Ohhhhh lordy. Sometimes the viciousness makes my head want to explode – I can feel it trying to.
He actually does say it.
We’ve kicked God out of our public school system.
And I think God would say to us…”Hey I’ll be glad to protect your children but you got to invite me back into your world first. I’m not gonna go where I’m not wanted, I am a gentleman.
Here’s a nice item if you want an Atheists Doing a Good Thing Just Because It’s a Good Thing thing. We need some of those right now.
Atheists of Maine jump in the freezing water to raise money for Camp Sunshine.
For those of you that don’t know, I have waded in the icy waters of our ocean to benefit Camp Sunshine for the past two years. This year, I’m mixing it up a bit: I’m looking to form a team to take the plunge with me. My goal is 10 people, including myself. That means you.
The minimum per person is $100 but last year I was able to raise over $700 with only $100 of it being my own. The goal I’ve set for the amount of money we raise is $1,500 which is entirely within the realm of possibility so I’m hoping to over deliver!
Camp Sunshine supports children with life threatening illnesses and their families. The camp has the distinction of being the only program in the nation whose mission is to address the impact of a life threatening illness on every member of the immediate family—the ill child, the parents, and the siblings. Since its inception, Camp Sunshine has provided a haven for over 30,000 individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds.
You can join in, or you can donate.
So with that being said, I know you’re excited to join me in this years Polar Dip! Well wait no longer! Send us an e-mail at atheistsofmaine@gmail.com and you will be sent an invite where you’ll be able to make your own profile and join the official team.
Not one for frigid waters and just want to donate? That is just as important and don’t worry if it’s just a dollar, every amount helps. Just go to the Team Page and click on the big blue “Donate” button on the top right corner and it’ll guide you through the steps to donate with your debit or credit card.
The date is February 9, 2013.
Shermer’s unleashed a lot of assholes on me (because I didn’t have enough of them before). I’m getting pretty tired of people saying I lied, I must say. I did not lie. I quoted Shermer accurately.
“Atheist Revolution” is pretty shameless about calling me a liar.
In his response, Shermer notes that he was quoted inaccurately and out of context.
He was not quoted inaccurately. That is not true. I don’t consider it out of context either, but that of course is always debatable. But inaccurately, no. I’m tired of people calling me a liar.
And he takes the additional step of pointing out the problems with some of
Benson’s more common tactics regarding labeling those with whom she disagrees as
sexists and misogynists.
I didn’t label him a sexist or a misogynist.
Did Michael Shermer make a sexist comment, and if so, does that make him a sexist? And most importantly, should his comment – whether it strikes you as potentially sexist or not – reduce his worth in the atheist and skeptic communities to zero?
What’s that got to do with anything? I certainly didn’t say his comment reduced his worth to zero. My article was about the stereotype, not about Shermer. I devoted one paragraph to Shermer.
Yes, it appears that this is the plan. Shermer’s contributions can now be dismissed and all because he made a comment that looks like it could be sexist in nature when presented without the context in which it was made. But even that
is not enough. Shermer deserves to be haunted to his grave, as nothing more than a social Darwinist douche and a “dipshit.” And what of Ophelia Benson herself?
She’s decided that labeling Shermer a sexist is not sufficient. He’s also “an anti-feminist.”
That tweet was yesterday, after he’d done several anti-feminist tweets. I “decided” that he was being an anti-feminist jerk because he had apparently been so annoyed by the responses critical of his post that he felt the need to talk a lot of libertarian bullshit about feminism.
And then one of the comments…
Note that the original interview, or whatever it was, happened in August. So, I agree about the manufactured outrage. I think there are people out there that are constantly trying to stir up controversey in the A/S community for no other reason than to pump their own egos. It’s shameful.
I wrote the column in August. I didn’t write it four days ago in order to stir up controversy, I wrote it in August as part of a column for Free Inquiry.
Talk about inaccurate…
So here’s a zany suggestion – people should stop cutting off bits of infants’ penises in the comfort and danger of their own homes.
The trial of nurse Grace Adeleye who carried out the circumcision on Goodluck Caubergs heard that up to three children a month are admitted to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital because of bleeding after home-based
circumcisions.
That’s a beautiful old tradition. Don’t you think it’s beautiful?
Manchester-based solicitors JMW are currently investigating a separate case of a family from West Sussex who claim their son was left in “excruciating pain” after a home circumcision.
The doctor involved in the case said the redness and swelling her son experienced was a normal part of the healing process.
So he’s in pain! So what! It’s a beautiful old tradition. Shut up about the redness and swelling.
About five days after the circumcision she said the swelling on her son’s penis started increasing and he was in “excruciating pain”.
She said she took him to her GP who prescribed antibiotics for an infection.
The mother said she contacted the doctor who performed the circumcision who said she should wait three weeks for the skin to heal.
Her doctor said: “In my leaflet and at the time I went to do the circumcision I did explain redness and swelling is normal in healing, that it will go away in two weeks but it can happen.”
So the baby’s in pain for two weeks! So what! It makes God happy.
Melissa Gardner, a specialist medical negligence solicitor at JMW, said: “Given the impact on their child, the family has significant concerns about the way the procedure was conducted.
“While it is too soon to know what the long-term effects will be, this case highlights the need for extreme care when performing circumcisions.”
Wait wait wait wait, I have a fabulous idea, I’m so glad I thought of it –
Don’t cut the infant’s penis at all.
Isn’t that perfect? No need for extreme care, because no cutting of the penis!
I think it will catch on.
Mystifyingly, the UK government is going to make it illegal for the Church of England to perform same-sex marriages.
The Church of England and Church in Wales will be banned in law from offering same-sex marriages, the government has announced.
Other religious organisations will be able to “opt in” to holding ceremonies, Culture Secretary Maria Miller said.
But she added that the Church of England and Church in Wales had “explicitly” stated strong opposition and would not be included.
Labour said the exemption for the established Church was “disappointing”.
I can’t even make sense of that. The government is making it illegal, yet it’s an exemption. What? And the government is making it illegal because the churchs had stated strong opposition?
It gets worse.
Miller said the Church of England and Church in Wales had “explicitly stated” their opposition to offering same-sex ceremonies, so the government would “explicitly state that it will be illegal for the Churches of England and Wales to marry same-sex couples”.
She also said: “I am absolutely clear that no religious organisation will ever be forced to conduct marriages for same-sex couples, and I would not bring in a bill which would allow that.
“European law already puts religious freedoms beyond doubt, and we will go even further by bringing in an additional ‘quadruple legal lock’. But it is also a key aspect of religious freedom that those bodies who want to opt in should be able to do so.”
It’s a matter of religious freedom therefore the government is making it illegal for particular churches to do it.
So “religious freedom” here is taken to mean the government passing a law that the Top Bosses in the national church like, which will make it impossible for rebel churches to disobey the church’s Top Bosses.
That’s a funny understanding of religious freedom, if you ask me.
This is a good one –
Sir Tony Baldry, who speaks for the Church of England in Parliament, said: “For the Church of England, the uniqueness of marriage is that it does embody the distinctiveness of men and women.
“So removing from the definition of marriage this complementarity is to lose any social institution where sexual difference is explicitly acknowledged.”
Oh noes! Now there will be not one social institution where sexual difference is explicitly acknowledged – !! The horror!
But sure there will. Atheism. Gaming. Needlepoint.
Mike Huckabee knows why that guy shot 20 children and 6 adults in that school. It’s because atheism.
“We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools,” Huckabee said on Fox News, discussing the murder spree that took the lives of 20 children and 6 adults in Newtown, CT that morning. “Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?”
“[W]e’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability — that we’re not just going to have be accountable to the police if they catch us, but one day we stand before, you know, a holy God in judgment,” Huckabee said. “If we don’t believe that, then we don’t fear that.”
He said those suffering from a crisis from faith should look to God in the community’s response to the violence. But he added that “Maybe we ought to let [God] in on the front end and we wouldn’t have to call him to show up when it’s all said and done at the back end.”
Oh really? Is that right? Well speaking of front end, what about your pal God? What’s God doing on the front end? Why didn’t God make that guy decide to train for a marathon instead? Why don’t you blame the shit God instead of blaming the victims? You callous theocratic piece of shit.
“We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?”
Four-week-old Goodluck Caubergs bled to death.
Since the pope has been so busy and people have been humming it, here it is for your convenience –
Tim Minchin’s fuck the motherfucking pope.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHRDfut2Vx0
Another guy – a judge this time – thinks women’s bodies have magical little portcullises that slam down during attempted rape.
A Southern California judge is being publicly admonished for saying a rape victim “didn’t put up a fight” during her assault and that if someone doesn’t want sexual intercourse, the body “will not permit that to happen.”
Which is why rape is so extremely rare – it’s hard to bash through the portcullis.
Johnson made the comments in the case of a man who threatened to mutilate the face and genitals of his ex-girlfriend with a heated screwdriver, beat her with a metal baton and made other violent threats before committing rape, forced oral copulation, and other crimes.
Though the woman reported the criminal threats the next day, the woman did not report the rape until 17 days later.
Johnson, a former prosecutor in the Orange County district attorney’s sex crimes unit, said during the man’s 2008 sentencing that he had seen violent cases on that unit in which women’s vaginas were “shredded” by rape.
“I’m not a gynecologist, but I can tell you something: If someone doesn’t want to have sexual intercourse, the body shuts down. The body will not permit that to happen unless a lot of damage is inflicted, and we heard nothing about that in this case,” Johnson said.
I suppose he’s talking about lubrication, and saying the lack of it will leave marks. I’ve watched enough Law and Order: SVU to know that tv cops, at least, treat that as part of the picture. (But I also know they have consultants, so they probably get details like that right, however much they simplify and dramatize.) But it’s not symmetrical – marks may indicate rape, but absence of marks doesn’t indicate no rape. There, I’m a lawyer because tv! Straightened all that out for him.
The commission found that Johnson’s view that a victim must resist to be a real victim of sexual assault was his opinion, not the law. Since 1980, California law doesn’t require rape victims to prove they resisted or were prevented from resisting because of threats.
In an apology to the commission, Johnson said his comments were inappropriate. He said his comments were the result of his frustration during an argument with a prosecutor over the defendant’s sentence.
Well ok, but be more careful.
A judge is being publicly admonished for saying a rape victim “didn’t put up a fight” and that if someone doesn’t want to be raped, the body “will not permit that to happen.”
The Church of England and Church in Wales will be banned in law from offering same-sex marriages, the government has announced.
The dear dear pope, so consistently hateful and harmful and bad. Yesterday he launched his new Twitter account and blessed the Ugandan legislator pushing the “kill the gays” bill.
Pope Benedict XVI has given blessings to Uganda Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga during a mass attended by thousands of pilgrims at the Vatican,” Nsimbe Kasim at the Ugandan New Vision news reports.
He hates secularists and loves people who want the state to kill gays. What a mensch.
Then today – how productive he is! – he used his “peace day” message to bash same-sex marriage.
The pontiff said on Friday: “There is also a need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union.
“Such attempts actually harm and help to destabilise marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society”, the Pope told worshipers.
That’s not peace.
There is one bit of good news, or not really exactly good, but a delay of bad…
The Parliament of Uganda is about to go on Christmas holiday, returning in February, and the Kill The Gays bill is slated to be taken up then. The Parliament has a daily business list, called the “order paper” which shows what legislation is to be considered and in what order. The Kill The Gays bill was number one on that list, but superseded by an important and contentious oil and gas bill. Remarkably, the Kill The Gays bill, known also as the Anti-Homosexuality bill, has dropped in importance to number seven.
That’s a few weeks more to oppose the bill.
Paul Elam and “Agent Mauve” at A Voice for Men have done what they said they were going to do, and found the identity of one of the University of Toronto students who protested a talk by Warren Farrell. They’ve plastered her picture on the site, and named her, and posted a long angry rant about her. (In reading it, I see in the right-hand margin something claiming that I have my “knickers in a twist.” Oh goody, a new front opens in the great WarOnMe.)
They conclude in their usual threatening manner.
In the coming days, [redacted – OB] will have her profile as a bigot placed at Register-her.com. But she will not be alone.
We will continue to work until we have identified every violence promoting, property destroying, bigotry spouting ideologue associated with that protest and placed them all on the pages of AVfM, as well as Register-her.com
We have a long way to go.
And then there are the comments…
Hahahahahaha Justin Vacula explains why what Michael Shermer said about atheism as a guy thing was totally reasonable and ok and fine. He explains it in a comment on Jacques Rousseau’s post accusing me of misrepresenting Shermer, hyperbole, and failure to read charitably.
Unfortunatly, the principle of charity is not something Ophelia (and her commenters) are considering. As you note, the most charitable interpretation of Shermer’s observation — a statement of what he sees — is that men are quite active. Atheism is a ‘guy thing,’ I would say, like needlepoint is a ‘girl thing.’ This isn’t to say men are being excluded from the ‘needlepoint community’ or that some inherent gender ‘thing’ makes men not attracted to needlepoint…and it is not to say that women aren’t rational thinkers or whatever spin was put on Shermer’s comment.
Isn’t that great? Needlepoint is a girl thing, atheism is a guy thing. Nothing sexist about that! Nothing to see here folks, go on home, take your needlepoint with you. (more…)
According to Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, “Fear created the gods, and fear preserves them, fear in bygone ages of wars, pestilence, earthquakes and nature gone berserk, fear of acts of God. Fear today of the equally blind forces of backwardness and rapacious capital.”
Sadly this saying was true of Africa of Nkrumah days and true of Africa of today. Millions of Africans are suffering and dying due to fear and ignorance. Many people across the region are languishing under the tryranny of objects and schemes created by fear – fear of the unknown and of their own mortality. And this underscores the imperative of humanism; the urgent need for an outlook based on reason and compassion that enhances humanity. Africa needs humanism to realize its potential, and here are some ways humanists can help Africans fulfill this need. Humanists can help Africans by providing a place and a space where they can think freely without the fear of god or fear of acts of god. A freethinking climate is necessary if we are to generate ideas we need to recreate and renew our society. Humanists can help African children and youths by campaigning for the improvement of education and for the inculcation of thinking skills which they need to live meaningfully in the contemporary world. The prevailing poverty and unemployment in the region are mainly due to lack of required skills.
Humanists can help the women and girls, the elderly and disabled persons in the continent by being their voice, and speaking out for them and ensuring that they are treated as human beings; that they are not targeted and abused for who they are, branded as witches and killed. Humanists can also be the voice of gay people in the region by speaking out for their dignity, humanity and equal rights. Humanists need to counteract the wave of homophobia sweeping across the region. Many Africans look up to humanist-oriented individuals to help enlighten and liberate the people from faith organisations and institutions that terrorize and tyrannize over their lives; fanatical groups that spread unreason, fears and prejudice. Many people across the world are looking up to humanists to help wake Africans up from their dogmatic and superstitious slumber. The international community is looking up to humanists to work and campaign to end witch-hunting and erase this stain on the conscience of our generation.
Humanists need to take action to combat the exploitation by fear-mongering god-men and -women, prophets, pastors and imams, the peddlers of paranormal wares who make fortunes out of popular gullibilty and desperation.
Africa needs humanists to help free the people from the bondage of superstition, fanaticism and dogma. People are looking up to humanists to work and campaign for the realization of a secular society and the enthronement of a government based on the will of the people, not the will of god or the earthly instruments.
The African continent is facing real threats from the forces of religious extremism, dogma and superstition. These forces of the dark ages have hijacked our politics, they corrupt our democracy and hamper social change and respect for universal human rights. Most of Africa’s democracies are de facto theocracies – traditional religious, Christian, Islamic and Chrislamic theocracies.
Today we know that democracy can sometimes be used to deny the rights of minorities or justify harmful traditional practices. We know that the fears that are crippling Africa are not only the fear of the acts of god but more the fear of those acting in the name of god – the priests, pastors, prophets, imams, sangomas, witch doctors who confuse, manipulate and exploit gullible ignorant folks. The witch hunters, the jihadists and ‘crusaders’, in Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, Somalia, Algeria and in other places who kill and maim – or incite people to kill, maim and abuse – in the name of their god or the supernatural.
In Africa, humanism can be a force for peace, freedom and emancipation. In many parts of the continent, many societies are at war due to religious bigotry; many people live in a war or slavish situation due to irrationalism and superstition. Tradition often trumps human rights, nonsense trumps common sense in countries across the region. Religion and superstition-based violence is ravaging many communities leaving death, darkness and destruction in its wake. And it is left for humanist and freethinking individuals and groups to promote and deliver the peace dividends – the emancipatory and enlightenment capital – of humanism.
To this end, Africans should heed those wise words of Nkrumah and take action for humanism and rationalism by providing the much needed space where ‘the cluster of humanist principles which underlie the traditional African society’ can be harnessed and nurtured to further the cause of African renaissance and enlightenment.
Alber Saber has been sentenced to three years in prison for “blasphemy.”
Alber Saber was arrested in September after neighbours accused him of posting links to a film mocking Islam that led to protests across the Muslim world.
Neighbors accused him of posting links to something, and for that he gets three years in prison.
Egypt? You’re doing it wrong.
Mr Saber was initially accused of circulating links to a 14-minute trailer for the film, Innocence of Muslims, which denigrates the Prophet Muhammad.
But he denied promoting the video and later faced charges relating to other statements critical of Islam and Christianity which police investigators allegedly found online and on his computer at his home.
Oh right, the first charge fell apart so they dug up something else – “statements critical of Islam and Christianity.” Jeez. I wonder how many centuries in jail I would get if I were in Egypt.
There has been a proliferation of prosecutions for blasphemy in Egypt in the nearly two years since Hosni Mubarak was overthrown. Many of those targeted are Copts, who make up about 10% of the population.
Although blasphemy has long been a criminal offence, Article 44 of the draft constitution contains a specific article prohibiting insulting prophets.
And “insulting prophets” means saying anything critical of guys who lived many centuries ago.
Egypt you’re really really doing it wrong.
I see that thanks to Michael Shermer I’m going to be having to do extra clean-up of falsehoods and misrepresentations for awhile. That’s skepticism for ya.
Here are some.
On the
@michaelshermer talk where he’s allegedly sexist: http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/12-12-12/#feature … – ‘it’s more of a guy thing’ seems descriptive, not normative.
No. I didn’t allege that he’s sexist. I didn’t draw any general conclusions about him at all. I quoted what he said as an example of dopy stereotypes about women; I did not go on to say “therefore he is a sexist.” The column wasn’t about him.
Also, since the column was about stereotypes, it doesn’t really matter all that much whether Shermer’s remark was descriptive as opposed to normative. Stereotypes are descriptive, but that doesn’t make them benign.
Next.
Shermer on being called a ‘misogynist’. Agree with him, but still not sure why he’d say ‘a guy thing’, (unless joking): http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/12-12-12/#feature …
No. I didn’t call Shermer a misogynist. I didn’t draw any general conclusions about him at all. I quoted what he said as an example of dopy stereotypes about women; I did not go on to say “therefore he is a misogynist.” The column wasn’t about him.
It’s funny; Jacques R accuses me of hyperbole, being incendiary, reading uncharitably, drama, misinterpretation – yet he manages to accuse me of calling Shermer sexist when I didn’t. So it goes.
Enragd by her rejection of his repeated proposal to elope with him for marriage, Babu Khan, 23, set Shiwa Hasmi on fire while she was asleep in her house. She died.
