Inconsistency and intolerance
Can a neat distinction be made between the niqab and the hijab, allowing for us to tolerate one and not the other? Or if this is inconsistent, do we permit both or ban both?
Can a neat distinction be made between the niqab and the hijab, allowing for us to tolerate one and not the other? Or if this is inconsistent, do we permit both or ban both?
Lance Armstrong acted unethically in lying, as well as in seeking retribution against whistleblowers. While he also broke the rules in taking EPO, the rules he broke are inconsistent and arbitrary restrictions, premised on an illusion of sporting purity.
It is only when you get to choose what your “culture” is – and not have it forced upon you – that it becomes remotely respectable.
Ever wondered if you could do Reiki in your sleep? Or, been kept awake thinking about when the world is going to end? These and other pressing issues are addressed at the wonderfully amusing White Mountain Remedy Devices website.
It’s not clear to me that things like Blasphemy Day are a good idea. They do cost the atheist movement some goodwill, and to the extent that they might change minds, I’m not convinced that they change minds with sufficiently increased probability over more sensitive criticisms.
Defining morality as necessarily absolute and objective is an illegitimate way to privilege religious morality, even as it continues to become less and less useful to people living in a modern world. Not only less useful, but also potentially harmful.
No, Dawkins is not a fundamentalist, and he didn’t say that being taught about hell is worse than sexual abuse. But hey, if it’s cartoon villains you want, I guess he’ll do as fine a job as any.
Sometimes, one simply despairs when considering the idiocy this species is capable of, such as the authorities in Swaziland deciding that victim-blaming in cases of rape should become official policy.
Is it plausible that a Jewish man would – in 2012 – call for Jewish folk to be labelled with a “mark of shame”? Well, plausible or not, it’s just happened.
And again, way too much energy is being spent on deriving the least flattering interpretation of...
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