It’s a funny thing…I thought Portrait of a Lady was one of my favorite novels, but I started reading it again for the tenth time or whatever it is and discovered that…it’s not any more.

Sad.

There’s less to it than I’d remembered. It’s just endless wandering around Gardencourt talking in a desultory way, and then Osmond and lots of baroque but boring plotty stuff and an annoying end. I’ve never liked the baroque plotty stuff after she marries Osmond, but I thought up through the fireside scene, where she reflects on the marriage and the awfulness of Osmond, was great stuff. Now I don’t. The fireside scene still is, but the hundreds of pages that lead up to it … Read the rest

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It’s a new blog or website or both (a blog is always a website but a website isn’t always a blog). Tell all your friends.

Jadehawk argues that feminism, secularism and skepticism all need each other.

Skepticism and secularism need feminism; feminism needs secularism and skepticism. The reason for this is that all three deal with removing or restricting the harmful influence of untrue ideas on people’s lives, even if each does so from a different perspective and with a different focus. And in many cases, the different perspectives can work together to achieve the specific goals of each movement better than they would be able in isolation from each other.

I would put that a little bit differently – … Read the rest

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Once upon a time there was a young girl who was an atheist, but then she got better. Praise the lord.

She grew up atheist; she read Dawkins and Hitchens. Then last year, at age 19, she decided to read something other than Dawkins and Hitchens.

I started by reading Pope Benedict’s Regensburg address, aware that it had generated controversy at the time and was some sort of attempt –futile, of course – to reconcile faith and reason. I also read the shortest book of his I could find, On Conscience. I expected – and wanted – to find bigotry and illogicality that would vindicate my atheism. Instead, I was presented with a God who was the Logos: not

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Nepal has indentured girl child laborers. Slaves, in other words.

KATHMANDU, JUN 02 – At least half a dozen Kamlaris (indentured girl child labourers) were injured when police launched an indiscriminate attack on them while they were staging a sit-in at the entrance of Singha Durbar, Kathmandu on Sunday.

The agitating Kamalaris have been demanding the government investigate the killings and ongoing sexual exploitation of Kamlaris.

How rowdy of them.

Five Kamlaris including Sita Chaudhari and Sujata Chaudhari, of Kailali, and Urmila Chaudhari, of Dang, fainted during the police attack . Some of them have suffered fractures of their bones and head injuries during police intervention.

The injured have been taken to Anamnagar-based Annapurna Hospital and Bir Hospital

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Don’t miss this article by Leo Igwe on his week at a witch camp in Ghana.

… Read the rest

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Yemi has pointed out a petition you can sign. (I don’t say “we” because I signed it yesterday.)

President Goodluck Jonathan: Don’t sign the JAIL THE GAYS bill into LAW

Petition by Nigerian LGBTIs in Diaspora Against Anti Same Sex Laws

Nigeria LGBTIs in Diaspora Against Anti Same-Sex Laws unequivocally condemns the passing of the Same sex Marriage Prohibition bill by the Nigerian House of Representatives. The draconian bill was passed in a voice vote on Thursday 30 May, 2013 by members of the House of Representatives. The bill stipulates a 14 years jail term for same-sex marriage and 10 years imprisonment for public show of same-sex affection. The approved bill also stipulates a 10 year imprisonment for anyone … Read the rest

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I’ve been watching the video of the Pharyngula hangout yesterday. I’ve paused it at 38:45; so far it’s been all about Women in Secularism 2 and a little bit about the upcoming Dublin Empowering Women Through Secularism conference. Interesting conversation, and frustrating to watch, because I intended to participate but first there was a glitch with Google+ and then a Windows update crashed my computer twice so I had to do a restore, which took forever, so I never got there.

Nick Gotts is going to the Dublin conference. That’s good!

There’s a lot of discussion of how very unfortunate it is that the (huge amount of exceptionally) good stuff about the conference has been totally swamped by talk about … Read the rest

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I’ve liked a lot of Wendy Kaminer’s writing. I’m Ok You’re Codependent is very sharp and amusing. Sleeping With Extraterrestrials was disapponting, I thought, because it was way too cautious and apologetic, but still it was of value.

I don’t like her new piece in the Atlantic on sexual harassment though. She’s very libertarian, so it’s predictable, but…I don’t like it. I don’t like the way it dismisses harassment that’s not violent.

In a joint letter to the University of Montana, (intended as “a blueprint” for campus administrators nationwide) the Justice Department (DOJ) and the Education’s Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) define sexual harassment as “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature,” verbal or nonverbal, including “unwelcome sexual advances or

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There was one bit late in the Fincke-Vacula conversation, toward the end, when Vacula got desperate to find diversity issues that his enemies had neglected, in order to demonstrate that…I don’t know what. It’s all just bullshit, because they forgot one? They’re just showing off and don’t actually mean a word of it? They say one thing but do another? I don’t know. Anyway he flailed around and then oh hai he found one. “Asians!” he exclaimed.

Asians?

Oh really?

Asians like the Bangladeshi atheists for instance? The ones addressed and greeted in that group photo before it was photoshopped for a “joke”? The ones disappeared from that photo for a “satire”? A “satire” that Vacula praised?

Or perhaps the … Read the rest

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Via Feminist Law Professors – a student teacher is fired for being photographed in what looks very like a bathing suit top.

[Theresa] Illgen, 23, appeared in a front-page photograph in the Las Cruces Sun-News wearing a bra and appearing to motivate those who marched to educate students, and the public, about the issue of rape culture and victim blaming. The national march typically includes participants who dress in skimpy clothing who peacefully protest against excusing rape by referring to any aspect of a woman’s appearance.

“I didn’t know the picture would be published,” Illgen said.

What picture?

(image credit: Robin Zielinski/Sun-News, here)

You could see hundreds of women dressed like that on any popular beach. You can’t help … Read the rest

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According to a few sources (but only a few, so I’m not sure how reliable they are), El Salvador’s Health Minister approved a C-section for ”Beatriz” yesterday, a day after the Supreme Court ruled that she could not have a life-saving abortion.

The Health Department hasn’t given a day or time for when Beatriz will deliver the baby by Cesarean section, said Morena Herrera, a member of the Feminist Collective for Local Development, an organization that has been supporting Beatriz.

“She is going through all the medical exams to be ready for surgery,” Herrera said.

I hope it’s not too late.

H/t PatrickG.

 … Read the rest

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Remember that photoshop I posted on the More documenting the harassment page last Saturday? The one taken from the photo Adam Lee took of us FTBers holding our signs of solidarity with the Bangladeshi atheists? That Reap Paden changed to signs spelling out our love for “Justin” [Vacula]? That Vacula reposted on Facebook?

Now Vacula has done a blog post about it; he’s that proud of it. That proud of erasing an important and (one would think) meaningful message to fellow atheists who are under attack in a theocratic country, for the sake of making a stupid, mean joke about people who dislike being harassed by Vacula.

He stole the photo, too. It’s not his to post just as … Read the rest

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Speaking of being thrown overboard…Greta has a pair of terrific posts on Ron Lindsay and Women in Secularism 2. One is on the content of his talk, the other is on the context.

From the first one – on the “shut up and listen” part.

This section has been addressed at length by many other writers. But this is the place where I’m discussing it, so I’m going to address it again.

I do not know anyone — and I mean anyone — who is a serious and respected leader or writer advocating for feminism within the atheist movement, who is telling men that they have nothing to contribute to the conversation about feminism, simply because they are

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Katha Pollitt on El Salvador’s way with pregnant women.

Since 1998, El Salvador has had a complete no-exceptions ban on abortion,  promoted by the country’s powerful Catholic Church and passed with the votes of  legislators from the former left-wing movement FMLN—because if there’s one thing  right and left agree on, it’s that women’s lives are less important than  achieving political power. (Daniel Ortega made the same move in Nicaragua in a  successful bid for church support.)

There’s nothing quite like being thrown overboard by people you thought were allies. The cold water comes as such a shock…

Since the ban, the Central American Women’s network reports that over 600  Salvadoran women have been imprisoned for having abortions, including  miscarriages

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Wut?

Well that’s what it says.

After a good amount of hoopla, Texas Governor Rick Perry is expected to quietly sign legislation allowing public schools to celebrate Christmas and other winter holidays plainly and explicitly without fear of lawsuits.

Why would he do it noisily? Do governors usually shout and scream while signing legislation?

Anyway, whatever. I’m not convinced there is much fear of lawsuits over celebrating Christmas and other winter holidays, but if you say so.

Naturally, not everyone in the Lone Star State is enthused about the the “Merry Christmas Bill” becoming law.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has opposed the legislation.

“We hope administrators and teachers remain mindful that it is of utmost importance

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