Leigh M. Johnson

Mama, trains, trucks, prison, gettin’ drunk… and Obama

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

There’s a very famous country song, made popular by David Allan Coe, called “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.” (NOTE: That link is to a YouTube rendering of the song, which might be one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen.) As Coe explains in the song, it was actually written by Steve…

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Ranking the “Stars”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy 3 Comments

Rankophiles (n. pl., people who are in love with “rankings”) might be interested to learn that Brian Leiter has identified the top three “Rising Stars” among newly hired junior faculty in philosophy. The stars (Agnes Callard, Matthew Kotzen and Japa Pallikkathayil) earned their rank, according to Leiter, by exhibiting a level of “talent and promise”…

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International human rights v. Multinational corporate money

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Human Rights, Politics 2 Comments

About a month ago, the U.S. Supreme Court almost heard a case from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in which the plaintiffs, South African citizens, sought damages from several American and multi-national corporations for their role in (and profiting from) the perpetuation of apartheid in violation of international law. The Circuit Court had…

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There Will Be Blood is a bad Taxi Driver

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

I just watched There Will Be Blood (2007), the Paul Thomas Anderson film adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil! about a small Texas village that becomes a boomtown in the crude oil rush of the early twentieth century. Daniel Day-Lewis won an Academy Award for his performance as Daniel Plainview, the story’s tortured protagonist, and…

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Goodfellas

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Film, Film Reviews, Pop Culture/Film, Pop Culture/Film/Literature 10 Comments

In my last post, I praised the skill and acumen of director Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver, which I think is one of his best films. In a rather serendipitous turn of events, I also watched on television that same night the American Film Institute’s 10 Top 10, which listed the top ten films in ten…

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30% ? Really?

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics 7 Comments

The Washington Post reported this weekend that “3 in 10 Americans Admit to Race Bias.” It’s fairly amusing to watch this little piece cycle through the news channels today. Some of the reporters are saying “30% of Americans admit to race bias” like this: “Oh. My. God. There are RACISTS in this country! This is…

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Bandidos Yanquis

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Film, Film Reviews, Pop Culture/Film, Pop Culture/Film/Literature 3 Comments

Since I’m spending most of my days writing about philosophy, I’ve decided to limit my writing on this blog to the topic of film for a little while. Today, the subject is another one of my favorites, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford (soundtrack, funny enough, by Burt Bacharach)….

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Tightening the Democratic Belt

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics 1 Comment

Now that Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party, it’s time to officially move to the next stage in the Party’s game plan to take back the White House. Among other things, this means that we will (finally!) get a break from all of the intra-family fighting and the supporters of both…

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Healthy Blogging

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Pop Culture/Film, Pop Culture/Film/Literature 2 Comments

This is a very happy day in the blogosphere! I woke up this morning to discover that three of my favorite fellow-bloggers, who had let their pages lapse for quite a while, are back in business with new posts. Petya, Ideas Man,PhD and Professor KGrady… welcome back! You may be interested to read about a…

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Moving

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis 2 Comments

I’m moving today…. again. Like most people, I hate moving. As a matter of fact, on my list of “miserable human experiences,” the ranking goes something like this:1. Moving2. Grading3. Dying (a distant third, really) I’ve got good help (read: “students”) and I’m going to do my best to be chipper today, but I got…

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