Senior Muslim Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, who ignited a firestorm of controversy in Australia with a Ramadan sermon comparing immodestly-dressed women to uncovered meat, has said that he will retire from his position if a specially created “ethical court” finds him guilty of condoning rape or suggesting women are to blame for sexual assaults. He has also said he will perform 600 hours of community service and wear masking tape

Every blogger has certain people whom they rely on to give them good advice and links.  Usually, they’re not the ones who are commenting all the time.  They’re the lurkers, the ones who actually watch and listen.  PattyAnn, in my case, who’s suggested this bleg. I was bemoaning the fact that I signed on to a United Way fundraiser tomorrow at work to her.  I work at a large gift

Well, that sucks.  But if you were deaf, you wouldn’t even be able to hear Kevin Federline sing.  And imagine what you’d be missing. Someone who’s working on the problem at the University of Michigan has a request, passed on to me via Jeff: > This is Shelley Batts at Retrospectacle at ScienceBlogs > (http://www.scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle), and I’ve been a reader of your > blog. > I am a Neuroscience PhD

So yesterday I did a bit of work on my obliques for the first time in ages, and this morning, much to my surprise, the protests began in earnest—first from my lower back, which felt it unfair that it was being made to carry the stress for a flaccid region that has long neglected its own defenses; and second, from the obliques themselves, who insisted that they are an independent

When the parking lot appears to be purple, a globule living with a turkey shares a shower with a tentacle. Wilson believes that a steam engine of an apartment building reaches an understanding with a spider the size of a german shepard, but he also considers how often the loaded bong gets stinking drunk. Now and then, the FNORD about an astronaut laughs and drinks all night with a support

I think I’ve seen this sort of apology before…

From Melanie Phillips: The key point made by Lord Lawson in his lecture is, as he says, the flight from reason that all this represents. We are looking here at a situation in which the essence of scientific rationalism, that conclusions are arrived at only by the application of reason to evidence which is clearly ascertainable, has been systematically overturned by pseudo-science whose methodology is demonstrably flawed, whose conclusions contradict

Stark: “Ha!—the joke’s really on you, pals.  Because I actually enjoy being thrown on the ground and pinned under the feet of rich white men!”*

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Mired in an ugly cosmos, the incumbent Supreme Power of the Universe has recently lost 8% of “His” support in the United States of America, according to a new Harris poll.  Harris shows that 42% of American adults are no longer absolutely certain that God exists, up from 34% who expressed doubt 3 years ago. Among the various religious groups, 76 percent of Protestants, 64 percent of Catholics and 30