World sounds underwhelmed.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Tutu Regrets Pope Unlikely to End Condom Ban
Apr 21st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCritics say the Catholic church’s stance is costing lives in Africa.… Read the rest
Suspected Islamists Attack Galloway Meeting
Apr 21st, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDisrespectful treatment of candidate in Bethnal Green.… Read the rest
Strange Alliances
Apr 21st, 2005 3:42 am | By Ophelia BensonHarry’s Place is always very good value, you know. Each item posted is one you want to know more about. This one is certainly interesting.
… Read the restAt last week’s NUS conference, the AWL reports that the SWP joined the islamist Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) – a Muslim Association of Britain front – in a walkout when guest speaker Houzan Mahmoud addressed the Conference.
Why would the SWP join FOSIS in a walkout?…Her key error appears to have been that she is the UK head of the anti-occupation Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq which is a vocal opponent of Islamism. The fact that she has campaigned to bring human rights abuses by US and UK troops to public attention
Black Studies Departments Having Identity Crisis
Apr 20th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSome worry, others think they were a bogus idea to begin with.… Read the rest
Lost Works of Hesiod, Euripides, Sophocles
Apr 20th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Oxyrhynchus Papyri are being decoded, and treasures being found.… Read the rest
Another Dogmatic Critic of Secularism
Apr 20th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAnd another conflation of Christianity with morality.… Read the rest
Julian Baggini on the Ratzinger Opportunity
Apr 20th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTo confront and slay the myth that without God anything is permitted. … Read the rest
Cult Studs
Apr 19th, 2005 11:31 pm | By Ophelia BensonOkay, we need a little amusement to cheer us up after hearing the news about the pope. Although some people are pointing out that it’s good news really: that it’s the Vatican shooting itself in the foot, that now people will realize how authoritarian it is after all. But I don’t know – I’m never very convinced by that kind of thing. Partly because it never seems to happen. People seem so happy to say ‘Oh how sweet, a nice authoritarian pope again.’
So we could do with a laugh. I know I could. I’m wrestling with revisions, and I’m finding this patch a struggle. Paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence, word by word, I’m having to drag them out … Read the rest
The Deity’s Rottweiler
Apr 19th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHas a reputation for stifling dissent; early campaign was against ‘liberation theology’ in Latin America. … Read the rest
Timely Homily Clinches Job for Ratzinger
Apr 19th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDenunciation of all deviations from traditional church teachings as trickery and error was a winner.… Read the rest
Oh Hooray, it’s the Scary One
Apr 19th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRatzinger is new pope.… Read the rest
Try to Read This Without Snickering
Apr 19th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe discursive limits of the Foucauldian concept of power as the sovereign exception over biopolitical life…… Read the rest
Salman Rushdie on The PEN and the Sword
Apr 19th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe effort to defend writers under attack by powerful interests who fear and threaten them.… Read the rest
The Funding of Global Warming Skeptics
Apr 19th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonExxon funds think tanks and lobbying, Chris Mooney points out.… Read the rest
Nick Cohen on Galloway and Respect
Apr 19th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTrots in burkas would be hilarious if they weren’t symptomatic of a shambolic left.… Read the rest
You Just Can’t
Apr 19th, 2005 1:57 am | By Ophelia BensonI listened to last week’s ‘Start the Week’ yesterday. (I always listen to it late, for some reason.) I like Andrew Marr, but I didn’t realize how much I like him until I heard Sue MacGregor filling in for him. Dang, she made a mess of it. She kept interrupting – no doubt it’s the presenter’s job to keep things moving along and on track, but Marr manages to do that without constantly cutting people off in the middle of a sentence. And worse than that, she kept getting everything wrong, misunderstanding the guests’ books and what they said to her, and saying the silliest thing she could think of. She contemptuously told Jeffrey Sachs, who’s just written a book … Read the rest
Head of American Philosophical Association Resigns
Apr 18th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMichael Kelly says the problems are too formidable at this time.… Read the rest
Katha Pollitt on Andrea Dworkin
Apr 18th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonShe put some important hidden bits of reality out there on the table.… Read the rest
Interview With E O Wilson
Apr 18th, 2005 | Filed by Ophelia BensonContrary to postmodernism – each person a little universe – we really can unify knowledge.… Read the rest