As I’ve been jumping from place to place as part of the beginning of my PhD, I’ve had little time to post. That’s probably not going to change much in the near future so this blog may go fairly quiet. To keep things going, I will share an older video that shows the history of humanity in two minutes and which always gives me the shivers. Hopefully everyone can recognise the majority of the events and concepts that are shown as many are iconic in their own right.
In what I consider a wildly misguided attempt to improve gender equality, the EU is preparing to vote on banning all forms of pornography. Rick Falkvinge has described the vote as a deceptively named (Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU) bill that was “really about tearing down the most fundamental of our rights and liberties.”
While gender equality is a noble cause this is not an ideal way to go about achieving it and would have terrible consequences for our freedom of expression. Whether one believes pornography has intrinsic value or not, should be protected for those that wish to partake in it. I’m not saying that it’s never sexist or stereotyping but rather that it is not that by definition nor does all pornography involve gender stereotyping. As an article from today in the Telegraph points out some of the problems with the thoughts underpinning this vote but a number of them should be obvious. Continue reading
It appears, in Europe, that Islamic groups are attempting to ban dogs from appearing in public. In Islam dogs are “unclean” and, as usual, this religious viewpoint must apparently be respected and adhered to even by those of no or other faiths. Not only has this led to several poisonings of dogs but even attempting to respect their views is unacceptable. One woman said that Muslims shouldn’t apply to work with her because she has a dog. Instead of being grateful for her sensitivity to Islamic culture she had a complaint lodged against her by an anti-discrimination organisation!
Religious rules apply only to members of a religion. One cannot expect someone else to follow the tenets of their religion, especially not when they are based on superstitious nonsense.
EDIT: The Islam Democrats deny calling for a ban on dogs in The Hague and say their words were taken out of context. Though that doesn’t address all the other incidents brought up in the originally-linked post.
Evidence & Reason 