Last week, University of Alabama-Huntsville Professor of Biology Amy Bishop opened fire in a faculty meeting, killing three of her colleagues and wounding three others. Despite our hopeful image of the Ivory Tower as a place far removed from the ugliness of “real world” violence, stories like these remind us that, regrettably, wishing doesn’t make…
Read MoreFirst, my apologies to regular readers of this blog for my extended absence of late. As some of you know, my department is hiring for a new tenure-track line this semester, a process which has the tendency to eat up every last moment of “spare” time for everyone involved. Second, I hope that you don’t…
Read MoreI’ve been too busy to post here since the State of the Union last week, but I’ve got a healthy backlog of posts forthcoming. In the meantime, I want to direct readers of this blog to an excellent run-down of the need for health care reform over on Slacktivist. (I would re-print it in its…
Read More“Madam Speaker, Vice President Biden, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans, Our Constitution declares that from time to time the president shall give to Congress information about the state of our union. For 220 years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty. They’ve done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility, and they’ve done…
Read MoreNot quite a year ago, Obama delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress. It was technically too early in his tenure to count as a “State of the Union” address, but it was effectively that. We still had not come down off the high of his electoral victory yet, and Obama’s 2/25/09…
Read MoreJust a couple of days ago, BBC News posted a video message from Princeton Professor Cornel West to President Barack Obama, on the occasion of Obama’s first anniversary in office. Unfortunately, the video itself cannot be embedded here, but if you click on West’s picture to the left, it will take you to the BBC…
Read MoreThis past Wednesday evening, exactly one year to the day after the inauguration of President Barack Obama, I attended “An Evening with Karl Rove” at Rhodes College. Rove was invited by the Student Lecture Board with support from the Young America’s Foundation, and he delivered a “closed” address to Rhodes students, faculty, staff and alumni….
Read MoreI just read an article in NewScientist about the “Peter Principle” (based on the theory put forth by Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1998 book The Peter Principle: Why things always go wrong). The Peter Principle is a fundamental law of “Hierarchiology” that states: In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to…
Read MoreOne of my favorite stories ever was told to me by a colleague of mine in the Psychology Department, Dr. Julie Steel. Frustrated with end-of-the-semester appeals for better grades by wayward students, she figured there must be a better rejoinder than simply sighing in exasperation and staring-back with incredulity. So, when students ask that oh-so-familiar…
Read MoreWhat a long, strange trip it’s been! It’s almost time to bid adieu to the last year of the first decade of the new millineum. In case you weren’t paying attention, here are a dozen of the highlights (and lowlights) of 2009: 12. Sarah Palin Goes “Rogue” The Grand Dame of the Illiterati wrote a…
Read More
Recent Comments