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Feb 11th, 2016 5:35 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
News from Saudi Arabia, where “morality police” tell girls to cover their faces and beat them up if they don’t obey fast enough.
Manama: One of the two girls who had a bitter standoff with the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the religious police, in Riyadh said they had been the victims of “blatant injustice.”
A video clip of a woman being beaten up in front of the Nakheel Mall in Riyadh sparked outrage in Saudi Arabia this week amid contrasting reports about what really took place.
The article has the video but it’s just a note from YouTube:
This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s policy on harassment and bullying.
No, … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
6 comments
Tags: Saudi Arabia
Feb 11th, 2016 10:50 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The AP reports Cliven Bundy faces charges over the 2014 “standoff.”
Federal prosecutors in Las Vegas are charging Cliven Bundy with conspiracy, assault on a federal officer, obstruction, weapon and other crimes.
A criminal complaint filed Thursday stems from Bundy’s role at the center of a tense April 2014 armed standoff with federal officials near his ranch in Nevada.
It involved self-styled Bundy militia supporters pointing military-style weapons at federal agents trying to enforce a court order to round up Bundy cattle from federal rangeland near his ranch.
See that’s no good. You don’t want that, not even if you think the resisters have a valid cause. (If you’re living in a state where law enforcement just quietly kills people … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
4 comments
Tags: Cliven Bundy
Feb 11th, 2016 10:36 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Les Zaitz reporting at The Oregonian/Oregon Live:
Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who touched off one armed showdown with federal authorities and applauded another started in Oregon by his sons, was arrested late Wednesday at Portland International Airport and faces federal charges related to the 2014 standoff at his ranch.
Bundy, 74, was booked into the downtown Multnomah County jail at 10:54 p.m.
He faces a conspiracy charge to interfere with a federal officer — the same charge lodged against two of his sons, Ammon and Ryan, for their role in the Jan. 2 takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns. He also faces weapons charges.
Finally!
The Bundy Ranch Facebook page reported Cliven Bundy was surrounded
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
2 comments
Tags: Cliven Bundy
Feb 10th, 2016 4:46 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
It’s a specialty gallery.
Oenotrian’s Virginia:
David Richards’s Merlyn:
If you have any tilted cats you would like to add to the gallery, send them.
New: Peter Nothnagle’s Gus sharpening his claws:
latsot’s Fortran:
Rich Roberts’s Sugar:
iknklast’s Sir Winston and Mr Murphy:
Minnie The Finn’s Shiftie:
Josh Spokes’s Shredder:
… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
8 comments
Feb 10th, 2016 11:34 am |
By Ophelia Benson
One of those items that could be true or could just be something someone claimed. David Bernstein has an “o tempora o mores” piece at The Volokh Conspiracy at the Washington Post (too many levels already and I’m not even finished yet) which refers back to an earlier piece at the same place, both describing a thing that seems to be just a “she said” thing.
From the first one, the January 26 one:
Consider the following incidents described below that have reached my inbox or social media accounts over the past two weeks or so:
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2. Anti-Israel sentiment at that most progressive of colleges, Oberlin, is bleeding into anti-Semitism (or maybe anti-Israel sentiment is simply providing a
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
11 comments
Feb 10th, 2016 9:34 am |
By Ophelia Benson
I wrote a whole post about the word “pussy” back in 2009 – a couple of years before it became routine for people to call me a cunt along with every other misogynist epithet in the arsenal. It generated a lot of interesting comments.
Here’s the post again:
I’m curious about something. To the best of my knowledge, a sexist epithet is a sexist epithet. There’s not generally a lot of ambiguity about it, although there’s always room for ironic uses in private conversation and so on. In public discourse, a sexist epithet is what it is. Yet – I keep encountering people who dispute that, in places where I wouldn’t expect to, such as comments on Jesus and Mo… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
36 comments
Feb 9th, 2016 4:09 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
The BBC reports on a new app in Iran that warns people of the location of the “morality police” aka Ershad.
Ershad’s mobile checkpoints which usually consist of a van, a few bearded men and one or two women in black chadors, are deployed in towns across Iran and appear with no notice.
Women?! But isn’t that immoral? Unless they’re related to all the men.
Ershad personnel have a very extensive list of powers ranging from issuing warnings and forcing those they accuse of violating Iran’s Islamic code of conduct, to make a written statement pledging to never do so again, to fines or even prosecuting offenders.
It’s such a horrendous way to live I can’t even really imagine it. … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
3 comments
Tags: Iran
Feb 9th, 2016 3:51 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Originally a comment by iknklast on He’s just another dude on the planet.
Oh, yes, it’s all just offense. But who is the one actually taking “offense”, if we look at it from the big picture? Dawkins took offense that Rebecca Watson didn’t want guys hitting on her in the elevator. He took offense that people thought a young boy should not have been arrested for bringing a clock to school, because “he didn’t really make a clock”. Language purity. He took offense because feminists protested an inappropriate shirt. Dawkins seems to be just one big ball of quivering offense right now, and we’re being told by everyone to lay off being offended because it’s so not freethinking, etc.… Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
2 comments
Feb 9th, 2016 12:18 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Brian Dalton has a terrible short video raging at people who object to Richard Dawkins’s stream of anti-feminist tweets.
He starts out with outrage about the idea of “breaking up with” the great man. He’s not a god, Dalton tells us patronizingly, he didn’t run for president of United Atheists, and he’s not your freakin’ boyfriend.
He’s just another dude on the planet with opinions of his own, some of which you will agree with and some of which you will clearly not. But when he or Sam or Bill or whomever [sic] says something you disagree with, don’t take it as a personal betrayal. Richard never agreed to be your personal spokesman, let alone boyfriend.
And more of the … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
6 comments
Feb 9th, 2016 11:24 am |
By Ophelia Benson
So Robyn Blumner has spoken.
Robyn Blumner, in her interview with Hemant Mehta on his podcast says this about Richard Dawkins’ twitter feed (starts at 30:31):
“I think Richard Dawkins is purposefully misunderstood at times as a way to generate clicks on some bloggers’ page. It’s because his name brings page views and eyes so why not generate a lot of heat around something that is pretty tame if you really unpack it.”
No, his name doesn’t “bring page views.” That’s nonsense. She must be confusing the Dawkins fame that sells tickets to conferences with the mention of his name on a blog. The two aren’t comparable. Dawkins sells tickets to events because people want to be in his … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
1 Comment »
Tags: Richard Dawkins
Feb 9th, 2016 10:13 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Cliven Bundy may be planning to bring his epic sense of entitlement to Oregon, to pitch a fit because his sons were actually arrested for breaking multiple laws.
Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy may be coming to Oregon to demonstrate on behalf of his sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy, as well as the remaining four armed occupants of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Nevada State Assemblywoman Michele Fiore told OPB Monday that she, along with other state lawmakers from western states, will be traveling to meet Bundy in Burns and in Portland.
Fiore said the final details of the trip are still being planned, but she expects to be in Portland on Thursday night to protest the jailing of Ammon
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
4 comments
Feb 9th, 2016 9:50 am |
By Ophelia Benson
An event next week in Minneapolis.
The Minnesota Republic is pleased to host Milo Yiannopolous and Christina Hoff Sommers as they interview each other about the awful topic of contemporary Feminism.
Having failed to find a single member of the University of Minnesota’s Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies Department to debate Milo on the (supposed) virtues of modern, third wave, “quantum superstate” feminism, we are delighted to announce that Christina Hoff Sommers will be joining Milo on stage for this event!
This event will be held in Cowles Auditorium in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. REMINDER: This event is free, unticketed, and will be seated at a first come, first served basis.
This event will be free and
…
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Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
3 comments
Feb 8th, 2016 4:20 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
Originally a comment by James Garnett on How much worse prospects for young people today are.
It’s very much true that things are worse now for younger people in the USA, too. Economically and career-wise, I mean. When I entered university at age 18 in 1984, a full semester of tuition at my state university cost about $1500, which is about $3500 in 2016 terms. That was just tuition. Back then, I recall that a salary of $40,000/year on graduation was relatively decent (in my field, Computer Science). Moreover, getting into the university was just a matter of having good grades and SAT scores.
Today students must pad their personal resumes with volunteering and extracurricular activities in addition to … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
14 comments
Feb 8th, 2016 2:49 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
That great feminist Bill Clinton is all in a lather about the sexism of Bernie Sanders supporters.
Bill Clinton uncorked an extended attack on Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday, harshly criticizing Mr. Sanders and his supporters for what he described as inaccurate and “sexist” attacks on Hillary Clinton.
…
His heated remarks here reflected the frustration the Clintons felt two days before the primary in a state that has rewarded them in the past, but that appears ready to hand Mr. Sanders a decisive victory. Mr. Clinton seemed especially irritated that New Hampshire, after lifting his 1992 bid for the Democratic nomination and handing her a comeback win in 2008, would now abandon his wife.
Because after all, they liked … Read the rest
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog |
5 comments
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