A further step down a well defined road wins easier acceptance than a deviation from the beaten track. … Read the rest
All entries by this author
Susan Jacoby Says No Thanks to Goddy Politics
May 25th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Framers of the Constitution did not write, as they might have, ‘we the people under God’.… Read the rest
35th Skeptics’ Circle
May 25th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Hosted by a creationist guest.… Read the rest
Rhetoric
May 24th, 2006 11:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonRhetoric. Funny how quickly people reach for it. Well, no it’s not, because it works, but you’d think people would have a little shame. But they don’t.
This ‘trustee and spokesman for the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health’ for instance. He’s not shy about it.
… Read the restThe row was stirred last night when the Prince of Wales made a groundbreaking speech to the World Health Assembly in Geneva, outlining his philosophy of holistic care to an audience of the world’s health ministers. He urged every country to develop a plan for integrating conventional and alternative medicine. “Many of today’s complementary therapies are rooted in ancient traditions that intuitively understood the need to maintain balance and harmony with our minds, bodies and
More on Hirsi Ali
May 24th, 2006 7:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonHitchens doesn’t agree with that Ian Buruma piece on Hirsi Ali I commented on the other day.
… Read the restIan Buruma said that Ayaan Hirsi Ali ought to have spoken out more for those who had been denied asylum in the Netherlands…This point doesn’t seem to me to carry much weight. If she had become the spokeswoman for other refugees, her own story of making a partially false application could (and would) have been used against her even more. Instead, she pointed out that many perfectly legal immigrants to Holland were trying to import dictatorship rather than flee from it, and for this she attracted lethal hatred…Hirsi Ali calls for a pluralist democracy where all opinion is protected but where the law
Ally of Prince C Calls Signers ‘Clinical Barons’
May 24th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Director of Royal Homeopathic hospital said doctors’ attitude amounted to ‘medical apartheid’.… Read the rest
Doctors Criticize Bogus Treatments
May 24th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Letter from 13 doctors seen as challenge to Prince C’s campaign for ‘complementary therapies’.… Read the rest
Petition in Support of Ayaan Hirsi Ali
May 24th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Homa Arjomand, Maryam Namazie, Irshad Manji, Caroline Fourest have signed.… Read the rest
Dworkin on Cost-benefit Analysis of Human Rights
May 24th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
We insist on these rights even though the majority would be more comfortable if we ignored them.… Read the rest
Some Remarks
May 23rd, 2006 6:48 pm | By Ophelia BensonLet’s just look at a few comments.
From Flemming Rose:
Dictatorships in the Middle East and radical imams have adopted the jargon of the European left, calling the cartoons racist and Islamophobic. When Westerners criticize their lack of civil liberties and the oppression of women, they say we behave like imperialists. They have adopted the rhetoric and turned it against us…Yet multiculturalism that has all too often become mere cultural relativism is an indefensible proposition that often justifies reactionary and oppressive practices. Giving the same weight to the illiberal values of conservative Islam as to the liberal traditions of the European Enlightenment will, in time, destroy the very things that make Europe such a desirable target for migration.
From … Read the rest
Old Norm and Young Nick at Euston
May 23rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Success of Euston Manifesto suggests there is a vein of rational progressivism on the left.… Read the rest
Discourse is Not the Only Reality
May 23rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The left went wrong when it devalued knowledge as merely a masked form of power,… Read the rest
Everyone Who Sees This Will Be Offended
May 23rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
I feel humiliated. I want to humiliate the person who did this to an extent that he never works again.… Read the rest
Hitchens on the Harassment of Hirsi Ali
May 23rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
One might have expected a more robust defense of her position from the Dutch and the international left.… Read the rest
Where Does Happiness Come From?
May 23rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The gods, fate, genes, a thermostat.… Read the rest
Murder Conviction in Birmingham Riot Case
May 23rd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Members’ of the ‘black community’ fought with ‘members’ of the ‘Asian community’ over a rumour.… Read the rest
I’ve Got Special Powers
May 22nd, 2006 7:15 pm | By Ophelia BensonRight, this is Jerry – I’m briefly hijacking Ophelia’s space. I kind of said that I would write about my Special Powers, so here goes. (I ought to say that I don’t for a moment believe in Special Powers, but there is a point to this.)
I’ve had three bizarre “psychic” type experiences in my life; two of which I think are explicable, one of which is a lot more difficult to explain.
The first occurred when I was 11. I was in a car pulling a massive caravan; it was being driven by my father. We had just gone over one of the Alpine mountain passes, and we were driving down into Italy. What happened next was very odd. … Read the rest
Michael Dirda on Rebecca Goldstein on Spinoza
May 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Betraying Spinoza offers a convenient way to start exploring his thought more fully.… Read the rest
Philosophers in Love and Hate
May 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Voltaire loved Emilie du Châtelet, Rousseau hated Hume, Voltaire and Rousseau hated each other.… Read the rest
Afghan Women Risk Their Lives for Justice
May 22nd, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Winning an election can be a death sentence.… Read the rest