Quick question

So, you know how the Old Testament has a bunch of ridiculous and unrealistic rules in it, about not wearing clothes made from two types of fabric, and stoning disobedient children to death and whatnot? And how Christians sometimes inconsistently explain this away by saying that those laws aren’t for us? How they point out [...]

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Not good for government work

I’m still not an anarchist, but I’m still finding the literature interesting. Even outside of the extreme anti-statist stuff, it’s giving me things to think about with regard to democracy, capitalism, and the class structure of society. Most people aren’t anarchists. Most people reckon there are worthwhile benefits to having a system of elected government [...]

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Nazi teens are de-Prussed

I’m an optimist. At least, I try to be, but it probably won’t work. One of the ways in which I like to hope that things will all work out okay in the end, without any real justification except not wanting to feel depressed, is that kids won’t be permanently screwed up by stuff like [...]

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TAM 9 From Outer Space

No, I’m not there. But in the absence of any particularly interesting reporting from me lately, I highly recommend catching up on what’s been going on lately in Las Vegas, at the latest Amazing Meeting. There’s a lot of info on the site, a continual stream of news on the Twitter #TAM9 hashtag, and The [...]

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Were you there?

PZ Myers recently gave some sensitive, measured, and wise advice to a young religious girl. This maniac must be stopped. That might be going a bit far, but Ken Ham’s not happy with him. Ken is a prominent creationist, and blogged about a nine-year-old girl called Emma, who’d got in touch with Ken to tell [...]

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I’m an embarrassment

Okay, there was another thing. The group headache that is elevatorgate trundles on. And I read a couple of things worth reading about it. For a start, ryawesome is embarrassed for the skeptical/atheist movement. And it’s not hard to see why. I do take issue with his “don’t throw a tantrum” dodge by which he [...]

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Murdochtor Murdochtor, give me the news

So, stuff’s been happening. The news seems to be falling apart. I could do some sort of write-up about the ever-increasing flurry of scandals that began with the News of the World’s collapse, but it’s not like pointing out the horribleness of some of the horrible things some people did will really bring anything new [...]

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Return of Teh Menz

Right, I’m finally not too lazy to write about this interesting new collaborative blog I’ve been enjoying. The phrase “What about teh menz?” has an odd place in gender-related and feminist discussions. It refers to the way that, in the middle of a feminist conversation about something presumed to be a feminist matter, the plight [...]

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The Latest Atheist Gender Clusterfuffle

Right. I wasn’t going to talk about this, but I’ve unexpectedly had an opinion, so what the hell. Brief summary of what’s been going on, in case your Twitterstream and RSS feed haven’t been exploding over this in the same way that mine have. Skip the next four paragraphs if you know what I’m talking [...]

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Circumspection of Incision

I’ve not written about this at length before, but not kept my views exactly secret either. Basically, what Marsh said. Having said that, I think much of the anti-circumcision camp can sometimes get bogged down with slightly weaker arguments that they really don’t need to worry about. In particular, when they counter claims about the [...]

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