Good news everybody! Our esteemed Treasurer Joe Hockey just told the Kiwis that the Australian economy is not in crisis nor even in trouble!
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ethics & philosophy
ideals, breaches, disappointments and inspirations
QOTD: Neutrality is not neutral. Neutrality supports the status quo.
[Content Note: discussion of graphic rape threats and links to posts that quote them]
the way you personally feel about rape threats is irrelevant. What’s relevant is how you behave when they happen. When you support and promote the work of someone who makes rape threats, you are tolerating rape threats.
TheAmazingAtheist purportedly wrote these words, looked at them, and chose to publish them
UPDATE: It has been shown that there is no evidence that TheAmazingAtheist actually wrote these words, and Kincaid has responded to these allegations. The tumblr from which this quote was sourced has been deleted. Please see below.
Count yourself lucky if you’ve never heard of somewhat popular video-blogger TheAmazingAtheist aka TJ Kincaid. He’s one of the subset of atheists who want certain other atheists to “stop being divisive” via pointing out the injustices of the kyriarchal status quo ongoing within the atheist “movement”. He has ever so many rational and deeply intellectual opinions about life, the universe and everything.
Science outreach and when glorifying heroes can alienate prospects
When science heroes have a documented history of treating some kinds of people badly, their glorification by science fans can be alienating for members of the groups those heroes treated badly.
[I]t is dangerous to rest your scientific outreach efforts on scientific heroes. […] Science outreach doesn’t just deliver messages about what science knows or about the processes by which that knowledge is built. Science outreach also delivers messages about what kind of people scientists are (and about what kinds of people can be scientists).
Media Circus: Palmergeddon edition
This morning the Murdoch Media is full of grotesque caricatures of Clive Palmer focussing on his fat (wow, whodathunkit?) while trumpeting FUD about “chaos” in parliament because one vote on one bill in the Senate has not gone the government’s way. That spinaround didn’t take long, did it?
Palmer’s pursuit of populism has worked in the national interest for this brief moment.
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Morrison’s strategic silence on asylum seekers
Scott Morrison has a lot to say about stopping boats carrying asylum seekers in general, but gives the public only bafflegab about the latest boat in particular.
Media Circus: #FODI clickbait backfires edition
So how’d that “edgy” millennial social media strategy work out for you there?
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Signal Boosting: Mass Closure of Women’s Refuges in NSW
40 years of women’s rights will be undone in June 2014 when many of Sydney’s specialist women’s refuges are forced to close. Under the NSW Government’s new tenders, women-only services were not allowed to tender for women-only services.
Signal Boost: Beatrice Mtetwa
Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa is making two appearances this week in Sydney, on Thursday and Friday.
Media Circus: Budget 2014 Edition
The ABC website has a handy special Budget summary page that will be updated as the announcements roll in. Meanwhile, First Dog In The Moon makes some points about our nation’s hugely expensive mistreatment of refugees and how public servant redundancies which get replaced by more expensive consultants don’t actually help the sacred bottom line.
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Hoyden About Town 