There are conflicting claims about the death toll in the hajj stampede last week.

Iran says number of its citizens who died in the Hajj stampeded in Saudi Arabia last week has reached 464 – nearly double the previous toll.

Iranian authorities said there was no longer hope of finding any of the country’s missing pilgrims alive.

According to Saudi officials, 769 people died in the crush in Mina, near Mecca, and 934 were injured.

…

Iranian officials allege that the overall number of deaths is now more than 1,000. Pakistan, India, and Indonesia have also suggested death toll may be higher than the 769 reported by Saudi Arabia.

Another case where prayers don’t seem to do humans much … Read the rest

Ah, no. Not at all. Not even close.

Think of “the 10 commandments” for instance, the ones people keep wanting to build statues to in public places. They don’t say a word about not being an asshole. Not a word about compassion or kindness or generosity; no golden rule; no don’t be evil; no be good to one another. Not. one. word. Most of it is about crawling to god, and the rest is just don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t envy. It’s an ethical desert.

Religion is about what human beings owe to god, it’s not about what we owe to each other.… Read the rest

The New York Times reports that there’s little to report on the Roseburg mass murder because law enforcement is still turning over rocks.

The last three paragraphs are somewhat striking though.

The issue of gun control has recently roiled Oregon. This year, state legislators passed a law closing a loophole for background checks on private gun sales, after years of trying to win support for it.

Sheriff Hanlin had forcefully lobbied against gun control after previous school shootings, but on Friday he told CNN that now was not the time to discuss gun control.

“We want to focus on completing this investigation, doing a thorough investigation,” he said. “And more importantly we want to focus on the families of the

Here is Woman’s Hour. The discussion of feminism and free speech among Caroline Criado-Perez, Jane Fae and Jude Kelly is the first segment, ending at 13:54.

A few notes and bits of transcription:

Jane Fae talks about talks about absolutism in politics.

Caroline Criado-Perez talks about ideological totalism and purity politics.

…there is a dogma, and if you have ever stepped outside of that dogma, then you are tainted and impure and you cannot be allowed to speak.

…if you don’t toe the party line your very presence can cause trauma.

Jane Fae talks about that “people are talking about you” thing. She’s been told that Julie Bindel is dangerous, Bea Campbell is dangerous – no, she doesn’t believe … Read the rest

Public relations to the rescue.

The Jack the Ripper museum in east London has been ridiculed for attempting to organise a counter-protest against a planned demonstration by the same activist group that last weekend targeted a breakfast cereal cafe.

That’s a terrible opening paragraph. Look – an activist group is planning a demonstration against the horrible Jack the Ripper “museum” in east London, the one that told planners it would be a museum about women’s history. (Yeah, their history of getting murdered, haw haw haw.) The “museum” tried to organize a counter-protest. People are, quite rightly, laughing at the “museum” for doing such a pathetic thing. (And for calling itself a museum.)

The anarchist group Class War has called

According to David Futrelle (and others) the shooter at Umpqua CC told Reddit his plans yesterday.

This is beyond fucked up. In this archived thread from 4chan’s /r9k/ board, the alleged shooter at Umpqua Community College told fellow channers yesterday of his plans to shoot up a school today. He didn’t specify which school, mentioning only that it was in the “northwest.” /r9k/ is a board heavily populated by so-called “incels,” and the media is reporting that the apparent shooter regularly posted bitter complaints about his lack of success with women,

Screenshots below:

Here’s his first comment warning fellow channers not to go to school today if they live in the northwest.

There’s a whole lot more, and that’s … Read the rest

Via Indian Atheists:

… Read the rest

Oh great. Yet another one.

At least 10 people killed in a mass shooting at a community college in Oregon.

The Oregon State Police confirmed that at least 10 people were dead at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon.

The sheriff’s office in Douglas County, which includes Roseburg, told CBS News that the threat was over but would not comment on the condition of the gunman.

There were many other injured victims, according to multiple law enforcement sources. Some of those injured are in critical condition.

The goddam Second Amendment should be repealed.… Read the rest

Woman’s Hour (BBC Radio 4) tomorrow is going to talk about free speech and feminism; Caroline Criado-Perez and Jane Fae will be on. It’s on at 10 a.m. in London but also archived for listening later so we can all hear it.

Two speakers have pulled out of a feminist conference in protest after campaigner Jane Fae withdrew saying she was effectively being silenced because she had written about pornography. Is this evidence of increasing intolerance and efforts to actively censor views which might offend?

It’s more complicated than that, but they didn’t have room for the complication. Jane Fae withdrew because people were “concerned” about her presence, and she didn’t want there to be a stink that would interfere … Read the rest

Ian Dunt says the censors are on the back foot at last.

Efforts to ban secular campaigner Maryam Namazie from speaking at Warwick University have been reversed. Then yesterday, feminist campaigners Caroline Criado Perez and Julie Bindel pulled out of the Feminism in London conference in protest at efforts to no-platform fellow panellist Jane Fae. We are seeing the first signs that the tide is turning in the free speech debate. Event organisers are finally coming under as much pressure from free speech defenders as they are censors.

(Quick declaration of interest: I went to Warwick for my MA, I’m close friends with Perez[,] and Fae regularly writes for this website. None of that has any bearing really, but

Helen Lewis reminds us what a novelty in the world women’s rights really are.

Consider Switzerland for instance, where women didn’t get the vote until – wait for it – 1971.

Audiences are surprised because Switzerland is supposedly full of People Like Us: it’s an affluent western European nation, not a sand-blasted theocracy or a dirt-poor African dictatorship. And People Like Us believe in women’s equality. Don’t we?

This posture of racially tinged complacency underlies most of the frequent backlashes endured by western feminists. It’s a version of Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” thesis, which hailed western liberal democracy as the final form of human government: “Come on, ladies. You’ve got the vote. You’ve got the ability to own

Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, testified before a Congressional committee yesterday. NPR describes the hearing as contentious, which puts it with typical NPR mildness. NPR provides five audio clips from the five hours of testimony. The first and longest is a remarkable, and all too familiar, example of shouty bullying and interrupting and demanding simple answers to complicated questions. I’ve always loathed demands for simple answers to complicated questions, and after this past summer, I loathe them even more.

The more than five-hour hearing was oftentimes contentious. Richards defended her organization on several fronts. She said the videos released by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress were misleading and she said her organization does not receive

In some parts of the world it’s already International Blasphemy Rights Day right now.

CFI sent out a press release today:

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Tomorrow, September 30, is International Blasphemy Rights Day, created by the Center for Inquiry to celebrate and defend the fundamental human right to free expression around the world — especially when that expression is critical of religion. To mark IRBD this year, CFI is launching a new website for its Campaign for Free Expression, supporting

Guest post by Josh Spokes.

If we talked about LGBT rights the way we “defend” Planned Parenthood, it would sound like this:

1. “Did you know that 98 percent of equal rights used by LGBT people are used by normal, monogamous families?”

2. “Protecting gender-deviant radical people is only 2 percent of the the entire equal rights budget we’re proposing. If you can hold your nose at them, think of all the deserving people you’d be helping.”

3. “If you want to prevent non-standard living and family arrangements, our equal rights project is the best way to do that. When everyone can marry, fringe LGBT people won’t have any desire to live non-conventionally or in ways that you don’t … Read the rest