.png){kind=logo}
I already highlighted Penn Jillette’s Vanity Fair interview in which he praised Christians for being better at taking criticism than Muslims, but this quote from his new Las Vegas Weekly interview, which I found via Boing Boing and Reddit, conveys his feelings as much as his thoughts, and those feelings are both depressing on the one [...]
Archive for the ‘Free Speech’ Category
Penn Jillette Again On The Difference Between Muslims And Christians In Taking Criticism
June 29th, 2010 
Daniel Fincke 
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State 
Tags: Bullshit, Las Vegas Weekly, Penn and Teller, Penn and Teller's Bullshit, Penn Jillette, Scientology 
2 Comments »Supreme Court Upholds University Non-Discrimination Statement
June 28th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Zack Ford explains: Here’s a brief recap of the situation: The University of California has a nondiscrimination policy. If you want to be recognized as a student group (i.e. use the university’s name, access funding for student groups, reserve campus spaces, etc.), you must abide by the nondiscrimination policy. The Christian Legal Society at Hastings [...]
Posted in Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Free Speech, Free Speech, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, Law, Law, Law & Politics, LGBTQAA, Politics, Politics, Religious Rights, Religious Rights Tags: United States Supreme Court, Zack Ford No Comments »The Rise Of Islamo-Erotica
June 15th, 2010 Daniel Fincke (Image: “God Is Great” by Makan Emadi) Betwa Shermer has a really interesting piece about Muslim artists in America who incorporate nudes into their art. Defenses of nudity in art as permissible by Islamic standards: The Lebanese-born artist, who now lives in New York, insists that the taboo stems from a conservative society and not [...]
Posted in Arts, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Islam, Koran, Photography, Religion, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Separation of Church and State Tags: "God Is Great" by Makan Emadi, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Betwa Shermer, Columbia University, Erotica, Harper College, Iranians in America, Islamic Art, Islamo-Erotica, Khalid Al Tahmazi, Makam Emadi, Makan Emdai, Marilyn Monroe, Nada Shabout, Normandie's Hejab, Nudes, Paintings, University of North Texas, Zainab Bahrani No Comments »Should Church Vandalism Be Considered A Hate Crime?
June 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke That’s essentially what New York state senator Jeffrey Klein is arguing when he explains proposed legislation to make vandalizing a house of worship a felony. And I agree with him. Desecrating the grounds of institutions that represent specific subset communities is not simply attacking the specific owners of that property but sending a threatening message [...]
Lars Vilks, Recently Attacked At Speech, Joins “Kill Lars Vilks” Facebook Group
June 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke After he drew Mohammed with the body of a dog, an Al-Qaeda front organization put a bounty on Lars Vilks’s head: $100,000 for killing him and $150,000 if it’s a death by slit throat. He was recently attacked at a talk he was giving when he showed photos of his controversy riling drawings. Now he [...]
Angry Atheist Debate About A Mosque Near Ground Zero
June 7th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Saturday I put together a large post highlighting a spectrum of thoughtful and/or provocative opinions on the recently approved plan to build a mosque a couple of blocks away from the former site of the World Trade Center in New York. That day, for the sake of balance, I wanted to find someone who could [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheistic Ethics, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Islam, Law, Law & Politics, New Atheism, News Discussion, Pat Condell, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Videos, World Affairs Tags: 9/11, Ground Zero, Islamophobia, The Amazing Atheist, World Trade Center 4 Comments »8: The Mormon Proposition
June 7th, 2010 Daniel Fincke 8: The Mormon Proposition, a new movie out in theaters next Friday and available on DVD in July, explores the way that a tax exempt organization has waged a “secretive, decades-long campaign against gay rights”: Thanks to Richard for the link. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Film, Free Speech, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Law, Law & Politics, LGBTQAA, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Same Sex Marriage, Theocrats, Videos Tags: 8: The Mormon Proposition, California Proposition 8, Documentary, Mormons, Proposition 8, Tax Exemptions for Churches No Comments »ZJ Defends “Everybody Draws Muhammad Day”
May 28th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Posted in Free Speech, Islam, Racism, Religion Tags: argument, Censorship, chilling effect, conversion, criticism, Deconversion, Depictions of Mohammed, draws the prophet muhammad, Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, Fear, free expression, guilt by association, intimidation, lds, Mormons, Muhammad cartoons, Muslims, offended, offensive, provocation, provocative, racial prejudice, racist, reactions, religious beliefs, Religious Violence, Responsibility, Rights, salvation army, threats, violation, violent response, Xenophobia, zinnia jones, zj, ZJemptv No Comments »Teachers Suspended For Sprinkling “Holy Water” On Atheist Colleague
May 27th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Last weekend I discussed the incident in which a teacher accused two other teachers of bullying her over her atheism by threatening to sprinkle her with “holy water” (in the form of a bottle of perfume). I agreed with the atheist teacher’s assessment that she was being bullied but did not think the passive aggressive [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheist Videos, Free Speech, Law, Law & Politics, News, News Discussion, Religious Rights, Secularism, Separation of Church and State Tags: Alonzo Neal, Atheist Persecution, Bullying, Danita Kilcullen, Djuna Robinson, Ely High School, Jeff Burnside, Johnny McCray, Leslie Rainer, Pompano Beach Florida, Schandra Rodriguez-Conti, Tea Parties, Tea Party Ft. Lauderdale No Comments »Should Religions Be Exempt From Laws Otherwise Applicable To Others?
May 25th, 2010 Daniel Fincke ProfMTH explores the issue with a wealth of information, siding against such exemptions: The second video is chock full of legal information. The most interesting bit in here is where he discusses Antonin Scalia’s strong case against religious exemptions and Sonia Sotomayor’s general support for them. 1. Regarding Christian Legal Society v. Martinez– –the decision [...]
Posted in Abortion, Applied Ethics, Atheist Videos, Bio-Medical Ethics, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Free Speech, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Homosexuality, Law, Law & Politics, LGBTQAA, News Discussion, Political Secularism, Racism, Religion, Religious Rights, Roman Catholic Church, Same Sex Marriage, Secularism, Separation of Church and State Tags: "The Ministerial Exception", Anti-discrimination Laws, Antonin Scalia, Archbishop Donald Wuerl, Archdiocese of Washington DC, Automatic Charitable Deductions, Bob Jones University, Bob Jones University v. United States, Boy Scouts, Catholic Charities, Catholic Charities of Sacramento v. Superior Court, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany v. Serio, Christian Legal Society, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, Connecticut, Contraception, DC Same Sex Marriage Law, Employment Division v. Smith, Establihsment Clause of 1st Amendment, Federal 9th Circuit, Free Exercise Clause of 1st Amendment, Jonathan Turley, LAPD, Los Angelas Police Department, Mandated Benefits Laws, McClure v. The Salvation Army, Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, Palmore v. Sidoti, ProfMTH, Sonia Sotomayor, Special Rights, Supreme Court of the United States of America, Tax Exemptions for Churches, The New York Times, The Supreme Court, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, University of California Hastings College of Law, Wisconsin Supreme Court No Comments »Teachers Accused Of Bullying Atheist Colleague
May 23rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke South Florida News reports: The district is looking into whether the women at Ely High School tried to bully the counterpart into becoming a believer. “The students whom I interviewed said that’s absolutely untrue,” said Fort Lauderdale attorney Johnny McCray, who represents both teachers, Leslie Rainer and Djuna Robinson. He says the two didn’t have [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Civil Liberties, Featured, Free Speech, Law, Law & Politics, News, News Discussion, Religion, Religious Rights, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Videos Tags: Atheist Persecution, Broward County, Bullying, Djuna Robinson, Leslie Rainer, Pompano Beach High School, Victim Card No Comments »Nigerian Witch-Hunter Tries To Silence Critics
May 21st, 2010 Daniel Fincke Below is the just the first two parts of the British documentary “Saving Africa’s Witch Children”, which exposes the horrendous child abuse carried out in Africa under the pretense of exorcism, followed by today’s New York Times article relaying the denials and excuses offered by Helen Ukpabio, a dangerous promoter of these heinous practices: [Helen] Ukpabio’s critics [...]
Frenchwoman Rips Off Muslim Convert’s Burqa
May 18th, 2010 Daniel Fincke The Telegraph calls it “burka rage”: A 26-year-old Muslim convert was walking through the store in Trignac, near Nantes, in the western Loire-Atlantique region, when she overhead the woman lawyer making “snide remarks about her black burka”. A police officer close to the case said: “The lawyer said she was not happy seeing a fellow [...]
Posted in Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Islam, News, Politics, Religious Rights, World Affairs Tags: burka, Burqa, Burqua Ban, France, Loire-Atlantique No Comments »The Simpsons On South Park’s Mohammed Depiction Problem
April 26th, 2010 Daniel Fincke via Your Thoughts?
Atheist In Liverpool Sentenced To 6 Months In Jail For Blasphemy
April 24th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In late 2008 Harry Taylor was arrested for putting anti-religious leaflets in a prayer room in the John Lennon airport in Liverpool. The specific charge was an Anti-Social Behaviour Order. Here are a few of the images for which he would be going to jail for 6 months were his sentence not suspended for [...]
Posted in Christianity, Featured, Free Speech, Islam, Law, News, News Discussion, Pope Benedict XVI, Separation of Church and State Tags: "Militant Atheism", Anti-Social Behaviour Order, ASBO, Blasphemy Laws, Cartoons, Harry Taylor, John Lennon, John Lennon Airport, Liverpool, National Secular Society, Nicky Lees, Religious Harassment, Terry Sanderson 7 Comments »Justice Stevens and the Separation of Church and State
April 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke The Center For Inquiry pays tribute to retiring Justice John Paul Stevens for his record of affirming the necessity of a wall between church and state: He was a stalwart defender of church-state separation, and through his persuasive powers he was often able to garner a Court majority to support a proper reading of the [...]
Hate Crimes Demonstration: The “YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!” Edition
November 8th, 2009 Daniel Fincke So last month fundamentalists were lying that extending hate crime protections (which already protect religious people to no complaint from anyone, including those so afraid of “thought police”) to gays would result in arrests for anti-gay remarks in sermons. Dan Savage had an ingenious idea for showing the lie that this claim was. The idea [...]
Obama Administration Supports UN Exceptions To Free Speech Protections In Cases Of Religious Speech
October 19th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Upsetting: Around the world, free speech is being sacrificed on the altar of religion. Whether defined as hate speech, discrimination or simple blasphemy, governments are declaring unlimited free speech as the enemy of freedom of religion. This growing movement has reached the United Nations, where religiously conservative countries received a boost in their campaign to [...]
Geert Wilders Arrives In UK
October 17th, 2009 Daniel Fincke The story: From Wilders’s press conference: Here was Pat Condell’s response last winter when the UK banned Wilders from visiting: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Free Speech, Gay Rights, Islam, News, News Discussion, Religious Rights, Secularism, Videos, World Affairs Tags: Geert Wilders, United Kingdom No Comments »My Thoughts On Blasphemy Day
September 30th, 2009 Daniel Fincke So today is “Blasphemy Day.” Here’s what it’s about: Blasphemy Day International is an international campaign seeking to establish September 30th as a national day to promote free speech and stand up in a show of solidarity for the freedom to mock and insult religion without fear of murder, violence, and reprisal. It is the [...]
On The Symbolism Of Book Destruction
September 19th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Over the past few days we’ve been discussing creationists Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron’s plan to freely disseminate 50,000 copies of a new version of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species which they are putting out and which contains a deceptive, creationist introduction filled with bad science and false history. RichardDawkins.net and Pharyngula have encouraged people not only to [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Authoritarianism, Civil Liberties, Creationism, Cultural Secularism, Education, Featured, Free Speech, Intelligent Design, Political Secularism, Politics, PZ Myers, Secularism Tags: Barack Obama, Book Burning, Book Mutilation, Censorship, Joe Wilson, Kirk Cameron, Ray Comfort, Ray Comfort's Version of Origin of Species, RichardDawkins.net, Symbolism No Comments »Does Religious Misogyny Get A Free Pass?
August 28th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom have a book out called Does God Hate Women? Nick Cohen quotes it thusly, Well, what can one say. Religious authorities and conservative clerics worship a wretchedly cruel unjust vindictive executioner of a God. They worship a God of 10-year-old boys, a God of playground bullies, a God of rapists, of [...]
Posted in Atheism, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Cultural Secularism, Feminism, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Law, News Discussion, Political Secularism, Politics, Religious Extremism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Women's Issues, World Affairs Tags: "One Law For All Campaign", Apartheid, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel, BBC, Biblical Misogyny, Cairo Declaration of Human Rights, Jeremy Stangroom, Koranic Misogyny, Maryam Namazie, Misogyny, Nick Cohen, Ophelia Benson, Religious Misogyny, Sha'ria Law, Timothy Garton Ash, United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights, Women's Rights No Comments »Disturbing First Hand Account Of Our Christianist Military
August 26th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Via Unreasonable Faith, comes this piece written by an Army Officer and West Point graduate. Reading this has boiled my blood like nothing in a long time: During my second year at the West Point, my Squad Leader for summer training expressed disapproval on numerous occasions with my being Jewish, and, during one mission, [...]
Judge This: Are The Guns At The Protests And Town Halls A Form Of Terrorism?
August 22nd, 2009 Daniel Fincke David Sirota makes the case: In early August, a protester came to a raucous Tennessee congressional forum packing heat. Days later, President Obama’s healthcare event in New Hampshire was marred by a protester posing for cameras with a pistol and sign reading, “It is time to water the tree of liberty” — a reference to [...]
Religious Extremists Appeased Again
August 12th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Disgraceful: Yale University and Yale University Press consulted two dozen authorities, including diplomats and experts on Islam and counterterrorism, and the recommendation was unanimous: The book, “The Cartoons That Shook the World,” should not include the 12 Danish drawings that originally appeared in September 2005. What’s more, they suggested that the Yale press also refrain [...]
Posted in Comedy, Cultural Secularism, Featured, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Islam, News, News Discussion, Political Secularism, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Videos, World Affairs Tags: Danish Cartoons, John Donatich, Marcus Brigstocke, Muhammad, Reza Aslan, The Cartoons That Shook The World, Yale University Press No Comments »
Recent Comments