The Pope’s Weaselly Excuses For Church Child Abuse In The ’70s

On Christmas, the Pope Benedict XVI tried, pathetically, to minimize the Church’s responsibility for the pedophilia scandals: Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict’s claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn’t considered an “absolute evil” as recently as the 1970s. In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, [...]

“No Longer Quivering”

What a great name for a blog. Your Thoughts?

France To Ban Burqa-Like Veils

EuroNews.net writes: A law banning the wearing of a full Islamic veil in public in France has been adopted by the lower house of parliament. The ruling UMP and the New Centre party voted for the ban on the burqa or niqab while the Socialists, Communists and Greens abstained. The law goes to the upper house in [...]

Love, Polygamy, And Arranged Marriage In The Tanzanian Maasai Tribe

Cultural variation is amazing: Your Thoughts?

Iranian Woman Sentenced To Stoning After Being Lashed 99 Times Until She “Confessed” Adultery

CNN reports: Ashtiani, 42, will be buried up to her chest, according to an Amnesty International report citing the Iranian penal code. The stones that will be hurled at her will be large enough to cause pain but not so large as to kill her immediately. Ashtiani, who is from the northern city of Tabriz, was [...]

The Asian Sex Trade

“The sex trade now accounts for 14% of Thailand’s economy.” Your Thoughts?

Louisiana To Require Ultrasounds Before Abortions

It was a unanimous 79-0 vote: Women seeking abortions in Louisiana will be required to get an ultrasound first, even if they are a victim of rape or incest, under a bill that received final legislative passage Wednesday. The bill by Democratic state Sen. Sharon Broome of Baton Rouge was sent to the governor’s desk [...]

Sex And The City 2 (And Religion) (And Feminism) (And Race) (And Homophobia)

Diana Bass complains: It just wasn’t very funny to see four smart American women parading western consumerism and sexualized identity in blatantly insensitive and anti-religious ways in a traditional world. Wait a minute, what she describes may not be funny but it’s certainly the best thing I’ve heard about the film from everything that I’ve [...]

Daily Hilarity: Best Of Sarah Haskins’s “Target Women”

Sarah Haskins always provides the most hilarious and incisive commentary tearing into the lousy logic and vapid condescension packed into advertisements targeted at women on her recurring Infomania segment called Target Women. Her dry witted satirical media criticism would be a perfect fit on The Daily Show and in logic classes. Every time I watch one of [...]

Tony Blair On Our Allies Who Live Within Theocracies

Michael Shermer got the chance to ask Tony Blair how we spread various central Western ideals of democracy, education, civil liberties, equality, etc. in hostile theocratic countries without resorting to military force.  Part of Blair’s answer: “It’s one of the great myths perpetrated in our own societies is that somehow people who live in oppressive [...]