Welcome to Heather’s Homilies
Donald Trump: Phyllis Schlafly was “a Champion for Women.”
In typical Trump fashion, Trump makes his own truth. But it's statements like this - calling Phyllis Schlafly "a champion for women" - that expose both his ignorance and misogyny. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/773113752271060992?lang=en...
Has Winston Peters Finally Lost It?
I've spent a lot of time lauding New Zealand's election system on this site. One or two have found that pretty annoying, and I don't care; I stand by my comments. It's called MMP, which stands for Mixed Member Proportional. Here's how it works:...
Simon’s Cat: Trash Cat
Simon's Cat is back in a new film. First, here's the trailer from Facebook: And now the full film (all 2:13 of it!): https://youtu.be/yEvhDTWSRec
Essay Competition: Science vs Religion
Many of you, like me, are readers of Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True website. Yesterday he posted a story called 'Templeton-sponsored essay contest: Big bucks for telling stories about accommodationism'. It detailed an essay competition offering large financial...
Reza Aslan is Still Excusing Islam
Fareed Zakaria’s Why They Hate Us, updated to include the Orlando massacre, has been playing on CNN again this weekend. It’s an excellent documentary by one of my favourite commentators. (The full 40 minute documentary is at the bottom of this post.) Reza Aslan, who's...
Simon’s Cat: Cat Logic – Feeding
There's a new Simon's Cat video in the Cat Logic series. If you haven't come across these before, the maker of Simon's Cat, Simon Tofield has been making a series of videos with veterinarian Nicky Trevorrow about cat care. This one is about feeding. There's a...
Reforming the US Electoral System
A couple of days ago I posted a clip from Dave Rubin where he suggested that supporting Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson in polls in order to get him the 15% support required to feature in the presidential debates might help to force the two major parties to...
Who Y’all Gonna Vote For America?
Anyone who follows this blog knows that if I was a US citizen I'd be voting for Hillary Clinton in the November elections. I don't claim that she's the perfect candidate, but I do think she's the best option. She's wickedly smart, easily the best informed, and...
Guest Post: Bikini vs Burqa by Amy Carparelli
Recently, European reader and science communicator Amy Carparelli came across an article entitled Burka Vs Bikini - The Debauchery Of American Womanhood by Henry Makow (PhD). Makow's conclusions about why women wear bikinis are incredibly simplistic. An example of his...
What is Terrorism?
Professor Martha Crenshaw of the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford is an expert on terrorism. Following are three videos produced in 2014 that make up one lecture, jointly titled Understanding Terrorism. The first video, What is...
Voting for the US Supreme Court
The two main candidates for the United States presidency both have a problem appealing to voters in terms of favourability and trustworthiness. Personally I consider the claims of Hillary Clinton's dishonesty to be overblown, which I wrote about here. In fact,...
Wildlife Aid Saves Ducklings From Drowning
I've almost finished another post (it should be up later today), but in the meantime I couldn't resist this wonderful story brought to my attention by Amy Carparelli. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/tblIKI9_KBg