All entries by this author

Police and Councils Rely on ‘Community Leaders’ *

Jan 7th, 2006 | Filed by

‘There is a belief that those who shout the loudest can best solve the problems within their community.’… Read the rest



Vatican Meddling With Slovakia *

Jan 6th, 2006 | Filed by

Women’s rights to healthcare could be curtailed.… Read the rest



Gang Killing for not Converting to Islam? *

Jan 6th, 2006 | Filed by

Woman tells inquest her son was told he would be killed if he did not convert.… Read the rest



MCB Maintains Boycott of Holocaust Day *

Jan 6th, 2006 | Filed by

Wants other people mentioned. Armenians for example?… Read the rest



About 4 Million Have Died in DRC Since 1998 *

Jan 6th, 2006 | Filed by

War in Democratic Republic of Congo kills 38,000 people each month, the Lancet says.… Read the rest



Kwame Anthony Appiah in Ghana *

Jan 6th, 2006 | Filed by

The right approach starts by taking individuals – not nations, tribes or ‘peoples’ – as the proper object of moral concern. … Read the rest



Teacher Decapitated by Taliban *

Jan 6th, 2006 | Filed by

The latest in a string of attacks on teachers working in schools where girls are taught.… Read the rest



Jason Rosenhouse on the Outcome of Kitzmiller *

Jan 6th, 2006 | Filed by

What happens in a forum dominated by facts and evidence, as opposed to theater and rhetoric… Read the rest



Mark Perakh on ‘Irreducible Complexity’ *

Jan 6th, 2006 | Filed by

How probable is it that the very features that make a design bad are markers of design?… Read the rest



If That Girl Picks Up a Book – Kill Her

Jan 6th, 2006 1:54 am | By

Words fail me. Human garbage. Rock bottom.

Suspected Taliban militants have beheaded a headteacher in central Afghanistan, the latest in a string of gruesome attacks on teachers working in schools where girls are taught. Armed men burst into the home of Malim Abdul Habib in Qalat, the capital of restive Zabul province, on Tuesday night. They dragged him into a courtyard and forced his family to watch as they cut off his head, said Ali Khel, a local government spokesman…Hundreds of students attended his funeral yesterday. “Only the Taliban are against our girls being educated,” Mr Khel said.

Well there – that’s why they’re human garbage. They dedicate their lives to preventing girls from getting an education – what … Read the rest



Pilgrims’ Hostel Collapses in Mecca *

Jan 5th, 2006 | Filed by

Stampedes killed 251 people in 2004, 1,426 in 1990. Deity rewards followers.… Read the rest



Interview With Todd Gitlin *

Jan 5th, 2006 | Filed by

Postmodernism is the move from great refusal to the great retreat.… Read the rest



Business School Language Infests all Institutions *

Jan 5th, 2006 | Filed by

The model of market-managerialism has largely destroyed all alternatives, traditional and untraditional.… Read the rest



Scott McLemee on Franco Moretti *

Jan 5th, 2006 | Filed by

‘Distant reading’ is not just counting.… Read the rest



Tony Judt’s History of Post-war Europe *

Jan 5th, 2006 | Filed by

The history of Europe has included massive spells of acting out.… Read the rest



So Someone has Noticed

Jan 5th, 2006 2:23 am | By

Aha. Natalie Angier and I are on the same page, so to speak.

Among the more irritating consequences of our flagrantly religious society is the special dispensation that mainstream religions receive. We all may talk about religion as a powerful social force, but unlike other similarly powerful institutions, religion is not to be questioned, criticized or mocked. When the singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor ripped apart a photograph of John Paul II to protest what she saw as his overweening power, even the most secular humanists were outraged by her idolatry, and her career has never really recovered.

Not this cookie – I wasn’t outraged. (Well, I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but if I had been, I would have … Read the rest



Do as I Say Not as I Don’t Do

Jan 4th, 2006 8:02 pm | By

Good old Iqbal Sacranie. One can see why the BBC and similar are always so eager to ask the MCB for its opinion on matters to do with ‘the Muslim community’.

Sir Iqbal said of civil partnerships: “This is harmful. It does not augur well in building the very foundations of society – stability, family relationships. And it is something we would certainly not, in any form, encourage the community to be involved in.”

Why? Why doesn’t it?

He said he was guided by the teachings of the Muslim faith, adding that other religions such as Christianity and Judaism held the same stance.

Yes, they do. A cardinal was saying so just the other day. So what? Why … Read the rest



Lipstadt

Jan 4th, 2006 7:21 pm | By

No, it’s not particularly astonishing that Deborah Lipstadt doesn’t think Iriving should go to prison. Yes she has every reason to find him extremely irritating, but that doesn’t straightforwardly necessarily translate to thinking he ought to be locked up – and it’s a bit stupid to think or pretend to think it does. Don’t we all find countless throngs of people extremely irritating without thinking (except for the odd passing whim) that they ought to be locked up? I know I do.

Lipstadt has spent years exposing the arguments of Nazi sympathisers. She warns historians must “remain ever vigilant” against those who say the Holocaust was a hoax, “so that the precious tools of our trade and our society

Read the rest


Swag

Jan 4th, 2006 6:29 pm | By

Well, there’s one good thing. Maybe, maybe, maybe, now at last the news media will start calling bribery ‘bribery’ instead of ‘fundraising’ and ‘campaign contributions’. That would help. I don’t know, maybe the Beeb is different, maybe they’ve been calling it bribery at least some of the time all along, but US news media sure haven’t. It’s been driving me stark staring mad for years, hearing NPR reporters blithely referring to fundraising when what they’re talking about is simply solicitation of bribes, and campaign contributions when what they’re talking about is simply monetary payments to powerful elected officials in the expectation of favours in return. The whole incredible shocking disgusting deeply corrupt mess has been treated as normal and … Read the rest



Lobbyist Case Brings Bribery Out of Closet *

Jan 4th, 2006 | Filed by

US justice department intends to pursue senior politicians suspected of taking bribes from Abramoff.… Read the rest