All entries by this author

Animal Rights and Medical Research

Aug 24th, 2005 | By

Some UK animal rights campaigners take the movement to have won a great victory. More rational proponents of animal rights may well think the victory is decidedly Pyrrhic.

The Darley Oaks Farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire, which has been breeding guinea pigs for medical research for more than 30 years, has decided to stop because of a campaign of intimidation by ‘activists’. The owners of the farm and employees have received death threats, and the body of a relative was stolen from a churchyard in October 2004 and has never been found. Suppliers of the farm were also subject to intimidation, as the BBC reported:

Rod Harvey supplied fuel to the farm and endured four years of abuse from activists

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Kim Sengupta Reports From Maradi, Niger *

Aug 24th, 2005 | Filed by

The women do all the hard work while men hoard all the food.… Read the rest



Declaration on Animals in Medical Research *

Aug 24th, 2005 | Filed by

Text of Research Defence Society endorsement of animal research.… Read the rest



Resist Intimidation, Scientists Urge *

Aug 24th, 2005 | Filed by

Hall family was subjected to a six-year hate campaign by fanatics.… Read the rest



Anger at ‘Victory’ for Animal Rights Campaign *

Aug 24th, 2005 | Filed by

Warning that there could be severe consequences for clinical research in the UK.… Read the rest



Scientists Support Animal Testing *

Aug 24th, 2005 | Filed by

Research Defence Society declaration says small, vital part of medical research involves animals.… Read the rest



Women Bear the Brunt of Food Shortages *

Aug 24th, 2005 | Filed by

‘When you say food crisis, you say women,’ says Aissata Bagna.… Read the rest



Women in Niger Go Hungry Despite Food in House *

Aug 24th, 2005 | Filed by

Women in villages with stocks of sorghum and millet but no access to the food.… Read the rest



You Call That a Campaign?

Aug 24th, 2005 12:00 am | By

Pat Robertson is a funny guy, but Madeleine Bunting is just silly. (I know, that’s grossly unfair. PR is funny because the stuff he says is so loony. He’s not funny at all, really, since a great many people listen to him and think he makes sense. But look, living in the US these days, you have to laugh at people like Patto if you don’t want to go plain nuts.)

A campaign is being orchestrated through the media to destroy the credibility of many of the most important Muslim institutions in Britain, including the Muslim Council of Britain.

Yeah, a campaign – she cites all of two features, one in the Observer and one on Panorama. That’s a campaign? … Read the rest



Society for the Prevention of Kindness

Aug 23rd, 2005 8:33 pm | By

Jesus Christ. There is just no limit to human disgustingness, is there.

I am here to talk about her catastrophic childhood in an industrial school — a euphemism for workhouse — in Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s, and as anyone who survived this experience will confirm, it is a painful subject. There, incarcerated by 6ft walls and under the tutelage of the Sisters of Mercy nuns, Kathleen was beaten, starved and humiliated to a point where she felt worthless and wanted only to be invisible. Her education was scant; instead she was put to work scrubbing floors, in the laundry and, barefoot and dressed in rags, in the surrounding fields…Denied water between what passed for meals, she drank

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Pat’s a Sweetie

Aug 23rd, 2005 7:33 pm | By

Pat Robertson’s a funny guy. He has his own ideas about things. Kind of deranged ideas.

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has suggested that American agents assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming ‘a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism.”

For what? Muslim extremism? Er – why would Venezuela be that, especially? Is the Patster maybe a little confused?

We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator…You know, I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I

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Memoir of Childhood with Sisters of ‘Mercy’ *

Aug 23rd, 2005 | Filed by

Even the article is hard to read. Imagine what the experience was like.… Read the rest



David Aaronovitch’s ‘Writer’s Choice’ *

Aug 23rd, 2005 | Filed by

This time a collection rather than a single life-altering One.… Read the rest



Letters on Panorama and MCB *

Aug 23rd, 2005 | Filed by

Reporter John Ware, National Secular Society’s Terry Sanderson reply to Madeleine Bunting.… Read the rest



‘We Have the Ability to Take Him Out’ *

Aug 23rd, 2005 | Filed by

Robertson wants to ward off ‘communist infiltration and Muslim extremism’ in Venezeula. Eh?… Read the rest



Pat Robertson Calls for Chavez Assassination *

Aug 23rd, 2005 | Filed by

Cheaper than war, says Christian zealot, and oil shipments won’t stop.… Read the rest



Intimidation by ‘Animal Rights’ Activists Wins One *

Aug 23rd, 2005 | Filed by

Guinea pig farm closes after years of death threats and cruelty.… Read the rest



Jonathan Miller Visits a Church *

Aug 23rd, 2005 | Filed by

When it comes to things that science doesn’t know, ‘God is not an explanation.’… Read the rest



Mona Altahawy in Asharq Alawsat *

Aug 23rd, 2005 | Filed by

Concerns about Muslim Brotherhood’s position on women, on Shariah and on religious minorities.… Read the rest



Sharia Law and the Globalization of Political Islam

Aug 23rd, 2005 | By Homa Arjomand

I am very pleased to be here amongst you all, next to Ayaan Hersi Ali and Irshad Manji. It is hard to find opportunities such as this; to be able to share the idea of having a better life for all and identify with the supporters in an audience such as yourselves. So I will make the most of these moments by giving the focus of this discussion to the topic of this conference, Sharia Law and the Globalization of Political Islam.

I need to emphasize that I am talking about political Islam as a movement. As a movement it is very active in politics and is after its own state. Other aspects such as culture and laws serve its … Read the rest