‘”Allah is great,” they shouted before killing two temple novices.’… Read the rest
Death Penalty for ‘Insults to Name of Prophet’
Nov 28th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPakistan’s blasphemy law frequently manipulated to settle scores or rouse religious tensions.… Read the rest
‘Honour’ Killing Finished With Abortion
Nov 28th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFather, brothers kill boyfriend, then send pregnant survivor to Spain for late abortion.… Read the rest
Umberto Eco Points out the Obvious
Nov 28th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMany people find religion consoling. Who knew?!… Read the rest
Fear and Loathing in Lacania
Nov 28th, 2005 | By Filip BuekensAbstract How do his interpreters explain and justify Jacques Lacan’s baroque and unintelligible rhetorical strategies in Ecrits and the Séminaires? Many philosophers, cultural critics and psychoanalysts begin their project of elucidating Lacan with explanations and justifications of their master’s obscure voice. I argue that all these arguments are either circular, unsound, inconsistent or – what is perhaps the worst feature they all share – that his readers are taken hostage: ‘Only if we take what he says as revealing the truth about the unconscious will we understand Lacan’ seems to be the conclusion of many scholars desperate to ‘understand’ Lacan. [1]
‘Parfaupe orecluspa nannanbryle anaphi ologi psysoscline ixipad anlana – égnia kune n’rbiol’ ô blijonter têtumaine ennounç…’ [2]
Countless readers … Read the rest
Human First
Nov 28th, 2005 2:06 am | By Ophelia BensonYou should listen to Radio 4’s Inside a Muslim School . It’s rather horrible.
It’s about a very small school in Blackburn, mostly girls with a few boys in the primary grades. The headteacher (who is a man) explains the dress code:
According to the Islamic principle, women should not show their hair. So if the hair is not covered properly, then we will ask them to do so. That’s why they have to wear scarves.
And outdoors, ‘veils’ as well, we find out later – although a lot of girls don’t. But right off the bat they get this nasty, creepy, prying, domineering, bordering on prurient stuff of a Boss Man telling little girls that their nasty dangerous hair … Read the rest
Defying Jirga-ordered Child Marriage
Nov 27th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe village has two schools but they are used to keep cattle.… Read the rest
UN Warning on Kashmir Quake Relief
Nov 27th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUN estimates that three million people are in need of immediate aid.… Read the rest
Archbishop of Wales on Patriarchal Religion
Nov 27th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘In all societies, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse.’… Read the rest
President of Royal Society Says a Few Words
Nov 27th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSays Christian and Islamic fundamentalists threaten to create a blighted, blinkered world.… Read the rest
When is Free Speech Unfree?
Nov 26th, 2005 8:03 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis question does keep coming up. And up, and up. When is free speech free speech and when is it incitement to murder? (That’s only one version of the question, of course. It can be phrased other ways. When is free speech protected as such and when is it not because it is incitement to violence? That’s another version. There are more.)
Scott Jaschik has an article at Inside Higher Ed where the question seems to be in play, although it’s not absolutely clear whether the people involved in the matter actually phrased it that way. It’s also not clear whether that was avoidance or just lack of clarity – confusion, in short.
An adjunct English instructor at Warren Community … Read the rest
Scott McLemee on C Wright Mills
Nov 26th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMills thought jargon and ersatz ‘difficulty’ were academic closing of ranks by the mediocre.… Read the rest
Adjunct Resigns Over Controversy
Nov 26th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFree speech issues in play.… Read the rest
Fundamentalism and Government Incompatible?
Nov 26th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEven some Republicans think reality has its uses.… Read the rest
Vatican Drops Singer From Papa’s Pop Concert
Nov 26th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBecause? She was in anti-Aids campaign promoting use of condoms during Carnival last year.… Read the rest
The Passion of Christ for Children
Nov 26th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDon’t forget, now – Aslan is Jesus.… Read the rest
Female Genital Mutilation Affects 3 Million a Year
Nov 26th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNearly half are in Egypt and Ethiopia.… Read the rest
Inside a Claustrophobic Underequipped School
Nov 26th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Prayer punctuates the timetable’ and the girls wear black shrouds.… Read the rest
Need an Ethicist, not a Blathering Ulster Secretary
Nov 26th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCan decision to give amnesty to ‘on the run’ terrorists be right? Government should seek a philosopher’s advice.… Read the rest
The Wisdom of Solomon
Nov 26th, 2005 2:14 am | By Ophelia BensonWho’s Deborah Solomon? I don’t know, apart from the fact that she writes for that monument to mediocrity, the New York Times. She says dumb things in this article on Lynne Truss’s new book on rudeness.
… Read the restTo be sure, most people, regardless of the precise elasticity of their flesh, would like to live in a world where everyone respects one another. Yet Americans have always harbored a suspicion of manners, which evoke visions of English history at its most hierarchical and hoity-toity – of dukes, earls, lords and viscounts tripping over one another in phony displays of deference and veneration. Who would want to live with all that kneeling and curtsying, all that monarchy-mandated fawning? Not the American revolutionaries, who