May 2004
-
False Objectivity in Science Reporting
Chris Mooney here explains how journalists contribute to scientific ignorance. Sometimes there aren’t two sides to an issue, unless you count the lies and falsehoods. (The point could be generalized beyond scientific issues.) Mooney writes: “In its most simplistic version, journalistic objectivity means that both sides on an issue should be balanced out against one…
-
UT Austin and the Academies
This will be of interest strictly to my UT Austin readers, since it involves UT Austin faculty membership in the various academies that recognize scholarly achievement. Here are the current non-emeritus faculty in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and other academies. An * indicates a fellow only of the British Academy or Royal…
-
The Disappearance of Common Culture
A propopos my posting on the creationist theme park and the creation of an insular, parallel universe of services for the religious, this article reports that: “The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) may consider a resolution next month urging parents to pull their children out of public schools and educate them either by home schooling or…
-
Helen Vendler Dissing Philosophy
Harvard poetry scholar Helen Vendler delivered the Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities and, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription access only), argued that, “A humanities education should focus on language, literature, and the arts, not on history and philosophy….” Observation #1: Helen Vendler’s ex-husband (now deceased) is the philosopher…
-
Philosopher of Mind Siewert from Miami to UC Riverside
Charles Siewert (philosophy of mind) at the University of Miami has accepted a senior offer from the University of California at Riverside, capping an aggressive recruitment year for UCR, which also hired Robin Jeshion (philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, epistemology) at the senior level from Yale University and Michael Nelson (philosophy of language) at…
-
Entry-Level Hiring by Law Schools During 2003-04
Larry Solum posts his final update of the list of entry-level hires in U.S. law schools here. His data may be usefully compared with the data I collected two years ago on entry-level hiring here.
-
“Let Them Eat Cakewalk”
Sharply written. A sample: “Imagine yourself as ‘Abdul M,’ an Iraqi whose entire family, including a daughter and a wife, was killed when American ‘defense’ planners blew-up 18 civilians in a house they thought sheltered Saddam Hussein in Al Mansur. ‘I dug them out,’ Abdul told ‘Frontline’ last year, ‘with my own bare hands. I…
-
Don’t Tell Andrew Sullivan…
…since, after all, the “moral credibility” of the United States is an a priori truth: “Thousands of Afghani POWs brutally executed, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation alleges US military complicity.” More details here. (Thanks to Doug Barnes for the pointer.)
-
The Attack on Middle Eastern Studies
Imagine: federal legislation to regulate what goes on in the field of Middle Eastern Studies, to make sure that it comports with the current agenda of the madmen in Washington. More details here.
-
The Anatomy of Fascism
Fascism: ”A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or…
-
U.S. Preparing for Military Draft; Could Start by Spring 2005
More details here: “Pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills S 89 and HR 163) would time the program so the draft could begin at early as Spring 2005 — conveniently just after the 2004 presidential election! But the administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed NOW, so our action is…
-
“Inverted Totalitarianism”
Read about it here, courtesy of political theorist Sheldon Wolin. The essay is a year old, but is still, suffice it to say, of relevance to assessing the current situation.
-
More on Free Speech in America
Details here: “The Walt Disney Company is blocking its Miramax division from distributing a new documentary by Michael Moore that harshly criticizes President Bush, executives at both Disney and Miramax said Tuesday…. “Mr. Moore’s agent, Ari Emanuel, said Michael D. Eisner, Disney’s chief executive, asked him last spring to pull out of the deal with…
-
More Bush Humor
“How would you feel about a person who thinks it is okay to grab your shirt and use it to clean their eyeglasses?” Video here.
People should understand what precipitated my remarks here at Leiter Reports. Also, a few replies and comments on the conversation:…