Eve Garrard wrote about Norm Geras for the Guardian last Sunday. She’s a colleague and friend of his, and one of the editors of Thinking Towards Humanity.

His interests were rich and varied, but his thought and writings form an integrated whole. He was centrally and always a man of the left, but one who became a scourge of those parts of left/liberal opinion which, in his view, had slid away from commitment to the values of equality, justice and universal rights, and in so doing ended up by excusing or condoning racism and terrorism.

And sexism – the most godawful sexism on the planet.

From his perspective, the response to the events of 11 September 2001 was appalling. He found the readiness of many to blame the US for bringing the terrorist attack down on its own head to be intellectually feeble and morally contemptible. He argued that this section of the left was betraying its own values by offering warm understanding to terrorists and cold neglect to their victims. He detested the drawing of an unsupported and insupportable moral equivalence between western democracies and real or proposed theocratic tyrannies in which liberty of thought and speech, and the protection of human rights, would play no part. Norm wanted to engage in this debate and not just with academics. So he went online, to provide himself with a space in which he could express these and other views, and Normblog was born.

It was a runaway success. Thousands of readers all over the world were drawn by Norm’s mixture of serious political and philosophical reasoning, and more lighthearted pieces on cricket, Manchester United, country music, films, books – whatever he was currently interested in. The most striking feature of the blog was Norm’s distinctive arguing style: independent, rigorous, fair to adversaries, exceptionally clear, always (well, almost always) civil – and that in a blogosphere noted for widespread vituperation and insult.

I was one of those thousands, right from the beginning.

Norm’s original area of research was Marxist political theory and he produced some highly influential books in this area, including The Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg (1976) and Marx and Human Nature (1983), in which he argued, rather against the progressive orthodoxy of the time, that there is such a thing as a determinate human nature, and that Marx himself had recognised this. His work inspired a generation of Marxist scholars. His concern about human nature, especially its darker elements, led him to explore the Holocaust: he was among the first to examine this terrible event from within the discipline of political theory.

Out of this research came his book The Contract of Mutual Indifference (1998), in which he argued that we owe a duty of help to those who are suffering under terrible oppression. He contrasted this duty with the practice of so many who observed the Nazis’ genocidal activities and did nothing, suggesting that what we actually believe in is something like a contract of mutual non-assistance: I won’t help you in your desperate straits, and I won’t expect any help from you either. This, as Norm argued, is morally intolerable: our common humanity makes claims on us, to protect each other from catastrophe, if we can.

Yes. That is what I think too.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Russell D Moore, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, tells us that government prayer-fests aren’t sectarian at all because they’re all over the place.

Conservative evangelicals don’t want government support for our faith, because we believe God created all consciences free and a state-coerced act of worship isn’t acceptable to God.  Moreover, we believe the gospel isn’t in need of state endorsement or assistance. Wall Street may need government bailouts but the Damascus Road never does.

In fact, most of us support voluntary public prayer not because we oppose the separation of church and state but because we support it.

After all, at issue in this dispute, is the supposed “sectarian” nature of these public prayers. Few suggest that any invocation at all is unconstitutional — especially since invocations have been going on in such forums since the Founding Era. The problem is that these prayers are specifically Christian or specifically Jewish or specifically Jewish or specifically Wiccan, or what have you.

Notice the calm majoritarian confidence of that dismissal of people who do suggest that any invocation at all is unconstitutional, and the breezy citation of longstanding practice as if it justified anything (hello slavery, hello footbinding, hello genital mutilation).

When we allow evangelicals to pray as evangelicals, Catholics to pray as Catholics, Muslims to pray as Muslims, Jews to pray as Jews, we are not undermining political pluralism in our democracy, we’re upholding it.

That’s why these prayers are not an establishment of religion. The clergyperson offering the invocation isn’t an extension of the government. His or her prayers aren’t state-written or state-approved.

If this is the case, why even bother with invocations, from multiple religious voices, in an increasingly diverse American public square? Such invocations serve to remind us that we are more than extensions of the state. Our consciences are accountable to a higher tribunal than any government. It’s that sense of conscience and human integrity that has led this country to support minority rights, respect for opposing viewpoints, and a limit on the power of government.

He’s claiming that reminding us of “a higher tribunal” is not an establishment of religion. He’s wrong; that’s exactly what it is.

If a belief in a “higher tribunal” were what’s required, why would slavery have lasted so long, or gotten started at all? Why would minority rights have been so very unsupported for so very long? What does Russell Moore think he’s talking about?

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Kimberly Winston looks at why atheists got so het up about Oprah’s casual aspersions on atheists. (Well one reason is just that it’s something to do. If someone mentions us, we talk about it. If someone mentions it – atheism – we talk about it. But besides that.)

Why has this struck such a deep chord? Ryan Cragun, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Tampa who studies atheists, said it may be because atheists are beginning to be more public about their lack of belief, seeing this as an opportunity to express their difference, their presence and their rights — much like the gay community has done before.”

Well yeah. That’s what I said – we talk about it. Mention us or it, and we’ll talk about it.

Marcia Z. Nelson, author of “The Gospel According to Oprah,” agreed, saying Winfrey may be exhibiting more unawareness than intolerance.

“As I see it, Oprah was being her spiritually and professionally curious self,” Nelson said. “The problem atheists have is partly one of language; the God and religion people have been working on refining their descriptive languages for millennia. Oprah was actually doing atheists a favor by quizzing Nyad. Atheists need to concentrate more on expressing awe and less on taking hyperbolic offense where none is intended.”

ARE YOU CALLING ME EASILY OFFENDED?!?

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

No doubt you’ve heard about the Google search item.

Here’s a simple and powerful campaign idea from UN Women using real suggested search terms from Google’s autocomplete feature. Campaign creator Christopher Hunt, head of art for Ogilvy & Mather Dubai, offers this summary: “This campaign uses the world’s most popular search engine (Google) to show how gender inequality is a worldwide problem. The adverts show the results of genuine searches, highlighting popular opinions across the world wide web.” Each ad’s fine print says “actual Google search on 09/03/13.” While Google users in different countries are likely to get different results, a quick test shows that several of these suggested terms definitely come up in U.S. searches. Since its creation, autocomplete has become a popular device for social debate and even inspired a recent epic visual from xkcd, but these ads do a stellar job driving home the daunting fact that enough people around the world share these vile opinions that Google has come to expect them.

So I tried, and sure enough. Of course some of them will be people like me looking for nasty bullshit, but all the same.

Check out the article for what the campaign did with some. Here are the ones I harvested.

Women should not put up with this crap.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Rachael Dunlop wonders why the hell media stories about medicine include bullshit for “balance.”

There’s a term to describe giving more time to opposing view points than the evidence actually supports – false balance.

So okay, my “feelpinions” might get hurt, but does it really matter otherwise? Well yes, it turns out it does.

A recent study reports that stories about vaccines that include false balance are actually more dangerous than those that are purely anti-vaccine. Yes, you read that correctly. Stories that offer both sides of the coin can have a greater negative influence on people’s decision to not vaccinate than those that are purely anti-vaccine.

Why? Perhaps because they give an impression of genuinely divided opinion among experts.

The Australian media, to their credit, have moved away from false balance in vaccine stories over the last few years. I like to think that grassroots campaigning has contributed to that, even if only a little. Certainly, I personally have made an effort to explain why false balance is bad and in some cases I’ve even declined to participate in stories if journalists insist on including anti-vaccine campaigners.

I now know of a couple of mainstream media outlets who have policies of not speaking to anti-vaxers at all when they do science based vaccine stories, which is a fantastic result. Indeed, one prime time magazine-style programme issued this statement on their Facebook page following a complaint from a viewer about an appearance I made on the show to discuss a measles outbreak.

Anti-vaccination is a fringe opinion. For every 5 doctors who oppose vaccination there are 95 who support it. We are not obliged to provide equal time and space to unscientific and dangerous viewpoints.

But not everyone is that level-headed, and it matters.

Recently, WIN television were reported to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for including false statements from a prominent anti-vaccine lobbyist in a news story about a measles outbreak. Media Watch’s Jonathan Holmes didn’t mince his words when he said:

There’s evidence and then there’s bulldust. It’s a journalists job to distinguish between them, not to sit on the fence and bleat balance, especially when people’s health is at risk.

Holmes’ last point really highlights the crux of the issue. In recent years in Australia, several babies have died from whooping cough as a result of outbreaks in areas where levels of vaccination are dangerously low. The media was also partly blamed for contributing to another measles epidemic in Swansea, Wales that persisted for eight months, resulting in a total of 1,219 cases and the death of one person.

Large numbers of children in the 10-18 age bracket had not received their scheduled measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccines, partly due to significant, uncritical coverage by the British media of false claims about the safety of MMR in 1998. The vaccine/autism claims were initiated by Andrew Wakefield who was subsequently struck off the medical register, his scientific study scratched from the record, and has gone onto be named by Time magazine as one of the “great science frauds” of modern history.

Whilst no one gets hurt if you ask a flying carpet salesman questions about commercial flight, the consequences of people not vaccinating are real and potentially tragic. With vaccination, there is not debate. The science is in and the benefits far outweigh the risks. No balance required.

Disagreeing over what flavor of ice cream to have for the party? Go for balance. Vaccinations? Do not go for “balance.”

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A news item from Florida last week:

Police on Monday arrested two girls, ages 14 and 12, in connection with the death of Rebecca Sedwick, who jumped from the top of an abandoned concrete plant last month.

Authorities said the 14-year-old girl was Rebecca’s chief tormenter, and the girl posted a taunting message Saturday on the Internet about what had happened.

“Yes IK I bullied REBECCA nd she killed her self but IDGAF,” the Facebook post read.

What a horrible sentiment, if it’s hers or if it’s someone else’s pretending to be hers.

According to Judd, the girl was upset that Rebecca had once dated her current boyfriend and began bullying and harassing her more than a year ago when they were both students at a Florida middle school.

In addition to sending harassing messages over the Internet, the girl physically attacked Rebecca at least once, Judd said. She also recruited the girl’s former best friend — the 12-year-old charged Monday — to bully her, Judd said.

Ironically enough, that Judd is Sheriff Grady Judd, who’s done some bullying of his own.

Among the online messages that drove Rebecca to jump to her death were, “You should die” and “why don’t you go kill yourself?” Judd said.

The night before Rebecca killed herself, authorities say, she messaged a boy she had befriended online, writing, “I’m jumping. I can’t take it anymore.”

Judd, clearly upset about the incident, expressed frustration that neither girl’s parents were willing to bring them in for questioning. He said he was astonished to find out that the 14-year-old in the case was still being allowed to post to the Internet after what had happened.

Dude, free speech.

Norman said she blamed the parents of the two girls and the staff at the middle school. She and Rebecca reported the bullying to the school, she said.

While bullying was not in itself against the law, Judd said, the girls’ actions allegedly harassing Rebecca in school and online formed the basis for the stalking charge. He did not expect any other charges would be filed.

Clearly the school didn’t manage to do anything about it.

First, do no harm. Second, try to prevent harm you can see happening.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Last week a Malaysian court ruled that people who aren’t Muslims can’t call their god “Allah” because that name is just for Muslims.

The appeals court said the term Allah must be exclusive to Islam or it could cause public disorder.

People of all faiths use the word Allah in Malay to refer to their Gods.

Christians argue they have used the word, which entered Malay from Arabic, to refer to their God for centuries and that the ruling violates their rights.

No because they stole the word. From Arabic. It’s not theirs and they can’t have it.

Upholding the appeal on Monday, chief judge Mohamed Apandi Ali said: “The usage of the word Allah is not an integral part of the faith in Christianity. The usage of the word will cause confusion in the community.”

The Herald editor Reverend Lawrence Andrew said he was “disappointed and dismayed”, and would appeal against the decision.

“It is a retrograde step in the development of law in relation to the fundamental liberty of religious minorities,” he said.

Plus it’s a frank admission that their god is a purely local god, not a universal one. That seems like shooting themselves in the foot, but whatevs.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

There’s this Evangelical church near Sacramento, Adventure Christian Church. Last weekend the church hosted a debate between David Marshall, a Christian author, blogger and founder/director of the Kuai Mu Institute for Christianity and World Cultures, and Phil Zuckerman, Professor of Sociology and Secular Studies, Pitzer College in Claremont, California, who reports how things went.

The question at hand: “What provides a better foundation for civil society, Christianity or Secular Humanism?” David Marshall took the Christian position, and I took the secular humanist position.

There was advance planning for months. They provided nice snacks.

I was repeatedly told — via e-mail, as well as in person — that not only would the debate be video’ed by their expert video team, but the video of the debate would be posted on vimeo soon after the debate.

And so we had the debate. And I won. Now, that’s not my opinion — its the opinion of Adventure Christian church, because they now refuse to post the video on-line.

Instead, what they’ve done is post a series of rebuttals to the debate — refutations and criticisms. But they won’t post the actual debate. And they’ve disabled my ability to even comment on their posted refutations.
When I called pastor Bryan, and asked him why they are refusing to post the video — even after repeated promises of doing so — he replied, “It just didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. We were not represented well.”

Thus neatly demonstrating that Christianity of the more absolutist variety (at least) is not good at doing civil society.

Does that sound familiar? Yes, it does. Two years ago, Jerry Coyne debated the theologian John Haught and then Haught refused to let the video be released. I did a post about it at the time.

Zuckerman is surprised and disappointed at Adventure Christian church, but not willing to tar all evangelicals with the same brush.

I don’t think all Evangelicals are like those at Adventure. I am sure that there are many, many evangelical Christians who keep their word, are open to debate and dialogue, and have the courage of their convictions.

But, unfortunately, that wasn’t my experience at Adventure Christian Church. They are indeed afraid to air the underling truth of my position: that no civil society can thrive if it does not exist upon a bedrock of democracy, and democracy is not a Christian value — it is not articulated anywhere in the Gospels, nor is it promulgated, in any way, by Jesus or Paul. Rather, democracy is a secular humanist ideal — something dreamed up and established by and for people.

But the good pastors at Adventure Christian church would you prefer not to know that!

There are Christians who claim – indeed, insist – that democracy is a Christian value and that we wouldn’t have it if it weren’t for Christianity. I think that’s bullshit, but counterfactuals are hard to rebut.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A scorching comment from “Janis” on Erin Podolak’s post on not looking away from difficult embarrassing issues like sexual harassment.

It gratifies me beyond belief after leaving behind the career I’d wanted since I was 4 (and been more than qualified for) some two decades ago because the atmosphere was simply so poisonous I couldn’t get anything done, to see that this is finally being talked about.

It depresses me more than I can say that, twenty years later, it still needs to be said.

I am sick of the locker room.  I am sick of the “this is our space and you’ll play by our rules” attitude.  I’m sick of pathetic excuses being made for people who have achieved middle age and hence can be damned well expected to know when they are being unpardonably OBNOXIOUS.  A grown man who doesn’t realize that nonstop sexual conversation will make the young women around him cringe?  GMAFB — he’s not a toddler.  He damned well knows what he’s doing.

I am also sick of the unsubtle message that’s communicated to women that there can be only one “girl” in the room at a time, because it sets us against one another if we’re all competing only for one spot.

And I am sick and tired enough to SCREAM over the lip-service being done to attracting women to STEM careers that glosses over the fact that this horseshit is a HUGE part of why women don’t go into or aren’t retained in STEM careers.

I am SICK AND TIRED of the chipper, cute little commentary about “telling girls it’s cool to be in science!” and the stupid interviews with women at NASA that always make sure to ask them, “Did you *gasp!* like math?” with the implication shoveled at girls — who are all completely incompetent at math, right? — not to worry, girls!  You can stink at math and still work at NASA!  I’ve never once read an interview with Mohawk Guy or Adam Steltzner that asks them, “So here’s your chance to say that you suck at math so men who can’t add two and two can still feel heartened that there’s a place at NASA for them.”

I’m tired of having the “problem” of women in STEM being equated to a problem with WOMEN.  They’re not confident enough! Their too scared at being thought uncool!  They’re too stupid at math and think they can’t work there!  They think it’s not girly pink-n-frilly enough!

Never once is the idea even floated that maybe, just maybe, they get treated like shit by the men there and often abandoned by the lone woman who’s afraid of losing her Queen Bee status as the only woman allowed in the room.

Not enough women in STEM?  Gosh, what’s wrong with them?

Here’s a possibility: NOTHING.  Maybe we can ask what’s wrong with STEM instead?

Sorry — that was quite a rant.  But after twenty years, this is still raw and leaves me sputteringly angry.  The older I get the angrier I get — age does not bring serenity when I see young girls and women still going through this fucking shit after I’ve started going grey.  Call me bitter, I don’t fucking care anymore.  I’ve spent the last two decades trying not to tell myself that Mother Nature made a mistake putting a brain like mine into the body of a creature destined to never be taken seriously, so if you call me bitter thinking it’s some conversational secret weapon that will make me collapse in a pile of little girly tears, you’re a fucking amateur.

Sorry for the profanity.

It was supposed to be better by now. Wasn’t it? I thought it was.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Because things aren’t bad enough yet in Syria.

The World Health Organization says it believes polio has erupted in war-torn Syria, a dire development in the fight to eradicate the disease.

The Geneva-based agency says a cluster of more than 10 paralysis cases have been detected in Deir Al Zour province in eastern Syria, a contested area of the country.

The WHO’s senior official for polio eradication says initial tests indicate polio is the cause, and efforts to address what could be a crisis situation are being geared up.

Dr. Bruce Aylward says the potential exists for a large scale outbreak that will take some time to bring under control.

That’s because the collapse of health services during the civil war has meant there are young children in Syria who haven’t been vaccinated.

Where there’s misery, there will be more misery.

While polio remains endemic – meaning transmission has never been stopped – in only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, several countries this year have seen spread of polio resume as a result of imported viruses. Among them is Somalia, where polio vaccination efforts were abandoned for four years because of conflict in the southern part of the country.

Misery—>worse misery.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Oh no, a girrrrrrrul wants to play a sport that’s supposed to be only for guys! This must be stopped, at least according to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

My name is Amanda. I’m a 16 year old Catholic school junior at Archbishop Ryan High School in Philadelphia. I love martial arts including wrestling, jiu jitsu, and muay thai. I want an equal opportunity to wrestle in school, but the Archdiocese of Philadelphia says no. I’m being discriminated against just because I’m a girl.

This November will be the inaugural season for our school’s wrestling team. Everyone’s excited, and I want to be part of it because I love the sport and hope to get a college scholarship for wrestling. I train twice a day most days of the week and am involved in anti-bullying programs to help empower people. It’s not fair that being a girl denies me the opportunity to compete at school despite having years of experience in mixed-martial arts.

No it’s not. The link is to a petition. You can sign it.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

More from Nigeria on Baba Omojola.

President Goodluck Jonathan has condoled with the government and people of Ondo State on the death of the highly respected pro-democracy activist and renowned economist, Dr. Baba Oluwide Omojola.

A press statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Rueben Abati, said the President extends his sincere condolences to Dr. Omojola’s immediate and extended family, friends, associates and professional colleagues of the late nationalist, patriot and indefatigable advocate of good governance who dedicated his life to the pursuit of social justice and a better life for others.

The President noted that Baba Omojola remained  faithful to the cause of justice, equity and progress for all Nigerians till the end of his life.

The kind of person the world needs more of.

Governor Olusegun Mimiko has described the late Baba Omojola as a committed, bold and resourceful human rights crusader and nationalist.

Mimiko said this in a condolence message to the immediate and ideological families of the late Baba Omojola.

The Governor in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Eni Akinsola, said his death is not just a sad loss to the family but an unfortunate departure from the fast depleting tribe of genuine human rights activists and nationalists with conscience.

Mimiko, in the statement, said: “Baba Omojola represented the best of the generation of human and political rights activists who never compromised in the face of serial treachery and consistent oppression of the ruling class.

“He was dogged, committed, resourceful and unwavering. His was a life lived in moral decency, material modesty and social and political relevance. He was brave, bold, strong and reliable. He will be sorely missed.”

I wouldn’t have known about him if it weren’t for Yemisi. I’m grateful that Freethought blogs has a strong internationalist bent, so that now I do know about him.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

One of the things we get accused of a lot – we feminists, we “social justice warriors,” we “#FTBullies” – is puritanism.

A new puritanism is on the march, and just as in the case of the old puritanism, its leaders are unconscionable bullies.

That’s a tweet from one of the regulars. It’s typical of the genre in its scare-mongering – note the sinister overtones of “on the march” coupled with puritanism, which is made explicit at the conclusion.

Does the accusation have much merit? Let’s try to figure it out.

What kind of purity is at issue? Political purity, or doctrinal purity, I take it. Feminism as opposed to anti-feminism, and so on for other identities. We’re accused of being purists or even puritans because we don’t want to collaborate with anti-feminists or racists or homophobes, and the like. It’s true that we don’t want to, those of us who don’t – it’s true that there are people who fit that description. So the question is, is it reasonable to call that puritan or purist?

I don’t see it, myself. I don’t think it’s a matter of taint or pollution, it’s a matter of not wanting to interact with people who have contempt for the brand of person you are.

Looked at that way, it’s even possible that the puritanism is the other way around: that people of the top caste don’t want their groups or movements polluted by underlings like women and other races and incorrect sexual orientations, or by people who agitate for the fuller inclusion of such people.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Ask Tequila UK.

The controversial Leeds club night which used a pro-rape video to promote its events was previously banned from a club in Newcastle, it has emerged.

Tequila UK has been slammed for using a video featuring a man who expressed his intentions to rape a female student.

Educational innit.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

So in Germany people are cross with the bishop of Limburg, who treated himself to a very pricey new place to live at the expense of none other than Jesus’s own Catholic church.

he €31-million bill for Franz-Tebartz Van-Elst’s residence, including €15,000 on a bath tub and €350,000 on built-in-wardrobes, has put the finances of the Catholic Church, much of which comes from taxpayers and state subsidies, into the spotlight.

Carsten Frerk, an outspoken critic of the Catholic Church in Germany, estimated its wealth at around €430 billion with about €140 billion of that in capital, the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper reported.

You’re starting to talk about real money there.

The opaqueness of the church’s finances was no surprise to Frerk. “For the big churches, transparency is very damaging to their business plan. Nobody wants to donate to a rich organization,” he said.

Ah no, no they don’t!

The church’s largest public form of income is the “church tax”, a system whereby taxpayers register their membership of a church or religious group, and a percentage of their tax goes to that church.

The tax dates back to the medieval tithes, a one-tenth share of goods collected by churches in the Middle Ages.

Anti-Church campaigner Peder Iblher told The Local there was little appetite among the country’s main parties to reform or scrap the “church tax”.

“All attempts to bring into question the church tax fall on deaf ears with conservatives, but also with large parts of the SPD,” he said.

Germans may avoid the tax by registering as having “left” the church, but it costs money to do so – in strongly-catholic Bavaria, opting out will set you back €31 in fees.

That is one hell of a racket they’ve got going.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Sound familiar?

Via Alice Bell on Twitter, by Jim Hines.

By Jim C. Hines @jimchines

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

There’s this tv add I’ve seen a few times, and if I’ve seen it a few times that means it’s been aired like a million times.

See a problem here?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANhmS6QLd5Q

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A giant of the Nigerian left and a beloved friend of Yemisi’s died suddenly today. From Sahara Reporters:

A renowned pro-democracy activist and prominent economist, Baba Omojola, has died in Akure, the capital of Ondo State.

Mr. Omojola, who earned a PhD, died a few hours after submitting a presentation to the National Dialogue Committee in Ondo State early today.

Baba, as he was famously known, was a prominent figure during Nigeria’s pro-democracy struggles of the late and early 1990s.

Mr. Omojola was one of five activists known as “Kuje Five” who were arrested and clamped into military detention after Nigerian students engaged in massive protests to force out the Ibrahim Babangida dictatorship in 1992.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Daisy Coleman is the teenage girl at the center of the Maryville rape storm, and she wants to tell the world what really happened.

She was 14. She had her best friend Paige, who was 13, over for the night to hang out and watch scary movies – and drink alcohol, against her mother’s known wishes and rules. She was texting with an older boy her brother had warned her about. Update: That looks censorious, and that’s not what I meant. I meant to summarize so as not to paste in the whole article, and to give all the relevant facts. I needed to include both the drinking alcohol and the fact that it wasn’t with parental approval.

It wasn’t until later that night that Matt, a popular senior boy, had asked to hang out. Of course, I knew my brothers wouldn’t allow this so, we had to sneak out. It was about one in the morning when my friend and I climbed out of my bedroom window. 

Dumb move. I can imagine what it felt like at the time though – an adventure; exciting; a secret. Update: As above. Just editorial comment – yes, obviously that was a dumb move, but I remember that teenage longing for adventure.

There were bedrooms and a living room area in the basement. I sat on the couch and gathered familiar faces from the room. Four of Matt’s friends were there. Matt emerged from one of the bedrooms with a bottle of clear alcohol he wanted me to drink. This is when one of Matt’s friends suggested I drink from a tall shot glass, which they labeled the “bitch cup.”

About five shots tall, I drank it. I guess I didn’t know how badly it would mess me up. But the boys who gave it to me did.

Then it was like I fell into a dark abyss. No light anywhere. Just dark, dense silence — and cold. That’s all I could ever remember from that night. Apparently, I was there for not even an entire hour before they discarded me in the snow.

Not a fun adventure. Her life turned to shit. Update: She did a couple of silly things, as teenagers do, and the boys at that party did horrible, callous, brutal things and turned her life to shit. It is the boys who are at fault, not Daisy and Paige.

I was suspended from the cheerleading squad and people told me that I was “asking for it” and would “get what was coming.”

Why would I even want to believe in a God? Why would a God even allow this to happen? I lost all faith in religion and humanity. I saw myself as ugly, inside and out. If I was this ugly on the inside, then why shouldn’t everyone see the ugly I saw?

I burned and carved the ugly I saw into my arms, wrists, legs and anywhere I could find room.

On Twitter and Facebook, I was called a skank and a liar and people encouraged me to kill myself. Twice, I did try to take my own life.

When I went to a dance competition I saw a girl there who was wearing a T-shirt she made. It read: “Matt 1, Daisy 0.”

Gee, Daisy never knew she’d entered a competition.

Since this happened, I’ve been in hospitals too many times to count. I’ve found it impossible to love at times. I’ve gained and lost friends. I no longer dance or compete in pageants. I’m different now, and I can’t ever go back to the person I once was. That one night took it all away from me. I’m nothing more than just human, but I also refuse to be a victim of cruelty any longer.

This is why I am saying my name. This is why I am not shutting up. Matt put on Twitter something recently. It read: “If her name begins with A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z, she wants the D.”

Since Anonymous has gotten involved, everything has changed. #justice4Daisy has trended on the Internet, and pressure has come down hard on the authorities who thought they could hide what really happened.

I not only survived, I didn’t give up. I’ve been told that a special prosecutor is going to reopen the case now. This is a victory, not just for me, but for every girl.

I just hope more men will take a lesson from my brothers.

They look out for women. They don’t prey on them.

A simple, good rule.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)