September 2004
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What First Amendment?
Those worried about nascent fascism in America might review this item; an excerpt: “The latest evidence of this shameless and brazen trampling of the First Amendment to the Constitution is found in a lawsuit filed yesterday by the ACLU against the White House and the Secret Service on behalf of two West Virginia Republicans, Jeff…
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What’s Really Going on at the U.S. Concentration Camp at Guantanamo
Useful review essay of a recent book on the subject here. Based on interviews with distinguished human rights attorney Michael Ratner, here is some of what we learn about the concentration camps run by the United States government: “Enemy combatants sent to Guantanamo were initially quartered at Camp X-Ray, a desolate place surrounded by razor…
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Decidedly weird
As I’ve noted in the past, one of the decidedly weird aspects of the blogosphere is discovering that one is being denounced as “ignorant” or “stupid” by noxious mediocrities, individuals of no discernible accomplishment or intelligence, whose denouncements themselves often contain conceptual, factual or argumentative mistakes. (Remember Joe Carter from L’Affaire VanDyke?) Have these people…
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John Rawls’s son?
Easily the most intellectually and morally useful contribution to the blogosphere in my memory has been the patient and thorough demolition of know-nothing journalist Michelle Malkin’s book-length apology for the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II by Professor Eric Muller (Law, North Carolina), himself an actual, scholarly authority on the subject. Professor Muller has…
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Law School Workshops/Colloquia
There is an entertaining item on faculty workshops by Gary Lawson (Law, BU) in the June 2004 Journal of Legal Education, which has just arrived (at least here in Austin). It’s not on-line, so you’ll have to find a hard copy, but here’s an excerpt: “The participants [in faculty workshops], as we all know, are…
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PGR Faculty Quality Surveys to Begin Tomorrow
Tomorrow morning, around 10 am Central Time in the U.S. (so 4 pm in London, 11 am in New York and Toronto, 8 am in California, etc.), more than 450 philosophers nominated by the Advisory Board will receive e-mail invitations to participate in the 2004-06 PGR surveys. The surveys are time-consuming to complete, but the…
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Yet more on England, Religion, and Public Culture
Responding to my posting earlier today about my recent visit to the UK, Brian Bix (Law and Philosophy, Minnesota) writes with some interesting remarks: “While everything you said today in your blog posting regarding some of the advantages of UK life was correct, the overall picture might be a bit more balanced (at least from…
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Osama’s Man in Washington
But don’t expect “Bin Ladenites for Bush” bumper stickers to start appearing. Details here: “What have Bush and his neoconservative team really accomplished? They toppled Saddam Hussein, America now militarily threatens both the Shia government in Iran and the secular one in Syria, the House of Saud is crumbling and we have removed American troops…
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New Philosophy Department at Bilkent University in Turkey
Professor Varol Akman, Chair of the Department at Bilkent University, writes that the Department was formally established in late 2002, with “an analytic stance,” and that they “are always interested in short- or long-term visitors.” You can learn more about the department, as well as find contact information for Professor Akman, here.
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Political prisoners in Australia?
This item comes via my friend Alex Miller (Philosophy, Macquarie): Craig Johnston, an Australian trade unionist, has been jailed for 9-months for activity resulting from an industrial dispute in 2001. The Free Craig Johnston Campaign is gathering signatures for a Statement of Support as part of the campaign to secure craig’s release. Below the statement…
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On London, England and Public Culture
Two aspects of British public culture make it bracing and refreshing for someone such as myself: the public culture is utterly non-religious and utterly devoid of crypto-fascism of the American variety (no Michael Savages, Ann Coulters, Bill O’Reillys, Tom DeLays, etc.). In a country where the suspicion is widespread that even the Archbishop of Canterbury…
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Many Thanks to Benjamin Hellie and Jessica Wilson…
…for their stimulating week of postings during my absence. I have been enjoying their posts, and judging from the high level of hits during my absence, so has the regular readership. A quick review of Technorati reveals that they also succeeded in riling up the right-wing neanderthals quite well on several occasions. Kudos! Having just…
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Does Kerry want to win the election?
Arguably not: “Who would you rather have in your corner, Sasso or Baker? In its hour of need the Kerry campaign brings on board James Sasso, breathlessly described in one news story as “canny and ruthless”, but mostly known to the world as one of the men who ran the Dukakis campaign in 1988, which…
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What if Bush isn’t re-defeated?
Predictions, some frightening, some optimistic, some optimistic and frightening (bete noire Norquist) in this Washington Monthly forum. Greenberg on “anything goes” governance: Should Bush win a second term, the politics of anything-goes would only intensify–because it would no longer be seen as controversial. It would no longer be noteworthy that an administration declassifies documents to…
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On winning the cold war
Well, at least freedom for Russia was a positive outcome, right? Putin’s plan would eliminate the popular election of governors and individual members of parliament. The president would appoint governors, subject to the confirmation of regional legislatures. All members of the lower house of parliament, known as the State Duma, would be drawn from party…
Then my question is how many of ordinary mathematicians also qualify as artists of their profession…