Butterflies and Wheels update
Ophelia Benson
New in "Latest News"
Nick Cohen on Labour’s scuttling of libel reform
Labour is prepared to destroy the hopes of all those who want to use the freedom of the web to argue and publish without fear of disproportionate punishment.
Filed: February 24, 2013
189 cases of measles reported in South Wales
"Measles is an illness that can kill, or leave patients with permanent complications including severe brain damage, and the only protection is two doses of the MMR vaccination."
Filed: February 28, 2013
Anti-gay Muslim cleric’s Reading university talk cancelled
Adam Goodkin, of the Atheist Humanist Secularist Society at the university, which had planned to protest, said: "We're firm believers in freedom of expression and free speech."
Filed: February 28, 2013
Dhaka: 5 arrested in murder of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haidar
All 5 are students at North South University and all confessed to involvement, police say.
Filed: March 2, 2013
A feminist film critic defends the Onion’s tweet
"It seemed completely obvious to me that the butt of the joke here is people who say such things about women."
Filed: March 2, 2013
EllenBeth Wachs on life as an atheist activist
"Two years ago today, I opened my front door to see a SWAT team standing there."
Filed: March 3, 2013
Cardinal says oops, sorry
He admitted his sexual conduct had “fallen beneath the standards expected of me” and asked forgiveness from those he had “offended.”
Filed: March 3, 2013
Examples of ‘nasty pushback’ against some atheist/skeptic feminists
Michael Nugent documents the slyme pit's way of talking about enemy women and asks a probing question.
Filed: March 3, 2013
Father tortures daughter, age 6, as a “witch”
She was beaten by her father and locked up in a room with her hands, mouth and face bound for four days.
Filed: March 5, 2013
Gaza marathon canceled because women not allowed to run
The UN Relief and Works Agency said it had taken the decision after "discussions with the authorities in Gaza who have insisted that no women should participate."
Filed: March 5, 2013
Katha Pollitt on PBS documentary “Makers”
There are plenty of ads and articles and talk show clips to remind us of how trivialized women were, and how exhilarating were what seem today like very modest steps.
Filed: March 7, 2013
Leo Igwe on humanist funerals in Nigeria
For humanists, a funeral ceremony is not a rite of passage for the deceased. A funeral is a celebration of a life lived, a life which has ended.
Filed: March 8, 2013
Global Malala Day to call for girls’ education
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, now a United Nations envoy for education, said the event would take place on Malala's 16th birthday on 12 July.
Filed: March 8, 2013
South Dakota law will allow teachers to carry guns
The law's backers say it will prevent mass school shootings.
Filed: March 8, 2013
Mob destroys Lahore neighborhood over “blasphemy”
The mob attacked the houses in the provincial capital following allegations of blasphemy against a Christian man.
Filed: March 9, 2013
Walkout in UCL over Gender Segregation at iERA event
The Islamic Education and Research Academy is an extreme Islamist organization, whose staff includes Islamist hate preachers such as Hamza Tzortzis and Yusuf Chambers.
Filed: March 10, 2013
UCL on gender segregation at iERA event
We do not allow enforced segregation on any grounds at meetings held on campus.
Filed: March 11, 2013
Skeptical Science on gender segregation at UCL event
Attendees were rather astonished to discover upon arrival that two doors had been set up, one strictly for females and the other for males.
Filed: March 11, 2013
The Guardian on gender segregation at UCL event
University College London said reports of segregation at the debate hosted by the Islamic Education and Research Academy on 9 March were worrying.
Filed: March 11, 2013
Gender segregation collects the girls for easy access
Three men arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and false imprisonment at an Islamic girls' school have links with the school, police said.
Filed: March 11, 2013
Segregation at UCL is no exception to the rule
Student Rights reports that several events at London universities have been advertised as "fully segregated."
Filed: March 11, 2013
Leo Igwe giving a talk in London March 25
Nigeria's most prominent humanist, and a human rights activist, will be giving a ground-breaking talk on 'Breaking the Taboo of Atheism in Black Communities'.
Filed: March 13, 2013
Allen Esterson on Maintaining Scholarly Standards
It is now quite widely believed that Mileva Maric, Einstein’s first wife, played an active role in Einstein’s early scientific work.
Filed: March 14, 2013
Soraya Chemaly on Steubenville and systematic tolerance for rape
Shame-based double standards make people think that girls who drink themselves blotto deserve what they "get".
Filed: March 14, 2013
Violence against women: legal reform is not enough
Making women's wellbeing secondary to "harmony in the home" and treating violence as a private matter are two obstacles to progress.
Filed: March 16, 2013
UN body agrees declaration on violence against women
A proposed amendment by Egypt, that would have allowed states to avoid implementing the declaration if they clashed with national laws, religious or cultural values, failed.
Filed: March 16, 2013
Cardinal says child rape is not a crime but an illness
"Now don't tell me that those people are criminally responsible." Therefore the church should conceal and protect their activities?
Filed: March 16, 2013
Another gang-rape in India
A Swiss couple were camping during a cycling trip when they were attacked by seven or eight men. The man was beaten and tied up while the woman was raped.
Filed: March 16, 2013
Imams meet to talk about domestic abuse
There are pressures which may lead women to believe that leaving their husband is wrong, because it is their duty to be obedient.
Filed: March 17, 2013
Man jailed for killing a teenager by setting him on fire
A gay teenager with Asperger's makes new friends, invites them to his birthday party, is bullied to death.
Filed: March 24, 2013
New in "Articles"
Shunning
By Marie-Thérèse O'Loughlin
There was one particular scrawny pigeon who, instead of vying for the nuts and the like that were strewn on the ground, had decided to constantly chase the other birds away, so that they wouldn’t get all the rich pickings.
Filed: March 9, 2013
Women’s Day versus Islam
By Jahanshah Rashidian
While March 8th was historically a secular symbol against the dominance of Catholic Church in the West, it is now rather a worldwide struggle against the misogyny of Islamic regimes and traditions, and the influence of Islamic Mosques all over the world where Muslims live.
Filed: March 12, 2013
New in "Notes and Comment Blog"
- Moral decisions
Filed: February 24, 2013 - Guest post: on the value in philosophical training
Filed: February 24, 2013 - Libel reform? What libel reform?
Filed: February 24, 2013 - A photo, taken from an up-skirt angle
Filed: February 24, 2013 - The bishops are devouring all the hospitals
Filed: February 24, 2013 - Secularist of the year
Filed: February 25, 2013 - Pax skepticana
Filed: February 25, 2013 - Everyone else seems afraid to say it
Filed: February 25, 2013 - We are told we are respected, and yet
Filed: February 26, 2013 - Do not directly or indirectly engage with dissenters
Filed: February 26, 2013 - Something happened
Filed: February 26, 2013 - People didn’t properly listen
Filed: February 27, 2013 -
Makers
Filed: February 27, 2013 - What you see
Filed: February 27, 2013 - Throw the rock overhand, like this
Filed: February 27, 2013 - The experimenter said “you should make some effort”
Filed: February 27, 2013 - Audible gasps in the Supreme Court’s lawyers’ lounge
Filed: February 27, 2013 - More news from Reading University
Filed: February 28, 2013 - Reading University is disappoint
Filed: February 28, 2013 - Reputation management instructions
Filed: February 28, 2013 - The wonders of anti-vaxxing
Filed: February 28, 2013 - It’s all so easy
Filed: February 28, 2013 - Oh that Resistance
Filed: March 1, 2013 - Lazy blogging. Bad writing.
Filed: March 1, 2013 - The two old muppets in the balcony
Filed: March 1, 2013 - Imagine
Filed: March 1, 2013 - Muppets are always boys
Filed: March 1, 2013 - How to read satire
Filed: March 2, 2013 - Bjarte Foshaug does layers of irony
Filed: March 2, 2013 - No thinking involved
Filed: March 2, 2013 - Go home, pineapple
Filed: March 2, 2013 - Who was that masked pineapple?
Filed: March 2, 2013 - One particular kind of harassment is “just a joke”
Filed: March 3, 2013 - Another “resistance movement”
Filed: March 3, 2013 - The cardinal tripped and fell below the standards
Filed: March 3, 2013 - Sarah Palin what now?
Filed: March 3, 2013 - Michael Nugent visits the slime pit
Filed: March 3, 2013 -
Dear Mark Zuckerberg,
Filed: March 4, 2013 - The status of women
Filed: March 4, 2013 - Leave it to Vacula
Filed: March 4, 2013 - “People trying make a name for themselves by posting fluff”
Filed: March 4, 2013 - She sees all
Filed: March 4, 2013 - Laudable aims?
Filed: March 4, 2013 - Can anyone explain?
Filed: March 4, 2013 - Crude examples of the genus Homo
Filed: March 4, 2013 - Locked up in a room with her hands, mouth and face bound for four days
Filed: March 5, 2013 - Mooney takes issue with Shermer’s claim
Filed: March 5, 2013 - A note on diminutives
Filed: March 5, 2013 - No marathon for Gaza
Filed: March 5, 2013 - They establish a pattern
Filed: March 5, 2013 - Pattern detection
Filed: March 5, 2013 - Guest post: Young, Sick, and Invisible
Filed: March 6, 2013 - Napoleon Chagnon talks to eSkeptic
Filed: March 6, 2013 -
Anything but a saint
Filed: March 7, 2013 - Some governments outlaw the very existence of atheists
Filed: March 7, 2013 - Floral shunning
Filed: March 7, 2013 - Another blogger attacked in Bangladesh
Filed: March 7, 2013 - Rules for shitheads
Filed: March 7, 2013 - Women over there please. No exceptions.
Filed: March 8, 2013 - Respect the wish
Filed: March 8, 2013 - I’m so sorry but I would like you to go sit over there
Filed: March 8, 2013 - 50 years of American atheism
Filed: March 8, 2013 - Ok now I’m really going to Women in Secularism 2
Filed: March 8, 2013 - “Ways of life must be preserved”
Filed: March 8, 2013 - Meet Rebecca Goldstein
Filed: March 8, 2013 - What about dentists?
Filed: March 8, 2013 - A large crowd from a nearby mosque
Filed: March 9, 2013 - No VAW Act for you
Filed: March 9, 2013 - It was about Reddit
Filed: March 9, 2013 - Some tweets from Krauss v Tzortzis
Filed: March 9, 2013 - “Don’t get involved – don’t speak – it’s pointless.”
Filed: March 9, 2013 - Yesterday at UCL
Filed: March 10, 2013 - More on yesterday at UCL
Filed: March 10, 2013 - Krauss says no
Filed: March 10, 2013 - A war on information now?
Filed: March 10, 2013 - Meet Kirk Sneade
Filed: March 10, 2013 - Child inmates flung themselves to the ground
Filed: March 10, 2013 - SMF asks Miliband to rethink his support for ritual genital cutting
Filed: March 10, 2013 - Press release on gender segregation at UCL event
Filed: March 10, 2013 - Guest post on the “debate” at UCL
Filed: March 11, 2013 - UCL on iERA event
Filed: March 11, 2013 - A large container of assorted girls
Filed: March 11, 2013 - This was not the first time
Filed: March 11, 2013 - A round-up of commentary on the UCL fiasco
Filed: March 11, 2013 - Hamza Tzortzis three years ago
Filed: March 11, 2013 - Takes 2 seconds
Filed: March 11, 2013 - Hard times for the bully business
Filed: March 11, 2013 - Imagine it was Mitt Romney
Filed: March 12, 2013 - LGBT rights are not un-African
Filed: March 12, 2013 - I agree with this sentiment
Filed: March 12, 2013 - Backward and in high heels
Filed: March 12, 2013 - Leo in London
Filed: March 13, 2013 - Yemisi Ilesanmi on “other grounds”
Filed: March 13, 2013 - Jesus and Mo on trying to explain
Filed: March 13, 2013 -
Plus ça change
Filed: March 13, 2013 - “We’ll follow whatever the church says”
Filed: March 13, 2013 - Oh gee the cardinals made a booboo
Filed: March 13, 2013 - Pick a country with a military junta in its recent past
Filed: March 13, 2013 - Con du jour
Filed: March 13, 2013 - The prospects for Francis
Filed: March 14, 2013 - Told that security would remove him from the premises
Filed: March 14, 2013 - Meet our speakers
Filed: March 14, 2013 - Personnel
Filed: March 14, 2013 - Tzortzis is on the schedule
Filed: March 14, 2013 - iERA Investigates
Filed: March 14, 2013 - I can apostasize if I want to, and so can you
Filed: March 14, 2013 - “We have no money to escape.”
Filed: March 15, 2013 - The Muslim Brotherhood says NO to equality for women
Filed: March 15, 2013 - Lying for Mo
Filed: March 15, 2013 - Good enough to be an acolyte
Filed: March 15, 2013 - Venomous swish of skirt
Filed: March 15, 2013 - Little room
Filed: March 15, 2013 - What to do when somebody hands you a woman’s body
Filed: March 15, 2013 - Dehumanized prey
Filed: March 15, 2013 - Harmonious households
Filed: March 16, 2013 - Facebook tells a whopper
Filed: March 16, 2013 - How to move on and rise above and ignore
Filed: March 16, 2013 - At the Fountainhead Gallery
Filed: March 16, 2013 - Surely that’s a legitimate difference of opinion
Filed: March 16, 2013 - God demands that password
Filed: March 16, 2013 - QED panel on god belief
Filed: March 17, 2013 - Steubenville: Richmond and Mays found guilty
Filed: March 17, 2013 - They didn’t realize?
Filed: March 17, 2013 - Not as tidy as Physioproffe’s
Filed: March 17, 2013 - The dog is ok
Filed: March 17, 2013 - Jumping up to get a better view
Filed: March 17, 2013 - Mitch McConnell slays them in Vegas
Filed: March 17, 2013 -
If you don’t want to be treated like one…
Filed: March 17, 2013 - UCL looks the other way
Filed: March 18, 2013 - That’s libel
Filed: March 18, 2013 - A nice vacation in an Egyptian jail
Filed: March 18, 2013 - This product is an absurdity
Filed: March 18, 2013 - You’re making this much too complicated
Filed: March 18, 2013 - Rather than leave her in a ditch somewhere
Filed: March 19, 2013 - Risk ridicule
Filed: March 19, 2013 - Meanwhile in Birmingham
Filed: March 19, 2013 - A new book bag, a new uniform
Filed: March 19, 2013 - Classic: threaten the victim
Filed: March 19, 2013 - Hi Fred, have some pretty colors
Filed: March 19, 2013 -
She’s back
Filed: March 20, 2013 - Already covered
Filed: March 20, 2013 - The Earth’s first interstellar species
Filed: March 20, 2013 - The advertisement depicts this nation as Sodom and Gomorra
Filed: March 20, 2013 - What’s on in London
Filed: March 20, 2013 - You’ll never believe
Filed: March 20, 2013 - How to fertilize the salad
Filed: March 21, 2013 - Cameron goes all out for theocracy
Filed: March 21, 2013 - Vile and hateful in all the ways we’ve come to expect
Filed: March 21, 2013 - Amina Filali
Filed: March 21, 2013 - LSE students twin with theocracy
Filed: March 21, 2013 - Page o’ nonstop monitoring and harassment
Filed: March 22, 2013 - A press release from American Atheists
Filed: March 22, 2013 - 250,000 children were removed
Filed: March 22, 2013 - She should have just had a dialogue with them
Filed: March 22, 2013 - Is that an air freshener or are you just watching women pee?
Filed: March 22, 2013 - Detailed sexual commentary was part of the “feedback”
Filed: March 22, 2013 - It’s uncanny!
Filed: March 23, 2013 - More things that look like Jesus
Filed: March 23, 2013 - Who is more mainstream?
Filed: March 23, 2013 - A missionary
Filed: March 23, 2013 - Seeing Jesus everywhere
Filed: March 23, 2013 - Maryam and Nahla and Gita and Leo
Filed: March 24, 2013 - And the winners are
Filed: March 24, 2013 - Read better
Filed: March 24, 2013 - It is revelation to that person only
Filed: March 24, 2013 - Foote was defying a longstanding taboo
Filed: March 24, 2013