At the end of August, epidemiologists in Texas traced a measles outbreak to people who attended a particular megachurch, the pastor of which has preached against vaccinations. The pastor has apparently repented that stupid move.

Fortunately, that outbreak was able to be pretty well-contained — after the disease sickened about 21 people, Texas issued a public health alert and quickly found the source of the issue. The megachurch’s pastor was very cooperative and even agreed to host several free clinics to encourage the congregation to get their shots.

That’s good, but a fundamentalist area of the Netherlands isn’t doing so well. [Read more…]

Bad idea department.

An online nursery based in Raleigh, didn’t like the original name of one of the plants they were selling, so they changed the name to Domestic Violence. You know — because they thought the new name was funny.

What is worse, the reason Plant Delights chose that name is because the plant colors are black and blue.

Yes, bad idea is definitely the department you’re looking for.

 

More from #standwithpax, because it’s that funny.

Neil Edmondson @NeilJEdmondson

I #standwithpax because the west cannot compete with China when tech is staffed by man hating feminists and leukophobic race hustlers.

You cannot innovate or disrupt while bound by the chains of political correctness #standwithpax

Chad Daring II @Single_WM

How much smoke is gonna come out of the ears of the uber liberals tweeting me bcuz I #standwithpax when they realize I’m dating a black girl [Read more…]

The  Foundation Beyond Belief has launched an urgent fund drive in response to the worsening Syrian refugee crisis.

FBB explains:

Our staff evaluated several charities working to aid Syrian refugees and selected International Rescue Committee as the beneficiary of our crisis response drive. The IRC is working in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq to provide the following assistance:

• In Syria, more than 700,000 vulnerable people have been served to date with medical and emergency supplies. The IRC’s Emergency Response Team is at work in camps for the displaced, providing clean water and sanitation, education to primary students, and emergency supplies to families.   [Read more…]

A couple of days ago Dan Fincke posted a cartoon on his Facebook page, and a lively discussion followed. The cartoon was about the bind women are in: no matter what we do, we get shit for it. Be more feminine/you’re a slut type of thing. I have Dan’s permission to quote from the discussion (and his posts are public, so you can see it for yourself). Part of what made it extra interesting is that Ben Radford participated. Yes that Ben Radford.

Ben Radford I agree with the premise, but unfortunately the piece ignores important distinctions between WHO is saying these things: A respected parent, or an anonymous Internet troll? Just because someone hears a criticism (or compliment) doesn’t mean they pay attention to it or influences them.

That’s convenient, isn’t it. No worries. Internet trolls don’t matter, and people at work don’t matter, and shouts on the street don’t matter – we can all just go back to sleep. [Read more…]

It’s fun to read the tweets under #standwithpax. A few are serious and a lot more are sarcastic. Both sets are funny.

Mike Booth @somegreybloke

I’m going to go #standwithpax and play the world’s tiniest violin whilst laughing.

barefootwriter @bfwriter

if by unpopular you mean ignorant, incorrect, and harmful, then yes, we’re all mad at Pax for expressing unpopular opinions. #standwithpax [Read more…]

Four of the Bangladeshi atheist bloggers have been charged with “defaming Islam” and other bullshit, and could get seven years in prison if they’re convicted, AFP reports.

Judge Zahirul Haque, sitting in a court in the capital Dhaka, said the bloggers were being charged under the country’s Internet laws, senior public prosecutor Shah Alam Talukdar told AFP.

“They have been indicted… with defaming Islam, the Prophet Mohammed and other religions through their Internet writings. They spread malice against all religions,” he said. [Read more…]

Ken White has a post about Pax Dickinson at Popehat.

He starts by pointing out that free speech does not mean that speech will and must be free of consequences.

Speech has consequences.  It ought to.

In America, we have an elaborate set of laws strictly limiting the government’s ability to inflict those consequences.  That is right and fit; the First Amendment prevents the government from punishing us for most speech.

Private consequences are something else. Speech is designed to invoke private and social consequences, whether the speech is “venti mocha no whip, please,” or “I love you,” or “fuck off.”¹ The private and social consequences of your speech — whether they come from a barista, or your spouse, or people online, or people at whom you shout on the street — represent the free speech and freedom of association of others.

Yet people often confuse these categories. It’s one of the fundamental errors of free speech analysis that I like to write about the most.

I think Jason Walsh was doing that on Twitter a few hours ago, but I can’t be sure, because he never did answer my question asking what he meant by “off colour.” But I digress. Ken goes on to say criticism of Pax Dickinson led to the creation of a hashtag #StandWithPax, and to quote a tweet –

I #standwithpax because being offended is not grounds to start a witch hunt.

Paging Russell Blackford, paging Michael Shermer, paging paging paging.

The foundation of “witch hunt” rhetoric is the notion that some free speech (say, Pax’s) is acceptable, and other free speech (say, the speech of people criticizing and ridiculing Pax and his employer) is not. You can try to find a coherent or principled way to reconcile that, but you will fail. Pax Dickinson is not stupid. He tweeted provocative things, which have a natural and probable tendency to cause social consequences, seeking the social consequences he wanted:  the admiration of the like-minded, the anger of people he could laugh at, and general attention.

But not too much attention; not the wrong kind of attention; not the attention of his boss, for instance.

There’s this guy Pax Dickinson, who likes to be provocative on Twitter. For “provocative” you could substitute various other words, but let’s go with the more neutral word for now. Nitasha Tiku wrote about him yesterday.

What has two thumbs and a homophobic, racist, misogynistic, classist worldview? Pax Dickinson. We just noticed this vile Twitter account from Business Insider’s chief technology officer today. But he’s been at it for awhile.

She includes a lot of screen-capped tweets.

In The Passion Of The Christ 2, Jesus gets raped by a pack of niggers.  It’s his own fault for dressing like a whore though.

1:31 PM – 14 Jul 2010

feminism in tech remains the champion topic for my block list. my finger is getting tired.

1:57 PM – 9 Sep 2013 [Read more…]

HRW reports that an eight-year-old girl died on her “wedding night” after her “husband” used her for sex.

Kuwaitis have called for stringent action against a family in Yemen after their eight-year-old daughter died of internal injuries on the first night of her arranged marriage to a man more than five times her age.

Rawan died in city of Hardh in the Governorate of Hajjah in northwestern Yemen, Kuwaiti daily Al Watan reported on Sunday, quoting Yemeni media.

She is believed to have suffered a tear to her genitals and severe bleeding.

Yemeni activists urged the local police to arrest the “beastly groom” and the girl’s family and transfer them to a court where justice would be served and the case would be used to help put an end to the practice of marrying very young girls in the impoverished country, the daily said.

Good luck.