Apr 11th, 2015 4:31 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
More from Tom Vandenbosch:
Tom Vandenbosch @TVandenbosch Apr 7
RIP Laban Kumba, a talented student leader. A brave man, he actually fought with the terrorists!
#147notjustanumber
Laban Kumba
Tom Vandenbosch @TVandenbosch 8 hours ago
He just turned 20. QT “@kenyanpundit: RIP Branton Whakungu. #147notjustanumber ” We will name them, one by one.
Branton Whakungu
Tom Vandenbosch @TVandenbosch 8 hours ago
Relatives and friends paid their respects to Angela Nyokabi Githakwa, 21
#147notjustanumber
http://nyti.ms/1IRvGMx
Tom Vandenbosch retweeted
The African Success™ @IMwauraKimani 18 hours ago
Yesterday, my friend buried his cousin Angela Nyokabi Githakwa (Jojo) #RestInPeace #147notjustanumber @kenyanpundit
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB, Garissa
Apr 11th, 2015 4:10 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Boniface Mwangi @bonifacemwangi 6 hours ago
Tonui’s colleagues said goodbye to him with a 21 gun salute. #147notjustanumber #GarrisaAttack
Mr. B @Benogola Apr 9
147 seconds of silence in memory of the 147 students killed in #GarrisaAttack. #147NotJustANumber
Well that one made me start and look more closely – that looks like Red Square at the University of Washington, I said in surprise. I looked at Mr B’s profile – he’s in Seattle. Damn, if I’d known I would have gone.… Read the rest
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB, Garissa
Apr 11th, 2015 4:00 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Milton Nkosi reports for the BBC on heartbreak in Nairobi as parents collect the bodies of their children murdered in the Garissa slaughter.
I watched mothers, fathers, other relatives and friends break down in tears at Chiromo mortuary in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, as coffins of their young sons and daughters were handed over.
There could not have been a more poignant moment to witness the deep pain and grief suffered by families of those who perished in the Garissa University College attack last week.
They are taking their children home to the hills and valleys of this beautiful land for burial.
No more college. No more future.
Back at the mortuary I heard about 23-year-old Susan Kwamboka Onyikwa.
She was
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
Apr 11th, 2015 11:35 am |
By Ophelia Benson
English PEN has more on Zainub Dala:
English PEN is gravely alarmed to hear that South African novelist Zainub Priya Dala has been admitted to a mental institution in Durban, South Africa. Dala is also a psychologist and a physiotherapist specialising in autism.
In March, at a literary event at a school, she praised the works of Salman Rushdie. A day later, three men accosted her when she was in her car, placed a knife at her throat and hit her face with a brick. She was addressed as ‘Rushdie’s Bitch.’ She believes that if a minibus taxi had not pulled into the vacant lot that she would have been stabbed.
Dala has since been under pressure from members
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB, Zainub Priya Dala
Apr 10th, 2015 3:40 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Second batch.
Remember, this is just three weeks’ worth. They’ve been doing this for nearly four years.
The above is a photoshop of Brian Engler’s photo. He did not give them permission to use it.
That’s it.
Yet somehow we’re the evil demons. Why is that again?
… Read the rest
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB, slyme pit
Apr 10th, 2015 3:33 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Ashley Miller did a post on some background. She included a photoshop that I hadn’t seen before (although I have seen other versions of the same photo, the one we took in solidarity with atheist bloggers in Bangladesh – such a suitable subject for ridicule and mockery, don’t you think?). I was curious so I did a google image search – and found a whole page of images: three weeks’ worth at the slyme pit, 9/30-10/14 2014. They’re productive.
This is the slyme pit: Michael Nugent’s informants and allies, people Hemant Mehta thinks PZ is too hard on when he “deems” them “trolls.”
There are a lot of photoshops of PZ there, and some of Rebecca and Stephanie, … Read the rest
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB, slime pit, slyme pit
Apr 10th, 2015 10:39 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Another cartoonist being punished for being a meanie to people in power. (I thought that was what political cartoonists were supposed to do.)
Malaysian cartoonist Zulkiflee Anwar Alhaque has been charged with nine counts of sedition for criticising the country’s judiciary in a series of tweets.
Alhaque, known for ridiculing the ruling coalition, had criticised the judiciary in a series of posts on Twitter on 10 February, when opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was due to start a five-year prison sentence on sodomy charges.
He had tweeted: “The lackeys in black robes are proud of their sentence. The rewards from the political masters must be plenty.”
In another post he said: “Today Malaysia is seen as a country without law.”
According
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
Apr 10th, 2015 9:21 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Great god almighty – a new low for George Galloway. You wouldn’t think that possible, would you, but it is. Helen Pidd reports in the Guardian:
George Galloway has admitted ordering an intermediary in Pakistan to dig out the marriage certificate of his Labour rival in order to try to prove she had been 16, not 15, when she claims to have been forced into marriage.
…
Officials from his Respect party dispute that Naz Shah, Labour’s candidate in Bradford West, was forced into marriage, on the grounds that her mother was at the ceremony.
Who do they think does the forcing in forced marriage? The military? Strangers wearing masks? It’s the family that does the forcing. The fact … Read the rest
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB, George Galloway
Apr 10th, 2015 9:00 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Another petition you can sign – this one Amnesty International to Obama, urging him to stand up for Raif.
Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for his blog Saudi Arabian Liberals. More than one million actions have been taken on his behalf – yet some key world leaders have remained silent. Now, Raif’s wife Ensaf Haidar has asked President Obama to add his voice to the call to Free Raif. In a recent Washington Post Op-Ed, Ensaf wrote:
“More than a million people around the world have demanded that the Saudi Arabian authorities release my husband, including more than 60 members of Congress…I beg members of the administration to follow
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB, Raif Badawi
Apr 9th, 2015 5:49 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
There’s this article at the Gatestone Institute – a source I’m wary of, because I don’t know how reliable it is, but it provides some material I don’t see anywhere else.
After weeks of diplomatic wrangling and recrimination, the Saudi government on March 27 announced that it would reinstate its ambassador, Ibrahim bin Saad bin Ibrahim al-Brahim, to Stockholm. The ambassador had been recalled on March 11 as a protest against Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström’s criticism of Saudi Arabia’s legal practices and treatment of women.
“Weeks” of diplomatic wrangling is a strange way to put it, because March 11 to March 27 is 16 days. It’s two weeks; “weeks” sounds like more than that. Anyway, Saudi said the … Read the rest
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
Apr 9th, 2015 5:23 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Originally two comments by Tom Foss on The words spoken.
“We need to stop spending our money on military and police and start spending it on education.”
“He wants to eliminate the whole military and all police! It’s exactly what he said!”
There’s a phrase missing from your strawman here that would actually make your “charitable” reading accurate: “so much.” We need to stop spending so much of our money on military and police and start spending it on education.
We keep hearing all this about charitable readings and giving people the benefit of the doubt when the people in question have given no indication that they deserve it. Regardless of whether or not she meant the actual words … Read the rest
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
Apr 9th, 2015 4:13 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
A news story from what must be a colleague (so to speak) of the Onion.
The catering team on BBC quiz Have I Got News For You have been placed on ‘high alert’ after increased chatter surrounding Jeremy Clarkson’s appearance later this month.
With the risk of serving cold food higher than ever before, the catering team are said to be undergoing extensive training and new performance drills ahead of his 29th April appearance to ensure all food in the green room remains warm at all times.
Caterer Simon Williams told us, “This is not normally a dangerous job, but frankly we can’t afford to make the terrible mistake of serving Jeremy Clarkson cold food. Real human lives are at
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
Apr 9th, 2015 1:05 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
C J Werleman claims that New Atheism – all of it, not just Sam Harris and Bill Maher – is pro-white supremacy.
[The New Atheist movement has] become a pro-white supremacy movement. New Atheism is anti-Muslim, anti-Arab bigotry dressed up with a thin veneer of fancy sounding words.
That’s not a very effective way of making his claim, since white-supremacy isn’t the same thing as anti-Muslim bigotry which is not the same thing as anti-Arab bigotry. There’s overlap, but it’s possible to be one of those things without being the others, and it’s possible to be two of those things without being all three.
Individually, and on a personal level, however, New Atheists can be good people. Collectively and unwittingly,
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
Apr 8th, 2015 4:30 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Jeremy Clarkson is baaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaaaack.
Jeremy Clarkson is set to make his first appearance on the BBC since losing his job as co-presenter on Top Gear.
The controversial broadcaster will appear as the guest host of Have I Got News for You on 24 April.
“Jeremy’s contract has not been renewed on Top Gear but he isn’t banned from appearing on the BBC,” a BBC spokesman said.
Oh. There was me thinking the BBC actually didn’t want him around any more, on account of that thing he does where he hits underlings in the face and calls them fucking cunts at the top of his lungs in posh hotels. But no, they just didn’t want him around on that one … Read the rest
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
Apr 8th, 2015 12:01 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
I too have a very low opinion of Karen Armstrong, Debbie Schlussel, Fred Phelps, Rush Limbaugh, and Ronald Reagan. I’m likely to use harsh adjectives and/or swear words to describe them.
I’m just saying.… Read the rest
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
Apr 8th, 2015 10:57 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Speaking of Asra Nomani – Muhammad Syed of EXMNA shared this post by her on Facebook:
If you are in the Chapel Hill, N.C., area, I would like to invite you to a talk I will give on the campus of Duke University at the Griffith Auditorium, April 7, 2015, at 7 PM.
While Duke won a national championship just now, last week I received less than championship handling of my scheduled talk.
Last Thursday, Duke abruptly cancelled my talk after a stated protest by the Duke Muslim Students Association to my talk, the MSA citing false allegations against me that were first spread two years ago by now Duke professor of Islam, Omid Safi, about my alleged “alliances with
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: Asra Nomani, FTB