Downing St admits two donors were nominated for peerages because of support for academy schools.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
The Bish Strikes Back 
Apr 16th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
And recycles the usual drivel.… Read the rest
Controversy a Threat to Funding of Academies
Apr 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Could put off potential sponsors who fear they will be seen as grasping for peerages.… Read the rest
Religious Cleansing in Baghdad
Apr 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Every day brings chilling accounts of people being burnt and bullied from their homes.… Read the rest
John Lloyd on the Euston Manifesto
Apr 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Depth of the split forces an explicit recognition of two broad camps on the left. … Read the rest
Whither Pop Culture?
Apr 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
At an academic conference, of course.… Read the rest
Whither the West?
Apr 15th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
ICA discussion with Chris Smith, Richard Koch, Roger Osborne, Jeremy Stangroom.… Read the rest
Testable
Apr 14th, 2006 8:32 pm | By Ophelia BensonHave another serving of kack, this time from good old Rabbi Michael Lerner, he of Tikkun.
In my research on the psychodynamics of American society I discovered that the left’s hostility to religion is one of the main reasons people who otherwise might be involved with progressive politics get turned off. So it becomes important to ask why.
So it becomes important to ask why, but it does not become important to ask why without at the same time carefully limiting the ways in which one asks why, and ruling out in advance the most obvious answer. It becomes important to ask why by suggesting irrelevant answers and ignoring the relevant ones. It becomes important to pretend to … Read the rest
How Schools Deal With Racism
Apr 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Government’s emphasis is preventive rather than punitive. It is rare for CPS to take up a case.… Read the rest
Judge Questions Prosecution of Schoolboy
Apr 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Racism bad, but is criminal prosecution of ten-year-olds the best response?… Read the rest
Ayhan Surucu Gets 9 Years for Killing Sister
Apr 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
So angry when his sister started to date German men that he put a gun to her head at a bus stop.… Read the rest
Clash Between Religion and Superstition
Apr 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Just when faith turns hot and dangerous, the government responds by encouraging more of it.… Read the rest
Controversy Over Danish TV Host’s Hijab
Apr 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Head of Women for Freedom calls choice of co-host an insult to Danish and Muslim women.… Read the rest
Bradford and Vienna
Apr 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘The development of a European Islam is, in a sense, at a caterpillar stage.’… Read the rest
Kevin Phillips on Theocons and Theocrats
Apr 14th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Pervasive pressure for theological correctness.… Read the rest
Unzip
Apr 13th, 2006 6:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonZiauddin Sardar has been reading some Radical Thinkers.
… Read the restTaken together, the works selected by Verso embody the creation and development of a dissenting tradition that set out to question and subvert the established order. Yet while this was once the principal strength of these thinkers, it has become something of an Achilles heel. A collective reading exposes all that has gone wrong with radical thought in the 20th century. Traditions, and intellectual traditions in particular, rapidly ossify and degenerate into obscurantism…It is time to…move forward from Baudrillard’s and Derrida’s postmodern relativism to some notion of viable social truth; and for criticism to stop messing about with signs and signifiers, and instead confront the increasing tendency of power towards absolutism.
Norm Geras and Nick Cohen on Euston Manifesto
Apr 13th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Too many things that should be obvious in the light of the history of the past 100 years seem not to be so. … Read the rest
Worries About ‘Faith’ Schools
Apr 13th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Some of the ‘faith communities’ have agendas at odds with reason and science, says chaplain.… Read the rest
Ziauddin Sardar on Verso’s Radical Thinkers
Apr 13th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Traditions, and intellectual traditions in particular, rapidly ossify and degenerate into obscurantism.’… Read the rest
Scott McLemee on Cell Phones in Libraries
Apr 13th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
How about a taser gun, with trained shooters?… Read the rest
