Here is Enkikwe’s rescue.
Butterflies and Wheels
Gnu atheism, women's rights, internationalism, universalism, and gossip
Here is Enkikwe’s rescue.
I came home and found a mysterious stiff envelope in the mail.
It’s a surprise from Jen Phillips.
Lookit!
The gorilla born at the Como Zoo to first-time mother Alice on Wednesday has died, the zoo announced Monday.
The “preliminary hypothesis” is there was difficulty with the newborn’s feeding that led to the death Sunday, the zoo said in a statement. [Read more…]
The Texas State Board of Education voted on a new set of social studies materials on Friday. NPR reports:
That includes some 89 textbooks, workbooks and other classroom materials. The vote matters because, with about 5 million students, the state has a big impact on the national textbook market.
Well it also matters because 5 million students are a lot of students, and they need good textbooks too.
We know how the Texas Board of Ed is. It’s been colonized by Christian Nationalists, who want to teach Christian Nationalist things to captive students. [Read more…]
From India, another item for the annals of “honor” killing.
In a suspected case of honour killing, a 21-year-old Delhi University student was strangled by her parents, who later allegedly set her body on fire, just three days after her marriage to her friend against their wishes. The accused were arrested on Tuesday and sent to judicial custody by a Delhi court.
There was supposed to be a debate on abortion last Tuesday at Christ Church, Oxford. Brendan O’Neill and Timothy Stanley were the scheduled debaters.
That fact by itself fills me with a great cloud of weary irritation. If you want to stage a debate on abortion, why the fuck ask two men to do it? What is the point? Why is it of more interest or significance to hear what two men have to say on the subject than it is to hear what two women have to say? Why just always ignore and jump over women as if they weren’t there, even when talking about things that affect women directly in a way they don’t affect men? Why do that? It’s not as if Brendan O’Neill is such a brilliant thinker or so original or reflective that no one else will do. On the contrary, he’s shallow and highly predictable.
People protested, the debate was canceled, O’Neill is now preening himself on being a martyr for free speech. (What I said – predictable.) [Read more…]
The New York Times has a think piece on the clash between Cosby’s Wholesome Image and the proliferating allegations that he had a decades-long habit of drugging and raping women. It starts off with a very peculiar headline…
For Some Fans, Accusations of Rape Crumble Bill Cosby’s Wholesome Image [Read more…]
Another corroborator of the allegations about Bill Cosby – this time not a woman but a former wing man.
A former NBC employee and Bill Cosby confidante has claimed to the New York Daily News that he acted as a cover-up for the comedian as he slept with women and paid them off.
Well…he’s just doing it for the fame and attention! [Read more…]
What’s new in Kenya: al-Shabaab murdered 28 people on a bus at dawn on Saturday.
The bus travelling to the capital Nairobi with 60 passengers was hijacked about 50 kilometres from the town of Mandera near Kenya’s border with Somalia, said two police officers who insisted on anonymity because they were ordered not to speak to the press.
The attackers first tried to wave the bus down but it didn’t stop so the gunmen sprayed it with bullets, said the police. When that didn’t work they shot a rocket propelled grenade at it, the officers said. [Read more…]
Elsewhere in tvworld, the Duggars are getting some pushback.
A petition on Change.org urging TLC to cancel the family’s reality show, “19 Kids and Counting,” is gaining momentum.
“End LGBTQ fear mongering by the Duggars,” a letter posted on petition page reads. “The Duggars have been using their fame to promote discrimination, hate, and fear-mongering against gays and transgendered people. You need to take a stand on the side of justice and cancel their show.”
The petition currently has over 78,000 signatures.
Not terribly impressive when you note that they have 400,000 likes on their Facebook page, but it’s a start.
Last week, the couple posted a Facebook photo of them kissing and encouraged other married couples to share their own. The caption read, “God designed marriage to be a loving, dynamic relationship between a husband and wife for a lifetime. God loves marriage and it is supposed to be full of love, joy, fun and romance,” it said. “We challenge all married couples to take a happily married picture and post it here.”
John Becker, of LGBT blog “The Bilerico Project,” posted a photo of him kissing his husband. He says his photo was later taken down and that he was banned from the Duggars’ page, according to E! News.
Well it’s like this. God doesn’t want human lips to make contact with other lips except when one of the humans is a man and the other human is a woman and the two of them are married to each other. Any other lip-to-lip contact is haram and sin and bad. Don’t even talk about tongues.