All entries by this author

Let’s Not Share *

Aug 18th, 2005 | Filed by

Going to a poetry workshop when you hate workshops, groups, groupthink…… Read the rest



What a Racket

Aug 18th, 2005 2:24 am | By

Some more on this stipulation problem. On why ‘this pleases Allah’ and ‘this angers Allah’ are not the best criteria for what should go in a constitution – any more than ‘what would Jesus do’ is the best question for a 21st century polititian to ask himself.

Because it all depends on one’s conception of Allah or Jesus, for one thing. And guess what – people (my, what a suprise) have a tendency to conceptualize Jesus and Allah according to their own existing wants and opinions and deficits. If they don’t score all that well on the altruism or fairness or humility scale, well, their god is going to have a tendency to arrange things so that they get what … Read the rest



One Tiny Stipulation

Aug 17th, 2005 11:15 pm | By

So ‘Iraqis back women’s rights’ – with a stipulation. A stipulation that renders the whole idea pretty much worthless.

A survey conducted by Iraq’s constitution drafting committee showed that 69 per cent of respondents support full rights for women – as long as the freedoms don’t contradict Islam…

The survey I think is not all that reliable because of the methodology, but never mind, because what I want to look at, and poke with a stick, is the basic idea: that women’s rights are okay as long as they [why does the article shift without notice from rights to freedoms? they’re not interchangeable] don’t contradict Islam.

That’s a problem. That’s a big problem. Imagine if you were told – ‘Yes … Read the rest



Elephants to Return to Wyoming? *

Aug 17th, 2005 | Filed by

Who knew they’d left?… Read the rest



Different Version of Menezes Shooting Leaked *

Aug 17th, 2005 | Filed by

No padded jacket, no vaulting the barrier, no fleeing the police.… Read the rest



Wal-Mart and ‘Family Values’ *

Aug 17th, 2005 | Filed by

Women can be president, Jon Stewart, no; O’Reilly, Left Behind, Protocols of Elders of Zion, yes.… Read the rest



Scott McLemee on Political Theory Daily Review *

Aug 17th, 2005 | Filed by

Volume of material logged each day suggests it is run by a collective of gnomes.… Read the rest



Slavoj Zizek Says Give Iranian Nukes a Chance *

Aug 17th, 2005 | Filed by

Is not the ‘war on terror’ proof that ‘terror’ is the antagonistic Other of democracy?… Read the rest



The Fury of Creationists Scorned *

Aug 17th, 2005 | Filed by

Re-fighting the Scopes trial eighty years later.… Read the rest



12% of Iraqis Approve Female Equality *

Aug 17th, 2005 | Filed by

69% say women’s rights okay unless they contradict Islam.… Read the rest



Houzan Mahmoud on Women in Iraq *

Aug 17th, 2005 | Filed by

Women in Iraq are being pushed into a corner and the constitution is likely to keep them trapped there.… Read the rest



Controversy Over US Drug Adverts *

Aug 17th, 2005 | Filed by

Over-selling the benefits and under-selling the risks.… Read the rest



Defiantly Obscure Texts

Aug 16th, 2005 11:39 pm | By

Look, if you’re going to talk about bullshit, you should at least be thorough about it, am I right?

In a paper published a few years ago, “Deeper Into Bullshit,” G. A. Cohen, a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, protested that Frankfurt excludes an entire category of bullshit: the kind that appears in academic works. If the bullshit of ordinary life arises from indifference to truth, Cohen says, the bullshit of the academy arises from indifference to meaning. It may be perfectly sincere, but it is nevertheless nonsensical. Cohen, a specialist in Marxism, complains of having been grossly victimized by this kind of bullshit as a young man back in the nineteen-sixties, when he did a lot of reading

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Evangelical Scientists on ‘Intelligent Falling’ *

Aug 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Scientists from Center For Faith-Based Reasoning say long-held ‘theory of gravity’ is flawed.… Read the rest



Aer Lingus an Inspiration to Flexible Labour Fans *

Aug 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Had plan to make life difficult for workers so they would take voluntary redundancy.… Read the rest



Women Have Too Much Power, Men Redundant *

Aug 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Former BBC newsreader describes life in alternative universe.… Read the rest



‘Flexible’ Labour Plan *

Aug 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Provoke strike, fire workers, hire cheaper ones. What larks.… Read the rest



Three Books on Truth *

Aug 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Simon Blackburn, Harry Frankfurt, Laura Penny.… Read the rest



Ian Hacking on Steven Rose on the Brain *

Aug 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Consciousness, memory, phantom trees, Locke, Damasio, Leibniz.… Read the rest



Replies to Hattersley *

Aug 16th, 2005 | Filed by

‘Taking any religion seriously is in nobody’s real interests.’… Read the rest