Look how many interesting things you can learn from a single issue of a journal.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Iran scowls at Brazil’s offer of asylum for Ashtiani
Aug 2nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDisgusting bastards.… Read the rest
The Future is Female
Aug 1st, 2010 | By Max Dunbar‘Some folks don’t believe there is pious niggers, Shelby,’ said Haley, with a candid flourish of his hand, ‘but I do. I had a fellow, now, in this yer last lot I took to Orleans – ‘twas good as a meetin’ now, really; to hear that critter pray; and he was quite gentle and quiet like. He fetched me a good sum, too, for I bought him cheap off a man that was ‘bliged to sell out; so I realised six hundred on him. Yes, I consider religion a valeyable thing in a nigger, when it’s the genuine article, and no mistake.’
- Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Post 9/11, everyone wanted to have something to say about Islam. Governments … Read the rest
Things with words doing II
Aug 1st, 2010 3:13 pm | By Ophelia BensonPart I of this is getting long, so I might as well start another.
Redundancies was one I meant to do yesterday, and forgot.
- The reason why. Superfluous.
- The British “in an hour’s time.” Really superfluous. Why is “in an hour’s time” better than “in an hour”? It isn’t. It doesn’t add anything. Once you notice it, it sounds incredibly stupid.
It’s amusing that BBC presenters thoroughly mispronounce “Barack” when Catherine Sangster of the BBC Pronunication Unit has told them and everyone how it’s done. Doesn’t the BBC Pronunication Unit catch prominent mistakes of this kind? I mean the guy’s name comes up pretty often – you’d think someone would eventually notice. And they must get mail.
… Read the restHis name
Ashtiani lawyer calls for release of his relatives
Aug 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIranian lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei, who is in hiding, calls on Iranian authorities to end “hostage taking” of his wife and brother-in-law.… Read the rest
Clean up your mess
Aug 1st, 2010 10:15 am | By Ophelia BensonDrat. I thought I was going to be able to drop the subject now, but Aratina Cage pointed out another item. There was another dust-up at the Intersection last March, that I didn’t follow closely at the time. This one was by Kirshenbaum, and it involved taking some unattractive bluster in a few comments at Pharyngula as literal threats of violence against women. You know: as in taking “fuck you” as a threat of rape. I didn’t follow it closely because I didn’t feel like defending unattractive bluster, but I never thought it equated to literal threats.
In any case, as Aratina points out, the thread is full of comments by TJ under his many many fake names. … Read the rest
President Lula asks Iran to let Ashtiani accept
Aug 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“If she is causing problems there, we will welcome her here,” he added.… Read the rest
Brazil offers asylum to Ashtiani and her children
Aug 1st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLula da Silva has called on Ahmadinejad to accept the offer of asylum for Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and her children.… Read the rest
How to do things with words
Jul 31st, 2010 6:21 pm | By Ophelia BensonJerry has a post on most-hated verbal infelicities. Solecisms, he elegantly says, but I’m going to be cagy, in order to avoid the obligatory lecture about How Language Works. There are no Mistakes; whatever most people do is Right; language is constantly evolving; lots of putative rules are just made up; language is arbitrary; what you think is a new Mistake actually goes back to Knut. Right. Got all that. Not talking about Mistakes. Talking about things I don’t like.
Because I thought I would mention a few things I don’t like.
- May instead of might. “If things had been different Hitler may have won the war.” No; he might have, but it is not the case that
Now that’s what I call accommodation
Jul 31st, 2010 4:58 pm | By Ophelia BensonMark Jones pointed this out in a comment. If this is accommodationism even I can live with it.
… Read the restToday’s science-oriented atheists call us into right relationship with our time, and that means using all of our best information and cross-cultural experience.
Ours is a time of space telescopes, electron microscopes, supercomputers, and the worldwide web. It is also a time of smart bombs, collapsing economies, and exploding oil platforms. This is not a time for parsing the lessons given to a few goatherds, tentmakers, and camel drivers.
So let today’s collective intelligence revitalize our faith traditions! Let us rejoice in the discovery that the atoms of our bodies were forged inside supernovas, and let us celebrate this natural process
A Christian thanks god for the new atheists
Jul 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“Today’s science-oriented atheists call us into right relationship with our time, and that means using all of our best information and cross-cultural experience.”… Read the rest
Hamas tightens the rules on women
Jul 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLast year Hamas tried to prevent female lawyers from appearing in court without wearing a hijab. Step by step.… Read the rest
Women in Mexico get long prison sentences for abortion
Jul 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSix women in conservative Guanajuato have been sentenced to 25 to 30 years in prison for abortions…or one miscarriage.… Read the rest
Casual sexism is misogyny
Jul 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHags, dogs, whores, bitches. How do you spot a woman-hater? By the way they talk about women.… Read the rest
Nina Power on equality as a race to the bottom
Jul 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWe do a disservice to the aims of feminism if we believe that it is enough to have a job, regardless of what it is.… Read the rest
Israel: some Haredi women wear the burqa
Jul 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA few women in Beit Shemesh chose to don the burqa three years ago in a bid to “protect their modesty.”… Read the rest
It’s a mistake to libel people via Twitter
Jul 31st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAll Ben Goldacre asks is a retraction, yet it’s not forthcoming.… Read the rest
A loose end
Jul 30th, 2010 5:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo, as I mentioned, a late reply to Mooney’s post about me on July 12.
We stopped allowing Benson to comment here back in mid 2009, for very good reasons–among other things, she was sending us emails demanding to have other posters’ comments deleted. We had a better solution.
You can read the thread where they made this reasonable decision. My comments are numbers 35, 37, 90 and 92. They’re not flamey. Then at 104 we get TB:
… Read the restWhen Ophelia Benson claims through her “questions” that Chris and Sheril have no evidence she is not telling the truth. It’s one thing for people who haven’t read the book to assert this – she has the book.
So let
Incomplete
Jul 30th, 2010 1:17 pm | By Ophelia BensonMooney has done another “What Tom Johnson has taught Me” post. It repairs some previous omissions, so it is a small improvement, but it is flawed.
I regret that I gave this story undue prominence, and I want to apologize to all who were affected by that action.
No he doesn’t, not really. As usual, he omits some people, so he doesn’t want to apologize to all who were affected by that action. He doesn’t want to apologize to me, for instance. I was affected by that action. He shouldn’t give himself the moral credit for a blanket apology when he’s not in fact making one.
Mooney goes on to insinuate that gnu atheists did something to make Tom … Read the rest
Do alligators count as fish for Catholics?
Jul 30th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo. Do Catholics count as lunch for alligators? Yes.… Read the rest