Brain-imaging study finds that the higher the level of uncertainty, the more instinct, not logic, will rule.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
How to Read Derrida and Marx
Jan 8th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Disconnected from political engagement, reading lacks urgency.’ It does?… Read the rest
Nick Cohen on ‘The Root of all Evil?’
Jan 8th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
See the Colorado preacher lose his boyish charm.… Read the rest
Bunting
Jan 7th, 2006 9:52 pm | By Ophelia BensonAnd there’s always dear Madeleine Bunting. How fondly I look back on her musings about how much happier ‘African’ lives are than those in the creepy dreary alienated consumerist West. How the people in the Democratic Republic of Congo must have chuckled if any of them were in a position – what with being so busy starving and being ill and dying and all – to find a Guardian and read her essay.
… Read the restConflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is killing 38,000 people each month, says the Lancet medical journal. Most of the deaths are not caused by violence but by malnutrition and preventable diseases after the collapse of health services, the study said. Since the war began
Shouting the Loudest
Jan 7th, 2006 9:00 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe Economist tells us that racism and resentment haven’t gone away, they’ve just gotten more complex. Oh good. Old-fashioned white-on-black racism is old hat; now the happening thing is Caribbean children resenting Somali children and Sikhs resenting Muslims. So much more diverse and multiculti that way.
… Read the restKirk Dawes, a black former police officer who now runs a mediation service in Birmingham, commends the way in which the police and the council have purged overt racists from their ranks. But he criticises the way both have relied on “community leaders,” especially those of a fiery type, as interlocutors with ethnic minority groups. “There is a belief that those who shout the loudest can best solve the problems within their community,” Mr
Chatting
Jan 7th, 2006 6:16 pm | By Ophelia BensonI love the hairdresser thing, don’t you?
In a splendid return to form, Demos has silenced rumours that it is all thunk out with a proposal that hairdressers be invited to shape local government policy…”Our research has led us to conclude that hairdressers are the most authentic voice on the high street,” says Demos’s Sam Hinton-Smith, “and that they should be given a formal role in urban policy-making.” Not only that. Hairdressers “act as counsellors and social workers”.
The most authentic voice on the high street – really? More authentic than the voice of the fishmonger? The traffic warden? The shopper for dinner and a newspaper and some lightbulbs and a DVD? The panhandler? The market surveyor? The random … Read the rest
Ex-editor of Gay and Lesbian Humanist Clarifies
Jan 7th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Criticism of Islam was no harsher than criticism of all religions has been during magazine’s 25-year life.… Read the rest
Robert Hanks Reviews Nicholas Fearn
Jan 7th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Well suited to the person who has some interest in philosophy but is too lazy to keep up. … Read the rest
Ian Buruma on Religion in US and Europe
Jan 7th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Americans are falling increasingly into the arms of Jesus – and Europe could go the same way.… Read the rest
Hairdressers Are the Voice of the Community
Jan 7th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Hairdressers act as counsellors and social workers. Do they? Uh oh.… Read the rest
Police and Councils Rely on ‘Community Leaders’
Jan 7th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘There is a belief that those who shout the loudest can best solve the problems within their community.’… Read the rest
Vatican Meddling With Slovakia
Jan 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Women’s rights to healthcare could be curtailed.… Read the rest
Gang Killing for not Converting to Islam?
Jan 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Woman tells inquest her son was told he would be killed if he did not convert.… Read the rest
MCB Maintains Boycott of Holocaust Day
Jan 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Wants other people mentioned. Armenians for example?… Read the rest
About 4 Million Have Died in DRC Since 1998
Jan 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
War in Democratic Republic of Congo kills 38,000 people each month, the Lancet says.… Read the rest
Kwame Anthony Appiah in Ghana
Jan 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The right approach starts by taking individuals – not nations, tribes or ‘peoples’ – as the proper object of moral concern. … Read the rest
Teacher Decapitated by Taliban
Jan 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The latest in a string of attacks on teachers working in schools where girls are taught.… Read the rest
Jason Rosenhouse on the Outcome of Kitzmiller
Jan 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What happens in a forum dominated by facts and evidence, as opposed to theater and rhetoric… Read the rest
Mark Perakh on ‘Irreducible Complexity’
Jan 6th, 2006 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
How probable is it that the very features that make a design bad are markers of design?… Read the rest
If That Girl Picks Up a Book – Kill Her
Jan 6th, 2006 1:54 am | By Ophelia BensonWords fail me. Human garbage. Rock bottom.
Suspected Taliban militants have beheaded a headteacher in central Afghanistan, the latest in a string of gruesome attacks on teachers working in schools where girls are taught. Armed men burst into the home of Malim Abdul Habib in Qalat, the capital of restive Zabul province, on Tuesday night. They dragged him into a courtyard and forced his family to watch as they cut off his head, said Ali Khel, a local government spokesman…Hundreds of students attended his funeral yesterday. “Only the Taliban are against our girls being educated,” Mr Khel said.
Well there – that’s why they’re human garbage. They dedicate their lives to preventing girls from getting an education – what … Read the rest