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It gets better

Mar 24th, 2011 4:56 pm | By

The It Gets Better project is a good thing.

The interview with Dan and Terry on Fresh Air was also good. Terry had an especially horrible time the first two years of high school. He said he couldn’t even walk down the hall in such a way that he didn’t attract bullying. Everything he did – the way he moved, the way he talked, everything – got him bullied. His mother went to the school and asked them to do something about the bullying.

Their response was, ‘There’s nothing that they could do. If he looks that way, if he talks that way, if he walks that way, there’s absolutely nothing they could do to protect me and it was

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 16 comments


Whited sepulchre

Mar 24th, 2011 11:04 am | By

But hey, then again, why worry about religious privilege and entitlement when the Vatican is busy telling the UN Human Rights Council that people who dispute its vicious homophbia are “attacking” it and interfering with its human rights? Why bother? Why not just give up, since we’re obviously outnumbered?

People who criticise gay sexual relations for religious or moral reasons are increasingly being attacked and vilified for their views, a Vatican diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

Or to put it another way, gay people are increasingly being attacked and vilified by reactionary religious fanatics who think they should have the power to tell everyone everywhere what to do down to the smallest detail.

“People are

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 34 comments
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Poor little mites, only 30 places for them

Mar 24th, 2011 10:43 am | By

Big excitement: another religious state school is opening in Leicester, a Hindu one modeled on another in Harrow (London). Hooray hooray, even though there are people who think Not hooray hooray.

It, like other faith school proposals for “free” schools, has its opponents, those that think the plethora of religious schools being opened under the Gove initiative will destroy community cohesion and increase segregation on racial and religious grounds among pupils.

And that that’s not something the state should be fostering and funding. What’s the other view, exactly? I can never quite figure it out. That it will do those things but those are good things to do? Or that it won’t do those things? Either one seems…feeble.

The

… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 10 comments


Dan Savage and Terry Miller on “it gets better” *

Mar 24th, 2011 | Filed by

Miller’s school told his mother: “If he looks that way, if he talks that way, if he walks that way, there’s absolutely nothing they could do to protect him.”… Read the rest

Posted in Latest News


UN: Vatican defends “right” to bash gay rights *

Mar 24th, 2011 | Filed by

Religious homophobes “are increasingly being attacked and vilified for their views,” a Vatican diplomat told the United Nations Human Rights Council.… Read the rest

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Larger groups have more utility *

Mar 24th, 2011 | Filed by

Smaller ones have less.… Read the rest

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Does religion belong in the classroom? *

Mar 24th, 2011 | Filed by

“There are a million Hindus in the UK but only 30 Hindu primary school places a year for them.” Beg the question much?… Read the rest

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Roberto De Mattei explains the catastrophe in Japan *

Mar 23rd, 2011 | Filed by

“…catastrophes are the just punishments of God” inasmuch as “to the guilt of the Original Sin are added our personal and collective sins.”… Read the rest

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Texas bill would outlaw “discrimination” against creationists *

Mar 23rd, 2011 | Filed by

Universities would be forbidden to fire anyone “based on the faculty member’s or student’s conduct of research relating to the theory of intelligent design.”… Read the rest

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Orac on anthroposophic medicine at the U of Michigan

Mar 23rd, 2011 | Filed by

Anthroposophic medicine is based on many ideas with no basis whatsoever in science that can best be described as pure magical thinking.… Read the rest

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The people look like ants

Mar 23rd, 2011 12:27 pm | By

So how about that Jacques Berlinerblau eh?

He totally agrees with Michael Ruse that “new” atheists are equatable to the Tea Party, and wishes he’d said it first.

For those not familiar with their world-view, let me help you understand their central and timeless insight: Unless you as an atheist are willing to disparage all religious people, describe them all as imbeciles and creeps, mock every text and thinker they have ever produced, then you must be some sort of deluded, self-hating, sellout, subverting the rise of the Mighty Atheist Political Juggernaut (about which more anon).

Goodness; how very vulgar. Miss Manners does not, on second thought, believe she has very much to say about sheer vulgarity. Miss Manners is … Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 63 comments
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Asylum seeker deported from Norway is in Evin *

Mar 23rd, 2011 | Filed by

Iranian authorities have signaled that Iranians who seek asylum should be charged for “dissemination of false propaganda against the Islamic Republic.”… Read the rest

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Brandish that crucifix

Mar 23rd, 2011 11:37 am | By

Andrew Brown seems to have taken a Michael Ruse pill (may cause drowsiness, perversity of reasoning, tendonitis, irregular heartbeat).

The decision of the European court of Human Rights that Italian schools may continue to display a crucifix in the classroom is obviously a victory for common sense, of which only fanatics would disapprove.

Oh obviously; oh only fanatics, certainly. (What was that about gnu atheist rhetoric and lack of humility again?)

The idea that human rights legislation should be used to prevent children from being exposed to a crucifix is a profoundly totalitarian and superstitious perversion of one of our civilisation’s best inventions.

Well yes, it would be, but that isn’t the idea in question. Oddly enough, nobody was attempting … Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 27 comments
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Paul Sims disagrees with Andrew Brown *

Mar 23rd, 2011 | Filed by

This is the government of Italy (a state whose constitution has been secular since 1985) imposing a symbol of Catholicism on every classroom in the country.… Read the rest

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Andrew Brown cheers the crucifix decision *

Mar 23rd, 2011 | Filed by

Construes the opposition as “the idea that human rights legislation should be used to prevent children from being exposed to a crucifix.” Wrong.… Read the rest

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New atheism=Tea Party? Oh hell yes. *

Mar 23rd, 2011 | Filed by

Jacques Berlinerblau is annoyed that Ruse said it first.… Read the rest

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Internationalism

Mar 22nd, 2011 5:40 pm | By

Greta Christina has begun a list of non-pallid atheists, which makes it a global list of atheists, which makes it a list with a lot of friends on it.

Leo Igwe is on it. Kenan Malik is on it. Maryam Namazie is on it. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is on it. Homa Arjomand is on it. Friends and contributors.

The more global B&W is, the happier I am.… Read the rest

Posted in Notes and Comment Blog | 13 comments
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Greta Christina’s list of atheists of color *

Mar 22nd, 2011 | Filed by

Many of our best friends among them. Atheism is global.… Read the rest

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Preventing Witchcraft Accusations and Child Rights Abuses in Akwa Ibom State, part 2

Mar 22nd, 2011 | By Leo Igwe

The Prevent the Abuse of Children Today (PACT) campaign team has concluded its school outreach program in Eket senatorial district in Akwa Ibom state. The outreach targeted schools because we believe they are places where we could ‘catch them young’ in terms of preventing the abuse of children today – and tomorrow – in Akwa Ibom state. The schools are places that we can empower children and young people to defend themselves. In the first leg of the tour (February 28 to March 4), the PACT team visited schools in Oron, Okobo, Urue Offong Oruko, Udung Uko, and Mbo .  And the second leg of the tour (March 7- 11) the team was at Esit Eket, Eket, Ibeno, Onna, Eastern … Read the rest

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Stephen Budiansky reviews The Moral Lives of Animals *

Mar 22nd, 2011 | Filed by

Peterson simply ignores several decades worth of recent studies in cognitive science by researchers, especially on theory of mind.… Read the rest

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