If we had free will, we would all choose to be funnier. We’re not, so we don’t.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
UN Human Rights Council is a Disappointment
Mar 24th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCouncil’s reaction to the massacres in Darfur is an example of why.… Read the rest
Watching ‘Little Mosque on the Prairie’
Mar 24th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘CBC has validated the image painted by Islamist groups that Muslim lives revolve around mosques.’… Read the rest
The Muslim Canadian Congress
Mar 24th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The MCC takes a stand for justice, equality and human rights.’… Read the rest
Death Threat to Muslim Canadian Congress
Mar 24th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘We want people to know such a problem exists in Canada. People thought we were exaggerating.’… Read the rest
Canadian Muslims Rebuke Death Threat
Mar 24th, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMuslim Canadian Congress supports equality for women, separation of religion and state.… Read the rest
Little masquerade on the prairie
Mar 24th, 2007 10:10 am | By Ophelia BensonTarek Fatah and Farzana Hassan don’t think much of the CBC’s new sitcom ‘Little Mosque on the Prairie.’
… Read the restTo begin with, a completely false picture of the Muslim community has been forced into the homes of non-Muslim Canadians. CBC has validated the image painted by Islamist groups that Muslim lives revolve around mosques – nothing else. We don’t play hockey, none of us have 9-to-5 day jobs, love affairs, play poker or, dare we say, cheat on our taxes or our spouses…[W]e question the motives of the writer, producers, and directors of the show for focusing singularly on the most conservative segments of the Muslim community. Although the characters are meant to reflect the diversity of Muslim society, a closer
Not Science But Antiscience
Mar 23rd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHomoeopathy BScs worse than Mickey Mouse; subject matter is founded on faith, not science. … Read the rest
Inequality Matters
Mar 23rd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNancy Birdsall on why globalization doesn’t lift all boats.… Read the rest
Boiling Babies is Wrong
Mar 23rd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUnless it’s not. How do we know?… Read the rest
Court Rules Charlie Hebdo Did Not Incite Hatred
Mar 23rd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCase brought by Muslim World League, Mosque of Paris, Union of Islamic Organisations of France.… Read the rest
The Fictions of Foucault’s Scholarship
Mar 23rd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf extraordinarily large claims rested on a shaky empirical foundation, this was not immediately evident. … Read the rest
‘Honour’ Killing Victim Could Have Been Saved
Mar 23rd, 2007 | By Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights OrganisationWomen from the London-based Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation have been attending the trial currently in session at Court 10 of London’s Central Criminal Court. Mahmod Mahmod, father to Banaz Mahmod Babakir Agha, and Ari Mahmod Babakir Agha, a wealthy business man and her uncle, are accused of her murder in the name of so-called ‘honour’. The case has been much covered by the media over its first few days. Banaz’s boyfriend, Rehmat Suleimani, a Kurd from Iran, has given his account, including a heartbreaking video recorded on his mobile phone in which Banaz herself accuses her father of trying to murder her, which reduced her former lover to tears. Her father and uncle remained stone-faced.
Rehmat himself reports … Read the rest
How different
Mar 23rd, 2007 11:59 am | By Ophelia BensonLet’s have a round of applause for the joys of tradition and folk medicine and spirituality.
… Read the restRamani had been bringing Sona up alone since her husband died from an unknown illness. Every day at 6am Ramani left home for her job as a labourer (painting the factories in an industrial area in the eastern Indian state of Jharkand), returning home 12 hours later. One night in January, Ramani and Sona were fast asleep when two neighbours broke down their rickety front door and dragged Ramani out of bed. As Sona fled to a neighbour’s hut, she saw one of the men’s hands cover her mother’s mouth and another close round her throat. Next morning, no one stopped Sona from
Sweeping absolutist generalisations
Mar 23rd, 2007 11:32 am | By Ophelia BensonSo it’s possible to get a BSc in a pseudoscience. Interesting.
… Read the rest[A] topic that many researchers see as a pseudoscience is claiming scientific status within the British education system. Over the past decade, several British universities have started offering bachelor of science (BSc) degrees in alternative medicine, including six that offer BSc degrees in homeopathy…Some scientists are increasingly concerned that such courses give homeopathy and homeopaths undeserved scientific credibility…Finding out exactly what is taught in the courses is not straightforward. Ben Goldacre, a London-based medical doctor, journalist and frequent critic of homeopathy, says that several universities have refused to let him see their course materials. “I can’t imagine what they’re teaching,” he says. “I can only imagine that they
Inner experience and doubtability
Mar 22nd, 2007 1:10 pm | By Ophelia BensonA little more on this puzzle about inner experience. No reason; I just find it interesting. I keep picking away at it. I suppose partly (or maybe mostly) because I know perfectly well that my instinct is simply to think the idea* is absurd – so that can be seen as a reason to try hard to consider the opposite. And there’s also the fact that Stannard obviously doesn’t think it’s absurd, and he’s obviously not just silly, so that’s another reason to puzzle. Plus it raises some interesting thoughts about memory and knowledge and so on – why some memories are harder to doubt than others, for instance. (In thinking about that I’ve had the mildly amusing realization that … Read the rest
A Pseudoscience Claims Scientific Status
Mar 22nd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSeveral British universities offer bachelor of science degrees in alternative medicine.… Read the rest
‘Alternative’ Medicine Taught as if Science
Mar 22nd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere are now 61 complementary medicine courses of which 45 are science degrees.… Read the rest
German Judge Cites ‘Right to Castigate’
Mar 22nd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe beat and threatened her; she wanted out; judge said wait a year, cited Koran.… Read the rest
Peter Tatchell on the Left and Human Rights
Mar 22nd, 2007 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUnlike global anti-apartheid movement, no global protests to support Zimbabwean struggle for democracy. … Read the rest