…poorly: The Times responded Wednesday evening to The Cutline: “Neighbors’ comments about the girl, which we reported in the story, seemed to reflect concern about what they saw as a lack of supervision that may have left her at risk,” said Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for the paper. “As […]
Read MoreMore Savage loving
Conversation continues about interpretation of Dan Savage’s sexual ethics. Savage himself responds to Lindsay Beyerstein thusly: Terry and I wouldn’t describe ourselves as monogamous-apart-from-an-occassional because we wouldn’t—couldn’t—feel comfortable using the word “monogamous” in reference to ourselves, not even monogamous-with-an-asterisks, because technically we’re, you know, not. But we kindasorta hate the term […]
Read MoreSue Blackmore decides that religions are not, in fact, viruses of the mind
Cross-posted from State of Formation. Sue Blackmore is one of the go-to voices in the UK on matters of religious thinking and consciousness. She is, believe it or not, an atheist with a PhD in parapsychology. Originally a firm believer in the paranormal, she reached the conclusion in the course […]
Read MoreHow not to represent rape: a report on a Texas travesty
A horrible crime happened in Cleveland, Texas. A small town just northeast of Houston, it has a population of only 9,000 people, but that apparently includes up to 18 boys and men who were willing to take part in the gang rape of an eleven year old girl. I imagine […]
Read MoreDan Savage as sexual ethicist
As president? Well, maybe not…but we could do and have done a lot worse for that, too. Lutheran pastor Benjamin Dueholm wrote an interesting and thorough article on this subject for Washington Monthly. It’s definitely worth a read, though I disagree with some of his analysis. So does Amanda Marcotte, […]
Read MorePalin clarifies– that she still doesn’t understand freedom of speech
From The Daily Caller: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin clarified remarks posted on Twitter this week in response to a Supreme Court ruling in favor of a church that demonstrates at military funerals, saying she was making a point about a double standard on free speech, not that the group […]
Read MoreSpeaking of what makes people laugh becoming a moral issue…
…this is pretty much the definition of it. I’m not sure if I want to write a full-fledged post on this topic or not. As you can see from that timeline it’s a controversy that has been going on since August of last year with frequent twists and turns, and […]
Read MoreShould we be surprised?
So Rock Beyond Belief has apparently been canceled. All of that time and effort put into creating a secular concert and expecting the military to honor its agreement to support the show to the same extent that it supported a Billy Graham evangelical event before, and it’s not going to […]
Read MoreSCOTUS rules in favor of Westboro on funeral protests
Cross-posted from State of Formation. The Supreme Court ruling on Snyder v. Phelps was issued this morning– 8-1 in favor of Phelps, saying that the First Amendment protected the WBC’s right to protest the military funeral. I couldn’t have imagined it going any other way, but there was still a niggling […]
Read MoreMemo to Sarah Palin…
Umm, both your and Westboro’s wacko pronouncements in the public square (such as, for example, this very tweet) invoke God’s name on a regular basis. They got sued for it; you didn’t. It appears their liberty to be religious in public is more in danger than yours is. First Amendment […]
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