All entries by this author

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury *

Apr 14th, 2005 | Filed by

Choudhury, journalist, columnist, magazine editor, is in prison.… Read the rest



Equality Bill Excludes Action on Homophobia *

Apr 14th, 2005 | Filed by

Discrimination against lesbians and gays is okay, against religious believers it’s not. … Read the rest



Another Miscellany

Apr 13th, 2005 10:36 pm | By

A few miscellaneous items worth a look.

At Crooked Timber, one on Christopher Hitchens. This includes Jimmy Doyle giving some quotations from the Guardian and the New Statesman from the autumn of 2001 to show sceptics that there really were people saying just the kind of thing that other people on the thread had said no one other than ol’ Ward Churchill actually said. Quite amusing, in a morbid way. And one
on literary theory and whether literary criticism that is interested in, say, formal or aesthetic aspects of literature, or uses the dread word ‘imagination,’ is automatically ‘conservative’ and if so in what sense and according to whom and why should we care and who asked you anyway. … Read the rest



Not Either Silly

Apr 13th, 2005 6:28 pm | By

I’m going to have to disagree with my friend Norm on Polly Toynbee’s comment on the pope. I hate to do it – but he’s off on his travels, so that’s all right. David Hadley of Stuff and Nonsense alerted me to Norm’s post. (How busy I am these days. I don’t even have time to get around to checking Norm every day. Terrible.)

I really don’t get it. Every time there’s an event that brings forth a manifestation of religious belief by large numbers of people, some militant secularist or other will give out an opinion that would be jejune coming from an intelligent sixth-former…But how she can speak in so trivializing a way of world-wide reaction to

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Salon Visits David Horowitz *

Apr 13th, 2005 | Filed by

And finds that mild criticism is on a level with terrorism.… Read the rest



Lakoff’s Vocabulary Overhaul as Road to Victory *

Apr 13th, 2005 | Filed by

Just get the frames right, and everyone will finally understand.… Read the rest



Morality Police Enforce ‘Islamic Values’ in Gaza *

Apr 13th, 2005 | Filed by

Woman murdered for walking on beach with sister and fiance.… Read the rest



Margaret Drabble on Amber Reeves *

Apr 13th, 2005 | Filed by

Fabian daughter of Fabian mother, adult education teacher, writer, activist, more.… Read the rest



What’s Up With Bloomsburyland? *

Apr 13th, 2005 | Filed by

How to analyse Woolf’s inner life when that is impossible.… Read the rest



What’s Up With Poetry? *

Apr 13th, 2005 | Filed by

Eleven poets discuss recent swingeing attack on the current state of poetry.… Read the rest



Arab Feminists on Women’s Rights *

Apr 13th, 2005 | Filed by

Laws permit beating and caging within four walls, allow them to be bought and sold.… Read the rest



Tories Propose More ‘Faith’ Schools *

Apr 13th, 2005 | Filed by

Where the young can ask big questions and get damn fool answers.… Read the rest



Papa Boys Whoop it up at Rome Bash *

Apr 12th, 2005 | Filed by

The new religion of celebrity worship at work.… Read the rest



More Scary Doesn’t Mean More Likely *

Apr 12th, 2005 | Filed by

When that supervolcano erupts we’ll be at the mercy of bullies with melanomas.… Read the rest



An Epistemologically Instructive Experience *

Apr 12th, 2005 | Filed by

Suave and sinuous prose now preening and overelaborate; fearless cheekiness now truculent bravado.… Read the rest



Andrea Dworkin *

Apr 12th, 2005 | Filed by

The New York Times obit.… Read the rest



Papal Obsequies

Apr 11th, 2005 8:34 pm | By

I usually like David Aaronovitch’s columns (even though, or perhaps because, they sometimes make me squirm slightly – not enough to rattle the chair, but enough to rearrange a few dust particles), but I take issue with something in this one. It’s about the pope and the ructions last week, and what to make of it.

The cover of last week’s New Statesman, for example, proclaims of the dead Pope that ‘he did more to spread Aids in Africa than prostitution and the trucking industry combined’. By opposing the use of condoms, the argument went, the church had created intense and unnecessary suffering.
But this won’t do, either. The church has only succeeded in Africa by tolerating polygamy, and,

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Postal Voting Makes Intimidation Easier *

Apr 11th, 2005 | Filed by

Particularly of women by men, Nick Cohen points out.… Read the rest



Victim of Bullying Sues Posh School *

Apr 11th, 2005 | Filed by

A school tradition for boys to hit with cricket stumps, billiard cues, belts.… Read the rest



Andrea Dworkin 1946-2005 *

Apr 11th, 2005 | Filed by

Feminist activist and writer.… Read the rest