‘We no longer defer to bishops or politicians; scientists are simply facing the same fate.’ Yes but bishops are one thing and scientists are another. We can demand that scientists produce evidence, but what evidence can a bishop offer?… Read the rest
Jihad versus McWorld
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn the 1992 article that he expanded into an excellent book, Barber examines the ways Identity and Shopping are dividing the world between them.… Read the rest
Tom Frank on ‘Market Populism’
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonExtreme diets and extreme investing, diversity all around, along with a consensus as ironclad as any in the ’50s.… Read the rest
Bias, as in Confirmation Bias
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBeing on the side of the rich and powerful ought to make it hard to play victim, but the right in the US manages it by seeing ‘liberal’ bias in the media even when it’s…not there.… Read the rest
A Duty to Annoy
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIs feminism about being a fragile flower needing protection and consolation at every hint of conflict? Or is it about being a cactus and fighting back. Wendy Kaminer disavows florality.… Read the rest
Please, No More Glamorama
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJames Wood on the grim outlook for social realism and ‘hysterical realism’, which may allow a space for the aesthetic and the contemplative again.… Read the rest
Meera Nanda on the Case for Indian Enlightenment
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMeera Nanda had good reasons to fight against patriarchal, upper-caste Hindu traditions that would have suppressed all she valued. Science was not ‘elitist’ or Western but a way of life and a philosophy for social action.… Read the rest
Richard Dawkins Karate-chops Fashionable Nonsense
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDawkins on fun and games.… Read the rest
Not What You Think but How You Think
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘He was very easily irritated by anything bogus, anything facile or hypocritical.’… Read the rest
Paul Boghossian on the Sokal Hoax
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘How, given the recent and sorry history of ideologically motivated conceptions of knowledge — Lysenkoism in Stalin’s Soviet Union, for example, or Nazi critiques of `Jewish science’ — could it again have become acceptable to behave in this way?’… Read the rest
Yale as a Place Where Language Goes to Die
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHelena Echlin on the misery of being a PhD candidate in English and American literature at Yale. She has to stifle her urge to write ‘eh?’ in the margins, discovers that obfuscation is de rigeur, and that people who talk nonsense are now looked upon not as sloppy thinkers, but as sages.… Read the rest
Just so you know
Apr 10th, 2010 4:58 pm | By Ophelia BensonDon’t worry if one day soon you click on B&W and get a page saying ‘migration in progress’ – it won’t be a bit of hackery, and it won’t take long. B&W is moving – to a better world. Be grateful to Josh Larios.… Read the rest
Excuse me sir
Apr 10th, 2010 4:46 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat a brilliant idea. Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens
… Read the resthave asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging Pope Benedict XVI over his alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. The pair believe they can exploit the same legal principle used to arrest Augusto Pinochet, the late Chilean dictator, when he visited Britain in 1998. The Pope was embroiled in new controversy this weekend over a letter he signed arguing that the “good of the universal church” should be considered against the defrocking of an American priest who committed sex offences against two boys. It was dated 1985, when he was in charge of the [Inquisition]… Dawkins and Hitchens believe the Pope would be unable
Ind. World Report Interviews Alaina Podmorow
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat are the choices we have, when we are told about the plight of our fellow human beings?… Read the rest
Dakins and Hitchens Plan to Bust the Pope
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPinochet was busted, Kissinger got a knock on the door, now it’s Ratzinger’s turn.… Read the rest
Safety Requirements? What Safety Requirements?
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson10% of underground mines have implemented the tougher safety requirements Congress passed in 2006.… Read the rest
Nader on the Miserable State of Mine Safety
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Violations are unfortunately a normal part of the mining process,’ says Blankenship. UBB mine is non-union.… Read the rest
Massey Mine Has Years of Safety Violations
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMSHA said for the most serious type of safety violation the mine had more than 11 times national rate. … Read the rest
Ratzinger Slow to Defrock Abusive Priest
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPriest pled nolo for tying up and molesting two boys; Ratzinger dawdled, citing the good of the Church.… Read the rest
Canadian Bishops Tried to Hide Abuse
Apr 10th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCanadian bishops sought to hide a pedophile priest’s crimes by urging Vatican not to promote him.… Read the rest