ASA received 1,054 angry complaints about Marie Stopes advert from precisely the sort of hectoring Christian freaks it was designed to piss off.
Author: Ophelia Benson
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The Daily Beast on Obama and the Saudi lobby
The desert kingdom remains a draconian dictatorship that prohibits even the most basic of liberties.
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Terry Glavin on liberalism’s long walk
Principled commitment to democracy, universal values and multilateralism will either define liberalism or be disavowed in favour of dead-end isolationism.
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Afghanistan is a great place for women
“The trendier option involves incorporating Afghans into modernity by teaching them to live in a globalised present.”
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Catholic church fighting sex education in Philippines
Bishop does not agree that a high birth rate traps people in poverty. Easy for him.
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A dispatch from the front
Sorry posting is a bit light. I’ve been busy trying to pull knives out of my back (no use, they’re stuck), and now I have a sudden avalanche of subbing to do for The Philosophers’ Mag and a mere few hours to do it in, so it’s hard to find a spare moment.
Will try to do better.
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Jason Rosenhouse on what the civility police really want
Which is rudeness directed at their enemies instead of at them and their friends.
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Hitchens on being a new citizen of the sick country
‘In whatever kind of a “race” life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist.’
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If music be the food of love, issue a fatwa
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says music is permitted but bad and nasty.
Khamenei said: “Although music is halal, promoting and teaching it is not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic.”…”It’s better that our dear youth spend their valuable time in learning science and essential and useful skills and fill their time with sport and healthy recreations instead of music.
Because…music, while permitted, is not a healthy recreation. It’s a recreation, but not a healthy one. It’s permitted, but it’s ungood. Why? Well because it’s pretty, and pleasurable, and emotive, and often sexy, and often exciting. We can’t be having any of that. It’s not healthful. Or useful. Or good. Or compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic. Which are established by a guy with a black cushion on his head, who looks as if he doesn’t rock out much.
Khamenei’s views are interpreted as administrative orders for the whole country, which must be obeyed by the government. Last month Khamenei issued a controversial fatwa in which he likened his leadership to that of the Prophet Muhammad and obliged all Iranians to obey his orders.
Controversial – really? I can’t imagine why. Guy says he’s like Mo and all Iranians have to do what he says. What’s the problem? It simplifies life. So does not having music. Simplicity is good, because it keeps people out of badness. Complicated things are bad.
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Want some theophanies?
Comment is Free Belief asks “Can we choose what we believe?” Usama Hasan answers briskly right from the outset.
God exists, obviously.
Oh; all right then! Nothing further to think about. He goes on to point out that the Qur’an says so, and give the sura where it says so. Then he gets to the thinky part.
God is a given, and our lives are an opportunity to learn about and experience God in countless different ways because the universe is a collection of theophanies: God’s infinite variety of names is manifested throughout the diversity of nature that includes our complex, intertwined lives.
He forgets to explain how he knows that.
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Khamenei declares music not Islamic enough
Last month he “issued a fatwa” saying he’s like Mo and all Iranians have to do what he says.
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Only scientist MP alarmed at MPs’ ignorance
Julian Huppert says political leaders tend to come up with a stance and then try to make the evidence fit it.
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Government ignored advice on homeopathic “remedies”
On the grounds that refusal to fund homeopathy would limit patient choice.
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David Colquhoun on fake medicine at taxpayers’ expense
The Government said it is fine for doctors to give you pills that contain nothing whatsoever and charge them to the NHS.
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Julian Baggini on whether we can choose what we believe
You don’t choose what you believe moment to moment, but choices you have made do shape what you come to believe.
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The bill was not ‘male-friendly’
Pakistan’s parliament last year passed the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, but then
it was rejected by the Senate, reportedly because of the objections of one senator, preventing it from becoming a law.
According to insiders, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam – Fazl senator Maulana Muhammad Sherani (presently the chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology) had objected that the bill was not ‘male-friendly’ and was contradictory to Islamic law.
Later, the Council of Islamic Ideology also termed the bill “unnecessary”, adding that the implementation of this law would increase the rate of divorce in the country.
In other words, the law might make it possible for women to divorce men who beat them up, and that would be bad, so the law must not be passed, because women have to stay with men who beat them up.
It’s interesting that the Council of Islamic Ideology wants to go on the record as thinking that women should not be allowed to leave men who beat them up.
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Every hour two women are beaten in Pakistan
Yet the Domestic Violence Prevention Bill has not been passed; Islamist senator says it is not ‘male-friendly’ and is contradictory to Islamic law.
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The joys of biology
Look how many interesting things you can learn from a single issue of a journal.