From Jason’s megapost on privilege and strawprivilege.

Our minds are notoriously buggy machines, being made of meat and all. We’ve evolved toward certain biases in daily living, one of the biggest of which is that we can filter out things as white noise. Normally this is a huge advantage — there is so much going on all the time that we would be immobilized by trying to process it all, since our brains — fast though they are — are pitifully underpowered. Evolution came up with the trick of being able to ignore certain inputs as unnecessary. Thus, you stop hearing rain on your window after laying in bed for a while. Thus, you stop noticing every tiny irrelevant movement on your periphery while driving down the road, focusing only on that which presents an immediate danger to you. You ignore the flock of birds flying overhead, the cloud that looks like a bunny, while you get on with your business of avoiding the child that just chased a ball into the street. [Read more…]

Tunisia is considered one of the more secular states in the region. And yet –

Thirty-year-old Tunisian blogger and secular activist Lina Ben Mhenni is concerned about death threats posted on her Facebook page and sent to her mobile phone.

“You see this message is in Arabic, it reads: ‘You infidel, we will kill you.'”

Pointing to another message, she says: “And this is just as clear: ‘We will find you.'”

If there’s anything that’s not secular, it’s the concept of being an “infidel.” [Read more…]

Continuing in the poetic vein – the Cuttlefish has a great one.

I love to start fires; it’s just what I do—

I’ve started them all over town—

But recently, folks have begun to complain,

And they’re working on shutting me down.

I’m just having fun, but they say that it’s wrong;

I’m a danger, or that’s what they say.

I want lots of fires; they’re screaming for none:

Why can’t they just meet me half way?

Read the whole thing.

The analogy speaks to me, because about 20 years ago there was a bad arsonist at work in North Seattle, where I lived at the time. [Read more…]

Mona posted a sonnet poem on my Facebook page.

You have no enemies, you say?
Alas, my friend, the boast is poor,
He who has mingled in the fray
Of duty, that the brave endure,
Must have made foes. If you have none,
Small is the work that you have done.
You’ve hit no traitor on the hip,
You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip,
You’ve never set the wrong to right.
You’ve been a coward in the fight.

— Charles Mackay (26 March 1812 – 24 December 1889), author of a history of popular folly, “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”

It’s very appealing, but I have an inner daimon or teaser or pest or red flag or something, that won’t let me accept the compliment, much as I’d like to. [Read more…]

In better news – althought it’s better news we shouldn’t have needed in the first place – the Obama admin has lost its more-Republican-than-thou battle to delay a ruling that makes emergency contraceptives available to women and girls of all ages.

Three judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit did grant the White House its requested delay to keep one-pill products, like Plan B One-Step, restricted to females 15 and over. The court will not, however, allow any age restrictions on other two-pill emergency contraceptive products.

Well good. Thank you for small favors.

Jessica Valenti is not a fan of “don’t feed the trolls.”

Don’t feed the trolls: it’s probably the most common refrain in online  discussions, especially when dealing with misogynists in feminists conversations. The idea is that the best way to deal with sexists is to starve of them of the attention they’re so clearly desperate for. Besides, we think, why sink to their level?

But the high road is overrated. It requires silence in the face of violent misogyny, and a turn-the-other cheek mentality that society has long demanded of women. A vibrant feminist movement has ensured women don’t take injustices  lying down offline—so why would we acquiesce on the Internet?

Because it’s trivial. It’s just messing around. It doesn’t matter. It’s not as if it’s like racism or anything. [Read more…]

Lindy West gets a torrent of abuse for…the horrible crime of arguing that

comedy’s current permissiveness around cavalier, cruel, victim-targeting rape jokes contributes to (that’s contributes—not causes) a culture of young men who don’t understand what it means to take this stuff seriously.

What kind of abuse? Silly. You know what kind. She screencapped a slew of it. Ugly, nobody wants to rape you, cunt, fat, panties in a bunch. That kind.

Take a look. You’ll recognize one or two of the fun-loving abusers.

It gets crazier every day. You would think it couldn’t, but it does.

The new thing is to send open or closed letters to Michael Nugent, telling him a pack of lies about me (mixed with a small amount of truth) and demanding that he take a stand and denounce me.

The first was the work of Tim Skellett aka Gurdur, who took a violent dislike to me years ago – something to do with the closing down of the forum at the Dawkins Foundation, and my having the wrong attitude to it – and has occasionally posted nasty stuff about me ever since. His open letter is all about my criminal act of not sufficiently protecting the secrecy of people who drop in on my blog to harass or taunt me. He adds the story of Katie Graham and her tweet, and on that subject he tells the biggest lies in the whole post. Even Graham, who detests me, said the account is totally inaccurate and that I didn’t do anything wrong. It’s too bad she said it only on her blog (which she says no one reads) and not at the places where the inaccurate accounts are, but at least she said it.

So hey, this is a fun game, right? So others are joining in.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/Metaphoenix42/status/341319246627864577″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/SubManUSN/status/341319509975658497″]

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/SubManUSN/status/341330379074068480″]

“Sub man” posted his on his blog.

The blogs, as you know allow the author some revealing information merely by the person “logging in”. IP address, e-mail address, etc. How can women feel safe in voicing their opinion? Indeed, how can any of us who might suffer real life repercussions from having our atheism revealed to our bosses, clients, and social circles?

I hope you read that blog post as I (and many others) did, as the Nuremberg Race Law of 1935. It is the first step in declaring open war on those who do not walk in lockstep with the dogma. There will be casualties on both “sides” if this type of behavior is not met with harsh reprimands from conference organizers and leaders in the atheist community. You know the mood of this rift, both entrenched sides will declare ever more trivial “offenses” worthy of doxxing.

I am asking you, as a leader of a humanist organization to make a public stand denouncing this linked blog post and the consequences that any rational person can see for this type of threatening of and actual release of information which could cause real world harm to real world people on both “sides” of this rift.

Is this the type of “community” you want to be involved with? Please make a stand, sir.

Yours truly,

Submariner

And Michael Nugent tells them he will respond.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/micknugent/status/341593020984082432″]

So Nugent will respond, and no doubt he will “make a stand” and agree with Sub Man that my blog post about “Skep tickle” is like the Nuremberg Race Law of 1935. Either he will disinvite me from the conference, or I will be forced to withdraw, because the slime pit will do whatever it takes to hound me out.

Stephanie has some reflections on the slime pit. She includes a comment that represents their obsessive horror and disgust at my ancient dried-up genitalia.

Had Ophelia gone to the pit to check out the weirdness showing up in her comments, this is what she’d have seen:

Regarding Skep Tickle, I am too dense/do not read enough to have seen the alleged subtle outing of you already, but FUCK YEAH. EXPOSE THAT DRIED UP VAGINA TO THE WINDS OF TRUTH, AND WATCH THEM SCOUR AWAY THE DUST OF AGES.

Ahem. Or something.

I found a different one a few hours ago, when I looked for a sample to send to the president of Seattle Atheists, who had been pestering me about “Skep tickle.” It was on the page where “Skep tickle” incited them to rage by reporting my putative “doxxing.” She incited them all right.

Re: Jim the Pleb Made Me Do It

by Lsuoma » Mon May 27, 2013 9:12 pm • [Post 25431]

Skep tickle wrote:Okay, so let’s just say that Ophelia Benson emails me at an email address* that isn’t the one under which I posted at her site, one which I haven’t used it at FtB in many months (if not a year or so), and in that email addresses me by my professional title & last name, chastising me for my post(s) at her site today.

If that happened, would it be fair game for me to post the content of that email here? (With her email address, and mine, redacted. But without having sought, or gained, her permission to post it.)

*It’s also not the email address I use for communication about the Nugent site…but it IS the email I use for the Slyme pit. Hmmm…

Zebra tits, I could tell by her responses today – including the use of your first name – that she’s aching to out you. She’s going to almost moisten her panties as soon as she can post any pointer to your identity online or offline.

As soon as you do what you’re suggesting, the floosh from her vajayjay will be like a fricking tsunami of dust, so wear a mask, and also be prepared for ALL your details to be <*>accidentally<*> leaked to the webz.

But this is a place where you can post what you want…

That’s where “Skep tickle” feels at home.

So what’s next? They’ll report me to the FBI? Interpol? The ICC? The UN Human Rights Commission?

I don’t know. I can’t guess. It will continue to escalate, but I can’t predict how.

In Greece the cops are torturing anti-fascist protesters, apparently; at least that’s what the protesters claim.

Fifteen anti-fascist protesters arrested in Athens during a clash with supporters of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn have said they were tortured in the Attica General Police Directorate (GADA) – the Athens equivalent of Scotland Yard – and subjected to what their lawyer describes as an Abu Ghraib-style humiliation.

Members of a second group of 25 who were arrested after demonstrating in support of their fellow anti-fascists the next day said they were beaten and made to strip naked and bend over in front of officers and other protesters inside the same police station.

One wonders if the cops are Golden Dawn. [Read more…]