The headline on this article originally read
Bishops agree sex abuse rules
Just what we’ve always said!… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Have you ever studied any world history?
Apr 5th, 2011 12:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonSalman Rushdie thinks it’s funny, Russell Banks thinks it’s funny; I think it’s funny too. (So that means I’m as cool as Salman Rushdie and Russell Banks, right? Sure.)
Anyway. I thought this particular bit would speak to us today.
And he asks, “Kelly, have you ever studied any world history?,” and I’m, like, “Excuse me, but I happen to be wearing an imported Italian cashmere sweater.”I’m totally stealing that.… Read the rest
Paul Rudnick: “I was Gandhi’s boyfriend” 
Apr 5th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And I say, “If someone punched me, I would throw my drink at them. I mean, maybe you should try that with the British.”… Read the rest
UK bus ad campaign to tackle “Islamophobia”
Apr 5th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association is behind the campaign. Yes really.… Read the rest
Eman al-Obeidy was pressured to change her story
Apr 5th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
She told Anderson Cooper she was placed before state television cameras with several guns pointing at her from just off camera.… Read the rest
Eman al-Obeidi speaks to the media
Apr 5th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
She said that she was pressured to recant the rape claims on Libyan state television. She refused.… Read the rest
High school atheist club
Apr 4th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Or to put it another way, as the Times does, “teenagers speak up for lack of faith.”… Read the rest
What is this, High Noon?
Apr 4th, 2011 12:34 pm | By Ophelia BensonI was going to ignore it, but no one else is, so I’ll just say…I too dissent. I disagree with most of Bloody Fools.
Especially items like
As to Myers, despite the development of a blasphemy fan club and admiration for the cowardly use of free expression rights in the safe haven of Morris, Minnesota, the only serious “threat” came from Catholic League president Bill Donahue.
The cowardly use of free expression rights? I can’t even begin to make sense of that. I must do the same thing myself every day, nearly every hour. I’m not likely to be murdered for saying what I think here in Seattle, so I’m cowardly for saying it?
No; I don’t understand, and … Read the rest
Interfaith Alliance declares 1st Amendment null and void
Apr 4th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“We as a nation must do more to make clear that bigoted rhetoric and action against the Muslim faith will not be tolerated.”… Read the rest
PZ on shades of grey
Apr 4th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Don’t even try to pull out a scale and toss a copy of the Koran on one side and the life of a single human being on the other.… Read the rest
Assisted suicide for those not terminally ill
Apr 4th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Nan Maitland was 84 and had agonizing arthritis. Her life consisted of more pain than pleasure, and she was relieved to be able to choose to end it.… Read the rest
BBC wonders what to think about Grayling’s book
Apr 4th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
So it asks Giles Fraser and Mark Vernon.… Read the rest
Decca Aitkenhead talks to Anthony Grayling
Apr 4th, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“The charges of militancy and fundamentalism of course come from our opponents, the theists. When the boot was on their foot they burned us at the stake.”… Read the rest
Andrew Copson on Shelley and atheist aesthetics
Apr 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Atheists today are too often castigated as materialistic calculators whose lack of spirituality sucks their universe empty of all beauty.… Read the rest
Offending culture, religion, traditions=murder
Apr 3rd, 2011 11:47 am | By Ophelia BensonStaffan de Mistura is nuts. He’s barking.
…the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama), Staffan de Mistura, said during a visit to Mazar-e Sharif that the only person who could be blamed for the violence was the American pastor.
“I don’t think we should be blaming any Afghan. We should be blaming the person who produced the news – the one who burned the Koran. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from offending culture, religion, traditions.”
The only person who could be blamed. Not the people who did the actual killing, with guns; only the guy who made a point of pissing them off.
Please.… Read the rest
The Tantamounts
Apr 3rd, 2011 10:24 am | By Ophelia BensonIsn’t there a literary character, or family, called Tantamount? Did I imagine that?
I’m thinking it’s from someone like Aldous Huxley or Evelyn Waugh. Anthony Powell? Mervyn Peake?
It started when Paula Kirby said on Facebook yesterday that some BBC presenter had said something was of “tantamount importance.” Groans all around. But then I started getting this itch inside the head…Margot Tantamount? Charles Tantamount? Tantamount Hall?
Google has been no help, so maybe I did imagine it. Anyone?… Read the rest
Does god hate women?
Apr 3rd, 2011 10:18 am | By Ophelia Benson
These guys certainly think so.
A student at an Islamic school in Bangladesh has been shot dead and at least 30 others injured during a demonstration against women’s rights.
The protesters were marching through the south-western town of Jessore against moves by the government to ensure equal property rights for women…
Under Bangladeshi law, a woman normally inherits half as much as her brother.
Because god wants it that way, which we know, because god said so in this book we are holding aloft while screaming in rage.… Read the rest
Bangladesh: demonstration against women’s rights
Apr 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The protesters marched against moves by the government to ensure equal property rights for women.… Read the rest
More Koran rage in Afghanistan
Apr 3rd, 2011 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Hundreds of demonstrators marched to protest not the murder of uninvolved UN workers and compatriots but the burning of one copy of a book.… Read the rest
