The celibate Australian head of an international mysogynist patriarchal cult has deemed that the contraceptive pill, far from being a tool which empowers women to take control of their own reproductive future, actually worsens gender inequality. [original article] Ouch. My brain. I can't reconcile this with the reality of how the catholic church actually behaves. Historically, the church's position has been "women should be baby-making cooking and cleaning machines and should shut the fuck up about it while we men, who are special and can talk to the magic man in the sky, get on with the business of running the world". Maybe...

Question. If abiogenesis is not science because you can't observe it, and evolution is not science because you can't observe it*.... Then how the fuck do you go about observing the creationist hypothesis? Time travel? Magic? LOLWUT?   * evolution has been observed, I know. Joe is just ignorant.

Joe Cienkowski is a christian fundamentalist nutcase on twitter. He's written a book, which you can read for yourself at Google Books. I'm going to spend a few posts ridiculing this little self-published pamphlet, and this is the first installment. Page one. OK. Let's just look at the first page of Joe's book. First observation, holy crap, Joe didn't hire a typesetter or editor. Look at all the emphasis. Bold and italics, even underline. Joe just went mad with Microsoft Word's toolbar didn't he? And oh, wait! What's that in the middle? A smilie face? Seriously? Let's just stop here for the first red mark of...

In my recent talks to Sydney Atheists and Western Sydney Freethinkers, I've been a little damning of email-writing campaigns and blog comment campaigns due to something we've termed the "Flying Monkey Effect". At the same time, I've tried to get across the point that they could have positive effects, properly done. I wanted to expand on this a little. The Flying Monkey Effect, as anyone with a modicum of pop culture nous has twigged, comes from the 1939 movie "The Wizard Of Oz". The Wicked Witch of The West employs an army of flying monkeys which she sends out to do her evil bidding....

Several times recently I've had antivaxers cite thalidomide as a case of medical harm and/or failure. Well, I was just prepping some medication and I got to thinking. You see, there are two packs of thalidomide in my kitchen drawer. Whaaaa? Yep, two packs. You see, thalidomide is still in use. In the case of my kitchen drawer, it's being used as a treatment for Esther's GvH, an area where it seems to have some effect. These days, of course, the screening process is more stringent - you can't get it if you're pregnant, for a start, and there are regular checks on patients...

Dawkins wins

I'll just leave this here, shall I? Elaine Dow, you're an idiot.

Yes, Chronogeddon, the ever-feared end of time itself. It's 3.10pm and it seems like hours since it was 2:55pm. My day has taken a turn for the slow and I don't know what to do. We're all doomed. Dooooomed. DOOOOOMED. Only The Doctor can save us now.

Yes, it's that time when I roll up my sleeves, get a grip on myself and quit smoking. Again. I'm becoming something of a veteran at this. I started as a 15 year old, stopped in my later teens, restarted in my early twenties, quit in my mid twenties, started again in my late twenties, quit in my early thirties, started again a year or so ago and now I'm back to quitting. Again. Of course, this time I haven't had a run-up. I had my last cigarette on Thursday and kinda decided then not to buy more. Normally, I quit on...

  Not for the first time, supporters of the Australian Vaccination Network are off on a cyberstalking campaign. The image above is of a Facebook sockpuppet account, intended to be in the name of a Stop the AVN member's wife, publicising a private FB group intended to share sooper-sekrit "information" gathered on members of Stop The AVN. They googled up the wrong person, though. Ooops. The group in question "The Who's Who of Stop the AVN" is, I believe, the third or fourth incarnation of "Stop The AVN Exposed", a private facebook group for acolytes of the Cult of Meryl, in which they share what...

This comment was left on my YouTube channel after an exchange on "That Meryl!" Episode 12. VaccinationAustralia is believed to be the YouTube account of George Mamouzellos, a self-absorbed antivax DJ currently resident in Darwin, NT. George is a vocal, though not very articulate, supporter of Meryl Dorey and the AVN. This little rant emerged after George was banned from the "That Meryl!" channel for abusive comments. I don't think I'll be hitting "approve", but I thought my readers might like to see it. George appears to have graduated from merely lying about his qualifications* to stalking, abuse, xenophobia and libel. He's not very...