Wikipedia, Google, Bing, Yahoo, the internet, newspapers, radio, schools, conversation…… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Johann Hari on Islamists’ victims and hypocrisy
May 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA gay Iranian film maker and a Pakistani atheist writer are told to be “discreet” and sent back to be killed.… Read the rest
PZ on Giberson on ID and “New” atheists
May 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf you think theism is a good thing, then you’re handicapped in challenging “Intelligent Design.”… Read the rest
Jerry Coyne on trusting your brain
May 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy is it always the psychics, homeopaths, and astrologers who take it in the neck when scientists attack irrationality? What about the most widespread form of irrationality?… Read the rest
Why atheism will replace religion
May 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe reasons that churches lose ground in developed countries can be summarized in market terms.… Read the rest
Academic disciplined over fruit bat paper
May 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA bad precedent for academic freedom. Pinker, Dennett and more than 2400 others sign petition calling on the university to repeal the sanctions.… Read the rest
Yesterday’s gone
May 19th, 2010 12:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonSean Brady says no no no no no he won’t go. He doesn’t want to. It’s not fair. All the others. He was only. They didn’t use to. Back then it was all. You just don’t. We all thought that.
The cardinal, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, is under pressure to stand down after it emerged that he took part in a secret canonical tribunal in 1975 at which two minors were made to swear oaths of silence about their allegations against the paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth.
Smyth went on to rape hundreds more children across Ireland, the UK and the United States before he died in prison in 1997.
Well, yes, but that’s nothing … Read the rest
Victims’ fury as Sean Brady refuses to resign
May 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMarie Collins notes Brady “was well aware that Brendan Smyth was free to continue abusing and he did nothing about it.”… Read the rest
Must we protect lady scientists?
May 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBats are one of the few non-human species to engage in fellatio. That statement is not sexual harassment.… Read the rest
Gita Sahgal on AI and Moazzem Begg
May 18th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBegg had become a hero of the Amnesty movement. It was dangerous to challenge his status as a perfect victim. … Read the rest
Support the Girls Protection Act
May 18th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonH.R. 5137 would make it a crime to transport a minor out of the country to subject her to FGM. … Read the rest
Ritual ‘nick’ good alternative to FGM?
May 18th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“We don’t let people have slavery a little bit because they’re going to do it anyway.”… Read the rest
The collusion to keep women out of power
May 18th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe lack of women at the top of government is not about merit. It’s about power networks.… Read the rest
Joel Whitney Interviews Paul Berman
May 18th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn suppressing this information, Ramadan is creating a false image of the Islamist ideology as a whole.… Read the rest
Evan Harris’s actual views on abortion and death
May 18th, 2010 3:10 pm | By Ophelia BensonIn his own words, which he put down in a comment [Apr 19th, 2010 at 11:16 am] on Cristina Odone’s vicious Telegraph blog post about him just before the election.
On the issues, it is true that, in common with 80% of the country and a majority of Christians, Lib Dems support – on a free vote for MPs and peers – the legalisation of assisted dying for the suffering terminally ill of sound mind. This is very different from “euthanasia” which would include involuntary and non-voluntary euthanasia (non-consenting or where no capacity to consent) which we of course oppose.
And yet both Odone and Pitcher flatly stated that he supports euthanasia. The election result was very close; Odone’s … Read the rest
Leave me alone you big bully
May 18th, 2010 2:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonI just heard Peter Tatchell speaking very sharply to a Ugandan government minister (whose name I didn’t get, having turned the radio on in mid-segment) on the World Service. “You do not speak for all Ugandans,” he said fiercely. The minister said, “We’re not going to be bullied.” No indeed; instead you’re going to bully.… Read the rest
Leo Igwe on Religious Persecution in Africa
May 18th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLeo Igwe spoke at the 47th session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in Bajul, the Gambia, on 13 May 2010.… Read the rest
Sheep may safely wear clogs
May 18th, 2010 11:54 am | By Ophelia BensonSo 1500 people who currently work for the BBC in London are being shifted to working for the BBC in Salford, i.e. Manchester. This is rather like working for PBS in New York and being shifted to working for PBS in Pittsburgh…Though not all that much like it, since Manchester is a lot closer to London than Pittsburgh is to New York, plus there’s a hell of a lot of good stuff between Manchester and London, not to mention in a 50 mile radius of Manchester, which is not so true of Pittsburgh.
But never mind; it’s close enough. You get the idea. It’s a move to the provinces, and the industrial provinces at that; it’s a move to … Read the rest
Nun demoted after abortion to save woman’s life
May 18th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBishop: abortion is forbidden even if it is necessary to save the woman’s life. Period.… Read the rest
BBC staff moving to Salford – call a vicar!
May 18th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAbout 1,500 staff must go north; BBC will provide a vicar to “provide some pastoral support to the new community of London staff.”… Read the rest