Wants a public apology from several newspapers that published a Motoon in 2008.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Paul Krugman v Niall Ferguson
Aug 31st, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonStarted as an argument about bond prices, became a row about racism and the fate of the global economy.… Read the rest
Natural Selection in Action: Deer Mice Go Sandy
Aug 31st, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBrown mice show, sandy mice fade into background; brown mice die off, sandy mice flourish.… Read the rest
‘Honour’ Killing is Terrorism
Aug 31st, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe point is to terrorize all women.… Read the rest
The solar system
Aug 30th, 2009 6:00 pm | By Ophelia BensonRussell wrote a terrific, exhilarating post about the solar system and Pluto and changing knowledge today. (It looks as if he wrote it tomorrow, but that’s because Metamagician is on Oz time even when Russell isn’t.)
… Read the restUntil very recently, astronomy needed no formal definition of a planet, but this has changed as our knowledge of the Solar System has increased. During the 1990s we discovered a toroidal region of space known as the Kuiper Belt, which contains not only Pluto but many other objects of similar composition and with similarly unusual orbits when compared to those of the eight larger planets. With a better understanding of the Solar System, astronomers came to understand Pluto as the largest of these Kuiper
No Evolution T-shirts for High School Band
Aug 30th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The district is required by law to remain neutral where religion is concerned’…and evolution is a religion.… Read the rest
Bishop Warns of ‘Aggressive Secularism’
Aug 30th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSays the established religion must speak out more to preserve the country’s Christian heritage.… Read the rest
What Happens to Pets After the Rapture?
Aug 30th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonKind helpful blaspheming atheists will give them a loving home. [link fixed!]… Read the rest
Is Depression an Evolutionary Adaptation?
Aug 30th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA pair of evolutionary psychiatrists claim it is, and say that drugs only make things worse.… Read the rest
Bleat bleat
Aug 29th, 2009 12:58 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is an irritating piece of crap.
By Allah, we’re an arrogant lot. By “we”, I mean modern western feminists, a group among which I am generally proud to be included. Except when we’re full of ourselves. Western feminism is not the only ideology exquisitely sensible of gender injustice.
It’s not clear what that is supposed to mean – feminism is universalist, not ‘Western,’ and there are of course feminists all over the globe. But if Geraldine Brooks means that feminism itself is not the only (or best) way of talking and thinking about and demanding gender justice – well I just have no idea what she means, because talk of gender justice is feminism, and vice versa, so … Read the rest
The prodigal atheist
Aug 29th, 2009 12:18 pm | By Ophelia BensonYou may remember that Julian Baggini wrote a piece about the destructiveness of the ‘new’ atheists a few months ago and then another urging them (or us) to turn down the volume at Comment is Free. I disagreed with him at the time in more than one post. He sounds like a new atheist himself in a new piece for C is F.
It’s another C is F ‘belief’ question: how did you find or lose your faith? Julian starts off by saying that people who lose their faith ‘do come to see as absurd beliefs which once seemed clearly true, or deeply mysterious.’
… Read the restThat was certainly true for me. As a teenager, I increasingly had questions about
Faith Healers Watched Boy Die of Appendicitis
Aug 29th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonState law has an exemption for ‘a duly accredited Christian Science practitioner’ but no other religion.… Read the rest
Health Warning: Exercise Makes You Fat
Aug 29th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe kind of headline you want to see: it’s affirmative, it’s reassuring, it gives you permission to sit on your arse all day. … Read the rest
Goldacre and Science Minister Debate: Tix Free
Aug 29th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAn important issue, good that a politician is taking it seriously.… Read the rest
Ben Goldacre on Advertising via Journalism
Aug 29th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNewspapers are short of cash, and they print PR-reviewed ‘research’ straight from the press release.… Read the rest
‘Western Feminist’ Rebukes ‘Western Feminists’
Aug 29th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWe should support religious feminism abroad; otherwise we’re arrogant and full of ourselves.… Read the rest
Normblog on Wisdom from Slavoj Zizek
Aug 28th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOr not so much wisdom as sorry claptrap.… Read the rest
Nick Cohen on Turning a Blind Eye to Misogyny
Aug 28th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMainstream opinion does not consider the oppression of women a pressing concern when it is done in the name of culture or religion.… Read the rest
Clive James on ‘Honor’ Murders
Aug 28th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe words “community” and “culture” are starting to sound like weasel words for institutionalised sadism.… Read the rest
Ziauddin Sardar Explains About the Koran
Aug 28th, 2009 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIbn Sina, Ibn Rushd, Muslim Spain, the Blue Mosque! See?… Read the rest