Leigh M. Johnson

Bookstore Surveillance

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Dr. J's Lists, Philosophy, Politics 15 Comments

Last Christmas, on this blog, I posted a list of books that one should NOT give as gifts because, I speculated, the recipient is likely to misinterpret the meaning behind the gift. You were all very helpful in filling out that list, providing your own examples of the oft-embarrassing dissonance between the intended meaning of…

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Kids Say the Damndest Things (Part 2)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Uncategorized 1 Comment

Here’s another installment in the story of my two nieces– “Monkey” and “Templeton” (not their real names, of course)– who continue to say the damndest things. (You can read the first installment here.) The Family J recently returned from a beach vacation in Florida. I wasn’t able to go (proof again that academics don’t really…

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Who Speaks for the People?

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

I’m going to say it: The Dark Knight did not impress. Yes, of course, I thought Heath Ledger’s turn as the fledgling Joker was an impressive performance. (And, yes, of course it’s a tragedy that Heath Ledger is no longer with us.) I know I’m going to sound a bit like a broken record here,…

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Smartocracy?

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics 6 Comments

There’s an opinion peice in the recent issue of conservative magazine The National Review by John Derbyshire entitled “Talking to the Plumber: The IQ Gap,” in which Derbyshire argues that Americans are uneasy with the “inequality of smarts” in this country… and even more uneasy with the way that inequality in intelligence corresponds with other…

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The Quotable South, Part 9: What You Can Kiss

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, The Quotable South 3 Comments

Last year, I had a running series on this blog that I called The Quotable South. It was about one-part PSA (below-the-Mason/Dixon information campaign) and two-parts personal therapy (as I had just returned down South after 6 years in the Northeast). Anyway, a good friend of mine and semi-regular contributor to this blog, Dr. Trott…

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Oy vey!

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics Comments Off on Oy vey!

In one of the more shameless displays of media exploitation I’ve seen in a while, Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv last Friday published the prayer note that Barack Obama left at the Western Wall (also known as the Kotel or the Wailing Wall) on his recent trip to Jerusalem. Reportedly, the prayer note was stolen by a…

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What if you were Gerald McGrew?

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, Teaching 16 Comments

So, I saw this on anotherpanacea first, and therefore can’t take credit for what a great idea it is… You may remember the story by Dr. Seuss (né, Theodore Seuss Geisel) from 1950 entitled If I Ran the Zoo, in which the pint-sized protagonist, Gerald McGrew, speculates upon the amazing creation he could bring about…

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In Memoriam: Michel Foucault

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics 3 Comments

Twenty-four years ago today, on June 25, 1984, Michel Foucault died in Paris, France. In an interview with Lé Magazine Littéraire, barely a month before his passing, Foucault remarked: “The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field,…

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A Genuinely Original Thought About Race

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Teaching 2 Comments

Pace the author of Ecclesiastes, every once in a while we find that there is, in fact, something new under the sun. As evindence, I refer you to the political philosophy blog Public Reason, where Simon Keller (Philosophy, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) recently offered what I find to be a remarkably original “Thought…

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How We Got Here

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics Comments Off on How We Got Here

In other election-related news, check out the dubious decision on the part of supposedly left-leaning German magazine Die Tageszeitung editors to run a picture of the White House with the headline “Onkel Baracks Hütte” (“Uncle Barack’s Cabin”). Wessen dumme Entscheidung war das?

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