I’m not sure the story of Abraham and Isaac is the best way to start a column urging condemnation of the murder of Alan Henning, unless you’re using that story as an object lesson on what can happen when you think you’re supposed to obey “God”. I don’t think that’s how Yasmin Alibhai Brown is using it, although she may be – she doesn’t really exactly say what she thinks of it. [Read more…]
Katha Pollitt talks to Jill Filipovic about her new book on why abortion matters.
You’ve been a pro-choice writer for decades. Why this book now?
It was surprising to me that this book wasn’t already out there. [Read more…]
Jennifer Lawrence says what she thinks about having naked pictures of her stolen and published online.
“Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this,” she says. [Read more…]
Sometimes the revoltingness of the Official Opposition is surprising. Oh what am I talking about, it’s almost always surprising. But still, one contribution to the genre by “Skep tickle” is pretty damn amazing. PZ posted a screen grab, because the contribution is about him. Scroll down to the end of the post. [Read more…]
Another BBC piece on Ebola.
There’s a summit in London to talk about how to deal with the epidemic, which has killed 3,338 people so far. A nurse, William Pooley, spoke at the summit:
Mr Pooley, who was the first Briton to contract the virus during the current outbreak, appealed to the international community to act to prevent the epidemic getting worse.
In an emotional press conference he spoke about the death of a young girl and her brother. [Read more…]
BBC reporter Tulip Mazumdar has a heart-wrenching detailed story on Ebola in Sierra Leone.
The trip from London takes 20 hours instead of 6, because most airlines have stopped flying to Sierra Leone; she has to go via Paris and Casablanca.
At the airport there is bleach, and temperature-checking, and warning information on the walls. The handshake has been replaced by patting one’s own chest. [Read more…]
Laurie Penny says we’re winning. Who? Who’s we? Social Justice Warriors.
She’s been thinking about the reaction – the revenge – from the anti-Social Justice Warriors, and what it means.
The routine, the arguments, have become far too familiar. A woman or a handful of women are selected for destruction; our ‘credibility’ and ‘professionalism’ are attacked in the same breath as we are called ugly, slut-shamed for dismissed either as stupid little girls or bitter old women or, in some cases, both. [Read more…]
David Futrelle reports another instance of Janet Bloomfield telling lies about a feminist to whip up Twitter hatred against her.
Janet Bloomfield – A Voice for Men’s compulsively lying “social media director” – is at it again.
A couple of months back, Bloomfield – who goes by JudgyBitch1 on Twitter – decided for some reason that she could best serve AVFM’s social media directing needs by straight-up libeling feminist writer Jessica Valenti – by making up inflammatory quotes and attributing them to Valenti in a series of Tweets. She later boasted in on her blog that the quotes – which she admitted she’d conjured out of thin air – had inflamed hatred of Valenti and caused her to catch “a bit of hell.” [Read more…]
The ACLU has a press release on the Supreme Court’s denial of review in marriage equality cases today.
NEW YORK – The Supreme Court of the United States today denied review in all of the marriage equality cases pending before it. As a result of the Court’s action, same-sex couples in Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, Oklahoma and Utah will now be able to marry the partners they love. Today’s orders also mean that same-sex marriage will soon become lawful in at least 30 states. [Read more…]
A newly elected state senator in Texas said last week that Christians in the US are treated the way Jews were treated in Nazi Germany.
Charles Perry made the comparison after being sworn in on Tuesday following his victory earlier this month in a special election to replace a retiring state senator, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported.
In his inaugural speech, Perry said a recent trip to a concentration camp in Germany made him draw a comparison between what he believes are efforts by the government to pass laws against religion and the killing of Jews during the Holocaust. [Read more…]