There is an age-old adage when it comes to argument – “turnabout is fair play”. Basically, the idea is that if an argument is reasonable in one direction, then it’s entirely reasonable when turned around and used the other way. When a homeopath demands 100% positive proof that homeopathy doesn’t work, it is an entirely …
Monthly Archive: January 2011
Jan 28 2011
Movie Friday: Show me a God
There’s never been a conscientious believer who has gone through life completely free of doubt. There is an interesting passage in Mark 9 in which Jesus is asked to heal a child with epilepsy, and the father is told that all he has to do is believe hard enough, and his son will be cured …
Jan 27 2011
This too, also
And another one, archived here for future reference. I know it would be nice if you could be “non-racist” by simply not being actively racist, but sadly it ain’t the case.
Jan 27 2011
THIS
I’ve been looking for this comic forever, and I’m glad someone on one of the only tumblrs I can stand to read re-posted it. I am re-posting it here so I never have to go hunting for it again. If you’ve been directed to this page by me, it’s because you have repeatedly demonstrated your …
Jan 27 2011
Another case study of cultural tolerance
This morning I explored the stupid side of one of my pet topics, the idea of cultural tolerance. Basically, the argument goes that since we have a variety of cultures all calling this great country of ours “home”, we are called to make reasonable accommodations for different cultural practices. The important word in that last …
Jan 27 2011
“Cultural Sensitivity” meets clear stupidity
It’s been a while since I talked about one of my first pet topics, the burqa bans going on in various places in the world. The point I laboured to make in those early articles was that there may be some specific circumstances under which it is better for society to brook some contravention of …
Jan 26 2011
This is horrible
I am in favour of a woman’s right to make her own sexual choices. This encapsulates her right to choose her sexual partner, her right to use contraception, and her right to choose whether or not she has a child. I am unmoved by the “logic” of the anti-choicers, which conflates the life of a …
Jan 25 2011
Cross-burning comes to a close
One of the very first stories I talked about when I started this site about a year ago was the cross burning incident in Nova Scotia, where an interracial couple woke to find a flaming cross on their lawn. That story has come to a close: The second of two brothers who burned a cross …
Jan 25 2011
I get spam e-mail
I get a lot of spam, to be sure, but I just delete most of it when I see it. This one I thought was particularly fun though: Dear Friends in Christ, I greet you out there in Jesus Lovely (oh good, we finally have a surname for the guy) name. I am the way, …
Jan 24 2011
Religion is bad; that’s why I have FAITH
Maybe this has happened to you before. For the past 2 or 3 weeks, I’ve found myself using the phrase “distinction without a difference” in conversation over and over again. It hadn’t previously been part of my usual lexicon, although I know the phrase well. It describes a circumstance in which two concepts are contrasted, …
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