Category Archives: Politics

The Four-Year Itch

We have a group of very smart, energetic, interesting students asking the college to divest from a list of fossil fuel companies. This puts me in the somewhat predictable situation of being the guy who fought for a cause when … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Africa, Politics, Swarthmore | 6 Comments

Yo Rick

Wow, you learn something every day. I had no idea that the majority of the University of California schools don’t teach any American history at all. Thanks, Rick Santorum! Gosh, I wonder what they do teach, then. History of Lesbian … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Politics | 5 Comments

Bystander Training and Other Acts of Management

I’ve been thinking recently about what distinguishes small residential colleges and universities from vast research institutions. My first thoughts always turn to curriculum, teaching, scholarship, the practices that are a part of my training and work. That’s what I write … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Politics, Swarthmore | 6 Comments

Kony Heads

I’m not alone in my fascination with the YouTube video Kony 2012. It splits me right down the middle, tears at opposing sides of my identity as an intellectual. When you’re opened at the middle, your heart is exposed. So … Continue reading

Posted in Africa, Digital Humanities, Politics | 6 Comments

There Is Nothing You Possess That Power Cannot Take Away

…to paraphrase what Belloq says to Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The problem with a rights-based liberalism is precisely that it is not and never can be the end of history, that it is never secure or … Continue reading

Posted in Intellectual Property, Politics | 4 Comments

Saying It Again

From the department of pointless but compulsory exercises: every single time Rick Santorum or anyone with similar views says the following two things: a) What, you want gay marriage? What’s next, legitimating polygamy? and b) The only form of legal, … Continue reading

Posted in Cleaning Out the Augean Stables, Politics | 1 Comment

Catching Up I: Charity Towards the Uncharitable

I’ve had a pretty demanding series of weeks where I couldn’t afford my usual distractedness, so the backlog of things I’ve been meaning to comment on is considerable. To start, I had bookmarked a thread at Crooked Timber on Steven … Continue reading

Posted in Politics, Production of History | 8 Comments

Move the Data Server-Side! Occupy Sanctuary!

Three things about Occupy, two short, one long. 1) Occupy is already a success if the model is to provoke reaction from its chief targets. It’s hard to imagine pundits passing up the chance to comment on anything: the 24/7 … Continue reading

Posted in Games and Gaming, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Politics | 7 Comments

Two Puzzle Pieces

Pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle. 1) The New York Times has a nice piece about how global publics in democracies of one sort or another have increasingly lost faith in political elites and in the process, lost faith in … Continue reading

Posted in Politics | 10 Comments

Science a la Carte

Waiting for the candidates to reveal all of their positions on particular scientific paradigms is getting to be a bit of a fan dance. We hear a little bit here about how climate scientists are all in it to make … Continue reading

Posted in Politics | 15 Comments