Is This Thing On?
*Tap Tap* Hello? Hello! I feel out of practice. Jill asked me to guest blog for her this week while she takes off on her break and I jumped at the chance. I miss this stupid blog, even if leaving it behind means far less time spent at the computer every day and more time [...]
...read moreIt’s Ok if He’s OUR Activist Judge
From guestblogger Thomas: Judge Sam Alito, or “Scalito” (because he’s at least as conservative as Scalia) has gotten a lot of press since his nomination. Roundup links are on every political blog, and I won’t try to replicate that here. Rather, I want to focus on one aspect of Scalito that I find troubling. The [...]
...read moreA Place For Everything And Everything In Its Place
I’m glad Lauren is back in the saddle. I’m not much more for goodbyes than I am for introductions, and I have no blog to plug. By way of closure, I should update my own private Schiavo. Without the respirator, my wife’s aunt’s body never managed strong breathing, and her heart stopped on Saturday. We’re [...]
...read moreFighting On Ground Of Our Choosing
Sometimes, our enemies are stupid enough to pick a fight where almost everyone is for us and against them. As the far right overreaches, this becomes increasingly common. From the great Alas, A Blog, I picked this up. There is soon to be a Human Papilloma Virus vaccine. HPV increases womens’ risk of cervical cancer. [...]
...read moreWhen Terrorism Works: Hiroshima & Nagasaki
As the Manhattan Project was nearing its end around this time in 1945, Leslie Groves asked George Marshall to designate someone to direct the task of deciding which cities would be the targets of the United States’ shiny new weapon. Marshall responded, “I don’t like to bring too many people into this matter. Is there [...]
...read moreGriffith Update
It seems I got my wish (see Justifiable Homicide). As press ramps up for the documentary “Ring of Fire,” Griffith is becoming more comfortable with who he is and what he did that night in 1961 to Benny Paret. Bob Herbert’s column this morning recounts Griffith saying, “I got tired,” he said, “of people calling [...]
...read moreHoly hell
Sorry for the incoherency of the following, but I have a lab in 30 minutes, and I didn’t want to have to wait to post this. From Atrios, Terry Neal of the Washington Post did an interview with Rep. Ellen Tauscher of California, who is the chair of the New Democrat Coalition (NDC), about the [...]
...read moreNational Day of Silence
Today is the National Day of Silence, a day that symbolizes the silence that many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people must suffer through. TCU’s Gay-Straight Alliance has put together the event, though unfortunately we’re a bit disorganized and, um, small. As such, there was not a large enough campaign to let the campus know [...]
...read moreNewsflash: Non-Threatening Sex Talk Increases Readership
The Village Voice notes a trend: college newspapers running female sex advice columnists. What are these columnist saying? Apparently, nothing: Hyper-feminine, even reactionary, most articles read like giggly guides for good manners. We imagine these writers much like Carrie Bradshaw: on their beds with a shiny white laptop, typing, but also taking plenty of breaks [...]
...read moreMy Own Private Schiavo
I disappeared fromthe guest-blogging on Friday. At first, the reason was work. Then in the middle of the day, I got a call from my wife. My wife’s aunt (and God-mother) had a massive aneurism. She’s in a hospital far away. She’s on a respirator. Her body will not regulate fluids, her blood pressure is [...]
...read moreJames Baldwin
In my African American Experience class, we have begun talking about the “Double V” campaign (victory over Hitler and Jim Crow), the post-World War II era, and the beginning of the modern civil rights movement. One of the great writers of the civil rights era was James Baldwin. As we were discussing World War II [...]
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Justifiable Homicide?
Forgive me for again posting about something that is a little bit “inside baseball” for me. Many of you don’t know this story; maybe would never have heard of it, because I suspect the readership of this blog is almost devoid of boxing fans. I am a boxing fan. First, about boxing. Every boxing fan [...]
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