All entries by this author

More publications that will uphold love for truth

Feb 2nd, 2012 11:40 am | By

Now it’s Taslima Nasreen’s turn.

Taslima Nasreen has faced protests at the launch of her latest memoir, with an event at the Calcutta Book Fair cancelled. Ms Nasreen is not at the event, and tweeted that her publisher was forced to launch the book outside the hall.

It would be nice if she had a blog. Twitter is all very well, but a blog gives a person room to move. I do think Taslima Nasreen should have a blog.

The protest comes in the wake of an intensified debate over artistic free speech in India. UK writer Sir Salman Rushdie recently had to abandon plans to attend a literary festival in Jaipur amid security concerns. On Sunday an artist

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: ,


Treason and offending

Feb 2nd, 2012 11:05 am | By

How not to understand free speech.

The case of a cartoonist charged with treason and offending India’s national sentiments reflects a growing debate over what constitutes freedom of expression in India. His accusers argue that while it is permissible to make fun of politicians, you cannot make fun of the state.

That’s how, right there. No no no, that’s entirely wrong. Yes you can make fun of the state. The state and the church or mosque are right at the top of the list of things you must be able to make fun of in order to have free speech at all. If free speech applies just to things that don’t matter, then it’s not free.

Aseem Trivedi

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: ,


Richard, Nick, Salman, Ayaan

Feb 2nd, 2012 9:51 am | By

Richard Dawkins has a response to “Froborr.”

Ok I’m lying, he doesn’t really, but it might as well be. Plus it’s a response to all the “oh won’t you please think of the poor fragile believers?” wails that keep being wailed.

Actually he’s talking specifically about the Jaipur Festival (where he was one of the speakers) and Salman Rushdie and Nick Cohen’s new book – but he’s also talking generally, as is only natural, since all of those items have wide implications.

I have just returned from the Jaipur Literary Festival, infamous for the recent reprise of the 1989 threats against Sir Salman Rushdie by Muslims the world over, lamentably applauded by leading churchmen, politicians, historians and otherwise liberal journalists.

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: , ,


Richard Dawkins on reading Nick Cohen after Jaipur *

Feb 2nd, 2012 | Filed by

Not only do the affronted themselves kick up an almighty fuss; they are abetted and encouraged by influential figures from other religions and the liberal establishment.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Protests mar Taslima Nasreen book launch in Calcutta *

Feb 1st, 2012 | Filed by

Nasreen has faced protests at the launch of her latest memoir, with an event at the Calcutta Book Fair cancelled.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Indian cartoonist charged with treason for mocking the state *

Feb 1st, 2012 | Filed by

His accusers argue that while it is permissible to make fun of politicians, you cannot make fun of the state.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Why the Theodosian Code is so hysterically bad

Feb 1st, 2012 4:35 pm | By

Skeptic lawyer went to a really nice reception last night at the Scottish Parliament building, which is apparently almost as ugly as the Experience Music Project here in Seattle, and in much the same style -

…a fellow lawyer suggested that it looked like someone had eaten a giant jigsaw and then thrown up on the Old Town.

Behold the EMP:

 Very much as if someone had thrown up a huge jigsaw.

But that’s not the real subject. The real subject is that reception; what a jolly occasion it sounds.

it was a reception for equal marriage (same sex marriage) held at Holyrood  and co-sponsored by all four parties currently represented in the parliament.

To quote from the linked article … Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags:


This is really true

Feb 1st, 2012 4:15 pm | By

Jesus took a leaf from Jefferson’s book and did a condensed Koran.

Mo said “sheet.” That’s offensive!

http://www.jesusandmo.net/2012/02/01/dross/… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags:


Skeptic lawyer on equal marriage in Scotland *

Feb 1st, 2012 | Filed by

Labour’s Johann Lamont, Ruth Davidson of the Conservatives, Willie Rennie of the Lib Dems and the Greens’ Patrick Harvie signed a pledge expressing their backing for gay marriage.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


The ethics of offence at LSE *

Feb 1st, 2012 | Filed by

We firmly believe that the LSESU has no right to ban freedom of expression, and if anything is deserving of ridicule, satire, and contempt religion is a sure candidate.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Ideas that undermine received wisdom

Feb 1st, 2012 10:59 am | By

This claim of “Froborr’s” is really appallingly hostile to a great many of the foundations of a liberal open thoughtful society or culture or world.

First, the move to make a truth claim about reality part of one’s identity (“a huge part of who I am”) is death to thinking. It’s the same move the shouters about “hurting religious sentiments” make: it turns one’s ideas into one’s Self in a move to make it taboo to question them. Making it taboo to question ideas is death to thinking.

Second, the move to equate public discussion with forcible conversion is, obviously, death to public discussion. If all argument that [X is better or more true or more evidence-based than Y] … Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: ,


Jesus boils down the Koran *

Feb 1st, 2012 | Filed by

It turns out to be quite short.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


“Evil in one of its purest forms”

Feb 1st, 2012 10:14 am | By

Are we seeing a new trend? A new variety of passive-aggressive accommodationist mendacious gnu-bashing?

Ray Moscow alerted me to a new* entry in the genre at something called The Slacktiverse by someone called “Froborr.” It starts with: I’m an atheist. That’s my identity. It would be traumatic to change that. It’s just as traumatic to change the other way around. It ends with: Therefore, Greta Christina and other overt atheists are evil.

There’s a lot in between, of course, but that’s where it ends up.

Greta Christina posted last month[1] that, “For many atheists, our main goal is persuading the world out of religion.” She goes on in the same post to establish herself in favor of that position:

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: ,


ASA Adjudication on Healing on the Streets-Bath *

Feb 1st, 2012 | Filed by

ASA told HOTS not to make claims which stated or implied that, by receiving prayer from their volunteers, people could be healed of medical conditions.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Theocracy flexing its muscles in Indiana *

Feb 1st, 2012 | Filed by

First a bill allowing creationism to be taught in public schools; now a bill to allow public schools to start the day with a Christian prayer.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


We are all Jay Leno, or at least Craig Ferguson

Jan 31st, 2012 3:24 pm | By

Can I play too?

Want to see Arianna Huffington’s garage?

Want to see where bankers go camping?

Want to see Barbra Streisand’s little house in Malibu?

 That’s enough blaspheming and “hurting the sentiments” for one day.

 The BBC is more sympathetic than I am. The BBC takes it all rather seriously, or pretends to.

The US has defended comedian Jay Leno’s right to free speech after India condemned a reference he made to the holiest Sikh shrine.

A Leno skit showed the Golden Temple of Amritsar as the summer home of Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

Mr Romney has faced questions over his wealth and many Sikhs are angry the temple has been depicted as a place for the rich.

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: ,


An affront to principles of human rights

Jan 31st, 2012 2:47 pm | By

Al Jazeera reports on Baltasar Garzón defending his investigation of Franco-era crimes.

“The amnesty law refers to crimes of a political nature, in no way can it be said that crimes against humanity of the kind that were alleged could have any political nature,” the 56-year-old judge said.

“As such it was not even necessary to make a reference to the amnesty law,” he said on the opening day of his testimony in Madrid.

Victims’ families who filed the case in 2006 had described disappearances, illegal detentions and killings, which amounted “in some cases to crimes against humanity, genocide,” he said.

The judge is being prosecuted for ordering the investigation in 2008 into the disappearance of 114,000 people during Spain’s

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags: ,


There’s an explanation

Jan 31st, 2012 2:05 pm | By

Tarek Fatah posted a photo on Facebook with the comment

Inside Islam’s holiest place of worship, The Kaabah in Mecca. For some a romantic stroll in the park, without the fear of Maya Khan.

Six comments in a guy said, in all seriousness -

Have a close careful look!
This man has only one leg, and is being helped by his wife.
Please think carefully a few times prior to commenting on religious locations and issues.

Hahahahahahahahaha… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags:


“Unwise and untimely”

Jan 31st, 2012 11:51 am | By

Frederick Sparks has an incisive post on Be Scofield on “new atheists” and racism.

In referring to Dr King and the civil rights movement, Scofield also falls into the trap of “the Civil Rights Movement, Brought To You By Black Church”…a bit of historical revisionism that ignores, as professor Anthony Pinn points out, the secular philosophical influences, and that King himself complained that most the black churches were not involved and were not supportive.

Didn’t he just. In the much-quoted Letter from Birmingham Jail for instance -

My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities “unwise and untimely.”…

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
Tags:


Hanif Kureishi reviews Nick Cohen’s You Can’t Read This Book *

Jan 31st, 2012 | Filed by

What is crucial is that the quarrel is not closed; and to see that closing quarrels is what lifeless ideologies do.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News