Category Archives: Politics

I’m Shocked, Shocked That There’s Hatred Going On Here

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Timothy Burke

Ta-Nehisi Coates picks up on an NPR piece about government hostility towards homosexuals in Uganda, and an interesting comments thread follows. This is an issue that I’ve thought about for a long while, partly due to the influence of my … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Politics | 3 Comments

Evidence Is Old-Fashioned?

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Timothy Burke

So, more wailing and gnashing of teeth about Andrew Breitbart. The New York Times has a piece on plagiarism that reviews an increasingly prominent argument that contemporary college students simply don’t know that copying the words of another writer verbatim … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Politics | 10 Comments

I Want My AuthenticiTV

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Timothy Burke

I largely believe in the everyday critical capacity of contemporary audiences. In many ways, I think cultural consumers today are the most sophisticated in human history. To some extent, that’s because their toolkits, both intellectual and technological, have a lot … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities, Politics, Popular Culture | 3 Comments

Islands in the Mire

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Timothy Burke

Try to imagine, if you will, a person buried alive, growing desperately weak, fighting and struggling… to reach up through the dirt in order to grab some nearby stones to pile on top of his grave. That’s what watching the … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Politics | Comments Off on Islands in the Mire

The Gods That Underachieved

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Timothy Burke

The opening anecdote of this New York Times article on cyber-bullying led me to think about some bigger issues than what middle schoolers are doing on Facebook. The striking thing about the incident that opens the article is that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 2 Comments

It’s Complicated

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Timothy Burke

“It’s complicated”. Jon Stewart tweaked Obama last week for repeatedly framing his approach to issues with this phrase, and he’s not the first to do so. That complaint was very likely the reason why Obama felt the need to awkwardly … Continue reading →

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Huge Untapped Natural Resources

Posted on June 14, 2010 by Timothy Burke

Many moons ago, in my first teaching gig at a New England prep school’s summer session, I was responsible for a unit on Africa. I poked around in the school’s library and found an old educational film intended for American … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Politics | Comments Off on Huge Untapped Natural Resources

Imaginary Menaces

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Timothy Burke

The dedicated Kool-Aid drinkers who brought us the entertaining proposition that risks should be made public and any profits that derived from public investment should be made relentlessly private have left a number of curious inversions in their wake. Witness … Continue reading →

Posted in Information Technology and Information Literacy, Politics | 2 Comments

Literacy Quizzes (Again)

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Timothy Burke

There is probably no point whatsoever to a critique of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s civics literacy quiz (via 11d), but hope springs eternal, I guess. First off, my generic criticisms of these kinds of historic or social-science literacy quizzes. Usually, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Cleaning Out the Augean Stables, Politics, Production of History | 5 Comments

What To Do When Unfogged Is Down

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Timothy Burke

Regarding the Great Greenwald vs. Kerr vs. Ferrell Crooked Timber dustup of April 1st, ok, I’ll bite. Rich Pulchalsky snarks at me enough in the comments, after all. Besides, what the hell, Unfogged is down anyway, so I might as … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Politics | 1 Comment