All entries by this author

Timothy Garton Ash on Islam in Europe *

Sep 19th, 2006 | Filed by

Frets about something called ‘Enlightenment fundamentalism.’… Read the rest



Theism and Science Not All That Compatible *

Sep 19th, 2006 | Filed by

‘What sounds like a harmless metaphor can restrict the intellectual bravado that is essential to science.’… Read the rest



Pregnancy Centers Give Disinformation on Abortion *

Sep 19th, 2006 | Filed by

Report says 20 of 23 federally funded centers gave false or misleading information about abortion risks.… Read the rest



Brenda Maddox’s Biography of Ernest Jones *

Sep 18th, 2006 | Filed by

Psychoanalysis turned out to be more like a religious cult or a fractious, fissile political party than a science. … Read the rest



Matt Ridley’s Biography of Francis Crick *

Sep 18th, 2006 | Filed by

‘This was a man who gave far more to the world than just the double helix.’… Read the rest



Michael Bérubé on the Dangeral Classroom *

Sep 18th, 2006 | Filed by

As students, you should expect to feel uncomfortable about your beliefs as a matter of course.… Read the rest



Madeleine Bunting is Cross at the Pope *

Sep 18th, 2006 | Filed by

Offend, offence, offended, Islamophobe, outrage, insensitive, difference, oh dear.… Read the rest



Karen Armstrong is Cross at the Pope *

Sep 18th, 2006 | Filed by

Offended, offensive, Islamophobia, western, medieval, Danish cartoon crisis, oh dear.… Read the rest



Junk Politics

Sep 17th, 2006 4:49 pm | By

No I’m still here, I haven’t run off with the minstrels. It’s just that there’s this deadline for TPM (The Philosophers’ Mag, you know) and I’ve been taken up with that. But I was reading an old Harper’s the other day, from November 2003, and found a lively article by Benjamin DeMott on ‘Junk Politics’ (excerpted from an eponymous book published a couple of months later). It’s not online, unfortunately, so I’ll give you an extract or two.

The case is that both the essential planks and the elaborating tropes of today’s junk politics are troublingly underexamined, yet they’ve been functioning for some time as major agents of public confusion…Junk politics introduces new qualifications for high political office…It tilts courage

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Taslima Nasrin on Ayaan Hirsi Ali *

Sep 17th, 2006 | Filed by

‘Ayaan’s questions may not be new, but they need to be reiterated, especially by women.’… Read the rest



Secretive MPAA Has Power, no Accountability *

Sep 17th, 2006 | Filed by

Violence is fine, lesbian sex unfine; what’s that about, and why are these people anonymous?… Read the rest



FCC Questioned About ‘Lost’ Report *

Sep 17th, 2006 | Filed by

FCC hides report that says media consolidation is bad for tv news, says dog ate homework.… Read the rest



Booker Shortlist Saves Bookies a Fortune *

Sep 17th, 2006 | Filed by

Favourites dropped, list full of young unknowns.… Read the rest



Argument Over Gibson ‘Passion’ Inspires Strangling *

Sep 17th, 2006 | Filed by

Man upset by violent crucifixion scenes, so throttles wife.… Read the rest



On Jahanbegloo and openDemocracy *

Sep 16th, 2006 | Filed by

Anthony Barnett cites greater responsibility on those who seek to encourage ‘velvet revolutions’.… Read the rest



Bush Goes to Congress to Lobby for Torture *

Sep 16th, 2006 | Filed by

Way to seize the moral high ground.… Read the rest



The US Christian Right Is Only a Little Scary *

Sep 16th, 2006 | Filed by

Says Peter Steinfels, who writes a column on ‘religion and ethics’ in The New York Times.… Read the rest



Peter Singer Interviewed *

Sep 16th, 2006 | Filed by

The issue is suffering.… Read the rest



Fuss About Pope’s Speech Continues *

Sep 16th, 2006 | Filed by

24-hour news, with comments taken out of context, disseminated and recycled, does its bit. … Read the rest



Andrew Brown on Religion as Collective Identity *

Sep 15th, 2006 | Filed by

Almost all the more loathsome attitudes of the OT will actually promote group cohesion and success.… Read the rest