As you may have seen, or figured out, or been told, FTB got hit by a DDOS attack last night. So did Skepchick and Feminist Frequency. Huh; how about that. Funny coincidence.
I’ve seen one or two people gloating about it on Twitter, but I’ve seen more people saying DDOS attacks are unacceptable, period.
Mind you, they’re also against the law.
Deep rifts.… Read the rest
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Preamble: This essay focuses on a common source of contention in discussions of accusations of rape. It is understood that for some rape survivors, this article will file under “Too Long – Didn’t Read”, purely for reasons of mental health and self-preservation. An obligatory trigger warning also applies.
It is also understood that for many people, a simple “fuck off!” is the best, and a perfectly justifiable, response to what I am calling ‘The “Good Juror” Pose. I’m tentatively offering my prescription to those best able to help, rather than making expectations of those who have been hurt.
I think there is a need, for those in a position to make a difference, for more reflection on what is actually … Read the rest
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A Sydney man has been refused bail after being charged over a live-in sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl.
The pair were living together in Sydney’s west.
Police sources say the 26-year-old man and the girl were “married” in an Islamic religious ceremony in the Hunter region last month.
The marriage has no legal standing in Australia because of the girl’s age.
How dare the police violate that man’s religious freedom.
… Read the restPolice have questioned the girl’s parents and believe they had a hand in arranging the marriage.
Detective Inspector Peter Yeomans says it is a disturbing situation.
“It’s really really unusual,” he said.
“We do have sexual assaults of minors… but this type of
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A story from Pakistan a couple of months ago:
… Read the restA 72-year-old British doctor is in prison in Pakistan for “posing as a Muslim”, charges that reveal an escalating ideological fight that often spills over into violence.
Masood Ahmad is a quiet, reserved widower who returned to Pakistan to open a pharmacy in 1982 after decades of working in London to pay his children’s school fees, his family said.
He is also an Ahmadi, a sect that consider themselves Muslim but believe in a prophet after Mohammed. A 1984 Pakistani law declared them non-Muslims, and Ahmadis can be jailed for three years for posing as a Muslim or outraging Muslims’ feelings.
Some mullahs promise that killing Ahmadis earns a place in
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Now for the very bad thing: Woody Allen’s letter to the New York Times. Ashley has a thorough takedown analysis, which is how I learned there was a letter. There’s no need for me to add anything but I don’t always do these things based on need…and I can’t resist, because it’s so revolting.
… Read the restTWENTY-ONE years ago, when I first heard Mia Farrow had accused me of child molestation, I found the idea so ludicrous I didn’t give it a second thought. We were involved in a terribly acrimonious breakup, with great enmity between us and a custody battle slowly gathering energy. The self-serving transparency of her malevolence seemed so obvious I didn’t even hire a lawyer
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A good thing (before I get to a bad thing) – someone sent an email to the people at The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe complaining about Rebecca feminism agenda females stopped listening fan ruined yadda. Steve Novella replied in a very good way.
… Read the restThanks for your feedback. Sorry you are unhappy with the “this day in skepticism” segment.
To investigate your claim that the segment overemphasizes feminism to a disgusting and off-putting degree, I tallied the last 52 TDIS segments (essentially the last year). This is what I found:
Topic did not involve a specific person – 24
Topic was a man – 21
Topic was a woman – 7It seems you feel that men should be
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Toronto’s fun-loving mayor Rob Ford didn’t like the rainbow flag that went up on one of the many flagpoles outside city hall on Friday, and he tried to have it taken down.
The flag-raising was meant as a response to Olympic host country Russia’s anti-gay laws. Several other municipalities around Canada have done the same.
Ford wanted it taken down as soon as he saw it.
The Olympics, ”is about being patriotic to your country, this is not about someone’s sexual preference,” he told reporters.
It is? That’s funny. I thought the Olympics was about going beyond “your country” to international amity and friendly competition. Yes there’s a tension there; yes the nationalism often drowns out the internationalism; but … Read the rest
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No, the counterpart to the “man cave” where men go to escape the dreaded pesky women who clutter up everything (except most movies, most tv shows, most workplaces, most sport, most news coverage, most religious administration…) and watch football on Giantscreen TVs – the counterpart to that, I say, is not the “mom cave” where women go to heat canned soup for men.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vti6wh_TH_Y
One reason: “mom” is not the counterpart to “man”. The counterpart to man is woman. The word “mom” is the counterpart to the word “dad”.
Notice right away how the whole thing has veered into totally non-counterpart territory. On the one hand we have men, who are people, who do things in the world. On the … Read the rest
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I’m reading Maajid Nawaz’s book Radical. It’s intensely interesting, and (not surprisingly) disturbing.
One thing about it that’s slightly odd is that so far, at least (Part One), he describes a totally male world and discusses it from a completely male point of view. Women just aren’t there, nor are girls in his childhood. He mentions women only as consumer items, things to “chase.”
Sometimes their absence is really surprising. For instance there’s a part where he writes about his older brother Osman’s shift to Islamism. It includes one of those offhand mentions of women as things -
… Read the restOsman started going with Nasim to his talks and study circles, and pretty soon became a changed person. Everything we’d been
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Quoth the Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion:
The games have always been a little gay. Let’s fight to keep them that way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=effb2JYiKXM… Read the rest
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I just wasted a few minutes arguing about sexism and language. Always a waste of time! And yet I keep doing it.
The issue this time is the insult of telling men they’re not men. The claim is that it’s not always insulting to women, because it doesn’t always mean “you’re a woman”; sometimes it just means “you’re a failed man.”
No. I can’t be the only one who’s noticed that the qualities implied to belong to men by this whole line of talk are valuable qualities, and that it’s insulting to women to imply that they are unique to men. Can I?
Like the phrase “man up.” I hate that phrase. Why do I hate it? Because it implies … Read the rest
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A woman student at a Saudi university died after an ambulance crew was denied access to her because strangely enough they didn’t have a male relative of hers with them.
Amna Bawazeer, 24, died of a heart attack in the compound of the social sciences faculty of Riyadh’s King Saud University.
Local media said medics in an ambulance were denied access because they were not accompanied by a “mahram”, a legal guardian or male member of her family.
Obviously without her father or brother or husband or son along, they would have fucked her, heart attack and all, instead of doing what they could for her and taking her to the hospital. Also obviously even if they hadn’t fucked her … Read the rest
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There’s a review of 50 Great Myths About Atheism at the MIT newspaper The Tech. The author, Roberto Perez-Franco, is oddly unsympathetic to the whole idea – or maybe I’m the one who’s odd. I like the enterprise of collecting misconceptions and then saying what’s wrong with them, but Perez-Franco seems not to.
… Read the restThe authors deserve recognition for their exhaustive efforts of documentation. Personally, I feel for them. They dug through piles of writings and utterances from the likes of Dinesh D’Souza, acting as if such nonsense was worthy of a serious response, and then went point by point through the material to provide a thoughtful and rational response. This undertaking must have been masochistic, but it was necessary. Blackford
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The Irish state broadcaster RTÉ paid a €85,00 libel settlement to a journalist and the Iona Institute and they’re getting a lot of criticism for doing so.
The payout followed RTE’s Saturday Night Show presented by Sunday Independent journalist Brendan O’Connor on 11 January featuring drag artist Rory O’Neill, who is better known by his stage name Panti Bliss.
During the interview, O’Neill outlined the high levels of homophobia present in contemporary Irish society. Towards the end of the interview O’Connor asked O’Neill to name names which led to RTE issuing the payout.
That has to be some bad libel law there. RTÉ says it is.
… Read the rest…managing director of RTE television Glen Killane, said the broadcaster could not defend the
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The Student Association of Edinburgh University (EUSA) had a meeting a few hours ago. There were many items on the agenda. One item was a motion by the Humanist Society (a subgroup of the Student Association) to
Commit to disallowing imposed or directed segregation, based on any characteristic, in EUSA buildings or at EUSA events.
The Treasurer of the Humanist Society, Jonathan Ainslie, reports that the motion was heavily voted down. Yes that’s right: down.
Quoting Jonathan:
… Read the restThe Humanist Society submitted a motion to Student Council – EUSA’s policy-setting body – for a ban on imposed or directed segregation on union premises, or at union events.
Voluntary segregation was explicitly permitted. The motion was entitled “Separate but Equal.”
That motion
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Peace? Reconciliation? Music to unite people? We don’t want no stinkin peace and reconciliation and music!
… Read the restMUMBAI: Shiv Sena activists on Tuesday disrupted a media gathering and vociferously protested the presence of Pakistani musicians at the Press Club here.
Shortly after the programme to launch the first joint India-Pakistan band comprising musicians from the two countries started, a large group of Shiv Sena activists barged inside the club carrying party flags.
They raised slogans against Pakistan, the visiting artistes and waved banners with “Pakistan Murdabad” printed on them, thereby disrupting the media briefing even as a large posse of policemen attempted to control them.
The stunned artistes, comprising visiting members of the Mekaal Hasan Band and the organisers, were pushed
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From The Annals of Valentineophobia, three years ago:
Islamic morality police in Malaysia have arrested more than 80 Muslims in an operation to stop them celebrating Valentine’s Day.
Officers raided budget hotels in the central state of Selangor and capital, Kuala Lumpur, detaining unmarried Muslim couples who were sharing rooms.
The religious authorities in Malaysia say Valentine’s Day is synonymous with immoral activities.
Those arrested could be jailed for up to two years if convicted.
I have a feeling unmarried Muslim couples share rooms on days that are not Valentine’s Day, too. Just a hunch.
… Read the restOn Monday evening, religious enforcement officers launched co-ordinated raids, targeting budget hotels and public parks in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.
In Selangor alone, officials
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I think “Valentine’s Day” is one of those stupid pseudo-events like “Mother’s Day” and “Father’s Day” that exist to funnel money to florists and greeting card companies. But I don’t think it’s Forbidden or Impure or Pollution.
Unlike some.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Unrepentant Jacobin makes a good point in his post from yesterday on Maajid Nawaz and the cartoon uproar:
It’s interesting to note that secular and progressive Muslims also seem to be those who complain least about ‘Islamophobia’. What drives them to distraction is the refusal of Western relativists to offer them support in their own confrontations with the Islamic far-right. Meanwhile those identitarians who complain most often and most noisily about ‘Islamophobia’ are often the same people doing their utmost to confirm the bigot’s view that all Muslims are childish and intolerant. Not only do they behave in a childish and intolerant way, but they insist that it is they who really represent Islam.
That’s exactly what I kept noticing … Read the rest
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I was looking through things earlier today and found an old post that is reminiscent of recent events. (You can’t be reminiscent of something that happened after you happened, but I can’t think of another word for it, and I’m sure you can figure out what I mean.
I’ll just repost it here.
Respect us or we’ll smash your art
November 11, 2008
Hey don’t forget, if that smelly guy grabs your jacket, give him your cashmere sweater too. If somebody belts you in the face, say thank you. Forgive people seventy times seven. Be generous, and more than generous. Like those super-nice people who worry about art works.
… Read the restChristians have warned of a backlash of art world vandalism,
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