Outrage in the sexism community

Outrage? What is the sexism community outraged about now? About people complaining about sexism, of course; what else? Stalin!! Mao!!!

It’s the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Bulletin that’s in the hot seat this time. SF and Fantasy are proudly active branches of the sexism community, as we all know, along with gaming and computer science and “skepticism” among others.

A growing chorus of science fiction authors have been speaking out about sexism in the genre after much-criticised recent editions of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s (SFWA) magazine, Bulletin, which featured a woman in a chainmail bikini on the cover and the claim that Barbie is a role model because she “maintained her quiet dignity the way a woman should“. [Read more…]

Elton John’s stage outfits

Russia has unanimously passed a law against “gay propaganda” (as the Independent translates it).

The Indy reported yesterday, before the law passed:

A number of regions have already adopted a similar law, and now MPs from President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party want to implement a nationwide ban on “gay propaganda”.

The law defines the rather nebulous concept as “spreading information aimed at forming non-traditional sexual behaviour among children, suggesting this behaviour is attractive, and making a false statement about the socially equal nature of traditional and non-traditional relationships”. [Read more…]

American Atheists has an urgent request

From Dave Muscato of AA:

We have an urgent message for anyone who may be in a position to help.
Please assist us in spreading the word.

We need to contact anyone who is related to an atheist or other
nonbeliever who died in the terrorist attacks on September 11. This is
extremely time-sensitive.

We need the names of atheist victims of the attacks, and we need
contact information for relatives who knew them personally and can
vouch for the fact that they were nonbelievers.

If you have contact with anyone who knows a victim from 9/11, please
contact us immediately.

Our phone number is 908-276-7300 extension 7, or email
dmuscato@atheists.org. Again this is extremely time-sensitive.

Thank you and please help us spread the word about this to anyone whom
you think is in a position to help.

—
Dave Muscato
Public Relations Director
American Atheists, Inc.
908-276-7300 X7 | dmuscato@atheists.org
www.atheists.org

Robert F Kennedy Jr isn’t afraid to read science

Which is good, according to him, because journalists, according to him, are afraid to read science. Even ones with PhDs in science like Phil Plait and Laura Helmuth (health and science editor of Slate).

As RFK Jr. explained, “journalists get their information from government officials who are saying there’s no problem. Not one of them has picked up the multitude of studies that say thimerosal is the most potent brain killer imaginable.” When RFK Jr. challenged the university scientist about a study of the biological activity of thimerosal in vitro, which “everybody accepts because journalists hadn’t read it,” the scientist said, “ ‘Oh, yeah, you’re right about that.’ He backpedaled.” That’s because “now he was dealing with somebody who wasn’t afraid to read science.”

I talked to the scientist, who would prefer I not use his name because he gets death threats from unhinged anti-vaxxers. He said, “Kennedy completely misrepresented everything I said.”

RFK Jr is an anti-vaxxer. He called up Slate to harangue Helmuth at great length about a piece Phil Plait wrote for Slate last week [Read more…]

Syria: purported teenage atheist murdered

He was fifteen. It’s not even clear that he was an atheist. (But what difference does it make? It’s not as if it’s any more acceptable to murder if they were correct in thinking he was an atheist.)

Coffee seller Mohammad Qataa was allegedly shot in the face and neck a day after being kidnapped by an Islamist group in Aleppo, called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, once previously known as the Nusra Front. [Read more…]

The real culprits

You know that thing about all the raping going on in the US military? You know whose fault that is? I’ll tell you. It’s those pesky liberals trying to “take over the military.” That’s right! They cause all those guys in uniform to trip and fall onto women and get their penises all stuck accidentally up them. It’s a liberal holocaust type of deal.

Fox News contributor Allen West agreed with radio host Michael Savage’s assertion that “Khmer Rouge feminists” are attempting a “coup” against the military by proposing to change the military chain of command in sexual assault cases. West also used the sexual assault issue to criticize liberals for wanting to “put women into combat arms units” “so they can meet some sort of socially engineering goal or egalitarian goal.” [Read more…]

One of these things is not like the other

No.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/PhilosophyExp/status/343880208274825217″]

  1. It wasn’t year long. It was season long – summer 2009. It was about four months, June through September, while the promotion of Unscientific America was in high gear.
  2. It wasn’t incessant. It responded to articles Mooney, or Mooney and his co-author Sheryl Kirshenbaum, wrote attacking “new atheists.”
  3. It lacked a number of features of the harassment campaign that Stangroom is minimizing by tweeting this.

Still. I get that it probably felt like bullying and harassment to them, so in that sense perhaps it was. On the other hand Mooney was a Name at the time, in the wake of the success of his best-seller The Republican War on Science. He was able to get articles published in a lot of very visible mainstream outlets. He made new accusations about “new atheists” each time. I still don’t think it was particularly unfair for bloggers to respond to the accusations. I get that Mooney sees it differently though.

So I should be able to see the same thing about the people who harass me every day, right?

No. Because the two are not comparable. Thanks anyway.

Pick up the Skype

I mentioned yesterday that I was more cheerful about the Dublin conference, and added that it was because there had been some communication. I was cryptic about it because I’d forgotten to ask if it would be ok for me to mention it.

(Some buffoon pretended to think I was making a threat. Seriously – “there’s been some communication” – a threat.

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/atheismplus/status/343548986336112640″]

Not a communication, some communication. And why would that be a threat anyway? Jeezis.)

I repaired the omission today, so I can be less obscure: I’ve talked to Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly, and it went well. (Nothing to BE AFRAID of there, either. It went well, meaning what that normally means, not what it means in a TV show about MI5.)