Welcome to Heather’s Homilies
“A New Era of Observational Astronomy”
Those of you who are on Facebook and 'Like' the Heather's Homilies Facebook page will know I post the regular updates or ESO Casts from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) there, usually after Amy Carparelli has reminded me they're available by posting them on...
The Cutting Tradition: A Film About FGM
I've spent most of the day watching videos about female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female circumcision or female genital cutting (FGC), as preparation for a post I plan to do about the topic. I found one particularly good video I want to share with you...
Auē Tēnei Wiki: The Dangerousness of The Donald
A new national poll came out from Fox News last week. Though it's within the margin of error (+/- 4%), for the first time it shows Donald Trump beating Hillary Clinton in a head to head match up 45% to 42%. It also shows, again for the first time, that Clinton has a...
Women Who Get Raped Go Straight To Hell
I've been thinking a lot about the issue of Islam and Women's Clothing since my post on the topic last week. The idea that so many women have so little control over their lives is one that I find very difficult and completely helpless to do anything about except try...
Female Deacons in the Catholic Church
In the comments section of my last post I wrote: The relative power of women in the early Catholic Church is something that they like to keep quiet nowadays. There’s the obvious argument that if women could be priests and bishops 1,700 years ago and much closer to the...
Islam and Women’s Clothing
In an e-mail headed “Distortions,” a friend and Chicago resident sent me a link to CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) Chicago's ‘About Islam’ page. The plight of many Muslim women is one we've corresponded about before so he knew I would find this part,...
Cygnet Rescue
I've been struggling a bit the last few days - this time it's my body's hardware that's let me down rather than my computer's. Anyway, to let you know I'm still around and will be back soon, here's a lovely story of some rescued cygnets that Amy Carparelli brought to...
Our Planet: The Dolomites
I've been a bit slack keeping up with the wonderful work of Martin Heck of TimeStorm Films, but thanks to reader Amy Carparelli bringing it to my attention we're not going to miss out. (The TimeStorm Films link is to their Facebook page, so it'd be great if you could...
I’ve Been Ministered To; It Didn’t Work
My front door is a ranchslider, so when two women knocked on it yesterday I could see they were missionaries. I answered it anyway, and let the one who did the talking give her spiel. I told her I thought Seventh Day Adventists were evil with all their rubbish talk of...
Auē Tēnei Wiki: Saudi Therapist Gives Advice on Wife Beating
Over and over again conservative representatives of Islam try to tell us that not only are women respected within their religion, they are more respected than women in secular countries. Any criticism of the treatment of women is dismissed as lack of understanding, or...
I’m Not Dead, But Bernie’s Mortally Wounded
It's been a while, but I'm back. The main problem hasn't been me, but my computer. It's been in the hospital most of the last two weeks, but a lovely young man called Benjamin has sorted it for me. He's been very reasonable with his charging too, but New Zealand's...
US Election: Candidate Support by Issue
I've just come across this fascinating poll released last week by the Pew Research Center which shows voters' views on major issues vs which candidate they're supporting. Rather than commenting on it for now, I'll just leave it for you to absorb, and we can discuss it...