So at CPAC they had a panel on GOP outreach to minorities.
John Hudak of the Brookings Institution is livetweeting CPAC and he tweeted a picture of the audience at that panel.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Posts Tagged ‘ FTB ’
Born of necessity
Mar 8th, 2014 1:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonLeymah Gbowee says in Al Jazeera “Let’s celebrate International Women’s Day by remembering women around the world working towards peace.”
… Read the restI am an optimist; there is beauty despite the ugliness. The bravery and strength of our mothers, daughters and sisters give me hope. Even when they are the ones that have been raped, abused and battered, they take part in the process of rehabilitation and resolution – from a neighbourhood conflict to an outright war. I am in awe of the ability of women to keep communities and families together even in the midst of wars and crises.
I have just returned from the Democratic Republic of the Congo where I travelled with the Nobel Women’s Initiative delegation. War and
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Guest post: You can’t teach if you are not a learner
Mar 8th, 2014 1:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonOriginally a comment by Gordon Willis on Teach the children well.
I am a private teacher, teaching one-to-one. I teach both adults and children. Some of the children, invariably girls, come from Hong Kong or mainland China. They come aged 13 or 14 or 15, like English children to a boarding school, except that they come alone, because their parents can’t afford the fare for both themselves and their daughters. And they find digs and join a new school of completely foreign people, and they stay, and they learn, and they do not (apparently) suffer trauma and angst and complexes and lack-of-religion, even though their English is terrible (one young lady of 17 studying A-level music with me a … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
“Women Empowerment: An Alternative in Focus”
Mar 8th, 2014 12:10 pm | By Ophelia BensonHow to celebrate International Women’s Day at Aligarh Muslim University.
Women students in flowing burqas talk about how purdah is the “purest form of existence for a woman”. They explain how capitalism — with its notions of financial independence or a career for women — is anti-women.
Models are on display to help explain how purdah is to be observed.
And then, apparently in a concession to more “modern” views, the women also speak about dowry, foeticide, sexual violence and women’s health.
All this is part of a three-day exhibition that started on Friday at one of Aligarh Muslim University’s women’s hostels, Abdullah Hall, to — ironically — mark International Women’s Day.
What did they say about dowry and … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Pieces of chewed gum
Mar 8th, 2014 11:11 am | By Ophelia BensonWomen who are Mormons are noticing that Mormonism isn’t very friendly to women.
Last year, when Kristy Money was planning a baby-naming ceremony in her Mormon congregation, she asked if she could hold her newborn during the ceremony, sitting or standing inside the circle of men who would bless her daughter.
“All I want is to hold my baby,” Dr. Money, a 29-year-old psychologist in Santa Monica, Calif., said she told her bishop. She said he refused, explaining that only men who hold the priesthood could participate.
So Kristy Money should get out of that congregation and that religion so that her daughter will not be raised in a religion that treats her as an inferior. I don’t suppose … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Things that are not postmodernist
Mar 7th, 2014 6:08 pm | By Ophelia BensonNot everything is postmodernist. Not even everything you dislike is postmodernist. Some things are not postmodernist.
Artistic license is not postmodernist. It has been around for a long time, longer than postmodernism.
Why am I telling you this? Because of some literal-minded bozos who have been complaining that a Hollywood movie about Noah and his big boat CHANGED SOME OF THE THINGS IN THE STORY.
… Read the restAt the request of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), Paramount added a disclaimer which reads, in part, that “[t]he film is inspired by the story of Noah. While artistic license has been taken, we believe that this film is true to the essence, values, and integrity of a story that is a cornerstone of faith
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Teach the children well
Mar 7th, 2014 5:29 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Atlantic has a very long wordy windbaggy article arguing that universities should teach students religion; not about religion, but religion. Why? Because they’re adrift, and only religion can fix their adriftitude.
Long long long introductory passage that tells us far more than we want to know. He used to teach. He got to know some students.
… Read the restWhat I discovered was that many of the students I talked to were disappointed, confused, and lost. They were bright kids. Many of them had looked forward to going to the university all their lives. College was, in their imaginations, a sort of promised land, a place where you find your calling and get the skills necessary to pursue it. What they found,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Negative action
Mar 7th, 2014 2:52 pm | By Ophelia BensonWe know affirmative action is a bad thing, right? At least we keep being told so. “People must be selected on merit, not having the right genitalia.”
What about negative action? Is that a bad thing?
Like that applied to Jenny Collier for example?
Haslemere Thursday 15th May – cancelled
7 March 2014 17:32
Hi Jenny
I’m really sorry but the venue has decided they don’t want too many women on the bill and unfortunately we need to take you out of this one. We hope that this doesn’t cause any inconvenience.
Oh no, of course it doesn’t. How could it possibly cause any inconvenience to be “taken out” of a gig you were scheduled to do, on the grounds … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Near you on Friday nights
Mar 7th, 2014 2:28 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnother shrewd bit of ad-targeting on Facebook. Yes, I will certainly find this persuasive:
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Its high price in terms of the misery and suffering it inflicts
Mar 7th, 2014 12:02 pm | By Ophelia BensonMore from that HRW statement to the Senate committee in 2012.
… Read the restThe proliferation of super-maximum security prisons is a symptom of profound problems in the nation’s prison systems. Beginning in the 1980s, exploding prison populations caused by increasingly lengthy sentences and diminished opportunities for early release, constrained budgets, inappropriately low staff-to-inmate ratios, and punitive correctional philosophies limited the ability of officials to operate safe and humane facilities. Many turned to prolonged solitary confinement in an effort to increase their control over prisoners. A significant impetus for super-maximum security facilities also came from politicians, who found that advocating harsh policies for criminal offenders was politically popular. Reluctant to be accused of “coddling inmates” or being “soft on crime,” few politicians have
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
A blot
Mar 7th, 2014 11:25 am | By Ophelia BensonAn item that’s been under my radar is the overuse of solitary confinement in prisons in the US. First there’s the radical, off the charts overuse of prisons themselves, then there’s the wild overuse of solitary in those prisons, and you have a shameful human rights situation. SHAMEFUL.
Fresh Air did a couple of interviews on the subject yesterday.
Human Rights Watch prepared a statement for a Senate committee in 2012.
… Read the restSolitary confinement in US prisons is imposed for different reasons, but most commonly it is used as punishment for breaches of discipline (“disciplinary segregation”) or to manage prisoners considered to be particularly difficult or dangerous (“administrative segregation”).[4] The increase in solitary confinement in the United States has
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Behold the great image of authority
Mar 7th, 2014 10:51 am | By Ophelia BensonThe bishops of the military will retain their grip on the prosecution or non-prosecution of sexual assault cases.
… Read the restAn ambitious bill seeking to stem the rise of sexual assaults in the military died Thursday after senators from both parties refused to limit the role of commanding officers in deciding whether to prosecute such cases.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) pushed the issue to prominence during this congressional session, arguing on behalf of victims who testified that they feared retaliation for pressing assault allegations up the military chain of command. Her bill — which won support from 17 of the 20 women in the Senate — would have shifted sexual assault investigations to military prosecutors.
Instead senators advanced a competing bill sponsored
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Single-digit heaven
Mar 6th, 2014 6:29 pm | By Ophelia BensonWendy Doniger reports that Penguin’s failure to continue defending her book has caused it to…become much more popular than it was.
… Read the restWhat is new, and heartening, this time is that the best are suddenly full of passionate intensity. The dormant liberal conscience of India was awakened by the stunning blow to freedom of speech that had been dealt by my publisher in giving in to the demands of the claimants, agreeing to take the book out of circulation and pulp all remaining copies.
I think the ugliness of the word “pulp” is what struck a nerve, conjuring up memories of “Fahrenheit 451” and Germany in the 1930s. The outrage had been pent up for many years, as other books, films,
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Pastor under fire for pro-LGBTQ stance
Mar 6th, 2014 6:04 pm | By Ophelia BensonSikivu Hutchinson tells an important story at Religion Dispatches.
… Read the restOn Sunday morning I went to a church service for the first time in decades.
I was there as a community member to support Pastor Seth Pickens of Zion Hill Baptist church in South Los Angeles. A few days before, I’d received an urgent plea from Teka-Lark Fleming, publisher of the local Morningside Park Chronicle newspaper, encouraging progressive black folk to show up at Zion Hill in support of Seth’s pro-LGBTQ stance.
After publishing a column entitled “The 10 Reasons I Love LGBTQ folk” in Fleming’s paper, Pickens came under fire from church officials. The controversy erupted on the heels of internal criticism he’d received for performing a marriage ceremony for
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Upskirt navigation
Mar 6th, 2014 5:45 pm | By Ophelia BensonIf there’s a thing too ridiculous and hostile and contemptuous to be said, you can be sure there will be people to say it. On Reddit. To be passed on by Manboobz.
Her choice in clothing didn’t expose what he took a picture of to the public. He didn’t take a picture of her shins or her knees, he took a picture of the section of her that was under the skirt. It’s exposed to the sidewalk and the floor, but it’s not exposed to the public.… Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Massachusetts will no longer be a refuge for upskirters
Mar 6th, 2014 4:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Massachusetts legislature fixed that particular omission.
Massachusetts lawmakers Thursday passed a bill banning “upskirting” in response to a ruling by the state’s highest court that said a law aimed at criminalizing voyeurism did not apply to the snapping of secret photos up a woman’s skirt.
The bill now goes to Gov. Deval Patrick, who has publicly committed to signing it, his office said Thursday.
The bill would make photographing or recording video under a person’s clothing illegal, according to a statement from the office of Senate President Therese Murray.
Good. Thank you.
By the way…Is it illegal in Massachusetts (and all the other states) to, for instance, drill a hole in a neighbor’s wall to insert a tiny … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Register now!
Mar 6th, 2014 1:35 pm | By Ophelia BensonIt creeps me out to do this because it’s so me me me but Melody says it helps so I’m doing it anyway. If you’re planning to go to Women in Secularism 3 but haven’t gotten around to registering you should do it today if you want the chance to win a signed copy of Why Truth Matters.
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Help them pack
Mar 6th, 2014 12:05 pm | By Ophelia BensonA very important thing, that I did not know about: the white man march.
If you go to the home page you will see a photo of four of the whitest white people anyone ever saw. They are dazzlingly white; whitely white white. They are posed as a family group but who knows if they are really a family. They could just be the four people who won the contest in each of four divisions:
- whitest little girl
- whitest little boy
- whitest woman
- whitest man
There’s an explanation or FAQ page for people who wonder what the white man march is all about.
… Read the restThe White Man March is scheduled for March 15th, 2014, and will involve coordinated pro-white activity
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Guest post: Knowing everything is just not possible
Mar 6th, 2014 11:20 am | By Ophelia BensonOriginally a comment by mildlymagnificent on Or even another Tosh.
My own feeling about the far too many self titled skeptics that I deal with online is that they’ve not really learned to be appropriately skeptical. The first and most important lesson for a real skeptic is to acknowledge that it is no longer possible, if it ever really was, to be a “renaissance man” or a fully rounded autodidact.
There really is a limit to how much of the available knowledge and skill in any given topic a non-expert can acquire. So the first responsibility of being skeptical is as accurate an assessment as possible of one’s own expertise.It really doesn’t matter how clever you are or … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
Another “feminists should stfu” message
Mar 6th, 2014 10:27 am | By Ophelia BensonSo, it’s International Women’s Day on Saturday. Well how fucked up is that, am I right? When is it ever International Men’s Day? When is it Rich People’s Day? White People’s Day? Straight People’s Day? Are we not all human beings???
Fortunately, the president of the Humanist Society of South Australia, Justin Millikan, is on the case. He posted a super-appropriate item on the HSSA page to make this very point. What super-appropriate item is that? A link to an article with the brilliantly aphoristic and wise title:
It is about humanism, not simply feminism
Oh, yes; thank god somebody said that at last. The hell with all this feminism and anti-racism and anti-colonialism and gay rights, the hell with … Read the rest
(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)
