Americans United for Separation of Church and State give us this helpful graphic showing the Alabama counties that are defying the federal court order to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Roy Moore should be kicked out of office a second time.
The defiant counties are in blue.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The Guardian reported last Friday that George Galloway is angry at the BBC.
George Galloway has hit out at the BBC following his appearance on Question Time, saying he was set up and that David Dimbleby privately apologised to him afterwards.
The controversy centred around a question that one audience member asked about a rise in antisemitism in the UK.
But the question also included a reference to the MP for Bradford West bearing some responsibility for this rise, an inclusion he said that had not been agreed beforehand.
So what? He’s an MP – he’s expected to field questions, isn’t he? Isn’t that part of the job?
… Read the restThe anti-war politician said the host David Dimbleby later apologised to him
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The Twitter account @GlobalCivility has a lot of tweets about that terrible “global civility” protest in Downing Street yesterday. I followed Raquel’s example and asked if they’d be protesting things like the flogging of Raif and Boko Haram massacres and mobs killing alleged “blasphemers” in Pakistan. It took them maybe 10 seconds to block me.
Global Civility @GlobalCivility · Feb 8
Demonstrating our love
All men in the first; all women in the second. Civility.
There they are. Not petitioning Saudi Arabia to stop torturing a liberal blogger, but petitioning all of us to shut up about their prophet. If they represent their prophet, then he’s a horror.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
This is awesome. A pro-vax social justice campaign with inspiring art behind it. Ironic that the article is at the Huffington Post, but anyway…
… Read the restBeloved portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz often captures celebrity subjects before her noted lens, having snapped cultural icons ranging from John Lennon and Yoko Ono to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
Her most recent photograph, however, depicts a different sort of notable figures, those linked to the development of several life-saving vaccines. The image is part of the vaccination awareness campaign “The Art of Saving a Life (ASAL),” which, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, commissioned creative works from artists, writers and musicians, exhibiting the many ways vaccines have
positively impacted[helped
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
On the Media did a great segment on anti-vax this week. You should listen to it to get Bob Garfield’s biting tone, but I want to hit the highlights anyway.
CLIP: “The measles outbreak spreads to a fifth bay area county. One local pediatrician accuses vaccination opponents of undermining a basic survival concept…
BOB: Yes they did, which is why this outbreak was literally inevitable. The Measles Mumps Rubella vaccine had essentially eradicated those childhood diseases in the United States, but when parents began to stop vaccinating their kids, they were creating not just potential patients, but vectors, spreading the disease to the vulnerable. Such as the babies, pre-vaccination age, infected this week in a Chicago day care center.
And … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Raquel Saraswati posted some photos from that “shut up” protest in London yesterday, along with some (cough) skeptical comments.
Raquel E Saraswati @RaquelEvita 21 hours ago
That awkward moment when these guys in London used freedom of speech to protest against freedom of speech today.
.@GlobalCivility blocked me after I suggested demos against lashing of #RaifBadawi + against gender based violence.
How…civil.
Alex @Alexdurrant7 21 hours ago
@RaquelEvita Wow, very diverse crowd there…Raquel E Saraswati @RaquelEvita
@Alexdurrant7 some of the men are shouting and some are merely scowling. So diverse!
Ha! That’s a good one.
Raquel E Saraswati @RaquelEvita 2 hours ago
So the London march was also segregated by gender. #hijabdesk
Global civility indeed.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
More from Greg Epstein on the Harvard Humanist of the Year award to Anita Sarkeesian.
Greg Epstein @gregmepstein 23 hours ago
Loved hosting @femfreq, our @HarvardHumanist of 2014 awardee. Humanism requires feminism; feminism=good f/all genders
So sad for the harassers. Streisand effect. If they hadn’t harassed her…
…well we’ll never know now.
Greg Epstein @gregmepstein 23 hours ago
.@femfreq’s message was so reasonable, so dare-I-say moderate, the controversy is sad. It must be said far, wide: humanism requires feminismProud of 100+ men who attended today’s event, joined others in 3 standing ovations. Hope it becomes known: @humanisthub, you meet good guys
As opposed to raging misogynist shits. Yes that does make a difference.
… Read the restGreg Epstein @gregmepstein 23 hours ago
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The ever-useful clarification:
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
The Wiltshire police explained that all they were doing was making an assessment of community tensions for the purpose of stamping them out. That’s all. Kindly meant. No harm done. Clear off out of it.
Wiltshire Police has now confirmed that an officer did visit a local shop in Corsham to request the names of those who had purchased the copies of the magazine and issued an apology “to the members of the public who may be affected by this”.
A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: “Following the terrorism incident in Paris, France on 7 January 2015, Wiltshire Police undertook an assessment of community tensions across the county.
Ah yes, that’ll be the problem. When British Authority undertakes an assessment of … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
… Read the restYour offer of commemorative badges in support of journalistic freedomhighlighting “Je suis Charlie”, prompts me to suggest a degree of caution following my experience. Tongue in cheek, I asked my helpful newsagents to obtain a copy of the edition of Charlie Hebdo issued after the dreadful massacre in Paris, if indeed a copy was ever available in north Wiltshire. To my surprise, a copy arrived last Wednesday week and although the standard of content in no way matches that of the Guardian I will cherish it. However, two days later a member of Her Majesty’s police service visited said newsagent, requesting the names of the four customers who had purchased Charlie Hebdo. So
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Ireland has ambitions to become another Pakistan, the Guardian reports.
The sale of the Charlie Hebdo magazine published after the Paris atrocity is threatening to become the first major test of the Irish Republic’s blasphemy law, Muslim representatives and secularists have warned.
Ireland’s Islamic Cultural Centre has said the presence of a depiction of the prophet Muhammad on the front page of the satirical publication, on sale now in Irish shops, is a clear breach of the country’s blasphemy legislation.
The Irish Republic is the only nation in Europe to have introduced a blasphemy law in the 21st century.
What a distinction, eh?
… Read the restAhmed Hasain, the executive secretary of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin, said: “In our view,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Damn. I was all set to take back much of what I’d said about Prince Charles, because newspaper headlines were saying he was going to urge the Saudi king to stop Raif’s flogging. For a few seconds I was elated, because that would surely make a difference – coming from a fellow monarch and an important ally. But then I read the body of the story and it turns out it’s all just claiming.
Headline in the IB Times: Prince Charles to urge Saudi king to halt blogger Raif Badawi’s flogging
Body:
… Read the restPrince Charles is rumoured to discuss jailed Saudi activist Raif Badawi’s floggings with Saudi Arabia’s new King when he visits the Kingdom this week, reported Reuters.
According
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Oh goody, it’s Brown v Board all over again – with reactionary officials defying a federal court in a last ditch effort to deny people civil rights. Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court last night told the state’s probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Monday. George Wallace lives!
… Read the rest“Effective immediately, no probate judge of the State of Alabama nor any agent or employee of any Alabama probate judge shall issue or recognize a marriage license that is inconsistent” with the Alabama Constitution or state law, the chief justice wrote in his order.
The order, coming just hours before the January decisions of United States District Court Judge Callie V. S. Granade
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Milène Larsson interviews the Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Luz for VICE.
It’s tough going, but worth it; very worth it.
He’s annoyed at the New York Times for refusing to publish the Je suis Charlie cover.
The Charlie Hebdo survivors are uneasy about the whole “je suis Charlie” thing. They’re uneasy about being symbols because Charlie has always been about making fun of symbols.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebL1oCy6tgY… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
BuzzFeed says Paul Elam and AVFM are the more respectable wing of the MRA movement. That seems surprising. Neither is all that respectable.
… Read the restA Voice for Men is often portrayed in the media as a relatively sober voice of reason in the abrasive world of men’s rights. “If Men’s Rights Activism has a Gloria Steinem, it is Paul Elam,” Emmett Rensin wrote this week for Vox. “The website is one of the oldest and, if there is such a thing, most respected hubs for MRA activity. Elam and his staff do, at the very least, engage in genuine advocacy on behalf of men.” Rensin didn’t cite any examples of said advocacy. This is not surprising, given that the site’s
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Mother Jones sought answers to the burning questions who is Warren Farrell, and why? He’s a former feminist who became a mover and shaker of the men’s rights movement, which in a way is all you need to know. (Other sufficiencies of that type: people who are pillars of the white people’s rights movement, or the movement for straight liberation, or the union of rich people who own the means of production.)
… Read the restFor some, the “manosphere” offers a place to air real grievances about issues such as bias in family courts or sexual abuse suffered by men. But it also has spawned a network of activists and sites that take Farrell’s ideology in a disturbing direction. Men’s rights forums on
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Chris Moos was at the Secular Conference in London yesterday, talking about gender segregation in UK universities.
He tweeted this photo – that’s Gita Sahgal, Chris, Maryam, and Magdulien Abaida.
London Black Atheists tweeted this one –
I wish I could have been there.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
… Read the restIn a poignant and powerful response to the horrific attacks on their colleagues in Paris, the world’s top cartoonists have teamed up to produce I am Charlie, a book featuring the top Charlie Hebdo cartoons published around the globe.
All proceeds will go to The Committee to Protect Journalists, the worldwide organization devoted to promoting freedom of the press.
The book, features 86 Charlie Hebdo editorial cartoons created by artists in Europe, the Middle East, The Americas, Australia, and Asia.
Cartoonists represented include Osama and Emad Haljaj from Jordan, Pang Li from China, and Pulitzer prize winning cartoonist Steve Sack from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The book features an introduction from Daryl Cagle, cartoonist and founder
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Don’t forget, girls and boys, we achieved gender equality in 1972, so ever since then feminism has been nothing but an extremist attempt to monopolize all the good things for women only.
But then how do you explain a discouraging pattern in how women and men are seen and evaluated?
… Read the restStudents tend to think their male professors are “geniuses,” while their female professors are “bossy,” a new interactive chart reveals. Using data from RateMyProfessors.com, a popular forum for griping or raving about classes, Benjamin Schmidt, a Northeastern University professor, was able to clearly map out students’ biases.
The chart breaks down reviews to sort which words are affiliated with each gender and discipline.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
