Betrayal of revolutionary principles ended brutal unlawful imprisonment. Shock horror.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Ian McEwan on the Apocalyptic Mind
Jul 11th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCommon threads run between medieval and contemporary apocalyptic thought.… Read the rest
Andrew Anthony Reviews Kenan Malik
Jul 11th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonA stalwart defender of free speech, Malik is a formidable enemy of fuzzy or wishful thinking. … Read the rest
Rorty and the ‘Intellectual Self-concept’
Jul 10th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAcademics make intellectual choices in part because of what sort of intellectual they think they are.… Read the rest
Atheist Soldier Sues Pentagon for Discrimination
Jul 10th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSome former soldiers say the Pentagon tacitly encourages evangelical proselytizing to create a ‘godly army.’… Read the rest
Jesse Jackson Apologizes
Jul 10th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAccused Obama of ‘talking down to black people,’ expressed desire to cut his nuts off. Tho thorry.… Read the rest
Vatican Outrage at End to 16 Year Coma
Jul 10th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEluana Englaro has been comatose for 16 years, Vatican wants that to continue.… Read the rest
John Gray gives the Enlightenment a damn good thrashing
Jul 9th, 2008 8:02 pm | By Ophelia BensonJohn Gray has a burr up his ass about the Enlightenment.
… Read the restCentral and Eastern Europe was a morass of ethnic enmities, and in Germany the Nazis were implementing their poisonous mix of nationalism and racism. Was this just a detour in the onward march to a brave new world where everyone will be treated equally? Or did it – as Roth suspected – reveal a darker side of modernity? There can be no doubt about Kenan Malik’s view. A pious disciple of the Enlightenment, though not untroubled by the doubts that can afflict any believer, he cannot tolerate the thought that some of the last century’s worst atrocities were by-products of modern Enlightenment thinking…Nazism – though it drew on
John Gray Reviews Kenan Malik’s Strange Fruit
Jul 9th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOr rather, he trots out his usual anti-Enlightenment horses.… Read the rest
Peru: Difficulty of Getting Therapeutic Abortion
Jul 9th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Women and girls confronting pregnancies that could kill or permanently harm them are refused legal abortions.’… Read the rest
Guy Suspected Brother’s Wife of ‘Bad Character’
Jul 9th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSo he killed her.… Read the rest
CPS Lawyer Nazir Afzal Wins Award
Jul 9th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFor his work in highlighting the issue of ‘honour’ crimes.… Read the rest
The HRW Report
Jul 9th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonExcessive workload and unpaid wages, for up to 10 years, are among the most common complaints. … Read the rest
Abuse of Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia
Jul 9th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEmployers commit abuses such as unpaid wages, forced confinement, and physical and sexual violence.… Read the rest
Identity is That Which is Given
Jul 9th, 2008 | By Kenan MalikThe anthropologist Margaret Mead once observed that in the 1930s, when she was busy remaking the idea of culture, the notion of cultural diversity was to be found only in the ‘vocabulary of a small and technical group of professional anthropologists’. Today, everyone and everything seems to have its own culture. From anorexia to zydeco, the American philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah has observed, there is little that we don’t talk about as the product of some group’s culture. In this age of globalisation many people fret about Western culture taking over the world. But the greatest Western export is not Disney or McDonalds or Tom Cruise. It is the very idea of culture. Every island in the Pacific, every tribe … Read the rest
Rage boy
Jul 8th, 2008 12:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonWhat a lot of people like to dress up a love of bullying and violence and cruelty as some kind of quest for social justice – the FARC, Islamists, ZANU-PF – and the Animal Liberation Front. Good old Jerry Vlasak is still at it, only more so.
… Read the restOne scrawled “killer” in chalk on the scientist’s doorstep, while another hurled insults through a bullhorn and announced, “Your neighbor kills animals!” Someone shattered a window. Borrowing the kind of tactics used by anti-abortion demonstrators, animal rights activists are increasingly taking their rage straight to scientists’ front doors. Over the past couple of years, more and more researchers who experiment on animals have been harassed and terrorized in their own homes, with
Two Teenagers to be Freed from Madrassa
Jul 8th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe two are being held against their will at the Jamia Binoria Institute in Karachi… Read the rest
Animal Rights ‘Protesters’ Torment Scientists
Jul 8th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJerry Vlasak told AP ‘if you had to hurt somebody or intimidate them or kill them, it would be morally justifiable.’… Read the rest
More Girls in School in Afghanistan
Jul 8th, 2008 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMinister for education said another teacher had been beheaded by the Taliban in the past week. … Read the rest