Admitted Ireland had frequently failed to protect its children from abuse and neglect in the past. … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Mark Bauerlein on Michael Bérubé
Nov 8th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘When substantive points are recast as lapses in decency, outsiders have no chance.’… Read the rest
Trial in Indonesia for Schoolgirl Beheading
Nov 8th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSuspected Muslim militant accused in the beheadings of three Christian girls on Sulawesi island.… Read the rest
Iranian TV Star Faces Lashing for Having Sex
Nov 8th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonPolice investigating her for suspected breach of Iran’s strict laws forbidding sex outside marriage. … Read the rest
Democrats Win House of Representatives
Nov 8th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTester (Democrat) wins Montana, giving Democrats 50 seats in Senate.… Read the rest
We’re not even paying close attention
Nov 7th, 2006 6:12 pm | By Ophelia BensonWomen – they’re old news, right? That battle was won long ago, right? No..
Bride burnings, honor killings, female infanticide, sex trafficking, mass rape as a weapon of war and many other hideous forms of violence against women are documented in a report released last month by the United Nations. The report, a compilation of many studies from around the world, should have been seen as the latest dispatch from that permanent world war — the war against women all over the planet. Instead, the news media greeted its shocking contents with a collective yawn.
Because…? The news media have other things to do? The subject isn’t important? Women don’t matter? Women deserve what they get? Those places are … Read the rest
Thanks anyway
Nov 7th, 2006 4:55 pm | By Ophelia BensonOh good, more calls for mandatory religion and against public atheism.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, are introducing a new think-tank report that challenges the secular dream of taking Christ out of Christmas or anything else…In a joint foreword, they welcome the conclusion of the report that faith is not just important for human flourishing, but that society can only flourish if faith is “given space” to contribute and challenge.
Really? Is that true? ‘Flourish’ in what sense? According to whom, by what lights, according to which criteria? And what kind of ‘space’ has to be given, and how much of it, and to whom? Can society … Read the rest
Round-up of Resistance to Silencing
Nov 7th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJeff Weintraub, Jeff Jarvis, Piet Dorsman, AI, Reporters Without Borders.… Read the rest
Archbishops Back New ‘Theos’ Think Tank
Nov 7th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDirector of Theos, Paul Woolley, said the overall aim is to put God ‘back’ into the public domain.… Read the rest
Archbishops Attack Secularism
Nov 7th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonClaim ‘public atheism is itself an intolerant faith position.’… Read the rest
Eric Alterman on Salah Choudhury
Nov 7th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMSM ignoring the case, leaving it to right-wingers and Jewish-oriented publications. What’s up with that?… Read the rest
Media Yawn at Violence Against Women
Nov 7th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWomen by the millions are systematically targeted for attack because they are women; ho hum.… Read the rest
Blair Says Creationism is no Biggy
Nov 7th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTold scientists their worries about creationism were exaggerated; they felt lots better.… Read the rest
Unearned access to the microphone
Nov 7th, 2006 12:11 am | By Ophelia BensonTony’s been teasing Chuck. Excellent.
… Read the restTony Blair attacked the “anti-science brigade” yesterday for threatening Britain’s path to the future. He condemned the “outrageous distortion” of campaigners against pioneering technologies, insisting that they had to be defeated. His remarks at the King’s Centre, Oxford, will be taken as a thinly-veiled swipe at the Prince of Wales. Prince Charles has dismissed GM-food trials as unethical…Scientists would have a role in all the “big questions of our time – climate change, the spread of infectious diseases, water supply, biodiversity, terrorism,” said Mr Blair who confessed that he was a science “refusenik” at school. But he stressed the need to win the “irrational public debate” often surrounding scientific research. Without referring to Prince
Hitchens Attends Arendt Centenary Conference
Nov 6th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘What an awful season of pseudo-fights and distractions.’… Read the rest
‘Faith’ Schools Allowed to Discriminate
Nov 6th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonGovernment drops long-standing legal bans on discrimination against staff who have different or no religion.… Read the rest
Multiculturalism Discussed
Nov 6th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonYasmin Alibhai-Brown, Candace Allen, Ted Cantle, Dreda Say Mitchell.… Read the rest
Lack of Clarity About Multiculturalism
Nov 6th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMany anti-racists are so used to resisting attacks on minorities that they will defend all differences.… Read the rest