I watched part of an old ‘Frontline’ on tv the other evening. ‘Frontline’ is one of the few fairly good shows on US public tv – actually one of the two, I would say, ‘Nova’ being the other. US public tv is so mediocre it’s painful. (And public radio is even worse. But that’s a separate subject.) It was about ‘Alternative’ Medicine. One part of it I found particularly extraordinary – an interview with Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. I’ve always disliked Hatch, frankly. He’s very conservative, and he has an irritating voice. He sounds like someone who’s trying to soothe a rowdy room full of six-year-olds – in fact I suppose he sounds a bit like Mr Rogers. Mr … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Time and Effort – and Emotional Labour
Jun 18th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMadeleine Bunting on emotional demands the service economy makes on workers.… Read the rest
Is Smoking a Class Issue?
Jun 18th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAre instruction and ’empowerment’ opposed? … Read the rest
Guardian’s Joyce Links
Jun 18th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBloomsday, the Disneyfication of Ireland, new Mollies, O’Brien, Maddox.… Read the rest
Summer and Autumn
Jun 17th, 2004 11:17 pm | By Ophelia BensonHorrible day here. In the upper 80s. The air quality doesn’t look too bad – the sky at the horizon is not brown – but it smells terrible outside all the same. It always does once it gets this hot. Heated-up car exhaust, I assume. I don’t like summer much.
But never mind that. The Dictionary gets printed next week. Once that happens, you see, it will be a book. Rectangular thing, open on three sides, pages with printed words on them. Something one can hold in the hand. Something one can read more or less anywhere – on the bus, in the park, in the checkout line at the supermarket, on the treadmill. That’s much harder to do with … Read the rest
New Age and Skepticism: Two Cultures
Jun 17th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWhat it’s like to go from chakras and auras to critical thinking.… Read the rest
Religion in India and US
Jun 17th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonTwo major democracies deal with divisions over religion.… Read the rest
Cass Sunstein on ‘Second Bill of Rights’
Jun 17th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRoosevelt’s 1944 State of the Union speech has influenced constitutions around the world.… Read the rest
Bush Asks for Vatican’s Help
Jun 16th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonWants it to ‘push American bishops to speak out more about political issues.’… Read the rest
‘Religious Hate’ Trial Smacks of Bad Old Days
Jun 16th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonExhibition angered a mob ‘who unleashed a pogrom in the museum, vandalizing the artworks with paint sprayers.’… Read the rest
Three Charged With Inciting Religious Hatred
Jun 16th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHuman rights activists staged art exhibition that angered Russian Orthodox Church.… Read the rest
Gendered Breathing?
Jun 16th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonUnintentionally comic examination of refreshing, provocative, frustrating Luce Irigaray.… Read the rest
Stuart Hampshire
Jun 16th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe Guardian obituary, by Jane O’Grady. … Read the rest
Happy Bloomsday
Jun 16th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonJoyce once said Ulysses did not contain ‘one single serious line’ – and that’s why we like it.… Read the rest
‘Under God’ Stays in ‘Pledge of Allegiance’
Jun 16th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonProcedural ruling leaves constitutional issue unresolved.… Read the rest
Freedom From Atheism
Jun 16th, 2004 1:47 am | By Ophelia BensonUpdate on last Comment –
And there is the Supreme Court decision (or non-decision) in the Pledge of Allegiance case. Students will go on invoking the deity in public (state) schools for now, thus making sure we don’t go overboard with this separation of church and state stuff. Don’t forget, freedom of religion does not mean freedom from religion, any more than Adam and Eve means Adam and Steve. No, religion is still mandatory in God’s country. (Of course, the Pledge is not actually required, so young atheists can just refuse to recite it and laugh cheerily when their devout classmates beat them up in the playground. Ain’t liberty grand.)… Read the rest
High Tension
Jun 15th, 2004 11:40 pm | By Ophelia BensonA lot of vexed religious issues around at the moment. There is the Vardy foundation which wants ‘to take over seven comprehensives and turn them into Christian Academies promoting Old Testament views of the world’s creation. This includes the claim that it was made in six days, 10,000 years ago.’ There is the never-ending stampede of both political parties in the US to outdo each other in god-bothering. There is the prospect of Shari’a in Ontario (and the campaign against it). There is a group forming to ‘defend’ the hijab. And there is the Begum case, which is under discussion at Crooked Timber.
So, one way and another, there is a lot of debate and discussion … Read the rest
High Court Rules in Shabina Begum Case
Jun 15th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSchool uniform not a violation of religious rights.… Read the rest
Snoop Dog is Talking to Foucault
Jun 15th, 2004 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe convergence of two developments: expansion of US penal system and the rise of rap.… Read the rest