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Science blogger 1, SLAPP suit 0

Dec 19th, 2011 4:44 pm | By

Popehat has a great post on a pro bono victory (his) in a junk science SLAPP suit against a science blogger.

The pro bono client is Michael Hawkins of For the Sake of Science, and the adversary is Dr. Christopher Maloney, a licensed naturopath in Maine.

…

Dr. and Ms. Maloney’s central legal theory was expressed in the cover letter: “As should be clear to you, you can say anything you want against naturopathic doctors, but you cannot attack and bully a single person.” This is not, to put it mildly, a correct statement of law. The First Amendment protects Mr. Hawkins’ right to call naturopaths in general quacks, and to call Dr. Maloney in particular a quack for

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
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Gingrich promises theocracy *

Dec 19th, 2011 | Filed by

Told reporters that as president he would abolish courts whose judges make decisions that are out of step with fundamentalist Christian views.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Popehat v a SLAPP suit against a science blogger *

Dec 19th, 2011 | Filed by

The First Amendment protects Mr. Hawkins’ right to call naturopaths in general quacks, and to call Dr. Maloney in particular a quack for promoting naturopathy.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Not another one

Dec 19th, 2011 12:59 pm | By

Hey guess what the war is over!

This year has marked, I believe, the beginning of the end of the war between science and religion. Creationism cannot last. The New Atheists are now old (or departed). And between these camps the middle ground continues to expand.

Has it all, doesn’t it. The air of easy omniscience, the disdain for atheists, the gloating at the death of one particular atheist, the false dichotomy, the warm uncritical affection for the middle ground, the stupid assumption that it’s “extreme” (not to mention old, or dead) to think science and religion are not in every way compatible.

Indeed, many folks have been hard at it, doing a new kind of peace work. Some

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
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Kim Jong-un not sure he’s crazy enough to run N Korea *

Dec 19th, 2011 | Filed by

While emphasizing that he was definitely completely insane, Kim still wondered if he could ever be enough of a lunatic to replace the most unhinged dictator on the planet.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Katha Pollitt on Hitchens

Dec 19th, 2011 12:12 pm | By

I’ve been hoping Katha would write something, because I knew she would have informed reservations. I remember her exchange with Hitchens when he left The Nation. I’ve been a fan of both of them for a long time, so their differences interest me.

Katha suggests that “he was possibly the least troubled with self-doubt of all the writers on earth” and that he didn’t wonder enough how he got from one position to another, radically different one. I think that’s a fair point, and yet…well I’m ambivalent, as I am about so many things, which is why, unlike Hitchens, I spend so much time staring blankly into space instead of being productive.

So many people have praised Christopher so effusively,

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
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Redacted section of Cloyne Report published *

Dec 19th, 2011 | Filed by

The Justice Minister said the publication of redacted portions of the reprt detailed the Catholic Church’s failure to comply with its own child abuse guidelines.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Top Ten Peacemakers in the Science-Religion Wars *

Dec 19th, 2011 | Filed by

“Both the closed-hearted scientism of atheist hardliners and the narrow creationism of religious fundamentalists kill our strange and beautiful world by flattening it.”… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Katha Pollitt on Hitchens: complicating the picture *

Dec 19th, 2011 | Filed by

He was clever, hilarious, generous to his friends, combative, prodigiously energetic and fantastically productive; he could also be a bully.

… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Pity the poor bishops

Dec 18th, 2011 4:48 pm | By

The Catholic bishops haz a sad again. This time it’s the Catholic bishops in the Netherlands. Not the ones in Belgium, nor in Bavaria, nor in Ireland, nor in Alaska, nor in Boston, nor in New York. No. These are the ones in the Netherlands. They haz a sad because

Tens of thousands of children have suffered sexual abuse in Dutch Catholic institutions since 1945, a report says.

Oh dear oh dear, say the Catholic bishops in the Netherlands. That is sad.

The report by an independent commission said Catholic officials had failed to tackle the widespread abuse at schools, seminaries and orphanages.

“This episode fills us with shame and sorrow,” said a bishops’ statement.

Does it? Why? Because … Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
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Daughters!

Dec 18th, 2011 3:02 pm | By

This is from 2009, but I hadn’t seen it before.

A new video by Samar Minallah that highlights the importance of education for girls. It is the first pushtu/dari lullaby dedicated to daughters! The video has been shot and conceptualized by Samar. It has been sung by renowned singer Naghma and the poetry is by Watan Dost. It has been filmed in Kabul, Bagram, Khyber and Swat by Samar. It has been produced by WCLRF and Heinrich Boll Foundation Afghanistan.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNKsyRoXQlE

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
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Religion is behind homophobic persecution in Africa *

Dec 18th, 2011 | Filed by

Digital Journal talks to Leo Igwe.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Bishop David Oyedepo

Dec 18th, 2011 12:33 pm | By

Dear sweet kind loving god, who deputizes men to hit women in the face.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uidhk7ioYO0

H/t ‘Yemi Ademowo-Johnson.… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
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Jim Wright on Ayn Rand *

Dec 18th, 2011 | Filed by

I’d rather be forced to sit with a hemorrhoidal badger in my lap through every single George W. Bush and/or Al Gore speech ever recorded than to have to read Atlas Shrugged ever again.… Read the rest

Posted in Flashback


Dutch bishops filled with shame and sorrow *

Dec 18th, 2011 | Filed by

Tens of thousands of children have suffered sexual abuse in Dutch Catholic institutions since 1945, a report says.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Nick Cohen on Christopher Hitchens *

Dec 18th, 2011 | Filed by

Hitchens was too much of an enthusiast for life and debate to waste time being pinched and cautious; too engaged in the battle of ideas to worry about others taking his.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


One in the eye for ferrety bureaucrats

Dec 18th, 2011 10:40 am | By

Nick Cohen on Hitchens.

In conversation he was the most intellectually generous man I have ever met. More writers than readers like to imagine are fretful and suspicious. They bite their tongues and hide their thoughts in case rival authors “steal their ideas”. Hitchens was too much of an enthusiast for life and debate to waste time being pinched and cautious; too engaged in the battle of ideas to worry about others taking his.

When you had an argument you needed to work through or a book you had to deliver, he would sit you down, fill your glass to the brim and pour out ideas, references, people you needed to talk to and writers you had to read.

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
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Pakistan: girls fight for their rights *

Dec 17th, 2011 | Filed by

Against overwhelming obstacles.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


Mutilate the baby tastefully

Dec 17th, 2011 3:10 pm | By

Parents shouldn’t mutilate their children, amirite? I think that’s a pretty safe claim. But….

But it turns out it’s ok, as long as you make a show of angst about it first. It’s ok as long as you go on and on and on about your feelings on the subject, demonstrating how sensitive you are, and then in the end agree to lopping off a bit of your baby’s penis. The show of angst makes it ok, so it turns out that the mutilation of the baby is actually all about the feelings of the mommy.

Ever outspoken about what I considered the “barbaric” nature of the bris ritual, it is no wonder I was blessed with two sons.

… Read the rest

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

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog
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A mother rationalizes circumcising her baby *

Dec 17th, 2011 | Filed by

“The bris serves as a shrill reminder that the mother’s control over her son’s well being is incomplete.” So it’s ok to snip off a bit of his penis.… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News