Leigh M. Johnson

Social Networking, the Ivory Tower, and “Friend”-ly Disagreement

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics, Pop Culture/Film, Pop Culture/Film/Literature 9 Comments

There is an old, well-worn and tired stereotype of academics that figures them/us as people who restrict their/our lives to the Ivory Tower, engaged in intellectual pursuits and disengaged from the practical concerns of everyday life. (Incidentally, the “tower” pictured to the left really is one of the towers on my campus.) I suppose that…

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Tell 3 (Philosophers)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, Women and Gender Issues 3 Comments

There’s quite a bit of chatter going on in the American Philosophical Association right now concerning that organization’s antidiscrimination policy– more specifically, it’s policy forbidding institutions from discriminating against homosexuals in hiring. Professor Charles Hermes (University of Texas- Arlington) authored a petition, which now has over 1300 signatures, calling for the APA to either (1)…

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Tourney Time!

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Sports Comments Off on Tourney Time!

It’s that time of year again. March Madness. The Big Dance. Win or Go Home. The single most exciting time of the annual sports calendar. The NCAA Basketball Tournament. And my beloved and beleaguered University of Memphis Tigers are there again. Coming off a truly heartbreaking loss last year in the Champoinship Game to the…

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Science v. Values

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics 5 Comments

According to President Obama, I was solidly within the majority American opinion last Monday when I breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing his decision to lift the ban on federal funding for stem-cell research using destroyed human embryos. In his trademark careful and conscientious rhetoric, Obama acknowledged the deep moral difficulties this issue poses,…

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Communists

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, Teaching 8 Comments

I forgot to mention that Angela Davis visited my institution a couple of weekends ago and delivered the keynote address for the Women’s and Gender Studies Conference that we hosted. (Aside: I’m not generally inclined to be star-struck, but I definitely was a little around Dr. Davis. I was charged with taking care of her…

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God Plays Laser Tag

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics 5 Comments

One of the true crazies of the religious Right in this country is the Reverend Fred Phelps, bona fide hatemonger and pastor of the Westboro (Kansas) Baptist Church. He’s the man who claimed that 9/11 was God’s payback to America for its tolerance of feminists and homosexuals, as was Hurricane Katrina, and he regularly drags…

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A Piece of the Pie

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Sports 1 Comment

For all the talk of overpaid and overindulged professional athletes in this country, it’s a wonder that we so seldom seriously discuss whether or not college athletes should be paid. As a matter of fact, the subject only comes up two times a year as far as I can tell: first, during college football’s Bowl…

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When NOT To Compromise

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics 1 Comment

As compromises go, this doesn’t seem to be a good one: the State Board of Education in Texas recently approved its science curriculum standards, which Board members describe as “a compromise between those who are critical of teaching evolutionary theories without scrutiny and those who feared attacks on evolution would lead to the teaching of…

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Catching Up

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Uncategorized Comments Off on Catching Up

I was a bit delinquent in my posts this last week, so here’s a brief update on what’s been going on: (1) The University of Memphis Tigers basketball team suffered a humiliating loss to the University of Missouri Tigers in the NCAA Tournament and were eliminated… making two years in a row that Memphians have…

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Jeremiah Wright, in his own words

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Politics 1 Comment

I attended Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s lecture “Some Through the Fire! Some Through the Flood!” last night at the University of Memphis as part of the conference “The Obama Phenomenon: Race and Political Discourse in the United States Today.” I have to admit that I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Like most Americans, the only…

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