Happy Blasphemy Rights Day! (by rkwatson)
Rebecca reads a fantastic quote from Robert Ingersoll.
Deploying this statute to combat online copyright infringement seems almost like using a bunker-busting cluster bomb, when what you need is a precision-guided missile
—
Ron Wyden about COICA
Oregon Senator Wyden effectively kills Internet censorship bill | Raw Story
(via fred-wilson)
My senator!
Free Speech for Hamsters (via DSisterson)
A little parable on the pitfalls of free expression…for hamsters.
(In case it’s not totally clear to everyone - I’d like to point out that the opinions of the narrator are not necessarily those of the animator-!)
Oh, Eric the Hamster :-(
Many student groups participated in “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” without too much trouble. Yes, there was controversy and disagreement, but no real threats. On the other hand, Molly Norris, the cartoonist and creator of “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day,” hasn’t been so lucky:But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is, as they put it, “going ghost”: moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity. She will no longer be publishing cartoons in our paper or in City Arts magazine, where she has been a regular contributor. She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program—except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab. It’s all because of the appalling fatwa issued against her this summer, following her infamous “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” cartoon.
So ridiculous.
My response to the Islamic uproar over the Florida preacher who was planning to burn the Koran on 11 September was to say that that’s too bad, we have a right to destroy our own property, and that the responses people were making to this trivial event were hysterical and inappropriate.
Informing me that the Muslims are genuinely and sincerely and deeply offended is not informative — contrary to the suggestion that I must have an empathy deficit to be unaware of that, I know that and appreciate the fact that their feelings are hurt and they are angry and outraged. My point is that I don’t care, and neither should anyone else. The Abrahamic religions are all about fostering that feeling of oppression, even when it isn’t there, and hearing yet another one of the more deranged members of the People of the Book whine that we show insufficient respect for their mythology gives me the same feeling of exasperation I felt when my small children would wail about not getting a candy bar in the grocery store. Fine, you can be mad about your deprivation, but that does not obligate me to serve your whims.
—PZ Myers
(Source: http)
Glenn Beck Rally: The Bibletution & other Civics lessons- TBS (via SamSeder)
The latest “That’s Bullshit.” Bunch of loonies…
Fucking love him.
….. and now back to our regularly scheduled programming……
Amazing!
Burning Books (Tina Dupuy) (via thetopvlog)
Here’s the thing: I have mixed feelings about the whole book-burning issue.
On the one hand, I think it’s awful. It reminds me of Nazis. It reeks of anti-intellectualism (usually, not always). I’m actually not keen on the idea of burning books that I dislike (such as religious texts). I like that as humans we are able to think and imagine, and then transcribe those thoughts onto paper so that they might be transmitted further than otherwise possible and become a history of those thoughts. In many cases (such as this church), I don’t think they’re saying anything more than “Grrr… we don’t like you!”
On the other hand, people have the right to burn a book. They have a right to express their opinion. I think this falls under our free-speech rights.
So (to connect this to another hot topic) does this put me in the position of being like the people that say that the Park 51 funders have every right to locate the community center near ground zero but they probably shouldn’t?
I hope not.
I may hate the idea of burning books, but I would never support a law to ban it or tell this church that they shouldn’t. That’s part of being an American; people can do some pretty offensive things (ahem, Westboro).
Anyone have a different perspective?
People have a right to their beliefs” is a terrible argument against atheist activism. Of course people have a right to believe whatever they like. But people don’t have a right to never have their beliefs questioned and criticized. We question and criticize all other kinds of ideas — why should religion be the exception?
—Greta Christina
(Source: gretachristina.typepad.com)
But again, defense does not automatically equal agreement. Nor does defense automatically equal respect. Muslims can build their community centers and mosques, but I’ll still vocally say that their beliefs are wrong. Allah almost certainly does not exist. Islam is, on average, more violent than other current religions - it’s like getting in a time machine and seeing Christianity in the middle ages. Islam is one of the most oppressive religions toward women, and hijabs and burkas are tools of that oppression.
But Muslims should be able to build mosques and wear burkas if they want, because censorship is never the answer. If we want to defend the rights of some minorities, we must defend the rights of all minorities. And if you’re truly concerned with making Islam more progressive or having more Muslims become less religious, taking away their rights isn’t exactly the best way to open up communication.
Trust me, as an atheist, I’d be very happy to see fewer mosques, churches, and temples springing up around the country… If it was because less people feel the need for organized religion and superstitious thinking, not because we fearmongered them out of organizing.
Frienemies (via markfiore)
