‘If a woman, even a Muslim woman, is naked and you have no way of covering her up, it is legitimate to kill her.’… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Muslim Students Complain of Fundamentalism 
Apr 20th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Students training to be imams at London college cite doctrines which describe nonMuslims as ‘filth’.… Read the rest
Iran Cracks Down on Women’s Clothing
Apr 20th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Taxi drivers will be responsible for passengers dressed ‘inappropriately’.… Read the rest
Torture Doesn’t Work
Apr 20th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Military common sense has been abandoned in favour of the brutal, politically driven shortcut.… Read the rest
A Second-rate Utilitarian but a First-Rate Liberal
Apr 20th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mill quoted Bentham’s opinion that pushpin was as good as poetry – as evidence of his short-sightedness. … Read the rest
Furthermore
Apr 19th, 2006 8:55 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnother point about this strawman argument we keep getting from rabbis and bishops, this ‘argument’ that boils down to claiming that non-theists have a ‘belief that the only things that are real or can be known are those that can be empirically observed and measured’ and then following that absurd claim with the equally absurd claim that love, morality, beauty and god are all ‘face[s] of human experience that [are] not subject to empirical verification.’
The other point (see above) is that that endlessly repeated pseudo-argument is a crap argument from two directions, not just one. It’s bad and stupid first, as I mentioned, because it dishonestly or woollily or confusedly makes a truth-claim about the existence of an … Read the rest
Adam Smith Would be New Labour, says Brown
Apr 19th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘The Chancellor has long attempted to claim the giant of the Scottish Enlightenment for Labour.’… Read the rest
On Some Criticisms of the Euston Manifesto
Apr 19th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ha ha, wrong station, hee hee, they met at a pub, nyah nyah, Nick Cohen and Francis Wheen.… Read the rest
Hepatitis B May Play a Role in ‘Missing Women’
Apr 19th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Virus could account for 75% of China’s missing women, less than 20% of India’s.… Read the rest
Anthony Seldon on Teaching Happiness
Apr 19th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Draws on Epicurus, Seneca, Kant, Mill.… Read the rest
We Underestimate Our Bias, Overestimate Theirs
Apr 19th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Brain cannot see itself fooling itself, so the only way to avoid bias is to avoid situations that produce it. … Read the rest
NUT Rejects Vote Against ‘Faith’ Schools
Apr 19th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Proposals in government bill could give ‘faith groups’ a much bigger role in running of schools. … Read the rest
A Cant-free Voice
Apr 18th, 2006 8:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonRead any Dwight Macdonald? If not you should. He’s a good one.
I take exception to all this.
But you can’t dine on clippings and the bones of old controversies, so what did his versatile output amount to after decades of pounding the typewriter? For years…Macdonald had been…frustrated, fatigued and plagued by the feeling that he had failed to climb the masthead of his talent by writing a major, original work – bringing out a real book, not just a basket of articles.
That’s a stupid opposition – a real book as opposed to a ‘basket’ of articles. As if there is some Platonic Ideal length, as if there is some magic that makes sixty thousand words on the … Read the rest
Hizb ut-Tahrir and the National Union of Students
Apr 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
NUS president-elect says rhetoric may have changed, but they are still homophobic, sexist, racist.… Read the rest
A Call to Reduce Religions’ Role in Schools
Apr 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Delegates attending NUT conference concerned at influence of fundamentalists in state schools.… Read the rest
Macdonald a Critic of the Left From Within
Apr 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Would have agreed with Trilling’s praise of Hawthorne’s ‘dissent from the orthodoxies of dissent.’… Read the rest
Gordon Wood on Why History Matters
Apr 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A society whose best students have a thin understanding of its past is a society in trouble.… Read the rest
Dwight Macdonald
Apr 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A singular, wised-up, cant-free voice that is pure intelligence at play.… Read the rest
Academics on TV
Apr 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
They risk the Carl Sagan effect, but they can make knowledge more widely available.… Read the rest
The Gospel of Judas: Exclusive
Apr 18th, 2006 | By R Joseph HoffmannFresno, CA: Following hard on the heels of the commercial success of the Da
Vinci Code and forty three books about Mary Magdalene, news of the finished
translation of a gospel attributed to Judas Iscariot, known to history as the
betrayer of Jesus, received mixed reactions in the scholarly and religious
communities last week.
Vatican spokesman Archbishop Heiko Vitali wasted no time in dismissing the
discovery as yet another example of how scholars are willing to believe
“proven heresies.”
“What do we know about Judas? That he was a liar. So even if this gospel came
from his hand–as I’m sure it did not–it would be just another big lie,” said
Vitali.
His sentiments were echoed by the head of … Read the rest
