All entries by this author

Mill and Russell Speak Up

Jun 16th, 2005 8:45 pm | By

And while we’re on the subject of ‘Intelligent Design’ and the people at the ‘Discovery Institute’ and so on – I just feel like aiming another kick at the design argument. I know I’ve done it before, I’m repeating myself, but – but I’m not sure they get shouted at enough about this.

Okay their big thing is ‘_____ is too complex to have come about without a designer. _____ is irreducibly complex, so a designer must have designed it, because otherwise it wouldn’t be there, being so complex and all.’ Complex things can’t just happen. A hurricane can’t whip through a junkyard and leave a 777 behind. An inebriated chimpanzee can’t shred a pile of old newspapers and end … Read the rest



Bad Astronomy Speaks Out

Jun 16th, 2005 7:02 pm | By

Okay – so apparently you’re not sick of the sound of my voice even if I am. (Well you wouldn’t be, would you – because if you were, you wouldn’t be here. Unless you’re all a pack of masochists who go out of your way to read stuff that you’re sick of. But that’s not likely either, because in fact if you’re masochistic and want to read stuff you’re sick of, you can find plenty of stuff you’re sicker of than you are of me. I’m quietly confident of that. Really. I happen to know [this is a little-known fact, but I’ll make you a present of it] that there is quite a lot of boring stuff on the Internet, … Read the rest



‘Bad Astronomy’ on Creationist Astronomy *

Jun 16th, 2005 | Filed by

The Discovery Institute looks beyond biology…… Read the rest



Today Reporter Tells How He Got the Story *

Jun 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Why Sita Kisanga agreed to talk to BBC about the ‘witchcraft’ child abuse case.… Read the rest



But Mai Needs Her Passport *

Jun 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Mukhtar Mai has told the BBC her passport has been confiscated.… Read the rest



Pakistan Lifts Travel Ban on Mukhtar Mai *

Jun 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Mai welcomed decision, had been planning to travel to US at invitation of human rights group.… Read the rest



Pakistan Lifts Travel Restrictions on Rape Victim *

Jun 16th, 2005 | Filed by

US State Department and human rights groups objected.… Read the rest



Microsoft Criticized Over China Censorship *

Jun 16th, 2005 | Filed by

‘Human rights’ forbidden in subject line but allowed in text.… Read the rest



Untitled

Jun 15th, 2005 9:15 pm | By

I’m sick of the sound of my own voice.… Read the rest



Vatican Wins in Referendum Boycott *

Jun 15th, 2005 | Filed by

Failure of attempt to liberalise law on IVF treatment called ‘the great revenge.’… Read the rest



India Muslim Divorce Code Disappoints Women *

Jun 15th, 2005 | Filed by

Code silent on minimum marriage age for women, triple talaq still there.… Read the rest



Woman Ordered to Marry Rapist *

Jun 15th, 2005 | Filed by

Indian woman ordered by Muslim council of community elders to marry father-in-law. … Read the rest



“Theory’s Empire”

Jun 15th, 2005 | By Mark Bauerlein

This spring, Columbia University Press published an anthology of literary and cultural theory, a 700-page tome entitled Theory’s Empire and edited by Daphne Patai and Will Corral. The collection includes essays dating back 30 years, but most of them are of recent vintage (I’m one of the contributors).

Why another door-stopper volume on a subject already well-covered by anthologies and reference books from Norton, Johns Hopkins, Penguin, University of Florida Press, etc.? Because in the last 30 years, theory has undergone a paradoxical decline, and the existing anthologies have failed to register the change. Glance at the roster of names and texts in the table of contents and you’ll find a predictable roll call of deconstruction, feminism, new historicism, neopragmatism, … Read the rest



Qu’est-ce qu’il a dit?

Jun 14th, 2005 11:45 pm | By

A little from Foucault himself, since it’s available. Some wisdom and insight from M. Discipline and Punish.

One thing must be clear. By “Islamic government,” nobody in Iran means a political regime in which the clerics would have a role of supervision or control.

Shrewd, ain’t it! Noooo, nobody meant that! Clerics? A role? A role of supervision or control? Oh, hell no! That’s not what anybody meant.

He did go to Iran, right? He wasn’t confused? He didn’t, like, get off the plane a stop or two early? In Marseille or someplace? He didn’t accidentally say ‘Stockholm’ to the ticket clerk when he meant to say ‘Tehran’?

To me, the phrase “Islamic government” seemed to point to two

Read the rest


He Had Seen the Future and it Worked

Jun 14th, 2005 8:39 pm | By

So Foucault went to Iran in 1979, to see what he could see.

While many liberals and leftists supported the populist uprising that pitted unarmed masses against one of the world’s best-armed regimes, none welcomed the announcement of the growing power of radical Islam with the portentous lyricism that Foucault brought to his brief, and never repeated, foray into journalism…Foucault’s Iranian adventure was a “tragic and farcical error” that fits into a long tradition of ill-informed French intellectuals spouting off about distant revolutions, says James Miller, whose 1993 biography “The Passion of Michel Foucault” contains one of the few previous English-language accounts of the episode. Indeed, Foucault’s search for an alternative that was absolutely other to liberal democracy seems peculiarly

Read the rest


Tulsa Zoo Forced to Post Creationist Signs *

Jun 14th, 2005 | Filed by

Zoo employees, others said religion shouldn’t be part of scientific institution.… Read the rest



Excerpt from Foucault and the Iranian Revolution *

Jun 14th, 2005 | Filed by

‘By “Islamic government,” nobody in Iran means a political regime in which the clerics would have a role of supervision or control.’… Read the rest



Foucault and the Ayatollah *

Jun 14th, 2005 | Filed by

Foucault’s search for an alternative that was absolutely other to liberal democracy. … Read the rest



Victim Locked Up While Rapists Walk Free *

Jun 14th, 2005 | Filed by

‘This tactic of silencing the awkward truth is nothing new.’… Read the rest



Mukhtaran Bibi on ‘Exit Control List’ *

Jun 14th, 2005 | Filed by

Human rights activists accuse government of trying to avoid bad publicity. … Read the rest