ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 259
September 5, 2018
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Will Pay $145,000 to Settles Lawsuit Over Vaginal Eggs
By Hemant Mehta
When people make fun of Gwyneth Paltrow‘s pseudoscience-purveying company Goop, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the jade egg.
These were the eggs which women were told to stick up their vaginas in order to — ahem — “cultivate sexual energy, increase orgasm, balance the cycle, stimulate key reflexology around vaginal walls, tighten and tone, prevent uterine prolapse, increase control of the whole perineum and bladder, develop and clear chi pathways in the body, intensify feminine energy, and invigorate our life force.”
“Beauty guru” Shiva Rose, who endorsed the items on Goop’s website at the time, also said the eggs created “kidney strength.”
If you visit the same site today, however, Rose’s answers are very different. Portions of it have clearly been deleted. You will no longer see anything about how the eggs “increase orgasm, balance the cycle, stimulate key reflexology around vaginal walls, tighten and tone, prevent uterine prolapse, [and] increase control of the whole perineum and bladder.” Also gone is the bit about kidney strength.
Why? Maybe because all of that was unscientific bullshit that could cause serious health problems for any women who stick the eggs up their yoni.
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September 4, 2018
Bishop Apologizes For Groping Ariana Grande At Aretha Franklin Funeral
By Michael Stone
Bishop Charles H. Ellis III is apologizing to Ariana Grande after cameras caught the man of God groping the pop star at Aretha Franklin’s funeral.
Ellis, who officiated at Aretha Franklin’s funeral, apologized Friday to Ariana Grande for inappropriately touching her on stage immediately after the pop star performed “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” for the celebrity mourners in attendance.
The Associated Press reports:
Images of the moment showed Ellis’ hand holding Grande well above her waist, with his fingers pressing against one side of her chest.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Ellis said:
It would never be my intention to touch any woman’s breast. … I don’t know I guess I put my arm around her. Maybe I crossed the border, maybe I was too friendly or familiar but again, I apologize.
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Muslim Court Canes Malaysian Women for Same-Sex Relationship
By Austin Ramzy
Two Malaysian women accused of pursuing a sexual relationship were caned in an Islamic court on Monday, setting off an outcry from rights groups that said the country’s political transformation this year had done little to ensure equal treatment of all citizens.
The women, who were convicted of “sexual relations between women,” were each struck six times with a rattan cane in front of witnesses in the Shariah High Court in the state of Terengganu, officials said.
The sentence, delivered four months after an election that saw Malaysia’s governing party ousted for the first time since the country was founded in 1957, reflects the country’s deeply conservative culture despite a liberalization in its politics.
Rights groups assailed the new government for discrimination against gay men and lesbians and for continuing to allow a form of corporal punishment outlawed in most of the world.
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Watch This Woman Call Out Her Alleged Mormon Rapist in His Own Temple
By Hemant Mehta
In 1984, Joseph L. Bishop, the man who ran the Mormon Church’s main Missionary Training Center, raped a woman in the center’s basement.
At least, that’s what the victim, McKenna Denson, alleged in a recent lawsuit aimed at the LDS Church and Bishop himself. She claims that the Church was aware of Bishop’s “prior sexual improprieties against women” and did nothing to stop from assaulting other people.
The story came to the public’s attention this past March when audio of McKenna interviewing Bishop was posted on the site MormonLeaks (though her name wasn’t associated with the recording at the time). Under the guise of a historian, McKenna was able to sit down with him and ask about the allegations of assault, including her own. He didn’t admit to raping her, though he confessed to molesting another woman.
Since she filed her lawsuit, the Church has tried dismissing the case citing an expired statute of limitation. A couple of weeks ago, a judge employed by Brigham Young University dismissed most of McKenna’s claims.
It’s a messed up situation in so many ways.
That’s why what she did over the weekend was so incredible.
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Trump’s evangelical pander: a sin or a violation of law?
By Jacob Lupfer
For a moment this week, it seemed as if the latest in a long line of President Trump’s political events with evangelical Christian leaders would pass without much notice.
Trump and the first lady hosted an event billed as a celebration of evangelicals’ contributions to our nation. Among the honorees were the Christian leaders who sit on Trump’s unofficial advisory board. What ensued was a political exchange designed to remind an important set of constituents what the president has done for them ahead of the midterm elections.
Normally, when Trump’s evangelical fan club enjoys the perks of presidential access — this occasion was billed as a “state-like dinner” — it hardly merits mention because its unfolding is so predictable: Evangelicals show up to laud the president, who in turn touts his own accomplishments on what supposedly constitutes their political wish list.
But this time the praise session backfired: On Thursday (Aug. 30), Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a watchdog organization, filed a letter asking that the advisory board stop meeting “until it complies with federal sunshine laws.”
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September 1, 2018
OPEN DISCUSSION – SEPT 2018
This thread has been created for open discussion on themes relevant to Reason and Science for which there are not currently any dedicated threads.
Please note it is NOT for general chat, and that all Terms of Use apply as usual.
If you would like to refer back to previous open discussion threads, the three most recent ones can be accessed via the links below (but please continue any discussions from them here rather than on the original threads):
August 31, 2018
Lawsuit: Oregon construction worker fired for refusing to attend Bible study
By Aimee Green
A 34-year-old man has filed an $800,000 lawsuit against a Albany construction company, claiming the owner fired him after he refused to attend weekly Bible study.
Ryan Coleman’s lawsuit states that he discovered only after he was hired as a painter for Dahled Up Construction that the job entailed more than just fixing up homes. According to Coleman and his lawsuit, owner Joel Dahl told him all employees were required to partake in regular Bible study sessions led by a Christian pastor during the work day, while on the clock.
Coleman told Dahl that the requirement was illegal, but Dahl wouldn’t budge, according to the lawsuit. In order to keep his job, Coleman obliged for nearly six months but ultimately told Dahl he couldn’t go, the suit says.
“I said ‘I’ve kept an open mind, and it’s just not my thing.’ And he said, ‘Well, I’m going to have to replace you,’” Coleman told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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The Bugs Are Coming, and They’ll Want More of Our Food
By Kendra Pierre-Louis
Ever since humans learned to wrest food from soil, creatures like the corn earworm, the grain weevil and the bean fly have dined on our agricultural bounty. Worldwide, insect pests consume up to 20 percent of the plants that humans grow for food, and that amount will increase as global warming makes bugs hungrier, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.
That could encourage farmers to use more pesticides, which could cause further environmental harm, scientists said.
For every degree Celsius (two degrees Fahrenheit) that temperatures rise above the global historical average, the amount of wheat, corn, and rice lost to insects will increase by 10 to 25 percent, the study says. Temperate agricultural regions, like those in the United States and Western Europe, would be particularly hard hit.
The international Paris Agreement is designed to keep warming below two degrees Celsius, but the world’s countries are far off track from meeting that goal.
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Trump’s evangelical advisory board violates the law, advocacy group argues in new filing
By Lori Johnston
Days after President Trump hosted his latest gathering to laud and listen to evangelical pastors at the White House, an advocacy group is claiming that the president’s evangelical advisory board operates in secret, in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State planned to file a letter on Thursday demanding that the evangelical advisory board cease and desist until it complies with the law.
“We are tired of watching him give unprecedented access and influence to one religious group. And we’re tired of the secrecy. We’re asking them to shut down,” said Americans United President and CEO Rachel Laser.
The organization’s letter, exclusively provided to The Washington Post, was addressed to White House Counsel Donald McGahn, the Office of Public Liaison, the General Services Administration and Johnnie Moore, the spokesman of the evangelical advisory board.
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Clergy abuse survivors push for federal investigation into Catholic Church
By Daniel Burke
Survivors of clergy sex abuse stood in front of the Vatican embassy in Washington on Thursday and urged two higher powers — the Pope and the US Department of Justice — to take concrete steps to prevent more abuses and hold abusers accountable.
“They have plenty of evidence,” said Peter Isely, spokesman for the group Ending Clergy Abuse. “Let’s launch this investigation. Let’s do it now.”
The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and Center for Constitutional Rights have also sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein demanding an “investigation and prosecution of high-level officials in the Catholic Church” for sexual crimes and cover-ups.
“It is long past time for the US Department of Justice to initiate a full-scale, nationwide investigation into the systemic rape and sexual violence, and cover-ups in the Catholic Church, and, where appropriate, bring criminal and/or civil proceedings against the hierarchy that enabled the violations,” the groups said in the letter.
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