Religious leaders should not be in charge of human rights but rather men and women who are striving for an equal society.… Read the rest
It’s called charisma
Oct 16th, 2012 10:48 am | By Ophelia BensonSome grey bloke has a new video about charismatic atheist doodz…
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Pesky atheists pretending to like science
Oct 15th, 2012 5:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonI want to post a picture of a Mars rock. It has to be a pyramidal rock. Luckily, there is a picture of a pyramidal rock at NASA.
[robotic voice] “Look at this glorious picture of a pyramidal rock on Mars. I am such a geek.”
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Hahahahahahahahahaha… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Microaggression and macroaggression
Oct 15th, 2012 4:12 pm | By Ophelia BensonDrop everything and read this article by Soraya Chemaly on a book about the link between violence against girls and women and military conflict.
If you take one idea away from the year 2012 this should be this:
“The very best predictor of a state’s peacefulness is not its level of wealth, its level of democracy, or its ethno-religious identity; the best predictor of a state’s peacefulness is how well its women are treated. What’s more, democracies with higher levels of violence against women are as insecure and unstable as nondemocracies.”
U.S.? Look at yourself in the mirror.
… Read the restThere is a direct relationship between the treatment of women in everyday life — in homes, on streets, at schools and
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Mandatory bullying in the schools
Oct 15th, 2012 3:10 pm | By Ophelia BensonSometimes the ugliness is just suffocating, and also hard to believe.
Take a good idea…
On Mix It Up at Lunch Day, schoolchildren around the country are encouraged to hang out with someone they normally might not speak to.
The program, started 11 years ago by the Southern Poverty Law Center and now in more than 2,500 schools, was intended as a way to break up cliques and prevent bullying.
And it would also teach children some useful things – such as, that you don’t have to eat lunch with the same people every single day; that it can be interesting and fun to get to know different people; that it can be a nuisance to have to … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Apples but not bananas? What about pineapples?
Oct 15th, 2012 2:38 pm | By Ophelia BensonHahahaha this is great – did you know the Apple logo is blasphemous?
Yes well once you’re told of course you can see it. Apple; bite missing. But would you have thought of it if you hadn’t been told? Aha!!1! I thought not. You’re probably blasphemous yourself.
… Read the restIn this case it’s a sect of ultra-Orthodox believers in Russia that are claiming that the Apple logo is indeed blasphemous:
Radical orthodox Christians from Russia remove Apple logotype from the company’s products and put a cross sign instead of them. The orthodox find the half-bitten apple logotype anti-Christian and insulting their belief, something that may potentially cause serious problems for Apple’s products in the country.
Interfax news-agency reports about “several” cases,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Lying liars tell lying lies
Oct 15th, 2012 2:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonA bit of housekeeping. Boring, I know, but it’s an outrageous vicious lie and it’s sticking in my head the way corn sticks in your teeth. It’s so outrageous and so vicious that this one time I will even link to the pit. It may be futile or even worse than futile, since Studies Have Shown that correcting a lie enforces the lie rather than correcting it; nevertheless I can’t just let it sit there.
One “Richard Strawkins” (see what I mean about how this works? the lie won’t damage him [I'll assume he really is male] because that’s not his name; it will damage only me) said on October 5, in a discussion of Dawkins’s foreword to the … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Perverted chattering degenerate misanthropes hunt for witches
Oct 15th, 2012 10:52 am | By Ophelia BensonIt’s Brendan! Again! Yes he’s back, that mischief-loving scamp from Living Libertarian Marxism or do I mean Zombie Catholic Theocracy. What is it this time? It’s that the reporting and commentary on Jimmy Savile is – wait for it – a witch-hunt.
Wut? The guy’s dead. How can it be a witch hunt when he’s dead?
… Read the restWith each passing day – hour, in fact – the Jimmy Savile scandal looks more and more like a modern-day version of the hysteria that gripped seventeenth-century Salem, when a small town in Massachusetts became convinced that it had witches in its midst. Since the first accusations of child abuse were made against the late BBC entertainer in an ITV documentary on 3 October,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Malala is now in the UK
Oct 15th, 2012 10:16 am | By Ophelia BensonShe’s getting specialist treatment.
… Read the restAlthough Pakistan had initially insisted she could be treated in her home country, a military statement said that a panel of doctors had recommended she be “shifted abroad to a UK centre which has the capability to provide integrated care to children who have sustained severe injury”.
On arrival at Birmingham Airport, she was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital by ambulance, travelling at a slow speed because of the nature of her wounds.
The hospital has a recently-opened major trauma centre specialising in both gunshot wounds and head injuries.
Its specialist team has 10 years of experience of treating UK military casualties and Medical Director Dr David Rosser said Malala Yousafzai “could be viewed as
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Malala flown to UK for treatment 
Oct 15th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The panel of doctors recommended that Malala be shifted abroad to a UK center which can provide integrated care to severely injured children.… Read the rest
The many other Malalas
Oct 14th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Those pushing this struggle forward are not foreign. They are people like the teachers assassinated simply for going to work.… Read the rest
Update from Rawalpindi
Oct 14th, 2012 5:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonAl Jazeera has a grim update about Malala, but it’s from an unnamed source who isn’t authorized to talk to the media, so…who knows. The latest on the record news though is better.
… Read the restMilitary surgeons conducted three consecutive clinical examinations on Sunday and compiled a report which stated: “Malala’s condition is stable and she is recovering from her injury steadily.”
According to military surgeons at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, Rawalpindi, Malala respired without a ventilator on Sunday for a few moments after successfully moving her limbs on Saturday.
“It was an amazing development made by her body. Usually patients on ventilators with such a complicated head injury never show such signs … Keeping our fingers crossed to see
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
I get to be in a cartoon!
Oct 14th, 2012 3:48 pm | By Ophelia BensonMind you, my friend the author of Jesus and Mo may not like it much, especially given the feeble quality of the wit. But my monstrous ego is flattered.
I don’t get any lines though. I just say Peezus Christ at the end every time.
I’m not even in the latest one (number 8). I guess I’m just there for the rhyme. Monstrous ego deflated.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
A Greek blogger goes to see Corpus Christi
Oct 14th, 2012 12:55 pm | By Ophelia BensonAorati Melani is the blogger, which is Invisible Ink in English.
… Read the restIn front of the theater, another crowd had gathered, and another group of policemen was preventing them for approaching. Behind the police, there were a few people, priests, monks, a lady with a scarf on her head and some men in suits, three of which, as I learned later, were parliament members of the Golden Dawn party.
The air smelled of tear gas and my eyes stung, but generally there was relative calm. I approached the officers and said that I wanted to enter the theater.
“Go away, ma’m. Please, go away”
“Has the play been cancelled?”
“We don’t know. Please step back.”I
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Carlin isn’t the issue
Oct 14th, 2012 12:30 pm | By Ophelia BensonNo, just saying “I can use any words I want to” doesn’t deal with the problem. No, it really doesn’t. Not even if you say it really loudly, or over and over again, or really loudly over and over again.
Another day, another Internet radio show, another transcript, another attempt to make the problem just a matter of swearing.
… Read the rest…there is nothing that is placed outside of purpose, especially words, and what words I use depend on what message I am trying to convey. This is why I have such a problem with censorship. I would just as soon see Vincent Van Gogh censored as I would any artist, and the same goes for any wordsmith.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Doctors say Malala is making steady progress
Oct 14th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“She is making slow and steady progress which is in keeping with expectations,” the Pakistani military said in a statement released Sunday.… Read the rest
How dare you suffer!
Oct 14th, 2012 11:49 am | By Ophelia Benson(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Thankful for not having our heads chopped off
Oct 14th, 2012 11:25 am | By Ophelia BensonYiannis Baboulias tells us more about Greece and Golden Dawn.
… Read the restOn Thursday night the Athens premiere of Terrence McNally’s play, Corpus Christi, was cancelled following protests by members of the far-right party Golden Dawn (including some MPs) and religious groups.
The protest had a clearly homophobic agenda. Manolis V, a journalist, was attacked by protesters while the police apparently did nothing: “The police is next to us. I shout ‘They’re beating me, aren’t you going to do something?’,” he wrote on Twitter. “I move away so I can look on from distance. A well-known Golden Dawn MP follows me. He punches me twice in the face and knocks me to the ground. While on the ground, I lose
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Greece: fascists beat people up while police watch
Oct 14th, 2012 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The spectacle of fascists physically attacking people whose moral agenda they disapprove of has become routine in today’s Greece.… Read the rest
Men deserve their veil of privacy
Oct 13th, 2012 4:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonAmanda Marcotte nailed it at Comment is Free a couple of days ago.
A man’s right to privacy versus a woman’s right to live free of male violence: these two principles routinely conflict in modern society, with the former winning out most of the time…
This belief that men deserve a veil of privacy that makes it easier to harass, beat, and rape women is so ingrained in our society that it’s difficult to stand back and see how nonsensical it really is.
Most of our stalkers have their veil of privacy. They talk degrading shit about us day in and day out, and none of it ever touches them by so much as a drop. They have complete immunity … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
