Maybe – as a lot of people have said – it’s not such a bad thing that Ratzinger is pope. Maybe we should all be rejoicing, and singing Te Deums and lighting candles and pretending to see baby Jesus on our pizza. Maybe he’ll wake a few dozy people up to what the Catholic church is and what it’s for and what it’s about. It’s not a pretty silk brocade and red velvet backdrop for a sweet old guy who wanders the globe ‘blessing’ people, and it’s not the best place to look for social justice or equality or critical thinking or – much of anything good, really. At least nothing that I can think of. Just ask anyone who … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Bullshit Guru
May 12th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSurely there is more than one of those.… Read the rest
Ungolden Silence on Golden Rice
May 12th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFunny how silent the media are about research that offers evidence favorable to GM crops.… Read the rest
New Skeptics’ Circle at Pharyngula
May 12th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShould keep you busy for a few days.… Read the rest
The Science of Gender and Science
May 12th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSteven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke discuss the subject by discussing the evidence.… Read the rest
Lucubrations and Kakapitze
May 11th, 2005 9:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonJoseph Epstein has a rather irritating review of Elaine Showalter’s new book on the academic novel. I don’t like Epstein’s writing much. It’s rather stale and uninspired and labored, I think.
The closest thing we have to these ideal anthropologists have been novelists writing academic novels, and their lucubrations, while not as precise as one would like on the reasons for the unhappiness of academics, do show a strong and continuing propensity on the part of academics intrepidly to make the worst of what ought to be a perfectly delightful situation.
Lucubrations. Perfectly delightful. Propensity. Intrepidly. Yawn. Yawn, yawn, yawn. About as fresh as last week’s oatmeal.
And in this review he says silly and very banal and untrue things … Read the rest
‘Commonweal’ Editor Told ‘You’re Next’
May 11th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonEditor’s forced resignation has shocked Catholic journalists and academics.… Read the rest
Not Satan, Just Guy Who Changed Mind
May 11th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonGoat heads would look nice on wall. No they wouldn’t.… Read the rest
It Was Julian Wot Won It
May 11th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLib Dems owe their success to Baggini’s changes of constituency.… Read the rest
Even Slavery is Culturally Relative to Some
May 11th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTo others, ‘To excuse it as a cultural or religious normality is equally indefensible.’… Read the rest
Church of Fictionology Claims 450 Billion Members
May 11th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWorship of Kool Aid man encouraged, unlike hidebound old Scientology.… Read the rest
Always the Last to Know
May 11th, 2005 2:30 am | By Ophelia BensonDon’t I feel stupid. Sometimes I miss comments here. I don’t have one of them there RSS things, so no little bell goes off, no stoat leaps out of a hole in the corner of the screen, no spark ignites a small charge of powder to explode the ‘k’ key and get my attention. In short, nothing alerts me that a new comment has been posted, and so…if some days have passed…and I’ve forgotten what number they were on…then I overlook them. I feel guilty sometimes, as if I’ve been snubbing people, or ignoring them when they say something interesting. And I miss good stuff, too. I should get one of them there RSS things, I suppose. But I’ve been … Read the rest
Carlin Romano on Pope’s Lack of Indignation
May 10th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonQuickly sealing Ratzinger ‘Hitler Youth’ file with ‘compulsory’ is too simple.… Read the rest
Elaine Showalter on the Academic Novel
May 10th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSociological interest of pope-crowning-like search for new university president.… Read the rest
Revenge of the Republic of Letters on Sartre
May 10th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe had lots of disgust and no artistic sense of play.… Read the rest
Vatican Dismisses Editor of Catholic Magazine
May 10th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonScholars fear Vatican intends signal: disagreement with church is forbidden.… Read the rest
Look at This Watch
May 10th, 2005 2:18 am | By Ophelia BensonKansas, eh. I have to tell you, I’m having second thoughts about that move to Topeka.
This time, Darwin’s critics insist they are not religiously motivated creationists, but are scientists who believe that certain things in the universe, including human life, are too complex to be explained by natural causes and must be the product of an intelligent creator. They call this theory ”intelligent design,” and while they resist publicly declaring that a Christian God’s hand is at work, they also suggest that proponents of a key tenet of evolutionary theory — that changes over time can result in new species — are atheists or secular humanists.
Atheists or secular humanists – ew ick. Those nasty proponent people wouldn’t just … Read the rest
Irshad Manji
May 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNo community, no culture, no religion ought to be immune from respecting universality of human rights.… Read the rest
Knowledge in the Dock in Kansas
May 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLike handing control of a blood bank over to a cabal of vampires.… Read the rest
Contradictions in Kansas
May 9th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonID is science not religion, but evolution is for atheists and ‘secular humanists.’… Read the rest