director of 40 Days for Life’s London campaign, said they are there to pray and to show there is love in the community.… Read the rest
Another week, another inch of heathen progress
Mar 16th, 2012 11:08 am | By Ophelia BensonOh dear god, Julian is still boring for Britain. What in hell do the people at Comment is Free – Andrew? David? – think they’re doing? Do they really think the series – Heathen’s Progress – is so brilliant or witty or enlightening or whatever to be worth carrying for all this time? Didn’t it start last October or something?
[pause to look]
No. Even worse: September. September 30, but still September.
Maybe the subhead for the series is all the explanation needed.
Julian Baggini sets out on a pilgrimage towards the truth, picking his way past the noisome swamp of New Atheist controversies…
It’s a chance to stick a finger in the eye of the noisomely swampy gnu … Read the rest
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Laila Lalami on the culture of silence in Morocco
Mar 16th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe public prosecutor failed Amina by not immediately proceeding with an arrest and an investigation.… Read the rest
Bishop to hospitals: let women die, that’s an order
Mar 16th, 2012 8:34 am | By Ophelia BensonYes really. This isn’t my usual hyperbole, it’s exactly what the bishop of Phoenix, Thomas Olmsted, tells the president of Catholic Healthcare West in an official letter dated November 22, 2010.
… Read the restI now ask that CHW agree to the following requirements by Friday, December 17, 2010. Only if all of these items are agreed to, will I postpone any action against CHW and St. Joseph’s Hospital. Specifically, I require the following in order for me to postpone any further canonical action directed against St. Joseph’s Hospital:
1. CHW must acknowledge in writing that the medical procedure that resulted in the abortion at St. Josephs’ hospital was a violation of ERD 47, and so will never occur again at
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
December 2010: Episcopal evil
Mar 16th, 2012 8:13 am | By Ophelia BensonHere’s the December 2010 post in which I became aware that it’s explicit Catholic church policy that women should be allowed to die rather than have a life-saving abortion.
December 26 2010
The ACLU letter to the administrators of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says something I hadn’t known, something quite staggering. The trouble is, I haven’t been able to find it anywhere else, so I can’t be sure it’s accurate. I would email the ACLU to ask, but they say they get too much mail to answer.
… Read the rest…just last week it was revealed that the Bishop of Phoenix threatened to remove his endorsement of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center – where, as discussed in our previous
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Catholic thanatophilia, December 2010
Mar 16th, 2012 8:04 am | By Ophelia BensonSome readers of the Texas Taliban post have expressed surprise that some rules against abortion can be downright murderous, so I thought I would go digging through the archive. I too was surprised in December 2010 to learn just exactly how explicitly murderous the policy of the Catholic church and in particular the US Conference of Catholic bishops actually is.
Here is one post on the subject (click on the link to the original to read the comments) -
December 28, 2010
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops insists on exactly the same murderous policy that the rebarbative bishop of Phoenix does. The CCB is very clear about it. The CCB doesn’t mess around.
… Read the rest“Surgery to terminate the life of
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Egypt: setback for women’s right not to be raped by cops
Mar 15th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOn Sunday, an Egyptian military tribunal acquitted an army doctor of performing so-called virginity tests on seven female protesters last spring.… Read the rest
We don’t need altar boys
Mar 15th, 2012 4:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonI know, I’m kind of spamming you, but there were all those days when there was only a placeholder or two, plus I keep finding things.
Like the Catholic church again forgetting that it’s supposed to occupy the moral high ground and revealing itself to be as brutally self-serving as any other set of thugs.
Turning the tables on an advocacy group that has long supported victims of pedophile priests, lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church and priests accused of sexual abuse in two Missouri cases have gone to court to compel the group to disclose more than two decades of e-mails that could include correspondence with victims, lawyers, whistle-blowers, witnesses, the police, prosecutors and journalists.
They could do … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Catholic church bullies victims’ group
Mar 15th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBill Donohue explains, “The church has been too quick to write a check, and I think they’ve realized it would be a lot less expensive in the long run if we fought them one by one.”… Read the rest
Oh now that’s really crafty
Mar 15th, 2012 2:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is not good. This is not good at all. News from San Diego:
The U.S. Solicitor General Wednesday joined the appeal of a ruling that declared the Mt. Soledad cross unconstitutional, raising the chances that the U.S. Supreme Court will accept the case.
The appeal of the 9th U.S. Court of Appeal ruling was filed last month by the Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group specializing in religious rights.
That is to say, a group of lawyers specializing in attempts to frame theocratic power-grabs as “religious rights.”
Check out their front page (and note that the url is freemarket.org, and laugh inwardly at thoughts about Ayn Rand). Check out the big screaming headline
Help Save Our Veterans Memorials
… Read the rest(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Tidying up
Mar 15th, 2012 10:03 am | By Ophelia BensonA few last notes on QED.
I was doing talk-prep at the start of the morning Saturday so I missed most of a talk on the European werewolf, but I did make it to excellent talks by Steve Jones and David Aaronovitch. (I never met either of them, alas. This event was a big success, so there were a lot of people, so it was impossible to meet everyone.) In the afternoon Richard Saunders did a great talk about being a tv skeptic and how to fake the power balance bracelet demonstration. (It’s simple. First you exert pressure on the subject in a way guaranteed to tip her over, then when she’s put on the bracelet you exert pressure on … Read the rest
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Rape victim forced to marry her rapist, kills herself
Mar 15th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAmina Filali, 16, swallowed rat poison after being severely beaten by her rapist “husband.”… Read the rest
US Solicitor General supports appeal of cross ruling
Mar 15th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonObama admin sides with theocrats of Liberty Institute, making Supreme Court hearing more likely. What the hell?… Read the rest
Currently in the news
Mar 15th, 2012 7:42 am | By Ophelia BensonIn Morocco on Saturday, a girl of 16 killed herself by swallowing rat poison. She was raped when she was 15, and then forced to marry her rapist.
… Read the restArticle 475 of the Moroccan penal code allows for the “kidnapper” of a minor to marry his victim to escape prosecution, and it has been used to justify a traditional practice of making a rapist marry his victim to preserve the honor of the woman’s family.
“Amina, 16, was triply violated, by her rapist, by tradition and by Article 475 of the Moroccan law,” tweeted activist Abadila Maaelaynine.
Abdelaziz Nouaydi, who runs the Adala Assocation for legal reform, said a judge can recommend marriage only in the case of agreement by
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)