History is being rewritten, the language of political argument adjusted to accommodate this new accommodation. … Read the rest
All entries by this author
‘What Happened in Rwanda, it Will Happen Here’
Sep 11th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“If these soldiers leave,” Sheik Ali said, “we will all be slaughtered.” … Read the rest
It Seems Women Are Always in the Way
Sep 11th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThey have to be pushed to the side so that their presence does not irritate, annoy or distract – men.… Read the rest
Women Protest Segregation in Grand Mosque
Sep 11th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘The proposal was made by a panel of men.’ Surprise!… Read the rest
Goat Forced to Marry Man
Sep 11th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonRape victim handed over to perp.… Read the rest
Rights Trump Culture and Religion
Sep 11th, 2006 | By Maryam NamazieCultural relativism is not only a prescription for inaction and passivity in the face of the oppression of millions of people struggling and resisting in the Middle East and here in the west but is in fact racist in and of itself
Cultural relativism and its more seemingly palatable multiculturalism have lowered standards and redefined values to such depths that not only are all cultures and beliefs deemed equally valid, they seem to have taken on personas of their own blurring the distinction between individuals and beliefs (whether theirs or imputed).
As a result, concepts such as rights, equality, respect and tolerance, which were initially raised vis-à-vis the individual, are now more and more applicable to culture and religion and … Read the rest
Terry Glavin on Michael Ignatieff
Sep 10th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe understands politics as tragedy, as a matter of always having to choose the lesser evil.… Read the rest
Ignatieff: Prodigal Son or Martian Outsider?
Sep 10th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘There’s a difference between weekend jaunts and the rootless existence of an incurable cosmopolitan.’… Read the rest
Nick Cohen on Research into Forgiveness
Sep 10th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonVicars practice what they preach but churchgoers were as likely to want revenge as unbelievers.… Read the rest
Priest Makes Bomb Threat to Stop Madonna
Sep 10th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCompassion, mercy, charity in action.… Read the rest
Martin Amis on the Age of Horrorism
Sep 10th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonAll men are not my brothers, because all women are my sisters.… Read the rest
Sen quotes Tagore
Sep 9th, 2006 10:38 pm | By Ophelia BensonA thought for the day. From Rabindranath Tagore, quoted by Amartya Sen in “Tagore and his India” in The Argumentative Indian (page 99).
“We who often glorify our tendency to ignore reason, installing in its place blind faith, valuing it as spiritual, are ever paying for its cost with the obscuration of our mind and destiny.”… Read the rest
Follies of the Wise
Sep 9th, 2006 9:52 pm | By Ophelia BensonJerry Coyne on Frederick Crews’s Follies of the Wise.
… Read the restIn Follies of the Wise, Crews takes on not only Freud and psychoanalysis, but also other fields of intellectual inquiry which have caused rational people to succumb to irrational ideas: recovered-memory therapy, alien abduction, theosophy, Rorschach inkblot analysis, intelligent design creationism, and even poststructuralist literary theory. All of these, asserts Crews, violate “the ethic of respecting that which is known, acknowledging what is still unknown, and acting as if one cared about the difference”. This, then, is a collection about epistemology, and one that should be read by anyone still harbouring the delusion that Freud was an important thinker, that psychoanalysis is an important cure, that intelligent design is a
Ben Goldacre Asks: How is This Not a Trial?
Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIt’s a trial in the press, but when questions are asked, it’s not.… Read the rest
Signs of Mental Activity in Patient in PVS
Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonNeuroscientists used fMRI to detect signs of awareness; first success with PVS patient. … Read the rest
‘Iconoclasts’ on the Philosophy of Peter Singer
Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSinger, Janet Radcliffe Richards, Kenan Malik, Andrew Linzey debate. … Read the rest
Rights Trump Culture and Religion
Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonMaryam Namazie calls cultural relativism a prescription for inaction and passivity in the face of oppression.… Read the rest
George Alagiah Sees Tensions in Multiculturalism
Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonInstitutionalised tolerance for diversity may have led to institutional indifference to separation.… Read the rest
ACLU Condemns Approval of H.R. 2679
Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia Benson‘Public Expression of Religion Act’ would discourage enforcement of a specific constitutional protection.… Read the rest
Why Music Matters – to Humans
Sep 9th, 2006 | Filed by Ophelia BensonDid a taste for music evolve? Or is it just a by-product of other adaptations?… Read the rest