Oh I think I get it – what DJ Grothe meant by saying he thinks “unduly-moralistic scolds end up actively diminishing human flourishing by their sex-negativity.”

He means if we get our way, and sexual harassment at atheist/skeptic conferences becomes unfashionable (aka “politically incorrect”), then there will be less sex at those conferences. There will be less total sex. Our goal, if achieved, would lead to less sex. That equals sex negativity.

Yes, if you define it that way, he’s right. The kind of sex where a dudebro plies a woman with alcohol until she becomes too out of it to consider whether or not she wants to have sex with him and just has it – that kind of … Read the rest

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And for today’s installment of thinly-veiled loathing – Stephanie quotes DJ Grothe on Facebook.

It’s rank.

There is an impressive distemper these days on the internets.

Many smart, good people that I know personally seem to fear this “call-out culture” online that is going on right now in many communities online. Folks are immobilized by a moral scare or panic that they think they are watching unfold presently. As for me, I think it all seems increasingly like some surreal science fiction imagining of some bizarre future dystopia. And so, I say:

Consensual sex — between any mature adult male or female etc. — is a human good. It is something that should be prized and promoted (would there

… Read the rest

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Transcription courtesy of John Morales.

I want to take this time today to answer this question I get a lot: why don’t I believe in the gospels.

Um — the first big problem I have with the gospels is that they are anonymous — a lot of people don’t know that, but it’s true.

Um, and no good skeptic, atheist, freethinker should ever accept any anonymous report just offhand; aah especially when we’re talking about something truly awful — I mean, the gospel writers have Jesus doing some pretty ugly stuff.  Umm, killing a tree for no reason, which makes him look completely insane; they have him claiming to be God, which would have been a major … Read the rest

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A three-year-old observation by John Scalzi, just because I saw it and like it. The failure mode of clever is asshole.

So, apropos of nothing in particular, let’s say you wish to communicate privately with someone you’ve not communicated with privately before, for whatever reason you might have. And, wanting to stand out from the crowd, you decide to try to be clever about it, because, hey, you are a clever person, and as far as you know, people seem to like that about you. So you write your clever bit and send it off, safe in the knowledge of your cleverosity, and confident that your various cleverations will make the impression you want to make on the intended cleveree.

… Read the rest

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Behold: an asshole.

Start at 5:15.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMZ86PGVOQk

… Read the rest

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American Atheists has sent out a press release.

Cartersville, Georgia—Beginning Wednesday, visitors to Georgia State Parks vacationing in government-owned rental cabins can read atheist books during their stay courtesy of American Atheists. The national non-profit announced that its former President, Ed Buckner, will distribute hundreds of donated copies of atheist literature to the Red Top State Park for placement in cabin bedside drawers, alongside Bibles already placed there, on Wednesday morning.

Additional atheist books will be distributed to A.H. Stephens Historic Park in Crawfordville, Georgia at 2:00 PM EDT on Wednesday afternoon, with more parks to follow later this week.

In May of this year, Buckner was vacationing in Amicalola Falls State Park with his family, where he had rented … Read the rest

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We need a painting.

Vermeer

The Geographer

… Read the rest

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Because it’s a hot afternoon. Also because they kept making me laugh.

@TheTweetOfGod

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But then there’s like two million more after that, so what’s the point?

Laurie Penny @PennyRed

That’s a shame-  the main reason I do politics is so that internet creeps will want to fuck me.

Then I read the conversation in that one. That part isn’t amusing. It’s stupid.

Guardian Reader @guardianista

Not trying to sound sexist or anything, but who do you think’s more attractive of tonight’s debaters: @AlexandralSwann or @pennyred?

So that’s enough of that conversation. And good old “Don’t take this the wrong way/Not to be politically incorrect or … Read the rest

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Marie-Thérèse has a haunting post about summer holidays in Rathdrum, County Wicklow, which was the one escape from the misery of Goldenbridge that most of the children had.

As a child at Goldenbridge industrial “school” during the sixties summertime season, I absolutely adored heading off on the ‘Special’ bus to Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow. Bernadette Fahy in her book “Freedom of Angels” referred to St. Joseph’s Holiday Home, that was for Goldenbridge children who had no families to take them out on summer holidays, as a haven. She felt that all the stress built up from being enclosed in Goldenbridge just lifted when she went there. She felt her sanity had been restored. The same was applicable with

… Read the rest

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How fucking stupid is this? From the Charleston Gazette:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The rape of a 16-year-old girl by two football players in eastern Ohio– a case brought to light by social media — is being used by a federal prosecutor to educate athletes in West Virginia about being responsible when texting and making posts on the Internet.

Excuse me? Being responsible when texting and making posts on the Internet? How about being responsible when not raping someone?!

The rape case “definitely played a role in causing us to think, ‘Who do we need to focus upon?” Ihlenfeld told The Associated Press. “We thought, ‘Let’s start calling athletic directors and coaches to see if they’re interested. That investment of

… Read the rest

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A new Dan Cardamon. Each new one is more brilliant than the last. This one is very brilliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owgqleO7JXA

 … Read the rest

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Well now that I’ve been told about the three Christs of Ypsilanti, I have to take a look at them.

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti (1964) is a book-length psychiatriccase study by Milton Rokeach, concerning his experiment on a group of three paranoid schizophrenic patients at Ypsilanti State Hospital^[1] in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The book details the interactions of the three patients, Clyde Benson, Joseph Cassel, and Leon Gabor, who each believed himself to be Jesus Christ.

Ah the eyes widen, the spine straightens, the attention zooms in. The possibilities are obvious, and abundant.

To study the basis for delusional belief systems, Rokeach brought together three men who each claimed to be Jesus Christ and

… Read the rest

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Since when do judges tell people what they can name their babies?

The issue, at least as Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew saw it, was that the child’s name was “Messiah,” a moniker Ballew believes should be reserved only for Jesus Christ. Here’s local NBC affiliate station WBIR-TV with more of the judge’s logic:

       “The word Messiah is a title and it’s a title that has only been earned by one person and that one person is Jesus Christ,” Judge Ballew said.

Nonsense. It’s the name of a very nice piece of music, and a lovely name for a baby. Besides, they can call the kid Messy for short. Think of all the fun they’ll have!

 … Read the rest

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Bad Obama administration. Don’t do that. Bad, bad, bad.

The Obama administration has taken sides in a significant new test case on the separation between church and state, urging the Supreme Court to allow prayers at the beginning of government meetings. The administration lays out its arguments in a newly filed amicus brief in Town of Greece v. Galloway, a case that questions whether the prayer practices at town council meetings of a small town in upstate New York violate the First Amendment. The case could drastically expand the types of legislative prayer practices considered constitutional.

Bad. Bad, bad, bad.

The administration argued in its brief:

Where, as here, legislative prayers neither proselytize nor denigrate any faith, the

… Read the rest

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Taslima has a beautiful (indignant and compassionate) post about the poverty of Bangladesh’s transportation system and the consequent dangers of travel on major holidays…like Eid. She illustrates with many poignant pictures.

Allah sent Muhammad buraq, the winged horse,  so that Muhammad, the prophet  could travel to heaven. He went to heaven on buraq and met Moses, Jesus, a few more bearded guys  and finally Allah the almighty.

Now look at  the condition of Bangladesh today.  They don’t have enough vehicles to travel. Millions of people are travelling to  home to celebrate Eid, the biggest Muslim religious festival with their family and friends tomorrow. They are desperate to get some space on the public transports. Train roofs and doors are

… Read the rest

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