Kate Mayberry at Al Jazeera talks to the Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar.

Zulkiflee Sm Anwar Ulhaque, better known by his pen name of Zunar, is one of Malaysia’s most acerbic and controversial cartoonists, picking apart the government in a country where deference to those in power has long been the norm.

Well let’s get real – deference to those in power has long been the norm everywhere, or almost everywhere. What’s the point of power if you can’t use it to make underlings deferential?! It’s not some quaint eccentricity of Malaysia to make deference to those in power a norm. But over the past couple of centuries that norm has had a rival norm of egalitarianism to deal with, and as communication has become more and more global and instantaneous, it has become every more difficult to confine that genie to the bottle.

So Zunar is a cartoonist in a country where deference to those in power has long been the norm and the state still strongly enforces that norm.

Zunar is accused of producing cartoons that are detrimental to public order.

Zunar was formally charged this month with nine counts of sedition. He faces as many as 43 years in prison if found guilty. Out on bail ahead of the trial, he spoke to Al Jazeera about why he continues to draw.

Al Jazeera:You seem to have attracted more sedition charges than anyone else in Malaysia. Why do you carry on cartooning?

Zunar: For me talent is not a gift, it’s a responsibility. In facing a crisis you need to make a stand. You can’t keep quiet or try to be neutral, if neutral means you support an oppressive government.

Malaysia has been governed by the same political party for more than 58 years and people are getting restless.

I am a cartoonist. I use cartoons to push for reform. It’s a duty for me to do that. People say, ‘Why don’t you stop?’ Stop is a choice. Continuing is a choice. But this is not a choice. This is a duty. As an artist, I really think that’s important. The talent is God-sent. The talent is not mine. It is God’s gift and it comes with responsibility.

Courageous, isn’t he.

I wonder if the Garry Trudeaus of the world will line up to rebuke him for his courage and dedication and self-sacrifice.

No I don’t, not really. What I wonder is why they wouldn’t do that to him but would do it to Charlie Hebdo.

Al Jazeera:It’s hard to imagine now that there was a time before the internet. Do you think people appreciated back then just how important the internet would turn out to be?

Zunar: In Malaysia, Twitter and Facebook are not social media, they’re alternative media. People use it to exchange news and views. The growth is very fast because the situation of press freedom in Malaysia makes that happen. Whereas press freedom is going backwards, people are going forward.

The people’s mindset in this era is totally different than the ’70s and ’80s. They are more critical, more challenging and want to take part in debate. They want to talk about the issues.

Zuckerberg had no idea what he was starting.

Al Jazeera:There’s obviously a lot of focus on political cartooning now, following the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris.Can cartoonists sometimes go too far?

Zunar: Let me ask a question, if the Prophet Muhammad were still alive would he have ordered the cartoonists to be killed?

He would not. Prophet Muhammad would never have told us to do that.

You have a right not to agree with the content of the cartoon. Me, as a Muslim, I also don’t agree. But cartoonists have a right to draw what they draw, but sentiment and perspective is very subjective.

I’m the small scale of Charlie Hebdo. I’m being attacked by the Malaysian government. If they don’t agree with my cartoon fine, but don’t use criminal law against me. If you say my cartoons are defamatory, you can sue me. But why use criminal law to put me behind bars before the trial?

When it comes to Charlie Hebdo, it’s also like that. You didn’t give them a chance to explain themselves, you just went and shot them. Deal with it in a civilised manner. If you don’t agree, you can rebut it. It’s just a cartoon. So what?

Ah but “just a cartoon” can be a very powerful thing.

Strength to your pen hand, Zunar.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Via A Mighty Girl –

At the Paris Marathon last Sunday, Siabatou Sanneh of Gambia stood out from the other racers — in addition to her race number, she wore traditional Gambian garb and carried 45 pounds of water on her head. Sanneh, who had never left her home country before, participated in the marathon as part of an effort to raise awareness of the difficulties African women face in accessing clean water. While she walked the race, she also wore a sign that read: “In Africa, women travel this distance everyday to get potable water. Help us shorten the distance.”

Sanneh, a mother of four, lives in a small village of 300 people and started carrying water when she was five years old. Now, she and two of her daughters, 12-year-old Nyima and 20-year-old Mamina, carry water together: “I wake up in the morning, and go and collect water from a well. I have to walk 8 km (5 miles) there and back. I do this three times a day at least.” Each woman carries over 40 pounds of water on the return trip, wearing flip flops and often walking in extreme heat.

Sanneh was walking on behalf of Water For Africa, a charitable organization that’s working to draw attention for the need for bore-dug wells with water pumps, rather than the hand-dug wells that are common there. In Sanneh’s home country, Water For Africa estimates 200 to 300 water pumps would supply the needs of the whole population — an urgent need, since 40 to 60 percent of the current wells and pumping systems are deteriorating. Sanneh says, “I want them to help us dig bore holes, a sustainable water source, but not only more holes, I want more sustainable ones too. That’s all we need.”

While she couldn’t walk the full length of the marathon because “it was too long and the container on my head was too heavy,” Sanneh still captured the attention of people around the world. She’s pleased that her efforts have helped draw attention to the need for greater action to improve water access. For Sanneh, it would be a dream come true: “I don’t want my children and their children to be collecting water from the well when they are my age.”

To help support the building of boreholes in Gambia, visit The Marathon Walker, or learn more at Water for Africa.

An excellent novel that explores how the lack of access to potable water affects girls’ lives is “A Long Walk To Water,” for ages 9 to 14.

For two stories set in Africa which show how small changes can transform lives, check out “Beatrice’s Goat” for ages 4 to 8 and “Mimi’s Village: And How Basic Health Care Transformed It” for ages 6 to 9.

For more stories about the challenges faced by girls and women living in poverty, visit our “Poverty & Hardship” section.

And, for more true stories of inspiring girls and women who worked to change the world, visit our “Activist” section in Biographies.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Here’s something I didn’t know about Israel, via Failed Messiah:

Does Israel really have religious freedom?

Many observers believe it does not, and the country’s secular High Court of Justice showed again last week that those observers are correct when it ruled that official state rabbinical courts can blacklist women – but not men – they believe have committed adultery, putting their names on secret lists that  prevent them from marrying ‘pure’ Jews of unblemished linage and effectively preventing them from marrying at all.

In response to a petition filed against that blacklisting, Ha’aretz reported the High Court ruled that Israel’s haredi-controlled state chief rabbinate had sufficiently fixed the problems with the blacklist and, based on that it tossed out the petition filed against it by a woman who divorced in 2002 and only afterward found out that her name had been placed on that blacklist by a state the Rabbinical Court without her knowledge and without the ability for her and her alleged lover to present evidence against the move. Her petition was supported by women’s rights groups who all noted that only women (and any children they may have with a man who is not their husband) are subject to this blacklisting – not men who cheat on their wives.

That’s rather tangled. The High Court ruled that official state rabbinical courts can put women – and women only – on blacklists for having “committed adultery.” It sounds like the end of Mansfield Park, where Maria is sent off to live in outcast isolation because she “committed adultery.” The man went on his way rejoicing.

Petitioners argued that this blacklisting invades women’s privacy and undermines gender equality. Blacklisting also prevents women from forming a new family – a right Israeli law should protect, the petitioners claimed. They also argued state rabbinical courts are not legally allowed to rule on adultery issues when the divorce is, as was in this specific case, consensual.

But Israel is far closer to a theocracy than a democracy, and the claims of the woman and her supporters fell on the High Court’s nearly deaf ears.

This god thing is such a nuisance. It’s what some people came up with a long time ago, and we’re still stuck with it – which is ridiculous. Everything else is allowed to change as we change, our views change, technology changes, but the religious nonsense that traps and constrains so many people is stuck in amber.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

More on that mass drowning in the Mediterranean last night, from the CBC.

Italian prosecutors said a Bangladeshi survivor flown to Sicily for treatment told them 950 people were aboard, including hundreds who had been locked in the hold by smugglers. Earlier, authorities said a survivor told them 700 migrants were on board.

It wasn’t immediately clear if they were referring to the same survivor, and Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said authorities were “not in a position to confirm or verify” the death toll.

Locked in the hold. [shudder]

By nightfall Sunday, rescuers on 18 ships had found 28 survivors and “alas, 24 dead,” he said.

The premier of Malta, whose island nation participated in the search and rescue mission, put the number of survivors at 50 total.

Renzi said a total of 18 ships, including nearby commercial vessels pressed into service, were helping in the search mission. An Italian Navy helicopter carried one injured survivor to a hospital in Sicily.

…

The 20-meter vessel may have overturned because migrants rushed to one side of the craft late Saturday night when they saw an approaching Portuguese-flagged container ship, the King Jacob, which the Italian Coast Guard had dispatched to help them.

The ship was sent to the area in Libyan waters by Italy’s Coast Guard, and once the crew spotted the overloaded boat, it “immediately deployed rescue boats, gangway, nets and life rings,” a spokesman for the ship’s owner said in a statement.

Renzi praised the King Jacob, saying the ship “immediately went into action” on what would become its fifth recent rescue operation.

The ship was sent there to help, and its arrival may have caused the capsizing.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement Sunday that 219,000 people crossed the Mediterranean by sea and 3,500 died last year. This year, 35,000 asylum seekers and migrants have reached Europe so far and more than 900 are known to have died in failed crossings. Last week, 400 people were presumed drowned when another boat capsized.

The smugglers are capitalizing on the migrants’ desperation and taking advantage of chaos and violence in Libya, where rival militias, tribal factions and other political forces have destabilized the country since bloody end of the long dictatorship of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Not much of a spring.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Daesh is at it again, apparently. (I wouldn’t want Daesh suing me for defamation, now would I.) The Washington Post reports that they claim to have killed two groups of Christians.

Islamic State militants in Libya shot and beheaded two groups of Ethiopian Christians, a video purportedly from the extremists showed Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

…

The new 29-minute video showing captured Ethiopian Christians starts with what it called a history of Christian-Muslim relations and includes scenes of militants destroying churches, graves and icons.

“Despite the cross, we have returned,” the narrator says.

The video shows Islamic State militants marching their victims, in orange jumpsuits, along a coastline. The second group, dressed in black jumpsuits, is executed in the desert.

Mass murder is a war crime…but of course they don’t care about that, because they think they’re acting in the name of Allah or some such horsepiss.

A masked fighter says Christians must convert to Islam or pay a tax prescribed by the Koran.

“You will not have safety even in your dreams, until you accept Islam,” he says. “Our battle is a battle between faith and blasphemy, between truth and falsehood.”

If you win, the world will be hell. Acceptance of your Islam is acceptance of hell.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

One of those pictures that says more than a lot of words.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Maajid Nawaz pointed to an article about

Ohio school students asked to “cover” for a day in “solidarity” with “Muslims”. Thankfully cancelled. Where do I even begin?

The article, in the Washington Post, explains the idea:

A public high school in Mason, Ohio, has apologized for an event called the “Covered For a Day” that encouraged all girls to wear a hijab — a head scarf worn by Islamic women — as a cultural awareness activity.

The event was supposed to take place at the 830-student, high-performing school on Thursday, but has been canceled. It was sponsored by the Mason High School Muslim Student Association…

I have an idea. How about the Mason High School Haredi Student Association encourages all boys to refuse to sit next to girls in the cafeteria, as a cultural awareness activity?

How about the Mason High School Christian Student Association encourages all students to stage protests in science class demanding equal time for god, as a cultural awareness activity? How about all the school bullies encourage all students to take a beating in silence, as a cultural awareness activity?

Or, how about not?

Maajid elaborated on his view in a comment:

As a liberal, I disagree with the notion of women believing they must wear a hijab to be “good Muslims”, or “more pious”, or that it makes them somehow morally better in God’s eyes [compared] to women who do not wear it, and I disagree with promoting the hijab. However, also as a liberal I will defend the legal right of women to wear it, because dress is a personal matter, and have done so many times on TV (despite the same women failing to defend others’ rights to wear cartoons on their t-shirts) yet I maintain my legal and moral right to continue to speak out against this practice. This is because, there are still countries that enforce hijab on women as a matter of law, Saudi and Iran being two cases in point. There are also many more in which dressing “immodestly” is liable to male moral judgement (Pakistan, Egypt and many other developing countries), where sexual violence has sky-rocketed based on presumptions of female “immodest behaviour”. Finally, there are many dissenting Muslims and ex-Muslims who are persecuted for daring to be different the world over. The neo-orientalist assumption that “Muslim women” wear hijab, when so many Muslim women actually do not, must also be challenged. If it is not, it increases the peer pressure to conform to medieval-inspired dress codes. Until such practices are ended, I think that a “take your Hijab off” day would be more appropriate, and even then I would not propose it because it would place hijabi women on the spot, whose rights I also defend.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A fishing boat packed with an estimated 700 people capsized in the Mediterranean last night.

Bloomberg reports:

Italy and Malta immediately deployed navy and coast guard ships in an effort to rescue survivors. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Sunday that 28 bodies had been recovered and that the number is “bound to increase.” Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said 49 people had been rescued.

“If confirmed, this would be the largest tragedy ever in the Mediterranean involving migrants,” Muscat said in a telephone interview. “Nobody should be allowed to die this way.”

…

A Maltese military official, who asked not be identified, confirmed Italian news reports that about 700 migrants were on board when the boat left the Libyan port of Zuara. The official said the boat capsized about 61 nautical miles (113 kilometers) north of Libya late Saturday.

…

Italian news reports said the boat capsized when the passengers rushed to one side after spotting a merchant ship, in hopes of being rescued.

One of god’s little jokes, I suppose.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Just saw this, which I hadn’t seen before. I’m glad to have seen it.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKcmnrE5oY

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Capitalism at its finest. Ian James of the Desert Sun did an investigative report in March:

In a rocky canyon in the San Bernardino National Forest, pipes carry water from springs high on the mountainside down to a roadside tank and from there to tanker trucks which haul it to a bottling plant to be sold as Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water to the profit of Nestle. How sweet and bucolic, except for a few tiny things – there’s a drought; the Forest Service hasn’t been monitoring the environmental impacts, and oh yes Nestle’s permit expired 28 years ago.

Nestle Waters North America holds a longstanding right to use this water from the national forest near San Bernardino. But the U.S. Forest Service hasn’t been keeping an eye on whether the taking of water is harming Strawberry Creek and the wildlife that depends on it. In fact, Nestle’s permit to transport water across the national forest expired in 1988. It hasn’t been reviewed since, and the Forest Service hasn’t examined the ecological effects of drawing tens of millions of gallons each year from the springs.

Even with California deep in drought, the federal agency hasn’t assessed the impacts of the bottled water business on springs and streams in two watersheds that sustain sensitive habitats in the national forest. The lack of oversight is symptomatic of a Forest Service limited by tight budgets and focused on other issues, and of a regulatory system in California that allows the bottled water industry to operate with little independent tracking of the potential toll on the environment.

Well hey, it’s not like they’re using the water to keep their lawns green. It’s drinking water. That’s got to be good, right? Especially in a drought! If Nestle didn’t bottle it it would just go to waste up there.

While the Forest Service has allowed Nestle to keep using an expired permit for nearly three decades, the agency has cracked down on other water users in the national forest. Several years ago, for instance, dozens of cabin owners were required to stop drawing water from a creek when their permits came up for renewal. Nestle has faced no such restrictions.

That’s because…um…Nestle gets the water out to all the people! It’s the invisible hand, dammit, and it’s the best way to everything.

But for real, it’s a long detailed story.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Gee, it’s all rape and harassment and more harassment day. Here’s a shocker:

Jeremiah True, the Reed College student who made headlines in March for protesting his professor’s decision to remove him from class, was arrested on Thursday by the Portland, Oregon police for alleged sex abuse, harassment, and disorderly conduct.

…

According to an employee at Rugby Oregon, a youth rugby organization based in Portland, True was arrested for disrupting a high school girls’ rugby practice. He was restrained by a coach who called the police, the employee said.

In March, True drew national attention after he started an online petition claiming he was unfairly removed from the seminar portion of his humanities class for questioning statistics on sexual assault. Other students and his professor said it was his disruptive behavior, not his views, that created a hostile learning environment and resulted in his dismissal.

Wo, who could have seen that coming?!! Normally people who question statistics on sexual assault are serious scholars, not guys who get busted for harassing high school girls trying to play rugby.

Update: more on the story, h/t Charles Sullivan:

A probable cause affidavit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court says a Reed College student was arrested for sex abuse against a 17-year-old girl.

Portland Police arrested 20-year-old Jeremiah True Thursday after he touched a 17-year-old girl and made an inappropriate comment, according to court documents.

According to court documents, police say the teenage girls were practicing at Normandale Park when he walked up to one of them “and made physical contact with her by caressing her hair and arm.”

Police say he then walked off for a bit before coming back and making the comment that brought the situation to their attention, according to court documents.

True is charged with third-degree sex abuse and harassment.

H/t Stacy

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Originally a comment by M can help you with that on Cunningly disguised as their own.

Once there we will start distributing the totalitarian message that nerd and gamer culture is… perfectly wonderful just as it is and should be left alone to go it’s [sic] own way.

…except that’s not their message. Their message is that only the reactionary parts of nerd and gamer culture are “perfectly wonderful.” We know this from their positions: when one part of nerd or gamer culture (a more feminist, less racist, less cis-centric and/or heterocentric part) tries to influence what it means for the culture of which they are a part to “go its own way”…then that part, the honey badgers insist, absolutely cannot be “left alone,” but must be attacked, condemned, and harassed into silence. They’re not defending “nerd culture” or “gamer culture” — they’re insisting that certain reactionary elements in those subcultures should have absolute authority over the subculture as a whole.

There have been women, feminists, people of color, queer people, radicals, social-justice advocates, etc. in nerd and gamer culture as long as nerd and gamer culture have existed — certainly longer than the honey badgers (or I) have been part of these cultures, or even alive. Letting nerd culture “go its own way” means seeing the culture grow, mature, and develop in ways that expand the ways people can find a safe home in the culture, not demanding that a (supposed) core of entitled insecure straight cis white men have the divine right to prevent that growth and development.

(As an aside — I think quite a bit of the commentary regarding the honey badgers’ “infiltration” remarks have been off-point. I took it as sarcastic, i.e. they were trying to say “Hey, we’re part of nerd culture too!” — but, of course, it doesn’t work so well in terms of making a point because they, not the people who disagree with them, are the ones dedicated to exclusion.)

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

The Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo is happening this weekend. Jill Pantozzi at the MarySue fills us in on some doings there.

First, she tells us they have an excellent anti-harassment policy.

They also have a campaign going called #ExpoEquality, in cooperation with Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse.

Yay. For equality, against harassment and abuse.

So, naturally, we can’t have that.

A Gamergate affiliated group known as Honey Badger Radio procured a booth for Calgary Expo through a crowdfundng campaign specifically geared toward gaining attendance under false pretenses. The people representing them are Karen Straughan, Mike Stephenson, Alison Tieman, and Sage Gerard, and of their campaign they wrote:

In April of this year, the Honey Badgers plan to put on a booth at the Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo! We plan to infiltrate nerd culture cunningly disguised as their own.

Each of us has been carefully crafting a persona of nerdiness through decades of dedication to comics, science fiction, fantasy, comedy games and other geekery, waiting for this moment, our moment to slip among the unaware. Once there we will start distributing the totalitarian message that nerd and gamer culture is… perfectly wonderful just as it is and should be left alone to go it’s own way.

That’s it folks.

As men’s issues advocates and defenders of creator’s rights to create unmolested, that’s what we have to say to the nerds and geeks and gamers. You are fantastic as you are, carry on.

Yep, in today’s political climate that’s considered an extremist position. Just letting creative communities create; consumers consume what they want; and gamers get down to the business of vidya without being judged.

So if you share our vision of a world in which nerds and geeks and gamers roam free and unfettered, help us spread that message by throwing a few shekels our way to attend the con.

So freedom = the total absence of all criticism? Judgment = fetters? Who knew?

However, Honey Badger Radio did not use their website to apply for vendor/exhibitor status. The “Honey Badger Brigade” on the Calgary Expo website links to awebcomic site (run by Honey Badger Tieman) instead. If you didn’t think all of this was enough to warrant expulsion from the convention (it is), there’s more.

Their show is broadcast by A Voice For Men, one of the biggest men’s rights website on the internet. Less specific plans for Calgary Expo were also detailed on that group’s site, which is classified as a “women-hating” site by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and said in part: “The Honey Badgers are a diverse group of female gender apostates–women who oppose outdated ideas of gender, particularly the association of womanhood with weakness. We offer an alternative to the damaging portrayal of women as victims of geek and gamer culture.”

Fantastic! So by the same token people who opposed the institution of slavery, for instance, were portraying slaves as victims of slave culture, and that was very bad. The right thing to do is nothing at all, so that people can be strong and not victims. The slaves have to end slavery all by themselves!

The group also attended the “Women Into Comics” panel last night. Panelist Brittney Le Blanc gave us this account of the events that transpired:

We were about fifteen minutes into the panel when a woman in the second row stood up and identified herself as a Men’s Rights Activist. She and her male companion both came to raise issues they felt would not be covered by our panel. Raising points about the way men are portrayed in comics struck a note with all the panelists, as we agreed that we want to see a diversity across body types, characters, races, etc in mainstream comics. Not everyone wants to see a hero who looks like he’s built like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. They also accused us of presenting all women as victims, which was an outright lie and derailing tactic.

Their questions did take up quite a bit of time at the panel and served to derail the topic onto another tangent, which was frustrating for the panel and for those in the audience. It’s what they came to do, and in part, they succeeded. I would say that it brought up some great discussions though…

Lemons to lemonade.

They wanted to stand up and have their say, but not to listen or try to understand the points of view other people in the room had. This was further proven by the video discussion they posted later last night, in which they mentioned our panel and that we were “donning the ball gowns of our victimhood”, which I’m not even entirely sure how to take. I will admit to not watching the whole video, and I think anyone who attempts to watch it would understand why.

Calgary Expo kicked them out today, or asked them to leave. It issued a statement:

As the world turns.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

The CBC tells us there’s a report saying the CBC did a bad job of dealing with Jian Ghomeshi.

CBC failed to provide its staff a workplace “free from disrespectful and abusive behaviour,” says the report of an independent investigator hired to examine the corporation’s handling of the behaviour of former radio and television host Jian Ghomeshi.

Janice Rubin, a Toronto employment lawyer with expertise in the field of workplace harassment, says in the report that Ghomeshi’s behaviour violated CBC standards, and that his behaviour was “considered to create an intimidating, humiliating, hostile or offensive work environment.”

The report says that as information was shared “upwards,” it had a tendency to become “diluted.”

“Less prevalent, but also present in a small number of cases, was behaviour that constituted sexual harassment,” the report says, although it asserts that management was unaware of any complaints or allegations about sexual harassment.

It also says management failed to take steps in accordance with its own policies.

“It is our conclusion that CBC management condoned this behaviour.”​​

It’s so familiar, isn’t it? Ghomeshi is a star. He brings us viewers. He’s a star. These other people…well they’re just behind the scenes people, anybody can do what they do, if they quit we can easily replace them. But Ghomeshi? He’s a star. A star. You can’t replace a star, because a star is a star.

In an interview with CBC’s Ioanna Roumeliotis, [executive vice-president of English Services Heather] Conway said what concerns her the most is that “there was a persistent pattern of behaviour that wasn’t dealt with, because that is a series of missed opportunities, and over a period of years.”

Because Ghomeshi was a star over a period of years. They don’t want to get rid of their star. We’ve seen this before; we’re still seeing this right now. Protect the star, even if it requires persecuting the people who are reporting that the star does bad things. Protect the star at all costs. Throw the underlings overboard.

Several women contacted police, accusing Ghomeshi of harassment and violence. He now faces eight charges, which include seven counts of sexual assault and one of overcoming resistance by choking.

He has repeatedly denied taking part in any violent, non-consensual sexual acts.

Ghomeshi’s lawyer has said he intends to plead not guilty to the charges.

Ghomeshi is free on $100,000 bail with numerous conditions.

He is due to return to court on April 28.

Isn’t that supposed to be [named individual]?

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

WalesOnline reports on theocratic efforts to discourage people from voting:

Stickers encouraging people not to vote because “none have the right to vote but Allah” have appeared in Cardiff.

The stickers have been put up on lampposts around the Corporation Road area of Grangetown.

Via Twitter

The yellow warning sticker reads: “Democracy is a system whereby man violates the right of Allah.

“Islam is the only real workable solution for the UK”.

They carry the hashtag #Dontvoteformanmadelaw.

It also says “None have the right to legislate except Allah.”

Oh really. How does that work then? What’s the line of transmission? How does Allah tell us what legislation Allah has passed?

If the answer is the Koran, that won’t do, because things have changed since the Koran was written. If it’s something else – what is it?

Cardiff council’s cleansing team have begun to remove the posters.

The council say any religiously motivated or offensive stickers will be removed as a priority.

The BBC also reports, and in its usual mindless way it talks to a “Muslim Council” which is an affiliate of the MCB.

Akmal Hanuk, a trustee at the Muslim Council of Wales, said: “It is not representing the views of the majority of Muslims. I think the majority of Muslims want to vote and will.

“From a Muslim Council of Wales perspective, we encourage them to vote and to have a say in the democratic system.”

The BBC could have talked to a liberal Muslim group or person, but as so often, it didn’t.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

I spent too many minutes today arguing with a very “spiritual” person who is a vocal supporter of Raif Badawi on Facebook but who keeps putting her support in inappropriately “spiritual” terms. Since it’s one version of “spirituality” that is so determined to keep torturing him, I think that’s inappropriate at best.

I especially think it’s inappropriate to talk about “joy” in response to another Friday with no flogging, as she does every week. That’s not joyful. It’s a brief partial respite for Ensaf and their children, I hope, but it can’t very well be joyful when he could still be flogged next Friday and every Friday after that until all the remaining 950 lashes have been dealt out. It’s not an occasion for a party, not when things are this grim.

But I wish I hadn’t said anything to her, because her response was to ask Ensaf about it. Sigh. Because Ensaf has nothing better to worry about than this person on Facebook.

Joy is for when he gets out of prison and gets on the plane.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Get special rules, that is.

In Tennessee:

In an effort to get around recently passed zoning laws the owners of [a] Tennessee swingers club are rebranding their proposed establishment as a church, according to WSMV.

Previously the owners of the proposed club in Madison had submitted plans to convert a former medical building, situated next to a Christian school, into a sex club only to meet with stiff public resistance.

Following a packed and contentious meeting last month — with one audience member shouting “we don’t want this darkness to extinguish this beacon of light that has been here for years and years” –  the Metro Council amended the zoning laws to prevent the club from being developed.

Well you know…they would sort of have to amend the zoning laws for the whole entire town, wouldn’t they? I mean I hate to break it to them but I think there are probably people doing sex in many many places in Madison, Tennessee. I know it’s shocking and filthy, but there you go – people are like that. Sex!! In all the houses!!!

Relying upon federal laws that protect churches, the owners reapplied as a church. A room that was once labeled “the dungeon” is now the “choir room.” The former “game room” will now be known as a “fellowship hall.”

Ricky Perry, president of Goodpasture Christian School located next to the development, called changes and owners of the club “irreverent.”

“It just seems like there’s nothing you wouldn’t stoop to try to accomplish what you’re trying to do,” he said. “It’s obvious to me that all they’re trying to do is find another way to legally, or through some loophole, accomplish what they want to do.”

Or maybe it’s the Council that amended the zoning laws to stop them, hmmmm? Maybe they’re the ones trying to find another way to legally, or through some loophole, stop people from doing something because they think it’s ooky.

God bless.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

We’ve been talking about this idea that climate change is going to cause a lot of mass migration, and the claim that it won’t be a problem if we just have open borders everywhere. I find that claim not at all credible, so I thought I would gesture toward a source or two.

The Center for American Progress has a report.

From the summary:

Recent intelligence reports and war games, including some conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense, conclude that over the next two or three decades, vulnerable regions (particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia) will face the prospect of food shortages, water crises, and catastrophic flooding driven by climate change. These developments could demand U.S., European, and international humanitarian relief or military responses, often the delivery vehicle for aid in crisis situations.

That seems odd at first blush, but of course the military has the equipment and the personnel to do jobs like that…assuming, that is, it’s not all tied-up with a grotesquely ill-advised war.

But will there be migration or not?

In the 21st century the world could see substantial numbers of climate migrants—people displaced by either the slow or sudden onset of the effects of climate change. The United Nations’ recent Human Development Report stated that, worldwide, there are already an estimated 700 million internal migrants—those leaving their homes within their own countries—a number that includes people whose migration is related to climate change and environmental factors. Overall migration across national borders is already at approximately 214 million people worldwide, with estimates of up to 20 million displaced in 2008 alone because of a rising sea level, desertification, and flooding.

One expert, Oli Brown of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, predicts a tenfold increase in the current number of internally displaced persons and international refugees by 2050. It is important to acknowledge that there is no consensus on this estimate. In fact there is major disagreement among experts about how to identify climate as a causal factor in internal and international migration.

It’s not going to come with labels on it. Most migrants aren’t going to say “I’m here because of climate change.”

But even though the root causes of human mobility are not always easy to decipher, the policy challenges posed by that movement are real. A 2009 report by the International Organization for Migration produced in cooperation with the United Nations University and the Climate Change, Environment and Migration Alliance cites numbers that range from “200 million to 1 billion migrants from cli- mate change alone, by 2050,” arguing that “environmental drivers of migration are often coupled with economic, social and developmental factors that can accelerate and to a certain extent mask the impact of climate change.”

The report also notes that “migration can result from different environmental factors, among them gradual environmental degradation (including desertification, soil and coastal erosion) and natural disasters (such as earthquakes, floods or tropical storms).” (See box on page 15 for a more detailed definition of climate migrants.) Clearly, then, climate change is expected to aggravate many existing migratory pressures around the world. Indeed associated extreme weather events resulting in drought, floods, and disease are projected to increase the number of sudden humanitarian crises and disasters in areas least able to cope, such as those already mired in poverty or prone to conflict.

Or both.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)