‘Family values’ trump science and evidence under Bush administration.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Nonpseudoarchaeology Fights Back 
Apr 30th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Alternative archaeology argues by attacking skeptics rather than answering their questions.… Read the rest
Gays and Lesbians Denied Human Rights Protection
Apr 29th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What of inalienable rights in a world of cultural relativism?… Read the rest
Who Else?
Apr 29th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Of course, the Sugar Lobby is exactly the right group to tell the WHO whether sugar is healthy or not, having no financial interest in the matter.… Read the rest
Anti-Science and Pseudo-science
Apr 28th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Loyalty, deference and solidarity replace rational thought and evaluation of evidence.… Read the rest
Deep in Denial
Apr 27th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
David Aaronovitch says much of the Left considers America far worse than Saddam’s human rights record.… Read the rest
Statistics? What Statistics?
Apr 27th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Crime figures go down but three out of four people still think they’re going up.… Read the rest
Robotic Reactions
Apr 27th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mush-headed sentimentality and reluctance to think about religious motivations prevent clear thinking after September 11.… Read the rest
Back and Forth
Apr 27th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Child-rearing has been a site of fashionable nonsense for at least a century.… Read the rest
Oh That’s Who Likes Goddesses!
Apr 26th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Saddam Hussein ‘wrote’ a ‘novel’ and, er, borrowed a painting of a ‘goddess’ for the cover. Very spiritual, she looks.… Read the rest
Interview With Steve Jones
Apr 26th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A conversation about gender, sex, males as parasites, and dinner parties.… Read the rest
Diplomacy
Apr 25th, 2003 7:10 pm | By Ophelia BensonThere was an interview with John Brady Kiesling on Fresh Air last night. He is the former mid-level diplomat who wrote a letter of resignation shortly before the war in Iraq started. The interview was both interesting and depressing, though not very surprising. Kiesling thinks nation-building and democracy-establishing in Iraq will require far more money and attention than the US has any intention of bestowing on them, that the tensions between Kurds and Shiites are going to be even worse than Saddam was, that the US has thrown away the good relations with Europe that the State Department has spent years and the efforts of people like Kiesling building up, and that the US fails to realise how much it … Read the rest
Then Again
Apr 25th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Or maybe the WHO is not over-reacting to SARS after all.… Read the rest
Get a Grip, Ontario Doctor Says
Apr 24th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
SARS is nasty but it’s not the plague.… Read the rest
Nobody Go to Toronto!
Apr 24th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Could the WHO be over-reacting a tiny bit?… Read the rest
Compelled to Read This
Apr 24th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The New Scientist reviews What Philosophers Think and finds it necessary reading for scientists.… Read the rest
Anti-realism – what’s at stake? An interview with Jonathan Rée
Apr 24th, 2003 | By Jeremy StangroomThere is a certain caricature of philosophers which has it that they spend
their time arguing about whether things like tables and chairs exist. This is
just a caricature, but nevertheless there is an element of truth in it when
it comes to the debate about realism and anti-realism. Put crudely, realists
– or, more precisely, external realists – think both that the world exists
independently of our perceptions of it and thoughts about it, and that we can
reliably know about the world. Anti-realists, for a variety of reasons, doubt
both these propositions.
The philosophical debate about realism and anti-realism – which involves arguments
about, for example, sense experience, language, and the nature of knowledge
– is complex and … Read the rest
Students Just Sliding By
Apr 23rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Survey of New York high school students finds them feeling unchallenged.… Read the rest
Appeals Panels Versus Teachers
Apr 23rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Teahers’ union calls for an end to panels that can force schools to take back pupils expelled for violence or threats.… Read the rest
Simple Gifts
Apr 22nd, 2003 9:52 pm | By Ophelia BensonI linked to this essay about George Bush in the Atlantic Monthly a few days ago. I was and still am particularly interested in the depiction of Bush’s narrowness that Richard Brookhiser gives.
… Read the rest“Practically,” Brookhiser writes, “Bush’s faith means that he does not tolerate, or even recognize, ambiguity: there is an all-knowing God who decrees certain behaviors, and leaders must obey.” While this clear-cut belief structure enables him to make split-second decisions and take action with principled confidence, it also means that he is limited by “strictly defined mental horizons.”…”Bush may be a free-range animal, but he has a habitat, in which he stays. If he needs to know some facts that his advisers don’t know, he can discover them.
