Finds Virginia Woolf on Austen almost as imbecilic as E M Forster ditto.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Julian Baggini reviews Marilynne Robinson
Jun 21st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat might look like subtlety is too often plain sloppiness.… Read the rest
Does the Tar-Spangled Banner Wave Over a Nation That Hates Britain?
Jun 21st, 2010 | By Mary Ellen FoleyThis time last week, all of the United Kingdom seemed to be up in arms because Obama called BP by its former name, British Petroleum. As ludicrous as it sounds to American ears, droves of British people, from established journalists down to the chap on the next stool at the pub, took this as an anti-British remark—several bloggers going so far as to call it racism—and soon some journalists were reporting an anti-British backlash among Americans generally. Some of my friends and neighbors here in England insist that there’s no other way to interpret the remark: Obama has revealed himself to be anti-British, plain and simple.
I’m a dual national, but I’ve been an American for far longer than I’ve … Read the rest
FGM in Northern Iraq
Jun 21st, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonGirls who hear the screams and try to run away are dragged back for their turn.… Read the rest
Call it peace
Jun 20th, 2010 5:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonWell how nice for Toronto – unlike poor sad deprived Britain, it gets to have Zakir Naik telling it what’s what.
Zakir Naik, founder of online Peace TV in Mumbai, India, tops the bill at the Journey of Faith Conference, July 2-4, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It is being described as the largest Islamic conference ever in North America. In videos on YouTube, Naik advocates death to homosexuals and to Muslims who leave the faith…“This guy has absolute hatred for the West,” Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress said Friday.
And homosexuals and apostates, apparently. I bet he’s not much of a feminist, either.
… Read the rest“What we want him to preach here is peace. We want him
Zakir Naik to headline Toronto conference
Jun 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIn videos on YouTube, Naik advocates death to homosexuals and to Muslims who leave the faith.… Read the rest
Cue Twilight Zone music
Jun 20th, 2010 11:48 am | By Ophelia BensonRemember Kees? I mean “Kees”? The troll who appeared in February-March 2009 pretending to be a naive observer who had just discovered moral relativism by watching a tv documentary about a South Pacific island where the men (prepare for a shock) ran everything?
Who then revealed himself (by emailing a lot of commenters here to urge them to escape my dictatorship, and using a revealing email address) to be the same as one “Bernie Ranson” who had staged a similar extended charade at Talking Philosophy more than a year earlier, in January 2008?
Remember him? (He claimed to be male, and I think that particular claim is true.)
I’ve been reading some of his comments from those two encounters. They’re … Read the rest
Leo Igwe on caste in Igboland, Nigeria
Jun 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNwadiala regard themselves as people of ‘pure blood’ and Osu as people of ‘impure blood’.… Read the rest
London council drops prayer for poetry
Jun 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTelegraph claims, “The vast majority of councils choose to start meetings with Christian Prayers.”… Read the rest
Ayala says you can have it all
Jun 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“If humans came about by evolution, then the Bible isn’t wrong when it says that humans were created in the image of God.”… Read the rest
Clumsy cover-up in Cherie Blair case
Jun 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Office for Judicial Complaints sent its letter to the NSS second class.… Read the rest
Mixed messages on Cherie Blair complaint
Jun 20th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA statement suggested she had been cleared but a private letter to the NSS said the complaint was partly upheld. … Read the rest
The AAAS “Dialogue on Science and Religion”
Jun 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSome of the scientists said unfriendly things about “the new atheists” – surprise surprise.… Read the rest
The Irish to the bishops
Jun 19th, 2010 6:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe poor Irish bishops aren’t getting the deference they’re used to.
But Mark Kelly, director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), dismissed the bishops’ call. “The ICCL seriously doubts that the Irish Catholic bishops retain sufficient moral authority to pontificate on the Civil Partnership Bill,” he said.
And the ICCL isn’t the only one.
The Union of Students in Ireland said it was extremely disappointed the bishops were resisting equality for same sex couples. President Peter Mannion said: “While USI respects the viewpoint of the Catholic Church we do not agree with it. Objecting to the implementation of equal rights for Irish citizens may be seen as an absence of moral conscience.”
Omigod he said the bishops … Read the rest
Michael De Dora on science and religion
Jun 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe “appeal to common practice” is a fallacy.… Read the rest
Women’s rights and “peace” in Afghanistan
Jun 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWe are told that violations of women’s rights are part of someone else’s culture, and that we have no business interfering.… Read the rest
Ben Goldacre on the Independent on bad science
Jun 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA worrying resistance to the idea that anyone should dare to engage in legitimate criticism.… Read the rest
If the earth quakes, blame the scientists
Jun 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonItalian seismologists are now being indicted and investigated for manslaughter, because they failed to shout “earthquake!”… Read the rest
Matt Ridley on rational optimism
Jun 19th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAt some point in human history, ideas began to meet and mate, to have sex with each other.… Read the rest