“She is making slow and steady progress which is in keeping with expectations,” the Pakistani military said in a statement released Sunday.… Read the rest
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How dare you suffer!
Oct 14th, 2012 11:49 am | By Ophelia Benson(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Thankful for not having our heads chopped off
Oct 14th, 2012 11:25 am | By Ophelia BensonYiannis Baboulias tells us more about Greece and Golden Dawn.
… Read the restOn Thursday night the Athens premiere of Terrence McNally’s play, Corpus Christi, was cancelled following protests by members of the far-right party Golden Dawn (including some MPs) and religious groups.
The protest had a clearly homophobic agenda. Manolis V, a journalist, was attacked by protesters while the police apparently did nothing: “The police is next to us. I shout ‘They’re beating me, aren’t you going to do something?’,” he wrote on Twitter. “I move away so I can look on from distance. A well-known Golden Dawn MP follows me. He punches me twice in the face and knocks me to the ground. While on the ground, I lose
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Greece: fascists beat people up while police watch
Oct 14th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe spectacle of fascists physically attacking people whose moral agenda they disapprove of has become routine in today’s Greece.… Read the rest
Men deserve their veil of privacy
Oct 13th, 2012 4:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonAmanda Marcotte nailed it at Comment is Free a couple of days ago.
A man’s right to privacy versus a woman’s right to live free of male violence: these two principles routinely conflict in modern society, with the former winning out most of the time…
This belief that men deserve a veil of privacy that makes it easier to harass, beat, and rape women is so ingrained in our society that it’s difficult to stand back and see how nonsensical it really is.
Most of our stalkers have their veil of privacy. They talk degrading shit about us day in and day out, and none of it ever touches them by so much as a drop. They have complete immunity … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Amanda Marcotte on whose consent matters
Oct 13th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe belief that men deserve a veil of privacy that makes it easier to harass, beat, and rape women is ingrained in our society.… Read the rest
Malala is doing better
Oct 13th, 2012 3:59 pm | By Ophelia Benson“Movement has been witnessed in Malala’s hands and legs which is a positive development,” Maj Gen Bajwa said while giving a briefing on Malala’s health here on Saturday.
He said the doctors have cut down the amount of sedatives being administered to Malala Yousafzai in view of the steady improvement in her health condition. Her condition is satisfactory, he added.
That’s good.
Update: people have been passing this front page of the NY Times around on Twitter all day.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
In ‘white man’s burden’ style
Oct 13th, 2012 3:34 pm | By Ophelia BensonOn the wonderful Pakistani Atheists and Agnostics Facebook page the other day, a friend posted a link to an obnoxious sneery article on Racialicious about the Half the Sky PBS series. She was infuriated by it. She was right.
…the PBS film Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women, a well-publicized neo-liberal “odyssey through Asia and Africa” hosted by everyone’s favorite
white saviorNew York Times reporter, Nikolas Kristof.
Well that’s a shitty start. “Neo-liberal”? No. Neo-liberal is libertarian free market gospeller; the film wasn’t about that. ”White savior”? That’s just offensive.
… Read the rest…in ‘white man’s burden’ style, Kristof even says at one point, “When you have won the lottery of life that there is some obligation some
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Creepshots
Oct 13th, 2012 12:02 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe outing of Reddit’s “Violentacrez” is all over the place. He’s one of Reddit’s most loathsome users (members? denizens? occupants? what’s the right word?), and Adrian Chen outed him on Gawker as one Michael Brutsch, who works at a Texas financial services company as a programmer.
Loathsome how?
… Read the restHis speciality is distributing images of scantily-clad underage girls, but as Violentacrez he also issued an unending fountain of racism, porn, gore, misogyny, incest, and exotic abominations yet unnamed, all on the sprawling online community Reddit. At the time I called Brutsch, his latest project was moderating a new section of Reddit where users posted covert photos they had taken of women in public, usually close-ups of their asses or breasts, for
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Malala’s condition is “satisfactory”
Oct 13th, 2012 11:04 am | By Ophelia BensonShe’s still on a ventilator but her vital organs are “intact and working properly.” The swelling in her head has subsided.
Her two schoolmates are doing better.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Indonesia: teenage rape victim expelled
Oct 13th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia Benson14-year-old was grabbed and held captive for a week, and repeatedly gang-raped. Back at school she was publicly chastised by her principal and expelled.… Read the rest
A note to Al
Oct 13th, 2012 9:42 am | By Ophelia BensonJust a quick one. Because he says
I’ve been confirming that I left of my own accord all over the ether, including my farewell post on Ftb, and my Welcome post here, on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
It was Ophelia who decided to let the cat out of the bag several days before I had planned, and posted a piece that insinuated the exact opposite. This left me with a shitload of work to do changing links, redesigning graphics, etc., on a night I planned to spend with my family.
The quick note is just to say that I didn’t know it was a secret. I didn’t know I was letting a cat out of a bag. Part of the … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
A hit, a palpable hit
Oct 12th, 2012 4:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonIn a comment by adriana at Stephanie’s.
One interesting fact about this whole affair of rejection of feminism or the word feminism, is that a bunch of atheists (I don’t know how many, but they sure are vocal) think Western women, and especially atheist women in secular democracies, have nothing to complain about. Equality has been reached, according to those people, and misogyny eradicated. Therefore, any complaints of unequal treatment or misogyny are signs of bitchiness, basically.
I hadn’t thought of that before. That’s illuminating.
It certainly seems to fit well with “Dear Muslima” and all the subseqent bullshit that has amounted to amplification of ”Dear Muslima” – so much amplification that we all feel a bit deaf.
Yeah, … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Greta’s father
Oct 12th, 2012 3:37 pm | By Ophelia BensonAs you may know, Greta’s father just died. She has a wonderful post about him – a daughter’s biography, I would call it, rather than an obituary.
A small excerpt.
… Read the restMy father used to read to us — me and my brother — from fun, brainy books for kids: The Phantom Tollbooth, Alice in Wonderland. His copy of Alice, the Annotated Alice with annotations by Martin Gardner, is the version I fell in love with, the version I still think of as the classic. I learned the poem “Jabberwocky” by heart when I was in third grade. I got the Jabberwock tattooed on my arm when Ingrid gave me a tattoo for my wedding present. And I
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Not simple
Oct 12th, 2012 1:06 pm | By Ophelia BensonUpdate: this probably needs a trigger warning. It is indeed very upsetting.
Speaking of girls, and bullying, and sexualization, and bullying, and name-calling, and bullying…
A girl in Coquitlam, BC, couldn’t wait for it to get better, and killed herself on Wednesday. She left a video telling the story.
… Read the rest“In 7th grade I would go with friends on webcam,” the card in the teen’s hand read.
The next few cards reveal that the teen began to get attention on the Internet from people that she did not know. People who told her she was beautiful, stunning, perfect.
“They wanted me to flash. So I did one year later,” the cards said.
The teen then got a message on Facebook
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
A portent?
Oct 12th, 2012 11:45 am | By Ophelia BensonThe CBC’s Doc Zone had an interesting show last night about the sexualization of children. At one point a group of high school girls were talking about the way porn affects boys, and they said it teaches them to treat girls with contempt and call them bitches, sluts, whores, cunts – you know the drill.
If they’re right, that seems a rather depressing sign for the future.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Compiling a list
Oct 12th, 2012 11:11 am | By Ophelia Benson… Read the restRadical Islamists are compiling a list of unmarried mothers in northern Mali, raising fears of cruel punishments such as stoning, amputations and executions, a senior United Nations official said.
…
In July, they forced a man and a woman into two holes and stoned them to death for committing adultery as terrified residents quietly watched in remote Aguelhok town.
The U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, who just returned from a visit to Mali, said there are reports that Islamist groups are compiling lists of women who have had children out of wedlock, or who were unmarried and pregnant.
“The threat is there, it’s real and people live with it and they are afraid of those
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Mali: Islamists are compiling a list of unmarried mothers
Oct 12th, 2012 | Filed by Ophelia BensonGuess why.… Read the rest
How is Malala doing today?
Oct 12th, 2012 10:42 am | By Ophelia BensonIt appears that she is stable.
On Friday, an international team of neurological specialists said her condition was stable, but they’re watching her closely…
Tests on Malala went well, doctors said Friday, and her care at a hospital where she was initially treated was good. She remains in critical condition, but specialists are satisfied with the situation.
“The next 36 to 48 hours are important,” Major Gen. Asim Bajwa told reporters in Rawalpindi.
People keep telling us to pray, which is understandable but still annoying. However I do spend some time saying “don’t die don’t die don’t die don’t die” at intervals. Might as well.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
No money for us? Get out of our church then.
Oct 11th, 2012 5:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe German bishops have told German Catholics that if they don’t give the church money they don’t get the sacraments.
Last month, German bishops warned that if members of the Catholic Church don’t pay the country’s church tax, they’ll be denied the sacraments — including baptisms, weddings and funerals.
In increasingly secular Europe, Germany is one of the few countries where the state collects a special levy from tax-registered believers and hands it over to three organized faiths.
Registered Catholics, Protestants and Jews pay a surcharge of up to 9 percent on their income. The Catholic Church alone received some $6.5 billion in 2011.
$6.5 billion! That’s not a bad chunk of change, especially for putting on fancy dress … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)