This morning I received an email from the Secretary for the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (in the UK), Michael Paynter, saying he’d seen that I’ve commented on the “take the image of Mo from Jesus and Mo off your Facebook page please” fuss at UCL (the wording is mine) and that he wanted to provide some context because the media coverage has been distorted. I’ve heard from other people who received much the same email (or possibly exactly the same), so I feel free to quote from it.

UCL Union (UCLU) did make a request for the University College London’s Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society (UCLUASHS) to remove an image of the prophet Muhammed after

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Jessica Ahlquist answered some questions yesterday.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc-ROXgCuxE

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So it made up its mind and snowed at last. Then it stopped and I went out to walk around and look at it. It was pretty. Melting fast, but pretty. It doesn’t snow much here.

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From Identity and Violence:

My disturbing memories of Hindu-Muslim riots in India in the 1940s…include seeing – with the bewildered eyes of a child – the massive identity shifts that followed divisive politics. A great many persons’ identities as Indians, as subcontinentals, as Asians, or as members of the human race, seemed to give way – quite suddenly – to sectarian identification with Hindu, Muslim, or Sikh communities. The carnage that followed had much to do with elementary herd behavior by which people were made to “discover” their newly detected belligerent identities, without subjecting the process to critical examination. The same people were suddenly different.

So were their identities really “Hindu” or “Muslim” or were they not? If Sen is … Read the rest

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A couple of months old, but too stupid and bad to overlook.

Women will be boxing at the Olympics for the first time this year. And…can you guess what follows?

Geniuses in the International Amateur Boxing Association think maybe they should wear skirts.

Skirts.

For boxing.

Really? Really? It’s so important that everyone should have easy access to women’s Little Special Place that they have to wear skirts even for boxing? So that when they fall down everyone can check for visible pubic hair?

What’s next? Rules requiring women to wear high heels, a plunging neckline, lipstick, earrings, long hair?

Adults and Tiaras.

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