One talks sense, the other talks drivel. Ho hum.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Aids Patients Refuse Meds, Take Holy Water
Apr 4th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTreatment is offered by a church in Ethiopia which claims to have cured hundreds of believers.… Read the rest
The Evolution of Sex Roles
Apr 4th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHow did our male and female ancestors divide work; how did the division shape the species? … Read the rest
Carl Zimmer on Time in the Animal Mind
Apr 4th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSeveral recent experiments suggest that, like humans, animals can visit the past and future.… Read the rest
Supreme Court Ruling on Carbon Emissions
Apr 4th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonClean Air Act gives EPA the authority to regulate emissions from cars.… Read the rest
The deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks
Apr 3rd, 2007 3:36 pm | By Ophelia BensonBad.
… Read the restThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is maneuvering to fundamentally weaken the Endangered Species Act, its strategy laid out in an internal 117-page draft proposal obtained by Salon. The proposed changes limit the number of species that can be protected and curtail the acres of wildlife habitat to be preserved. It shifts authority to enforce the act from the federal government to the states, and it dilutes legal barriers that protect habitat from sprawl, logging or mining…Many Fish and Wildlife Service employees believe the draft is not based on “defensible science,” says a federal employee who asked to remain anonymous…[T]he proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act should come as no surprise. President Bush has hardly been one
Zimbardo on the Lucifer Effect
Apr 3rd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘I knew from our experiment, if you put good apples into a bad situation, you’ll get bad apples.’… Read the rest
Official at Fish and Wildlife Vetoed Scientists
Apr 3rd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDepartment’s inspector general says official sent internal agency documents to industry lobbyists.… Read the rest
Secret Plan to Gut Endangered Species Act
Apr 3rd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMany Fish and Wildlife Service employees believe the draft is not based on ‘defensible science.’… Read the rest
Rafia Zakaria on The Silence of the Left
Apr 3rd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWestern leftists, prioritising their own opposition to American imperialism, have abandoned Iranian liberals.… Read the rest
Judith Butler and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Apr 3rd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonConsider the effect of the “global” on discourses of knowledge and power, literary analysis, and theories of subjectivity. … Read the rest
Jonathan Wolff on Bureaucracy and Necessity
Apr 3rd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere can be bureaucracy without accountability, but can there be accountability without bureaucracy?… Read the rest
The silence of the left
Apr 3rd, 2007 11:36 am | By Ophelia BensonIf you get tired of Butler and Spivak – this is better.
… Read the restThe most astute argument presented by Postel is his revelatory account of how Western leftists, by prioritising their own opposition to American imperialism, have abandoned Iranian liberals in their fight for freedom and democracy. Postel vehemently renounces the argument that support for pro-democracy interests in Iran somehow amounts to supporting the neo-conservative agenda. He presents engaging ideas as to how Iranian liberals have accomplished this very task. He relates in detail how Iranian human rights activists such as Akbar Ganji shun any contact with the United States government when visiting the country and focus solely on engaging with scholars, human rights organisations and civil society groups. Postel
Knowing everything is easy and fun
Apr 3rd, 2007 10:53 am | By Ophelia BensonI wish I could have been here. I’m excited that I can listen or watch now (although I’m not absolutely sure that I ever will, somehow), but that’s not quite the same.
… Read the restThe conference was organized by graduate students in the Department of Comparative Literature at UC Irvine. Participants were invited to address the term “state” and to consider the effect of the “global” on discourses of knowledge and power, literary analysis, and theories of subjectivity. The conference sought to reconceptualize the global by delineating states of sentiment, desire, and affect, and examining their deployment on – or relation to – the global scene of political and economic states. In their dialogue, Butler and Spivak discuss alternative subjectivities and
Mitigation
Apr 2nd, 2007 4:44 pm | By Ophelia BensonSo, like the pope with his fond references to hell and eternal punishment, that German judge made some things clear.
… Read the rest[T]he case brought before Frankfurt’s family court was that of a 26-year-old German woman of Moroccan origin who was terrified of her violent Moroccan husband, a man who had continued to threaten her despite having been ordered to stay away by the authorities. He had beaten his wife and he had allegedly threatened to kill her…According to the judge, there was no evidence of “an unreasonable hardship” that would make it necessary to dissolve the marriage immediately. Instead, the judge argued, the woman should have “expected” that her husband, who had grown up in a country influenced by Islamic
André Glucksmann’s Lifetime of Indignation
Apr 2nd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘There are many guardians of sleep. The thinker’s task is to fight against them.’… Read the rest
Paving the Way for a Muslim Parallel Society
Apr 2nd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRulings help create a parallel Muslim world in Germany that is welcoming to Islamic fundamentalists.… Read the rest
A Breathtakingly Manipulative Speech
Apr 2nd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe church is used to having privilege, and sees removal of privilege as an attack on its freedom.… Read the rest
Sister of ‘Honour’ Killing Victim Threatened
Apr 2nd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSister told jurors she was beaten, called a whore, accused of being too Westernised.… Read the rest
Mitchell Cohen on John Bowen on the Hijab
Apr 2nd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBowen doesn’t pose the questions adequately.… Read the rest