Author Archives: Timothy Burke

George Bush, Soft on Crime

Posted on September 6, 2006 by Timothy Burke

The President’s major reasons for temporarily suspending programs of torture and secret detention are: 1) we already tortured these guys as much as we want to for the moment, thanks very much; 2) the Supreme Court annoyingly decided to get … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 13 Comments

Recap

Posted on September 5, 2006 by Timothy Burke

With one part of my family helping to document what’s not working right now about the Administration’s policy in Iraq, I figured it was time for me to hold up my end and go back once more with feeling over … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

A Presentiment of Annoyance

Posted on September 5, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Today was a brief orientation for parents and kids before the first full day of school. I’ve always followed debates over K-12 education from a fairly austere distance. Now I can see that I’m probably going to get drawn into … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 11 Comments

David Horowitz Has a New Friend

Posted on September 5, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Now guess who wants to get all those liberals with their political bias out of the universities? The President of Iran. You could change the names and this would sound like a press release from Horowitz or ACTA.

Posted in Academia | 4 Comments

My Little Schadenfreude

Posted on September 4, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Everybody’s having fun at Lee Siegel’s expense. There is one thing about the whole affair that I think is more interesting than just the satisfaction of seeing an extraordinarily bad column lose its place, though. Lots of people have observed … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment

Crikey!

Posted on September 4, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, was killed by a stingray while filming a documentary. I remember seeing him some years ago for the first time. My father had been saying that there was this guy I had to see, this … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture | 7 Comments

You Can’t Tell the Players Without a Scorecard

Posted on August 29, 2006 by Timothy Burke

[Crossposted at Cliopatria] One of the overarching arguments in my current book project is that in Africanist scholarship, work by social historians has sometimes been difficult for outsiders to intuitively or empathetically grasp, that it is easier to connect to … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Africa | 15 Comments

The End of Apartheid, Direct Action and Its Costs

Posted on August 29, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Quite a few people are calling me, legitimately, on my slippery slope comparisons between harassment of researchers and mass murder. Fair enough, but I would still maintain that once you put yourself in a situation of effectively absolute license to … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 9 Comments

The Sensation of Standing Still While Moving

Posted on August 28, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Been cleaning out my closet and files this week while getting ready for the semester. Looking at administrative materials, correspondence and so on that I kept from 1992-1995, when I had my first academic jobs at Rutgers, Emory and then … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Miscellany | 6 Comments

So Long and Thanks For All the Spandex

Posted on August 24, 2006 by Timothy Burke

What, a show that basically is a metafictional foolery about superheroes and comics has a problem with a guy who is playing (in a fairly talented way) to the cheesiness of the genre AND the show? Yes, I know, it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Popular Culture | 4 Comments