And the BBC buys it.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
If conceptually coherent
Oct 28th, 2011 10:13 am | By Ophelia BensonDan Fincke takes issue with dismissiveness toward philosophy, and I agree with him about that, but I’m not sure about the particular example he’s chosen. That could well be just because I’m not a philosopher, so I’m not understanding.
The example is a postdoc fellowship in philosophy funded (lavishly) by the Templeton Foundation.
… Read the restThe fellowship enables young scholars to use contemporary analytic methods to pursue independent research in the fields of divine and human agency, such as moral responsibility and freedom of will; or philosophy of mind and its theological implications, such as the presence of the divine in a natural world and the emergence of consciousness.
…
[The] postdoctoral research project, “Divine Foreknowledge, the Philosophy of Time,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Only 377 to go
Oct 28th, 2011 9:58 am | By Ophelia BensonA Foxhole atheist needs only 377 more signatures on the petition to “End the Military’s Discrimination against Non-Religious Service Members” to get the 5000 necessary, but he needs them in the next four days. If the petition gets to 5000 signatures in the next four days the White House will have to respond. If you haven’t already signed it, please do.
Please sign it: the petition.
Update: people have been having trouble signing in. A Noyd offers a fix:
… Read the restWhat I did was sign out using the blue bar at the bottom of the page, refresh the petition page, and sign back in using the “sign in” button between “sign this petition” and “create an account.” When I
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Ratzinger’s blood libel against atheists 
Oct 28th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ratzinger knows he can’t aim his pious invective at the Jewish people as his predecessors did. So he takes aim at the next best enemy of his faith: atheists.… Read the rest
Defining sexism downwards
Oct 28th, 2011 7:46 am | By Ophelia BensonA re-post from January 2010 – of quite startling relevance: about a pro-rape Facebook page and sexist epithets and…Rod Liddle saying a woman should be kicked in the cunt. How about that.
January 19, 2010
I did not know – some male students at St Paul’s College at the University of Sydney set up a pro-rape Facebook page.
… Read the restThe group, which was named “Define Statutory”, described its members as “anti-consent” and was listed in the sports and recreation section of the site…It was shut down at the end of [October], but had been live on Facebook since August, according to an investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald…The Sydney Morning Herald said the page was part of a broader
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Pakistan: more underage girls forced into marriage
Oct 27th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In late September 2011, a 12-year-old girl was given in marriage to an 85-year-old man in Punjab. Her father sold her in lieu of five acres of land to resolve a dispute.… Read the rest
How dare you enforce the law
Oct 27th, 2011 4:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonStewart sent more links today. I’m still catching up. So…where were we? Oh yes -
Womens’ rights groups and organizations opposing religious coercion have demonstrated against the segregation. Jerusalem councilwomen Rachel Azaria of the Yerushalmim (Jerusalemites) faction and Laura Verton (Meretz) petitioned the High Court of Justice against the practice.
Well guess what. Guess what happened to Jerusalem councilwomen Rachel Azaria. She got an award from the Secular Lawyers’ Guild? No. She got fired. That’s right: fired.
… Read the restMayor Nir Barkat has dismissed Rachel Azaria from Jerusalem’s coalition government, but the city denies he did so because Azaria is against gender segregation in the ultra-Orthodox Mea She’arim quarter. It says loyalty to city council policy is the issue.
…
Members
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Shoving people off the sidewalk, again
Oct 27th, 2011 11:41 am | By Ophelia BensonStewart sent me a couple of interesting items last week. I was having technical issues and am catching up.
Israel High Court upholds ban on Sukkot gender segregation in Jerusalem.
Oh yes? There was gender segregation?
Rather.
During this year’s Sukkot celebrations, police gave ultra-Orthodox leaders of Mea She’arim’s Toldos Aharon community permission to erect a barrier dividing the street by gender, despite the fact that, last year, the High Court ordered community leaders to revoke the segregation they imposed on women on Sukkot.
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Large billboards posted throughout the capital’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods last week forbade women to enter Mea She’arim Street during the Sukkot celebration.
This is a public street, you understand. It’s not private property, it’s not … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
High Court: Take down gender-separation barrier in J’lem
Oct 27th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Justice Beinisch says minority groups cannot take over public spaces, says there should be no segregation in Mea Shearim.… Read the rest
Israel: Court upholds ban on Sukkot gender segregation
Oct 27th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Large billboards posted throughout Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods last week forbade women to enter Mea She’arim Street during the Sukkot celebration.… Read the rest
Boxing governing body tells women to wear skirts
Oct 27th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
For boxing. Boxing in a skirt. Seriously.… Read the rest
For a free and secular Middle East and North Africa
Oct 27th, 2011 9:49 am | By Ophelia Benson76 secularists and human rights campaigners, including Mina Ahadi, Nawal El Sadaawi, Marieme Helie Lucas, Hameeda Hussein, Ayesha Imam, Maryam Jamil, Maryam Namazie, Taslima Nasrin, Farida Shaheed, Fatou Sow, and Stasa Zajovic have signed on to a Manifesto for a Free and Secular Middle East and North Africa.
In light of the recent pronouncements of the unelected Libyan Transitional Council for ‘Sharia laws’, the signatories of the manifesto vehemently oppose the hijacking of the protests by Islamism or US-led militarism and unequivocally support the call for freedom and secularism made by citizens and particularly women in the region.
Secularism is a minimum precondition for a free and secular Middle East and for the recognition of women’s rights and equality.
We … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
It could turn out like Iran
Oct 27th, 2011 9:41 am | By Ophelia BensonMiddle-class women in Tunisia are not thrilled about the win of the “moderate” Islamist party.
In Sunday’s election Tunisia, birthplace of the “Arab Spring” uprisings,
handed the biggest share of the vote to Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party that was banned under decades of autocratic, secularist rule.“We’re afraid that they’ll limit our freedoms,” said Rym, a 25-year-old
medical intern sitting in “Gringo’s”, a fast-food outlet in Ennasr.“They say they won’t but after a while they could introduce changes step by
step. Polygamy could come back … They say they want to be like Turkey but it
could turn out like Iran. Don’t forget, that was a very open society too.”
Not to mention the fact that Turkey … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Tunisia: secular women fear rise of Islamism
Oct 27th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“They say they want to be like Turkey but it could turn out like Iran.”… Read the rest
Egypt imprisoning bloggers for “insulting the military”
Oct 27th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ayman Youssef Mansour also received three years, not for offending the demigods of the military but rather for “insulting” Islam” on Facebook.… Read the rest
CBO report on income [pdf]
Oct 26th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
One body of research has focused on the very large pay increases for top corporate executives…… Read the rest
US: income inequality increased sharply in last 30 years
Oct 26th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Congressional Budget Office said income had trebled for the richest 1% between 1979 and 2007.… Read the rest
Wubete and 100,000 more
Oct 26th, 2011 12:48 pm | By Ophelia BensonEver seen Nova’s “A Walk to Beautiful“? I was sure I’d posted about it at ur-B&W but I didn’t find such a post so I guess I didn’t. It was repeated on one of the local PBS stations last night so I saw it for the third time.
It rips my guts out every time. It’s about a hospital in Addis Ababa that repairs fistulas in women, which means it’s about a hospital that receives women who are outcasts, miserable, isolated, lonely, and repairs them. Everything about it is moving.
The real killer is Wubete, who is there for the third time, because the first two didn’t work. They tell her to do exercises and she’s in despair, … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Disseminate the word
Oct 26th, 2011 10:46 am | By Ophelia BensonJT Eberhard of the Secular Students Alliance and Freethought Blogs says spread the word. What word? This word.
… Read the rest1. Like the SSA Facebook page. You do not need to be a student to do this, you need only support our cause.
2. Upvote the reddit article to push back against all the Christian down votes.
3. Become a member of the SSA ($35/year, $10/year for students) and/or donate to the SSA. You do not need to be a student to become a member! The upcoming generation of secular activists requires the support of the previous generation! And you know that we’re a 501(c)(3), so this shiz is straight up tax deductible, homie.
4. Spread the word even further!
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Way back
Oct 26th, 2011 9:38 am | By Ophelia BensonI’ve been following (and doing what I could to share and draw attention to) Maryam’s work for a long time – since 2004. I did a search at the ur-B&W and had to click “previous entries” a lot of times to get to the first ones.
One of the first ones is The Politics Behind Cultural Relativism, an International TV Interview that Maryam did with Fariborz Pooya and Bahram Soroush.
… Read the restBahram Soroush: You are absolutely right. When you talk about the West, it is accepted that there are political differentiations, that people have different value systems, that there are political parties. You don’t talk about one uniform, homogeneous culture. But why is it that when it comes to the
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
