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May 24th, 2015 5:17 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
I heard about this on Facebook this morning via Vyckie; now RawStory is reporting on it.
Responding to criticism of the Christian “Quiverfull” movement, the wife of a Texas pastor who promotes the “be fruitful, and multiply” philosophy, took to Facebook to explain that admitted child-molester Josh Duggar was “playing doctor” as a teen and should be “left alone to live a good life.”
The conservative fundamentalist Quiverfull movement sees children as a blessing from God and promotes constant procreation, eschewing all forms of birth control.
In her rant on Facebook, Carrie Hurd, wife of Heritage Covenant Church Pastor Patrick Hurd, blasted Quiverfull critic Vyckie Garrison for being critical of Duggar, and Christians in general.
She defends … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: Duggars, FTB
May 24th, 2015 12:02 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
I’m seeing people asking a lot of very strange questions about why anyone should care that Josh Duggar groped his younger sisters and his family covered it up and did nothing about it.
Are they serious? We should care because the Duggars think and say they are better than everyone who doesn’t think like them, and they have a very large public megaphone – and may still have it if TLC’s cancellation of their show turns out to be temporary. We should care because Josh Duggar was a higher-up in the reactionary homophobic Family Research Council until he resigned two days ago because the truth about his past came to light.
We should care because the Duggars are reactionary theocratic … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
May 24th, 2015 10:47 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Lizzie Dearden at the Independent has been reading IS propaganda so that you don’t have to.
A jihadi bride whose husband took a Yazidi girl as a slave has claimed sex with kidnapped women is never rape because it is an Islamic practice inspired by the Prophet himself.
Well that’s where she’s wrong. The prophet himself was not incapable of rape just because he was “the prophet” after all. If the prophet told men they could rape women captured in battle then he was telling them they could rape, end of story. It doesn’t magically become not-rape just because this one super-special guy endorsed it.
The article, by “Umm Sumayyah al-Muhajirah”, appears in the latest issue of Isis propaganda magazine
…
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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
May 24th, 2015 10:14 am |
By Ophelia Benson
IS has taken Palmyra.
Islamic State militants have locked Palmyra’s museum and placed guards outside its doors, days after seizing the ancient city, Iraqi officials say.
Antiquities director Maamoun Abdulkarim said they had destroyed some modern plaster statues and also raised their flag on the ancient castle overlooking the Roman ruins.
Most of the museum’s antiquities had been transferred to Damascus, he said.
Dr David Roberts of King’s College, London has thoughts on the destruction of ancient sites and their treasures.
In Syria alone, the Great Mosque and the Citadel in Aleppo, the castle of every child’s imagination at Crac des Chevaliers, and the ancient city of Bosra have been damaged or destroyed.
Arguably Syria’s most impressive and
…
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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB, Palmyra
May 23rd, 2015 5:26 pm |
By Ophelia Benson
NBC News reports on the Irish vote, with scenes of people rejoicing outside Dublin Castle, which I was waiting for all morning.
At final count, 62 percent voted in favor of legalizing gay marriage in the country, while 38 percent voted against it. Nearly 2 million people voted, with more than 1.2 million voting “yes” and 734,300 voting “no.”
A celebratory mood had come over Dublin even before the official results were announced around 7 p.m. local time, with tallies for each constituency displayed on big screens to thousands watching from Dublin Castle’s sun-soaked central square.
…
Sisters Rebecca and Rachel Doyle from Enniscorthy, County Wexford, were among 2,000 members of the public allowed to view the counting process
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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB, Irish referendum
May 23rd, 2015 11:36 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Now for a downer; sorry.
Heather Hironimus has been forced (by a threat of prison) to sign the permission slip for her four-year-old son to get his penis snipped against his will.
With handcuffs on her wrists and tears rolling down her cheeks, Heather Hironimus looked up to the courtroom ceiling, briefly clasped her hands together in prayer, and finally picked up her attorney’s pen.
The 31-year-old West Boynton [mother] — jailed since May 14 for defying a judge’s custody order and refusing to let her 4 1/2-year-old son be circumcised — gave her consent to the procedure wanted by the boy’s [father], Dennis Nebus, of Boca Raton.
Because of the boy’s age, the snipping requires general anesthesia – which … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
May 23rd, 2015 11:01 am |
By Ophelia Benson
And it’s official official at last – they had to wait for Cork to finish counting, while all of Twitter yelled at Cork to hurry up.
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18:55 Ireland becomes the first country to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote.
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18:51 Returning Officer Ríona Ní Fhlanghaile declares that Ireland has passed the same-sex marriage referendum by 1,201,607 votes (62.1%) to 734,300 (37.9%).
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18:35 The end is nigh! The returning officer for Cork North West/South West/East says two of three results are with Dublin Castle and the third is on the way in minutes.
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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
May 23rd, 2015 10:21 am |
By Ophelia Benson
Mike Huckabee on Josh Duggar and the Duggar family:
Janet and I want to affirm our support for the Duggar family. Josh’s actions when he was an underage teen are as he described them himself, ‘inexcusable,’ but that doesn’t mean ‘unforgivable.’ He and his family dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities. No purpose whatsoever is served by those who are now trying to discredit Josh or his family by sensationalizing the story. Good people make mistakes and do regrettable and even disgusting things. The reason that the law protects disclosure of many actions on the part of a minor is that the society has traditionally understood something that today’s
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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: Duggars, FTB
May 23rd, 2015 9:29 am |
By Ophelia Benson
RTÉ’s live count.
17:13 Result for Dublin North: Yes 72.61% No 27.39%. That is 34,494 Yes votes and 13,009 No votes. A margin of 21,485. The turnout is 65.83%.
17:02 Result from Dublin North Central: Yes 68.95% No 31.05%. That is 25,382 Yes votes and 11,431 No votes. A margin of 13,951. The turnout is 68.85%.
Result from Dublin Central: Yes 72.37% No 27.63%. That is 23,861 Yes votes and 9,108 No votes. A margin of 14,753. The turnout is 57.98%.
16:51 Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said the social revolution that Minister Leo Varadkar spoke about earlier has been going on for some time. He said the Catholic Church needs a reality check.
In so many … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB
May 23rd, 2015 8:54 am |
By Ophelia Benson
The Guardian says a Yes vote is certain – which is sort of obvious given the numbers, but still worth hearing. It’ll be official in a bit over an hour, at 6 p.m Irish time, apparently.
Henry McDonald
At the start of the referendum campaign a 67-year-old veteran politician finally outed himself as gay for the cause of the Yes campaign. Pat Carey, a former parliamentarian for Fianna Fail, told the Guardian two months ago that he came out to convince those of his generation and rural background that it was ok to be gay.
Turning up at Dublin Castle, Carey said of the result: “It means everything for myself and people like me. It’s a gigantic step along the
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(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: FTB, Irish referendum
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