Super Tuesday
“Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.” –Barack Obama
Read More
Menu
Politics
Yes We Can
The thing is, I’m really sad that John Edwards dropped out of the Presidential race. As much as I might loathe the idea of rooting for the white guy when there is a woman and an African-American in the race, I think John Edwards was the most right-on about what’s wrong with America. But what’s…
Read MoreGift-Giving Gone Wrong
As much as I love this time of the year, and I genuinely do, I really hate shopping for gifts. I’m not a very enthusiastic or patient shopper, and the malls drive me crazy. Also, I always want to get people the perfect gift, but more often than not find that such gift is either…
Read MoreI couldn’t make this up…
Last night, just before going to bed, I logged in to my computer to check my email. Imagine my surprise when one of the headlines on the msn.com homepage read: “Liberia’s Gen Butt Naked admits killing thousands” First, this is not a practical joke. The news sites did not get hacked. There really is a…
Read MoreThe Trouble With Fossils
First, a caveat: The following post is NOT intended, primarily, to advocate or oppose any particular Presidential candidate. A couple of days ago, NPR correspondent Robert Seigel interviewed Presidential candidate Mitt Romney. (You can read the transcript of the interview here.) Initially, it seemed like the main focus of Seigel’s questions was Romney’s health care…
Read MoreOh, What A Tangled Web…
Many of you have probably read the now-famous text by historian James Loewen Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. I find that many of my students, especially those who come from liberal or progressive backgrounds, read it in high school or in some other context before they reached college….
Read MoreWar is War
Several weeks ago, when my class was still reading Homer’s Iliad, I tried to goad my students into making comparisons between the Trojan War and our current war in Iraq. That didn’t go over so well, and at the time I wasn’t sure why. I suspected that it was still early in the semester and…
Read MoreMight and Right
I’ve been invited to speak as one of the panelists in a colloquium entitled “Violence: The American Tradition?” coming up in a little more than a week. I am still working out what it is that I want to say. My co-panelists are a historian and an artist, and we are each expected to address…
Read MoreBecause They’re There
I want to present an award. I’m calling it The Most Ridiculous (Yet Still Frightening) Article of the Week. And the winner is…. drumroll…. The Next Five States by Thomas Barnett (in Esquire magazine) The author begins his essay by bemoaning the fact that he will be the first Barnett in several generations to be…
Read MoreA Noun, A Verb, and 9/11
Last week, Senator Joe Biden remarked of fellow Presidential candidate Rudy Giuiliani: “There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb and 9/11” Echoing Biden’s sentiments, The Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart suggested that Giuliani has a condition called “9/11 Tourettes.” Similarly, Sen. Chris Dodd lambasted Giuliani for accepting donations of…
Read More
Recent Comments