There’s a nice article at The Humanist about the Women in Secularism conference.

Lindsay’s opening remarks stressed CFI’s commitment to equality and added that “stirring up trouble…is how we advance as a movement.” A panel of writers and bloggers discussed online activism and the power and pitfalls of a viral hashtag like #bringbackourgirls. While some criticize the passing along of a Twitter hashtag as superficial activism, panelists saw it as using one’s privilege to elevate the voices of the less privileged (in that case raising awareness of the missing Nigerian school girls).

Moderated by Lindsay Beyerstein, the panel included Soraya Chemaly, Amy Davis Roth, Zinnia Jones, and Miri Mogilevsky in one of the best discussions of the conference. A

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

There’s a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma – an officer officer, a captain – who thinks he has a “duty to proselytize” – even in uniform, even on duty – anyone who doesn’t have the same religious beliefs as his. Huh. I would think he has a duty not to, because separation of church and state. If there’s any branch of government you don’t want proselytizing you, it’s the police or the military.

Fortunately, a federal appellate court saw it the same way. The ACLU explains:

In 2011, the Islamic Society of Tulsa organized a Law Enforcement Appreciation Day to show its gratitude for protection provided after threats to its mosque. As part of its longstanding community-policing initiative, the

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

Another screenshot. Must stop with all these screenshots. But…

This is from the comments on the Ex-Muslims of North America Facebook page’s posting of the New York Times article. It explains things so neatly…

Zubair Changaiz

shoot them all who leave islam

no concept of Ex Muslim or parallism, those people who leave islam there is no place in islam just shoot them

Hos Loftus Thanks for shooting down the “Islam is the religion of peace” and “there is no compulsion in Islam” crap!

Sam Al-Nahi Yeah, this must be that Muslim peace and serenity I keep hearing about.

Zubair Changaiz yup i know islam is the religion of peace and we muslim love humanity but those people who left

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

To my surprise – I’m always surprised, no matter how repeatedly I see these things; I seem to be incurably naïve – I’m seeing people on Twitter complaining about “radical feminists” making connections between Elliot Rodger’s noisy explicit hatred of women and his murder of some women. It turns out it’s “selfish” and “grandstanding” to make this connection, even though Elliot Rodgers made it himself.

Steve Zara @sjzara

I see a really important question – can the extremely common harassment of women be enabling of violence? I have no idea.

Miranda Celeste Hale @mirandachale

@sjzara Plus, the #YesAllWomen thing is a fear-mongering stunt that encourages women to see themselves as perpetual victims. Fuck that.

Steve Zara @sjzara

@

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

There’s also a good article in The Bell Jar on Elliott Rodger and his hatred of women and misogyny in general.

He was an active member of the “PUAhate, an online forum (which has been down since the shootings) dedicated to “revealing the scams, deception and misleading marketing techniques used by dating gurus and the seduction community to mislead men and profit from them.” And just to clarify, they’re not revealing these scams because of how vile and misogynistic they are, but rather because these men have tried these techniques and still failed to trick women into sleeping with them. These are men who both feel entitled to have sex with women and also blame all women everywhere for not

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

Simon collected posts by Elliot Rodger on the Bodybuilding.com forum in a Storify. Rodgers is the guy who shot a bunch of people in Santa Barbara because nobody liked him and because women are shit. Be warned.

Women don’t deserve rights. They are evil, sadistic beasts who whore themselves out to degenerate men and ignore the men who actually deserve them.

I’m tired of seeing losers with hot chicks Seriously, today at my college I saw this short, ugly Indian guy driving a Honda civic, and he had a hot blonde girl in his passenger seat. What on earth is up with that?!?!? I would climb mount Everest 10 times just to have a girl like that with me.

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

So now I’ve looked at it.

This is what it is; it is this.

Policy Recommendations on Tax Policy

[an image of a tax form with a pen lying across it]

The same tax rules should apply to all non-profit organizations, whether religious or secular. Because of separation of church and state, government should not provide tax loopholes to religious organizations, or excuse them from the disclosures that non-religious organizations must make.

Find an overview of our public policy recommendations touching on:

• Tax Loopholes for Religious Organizations

• Political Endorsement from the Pulpit

That’s it, that’s what there is. There’s nothing more. That’s their resource for us on the subject of policy on tax policy.… Read the rest

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

So you go to the Global Secular Council’s Issues section, which it has seven of which.

Constitutional Law
Discrimination
Education
Health and Safety
International
Military
Tax Policy

Already that looks odd, because how can constitutional law be global? And are they pronouncing on tax policy for the whole world? And the global military? And if they’re global, isn’t is all supposed to be international, so why is there an International section?

So we’ll look at them.

Constitutional Law

Uh oh. Bad start. The image, for one -

I recognize it. Lots of people will recognize it. It’s not global. It’s Murkan.

And the first paragraph -

The first freedom protected by the Bill of Rights is the right of every

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

The Global Secular tweeter is still saying opposite things from one tweet to the next – on the one hand it’s trying hard, it means well, it’s acting in good faith, it’s in earnest – on the other hand it calls me “my dear @OpheliaBenson” and “Ms Ophelia.”

On the one hand it’s totally answering our questions, on the other hand it favorites a tweet telling it to ignore criticism because it’s utterly baseless and obsessive.

Miranda Celeste Hale @mirandachale

@SecularCouncil I wouldn’t bother trying to reason w/those who are currently attacking you. Their criticism is utterly baseless & obsessive

Matt Penfold @mattpenfold_UK

@mirandachale@SecularCouncilDo you really want to be admitting that lack of racial and national

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

The New York Times religion reporter Mark Oppenheimer did a big piece yesterday on ex-Muslims at Women in Secularism 3. 

Anyone leaving a close-knit belief-based community risks parental disappointment, rejection by friends and relatives, and charges of self-loathing. The process can be especially difficult and isolating for women who have grown up Muslim, who are sometimes accused of trying to assimilate into a Western culture that despises them.

“It was incredibly painful,” Heina Dadabhoy, 26, said during a discussion called “Women Leaving Religion,” which also featured three former Christians and one formerly observant Jew, the novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. “My entire life, my identity, was being a good Muslim woman.”

That was a great panel – it was a … Read the rest

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

Still working hard to build ties with the secular community…or something…

Matt Penfold @mattpenfold_uk 1h

@secularcouncil Of the 7 “issues” on your website only one is not about the US. Does only the US matter ? And do you know what global means?

Secular Council @SecularCouncil

We think we know what global means, @mattpenfold_UK: Our resource breadth. You’re right, though; our home base and starting focus is the US.

Ophelia Benson @OpheliaBenson

Your what? What does “resource breadth” mean? A Global Council is one that acts globally.

Secular Council @SecularCouncil

@mattpenfold_UK And we will, my dear @OpheliaBenson, we will! The Tweeters can’t stop us.

So much for the beloved “secular community” eh – if we … Read the rest

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

Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti is back, after almost ten years.

The last time I was at the Birmingham Rep, I was advised by West Midlands police to leave the building. Protests against my play Behzti (Dishonour) were becoming increasingly heated and I was told I was in danger. I arrived home in London, and hours later a police officer called to inform me of a threat to abduct and murder me. I laughed in disbelief. He didn’t laugh; he told me to get out of my flat.

The next day, after a huge demonstration outside the theatre, the Rep pulled the play. I was devastated. As the author I felt strongly that I had placed myself in the

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

I was going to move on today, so as not to be a big mean ol’ bully to the Global Secular Council, but then I read yet another of its Twitter responses to me and found that moving on would not be possible.

It was alternating between rebuking me for judging them “by the color of their skin” and saying they are working hard on diversity. Well that’s unclear. What do they mean by “working hard on diversity” if it has nothing to do with “the color of their skin”? “Diversity” is simply a (very stale by now) buzzword used for the purpose of avoiding the mention of race (aka “skin color”) or sex or national origin etc etc. … Read the rest

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

PZ takes a look at the Global Secular Council Debut and compares how that’s being run to how he and Ed thought about Freethought Blogs when they were setting it up.

Will they be effective? I looked at their Issues page, and it’s rather high-mindedly vague. For instance, one issue isInternational Human Rights. I’m glad they’re for ‘em, but after a scant 3 paragraphs that consist of platitudes, they present their summary:

POLICY RECOMMENDATION: The U.S. government should apply political pressure whenever possible to countries violating their international human rights obligations.

So, the Global Secular Council’s advice is that the US should do something about it?

I had to stop and laugh for about 3 minutes. I’m so … Read the rest

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

Originally a comment on To I, to she, to he, to they

So, quite aside from anything else here (and FTR, I completely agree with you about this org): I’m sick of ‘ideological’ being a dirty word. Having a coherent, connected set of principles that inform how you think is not a bad thing. Having words and concepts and ways of understanding based on them that frame your politics at large is a good thing.

What’s clearer to me by the day (and one of the reasons my blog’s called Godlessness in Theory) is that the limp, illiterate brand of skepticism proffered by many of the GSC’s people, which prides itself on being ‘rational’ and ‘evidence-based’ at the loss … Read the rest

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

This is the music Lauren played 3 minutes before each talk or panel was scheduled to start, as a signal to everyone to come in and sit down and be quiet.

Schoolhouse Rock: Women’s Suffrage Movement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFOieRHRzh8… Read the rest

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

They’re adding stuff, the Top of Their Field geniuses at The Global Secular Council. We get to watch them add stuff.

They’ve added a page for something called The Bella & Stella Foundation, which has a link at the bottom of the Team page. It’s some sweet whimsy-whamsy so that we’ll know they don’t take themselves too seriously. (Right, because a few US/UK white guys declaring themselves a Global Council has no trace of taking themselves too seriously.)

These two furry heathens do not suffer fools lightly, as they are both staunch proponents of the separation of church and state. When lounging in direct sunlight, they have a propensity for summoning the unwitting to their soft stomachs. A

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