Sorry Not Sorry Famous Men Got Fired For Being A-holes Toward Women

Collage of men accused of harassment with words Sorry Not Sorry on it

The most recent famous men caught up in the acrimony over the long history of sexual assaults and harassment against women include Garrison Keillor and Matt Lauer. Like previous men called out, they lost their jobs. That’s how it should be. For those complaining about due process and false accusations, there has been many YEARS of talking about this and telling men to stop being assholes, so I have NO sympathy for men called out today. Why can’t they keep their hands to themselves?

Don’t get me wrong, I was shocked with some of them – like Charlie Rose, but by and large these men had a reputation behind the scenes that was covered up because they were powerful and/or had the money to pay off accusers.

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Warren: What Does It Mean To Be A Progressive?

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Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

If Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts runs for President in 2016, I would love to vote for her. She doesn’t make excuses about what we should believe in and I wish all Democrats would have her backbone. Speaking at this weekend’s Netroots Nation conference in Detroit, Warren laid out some values that Progressives need to have today. I agree with all of them.

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White Supremacists Don’t Always Wear Hoods

created image of a guy in suit wearing a Klan hood

The Supreme Court overturned part of the Voting Rights Act, overturned DOMA based on a ‘state’s rights’ claim, and a jury in Florida found nothing criminal when George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. Why does this trouble me in the so-called ‘post-racial’ United States? Paul Rosenberg over at Crooks and Liars has the answer. In 2013, white supremacy is alive and well and it isn’t always burning crosses or wearing hoods.

Rosenburg makes a point that we shouldn’t call what is going on racism because it lets white supremacists off the hook. That’s how we get four frames of colorblind racism:

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CFI’s Ronald Lindsay Learns How NOT To Encourage Women In Secularism

photo of Ron Lindsay President and CEO Center for Inquiry
Ronald A. Lindsay – President & CEO Center for Inquiry

The second Women in Secularism Conference was held in Washington, DC this weekend. The conference is a response to the struggle inside secular groups to reach out and encourage more participation by women. There has been a vocal minority of mostly men who have taken it upon themselves to defend the dominance of males and male-centric attitudes in the various secular groups. This political “debate”, at times, has not been respectful or rational. It seems the President and CEO of the conference sponsor, Center for Inquiry (CFI), Ronald A. Lindsay decided to use his opening remarks to light a match in the vapor enriched environment then complain when he got caught in the firestorm. I would hope he has learned how a community leader should NOT respond to criticism.

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Everything Should Be Open To Questioning? Not Quite

photo showing a happy couple

Being an atheist, I have spent a lot of time debating religious people about all sorts of things such as my freedom to be an atheist to the US motto (In God We Trust) being printed on our money. The theist is on the wrong side of the debate all the time but they seem to believe my equality and freedom is subject to debate. No one would rationally support that kind of injustice. Imagine my shock when a fellow atheist, trying to support debating the equality of women, used a line of argument we atheists dismiss out of hand when fundamentalist Christians use it against Evolution.

This all stems from the unending internal Internet arguments over sexism in secular groups that I’ve written about before in this blog. The fighting has devolved into unproductive name calling and whining one sees on the middle school playground. I try to avoid reading blog posts specifically about the conflict because those posts just seem to be attempts by the authors to feel superior to a straw man and no one really listens to what is being said. The signal to noise ratio is very low.

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