After China, the worst offending nations were Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the US.… Read the rest
Serbia Apologizes for Srebrenica Massacre
Mar 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSerbia’s parliament voted to condemn the 1995 massacre of c. 8,000 Bosnians and apologize to the victims.… Read the rest
Catholic Church Practicing Unholy Art of Spin
Mar 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSay it’s old news. Blame someone else. Say up is down. Demonize gays. Blame the victims. Blow smoke.… Read the rest
Washington Post Asks: Should Pope Resign?
Mar 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo. He should remain while the profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution falls.… Read the rest
Hitchens Notes: the Pope is not Above the Law
Mar 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt is impossible to miss the calculated manner in which the predators used the authority of the confessional.… Read the rest
Not to be missed
Mar 30th, 2010 12:13 pm | By Ophelia BensonJosh Slocum suggested that I should flag up Alaina Podmorow’s retort to Melanie Butler’s article here, so that people who read just this page wouldn’t miss it. Good idea. So if you read this page and no other – well one, you’re a chump, because the front page is updated every day, so you’re missing news items and the occasional Flashback goody as well as a lot of very good articles – but two, don’t miss Alaina’s piece. Alaina is 13, she founded Little Women for Little Women in Afghanistan when she was 9, she has raised a lot of money for women in Afghanistan and has seen the money matched by the Canadian government. She doesn’t agree with … Read the rest
‘Contrarian’ Spiked Joins Defenders of Church
Mar 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt wasn’t that bad, and besides, new atheists, ew.… Read the rest
‘Hutaree’ Militia and Rise of Far-right Violence
Mar 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDisingenuous for mainstream purveyors of incendiary far-right rhetoric to say there are ‘crazies on both sides.’… Read the rest
More Props for Alaina Podmorow
Mar 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd a rebuke for Canadian universities.… Read the rest
Terry Glavin Cheers On Alaina Podmorow
Mar 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSchoolgirl crushes ‘post-colonial feminist theory’ that attacks feminists who do real work for their living sisters in Afghanistan.… Read the rest
Nick Cohen on Defending Violent Misogyny
Mar 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHow it becomes politically reputable to ignore the suffering of others.… Read the rest
Pharisee? Moi?
Mar 29th, 2010 5:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd now, for a different take on the whole ‘why are you telling atheists to shut up when we’ve barely had time to open our mouths?’ question, we can consider how these things should be done. With a little panache, that’s how.
… Read the rest[F]reethought thrives on contrarian impulses. The whole “Who says so?” attitude of many secular humanists leads to purist rigor, one-upsman-ship, even soteriology: The God I don’t believe in is bigger than the God you don’t believe in. The harm religion did me was more serious than the harm religion did you. The full-frontal unbelief I represent is truer and purer than the unbelief you’re espousing. Reason saves, faith enslaves. (That’s pretty good: try it on a
Joe sticks it to the man
Mar 29th, 2010 5:11 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe pope is such a rad rebellious dude – he doesn’t take any shit from anybody, you know? He’s his own man. He makes up his own mind. He doesn’t let the vulgar herd tell him what to say or do or think. Odi profanum et proceo kind of thing.
Addressing crowds in St Peter’s square during a Palm Sunday service, the pope did not directly mention the scandal spreading though Europe and engulfing the Vatican, but alluded to it during his sermon. Faith in God, he said, led “towards the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion”.
Yeah, man! Sing it! The pope is like Holden Caulfield or somebody – fighting … Read the rest
Greta Christina Says Thanks for the Advice
Mar 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘I have yet to see a believer advise the atheist movement to speak up more loudly and more passionately.’… Read the rest
Neo-humanism or Atheism
Mar 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe whole ‘Who says so?’ attitude of many secular humanists leads to purist rigor, one-upsman-ship, even soteriology.… Read the rest
Jack of Kent on the Church and the Criminal Law
Mar 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy do we still seem to have this bizarre medieval duality of secular law and “canon law”?… Read the rest
Pope is a ‘Head of State’ So He Has Immunity
Mar 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Vatican claims it is protected by a US law which prohibits lawsuits against foreign countries.… Read the rest
Catholic Priests Are Not the Only Child Rapists
Mar 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The reality remains that children are most at risk in their own homes. Yet we don’t demonise fathers.’… Read the rest
Silence of the Vatican on Rwanda is Contempt
Mar 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe church can let those African bodies remain buried, dehumanised and unexamined.… Read the rest
Human Rights Watch and Selective Monitoring
Mar 29th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy put such effort into publicising alleged human-rights violations in some countries but not others? … Read the rest