Month: June 2024

Best of Reality Television

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Dr. J's Lists, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive 5 Comments

It’s no secret that one of my guilty pleasures is reality television. I was an early convert to this genre of entertainment, having come of age around the same time that MTV’s groundbreaking series The Real World was in its prime. (The first season of that show was broadcast in my freshman year of college.)…

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A Parable for “Glorious” Essay-Writers Everywhere

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching 3 Comments

Whenever I’m grading papers at the end of the semester, there always comes a point when I am reminded of that peculiar conversation between Alice and Humpty Dumpty (from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass). After noting that there are 364 days of the year that one can receive un-birthday presents, Humpty Dumpty says to…

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Listening While Grading

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Dr. J's Lists, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching 1 Comment

This following is the soundtrack of my life these days: Ennio Morricone’s The Mission: This is the soundtrack to the movie of the same name. Quite simply, some of the most breathtakingly beautiful music ever composed. This album made me love the oboe. The emotional rise and fall of the compositions carries its listener from…

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President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Obama, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

Text of President Obama’s Inaugural Address: My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout…

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Obama’s 2009 Address to Joint Session of Congress

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Obama, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States: I’ve come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here. I know that for many Americans watching…

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Heidegger, We Hardly Knew Ya…

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive 3 Comments

The brainy parts of the internet are all a-buzz recently about philosopher Martin Heidegger and his student Hannah Arendt, largely as a result of the publication of a series of provoctaive reviews of Emmanuel Faye’s provocatively titled book Heidegger: The Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy. The most provocative of those reviews was an essay published…

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#Hashtags

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, Technology and Human Values 0 Comments
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President Obama’s Health Care Speech (9/9/09)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Human Rights, Obama 1 Comment

FULL TEXT OF PRESIDENT OBAMA’S ADDRESS: Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, and the American people: When I spoke here last winter, this nation was facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We were losing an average of 700,000 jobs per month. Credit was frozen. And our financial system was on…

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Beyoncé Wins Fight Between Kanye and Taylor

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Music, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Women and Gender Issues 3 Comments

For all the hype about big, mean bully Kanye West and his poor, innocent victim Taylor Swift, you’d think that somebody died at the VMA’s a few days ago. But, alas, it was just a bit of garden-variety entertainment drama. No real biggie. Even still, since everyone else in the Universe, including the President, feels…

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Regionalism

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Politics 0 Comments

In light of the (somewhat reductionist, mostly exaggerated) stereotypes of different United States’ regions evidenced in the comments section of my post a few days ago, I thought I might remark briefly on this rather unfortunate phenomenon. (Please click on the image to the right to see what I mean.) “Regionalism” expresses itself both positively…

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