Butterflies and Wheels semi-annual update
Ophelia Benson
New in "Latest News"
Udo Schuklenk on the tortured logic of anti-cartoon laws
The trouble with religious freedom is that it is all too frequently misunderstood as the unrestricted freedom of the religious to run roughshod over everyone else.
Filed: June 17, 2012
Y U dispute shoddy science?
The Heritage Foundation is baffled by criticism of its flawed “same-sex parenting” study.
Filed: June 17, 2012
It’s Sunday so Boko Haram set off bombs in Nigeria
A local Red Cross worker told the Associated Press that at least 12 people had been killed and 80 injured in the attacks.
Filed: June 17, 2012
Polygamy in Islam: the women victims of multiple marriage
"You're supposed to keep your mouth shut and you're supposed to just carry on. It is impregnated into our culture."
Filed: June 17, 2012
UK: Helen Duncan was convicted as a witch in 1944
She was tried by jury at the Old Bailey and found guilty of contravening section 4 of the Witchcraft Act of 1735.
Filed: June 17, 2012
Nevers, France: parents sentenced for FGM
The mother got 18 months in prison, the father two years, for the genital mutilation of their four daughters. [story in French]
Filed: June 17, 2012
Canada’s laws against assisted suicide ruled unconstitutional
Justice Lynn Smith Smith ruled the law against assisted suicide denies physically disabled people the same rights as able-bodied people who can take their own lives.
Filed: June 17, 2012
School forbids 5th-grader to give marriage equality speech
Kameron Slade won a class competition and was supposed to give his speech school-wide, but his principal wouldn't allow it.
Filed: June 18, 2012
Karachi: mob tries to lynch man accused of blasphemy
Taimuria Police Station booked a man accused of desecrating a copy of the Koran, and a mob attacked the station.
Filed: June 18, 2012
Pakistani singer Ghazala Javed murdered
She fled the Swat valley when the Taliban took over. She and her father were killed by gunmen yesterday.
Filed: June 19, 2012
Saudi man beheaded for “sorcery”
The man was found in possession of books and talismans, the state news agency said.
Filed: June 19, 2012
Jesus explains the Vatican’s problems
With a little help from Ratzinger's consigliere.
Filed: June 20, 2012
Foreign Policy lists important women who tweet
Too bad it forgot the first time, and too bad about the pink tweetybird, but good to have a list.
Filed: June 20, 2012
Malaysian “charged” with selling Irshad Manji book
The government in the Muslim-majority country regularly bans books it considers threats to religious stability.
Filed: June 20, 2012
Uganda plans to ban 38 NGOs for “promoting homosexuality”
On Monday, police raided a gay rights conference being held at a hotel outside Kampala. Gay activists from around the region were detained for a few hours.
Filed: June 21, 2012
Southern Baptists resolve: gay rights are not civil rights
"Homosexuality does not qualify as a class meriting special protections, like race and gender." Izzat so.
Filed: June 21, 2012
Candace Chellew-Hodge gives the SBC what-for
"The SBC can’t seem to understand that these sorts of resolutions are at the very heart of the continuing violence and discrimination against gay and lesbian people."
Filed: June 21, 2012
Measles outbreak at Steiner school
Oops.
Filed: June 22, 2012
School principal gets death threats over goddy song
Principal Greta Hawkins ditched "God Bless the USA" for kindergarten graduation, so now she's being called foul names on Twitter.
Filed: June 22, 2012
Conflict over science-textbook revisions in South Korea
Dayk Jang, who is organizing a group of experts to counter the creationist campaign, says that many local scientists do not know how serious the battle is.
Filed: June 23, 2012
CFI writes a letter to the Indonesian ambassador
To demand the immediate release of Alexander Aan, who has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for allegedly “spreading information inciting religious hatred and animosity.”
Filed: June 23, 2012
Anti-Mormon “bias” unchanged since 1967
So he believes in the golden plates, so what. What could possibly go wrong?
Filed: June 23, 2012
India: father beheads daughter
A father cut off his daughter’s head and paraded it around their village after becoming enraged over her relationships with men, police in Rajasthan said.
Filed: June 26, 2012
Dave Silverman on O’Reilly Report
Host Laura Ingraham is surprised to hear that he doesn't want to turn the US into an anti-religious nation. Really?! Yes really.
Filed: June 26, 2012
Austin Dacey on Edamaruku and religious “hurt feelings”
The legal standard of intentional outrage of religious feelings lets the state determine which contestable moral and religious beliefs are more worthy of protection.
Filed: June 26, 2012
Sanal Edamuruku is in Helsinki
So he is safe from indefinite detention. He and his lawyers are contesting the charges.
Filed: June 26, 2012
German court outlaws religious circumcision
The regional court in Köln ruled that the “fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents.”
Filed: June 26, 2012
Karachi: life as a prisoner accused of blasphemy
Sitting in a small cell at the Karachi Central Jail, a skinny man screams for help every 10 minutes. “Please, don’t kill me,” he cries, when someone enters the room.
Filed: June 26, 2012
Sexually assaulting Lara Croft
It often feels as though women can’t win when it comes to fighting sexism within gaming: you’re either derided as a “girl gamer” or decried as a feminist bore.
Filed: June 27, 2012
Do Jesus and Mo wrestle with their feelings about gay sex?
No! Yuck!
Filed: June 27, 2012
New rules on who curtsies to whom
No really, there are rules about it. It's very important.
Filed: June 27, 2012
Hilary Mantel is not a fan of the Catholic church
"When I was a child I wondered why priests and nuns were not nicer people. I thought that they were amongst the worst people I knew."
Filed: June 27, 2012
CFI New York to protest jailing of Alexander Aan
- Starts Friday, July 6th 2012 at 12:30 pm. Ends Friday, July 6th 2012 at 2:00 pm. Location: Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, 5 East 68th Street, Manhattan
Filed: June 27, 2012
Atheist acceptability on the rise in the US
Since secularity is quite prevalent among young Americans, it is reasonable to think the vilification of the atheism will diminish over time.
Filed: June 28, 2012
International experts call for a ‘crime against free expression’
In response to the rise in attacks on journalists, bloggers, human rights defenders and others targeted for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
Filed: June 28, 2012
Jordan: rape victim, 14, forced to marry rapist
He kidnapped her and raped her repeatedly for 4 days - then he "agreed" to marry her to avoid jail. What a fabulous arrangement.
Filed: June 28, 2012
Anti-abortion ads in Dublin spark anger
The two posters, one featuring the face of a distraught woman and another showing a foetus, are captioned 'Abortion tears her life apart. There's always a better answer.'
Filed: June 28, 2012
The Dublin anti-abortion ads are wrong on the facts
Anti-abortion groups claim to support women, but they increase the suffering of women who have had abortions – the very women they ostensibly claim to help.
Filed: June 28, 2012
CFI announces policy on hostile conduct/harassment
Intimidation and harassment interfere with productive discussion and cordial interaction among conference participants, so they're out.
Filed: June 29, 2012
FFRF “quit the church” billboard annoys Fox News
The Catholic diocese of Dallas says it's offended. Well it would, wouldn't it.
Filed: June 29, 2012
What will Morsi mean for free speech?
Inex on Censorhips notes: many intellectuals, writers and artists worry that the sweeping tide of Islamism may lead to greater censorship and curb creativity and free expression.
Filed: June 29, 2012
An interview with Secular Woman
Religions can be very controlling and patriarchal toward women. For many, secularism and feminism can be so intertwined that they cannot be distinguished.
Filed: June 29, 2012
Journal of Neurophysiology looks at peer review and gender
If women are trusted as researchers, why do male-dominant panels outnumber female-dominant panels 15 to 1?
Filed: June 29, 2012
Washington Post on Secular Students of America
The SSA is helping to establish clubs for high school students to hang out with other teens who share their skepticism about the supernatural.
Filed: June 29, 2012
More vicious nonsense from Brendan O’Neill
Just imagine: some people think slicing off bits of an infant's genitalia for god is "abuse"! Did you ever?
Filed: June 29, 2012
Mali: Islamists plan to destroy world heritage sites
Ansar Eddine intends to destroy all the mausoleums in Timbuktu today. [in French]
Filed: June 30, 2012
Destruction of Timbuktu shrines has begun
Witnesses said Islamist fighters began attacking the shrines on Saturday morning, using shovels and pickaxes.
Filed: June 30, 2012
Deutsche Welle on destruction of Timbuktu sites
Timbuktu is home to three historic mosques as well as 16 cemeteries and mausoleums recognized by UNESCO, watchdog for some of history's most threatened cultural exhibits.
Filed: June 30, 2012
Khalid Mohd torched wife 1 to make space for wife 2
Rema Jamel asked him to help extend her visa; he said no, and told her she couldn't take her children back to Jordan, then doused her with lighter fluid and set her on fire.
Filed: June 30, 2012
New in "Notes and Comment Blog"
- The princess and the MCB
Filed: June 17, 2012 - It’s Sunday
Filed: June 17, 2012 - Some FTB peeps talking about TAM
Filed: June 17, 2012 - O Canada
Filed: June 17, 2012 - Not a plan but a background
Filed: June 17, 2012 - The screaming mob
Filed: June 18, 2012 - I finally have a pony
Filed: June 18, 2012 - #bullies
Filed: June 18, 2012 - The devil did it
Filed: June 18, 2012 - There’s a difference?
Filed: June 19, 2012 - I’m out
Filed: June 19, 2012 - Maureen Brian sets a few people straight
Filed: June 20, 2012 - Women who tweet
Filed: June 20, 2012 - My useful advice
Filed: June 20, 2012 - Plumbing instructions
Filed: June 20, 2012 - I get comments
Filed: June 21, 2012 - Accuses of promoting
Filed: June 21, 2012 - Very far
Filed: June 21, 2012 - Closing the file
Filed: June 21, 2012 - What is bullying
Filed: June 21, 2012 - No rights for you
Filed: June 21, 2012 - Yup, that would do it all right
Filed: June 22, 2012 - I would so subscribe
Filed: June 22, 2012 - As praised on Twitter
Filed: June 22, 2012 - Because of a song
Filed: June 22, 2012 - Happy 5th, CEMB
Filed: June 23, 2012 - What “we” know
Filed: June 23, 2012 - How to do civil disobedience
Filed: June 23, 2012 - A generation ago
Filed: June 23, 2012 - Eye runny
Filed: June 23, 2012 - The door opens just a little
Filed: June 24, 2012 - Dan Savage says it
Filed: June 24, 2012 - The flourishing of entrenched and vicious misogyny
Filed: June 24, 2012 - So much help, so unwanted
Filed: June 24, 2012 - More on Nussbaum’s book
Filed: June 24, 2012 - Solstice weekend
Filed: June 25, 2012 - Also, the sun rose and set during those weeks
Filed: June 25, 2012 - We hadn’t
Filed: June 25, 2012 - She said he said
Filed: June 25, 2012 - American Atheists issue a strong anti-harassment policy
Filed: June 26, 2012 - Hebden Bridge under water
Filed: June 26, 2012 - Which twin has the tragedy?
Filed: June 26, 2012 - The fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity
Filed: June 26, 2012 - American Atheists Announces Harassment Policy
Filed: June 26, 2012 - Down on your knee
Filed: June 27, 2012 - Enough to drive some of my friends from the game
Filed: June 27, 2012 - Why women can’t have nice things
Filed: June 27, 2012 - Amy said I could
Filed: June 27, 2012 - Since 2007
Filed: June 28, 2012 - Marry the nice rapist, dear
Filed: June 28, 2012 - Hello Secular Woman
Filed: June 28, 2012 - Falsehood in advertising
Filed: June 28, 2012 - A dangerous contempt
Filed: June 28, 2012 - We know they’re miserable – we made them miserable!
Filed: June 28, 2012 - Hostile conduct and intimidation
Filed: June 29, 2012 - How to rig everything in your own favor
Filed: June 29, 2012 - Chopping children for god is not abuse ok
Filed: June 29, 2012 - So get off Twitter. We see you are still on Twitter.
Filed: June 29, 2012 - At the end of Kasr El Nil bridge
Filed: June 29, 2012 - The disproportionate amount of attention it gives to sexism
Filed: June 29, 2012 - Stinking Islamists in Mali have destroyed Timbuktu shrines
Filed: June 30, 2012 - That’s not a Godwin, that’s a Wollstonecraft
Filed: June 30, 2012 - Everybody’s an expert
Filed: June 30, 2012 - The borg talks to itself
Filed: July 1, 2012 - Another afternoon
Filed: July 1, 2012 - There are also global standards
Filed: July 1, 2012