by Carl Howard | Nov 4, 2014 | Atheism and Religion, Atrocities and Oppression, Ethics, Feminism and LGBT, Language, Philosophy
I have a pet peeve: the use of the term “offensive”. Ok, it’s more than a pet peeve – I think its use in public discourse is misleading and harmful. To start, here are some uses of “offensive” that are particularly cringeworthy: You don’t have a right not to be...
by Carl Howard | Oct 21, 2014 | Atheism and Religion, Ethics, Feminism and LGBT, History, Resources, Food and Environment
No, I don’t think I’m exaggerating here. The consensus for population growth has been that the world will peak at around 9 billion towards the middle of this century with a levelling off or even a slight drop-off. The main reason for this is that we’re having fewer...
by Carl Howard | Oct 16, 2014 | Atrocities and Oppression, Ethics, Feminism and LGBT, Race
A few weeks ago, the intertubes went abuzz with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s latest case of foot-in-mouth disease. Here’s the now-infamous quote [source]: Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity Alongside this, Facebook tightened the...
by Carl Howard | Jul 14, 2014 | Atrocities and Oppression, Ethics, Feminism and LGBT, Sex, Society
[UPDATED: found one! HT Jess Bellamy] [CN: misogyny and fat-shaming] If you’re not Australian, you might not have heard of Gina Rinehart. She’s the richest person in Australia, currently the 4th richest woman worldwide. A mining heiress who inherited an enormous...
by Carl Howard | Jul 7, 2014 | Atheism and Religion, Atrocities and Oppression, Ethics, Feminism and LGBT, Race
On October 11th 2010, France banned wearing clothing intended to conceal the face in public, with a 150 Euro fine. While the law did not specifically name Islamic dress, the target was the niqab (full covering minus an opening for the eyes), burqa (full covering with...
by Carl Howard | Jun 10, 2014 | Feminism and LGBT, Resources, Food and Environment, Society
We are all guilty of slacking off. You know it and I know it. We justify these activities by downplaying their harm. Our language reflects the seeming innocence of “taking a break”, but in reality this masks a whole lot of evil. As even the most common individual...
