Pseudonymous writer criticised Islam in Telegraph, could be Council employee. Naughty.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
The Guardian Newspaper is Dreadful
Aug 3rd, 2004 5:39 pm | By Ophelia BensonI am constantly amazed at the stupidity of just about everybody who writes for the Guardian. Here’s one Madeline Bunting:
Over the course of the 20th century, as our technological ingenuity made war ever more brutal
What the hell is she talking about? Has she never heard of the Somme – more than 1 million dead in five months – or Paschendaele?
That was the bit which I found particularly irritating. But the whole thing is full of nonsense.
Among Saturday’s demonstrators were New Labour’s natural allies – fair-minded, decent people, the kind who don’t walk on the other side of the street.
Ridiculous. New Labour people are fair-minded, decent fellows. Not like those dastardly Lib-Dems. Okay, I … Read the rest
Reading is Risky
Aug 3rd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
People read to remake themselves, Mark Edmundson says.… Read the rest
Sidney Morgenbesser 1921-2004
Aug 3rd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Why is there something not nothing?’ ‘Even if there were nothing, you’d still be complaining.’… Read the rest
Gribbin Reviews Penrose
Aug 3rd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
No specialist knowledge needed – any more than to do a PhD on string theory.… Read the rest
Save the Wild Rice!
Aug 3rd, 2004 3:32 am | By Ophelia BensonIt’s not only the Vatican, of course. Perhaps I was too hard on the Vatican? No. I wasn’t. (I mean, apart from anything else – was their Jesus a huge fan of marriage and having children and family values? No. Was ‘Saint’ Paul? No. So what are they basing all that on? I mean, they’re not even consistent!) But that doesn’t mean I can’t be hard on other god-botherers and spirit-annoyers, does it. No.
PZ Myers has an excellent rant at Pharyngula about the latter group.
… Read the restThe editorial page of yesterday’s Star-Tribune was full of articles on a ‘controversy’, the sequencing of the wild rice genome. I read them all through twice, and I still don’t see what the problem
‘Science isn’t the only way to truth’
Aug 2nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Right, because there are Other Ways of Knowing, all of them wrong.… Read the rest
Leave the Sacred Grain of Wild Rice Alone
Aug 2nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Is wild rice a crop or a sacred gift from the Creator?… Read the rest
Masks and Disguises
Aug 2nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Milosevic was framed and Darfur is about oil. Right?… Read the rest
Wishful Thinking
Aug 2nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Hoaxes are swallowed by people who want them to be true.… Read the rest
UK Universities Give Degrees to Failing Students
Aug 2nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Science graduates who cannot do what their certificate implies are potentially dangerous.’ … Read the rest
Is Prince Charles Bad For People’s Health?
Aug 2nd, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
New study finds people may be sentencing themselves to death by choosing alternative therapies.… Read the rest
Darling Cardinal
Aug 1st, 2004 10:50 pm | By Ophelia BensonJust a little more on the dear Vatican. Because they are such fun there, I can’t tear myself away from the subject. They say the most amusing things!
… Read the restAmong the fundamental values linked to women’s actual lives is what has been called a “capacity for the other”. Although a certain type of feminist rhetoric makes demands “for ourselves”, women preserve the deep intuition of the goodness in their lives of those actions which elicit life, and contribute to the growth and protection of the other. This intuition is linked to women’s physical capacity to give life. Whether lived out or remaining potential, this capacity is a reality that structures the female personality in a profound way. It allows her to
Difference Feminism, Vatican-style
Aug 1st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Feminine capacity to ‘live for the other’ makes women pre-eminent source of social good. Ick.… Read the rest
Vatican Wisdom on Women
Aug 1st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Feminism has inspired ideologies that question family and marriage. Bad to question things.… Read the rest
The New Scientist on Francis Crick
Aug 1st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Steve Jones: ‘Francis Crick was the Charles Darwin of the 20th century.’… Read the rest
Atheists and Breeders
Aug 1st, 2004 1:41 am | By Ophelia BensonBehold, it’s August. Well not really, not where I am. I’m kind of lying when I say that. It is August where B&W is (if B&W is where its database is), but it’s not August where I, typing these words onto this little computer screen, am. So if I (as opposed to someone else) say it’s August, I’m telling a falsehood, because where my body is, it’s 4:30-ish in the afternoon on July 31. But I’m also not telling a falsehood, because it is August in other places – but it’s not August for me, the one uttering the sentence. So is it a lie, or not?
Oh stop playing silly buggers. Anyway the point is it’s August or … Read the rest
Identity
Aug 1st, 2004 12:43 am | By Ophelia BensonThought for the Day – or perhaps I mean Provocative Cryptic Assertion via Adapted Quotation for the Day. Identity is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
I had this thought partly because of the ever-present dreary discussion of the Religion Question in US Politics (yawn). I’ve noticed that one ploy people resort to when anyone suggests that religion does not belong in the public sphere, is to conflate their religion with their ‘identity.’ It then occurred to me that that conflation, and confusion (because it is a confusion – religion is not ‘identity’), is what is going on – is the subtext, as it were – of the other side in the argument about Islamophobia we had a few days … Read the rest
Pope Not Dead Yet
Jul 31st, 2004 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Even though he has the beliefs of a dinosaur…… Read the rest