Art bollocks has become institutionalised and normalised, is now almost the default way of writing.… Read the rest
Anti-Ahmadinejad Students Flee for their Lives 
Dec 18th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
His supporters have threatened them with revenge.… Read the rest
Religion’s Role in the Expansion of AIDS
Dec 18th, 2006 | By Arash SorxNote: this article was published for the first time in Persian by “Sekoolar” (the Secular), a publication of Anti-Religion Society. Hereby we translate it to English and publish it again in the event of AIDS day 2006. The final two paragraphs, which were specific about Anti-religion society, have been omitted from the text.
Among the numerous burdens of capitalism that are taking away human lives everyday, some are seemingly “natural” burdens, the result of the tension between nature and human; in some theories these are even nature’s reaction to human violence against it.
Of these burdens we can name deadly diseases in general and AIDS in particular.
AIDS has put its shadow on the entire world like a spectre. … Read the rest
They were shivering and were all colours of the rainbow as they stood there waiting to be cleaned
Dec 17th, 2006 11:10 pm | By Ophelia Benson[OB] You may remember that last month I did a brief comment on Goldenbridge, which I knew little about until I saw some comments Marie-Therese O’Loughlin had recently left on a comment from 2005 on industrial schools in Ireland. I asked Marie-Therese to tell me more, and she has; we’re working on an article which will be on B&W soon. Yesterday I asked Marie-Therese for a little basic detail about daily life – and she sent some. I don’t feel like waiting to publish it.
Warning: the following contains material which some readers may find disturbing. I know I do. Marie-Therese finds it very disturbing to recall it.
Morning at Goldenbridge
The children got up at six o’clock each … Read the rest
Dictionary of Atheism
Dec 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Atheist prose tends to be clear, unadorned by allegory and utterly characterless.’ Oh yeah?… Read the rest
Dawkins Interviewed
Dec 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Journalist seems to find atheism deeply mystifying.… Read the rest
Johann Hari on Feminism in Gaza
Dec 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Palestinian women were trapped between Israeli occupation and patriarchal Palestinian tradition.… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo on the War on Christmas
Dec 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
They want people to remember it’s Jesus’s pretend birthday.… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo Quiz the Barmaid
Dec 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why are atheists so angry at the religious?… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo on the Efficacy of Prayer
Dec 17th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
God is amazing.… Read the rest
Catherine Bennett on Hitchens on Women
Dec 16th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Women unamused by their own physical decay? Hitchens oblivious? ‘Now, why is this?’… Read the rest
Gilles Kepel on a Clash of Fundamentalisms
Dec 16th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Without TV and the Internet, jihad would be an alarming but marginal form of immoderation.… Read the rest
Was it Ecstasy in the coffee?
Dec 15th, 2006 7:04 pm | By Ophelia BensonOh dear. The Independent has misplaced its marbles. It is very difficult not to choke with laughter.
No one likes to be labelled a conspiracy theorist. The term is generally associated with the sort of people who believe the world is run by aliens disguised as humans, or who think the moon landing was a hoax. But it is very important that we do not allow our desire to avoid pejorative labels blunt our critical faculties. Scepticism can be a healthy instinct.
Um…yes, it can indeed; but scepticism about what, exactly? Critical faculties in relation to what, were you thinking?
… Read the restIt is unfortunate that most vocal critics of the standard narrative regarding the death of Diana, Princess of
Indy Dons the Foil Hat
Dec 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
There are unanswered questions about that Paris car crash. Therefore, the black swan did it.… Read the rest
Taliban Law Blocked in NWFP, Pakistan
Dec 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Supreme Court instructed the provincial governor not to sign the bill.… Read the rest
Christians Sue to Block Gay Rights Legislation
Dec 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Colin Hart of Christian Institute said concerns of religious people had been ‘trampled over.’… Read the rest
From the Researchers to the Flacks to Hitchens
Dec 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In today’s public discourse, science is treated not as a search for truth, but as source of edifying fables. … Read the rest
Nigel Warburton Interviews Mel Thompson
Dec 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Some of my most bored moments have been trying to read those who think that the more clever and obscure they sound, the more profound their thought.’… Read the rest
Nigel Warburton Interviews Jonathan Wolff
Dec 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The best combine imagination and argument; a new landscape of ideas, and how to defend it.… Read the rest
Adversarial saints
Dec 14th, 2006 5:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonRobert Irwin says some amusing things in this interview with Scott McLemee about Irwin’s book on Said’s Orientalism. Scott asked what made a criticism of Orientalism seem worthwhile or necessary enough for a book.
I got irritated by the way some people in Eng Lit departments seemed to regard themselves as adversarial saints, robed in white and “speaking truth to power” because they read Conrad, Austen and Flaubert in strange ways. Whereas academics who read Masudi, Tabari and Ibn Khaldun were necessarily robed in black.
Yep. The adversarial sainthood thing is a big – a huge – part of why descriptions of postmodernism by fans of postmodernism tend to be so irritating. The reek of self-imputed adversarial sainthood is … Read the rest
