politics

When It’s Not Funny Anymore

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics 9 Comments

A mere 37 days before leaving office, our Lame-Duck-in-Chief President Bush was all the news yesterday. During a press conference in Baghdad with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, a Shiite Iraqi journalist (Muntadar al-Zeidi) stood up and threw one of his shoes– and then the other– at President Bush’s head, missing Bush by a hair…

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The M**ket

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

While just about everyone else is full of yuletide joy, this is a dreaded time of year for philosophers. It’s Job M**ket time. (The very word conveys so much Sturm und Drang that it feels like a profanity.) I imagine that this year is even more ulcer-inducing than years past because of the depressed economy…

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The “Public” Intellectual

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Teaching 4 Comments

Many of you probably read Daniel Drezner’s recent Chronicle of Higher Education article about the decline of public intellectuals (“Public Intellectual 2.0”), in which Drezner wants to contest the presumed Götterdämmerung that many–like Francis Fukuyama, Russell Jacoby and Daniel Bell— believe began in the 1950’s and has yet to abate. Specifically, Drezner takes to task…

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President-Elect Barack Obama’s Victory Speech (November 4, 2008)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Obama, Politics Comments Off on President-Elect Barack Obama’s Victory Speech (November 4, 2008)
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Is he still around?

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics 1 Comment

There are plenty of nut-jobs out there who dominate the news for a brief time, then sort of fade away. While they’re laying low, it’s easy to forget about them– until they raise their ugly heads again and show up on something like VH1’s The Surreal Life. Such is the case with David Duke (pictured…

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The Trouble with Rapture

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics 1 Comment

With Hurrican Ike, Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, and the sale of Merril Lynch to Bank of America, it was pretty rough last weekend in the news. So, you may be interested to learn that according to The Rapture Index, which is a “Dow Jones Industrial Average of end-time activity,” we’re sitting at a very uncomfortable level…

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Who Is The Decider?

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Obama, Politics Comments Off on Who Is The Decider?
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When There Is No “Why”…

June 9, 2024 Dr. J Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Weak Humanism 3 Comments

There is quite a bit of buzz about the upcoming release of the new film Man on Wire, which is a documentary account of Philippe Petit’s 1974 illegal and clandestine 110-story high tightrope-walk between the World Trade Towers (pictured left). I remember first learning of Petit’s stunt a few years back when I read about…

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An(other) Omen Read Wrong

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Politics 5 Comments

Recently, I was reminded of a passage from Micheal Herr’s excellent 1977 memoir Dispatches. Herr was a war correspondent for Esquire magazine during the Vietnam War, he helped write the screenplays for Coppola’s Apocolypse Now and Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, and he (along with Truman Capote, Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe) pioneered the literary genre…

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Say It Ain’t So, John

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Politics 5 Comments

Alas, the mighty have fallen. The news was released yesterday afternoon that John Edwards engaged in an extramarital affair in 2006 and that he lied about it during his campaign for President last year. Edwards’ paramour, Rielle Hunter (who, apparently, is also the inspiration for a Gen-X literary character), now claims that Edwards is the…

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