Brent Bozell, of right-wing Media Research Center, said “I hope this champion of honesty will stop lying about Fox News.”… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Gove welcomes “atheist” schools 
Jul 29th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Because he thinks a secular school is an “atheist” school.… Read the rest
UK govt response to petition to ban halal slaughter
Jul 29th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“The Government recognises the needs of certain communities” to kill animals without stunning them first.… Read the rest
Extended interview with Hitchens
Jul 29th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“I’ve only got one side of the brain that works. The other is sort of walnut-sized. I think I’d do better to stay with the essayistic form.”… Read the rest
Ron Lindsay on how to discuss religion
Jul 29th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Religious truth-claims should be subject to examination and criticism, just like any other claims about reality.… Read the rest
Visible or Invisible: Growing up Female in a Porn Culture
Jul 28th, 2010 | By Gail DinesAt a lecture I was giving in a large West Coast university in the Spring of 2008, the female students talked extensively about how much they preferred to have a completely waxed pubic area as it made them feel “clean,” “hot” and “well groomed.” As they excitedly insisted that they themselves chose to have a Brazilian wax, one student let slip that her boyfriend had complained when she decided to give up on waxing. Then there was silence. I asked the student to say more about her boyfriend’s preferences and how she felt about his criticism. As she started to speak other students joined in, only now the conversation took a very different turn. The excitement in the room gave … Read the rest
Lauryn Oates on cultural relativism and FGM
Jul 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Why do we worry so much about alienating people who hold down screaming little girls and butcher their genitals?… Read the rest
What we can do
Jul 28th, 2010 11:19 am | By Ophelia BensonChristina Patterson accepts a little too much.
I accept that people should, except in certain professional situations which involve dealing with the public, be allowed to wear whatever they like, and that laws which prevent this are self-defeating, and that you can’t stop parents, or rabbis, teaching little boys that adult women shouldn’t even be brushed against on a bus, and I accept that some of these things are an inevitable consequence of a modern, and in many ways magnificent, multi-cultural society.
I don’t think we have to accept that you can’t stop parents, or rabbis, teaching little boys that adult women are contaminants. We have to accept that you can’t forcibly, physically stop them, but we don’t have … Read the rest
Gnu atheists close the bar
Jul 28th, 2010 11:05 am | By Ophelia BensonIt was fun last night. PZ was there, Cam and Josh were there, and about thirty other interesting people were there. We bayed for blood, we cooked little children into soup, we tore up holy books, we made plans for world domination. The usual.… Read the rest
UK: agencies tackling “faith-based abuse”
Jul 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Progress has been made, but some churches decline “help”; they still abuse children as “witches.”… Read the rest
Ashtiani’s cellmate was there when she was sentenced
Jul 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“She just cried and I didn’t see her without crying until the last day I spent time with her in prison.”… Read the rest
Multiculturalism and its discontents
Jul 28th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Little boys treating women like sources of contamination; racism; female genital mutilation.… Read the rest
Counterproductive Online Journalism
Jul 27th, 2010 | By Carl AndersIt is said that rejection is just the things you say to yourself everyday, except said by someone else. To a failed writer, this balance of rejection is firmly in the court of the rejecting editors encountered to date at this stage, but the maxim is similar in the world of Web 2.0. Blogs, comments, forums, social networking, it’s the stuff you say in your head, except communicated as text, but the difference is it’s unlikely you would say them to anyone’s face (at least not sober).
However, this caveat is often used to somehow dampen the impact of the internet. It’s just the internet; no one takes it seriously do they? Well, do they? As the print media will … Read the rest
Faith-healing in Oregon
Jul 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Take a look at Alayna Wyland, age 8 months, and the untreated hemangioma over her eye.… Read the rest
The worst thing to be is an Afghan woman
Jul 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Stories abound of young women betrothed as toddlers, exchanged for fighting dogs or to pay debts, beaten and raped by their husbands.… Read the rest
Arundhati Roy the reactionary
Jul 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Roy has chosen to make progress—along with democracy—her bête noire.… Read the rest
Gail Dines on porn and the degradation of women
Jul 27th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
“Pornography today is not your father’s Playboy. It’s hard-core, cruel, and brutal.”… Read the rest
Tory MP faces arrest if he refuses to meet women in niqab
Jul 26th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Lawyers for Liberty told Philip Hollobone his “threat” to refuse to meet constituents wearing the niqab is unlawful.… Read the rest
The horrors of female genital mutilation
Jul 26th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Up to 2,000 British schoolgirls will suffer FGM during the holidays, but there have been no prosecutions to date.… Read the rest
The picture in Wikileaks docs is bleak
Jul 26th, 2010 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The docs sketch a war hamstrung by an Afghan government, police force and army of questionable loyalty and competence.… Read the rest
