All entries by this author

What One Thing Should Everyone Learn About Science? *

Apr 9th, 2005 | Filed by

Uncertainty, natural selection, responsibility instead of prayer.… Read the rest



Japan Urged Calm in Book Protest *

Apr 9th, 2005 | Filed by

Ambassador said patriotic education in China may have caused some anti-Japanese feelings.… Read the rest



New History Textbook Prompts Rock-throwing *

Apr 9th, 2005 | Filed by

Truth in history does matter then…?… Read the rest



History Protests at Japanese Embassy in Beijing *

Apr 9th, 2005 | Filed by

Japan approved school books which China says gloss over Japanese atrocities. … Read the rest



The Nerve of Some Teachers

Apr 8th, 2005 7:32 pm | By

Here’s a very useful collection for you – links to news coverage of Florida State Representative Dennis Baxley’s proposed ‘Academic Freedom Bill of Rights.’ People like Baxley are a big help, you know? Any time I listen to Start the Week or Saturday Review and get a little cross or downcast or highstrung about the way everyone simply takes it for granted that all Americans are both stupid and insane – well all I have to do is think of people like Rep. Baxley and I realize why UK radio chatters might think that.

The Alligator gets in some good jabs.

At the Capitol, Baxley opened the council meeting by saying that personal criticism he received about the bill was

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Terry Eagleton on Literary Competition *

Apr 8th, 2005 | Filed by

Reviews Bourdieu-influenced portrait of literature as lethal combat.… Read the rest



Michael Walzer on the Danger of Military Metaphors *

Apr 8th, 2005 | Filed by

A ‘fighting faith’ is good for activists but not for armies.… Read the rest



Florida Academic ‘Freedom’ Bill Struggling *

Apr 8th, 2005 | Filed by

Professors actually sometimes disagree with students, even about evolution. Horrors.… Read the rest



Carlin Romano: Saul Bellow Was the Best *

Apr 8th, 2005 | Filed by

The novelist of record when it came to America’s peculiar high-low rap. … Read the rest



What History Students Read *

Apr 8th, 2005 | Filed by

Textbooks, mostly; then they take a test. Not good.… Read the rest



Strained Readings of Kelley-Hawkins *

Apr 8th, 2005 | Filed by

As critics have labored to account for the almost aggressive whiteness of her characters.… Read the rest



Kelley-Hawkins Due to be Reforgotten *

Apr 8th, 2005 | Filed by

Not a conflicted black writer after all, just a dull white one. Oh.… Read the rest



A Slight Mix-up

Apr 8th, 2005 4:28 am | By

I know I shouldn’t laugh. But oh dear, it is funny. They must have worked up such a sweat trying to think up a good theoretical explanation – and all for nothing.

Literary rediscoveries form a routine part of cultural life. They have a certain protocol. A given author has been “unfairly neglected.” The reissue of a book is “long overdue.” The rescue from oblivion is, in effect, the righting of a wrong. The most striking thing about the case of Emma Dunham Kelley-Hawkins is that, for once, the process is running in the opposite direction. Now that it’s clear the author was not African-American, her novels seem destined for something for which we lack a familiar language —

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Odd

Apr 7th, 2005 7:49 pm | By

He’s right you know, Krugman is.

But studies that find registered Republicans in the minority at elite universities show that Republicans are almost as rare in hard sciences like physics and in engineering departments as in softer fields. Why?…In the 1970’s, even Democrats like Daniel Patrick Moynihan conceded that the Republican Party was the “party of ideas.” Today, even Republicans like Representative Chris Shays concede that it has become the “party of theocracy.”…Consider the statements of Dennis Baxley, a Florida legislator who has sponsored a bill that – like similar bills introduced in almost a dozen states – would give students who think that their conservative views aren’t respected the right to sue their professors…His prime example of academic

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Why Do Some Leftists Ally With Islamists? *

Apr 7th, 2005 | Filed by

Different people have different ‘shibboleths’…… Read the rest



Simon Baron-Cohen: Autism and Sex Differences *

Apr 7th, 2005 | Filed by

‘Time to distinguish politics and science, and just look at the evidence.’… Read the rest



Nostalgia and Primitivism *

Apr 7th, 2005 | Filed by

The most important features of civilization are soap and toilet paper.… Read the rest



Hitchens on Bellow *

Apr 7th, 2005 | Filed by

What other American novelist has so influenced non-American writers?… Read the rest



A Game, a Game

Apr 7th, 2005 2:49 am | By

Oh dear, I feel like the White Rabbit, rushing along looking at his watch and fretting at how late he is. I’m very late. But that’s because I didn’t know. I wasn’t told. No one told me. I only found out by accident, dropping in for a read of Eric the Unred. He’s got this Book Meme thing going, and he said he was going to pass the stick to three people, and one of them was My Humble Self. Is my face red. He passed me this stick and I promptly dropped it and went downtown to hang around the pool hall and frighten people. That’s not co-operative.

Right then.

You’re stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do Read the rest



From Party of Ideas to Party of Theocracy *

Apr 6th, 2005 | Filed by

Paul Krugman on why so few scientists are Republicans these days.… Read the rest