New poem by Jenny Blackford

Jenny has a new poem, just published by Pedestal Magazine. Do go and have a look.

Collectively, we have failed Alexander Aan

Just have a look at this petition. It ended up attracting about 8,000 signatures, when 25,000 were needed for it to go any further. Why was it so hard to collect 25,000 people to sign a petition that contained no controversial detail that should have been a stumbling block to anyone? I am reluctant to sign petitions unless I agree with everything in them, and some are written with too much detail. But this wasn't such a case, and I had no compunction about signing it. My only issue was whether I should really sign it when I am not a US citizen, but nothing on the site suggested that I should worry about that.

What is at all controversial about the text?

Earlier this year, Indonesian civil servant Alexander Aan posted on Facebook that he doubted the existence of God. He was then attacked and beaten by an angry mob, and arrested for blasphemy.

On June 14, Aan was convicted of “disseminating information aimed at inciting religious hatred or hostility,” sentenced to 30 months in prison, and saddled with a large fine. Now many Indonesians are calling for his death.

By punishing Aan, Indonesia is violating its obligations to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees every person the rights to freedom of belief and expression. We petition the Obama administration to call upon the Indonesian government to immediately release Alexander Aan and improve its protections for religious dissidents and nonbelievers.

At the same time, this is a very clear-cut case of someone being harmed for expression of his view of the world.

The campaign was pushed hard by high profile organisations and people, most notably the Center for Inquiry and Richard Dawkins. Many less prominent people tried to get out the message. Could we have done more? Well, I suppose so. For example, I used this blog and other social media available to me to promote the campaign and the petition, but I doubtless could have spent a lot more of my time hammering it day in day out.

But the message was well and truly out there. In the end, there simply doesn't seem to have been much interest.

It makes you wonder...

Futuredaze cover announced

A great cover for what looks like an interesting anthology ... and the text will come complete with a poem by Jenny Blackford.

Some new posts at Talking Philosophy

As usual, probably best to join the existing discussion threads, if interested.

1. On Islam, racists, and legitimate debate (this updates an old post on the present blog in the light of recent controversy involving Sam Harris).

2. Re Alex Rosenberg on moral nihilism - there will be more posts relating to Rosenberg's book The Atheist's Guide to Reality.

3. On philosophical virtues, such as charity and civility, and some reflections on the recent accommodationism wars.

Talking Philosophy has also taken on a bunch of new bloggers recently, and I'm looking forward to seeing their ongoing contributions.

Sunday Supervillainy - X-Men Legacy to focus on Legion

I'm not sure how this is going to work, but X-Men Legacy will be reverting to #1 as part of the Marvel NOW revamp of of the Marvel Universe.

So far, so good, but apparently the focus is going to be on Professor Xavier's mad-as-a-cut-snake, but very dangerous and powerful son, Legion. I can't say I'm a huge fan of this character, and I'm not at all sure how he could be used in a semi-solo book like this. It will certainly make a change from X-Men Legacy's focus on Rogue for the past few years (with Rogue now becoming part of the Uncanny Avengers X-Men/Avengers mash-up team that Marvel is now creating). Your interpretation of the cover, with Legion in a straitjacket and the fragments of several important X-Men characters (in his mind?), is likely to be just as good as mine.

Some of these Marvel NOW rearrangements seem a little crazy, but you at least have to give whoever is dreaming them up a few points for originality. The main Marvel Universe is getting shaken up dramatically, if these announcements far in advance are anything to go by.

I suppose I should at least try out the first issue of this one, and see whether it hooks me.

Edinburgh Airport removes/restores image of Picasso nude

In another piece of madness relating to sexual images, Edinburgh Airport removed this image of a Picasso painting, Nude Woman in a Red Armchair (1932), which was being used to advertise an exhibition devoted to Picasso and Modern British Art at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. During the removal process, the airport management had the breasts of the woman in the image covered up (but apparently not her very bare mons pubis?!).

Although the decision was reversed, it's telling that some incoming passengers were sufficiently upset to complain about it in the first place, and it's even more so that the initial decision by the management of the airport was to accede to their wishes and remove the advertisement. That's the world that we live in.

"What were they thinking?" you ask. Well, this looks like a clearly erotic image to me, albeit a mild one, asking for a rather intellectual appreciation. It is one of Picasso's celebrated portraits of his mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter. Of course, it is highly stylised, but that does not erase its gleeful sensuality and, yes, an unmistakable sexual element, underlined by the neat visual pun where the left side of Marie-Thérèse's face (i.e. the right of the image as we look at it) is also the face of her lover, in profile, as he kisses her lips. If people are going to freak out over the public display of sexual images ... this gave them a clear-cut opportunity.

We still live in a time when the beauty and sensuality of the human body are widely considered "problematic", even in Western countries. There's much work to be done to reverse this. Conversely, there's never a shortage of prudes and Philistines, as many as you want, and you'll find them among travellers entering an advanced city like Edinburgh. Let's not give in to them - though in some quarters it's apparently too late for that.

[H/T Jeremy Stangroom]

Please support Alexander Aan

You can sign this important petition over here on the White House's site. I'm surprised to see that it has only about 7,000 signatures, and will lapse at this rate. It needs a total of 25,000 signatures in the next week for anything to happen.

The petition:

Earlier this year, Indonesian civil servant Alexander Aan posted on Facebook that he doubted the existence of God. He was then attacked and beaten by an angry mob, and arrested for blasphemy. 

On June 14, Aan was convicted of “disseminating information aimed at inciting religious hatred or hostility,” sentenced to 30 months in prison, and saddled with a large fine. Now many Indonesians are calling for his death.

By punishing Aan, Indonesia is violating its obligations to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees every person the rights to freedom of belief and expression. We petition the Obama administration to call upon the Indonesian government to immediately release Alexander Aan and improve its protections for religious dissidents and nonbelievers.

We can all get behind this, can't we? Regardless of any other religious, ideological, or philosophical differences. This is about as fundamental an issue of freedom of speech, thought, and belief as we'll find anywhere.

Sunday supervillainy - Marvel NOW taking shape

This story in USA Today gives us an update on Marvel NOW, the line-wide initiative at Marvel Comics to relaunch (but not reboot) its universe, with a massive reshuffle of creators among the old and new titles (e.g. Brian Bendis will now be moved to write X-Men rather than Avengers).

The whole initiative, which will all take place in the aftermath of the current Avengers vs. X-Men event (which I'm getting bored with), is meant to provide a jumping-on point for new fans. I suppose it can be read as Marvel's answer to DC's New 52 initiative last year.

I'm not sure what to make of the whole thing. So far, the announcements have not caught my imagination.

I'm vaguely interested in the forthcoming Uncanny Avengers book, to be written by Rick Remender, and with a mix of Avengers and X-Men teaming up. The new team includes a couple of characters who are perpetual favourites here - I'm referring to Rogue and the Scarlet Witch. The others in the line-up are Thor, Captain America, Havok, and Wolverine. That's a high-profile group of characters, but, off-hand, I can't see any particular in-story reason to get this particular bunch together. Hopefully, Marvel will contrive something vaguely plausible.

But I'm not feeling it so far.

Steven Paul Leiva on Ray Bradbury and the urge for Mars

From here. Quote:

"The urge that led to this has, I believe, three components. Ray Bradbury instinctually understood two, and was a poet of the third.

The first is survival. This is why primitive humans did not stay home when the climate changed and the herds moved and vegetation became more lush elsewhere. To do so would have meant extinction. During the first migrations out of Africa the world population was in the low thousands. We are now a planet of over seven billion people facing the crises of climate change caused by our rapid technological growth, hoping we can deal with it if only knowledge can win out over ignorance. But even without climate change, the balance of population to resources is putting a negative pressure on all of us. Can the exploration of Mars and going back to the moon -- even going beyond both -- relieve that pressure? If so, not quickly, not easily, but eventually? The possibility of a positive answer compels us.

The second component has provided the name for the current rover: Curiosity. We have become a knowledge-seeking species, it is as ingrained in us genetically as the need for survival. To have the capacity to go the stars and explore and to not do so, would be the greatest of sins -- the denial of our nature.

The third component is either more primitive than the other two, or more advanced. I'm not quite sure which, which may be why it is best expressed through art, and why Ray was so effective at expressing it. It is a purely instinctual urge not to be confined, that feeling some of us have when we look up at a night sky -- especially away from city lights -- and see the Milky Way, of which we are a part, and ask, "Why?" Why must we be confined to this thin slice of atmosphere, why must we but a smudge of life on only this one small planet, when the whole of our solar system, possibly the Milky Way, maybe the universe, is out there for us if we but only...."

New post at Talking Philosophy - on civility and free speech

Over here. Once again, probably better to collect discussion on the TP thread if possible.