Month: June 2024

The Wired Election, Part 3: “A Man Got To Have A Code.”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Democracy, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, TheWiredElection2016 0 Comments

[This is the third installment of my series The Wired Election, employing insights gained from HBO television series The Wire to interpret 2016 Presidential election campaign events, persons and states of affair. The cheese stands alone.]

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 30: A Song You Discovered This Month (During The Challenge)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 30 Day Song Challenge, 30 Day Song Challenge 2015, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

They say all good things must come to an end, and since today is the last day of June, it’s time to put the finishing touch on this year’s 30 Day Song Challenge. If you’re interested in going back to check out my previous picks, I’ve collected them all at this link. I had a…

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How To Score An Academic Meeting

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Codifying Civility and Collegiality, Professional Academy, Public Philosophy, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

I do not, in principle, hate academic faculty or departmental meetings. In fact, as someone who (many of my friends have rightly dubbed) a “certifiably pathological proceduralist“– no kidding, I would voluntarily stand out on the corner and pass out Roberts Rules of Order like evangelists pass out Bible tracts– I genuinely (ahem, naively) look…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 29: A Song You Want Played At Your Funeral

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 30 Day Song Challenge, 30 Day Song Challenge 2015, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

IT’S A TWO-FER TODAY in the 30 Day Song Challenge!! I couldn’t pick just one so I’m giving you both of my picks for today. That may be kind of a sad commentary on the things I think too much about, since today calls for me to pick a song that I want played at my…

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A Half-Million Thanks

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson BlogCounts, Bon Mots, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

Sometime late last night, this blog reached a major milestone: we passed the HALF-MILLION UNIQUE VISITORS mark!  I want to express my sincere gratitude to and appreciation for all of you who have stopped by this little corner of the Internet. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. The aim of my work here has always…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 28: A Song From Your Childhood

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 30 Day Song Challenge, 30 Day Song Challenge 2015, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

Only a few days left in this year’s 30 Day Song Challenge and as much as I’ve enjoyed participating again this summer, it just got considerably more difficult to do so as I am now swamped with other blog-matters (specifically, my post regarding the recent SCOTUS “marriage equality” decision).  Thankfully, today’s prompt is a simple…

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My Sad Trombone Blows For The SCOTUS Decision (Which Also Blows)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Democracy, LGBTQ, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

Love did NOT win on Friday when the Supreme Court declared (so-called) “marriage equality” a Constitutional right in its Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Make no mistake: there were a lot of people/interests/agendas that did win yesterday, innumerably more that lost, but “love” wasn’t even a lowly grunt in that battle. Neither were “dignity,” “respect,” “tolerance,” “acceptance” and least of…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 13: A Song That Is A Guilty Pleasure

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 30 Day Song Challenge, 30 Day Song Challenge 2015, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

As a rule, I don’t like the category “guilty pleasure” when it’s applied to music.  You like the songs you like.  No harm, no foul Most of the time, when asked to report their “guilty” music pleasures, people tend to pick from artists like ABBA or Neil Diamond or Boyz II Men— all of whom I love, by the way– but what…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 27: A Song You Wish You Could Sing

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 30 Day Song Challenge, 30 Day Song Challenge 2015, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

I play guitar and there are plenty of songs that I actually can’t play (because I lack the skill/proficiency) but wish I could.  Like, I can’t even play those songs badly. Singing is different than playing an instrument, I think, because anyone with a voice can sing any song, even if they do so poorly.  Today I’m picking…

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30 Day Song Challenge, Day 16: A Song You Used To Love But Now Hate

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 30 Day Song Challenge, 30 Day Song Challenge 2015, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

Falling out of love with something (or someplace, or someone) can be awkward to experience, even more awkward to explain.  Our affections are mercurial, often unpredictably so, and there isn’t always a neat and clean account to be given for why you stopped to stare amorously into one of life’s store-windows only to then, well,…

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