Wide interest in affirmative action case prompts the Supreme Court to release tape of the hearings.… Read the rest
Are Private Schools Unfair?
Apr 3rd, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAdam Swift’s new book argues that educational privilege is incompatible with equality of opportunity.… Read the rest
Two of Them
Apr 2nd, 2003 9:08 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo there (see below) are two of my operating assumptions. That many words important for our understanding and conversation are not transparent, not self-evident – indeed are worse than that, are apparently self-evident and straightforward but in fact not. Thus we have a false sense of security when we use them, we take them for granted and at face value, and assume that everyone understands them exactly as we do. But such is not the case. My second operating assumption is that this matters, it’s a problem, it causes problems, and should never be lost sight of.
Elitism is one of those words. I have a running argument with a friend, who is forever telling me that I’m an elitist … Read the rest
Operating Assumptions
Apr 2nd, 2003 6:53 pm | By Ophelia BensonWe all have our operating assumptions, and it can be interesting and even useful sometimes to figure out what our own and other people’s are. One of my own that I often notice is not universal, is that Things Could Be Better. That improvement is needed, that there are errors and misunderstandings that need pointing out and fixing. Of course, in one sense, that’s too obvious to need stating, and everyone knows it: no one is fool enough to think everything everywhere is perfect at all times. But some people do seem to have a default assumption that the world is all right and
straightforward and self-evident and easily managed, that problems and confusions and mistakes are the exception not … Read the rest
What is Hypocrisy?
Apr 2nd, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAdam Swift examines some bad moves in the argument over education.… Read the rest
E.O. Wilson
Apr 2nd, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHarvard profiles the pioneer of sociobiology.… Read the rest
Two Very Different Views of the War
Apr 2nd, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOne speaker critical of Bush’s foreign policy, one who helped create it.… Read the rest
Audio of Supreme Court Debate
Apr 2nd, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNational Public Radio offers highlights of arguments on Affirmative Action. Hear Scalia in full sarcastic mode.… Read the rest
US Supreme Court Hears Affirmative Action Case
Apr 2nd, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRice backs Bush but acknowledges she was a beneficiary of Affirmative Action; Powell disagrees with the President.… Read the rest
Affirmative Action on Trial
Apr 1st, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUS Supreme Court is to hear arguments on racial preferences in university admissions today.… Read the rest
Helpful or a Source of Conflict?
Apr 1st, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonScholarships and other programs explicitly for minorities are under attack.… Read the rest
Encyclopedia of Stupidity Reviewed
Apr 1st, 2003 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBierce, Flaubert mentioned, Fashionable Dictionary inexplicably not.… Read the rest
Some More
Apr 1st, 2003 12:11 am | By Ophelia BensonIn ‘The New Yorker’ Seymour Hersh tells of the disagreements between the military and the Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. There is some of this in every war, and a lot of it is just each side protecting itself or as we put it in the vernacular, covering its ass. But it may be worse than usual this time. Or it may not.
… Read the restPerhaps the biggest disappointment of last week was the failure of the Shiite factions in southern Iraq to support the American and British invasion. Various branches of the Al Dawa faction, which operate underground, have been carrying out acts of terrorism against the Iraqi regime since the nineteen-eighties. But Al Dawa has also been hostile to American interests.