The Pen gala is just about to start. #PENgala.

Via Twitter

Guus Valk ‏@apjvalk 2m2 minutes ago
PEN-voorzitter Andrew Solomon op #PENgala : “The suppression of controversial ideas does not result in social justice.” #CharlieHebdo

Karin Karlekar ‏@karinkarlekar 4m4 minutes ago
Stirring opening speech by @Andrew_Solomon at @PENamerican #PENgala on behalf of defending #freeexpression at home and abroad.

Tina Susman ‏@tinasusman 5m5 minutes ago
At #PENgala, PEN prez Andrew Solomon opens event with rousing defense of Charlie Hebdo and its “mission of satirizing sacred targets.”

Electric Literature ‏@ElectricLit 7m7 minutes ago
.@Andrew_Solomon addresses “the whale in the room.” “We defend free speech above its content.” #PENgala

Rachel Zucker ‏@rachzuck 9m9 minutes ago
“Muteness is more toxic than speech.” Andrew Solomon

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A press release from Save the Children:

The United States continues its descent in the global rankings of best and worst places for mothers, slipping to 33rd out of 179 surveyed countries, reveals Save the Children’s new report, “State of the World’s Mothers 2015: The Urban Disadvantage.” Norway rose to the top of the list, which was released today, while Somalia remained last for the second year.

32 countries do better than we do.

That could be all right – somebody has to do best, and it’s not written in the stars that it should be the US. But we’re a very rich country, so, really, if we’re that far down the table…we’re doing something wrong. Not that we … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Tweets from #PENfest

Sascha Freudenheim ‏@SaschaDF 22 hours ago
The inimitable @monaeltahawy at #PENfest, @PENamerican. #Egypt #WomensRights

Harlem Stage ‏@MyHarlemStage 3 hours ago
Come to “In and Out of Africa” w/ writers from Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire & more | May 9 | #PENfest http://bit.ly/1GG1c2v

Reinhard Lamsfuss ‏@rlamsfuss 3 hours ago
SOS Racisme #France called #CharlieHebdo “the greatest anti-racist weekly in the country.” http://ln.is/www.thenation.com/bl/HMx7Y … #PENfest

PENamerican ‏@PENamerican 5 hours ago
“If you make the effort to understand, to really understand what the cartoon is about, you won’t be offended” —Jean-Baptiste Thoret #PENfest

“We have nothing against religion. We fight against the political use of religion. That’s not the same” —Gérard Biard #PENfest #CharlieHebdo

“I must assure you

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

CNN ran a solemn backgrounder piece yesterday explaining Why Islam forbids images of Mohammed aka Why images of Mohammed offend Muslims. (It has more than one title, don’t ask me why.)

(CNN) Violence over depictions of the Prophet Mohammed may mystify many non-Muslims, but it speaks to a central tenet of Islam: the worship of God alone.

No doubt it does, but so what? A central tenet of Islam may be relevant to Muslims (or it may not; it should be up to them), but it’s not relevant to anyone else. By the same token, a “central tenet” of Catholicism is not relevant to non-Catholics. It’s not even relevant to many Catholics, and it’s certainly not relevant to everyone … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A lot of Nepalese people go abroad to work, to places like Saudi Arabia and Qatar. After the earthquake, many of them very naturally wanted to go home to help family and friends. But there’s a catch…

Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese construction worker have been unable to go home, unable to check on their families and homes after last month’s massive earthquake. That’s according to the International Trade Union Confederation or ITUC. These are migrants working in Gulf states, and their jobs are controlled by a contract system that requires them to remain in the country where they’re employed for two years. Under the system of sponsorship called kefala, you can’t enter the country or leave it without

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

IS says IS did it.

Islamic State (IS) has said that it was behind the attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in the US state of Texas.

It said that “two soldiers of the caliphate” carried out the attack at a conference centre near Dallas.

My first thought was to wonder why they would demand credit for such a failure.

My second thought was how stupid am I. That’s exactly what I thought about the embassy bombings, too, and it turned out to be a staggeringly stupid thing to think. The fact that one adventure goes badly means nothing. It sure as hell doesn’t mean that the next one won’t go swimmingly.

Correspondents say that it is

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

House Republicans vote to punish the women of DC.

Late Thursday night, the House of Representatives voted in favor of “H.J.Res. 43: Disapproving the action of the District of Columbia Council in approving the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act of 2014.” If enacted, the legislation would make using employer-based health insurance for in vitro fertilization or birth control pills a fireable offense in Washington, D.C.

So women can have that kind of insurance, I guess, but if they use it, they can be fired. Mind you, people can be fired for any reason or no reason anyway, but there was a law making an exception of this very thing, which the Republicans voted to overturn.

When I entered the

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Padraig Reidy drew up a little list of talking points for the Garland shootings, to save everyone some effort.

Geller’s organization is racist, people have every right to this that and the other, people don’t have the right to kill.

The last two are less obvious and less invoked.

8. The people who attempt to shoot others for drawing cartoons do not do so in order to combat Islamophobia. If anything, they do so to encourage Islamophobia. Jihadists and Caliph-chasers have a vested interest in division between Muslims and non-Muslims
9. Well-meaning though it may be, casting jihadist attacks as a symptom of “Muslim anger” is to buy into stereotypes of Muslims as irrational and violent, and ignore the

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

More on Mayweather’s history of beating up women and the way people are hiding it so that other people will pay lots of money to watch him punch a man.

Ignore the police reports, the court records, and his own plea deals, he says into the camera lens, never an ounce of doubt on his face, because there are no pictures. It’s a cliché of Internet life—pics or it didn’t happen—and one that Mayweather has leveraged into making it okay for millions of sports fans to plunk down $100 to watch him fight Manny Pacquiao without an ounce of doubt about putting money directly in the pocket of a misogynist.

To Rachel Nichols: “Once again, no pictures.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Originally a comment by AJ Milne on Refrain from laughter.

Philosophical documents on laughter, religious statements and mandates forbidding laughter–all these provide instructions on how and when and how hard to laugh. They designate the proper attitude one should take toward laughter, because laughter is our last “sense” to capitulate to authority…

… Imagine, then, being firmly seated in a position of authority and knowing that at any second the power to control and direct could be cut short by the lowliest peon–not with a Molotov cocktail or an Uzi automatic, but with riotous laughter…

(Barry Sanders, from Sudden Glory: Laughter as Subversive History.)

… I figure it should be entirely unsurprising, whenever ‘prophets’ or the authorities who … Read the rest

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Oh what a surprise – two reporters who had talked about Floyd Mayweather’s history of domestic violence were banned from reporting on that big match. I’ve been growling for days about all the ridiculously excited and eager publicity for a boxing match, even from the BBC, and this item just adds to the disgust. Yay, folks, let’s get overjoyed about a “sport” that cuts out all the frills and folderol of trying to put a ball into a net and just goes straight to the part about guys punching each other. After that lets all go watch people torturing animals for amusement.

As the boxing world watches the hotly anticipated fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao—two fan favorites

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Loyalty is nice, but…

On April 30, Pastor Jim Staley plead guilty to multiple counts of felony wire fraud. The charges stem from Staley’s involvement in a complex scheme, which used phony life insurance policies, front companies, deceptive contracts and other dubious methods to defraud elderly investors out of millions of dollars. Many of those who were taken in by the scheme later said they believed that Staley was a ‘nice, religious man.’

The statements of Staley’s victims, the detailed federal indictment, even Staley’s acknowledgement of guilt in open court, seems to have had no impact on his religiously obsessed followers. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that:

“The courtroom overflowed with so many Staley supporters Thursday that some federal agents

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

AQ in the subcontinent says they did it.

The leader of Al Qaeda’s branch in the Indian subcontinent has published a video claiming responsibility for the death ofAvijit Roy, an atheist Bangladeshi-American blogger who was killed by a group of men with machetes on Feb. 26 as he was leaving a book fair in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

In a nine-minute video posted on jihadist forums on Saturday, the leader of the branch, Asim Umar, said followers of his group were responsible for the killing of several people he called blasphemers: Mohammad Shakil Auj, an Islamic scholar fatally shot in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2014; Aniqa Naz, a Pakistani blogger; Rajib Haider, a blogger killed in a

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)