We are going to have to get better at managing difference, people. I learn via Catallaxy that one of the anti-gay signatories to the ‘Doctors for the Family’ senate submission has resigned from his position on Victoria’s Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. I carry no brief for ‘Doctors for the Family’; fellow Skeptic Chrys Stevenson [...]
… Marie Curie: the only person ever to win two Nobel prizes in two sciences. I am currently in examination hell, hence my diminished substantive contributions to the blog. I will be out of gaol on May 24 (last exam) and will then take a week or so off, but I’m afraid not much more than [...]
A real life study: Stephenson, G. R. (1967). ‘Cultural acquisition of a specific learned response among rhesus monkeys.’ In: Starek, D., Schneider, R., and Kuhn, H. J. (eds.), Progress in Primatology, Stuttgart: Fischer, pp. 279-288. [A gentle tip of the hat to Terje P] ———————————- Also: our viewing stats have gone fairly silly since Larvatus [...]
I’m blogging about Easter again, sorry. This time spurred by an online conversation between friends about the appropriateness or not of being wished “Happy Easter” on Good Friday. Classicists of the world, wrack off – yes I DO know the entire event was probably lifted from pre-existing pagan rites of spring, but for the purposes [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Also posted in Art, Australia, Blogging, Britain, Events, Fark!, General, History, Media, Personal, Philosophy, Politics, Popular culture, Religion, Society, Terrorism
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Tagged 9/11, christianity, Easter, ground zero, islam, Jesus, Jonathan Jones, Judaism, magnum, New York, photography, september 11th, the guardian, the meaning of 9/11's most controversial photo, The Passion, Thomas Hoepker, twin towers
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What would Joseph Kony do If he were here right now? He’d burn a blond gay muppet or two, That’s what Joseph Kony’d do. Last week, it emerged that the M25 — for those not in the know, the ‘London Orbital’ and Britain’s biggest carpark — was turning into a tourist attraction, presumably by means of [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Britain, Children, Fark!, Funnies, Internet, Marriage, Popular culture, Public Policy, Racism, Religion, Sexuality
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Tagged #Kony2012., Aaron Stewart-Ahn, charity, Charlie Brooker, gay rights, Glee, homophobia, Invisible Children, Jason Russell, jon stewart, Joseph Kony, Justin Beiber, Matt Stone, Médecins Sans Frontières, Nietzsche, Patrick Barkham, ressentiment, Russell Blackford, Sokal Hoax, South Park, Teju Cole, Tracey Rowland, Trey Parker, Uganda, Zoolander
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February 23, 2012 – 2:19 am
Apologising for something one does not think is wrong is not very nice. Apart from anything else, it is insincere. I have done it several times in my life, once publicly. The public apology was not a success for anyone concerned (me or those who disliked me), and I have long since retracted it. Sometimes [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Britain, England, Fark!, History, Law, scotland
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Tagged Adam Lusher, Camilla Long, Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph, kevin rudd, Mary Ann Sieghart, richard dawkins, Stolen generations, stolen generations apology, Tony Abbott, tories who should bloody know better
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February 17, 2012 – 3:02 pm
We just got a notice from my daughter’s state school yesterday inviting us to choose which religious education class we’d like to enrol her in. There were a multitude of choices: Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Ba’hai, Buddhist and Hindu (an accurate reflection the nature of her school, I think). Finally, there was the choice to ‘opt [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Human/Civil rights, Law, Parenthood, Personal, Philosophy, Religion, Society
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Tagged atheism, Ba'hai, Buddhism, Children, christianity, conscientious objection, discrimination, Education, equal opportunity act, faith, FIRIS, Hinduism, humanism, islam, Jesus, Judaism, parenthood, primary school, religion education, religious, Russell Blackford, school, secularism
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February 10, 2012 – 8:50 am
We try to avoid meta around these parts, but the trainwreck on the #equalmarriage thread has prompted some necessary thinking on all our parts, and an admission from me. First, the thinking. This blog — in having four writers with differing politics — is a risky venture. Going by other blogs around the traps, a [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Blogging, Fark!, Feminism, Free Speech, Human/Civil rights, Law, Marriage, Middle east
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Tagged #equalmarriage, abortion, Andrew Parle, Aquinas, Barry Goldwater, climate change, Israel/Palestine, Jürgen Habermas, meta, Russell Blackford, sockpuppeting, Tom G. Palmer, Will Wilkinson
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February 9, 2012 – 7:40 am
On 2 February 2012, I attended the launch of Russell Blackford’s new book, Freedom of Religion and the Secular State. I’ve finished the book so I thought I’d write a brief review as well as some comments on the visible move to secularism in one of my areas of study, trusts law. Blackford’s central thesis [...]
By Legal Eagle
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Also posted in Academia, Australia, Blogging, Free Speech, History, Human/Civil rights, Law, Personal liberty, Philosophy, Politics, Public Policy, Religion, Society
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Tagged Boo Hoos, burqa, Free Speech, freedom of religion, Freedom of Religion & The Secular State, History, John Locke, Law, Religion, Russell Blackford, secularism, society, trust law, Trusts
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February 4, 2012 – 8:12 pm
Like most people, I have donated to my fair share of charities, and have also (in a professional capacity) provided legal advice to a couple. I must admit, however, that I haven’t paid a great deal of attention to ‘the charitable sector’ the way some people do. Of course, I’ve periodically heard dark rumours that [...]
