Blaming it on witchcraft
A sister tweeted earlier today that a "religious lady" had told a relative of hers that her apparent difficulty in finding a spouse might be due to "nazar" or the "evil eye". I tweeted...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
The link between childhood behaviour and crime
Most UK crime caused by people with childhood behavioural problems, study says | Society | The Guardian I was quite worried when I saw this headline, and was reassured to read on and find...
Treading on eggshells
How far should we go to avoid the hypothetical possibility of offending someone? The other day, I came across a video posted on the disability group blog FWD/Forward in which members of the Disabled...
What if we’d lost the Falklands?
New Statesman – What if… Britain had lost the Falklands war Dominic Sandbrook writes a series of “what if …” articles which imagine history as it might have been had one thing about history...
“Connection with Allah” overrides Shari’ah, says columnist
Kevin Myers: 'Fear of Islamophobia stopped Hasan's superiors from disciplining him for his jihadist outpourings' – Kevin Myers, Columnists – Independent.ie Kevin Myers, a columnist on the Irish Independent (a paper whose website is...
Iraq police suckered by fake bomb detector
Ben Goldacre on a hilarious, but tragic, example of obvious bogus science and how the Iraqi police were taken in, to the tune of £19m ($32m): A British company called ATSC is selling a...
Haunting dreams
Wheelchair Dancer: Dreaming on Wheels Last night, I had my “first” dream about me as a disabled person. It was scarily vivid. Law and Order style, I shouted to, well, whomever — faceless dream...
Hypocrisy of praising Nidal Hasan
Muhajideen Ryder on the hypocrisy of the people who praise Nidal Hasan now when they would, before his massacre, have called him an infidel: It is shocking to see Muslims praising and calling Nidal...
A footpath round Britain’s coast?
BBC NEWS | UK | Coastal access law changes Rounding the British coast is popular right now; Hilary Lister did it in her little sip-and-puff sailboat, the BBC keeps doing it to make one...
Local papers letting the powerful off the hook
I, too, mourn good local newspapers. But this lot just aren’t worth saving | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian And he mentions the Cambrian News … this was the local...
Going postal in Texas
So, a Muslim army major has gone on the rampage with two automatic handguns on a US army base in Texas, and killed (so far) 13 people. Obviously, the usual suspects rush to blame...
Learning disability bullying claims victim’s mother
A mother has died in a fire while trying to save her son, after bullies set fire to their house by posting a lit firework through their door last night (5th Nov, Guy Fawkes...
Henry Porter: from war to police state
Out of Afghanistan, into a police state | Henry Porter | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk Kim Howells had an article published in the Guardian today, in which he recommends that British forces are...
No point debating racists
New Statesman – There’s nothing to debate about racism Mehdi Hasan, the NS’s senior politics editor, on why racism should be condemned and fought, not indulged and appeased: I recently sat in a radio...
Fight over life support for disabled boy
Father fights to stop hospital withdrawing life support for baby son I read a disturbing story in the Guardian this morning, which was reported across various other newspapers and in the BBC, that the...
Scarier than Halloween
Hat tip to iMuslim: ten things Muslims find scarier than Halloween. Number 3 is a perfect opportunity for a sister to pull a Towanda, don’t you think?
Stephen Fry might quit Twitter
It’s been reported that, after a bit of a tiff with a couple of his online followers, the comedian Stephen Fry is thinking of giving up on Twitter (more here). This all makes me...
Ubuntu ‘Karmic’: my computer is a joy to use again
Yesterday I downloaded the newly-released latest version of Ubuntu, codenamed Karmic Koala (they all have an alliterative codename; the last was Jaunty Jackalope). I had been using Fedora version 11 since, well, it came...
“Trick or treat” murderer back in jail
BBC NEWS | Northern Ireland | Foyle and West | Greysteel killer back behind bars I’m not sure why this guy was let out at all. He was part of a gang that walked...
Make them Muslim
“But You Have to Tell them” « Ginny’s Thoughts & Things Ginny on one of my pet hates about dealing with (some) born Muslims: those who think any convert can easily “make someone Muslim”,...