Did I mention that I don’t care about cheating? Check. Did that already. Of course, if you read the earlier post, you know it’s not so much that I don’t care about cheating as it is that I don’t care about policing cheaters. (Read linked blog-post for my amazing argument in support of said apathy.)…
Read MoreThis time of year, I always here the theme song to “Rawhide” in my head. Only instead of “rollin’, rollin’, rollin’…”, I hear “gradin’, gradin’, gradin’…” This verse is especially inspirational:Keep movin’, movin’, movin’ Though they’re disapprovin’ Keep them dogies movin’ Rawhide! Don’t try to understand ’em Just rope, throw, and brand ’em Soon we’ll…
Read MoreA friend and colleague of mine invited me to come speak to his class about torture last week. The class was a writing seminar, organized around the theme of “citizenship,” and my colleague was feeling (understandably) frustrated because– in his words– he “just didn’t feel like [he] had the tools or the knowledge to counter…
Read MoreJust a couple of quick recommendations for those of you keeping up with the current scandal over the so-called “torture memos.” I’ve been doing a lot of reading on this stuff over the course of the past year as a part of my research, and I plan to include both of these texts in my…
Read MoreI can’t remember the first time I read Vladimir Nabakov’s Lolita— it must have been more than 15 years ago now– but I can remember with absolute clarity how utterly besotted I was with it. If memory serves, I think the only other books that I’ve read straight through in one sitting were Les Misérables…
Read MoreAhhhh, Texas. Turns out their legislature is considering allowing students over 21 to carry concealed guns on campus. Supporters say that there’s good reason for this manifestly ridiculous idea, of course, citing the tragedy at Virginia Tech almost two years ago and, I suppose, the fact that there weren’t enough armed students to make that…
Read MoreThe image to the left is a postcard that someone sent to PostSecret, an online website that asks people to write their “secrets” on one side of a postcard and mail them in anonymously. (I’ve written about PostSecret before on this blog.) It is the brainchild of Frank Warren, who now travels all over the…
Read MoreFirst, a few caveats about this post, just for clarification: (1) By “cheating,” I mean academic cheating. Plagiarism, mostly. I don’t mean relationship cheating, or sports cheating, or cheating on your taxes. I do actually care about those… well, two out of three of them, anyway.(2) The title of this post is (obviously, I hope)…
Read MoreI 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…
Read MoreWhen I was an undergraduate, I remember one of my (English Lit) professors saying on the first day of class: “There is no such thing as a stupid question.” Obviously, this was a warm-and-fuzzy attempt to impart some measure of confidence to students, to encourage us to voice our questions and concerns without reservation, and…
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