“It was precisely the refusal of the other parties, from left and right, to debate with the SD that allowed them to grow from nothing to 6% of the vote.”… Read the rest
Larry King: Now why don’t you interview Mina Ahadi and Sajjad Ghaderzadeh?
Sep 24th, 2010 | By Mina Ahadi and Maryam NamazieDeaf abuse victim is suing the pope
Sep 24th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe headmaster of St. John’s School for the Deaf raped and molested as many as 200 deaf boys, according to court and church documents.… Read the rest
Johann Hari on Liberal Democrats as hostages
Sep 24th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey twitch nervously as they mouth supportive platitudes about Cameron’s planned cuts.… Read the rest
Paul Sims asks: is burning the Koran a crime?
Sep 24th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonKenan Malik notes, “There are two notions of incitement that all too often get conflated.”… Read the rest
UK: six guys arrested for burning a Koran
Sep 24th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey were arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred and released on bail pending further inquiries.… Read the rest
Jesus and Mo tell the barmaid how to build alliances
Sep 24th, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDon’t mention the e-word.… Read the rest
I’m losing count
Sep 23rd, 2010 6:09 pm | By Ophelia BensonMark Vernon went to the “let’s pretend we get to tell atheists what to do next” debate (debate? it doesn’t sound like a debate – more like a self-congratulatory chat) and explains about it for CisF Belief. It is, predictably, very smug predictable stuff. It assumes from the outset that gnu atheism is obviously stupid and bad and wrong and laughable, and proceeds from there.
… Read the restMarilynne Robinson was articulate on how the New Atheism erases the human by treating us as crudely material entities…She had a great quip. The theist looks at phenomena like the fine tuning and thinks, amazing. The (old) atheist looks at phenomena like the fine tuning and thinks, amazing. The New Atheist looks at phenomena like
Dan Savage and Terry to bullied high school kids
Sep 23rd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt gets better. The despair of high school does not go on forever.… Read the rest
Who is the most contrarian?
Sep 23rd, 2010 12:17 pm | By Ophelia BensonCaspar Melville says on the New Humanist blog that the “‘Beyond New Atheism” debate was
a genuine attempt to see if we could have a different tone for discussion about belief, non-belief, human nature and God.
Well I could have saved them the bother by just answering the question: sure we could. Of course we could. In fact we could find such a discussion, with its different tone, any time we wanted one – we could read Comment is Free Belief or the New Statesman, we could browse the BBC’s “Religion and Ethics” pages, we could stroll into a church or mosque. It is not the least bit difficult either to have or to find “a different tone for … Read the rest
The burqa is a feminist issue
Sep 23rd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe burqa is a blank; a deliberate erasure not only of public face, but of one’s entire public existence. Not new self but un-self.… Read the rest
A formal farewell to a vestige of monarchical power
Sep 23rd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe curious case of the royal financial memorandum is a headline disguised as a footnote.… Read the rest
“The Royal family is part of the dependency culture”
Sep 23rd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“Someone appears to have gone to extraordinary lengths to protect the Royal family from public scrutiny.”… Read the rest
Caspar Melville reports on RSA debate
Sep 23rd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMarilynne Robinson was subtle, Roger Scruton was mischievous, Jonathan Rée was disturbed by the “new” atheist Tone.… Read the rest
The thing that made the things for which…
Sep 22nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia Benson…there is no known maker.… Read the rest
Another one
Sep 22nd, 2010 11:06 am | By Ophelia BensonHere is another…can we say quisling? If they call us aggressive new atheists, can we call them quislings? Here is another quisling atheist moaning about how boring and boring the gnu* atheists are. It’s Caspar Melville of the New Humanist, I’m sorry to say – I like the NH.
He doesn’t say anything of substance – just offers a strawman version of gnu atheism and says it’s bad, even though it did some good, but now let’s move on. It’s lazy, tiresome stuff, which is particularly annoying coming from someone who is, as far as I know, an atheist himself.
Paula Kirby sums it up nicely:
… Read the restIt is disappointing when someone who is meant to be on
BBC offers reflections on the pope’s visit
Sep 22nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonFrom priests and canons but also from secularists and abuse victims.… Read the rest
Halal meat served without label
Sep 22nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHalal meat is from animals whose throats have been cut while they are conscious. Some people don’t want to eat such meat; they should have the option.… Read the rest
More from pope protest – a bit of Ben Goldacre
Sep 22nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonOn the lie about leaky condoms, with help from the crowd.… Read the rest
The “foiled” “plot” to “blow up” the pope
Sep 22nd, 2010 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThere was no plot; just a mix-up between the activities “talking about” and “planning to blow up”.… Read the rest