Archbishops oppose, 87% of people approve.… Read the rest
Church Leaders Oppose Euthanasia Bill
Oct 11th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnglican Bishop of Oxford says it’s wrong to elevate the principle of choice above all other values. … Read the rest
Archbishop of Canterbury Opposes Euthanasia
Oct 11th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonConvinced ‘life is a gift from God that we cannot treat as a possession of our own to keep or throw away as we choose.’… Read the rest
John Banville Wins the Booker for The Sea
Oct 11th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe’s encouraged that people have responded to a book that’s very carefully crafted.… Read the rest
Analyze Everything
Oct 10th, 2005 7:07 pm | By Ophelia BensonTime for a Monday morning tease. Or more of a mock, really. I know I shouldn’t – it’s fish/barrel stuff – but I want to, so I will.
There was this lecture, see. And it was full of new, profound, fresh, original, searching stuff that no one had ever thought of or said before. Not a word of it was stale or familiar or old news.
… Read the restJasbir Puar, an assistant professor in the department of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University, spoke on “Queer Biopolitics and the Ascendancy of Whiteness” yesterday in Stimson Hall to provide a theory for the way race and sexuality affect U.S. and international politics…Puar’s was the first of a series of lectures sponsored
Queer Biopolitics and the Ascendancy of Whiteness
Oct 10th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIdentity, intersections, sexuality, complicit, orientalist, race, imperialism, interdisciplinary, turban.… Read the rest
Slavoj Žižek Can be Difficult to Shut Up
Oct 10th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEven a joke can be an exercise in theory.… Read the rest
Invisibly, Ominously Getting Healthier and Healthier
Oct 10th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWe benefit from life-saving forces created over the last century that are mostly imperceptible.… Read the rest
The Future of Australian Secularism
Oct 10th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat secularists do not recognise: Christian rhetoric may signal willingness to disable secular state.… Read the rest
The Power of Evangelicals in the US
Oct 10th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJames Dobson expects payback when Republicans are elected.… Read the rest
Motivation speculation
Oct 10th, 2005 | By Julian Baggini"That Darwinist authorities find public scrutiny of their theory so threatening indicates to me that there is a hidden insecurity in their intellectual position which will eventually become so visible it can no longer be concealed."
Phillip E. Johnson, Think, Issue 11
One of the most intractable puzzles in the history of philosophy is the problem of other minds. This isn’t the difficulty of knowing exactly what other people are feeling or thinking, but that of knowing whether other people have minds at all. Might they simply be senseless automata, behaving as though they had thoughts and feelings, but not really having them at all?
This kind of philosophical difficulty is of a different order to the everyday challenge … Read the rest
Multiculturalism Again
Oct 9th, 2005 6:06 pm | By Ophelia BensonHow did everything get turned around?
Today, to criticise multiculturalism, one is invariably derided as ‘right wing’ or ‘reactionary’. Conversely, to champion multiculturalism, one is invariably perceived as ‘progressive’ or ‘of the left’. But it should be, and historically it has been, the other way around. Multiculturalism represents the antithesis of the Enlightenment principle of colour-blindness and the notion of the universality of humankind – while the fetishisation of ethnic particularism is a quintessentially Tory ideal. The liberal-left’s love affair with multiculturalism today is a betrayal of what it used to stand for.
That’s for sure. That realization is starting to trickle through, but dang it’s taking a long time. Hurry up, folks! Get a clue. The fetishization of … Read the rest
Earthquake Death Toll Nears 20,000
Oct 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMusharraf appeals for international help.… Read the rest
Salman Rushdie on Jihadism and Male Honor
Oct 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonYou don’t fight radical conservatism with not-quite-so radical conservatism. … Read the rest
Brainwashing – How to Create Crap Beliefs
Oct 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFive core techniques: isolation, control, uncertainty, repetition and emotional manipulation. … Read the rest
Mother Jones Interviews Chris Mooney
Oct 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDisdain for science and scientific expertise has been a hallmark of the Bush White House. … Read the rest
Church Allowed to Keep Poster Promising Miracles
Oct 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCritics complained to Advertising Standards Authority that the poster was misleading and irresponsible.… Read the rest
The Poverty of Multiculturalism
Oct 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe celebration of ethnic particularism is a betrayal of the socialist ideal.… Read the rest
Everyone but the Perps Will Be Held Responsible
Oct 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAvoidance of what al-Qaeda stands for began in 9/11 and has become endemic since. … Read the rest
Panorama Editor Replies to MCB Complaints
Oct 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProgramme reflected debate within Muslim community about the leadership the MCB offers.… Read the rest