‘Whether it is more vile than the record of any other profession is not obvious.’… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Bob from Brockley on Apologists for Iran
Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLooking at Press TV’s Iran news, one would have no idea there is anything going on, let alone an uprising.… Read the rest
Mo is in Full Rebellion Mode
Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe first step is to apply for a grant.… Read the rest
German Man on What Catholic Church Did to Him
Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAbuse victim asked JPII for help, got letter from official: no apology, said pope would pray for him.… Read the rest
BBC Sneers at Melbourne Atheist Convention
Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘A religious gathering at the same venue in December attracted three times as many delegates.’… Read the rest
Supreme Court Refuses Lillian Ladele’s Appeal
Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘In my case, one set of rights was trampled by another set of rights,’ she says.… Read the rest
Chris Hallquist on the Perils of Multiculturalism
Mar 12th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe point isn’t that everyone agrees that forced marriages are bad, the point is that they are bad. … Read the rest
Three times more than you-oo
Mar 12th, 2010 11:23 am | By Ophelia BensonGood old Beeb – make sure not to be too polite to atheism, won’t you. Yes of course you will.
Headline: ‘Atheists meet in Melbourne to celebrate lack of faith.’ Subhead: ‘More than 2,000 atheists from around the world are gathering in Melbourne, Australia, to celebrate their lack of religious belief.’ They couldn’t be there to talk about it, to explore issues related to it, to meet people who are interested in it; no, they’re there to celebrate it, and the thing they are celebrating is a lack, which makes them doubly stupid and pathetic.
… Read the restAll 2,500 tickets were sold out earlier this year, but a religious gathering at the same venue in December attracted three times as many delegates.
No more than elements of ‘bourgeois’ ideology
Mar 11th, 2010 5:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd also – Danny Postel on the role the Iranian Left played in its own immolation:
… Read the restAn account of this self-defeat can be found in Maziar Behrooz’s book, Rebels with a Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran, a salutary and, indeed, definitive reconsideration of the history of the pre-revolutionary Iranian Left.
As Maziar explains, the Iranian Left, or at least certain key fractions of it, helped fashion the noose the Islamists ultimately hung them with. According to Behrooz, the Khomeinites were able to do this in large part because the Tudeh party, the Fadaiyan Majority, and many other Iranian Marxist parties, whatever their differences with the Islamists, shared with them a profound hostility toward liberalism. Like
Too few questions were asked
Mar 11th, 2010 12:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonFurther to the discussion of multiculturalism and autonomy for ‘communities’ and family law – Martha Nussbaum’s ‘The Feminist Critique of Liberalism’ is relevant throughout, and particularly relevant in this bit (Sex and Social Justice, pp 63-4):
… Read the rest[A]s many feminists have long pointed out, where women and the family are concerned, liberal political thought has not been nearly individualist enough. Liberal thinkers tended to segment the private from the public sphere, considering the public sphere to be the sphere of individual rights and contractual arrangements, the family to be a private sphere of love and comfort into which the state should not meddle. This tendency grew, no doubt, out of a legitimate concern for the protection of choice –
Vatican’s Chief Exorcist: Devil is in the Vatican
Mar 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe evil influence of Satan is evident in the highest ranks of the Catholic hierarchy, he said.… Read the rest
Lars Vilks Aimed to Mock All Religions
Mar 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHas no regrets about his cartoon, ‘which deeply offended many Muslims,’ says NY Times piously.… Read the rest
Creationist Home-schoolers Respond
Mar 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘It would depress my children to no end if they even thought they were evolved from an animal.’… Read the rest
NWFP: Terrorists Murder Six Aid Workers
Mar 11th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWorld Vision said the office was targeted because it was running programs to help women.… Read the rest
They shape their traditions in turn
Mar 10th, 2010 1:12 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe latest from Taner Edis on multiculturalism.
Liberal language about “choice” and “force” is very misleading here. No one chooses who they are. Our choices take place in a context of unchosen circumstances, and unchosen but organically acquired loyalties. Particularly conservative religious people (a pretty large chunk of the human species) are very much embedded in unchosen traditions and communities. It’s not so much that they are forced into anything as that belonging to a community is an integral part of who they are.
Yes, but again, they don’t all simply accept everything that results, and they don’t all want simply to accept everything that results. We’re not obliged to just assume that everyone is happy with whatever slot … Read the rest
Paula Kirby on Catholics Dictating Terms
Mar 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDemocracy is not one person, one vote plus however many extra votes you’d like on behalf of your invisible friend.… Read the rest
Germany: Reformers Want Pope to Speak Up
Mar 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe pope should say exactly what he knew about widespread allegations of abuse by clerics in Regensburg.… Read the rest
Irish Arrests Over Plot to Kill Lars Vilks
Mar 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe usual thuggish bullying stupidity.… Read the rest
Muslim Woman Councillor Defies Death Threats
Mar 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShiria Khatun says, ‘We live in a democratic society and I have the right to dress how I like.’… Read the rest
Massimo Pigliucci on Pseudo-metaphysics
Mar 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Ingeniously put together? By whom? And by what criterion of “ingenuity?”’… Read the rest