All entries by this author

A fun outing

May 6th, 2007 11:36 am | By

Pretty.

Cellphone videos have appeared on the Internet showing an Iraqi mob stoning and kicking to death a 17-year-old girl after she offended her minority community by eloping with a Muslim man…In the video – on the Kurdish website Jebar.Info and rapidly spreading on the Internet – Aswad is shown lying in the road as men kick her and throw a large lump of rock or concrete at her head. Her face is drenched in blood but uniformed and armed officers of the Iraqi police stand by and do nothing to prevent the attack…At one point she struggles to sit up and cover herself, but a man kicks her in the face knocking her violently back to the ground…Members

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Stephen Moss Talks to Slavoj Zizek *

May 5th, 2007 | Filed by

‘Slovenian philosopher, cineaste, professional contrarian. He is feted as an “academic rock star”.’… Read the rest



Who’s Kwame Anthony Appiah? *

May 5th, 2007 | Filed by

The questions he poses are disturbing, since they expose the errors of our most cherished forms of selfhood. … Read the rest



Interview with Amartya Sen *

May 5th, 2007 | Filed by

Democracy can be seen as government by discussion, responding to and protecting public discussion. … Read the rest



Turkish Women and Islamism *

May 5th, 2007 | Filed by

Some fear it, others are thrilled.… Read the rest



Bush Promises to Veto Abortion Rights *

May 5th, 2007 | Filed by

‘I will veto any legislation that encourages the destruction of human life.’ No more capital punishment then?… Read the rest



Vatican’s Thigh-slapper About ‘Terrorist’ Comedian *

May 4th, 2007 | Filed by

There are terrorists around, therefore jokes are terrorism. Huh?… Read the rest



Irish Abortion Court Case Continues *

May 4th, 2007 | Filed by

Effort to force teenager to carry anencephalic foetus to term continues.… Read the rest



Stunning 12th Century Buddhist Art Found in Nepal *

May 4th, 2007 | Filed by

Sheep herder told researchers of caves containing a mural of 55 panels.… Read the rest



Unthinkable

May 3rd, 2007 12:47 pm | By

From Why Atheism? by George Smith (Prometheus 2000) p. 17:

If most Christians (and other religious believers) dismiss atheism outright, this is not because they have examined the arguments for atheism and found them wanting, but because they do not take atheism seriously enough to examine its arguments in detail. Atheism, in their view, lacks credibility, so they have no motive to examine it further. To portray atheism as utterly lacking in credibility has long played a crucial role in religious propaganda. Atheism must be rendered unthinkable, because doubt, if left unchecked, can easily propel the believer down the path of deconversion (the process by which a religious believer becomes an atheist)…To say that atheism is credible is to

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Vatican Calls Pope-criticism ‘Terrorism’ *

May 3rd, 2007 | Filed by

A presenter at a rock concert spoke out against some of Ratzinger’s views. That’s terrorism?… Read the rest



Committee to Protect Journalists Report *

May 3rd, 2007 | Filed by

The ten worst: Ethiopia, Gambia, DRC, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Thailand. … Read the rest



Index on Censorship on Press Freedom Day *

May 3rd, 2007 | Filed by

Padraig Reidy on Johnston, Politkovskaya, Dink, Edward Chikomba, Joey Estriber; the list keeps growing.… Read the rest



Egypt Celebrates World Press Freedom Day *

May 3rd, 2007 | Filed by

By jailing Al-Jazeera producer for filming a documentary accusing Egyptian police of torturing prisoners.… Read the rest



World Press Freedom Day *

May 3rd, 2007 | Filed by

‘If truth is killed, the whole world will suffer.’… Read the rest



The Rise of Islamism in Kano *

May 3rd, 2007 | Filed by

In Plateau state, human rights groups have recorded nearly 60,000 religious killings in the past six years.… Read the rest



Forced to Carry Anencephalic Foetus to Term *

May 3rd, 2007 | Filed by

Irish teenager’s baby will die days after birth, but health service has blocked her going to UK.… Read the rest



Bafflement

May 3rd, 2007 11:12 am | By

What is the morality behind forcing a girl or woman to carry to term an anencephalic foetus that will die within days of birth?

Doctors have told the girl that her four-month foetus will not live more than a few days beyond birth. She is in the care of Ireland’s health service which has issued an order stopping her from going to Britain…Miss D was informed last month that her foetus has anencephaly, a condition which means that a large part of the brain and skull is missing. Babies with anencephaly live a maximum of just three days after birth.

What is the principle at work here? I don’t understand it. I don’t even begin to understand it. Ireland’s health … Read the rest



Ironies

May 2nd, 2007 4:10 pm | By

There’s an irony in all this – or maybe it’s two or three ironies. Steven Poole said yesterday in a comment on his post at Unspeak:

In exciting news, the cudgels of anti-anti-anti-intellectualism or whatever have been taken up by Ophelia Benson, scourge of what she is pleased to call “fashionable nonsense”, who takes me, mystifyingly, to be saying It is forbidden to criticize Zizek. Oh well. I suppose she was not sufficiently delighted with my review of her recent book.

Mystifyingly? But what else can ‘the opinion journalist Johann Hari does not suffer from such uncertainty, and has taken it upon himself to denounce Slavoj Zizek in an article for the New Statesman’ mean? If it doesn’t … Read the rest



Reason crash

May 2nd, 2007 3:02 pm | By

This is really tragic. Those poor sad deprived confined young people.

At Harvard these days, said Professor Gomes, the university preacher, “There is probably more active religious life now than there has been in 100 years.” Across the country, on secular campuses…chaplains, professors and administrators say students are drawn to religion and spirituality with more fervor than at any time they can remember…A survey on the spiritual lives of college students, the first of its kind, showed in 2004 that more than two-thirds of 112,000 freshmen surveyed said they prayed, and that almost 80 percent believed in God. Nearly half of the freshmen said they were seeking opportunities to grow spiritually…

That’s terrible. Almost 80 percent! Almost 80 percent … Read the rest