Via Kylie – a brilliant thank you note to The Footsoldiers of Commenting.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Via Kylie – a brilliant thank you note to The Footsoldiers of Commenting.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
You know it’s Secular Student Alliance week, right?
… Read the restRight now, SSA supporters Jeff Hawkins and Janet Strauss have pledged a $250,000 matching offer. That means that every contribution is matched dollar-dor-dollar up to a quarter of a million dollars.Hitting the Hawkins/Strauss match means we can offer previously unimagined levels of support for our affiliates during the coming fall semester. But we need help from the non-students to get there.
The goal of SSA Week is to raise $100,000. Is it ambitious? Yes. Can we do it? Yes. Surely there are 20,000 people out there who support the cause of empowering secular activists at the college and high school level. $5 apiece from each of them gets us to
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Via Christopher Moyer – women tennis players are given their own special court to play on.
…the revered Stade Roland Garros, which first hosted a national women’s tennis tournament in 1897, had turned a court bright pink and set up an on-site salon and spa for female sportswriters in honor of “Ladies Day.”
Well good good good good. And female surgeons will get their own special bright pink OR, and female pilots will get their own special bright pink cabins, and female judges will get their own special bright pink robes.
More from Joanne Gerstner, who was there.
… Read the restThe carpet is hot pink. The tennis court is rose pink. The champagne is pale pink. The nail polish is cotton
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Brilliant idea: paint a tennis court pink for the wimminz to play on.… Read the rest
Also – I have a new gig. I get to be a columnist for The Freethinker.
… Read the restCutting”, “abrasive”, “sarcastic”, “offensive” … These are just some of the words used to describe the Freethinker magazine, which was launched in Britain in 1881 and has continued publishing without a break ever since. But it was the word “blasphemous”, dropped from the lips of a hostile judge, that that got its founder and first editor G.W. Foote into serious trouble. As a result mainly of irreligious cartoons published in the Christmas, 1882, edition, the judge declared the issue “blasphemous” and Foote was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment with hard labour.
But the magazine, under caretaker editor Edward E Aveling, kept rolling off
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The panel I did at Women in Secularism with Rebecca and Jen and Sikivu is now posted.
In case you look at it, just a note – I’m really not as furious and grim as I look, that’s just the way my face goes. In my head I’m actually as mostly-amused as Rebecca looks (and is).
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
There’s a report that the women in Pakistan haven’t been killed after all. That would be a relief! Thank you for not killing some women for singing and dancing at a wedding. You are very kind.
Pakistani campaigners say they have made contact with two out of five women previously feared murdered for singing in a wedding video.
Dr Farzana Bari met the two women after travelling with officials to a remote village in north-west Pakistan.
The team did not meet the other three women, but said local elders had given assurances that they were also alive.
Well good. I’m glad there’s one less horror in the stack of horrors.
… Read the restAfter several hours climbing, human rights activists – travelling with
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Ed has a great post replying to a hilariously absurd one by John Loftus wondering what the Freethought blogs “mission statement” is. That question is swiftly answered: there ain’t one.
Ed points out a certain confusion.
On the one hand, if several FTBers agree on a subject and each write about it expressing a similar perspective, that’s bad and it’s obviously all orchestrated behind the scenes; on the other hand, when we disagree we’re drowning each other out and undermining atheism in the process.
Don’t I know it. I’ve just seen a little knot of people on Twitter agreeing with each other that FTB thinks as one and is horribly messily anarchic. If I’ve seen it once I’ve seen it … Read the rest
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Members of the Vatican hierarchy are using the word “feminist” and even “radical feminist” the way third-graders use the word “cooties.”… Read the rest
A vast sanctuary is emerging for al-Qaeda’s African followers in northern Mali, where Tuareg secessionists allied with Islamists have declared an independent Islamist state.… Read the rest
Hilarious headline department:
Pope praises Britain’s Queen Elizabeth’s “noble vision” of a Christian monarch
You don’t say!
Well he would, wouldn’t he. She’s praised his “noble vision” of a Christian pontiff, too, for the same kind of reason. They’re colleagues. They both work in the unelected unaccountable head of an absurd hierarchy business. They both draw their illegitimate magical pseudo-authority from a non-existent “god.” They both wear expensive outfits when appearing to worshipful crowds. They both tell people what’s what, based on nothing in particular.
… Read the restIn a message released Wednesday by the Vatican, Benedict said the British monarch has over the past 60 years been an “inspiring example of dedication to duty and a commitment to maintaining the principles of
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Another petition for you, via the New Humanist:
We call on the Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay to withdraw their complaint against Indian Rationalist Sanal Edamaruku
You bet; I certainly call on the Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay to do that. Seriously? Edamaruku investigated a claim that a little statue of Mary was leaking tears, and he found that it was seepage from sewer water under the statue. That’s not a crime, to put it mildly, and the Catholic archdiocese has no business complaining about it.
Hey Catholic archdiocese of Bombay – I say the guy named Yeshua who was executed by the Romans 20 centuries ago is still dead, because dead people stay dead. Come and get me!… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Well he would, wouldn’t he.… Read the rest
The petition is addressed to the US Food and Drug Administration, US Department of Health and Human Services, and the Federal Trade Commission.… Read the rest
The spokesman of Golden Dawn party lunged at two female left-wing politicians on a talk show, throwing water at one and smacking the other three times across the face.… Read the rest
Katha Pollitt reports bad news about the woman in Indiana who is being prosecuted for murder because she attempted suicide when she was 33 weeks pregnant.
… Read the restThe state Supreme Court has refused to review charges of attempted feticide and murder against Bei Bei Shuai. Just before Christmas 2010, Shuai, who was thirty-three weeks pregnant, attempted to kill herself by consuming rat poison after her boyfriend, father of the baby, abruptly announced he was married and abandoned her to return to his family. Rushed to the hospital, she had a Caesarean section, but her newborn daughter died after a few days of life. (Here’s my column on the case.) Despite amicus briefs from eighty respected experts and relevant medical and
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He could be picked up at any time, and his lawyers are advising him to leave the country for a bit. Spread the word, donate if you can.… Read the rest
Stairs to no end reminded me of something: one of my favorite last-two-minutes of the ’90s tv show Northern Exposure, which had a lot of glorious final two minutes. I’m slow, so it took me awhile to remember that I might be able to find it, and by golly…
Chris the DJ-autodidact-ex-con has spent the episode preparing a surprise winter celebration thing for Cicely, and that celebration thing is the end of the episode. Check it out.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
4 women and 2 men were sentenced to death by a jirga for singing and dancing at a wedding. The men managed to flee but the women were all killed.… Read the rest