According to police, four to five persons opened fire with automatic weapons outside conference.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Martha Nussbaum on Religious Terror in India 
Dec 28th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Right-wing Hindu extremists who condone violence against minorities are still powerful.… Read the rest
Debt Displaces Liberal Education
Dec 28th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
U. of Phoenix founder: ‘We’re not going for that “expand their minds” bullshit.’… Read the rest
The Little Red Book Affair
Dec 28th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Some believed the student, some doubted, so questions were pressed…… Read the rest
Human Remains Found at Gujarat
Dec 28th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
India’s CBI to investigate claims that remains are those of victims of religious riots in 2002. … Read the rest
Gunman Attacks Indian Institute of Science
Dec 28th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
At least five injured at science conference in Bangalore.… Read the rest
A Short Way With Atrocities
Dec 28th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Don’t prosecute people who mention them, just forget they ever happened.… Read the rest
God Has to Re-train
Dec 27th, 2005 8:32 pm | By Ophelia BensonWell isn’t B&W up to date. Yes, it is. No sooner do I find Daniel Dennett’s comment on the Kitzmiller decision in my email and rush to post it, than I find a Spiegel interview with Daniel Dennett on evolution and ID.
Spiegel asks why evolution is so particularly troubling to religious people, compared with other scientific theories.
… Read the restIt counters one of the oldest ideas we have, maybe older even than our species…It’s the idea that it takes a big fancy smart thing to make a lesser thing. I call that the trickle-down theory of creation. You’ll never see a spear making a spear maker. You’ll never see a horse shoe making a blacksmith. You’ll never see a pot making
Holy Toast on ebay
Dec 27th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ancient piece of cheese on toast said to resemble Virgin Mary. Scoffers not convinced.… Read the rest
Nun Bun Stolen!
Dec 27th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Cinnamon roll said to look like Ma Teresa grabbed by someone who found it irritating. … Read the rest
Progressive Politics Depend on Imagination
Dec 27th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Which is stunted in childhood as play is displaced by organized sports, television, video games… Read the rest
Dennett’s Breaking the Spell Reviewed
Dec 27th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The spell he hopes to break is not religious belief but the conviction that it’s off-limits to scientific inquiry, taboo. … Read the rest
Daniel Dennett on Deeply Intuitive Idea Behind ID
Dec 27th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The idea that it takes a big fancy smart thing to make a lesser thing.… Read the rest
Evasion
Dec 26th, 2005 5:55 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis again. I seem to have this argument every ten days or so. The issues are just never framed properly – instead they’re framed evasively and euphemistically, and how can anything be discussed properly when the air is clouded by evasion and euphemism? I ask you.
What argument? The free speech one. The one that swirls around the thought that free speech is not about the easy cases but about the hard ones. One version of that is the discussion of hypocrisy and double standards, as in Mark Steyn’s inaccurate whinge about Hampstead big guns who ‘lined up’ to defend Rushdie but wouldn’t (according to Steyn) line up to defend Lynette Burrows, and as in this one about Orhan Pamuk … Read the rest
Johann Hari on the Ayn Rand Cult
Dec 26th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ayn Rand Institute called unpaid voluntary work an ‘unforgivable act of altruism’.… Read the rest
Psychoanalysis Tottering in France
Dec 26th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Le livre noir is doing its bit.… Read the rest
Chandani Lokuge Reviews Amartya Sen
Dec 26th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Sen sees identity as a personal choice that must be guided by a process of careful reasoning.… Read the rest
Student Admits ‘Little Red Book’ Story Was a Hoax
Dec 26th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The skeptical librarians were right. Well done, skeptical librarians.… Read the rest
Women Punished for Causing Tsunami
Dec 25th, 2005 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Sharia police force modelled on Saudi moral enforcers subjects women to public humiliation. … Read the rest
Seven Up
Dec 24th, 2005 7:05 pm | By Ophelia BensonA tag by Norm. Sevens.
Seven things to do before I die:
1) Go to Italy. 2) Write a book. 3) Participate in electing a rational, non-corrupt, thoughtful, educated, articulate, disciplined adult as president of the US. 4) Refrain from running a marathon. 5) Convert the pope to atheism. 6) Read all those books I should have read by now and haven’t. 7) See women achieve full and ineradicable human rights and equality everywhere on the planet.
Seven things I cannot do:
1) Play the cello. 2) Rock-climb. 3) Let it go. 4) Chinese calligraphy. 5) Help it. 6) Fly. 7) Keep things tidy.
Seven things that attract me to blogging:
1) It’s like writing in a notebook except … Read the rest
