Butterflies and Wheels update

9 views
Skip to first unread message

Ophelia Benson

unread,
Oct 4, 2012, 7:28:28 PM10/4/12
to butterflies...@googlegroups.com
Hello. Is it October already? Gosh - time for another B&W update.
 

New in "Latest News"

Rushdie on religious extremism v free expression
"If you look at the way in which free expression is being attacked by religious extremism, it's blasphemy, heresy, insult, offence - it's this medieval vocabulary."
Filed: September 17, 2012

Erdoğan: “Islamophobia” is a crime against humanity
Erdoğan said the government will immediately start working on legislation against blasphemous and offensive remarks.
Filed: September 17, 2012

Iran renews the fatwa on Salman Rushdie
Iran has seized on the current movie-rage to revive the death threat against Rushdie, raising the reward for killing him by $500,000.
Filed: September 17, 2012

California: acupuncture as ‘essential’ health care?
Acupuncture, “for the treatment of nausea or as part of a comprehensive pain management program,” is included with a $30 copay per visit.
Filed: September 17, 2012

Judge throws out Wisonsin anti-union law
A Wisconsin judge on Friday struck down nearly all of the state law that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers.
Filed: September 17, 2012

Rage boys rage in Afghanistan, Indonesia
Student protesters were also mobilized to denounce the film in Iran, where Khamenei blamed the West’s “Islamophobic policies of arrogance and Zionism.”
Filed: September 17, 2012

How To Exclude Women Without Really Trying
One way is to say let's get more women into programming because that will make it more attractive for the men.
Filed: September 17, 2012

IHEU condemns faith-based violence
At the 21st session of the UN Human Rights Council Sept 12, Roy Brown read a text by Leo Igwe, pointing out discrimination, oppression and violence against the non-religious.
Filed: September 18, 2012

Tea Party even less popular than atheists!
The Tea Party ranks “dead last” in a CBS poll, after even atheists.
Filed: September 18, 2012

Romney’s contempt for the 47%
They depend on government, they think they're victims, they pay no income tax, it's not Romney's job to worry about them.
Filed: September 18, 2012

Mo finds The Onion Islamophobic
Because it doesn't make a joke about Islam.
Filed: September 19, 2012

CFI says global blasphemy laws are a terrible idea
"There is no reason to extend protections to beliefs, the reputations of figures dead for millennia, or the feelings of religious believers."
Filed: September 19, 2012

“They’re just words”
Indeed, just the verbal incantations of power, like law and code and everything else that made the world.
Filed: September 19, 2012

Child ‘marriages’ and Sharia courts: It must end now
There is growing evidence that young children – some as young at 5 years old – are being “married” to older men in Sharia courts across Britain.
Filed: September 19, 2012

Parents plead guilty in faith healing death of son
The boy, 16, died in pain from a burst appendix; his parents prayed instead of getting medical treatment.
Filed: September 19, 2012

David Robert Grimes on homeopathy
It’s a good rule of thumb that any treatment that would have to violate the laws of physics to be viable is probably unlikely to be biologically effective
Filed: September 19, 2012

Deeyah’s film about “honour” killing of Banaz Mahmod
Produced and directed by Deeyah, this documentary chronicles the brutal murder of Banaz Mahmod in suburban London in 2006, killed and “disappeared” by her own family.
Filed: September 20, 2012

Demands for global “blasphemy” law must be resisted
The uproar over ‘Innocence of Muslims’ video is incredibly convenient and timely for OIC countries still bent on introducing an international ‘blasphemy’ law.
Filed: September 20, 2012

Australia: Catholic Church admits child sex abuse
Campaigners say the true number of abuse victims could be up to 10,000.
Filed: September 22, 2012

Pakistan minister offers bounty to kill film-maker
"I announce today that this blasphemer who has abused the holy prophet, if somebody will kill him, I will give that person a prize of $100,000," the railways minister said.
Filed: September 22, 2012

The horrors of “conversion therapy”
"I was doing something spiritually and morally wrong that I would be punished for in the afterlife. And so there was a lot of fear and terrible desperation."
Filed: September 22, 2012

Rimsha’s family are under threat
"A lot of people had gathered," Rimsha's sister said, "and they were saying: 'We will cut off the hands of the people who burned the Koran.'"
Filed: September 23, 2012

Rushdie talks about his memoir of the fatwa years
Raising their voices against known enemies is precisely what writers have done honorably throughout the history of literature.
Filed: September 24, 2012

Greece: man arrested for “blaspheming” a monk
Unconfirmed reports say Golden Dawn agitated for his arrest and the government complied. #FreeGeronPastitsios
Filed: September 24, 2012

Pakistani politician calls on US to ban blasphemy
The government declared this Friday a national holiday and named it ‘Love of the Prophet Day.’
Filed: September 24, 2012

Petition Greek parliament to free ‘Geron Pastitsios’
And to abolish Greek anti-blasphemy laws.
Filed: September 24, 2012

SPLC on misogyny on the Internet
Many of the articles that appear at Itsguycode.com under the heading “Women’s Studies” and “Whiny Feminists” are overtly political — and grossly misogynistic.
Filed: September 26, 2012

The rise of the atheist pendant
It started with the "evolve fish" in 1992, and now includes pendants by Amy Roth of Surlyramics and Rachelle Wirfs of ArtAfire.
Filed: September 26, 2012

Oklahoma has a blasphemy law
Representative Randy Grau intends to file legislation that would repeal the blasphemy law in the upcoming legislative session.
Filed: September 26, 2012

Mona Eltahawy arrested for defacing “savage” poster
The poster states: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man." Mona spraypainted it.
Filed: September 26, 2012

Catholic priest bans yoga from church hall
Because it's "spiritual," not just lolling around on mats.
Filed: September 26, 2012

Greg Lukianoff notes: We Are All Blasphemers
We are quick to forget that all of us hold beliefs that are rejections of sacred cows of the past, present, or future.
Filed: September 26, 2012

Austin Dacey on blasphemy fusses
Those who study the history of blasphemy laws are condemned to repeat themselves: These laws don't work.
Filed: September 26, 2012

Soraya Chemaly on Facebook’s misogyny problem
Facebook has a "12-Year-Old Slut Memes" page which posts photographs of girls and women so that others can comment on their sluttiness.
Filed: September 27, 2012

Saudi detains Nigerian women on hajj without male boss
Nigeria has suspended all Hajj flights to Saudi Arabia after the authorities there deported more than 170 women who had arrived without a male escort.
Filed: September 27, 2012

Tunisia: cops accused of rape accuse victim of ‘indecency’
There is widespread outrage after 27-year-old victim was summoned by the investigating judge to face chargers of "indecency" from the two men accused of raping her.
Filed: September 27, 2012

Lahore judge orders police to charge everyone with blasphemy
Everyone. YouTube, Google, everyone.
Filed: September 27, 2012

Afghan burqa-opponent wins Swedish rights prize
Afghan human rights activist, ex-minister and burqa opponent Sima Samar won the Swedish Right Livelihood Award honouring those who work to improve the lives of others.
Filed: September 27, 2012

India: woman beaten to death for practising ‘black magic’
A man beat K Jamuna to death because he suspected she practised some witchcraft on a teenager son of his close relative.
Filed: September 27, 2012

Mars Curiosity Rover finds evidence of flowing water
The finding is based on the presence of rounded pebbles and gravel near the rover's landing site in Gale Crater.
Filed: September 27, 2012

Catherine Deveny on the dangers of being outside
Men are far more likely to cop violence on the street. So why is no one telling them not to walk alone? Don't tell me not to walk alone at night. Tell people not to rape and kill.
Filed: September 27, 2012

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on surviving rage over “blasphemy”
Having renounced Islam and openly criticized its political manifestations, she was condemned to a life cordoned off from the rest of society.
Filed: September 27, 2012

Morsi tells New York Times he is a cultural relativist
He says the US must respect the Arab world’s history and culture, even when that conflicts with Western values.
Filed: September 27, 2012

Obama haters now calling his mother a whore
A pseudo-documentary that slimes Ann Dunham is being mailed to swing-state voters, while D'Souza's book essentially calls her a fat slut.
Filed: September 28, 2012

What is SlutWalk London doing backing Julian Assange?
SlutWalk London has inadvertently lined itself (and its unwitting supporters) up with an unappealing gaggle of rape apologists and victim blamers.
Filed: September 28, 2012

Report on the Creation Evidence Expo in Indianapolis
They have a funny idea of what "evidence" means.
Filed: September 28, 2012

More on “Elder Pastitsios” and blasphemy laws in Greece
Four days before the arrest, MP Christos Pappas from the neo-nazi Golden Dawn party had brought the page to the attention of the justice minister.
Filed: September 28, 2012

Stop calling criticism of Islam ‘Islamophobia’
One doubts that a formulation like “Infidelophobia” will gain traction anytime soon.
Filed: September 29, 2012

Iran state media fooled by The Onion
Fars News Agency, a semi-official mouth piece of the Iranian regime, earnestly published a word-for-word duplicate of an article from the Onion.
Filed: September 29, 2012

No Jesus Christ Superstar for Rostov
Orthodox Christians complained, so that was that.
Filed: September 29, 2012

Woman prosecuted for “letting” her children’s father stab them
The father stabbed every member of his family before killing himself with the knife.
Filed: September 30, 2012

Protesters torch Buddhist temples over FB photo
Hundreds of Muslims in Bangladesh burned at least four Buddhist temples and 15 homes after complaining that a Buddhist man had insulted Islam.
Filed: September 30, 2012

Katha Pollitt notes that blasphemy is good for you
The rise of the Russian Orthodox church in the former Soviet Union shows that Islam has no monopoly on religious freakouts or their exploitation for political purposes.
Filed: September 30, 2012

Pakistan: Muslims charged with “blasphemy”
Protesters attacked the Sri Krishna Ram temple, broke religious statues, tore up a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, and beat up the temple's caretaker.
Filed: October 1, 2012

Eric Hobsbawm 1917-2012
An unrepentant Marxist, he acknowledged the failure of 20th Century communism but said he had not given up on Marxist ideals.
Filed: October 2, 2012

Washington Post reports on Secular Coalition lobbying
"Rogers, in a glittery gold blouse and knee-high boots with four-inch heels..." Say what?
Filed: October 2, 2012

Ikea apologizes for airbrushing women out of catalogue
"We are now reviewing our routines to safeguard a correct content presentation from a values point-of-view in the different versions of the Ikea catalogue worldwide," it said.
Filed: October 2, 2012

Soldiers forced to attend prayer for suicide prevention
The students were not given an opportunity to remove themselves. The entire theater was forced into a mass christian prayer.
Filed: October 2, 2012

Jury finds Deanna DeJesus guilty of child neglect
Mistrial on aggravated manslaughter charge for failing to prevent her heavily armed husband from killing their child.
Filed: October 3, 2012

Alt health mag threatens to sue Simon Singh
Singh offered to meet the distributors and introduce them to medical experts, but they declined and told him they had "sought legal advice."
Filed: October 3, 2012

From the people threatening to sue Simon Singh
Medical researcher and WDDTY contributor Joseph Hattersley says that the risk of cot deaths increases five-fold at times of geopathic stress.
Filed: October 3, 2012

Grape seeds cure all the things
Grape seeds have been pounced on by supplement makers for their health-boosting properties and potential to fight ageing, obesity, cancer and more.
Filed: October 3, 2012

New in "Articles"

Spare a thought for philosophy: An interview with A.C. Grayling
By Will Bordell
What makes Grayling tick is "the fact that the world is so rich in interest and in puzzles, and that the task of finding out as much as we can about it is not an endless task but certainly one which is going to take us many, many millennia to complete".
Filed: September 25, 2012

Combating Exorcism-related Abuses
By Leo Igwe
Torturing people believed to be possessed by evil spirits is immoral and criminal.
Filed: October 1, 2012

New in "Notes and Comment Blog"

There you go! Catch you next time, when more leaves have fallen.
 
OB
 
 
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages