Jeb Bush sent cops to seize Schiavo; Judge in case needs armed bodyguards.… Read the rest
Muslim Thinker Calls For End To Brutal Punishments
Mar 31st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTariq Ramadan has called for a moratorium on corporal punishment, stoning and the death penalty in the Muslim world.… Read the rest
Dr Azam to Speak at Ottawa Press Conference
Mar 31st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAzam told the Globe he wants to renew worldwide attention on Kazemi’s case.… Read the rest
Kazemi was Tortured and Raped
Mar 31st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDoctor’s account contradicts Iran’s official position that death was caused by a fall. … Read the rest
Rape, Torture, and Lies
Mar 31st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDr. Shahram Azam found a skull fracture, wounds, bruises all over Kazemi’s body.… Read the rest
Zahra Kazemi Was Gang-Raped
Mar 31st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDoctor who has left Iran tells Die Zeit that Kazemi was raped and tortured.… Read the rest
Flying North
Mar 30th, 2005 8:35 pm | By Ophelia BensonIt’s one of those peculiarly gorgeous days here, when it’s difficult to stay at the desk tap-tapping. You know the kind of thing. After several days of rain, an interval, of scrubbed translucent dazzling blue sky and white clouds. So I gave up the struggle and went out for a walk along The Wall overlooking the water, islands, mountains, all that. And got a bonus. I was half-aware (my mind was elsewhere – probably musing on Richard Rorty) of hearing bird calls overhead, but I paid no heed – but then I noticed a couple of people ahead of me gazing upwards, so I looked, in plenty of time to see two large Vs of snow geese flying north. The … Read the rest
BBC Governors Reject Springer Opera Complaints
Mar 30th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDissenter disagreed that artistic significance outweighed offence caused.… Read the rest
Mugabe: Opposition Victory Will Not Be Tolerated
Mar 30th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRobert Mugabe called the Zimbabwean opposition “traitors” yesterday.… Read the rest
Yet Another Twist in Schiavo Case
Mar 30th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAppeals court agrees to hear petition to re-insert feeding tube.… Read the rest
What’s Up With Harvard? And Larry Summers?
Mar 29th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIs it all a ‘cleavage between coastal elites and certain mainstream values’?… Read the rest
Fear of ‘Playing God’ on Only One Side of Equation
Mar 29th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIgnoring patient wishes for no heroic measures is perfectly all right. … Read the rest
Armageddon is Fun and Entertaining
Mar 29th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhy does Jesus decide to wear a dress while riding a horse? And other puzzles.… Read the rest
DFW Science Museum to Show ‘Volcanoes’
Mar 29th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonReverses bad decision to heed complaints of evolutionphobic whiners.… Read the rest
Percipi est esse
Mar 29th, 2005 | By Julian Baggini“Muslims in Britain are suffering soaring levels of Islamophobia and discrimination based on their faith, rather than the colour of their skin, a report published today says. […] Of British Muslims, 80 per cent said they had suffered Islamophobia.
The Independent, 22 November 2004
Percipi est esse is a (possibly ungrammatical) inversion of Bishop Berkeley’s esse est percipi: to be is to be perceived. Being a metaphysical claim about the nature of reality, it has nothing to do with claims about rises in Islamophobia or the like. However, “to be perceived is to be” neatly captures the way in which people often slide from the fact that something is perceived to be the case to the greater claim … Read the rest
Panda’s Thumb Round-up
Mar 29th, 2005 12:00 am | By Ophelia Benson[Mopping streaming eyes] This is very amusing. Over at Panda’s Thumb.
Prof. Steve Steve holds the B. Amboo Chair in Creatoinformatics at the University of Ediacara. He has been nominated five times (only twice by himself) for the Nobel Prize and has received six Barnes and Noble gift certificates.
Read the whole thing. Admire Steve’s picture, too. And there’s the one on Scientific American’s surrender to the creationists. About time – elitist bastards!
Oh just read the whole site – there’s one good item after another. What do they think, that I’ve got all day to read their posts?!
And there is the NY Times article on the Imax theatres rejecting evolooshun movies.
… Read the restPeople who follow trends at commercial
Sham Inquiry
Mar 28th, 2005 8:37 pm | By Ophelia BensonA bit from an essay of Susan Haack’s in Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate, page 8.
And to inquire is to try to discover the truth of some question. But pseudo-inquiry is a phenomenon no less common than pseudo-belief…Peirce identifies one kind of pseudo-inquiry when he writes of ‘sham reasoning’ [Collected Papers, I. 57-58]: making a case for the truth of some proposition your commitment to which is already evidence- and argument-proof.
Yes. A neat summing-up. Also a neat expression of the basic, the as it were foundational principle of B&W – which could be called identification of and opposition to sham inquiry.
Also a neat, succint description of how Margaret Mead went wrong. I’ve just been … Read the rest
Unanswered Questions in George Sand Biography
Mar 28th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat were the origins of Sand’s rebellion and her ambition as a writer?… Read the rest
Illness as Identity
Mar 28th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLosing a leg and half your brain cells can be an opportunity to learn…… Read the rest
Cult Studs Condemned Adorno as an Elitist
Mar 28th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDislike of American mass culture doesn’t make Adorno a political conservative.… Read the rest