politics

Rove at Rhodes: A Master Class in Sophistry

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Human Rights, Memphis, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive, Torture 7 Comments

This 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….

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Dark Side of Theory

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Human Rights, Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Weak Humanism 9 Comments

A few days ago, I posted an entry on this blog (“The Orchid Hypothesis“) about an article I had read in The Atlantic and found interesting. The Atlantic article was about a series of experiments and theoretical speculations that seemed to challenge some of our orthodox assumptions about the relationship between genetics and behavior, and…

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Cornel West’s Note to Obama: “How Deep Is Your Love For Poor And Working People?”

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Obama, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive, Weak Humanism 5 Comments

Just 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…

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Et Tu, SOTU?

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Obama, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive 4 Comments

Not 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…

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Understanding Health Care Reform In 16 Easy Steps

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive 2 Comments

I’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…

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President Obama’s First State of the Union Address (Video and Transcript)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Obama, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive 1 Comment

“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…

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The Deadly Serious Business of Tenure

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Women and Gender Issues 0 Comments

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…

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Battle of the Sexists?

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive, Sports, Women and Gender Issues 2 Comments

First, 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…

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The Orchid Hypothesis

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Weak Humanism 10 Comments

On my way back from the APA conference a week ago, I picked up a copy of The Atlantic in Laguardia to read on the plane ride home. In it, there was a fascinating article by David Dobbs called “The Science of Success,” which discusses the influence of certain genetic factors on social/psychological development. Dobbs…

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The Peter Principle

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive 2 Comments

I 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…

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