…and the anti-abortion lobby is cross that she interrupted an attorney (and compared abortioncontraception to other medical procedures – in a case about medical insurance).
culture wars
Broadly, conservatism vs progressives / social liberties vs authoritarianism / social justice vs elitist marginalisation.
Debate vs Inquiry and “Reasonable Debate” as a silencing tactic
Debate is not inquiry. Argument is not skepticism. Fetishizing debate makes us less knowledgeable as a culture and even as a movement, not more.
<okay, sure, we’ve been having these debates for decades now. But let’s dredge it up again. Let’s treat the basic bodily autonomy of people with uteruses** as a subject that’s up for discussion, a subject that reasonable people can disagree about. And let’s be calm and reasonable about it.
The Church Of Bob
There are the beginnings of a promising SFF fandom TOD developing over at Scalzi’s joint, for those who have spare popcorn lying around.
Media Circus: sabre-rattling sparks Cold War nostalgia edition
Conflict in the Crimea, Arizona legislation, biblical amusement parks, celebrities “giving up” and our embarassment of an Immigration Minister.
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
“Post-secular”?
Secular is one of those words that theocratic propagandists have shifted the Overton Window on, to make it seem like secular is the opposite of pluralist when in fact it is only a secular stance that makes pluralism possible. Post-secular? Hm.
Are cultural politics worse than no politics at all?
This is truly enjoyable analysis. There’s a lot of Marxism in it, probably a bit too much for me. And in my opinion it is too blunt in its assessment of pop culture but that aside, this is a great… Read More ›
DUFC #69
Welcome to the 69th Down Under Feminists Carnival. This month read some of the best posts from January 2014.
Today in Tangential Learning: the smell of chloroform
As part of following PZ Myer’s account of a campaign against him on campus from the editor(s) of a right-wing student newspaper, I have learnt what chloroform smells like, and it smells like something present in every office and classroom and most private homes.
Then I searched online for a bit more information about chloroform…
Media Circus: NSW govt goes into one punch crackdown edition
Is any single one of Barry O’Farrell’s proposed new laws that are meant to curb alcohol-fueled violence evidence-based? Or is it all based on good old “common sense” knee-jerking?
What news story/commentary/analysis has grabbed your attention lately?
BFTP | Bless: they’re still confused about weather vs climate
The original version of this post was published almost exactly 4 years ago (2010-01-11) when extreme storms and snow caused havoc in Western Europe. Given that many of the same “so where’s your global warming now?” gotcha tropes are flying around again since the severe cold weather hit Northern America this week, it seems like it needs repeating.
Hoyden About Town 