Hitchens on Mel Gibson’s Catholic bigotry *

Jul 23rd, 2010 | Filed by

What he is issuing is the distilled violence, cruelty, and bigotry that stretches from the Crusades through the Inquisition to fascism.… Read the rest



Fox “News” forgot to question the source *

Jul 23rd, 2010 | Filed by

If you have no reason to trust the source, and you do have reasons not to, then don’t trust it.… Read the rest



Rahila Gupta on Amnesty’s smoke and mirrors *

Jul 23rd, 2010 | Filed by

One of Oxfam’s projects in India is headed by a BJP member, to the horror of local rights groups; AI could learn from this example.… Read the rest



UK to change law so that pope won’t be busted *

Jul 23rd, 2010 | Filed by

Justice Secretary wants changes to rules on universal jurisdiction, which allows individuals to be prosecuted for serious crimes.… Read the rest



How could anyone possibly have known?

Jul 23rd, 2010 12:41 pm | By

Salon has an amusing piece by Alex Pareene on what the pranks of Andrew Breitbart mean. First Pareene quotes Politico’s take on that:

Responsible people in power and in the mainstream media are only beginning to grapple with this new environment — in which facts hardly matter except as they can be used as weapon or shield in a nonstop ideological war. Do you dive into the next fact-lite partisan outrage — or do you stay out and risk looking slow, stupid or irrelevant? No one is close to figuring it out.

then points out

Actually, VandeHarris, lots of people figured this one out! It was really easy!

Does that remind you of anything? It reminds me of anything. … Read the rest



BioLogos and DI sponsor a symposium *

Jul 23rd, 2010 | Filed by

The speakers in the symposium include BioLogos president Darrel Falk and Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute.… Read the rest



What Breitbart’s trick teaches us *

Jul 23rd, 2010 | Filed by

That the Right has a strategy of stoking racist fears and that Democrats collapse instead of fighting back.… Read the rest



Andrew Breitbart is not hard to understand *

Jul 23rd, 2010 | Filed by

Lots of people figured it out! It was easy!… Read the rest



Jack of Kent on the integrity of Gillian McKeith *

Jul 22nd, 2010 | Filed by

The official Twitter account of Ms McKeith makes libelous accusations.… Read the rest



Ben Goldacre on a quandary *

Jul 22nd, 2010 | Filed by

What do you do, as a campaigner for libel reform, when a litigious millionaire calls you a liar?… Read the rest



When a “source” uses a journalist to perpetrate a fraud

Jul 22nd, 2010 12:37 pm | By

Several people (some via email rather than comments) have pointed out this observation of Glenn Greenwald’s in a letter at Salon:

I think it’d be worth it to sue [Andrew Breitbart] just to uncover his “source” who did the editing. “Journalists” are supposed to expose their “sources” if they use the journalist to perpetrate a fraud.

Ignore the part about suing, that’s not the issue here. The issue is the implicit claim that a fraudulent “source” does not deserve or have a right to remain anonymous and the explicit claim that journalists are supposed to expose such sources when they (the sources) use the journalist to propagate the fraud. The above-mentioned people note that this means Chris Mooney, being … Read the rest



The search for life’s ultimate meaning

Jul 22nd, 2010 11:11 am | By

Martha Nussbaum starts her discussion of burqa bans with her version of the justification for the free exercise clause of the US Constitution and freedom of religion in general. It’s a rather sentimental picture.

Let’s start with an assumption that is widely shared: that all human beings are equal bearers of human dignity.  It is widely agreed that government must treat that dignity with equal respect.   But what is it to treat people with equal respect in areas touching on religious belief and observance?

We now add a further premise: that the faculty with which people search for life’s ultimate meaning — frequently called “conscience” ─  is a very important part of people, closely related to their dignity.

The problem … Read the rest



Science in school is not just teaching facts *

Jul 22nd, 2010 | Filed by

Science lessons should equip students with critical thinking skills, the most important of which is to ask for evidence for truth-claims.… Read the rest



Iran pressuring Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani *

Jul 22nd, 2010 | Filed by

They are trying to make her name campaigners and tell her children to be quiet.… Read the rest



Vilsack, O’Reilly, Hannity wiping egg off faces *

Jul 22nd, 2010 | Filed by

They all took the faked video as Truth and jumped all over Shirley Sherrod.… Read the rest



Jack of Kent on Councillor Dixon and Scientology *

Jul 22nd, 2010 | Filed by

Reproduces the Ombudsman’s witless and illiberal response to the complainant, in all its glory.… Read the rest



Shall I compare thee to a brownie with walnuts?

Jul 21st, 2010 5:08 pm | By

Mona Eltahawy made a compelling point in a discussion of the burqa ban:

What really strikes me is that a lot of people say that they support a woman’s right to choose to wear a burqa because it’s her natural right. But I often tell them that what they’re doing is supporting an ideology that does not believe in a woman’s right to do anything. We’re talking about women who cannot travel alone, cannot drive, cannot even go into a hospital without a man with them. And yet there is basically one right that we are fighting for these women to have, and that is the right to cover their faces. To tell you the truth, I’m really outraged

Read the rest


Cowpathy can cure everything *

Jul 21st, 2010 | Filed by

Mix cow milk, urine, dung, butter and ghee, and you get shampoo and cancer medicine.… Read the rest



Mix information with vitriol

Jul 21st, 2010 4:28 pm | By

People are discussing the uses and abuses of irritation, or anger, or zeal, or dickishness, or baying for blood. This is prompted by a talk Phil Plait gave at The Amaz!ng Meeting a couple of weeks ago. He took an informal poll, Matt D tells us:

Let me ask you a question: how many of you here today used to believe in something — used to, past tense — whether it was flying saucers, psychic powers, religion, anything like that?…Not everyone is born a skeptic. A lot of you raised your hand. I’d even say most of you, from what I can tell.

Now let me ask you a second question: how many of you no longer believe in
Read the rest


Gibbs and Vilsack apologize to Sherrod *

Jul 21st, 2010 | Filed by

Gibbs says the facts changed. No, the facts didn’t change, your knowledge of the facts changed.… Read the rest