By demanding equal rights, they deny us our right to discriminate against them. It’s so unfair.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Christian Voice Gets a Scolding 
Feb 2nd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Not allowed to put dubious factual claims in advertisements. Naughty.… Read the rest
Pakistan: UN Refugee Agency Official Kidnapped
Feb 2nd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
His driver was killed. The UN condemned attacks on humanitarian workers.… Read the rest
Court Rules School Can Expel Lesbians
Feb 2nd, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
School’s purpose is to ‘teach Christian values in a Christian setting pursuant to a Christian code of conduct.’… Read the rest
Try for twelve next time
Feb 2nd, 2009 11:04 am | By Ophelia BensonEh? Really? Really?
It was a midwinter miracle; eight babies born to a single mother and every one of them delivered alive. For a nation enduring its deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression, the tale was a welcome relief from bail-outs and bankruptcies. But this weekend, as the journalistic pack chases an altogether darker dimension to the story of Nadya Suleman, the feel-good factor has suddenly vanished.
What ‘miracle’? What feel-good factor? What welcome relief? Was everybody turning handsprings and throwing confetti off the roof last week just because some fool had decided to whelp eight children at once and thus put them and herself at great risk and use up who knows how many hundreds of thousands … Read the rest
Survey: Half of Britons Don’t Believe in Evolution
Feb 1st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
At least 22% ‘prefer’ creationism or ID. What is this, a shopping mall?… Read the rest
‘Heart-warming’ Story Turns Rancid
Feb 1st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
People thrilled at birth of octuplets (why?) now realize humans shouldn’t have litters.… Read the rest
Celebratory Signing of Lilly Ledbetter Bill
Feb 1st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The East Room was packed with beaming lawmakers and advocates for civil rights and workers’ rights.… Read the rest
An Ordinary Human Being Can Make a Difference
Feb 1st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Lilly Ledbetter talks about her 10-year fight for justice and the new law.… Read the rest
‘Blue Monday’: Pseudoscientific Media Myth
Feb 1st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Making stupid stuff up about the most depressing day of the year doesn’t help anyone.… Read the rest
AIDS Denialism’s House of Cards
Feb 1st, 2009 | By Seth KalichmanAIDS was first reported by US physicians in New York and California in 1981 when young men and women were falling ill of diseases that are usually kept in check by a healthy immune response. It was soon apparent that these individuals’ immune systems were failing. Within just a few years the causal agent of the mysterious disease was discovered; a human retrovirus that would come to be named HIV. Soon after the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS, an antibody test became available and over the past 25 years more than two dozen drugs have been approved for treating HIV infection. HIV treatments improve the health and extend the lives of millions of people worldwide. Despite the thousands … Read the rest
Pay me, pay me, pay me my money down
Jan 31st, 2009 5:28 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe story to date: bankers and financial fidgeters made a great many stupid reckless positively inebriated investments that depended on the ridiculous premise that real estate prices would go on inflating forever as if no living bankers had ever heard of such a thing as a bubble; to the astonishment of the experts, real estate prices suddenly stopped inflating and began to do the other thing with ever-increasing speed; trillions of dollars turned out never to have existed except in the imaginations of the ‘experts’; the US economy turned into a heap of rubble, and the economy of the rest of the world followed suit; the US government, guided by the savvy B-school president and his friend Hank Paulson, formerly … Read the rest
Samantha Power to Take Job at NSC
Jan 31st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Author of A Problem From Hell to be senior director for multilateral affairs at the NSC.… Read the rest
Anti-Semitism in Venezuela, Egypt and Iran
Jan 31st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Nostalgia for Auschwitz and other japes.… Read the rest
Octuplets’ Mother Plans Exciting TV Career
Jan 31st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Will portray a childcare expert stranded in the wilderness with only a knife and a pacifier.… Read the rest
No Reason to Worry About Thimerosal in Vacs
Jan 31st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Researchers find no risk of thimerosal in vaccines causing brain problems.… Read the rest
Drink Coffee, See Dead People
Jan 31st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ben Goldacre takes a closer look, finds the usual confusions; academics are sadly unblameless.… Read the rest
Octuplets Not Really an Occasion for Rejoicing
Jan 31st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘The cost of taking care of multiples is huge. It’s not going to finish when the babies go home.’… Read the rest
The Logic of Bonuses for Bad Performance
Jan 31st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The bonuses for 2008 were the sixth-largest on record and paid for by taxpayers. What’s the thinking here?… Read the rest
Bankers Defend Their Bonuses
Jan 31st, 2009 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Say they work hard, ‘earn’ their bonuses; call disagreement ‘socialism.’… Read the rest
