You know what I wish? I wish Dawkins would just change direction. I wish he would buckle down and find out who all those progressive feminist universalist Muslim and ex-Muslim women are and promote them. That’s what. I wish he would stop using his massive Twitter voice to attack and bully individual women he takes a dislike to, and individual Muslim schoolboys he takes a dislike to, and instead use it to tell his million fans about people he likes. Stop the bashing, and start promoting instead.

He could do that. It wouldn’t hurt him. It would be fun, and he could feel he was accomplishing something. He would be accomplishing something. He’d be putting his fame to good … Read the rest

Guest post by Magdalen Berns.

Since I wrote about my experience of being excluded from Edinburgh University Student Association (EUSA) Women’s Liberation, LGBT Liberation, and LGBT Society Facebook groups, I can now confirm that I have also been banned from the NUS Scotland Women’s Campaign Facebook group which represents around 0.2% of roughly 100,000 female Scottish higher education students. My latest thought crime was having the temerity to post a discussion between Chris Hedges, Lee Lakeman and Alice Lee and quoting the following remark from Alice Lee.

I think with neoliberalism it’s worse for women of colour, indigenous women, because now a sort of–they use an excuse of subjugating women and the exploitation of women of colour and indigenous women

Via Maryam: a lecturer at a Swedish university is being investigated for lecturing on John Stuart Mill. It’s in Swedish but there’s a translate button at the top, so one can get the gist. Rrr provided us with a translation:

Groundless investigations of teachers jeopardize academic freedom and reduce the working and learning environment within the university.

Adamson (the male lecturer, who was by the way previously fired from Malmö university for criticising the Swedish variety policy) claims the quotes about religion are untrue. “All I did was to point out that while religions may not necessarily be true, they can give a sense of cohesion that secular society can not offer.”

The school planned an extensive investigation by

Racist bullies went on a rampage in Stockholm last night.

Hundreds of masked men marched through Stockholm’s main train station on Friday evening, reportedly beating up refugees and anyone who didn’t appear to be ethnically Swedish.

Wearing all-black balaclavas and armbands, the men “gathered with the purpose of attacking refugee children,” Stockholm police spokesperson Towe Hagg said.

Attacking children – that’s a nice touch. Hundreds of men getting together to attack children; what courage.

Before the attacks, the mob handed out leaflets with the slogan “It is enough now!” which threatened to give “the North African street children who are roaming around” the “punishment they deserve”.

The leaflet refers to the death of social worker Alexandra Mezher, who

In squalid news from the UK:

The former Dragon’s Den judge Douglas Richard has been found not guilty of child sex charges.

The 57-year-old, who once advised Prime Minister David Cameron, engaged in “sexy chat” with a 13-year-old after meeting her on a ‘sugar daddy’ website and went on to act out his fantasies when she travelled from her home in Norwich to meet him in London.

However, the American millionaire claimed he believed she was an experienced 17-year-old and told jurors he would never “knowingly” have sex with a child.

Those goddam 13-year-old girls are so deceptive.… Read the rest

This sums it up:

… Read the rest

Hm. I guess some people aren’t very good at predicting highly predictable consequences of actions.

The holdouts at Malheur, for instance.

David Fry said he spoke to an FBI negotiator three times in the last 24 hours. He said the group is prepared to leave peacefully, but fears arrest.

Ah, the group fears arrest. Did they think arrest was an impossible outcome? Did they think they were there legally? Did they not realize that the wildlife refuge was not theirs to grab and take over?

One man, Sean Anderson, had been told there was a federal warrant for his arrest on charges of interfering with federal employees. Fry said FBI negotiators told him the others would be allowed to

Aatish Taseer tells us via the NY Times that the right-wingers currently calling the shots in India are going after the universities.

The R.S.S., a Hindu nationalist organization, was founded in 1925 as a muscular alternative to Mahatma Gandhi’s freedom movement. Its founder admired Adolf Hitler, and in 1948 the organization was blamed for indirectly inspiring Gandhi’s assassination. The B.J.P. has not always had an easy relationship with the R.S.S. With its fanciful ideas of Hindu purity and its sweeping range of prejudices, the organization is dangerously out of step with the realities of India’s political landscape. When the B.J.P. wants to win an election, it usually distances itself from the R.S.S.’s cultural agenda.

Mr. Modi’s 2014 election had very

The FBI arrested three more of the trespassers yesterday.

The FBI set up a perimeter around theMalheur Wildlife Refuge and established a series of checkpoints earlier in the day, as militia members continued their occupation.

In a statement, the FBI said the containment was to “better ensure the safety of community members.” Only Harney County ranchers who own property in specific areas were allowed to pass after showing IDs.

Since Wednesday morning, a total of 8 people left the refuge, the FBI said. Five of them were released and 3 were arrested.

Duane Ehmer, 45, of Irrigon, Oregon and Dylan Anderson, 34, of Provo, Utah were arrested at 3:30 p.m. Jason Patrick, 43, of Bonaire,

Holy shit. For once someone actually did the right thing. NECSS has disinvited Dawkins from its upcoming conference because of that horrific video.

A Statement Concerning Richard Dawkins

The Northeast Conference on Science & Skepticism has withdrawn its invitation to Richard Dawkins to participate at NECSS 2016. We have taken this action in response to Dr. Dawkins’ approving re-tweet of a highly offensive video.

We believe strongly in freedom of speech and freedom to express unpopular, and even offensive, views. However, unnecessarily divisive, counterproductive, and even hateful speech runs contrary to our mission and the environment we wish to foster at NECSS. The sentiments expressed in the video do not represent the values of NECSS or its sponsoring organizations.