Butterflies and Wheels update

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Ophelia Benson

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Aug 3, 2012, 2:51:42 PM8/3/12
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Golly, is it August already?

Have a B&W update.

New in "Latest News"

Carl Zimmer explains chromosome fusion
And joins Nick Matzke in trying to explain it to creationists on Facebook.
Filed: July 20, 2012

Lawsuit charges “repressed memories” were planted
Three women now charge they were brainwashed at a St. Louis-area psychiatric  facility into believing that they had repressed memories of childhood sexual  abuse.
Filed: July 20, 2012

Creationism in Keswick
Alex Gabriel finds a Noah's Ark display. It has charts and explanations and everything, very sciencey.
Filed: July 21, 2012

Women Under Siege on rape as a weapon of war
In Libya, rape is seen as an assault on a family and a community’s honor, not just a crime against an individual.
Filed: July 22, 2012

Giles Fraser on being a communitarian, not a liberal
"What I take to be the essence of liberalism is a belief that individual freedom and personal autonomy are the fundamental moral goods." Nope.
Filed: July 22, 2012

Pakistan: UN polio doctor shot, critically injured
Pakistan is one of only three remaining countries where polio is still endemic. The others are Afghanistan and Nigeria.
Filed: July 22, 2012

Why is the world ignoring Burma’s Rohingya?
Buddhist attacks on the Rohingya Muslims in Burma have picked up over the last few weeks following the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman in May.
Filed: July 23, 2012

Nick Cohen on FGM and the racism of the respectable
Beyond continuing a barbaric tradition - and one should never underestimate the appeal of doing what has always been done - FGM ensures that women remain the property of men.
Filed: July 24, 2012

Alexander Cockburn 1941-2012
Cockburn pioneered the persona for which Hitchens became better known: the Oxford leftie litterateur/journalist who said what his bland Yank counterparts lacked the wit to utter on their own.
Filed: July 24, 2012

Steven Novella warns of sports-related pseudoscience
Don’t believe the hype, don’t believe in magic, be skeptical of claims for scientific support, and don’t waste money on expensive versions of products.
Filed: July 25, 2012

Josephine Jones on an appalling ‘alkaline’ diet plug in the Mail
The claims are unsubstantiated, and they make no sense. Nice work, Mail on Sunday.
Filed: July 25, 2012

Somalia: Dr Hawa Abdi nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
She has saved tens of thousands of lives in her hospital, while providing an education to hundreds of displaced children at the Waqaf-Dhiblawe school.
Filed: July 27, 2012

Disinformation about Burma’s Muslim “cleansing”
The pictures are of earthquake victims.
Filed: July 27, 2012

Catherine Bennett says circumcision is bad too
Secular circumcision has been declining in Britain in the decades since doctors ceased to extol its allegedly "hygienic" effects, much cherished by Victorians.
Filed: July 27, 2012

Teenager denied chemo because she is 10 weeks pregnant
A 16-year-old in the Dominican Republic has been denied chemotherapy for acute leukemia because the aggressive treatment could kill her fetus.
Filed: July 28, 2012

Imam who tried to strangle daughter gets no jail time
At Manchester Crown Court yesterday Abid Hussain was convicted of assault and making threats to kill, received a suspended sentence of nine months.
Filed: July 28, 2012

Are climate sceptics more likely to be conspiracy theorists?
The link between endorsing conspiracy theories and rejecting climate science facts suggests that the libertarian instinct to reject the mainstream is key.
Filed: July 28, 2012

Kyle Sandilands isn’t going to change
An organisation which earns millions isn't going to become less sexist or "edgy" when there's no profit in doing so.
Filed: July 29, 2012

Philosophers propose boycott of all-male conferences
“One non-trivial way in which the status quo replicates and reinforces itself is through conferences and edited volumes that have only male, invited keynote-speakers."
Filed: July 29, 2012

Xian School rejects toddler because his fathers are gay
The rejection letter said the school is private and thus exempt from "excessive government interference in matters of religion."  It will get $60,000+ from feds this year.
Filed: July 30, 2012

A big celebration of patriarchal tradition
Taslima Nasreen on the festival of Raksha Bandhan or the bond of protection. Sisters pray for brothers; brothers promise to protect sisters.
Filed: July 30, 2012

Pussy riot rockers could get 7 years in prison
They pleaded not guilty to the official charges of hooliganism driven by "religious hatred" for performing a punk prayer in Moscow's main cathedral.
Filed: July 30, 2012

Laurie Penny and Martin Robbins on talking to men about sexism
So what you’re saying is that men are socialised to feel bad if they don’t participate in a culture that hurts and objectifies women?
Filed: July 31, 2012

Saudi Arabia pitches hijab fit at Olympics
The International Judo Federation said Wojdan Shaherkani must fight without the hijab for safety reasons, so the Saudis threatened to withdraw her.
Filed: July 31, 2012

Turkish women march for abortion rights
Renewed debate over abortion rights in Turkey has women wondering whether gender equality is being left behind.
Filed: July 31, 2012

“Adulterous” couple stoned to death in northern Mali
Witnesses said the couple were buried up to their necks, then pelted with stones until they died.
Filed: July 31, 2012

Mali government denounces stoning as ‘dark-age practice’
The hardline Islamists on Sunday placed an unmarried couple in holes in the ground and stoned them to death in front of about 200 people.
Filed: July 31, 2012

Gore Vidal 1925-2012
He could always be counted on for a spur-of-the-moment aphorism, putdown or sharply worded critique of American foreign policy.
Filed: August 1, 2012

NY Times on sexual harassment in online gaming
“We are a real mass medium, and we have a real effect on the culture. We have to take a step beyond this idea that nothing we could possibly do could hurt people.”
Filed: August 2, 2012

Jim Underdown on hatred, threats, harassment directed at women
"Maybe we can save the witty jabs for our real enemies like Sylvia Browne, homeopathy, and Power Balance Bracelets."
Filed: August 2, 2012

Pakistan: girl, 13, tortured to death in “exorcism”
Her parents had taken the girl to the pir ‘to evict djinns who had possessed her’.  Her skin was burnt with a hot iron rod and she was suffocated.
Filed: August 2, 2012

Jared Diamond on Romney’s misunderstanding of his book
Will Romney continue to espouse one-factor explanations for multicausal problems, and fail to understand history and the modern world? Probably.
Filed: August 2, 2012

Germany: Catholic bishop calls for blasphemy law
“Those who injure the souls of believers with scorn and derision must be put in their place and in some cases also punished," he said.
Filed: August 2, 2012

New in "Articles"

Inciting Hatred and Violence in the Name of Witchcraft
By Leo Igwe
The activities of churches and prayer houses have been linked to the problem of witch hunting in the region, but very little has been done by local authorities to call these religious nuts to order.
Filed: July 23, 2012

I vs. hymen
By Evan Darraji
I'm the plowed one, and odd if I reject sex with my husband, and ordered in the house of obedience, and dominated, and share a husband with two, three, or four others in accordance with the Quran.
Filed: July 24, 2012

New in "Notes and Comment Blog"


That's it! Stay cool.

OB
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