All entries by this author

James Buchan Reviews Book on Al-Jazeera *

Feb 18th, 2005 | Filed by

If honour trumps liberty and comfort, al-Jazeera may be less a force for democracy than for Arab nationalism.… Read the rest



Getting to Auschwitz Punctually *

Feb 18th, 2005 | Filed by

Deborah Lipstadt on the surrealism, embarrassment, cold, and memories at the death camp.… Read the rest



Confronting a Fashionable View of Empire *

Feb 18th, 2005 | Filed by

Now widely asserted that British public culture was deeply ‘imperialized,’ but was it?… Read the rest



The Victorians and Shakespeare *

Feb 18th, 2005 | Filed by

Crucial question: who owned Shakespeare, the elite or the people?… Read the rest



Why E P Thompson Mattered and Matters *

Feb 18th, 2005 | Filed by

‘Political loyalties and antipathies were always central to his reception.’… Read the rest



Circling Skeptics

Feb 17th, 2005 6:17 pm | By

The second meeting of the Skeptics’ Circle has taken place at Orac’s site. The first, at St. Nates’, was two weeks ago. And the archive site with schedule of future meetings is here. As St. Nate said –

But we are not content to rest on our laurels! I want this Circle to endure and to keep getting better and more popular. I want to expand our membership! The blogosphere still remains a cesspool of the paranormal, pseudoscience, and quackery! We’ve had one success–a good start–but we must not let up now!

Go, Skeptics! (Also skeptics – you go too.)… Read the rest



Is Sectarianism a Myth or a Problem? *

Feb 17th, 2005 | Filed by

And do Rangers and Celtics games defuse tensions or stoke them?… Read the rest



Fun in Florida *

Feb 17th, 2005 | Filed by

With those zany folks who believe in ‘the Rapture’.… Read the rest



Deity Makes Hash of 10 Cmndmts, Needs Help *

Feb 17th, 2005 | Filed by

Enjoy life. Don’t steal. Don’t hog the remote. Work out every day.… Read the rest



The New Big Twenty

Feb 17th, 2005 4:09 am | By

So, they’re making up a new Ten or rather Twenty Commandments, eh. Without the participation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Well you can’t blame him, can you. Much as his job’s worth, probably, trying that on. Would be kind of like Charles suddenly up and throwing out all the ermine and gold carriages and sceptres and whatnot and drawing up a new plan of action. All these huge houses bursting with Rembrandts and Rollses and gewgaws to be turned into community centres. All Royals to get jobs as maintenance workers in housing estates or driving buses. Parliament henceforth to be opened by Sandra ‘Doc’ Tudge of 47 Ribena Lane, Kidderminster. Factories, hospitals, bridges and suchlike to be opened by … Read the rest



Life Slowly Improving for Women in Afghanistan *

Feb 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Millions of women and girls have returned to work and school since fall of Taliban.… Read the rest



Does ‘Spiritual Healing’ Work? *

Feb 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Well, the ‘healing energy’ is elusive, but the placebo effect is solid.… Read the rest



Ernst Mayr’s What Makes Biology Unique? *

Feb 16th, 2005 | Filed by

Biology as a scientific discipline, what it means to be a species, more.… Read the rest



Harry Frankfurt *

Feb 16th, 2005 | Filed by

‘I could never make up my mind what I was interested in, and philosophy enabled you to be interested in anything.’… Read the rest



Squeaky Wheels

Feb 15th, 2005 11:57 pm | By

This is good. Now if lots of people start saying the same thing, maybe one of these days it will begin to sink in.

In case it isn’t already obvious, competition has broken out between the religious elements of our society for the label of ‘Most Sensitive’. Every time someone gets offended, it has become standard policy to complain that followers of other faiths are treated with more respect…[B]roadcasters, production companies and even theatre houses can fall into a trap of trying to keep the ‘representatives’ happy. In an environment where they’re evidently competing with each other, this is a dangerous policy because there is no way back. With Behzti for example, it gave the impression to those being

Read the rest


Scott McLemee on Harry Frankfurt on Bullshit *

Feb 15th, 2005 | Filed by

Indispensable for those at the fragrant crossroads of academe and journalism.… Read the rest



Three Powers: Britain, Russia, Madame de Staël *

Feb 15th, 2005 | Filed by

A political and literary intellectual in an age when women weren’t expected to be either.… Read the rest



Intelligence Without Language *

Feb 15th, 2005 | Filed by

New research casts doubt on the claim that intelligence requires language.… Read the rest



Why Are You so Silent?

Feb 14th, 2005 10:35 pm | By

Hmm. There’s an odd statement in here – in the AAUP’s statement on the Ward Churchill fuss. Well, that’s not surprising, I guess. Pretty much whenever people start talking about freedom of speech and academic freedom, odd statements get made. It seems to be a subject that inspires odd statements – no doubt because there are so many competing goods at issue, and because people don’t always notice the competitive aspect, so they’ll cheerfully make contradictory statements from one sentence to the next.

Needless to say, the AAUP thinks Churchill should not be fired for writing the ‘little Eichmanns’ article, no matter how livid the right-wing pundits get. Needless to say, I agree with them, however much I may mock … Read the rest



Fatwa on Rushdie Reaffirmed *

Feb 14th, 2005 | Filed by

‘History shows that the Muslims have in no era accepted their sanctities being defiled.’… Read the rest