East Herts Council's decision to stick with prayers leaves it wide open to accusations of prejudice | Herts & Essex Observer

Dear God, my black bin split in August. I ordered a replacement online but as yet it hasn't arrived. Rats are sniffing around so could you please remind East Herts District Council about it at their next meeting, as they listen to you more than local residents? Amen. Welcome to the new way of doing things in Britain's Bible Belt.... Read on: East Herts Council's decision to stick with prayers leaves it wide open to accusations of prejudice | Herts & Essex Observer

How long until the next bomb? Why nuclear deterrence doesn’t work

Every day one sees politicians on TV assuring us that nuclear deterrence works because there no nuclear weapon has been exploded in anger since 1945. They clearly have no understanding of statistics. With a few plausible assumptions, we can easily calculate that we can state, with 95% confidence, that the time until the next bomb explodes [...]

Read the rest at: DC's Improbable Science: Truth, falsehood and evidence: investigations of dubious and dishonest science - How long until the next bomb? Why nuclear deterrence doesn’t work

Whatever you think of Planned Parenthood, this is a terrible and dishonest chart - Vox

On Tuesday morning, Congress held a hearing on Planned Parenthood, as conservative Republicans try to build the case for defunding the organization after a pro-life group released a series of "sting" videos critical of the organization. During the hearing, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) showed this chart to make the point about Planned Parenthood's activities:

This @AUL chart was just projected on-screen by @jasoninthehouse in #PPAccountability hearing http://t.co/Nc6W57HDKp pic.twitter.com/DIh31T9I76

— Bound4LIFE (@Bound4LIFE) September 29, 2015

This is not how charts work! Since 935,573 is a larger number than 327,653, the pink line should be above the red line. Here's what you get if you chart the numbers accurately...

Read the full exposé here: Whatever you think of Planned Parenthood, this is a terrible and dishonest chart - Vox

Undercover Planned Parenthood Videos Were Altered, Analysis Finds - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Planned Parenthood on Thursday gave congressional leaders and a committee that is investigating allegations of criminality at its clinics an analysis it commissioned concluding that “manipulation” of undercover videos by abortion opponents make those recordings unreliable for any official inquiry.

"A thorough review of these videos in consultation with qualified experts found that they do not present a complete or accurate record of the events they purport to depict," said the analysis of a private research company...

Read the full report: Undercover Planned Parenthood Videos Were Altered, Analysis Finds - The New York Times.

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Of course, this won't stop the hysterical anti-abortion lobby, whose entire strategy is based on lies, emotion and bullying, rather than science. It's bad enough that even medically necessary abortions can't be covered by State funds, because bigotry. The ultimate aim of the campaign is in any case to deny reproductive health care to the poor, especially poor women.

Anti-Abortion Group Admits to Falsifying Latest Video

Anti-abortion extremists who are releasing heavily edited, deceptive videos about Planned Parenthood have acknowledged that their latest video included false and misleading information. They posted a clarification to their YouTube page yesterday that an image they suggested was from an abortion was actually a photo of a stillborn fetus...

Read the full exposé here: Anti-Abortion Group Admits to Falsifying Latest Video

ZOMG drama! Rand Paul under attack!

I think Eugene Fear-the-Peen has been selling his illegal email spam lists again. Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting increasingly dramatic begging letters from some frantic lunatic calling himself Rand Paul.

Rand Paul, Rand Paul. I’ve heard that name before. Ah, yes, he’s a Tea Party whackjob who, on top of being linked to the extreme anti-gay hate squad (inferred from his use of the same mailing list):

• has described taxation as slavery and wants to sue the Treasury and IRS for passing tax-evasion measures; 
• was involved in the moronic shutdown of 2013, which he doesn’t regret because he hates Obamacare; 
• wants pilots to be armed (just let the idea of someone firing a gun in a pressurised cabin sink in); 
• is anti gun control no matter how many people are massacred; 
• unsurprisingly, also has ties with white supremacists; 
• appears to want the abolition of marriage (because the … 

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The post ZOMG drama! Rand Paul under attack! by Jay H first appeared on Plague of Mice.

Francine Prose makes a Charlie of herself | Disjointed Ramblings

This morning, I discovered the Grauniad was running a blog post in their Comment is free section, entitled "I admire Charlie Hebdo’s courage. But it does not deserve a PEN award". It is signed by somebody rejoicing in the moniker of Francine Prose. Yeah, I thought so too, but apparently it’s her real name. As far as I can tell, her forte is writing constipated verbiage reminiscent of the more indigestible 20th century French authors…

Read on: Francine Prose makes a Charlie of herself | Disjointed Ramblings

“Charlie Hebdo and the culture of offence” – LSS Secretary’s speech at UCL | Lawyers' Secular Society

Hello everyone. Je suis Charlie.

I have to say, when I looked at Twitter on 7th January and everyone was talking about “Charlie”, and “Je Suis Charlie” was trending, I thought to myself: what have I done now? Sadly this is as funny as it gets.

Well we’re here to talk about “Charlie Hebdo and the culture of offence” so let me start by offending you.

I don’t think the discussion about Charlie Hebdo is necessarily one about “offence” at all...

Read the rest here: “Charlie Hebdo and the culture of offence” – LSS Secretary’s speech at UCL | Lawyers' Secular Society


 Comments will be left open here for a while as they are closed on the original post. You still have to read it first, though

Encyclopedia of American Loons: #1292: Keith Ablow

Dr. Keith Ablow is a psychiatrist, author, and media personality, who tends to appear on such intellectually enlightening shows as The Tyra Banks Show and Glenn Beck as an expert on psychoanalysis. He even writes for Fox News’ blog devoted to health matters, where he tends to make claims that go against all evidence when it serves a particular political point, and runs a self-empowerment community based around his book Living the Truth. Though his credentials are fine, his psychiatric analyses of famous individuals or talk-show guests on the basis of thirty-second interviews or news headlines have not been recognized as methodologically sound by any psychiatrist with any integrity...

Read more: Encyclopedia of American Loons: #1292: Keith Ablow

In a week that has seen both the Grand Mufti of Egypt and the Pope come out as apologists for violence against peaceful dissent; in the wake of violent protests in some Muslim countries, leading to killings and arson over a message of peace and forgiveness, I urge you to read this excellent analysis by Stephen Law:

In the gallery of satirical art there’s a largely blank space where the work satirizing Islam should be. Here I argue that, where satirical work has been removed out of fear, it should be put back. I also deal with a couple of objections against doing so...

Read on: Charlie Hebdo and avoiding offence - two popular liberal arguments refuted | Center for Inquiry