Entries from July 2007

July 31, 2007

Boiling Down

I have been cleaning out my books and files. They are excellent, if I do say so myself, and I need to spend much more time with them. Looking at them makes me realize how much more I need to read, but also how much I know. And now that I have almost extirpated Reeducation [...]

July 30, 2007

On Self-Respect

As we know, authoritarianism is a Bane. Masked authoritarianism is a particularly insidious type of Bane. I have made progress in the construction of my diaphanous screen, but the reason I have become so allergic to academia is that many people in it are primarily interested in destroying the self-respect of others and being supercilious [...]

July 29, 2007

Declarations of Whiteness

Cross-posted at my other blog, Seminario Permanente de Teoría y Crítica:
In her Declarations of Whiteness: The Non-Performativity of Anti-Racism, Sara Ahmed argues that while race may be performative (being an effect of racialization), anti-racism may not be. That is, saying in the case of anti-racism may not be equivalent to doing.
I am glad to [...]

July 29, 2007

Executive Order

Opposition to the war in Iraq is now illegal, and my assets, such as they are, can be seized. If they are, the lawsuit I will file and the fight which will ensue will be quite interesting.
These executive orders smack of dictatorship and I wonder, can Presidents now sign executive orders in violation of the [...]

July 28, 2007

Julio Jaramillo

It is the weekend, so we must sing! Here is Julio Jaramillo, the Nightingale of America.
Listen to his voice, and to the lyrics of this amusing song. “This is just another record - or yet another record - of mine that you will listen to, and remember our wild and beautiful romance.”
Axé.

July 27, 2007

In a Nutshell

I
I have been ranting and raving against Reeducation in a comments thread for two days now. I have had a couple of small illuminations. I have said virtually everything I have to say. I am tired of the topic. After this recapitulation, I am dropping it, although I do not promise never to mention it.
Reeducation [...]

July 26, 2007

Mantra

Life is so fresh and bright, so present and immediate, when one stands on one’s own authority and lays one’s artificial burdens down. It is easy, like a summer brook. Soon I will again be as I had become before I entered Reeducation. I will be free and innocent like the flowers.
This blog is opposed [...]

July 25, 2007

Diaphanous Screen

I expected the first day of graduate school to be like any other school day, since I was beginning the Ph.D. program in the same department from which I had just graduated. But as I entered the building to go teach my class - this having been my first act in graduate school - I [...]

July 24, 2007

Tiger Rag

Here is Louis Armstrong and his orchestra on the Tiger Rag, which, although I have never been to a football game, is the LSU fight song from what I understand. (The school mascot is a real Bengal tiger, now housed in a better cage than formerly due to public outcry. The current tiger died recently [...]

July 23, 2007

How They Live

I have just discovered that I do not have enough clothes. This is based on a list intended to guide people in cutting back, but it indicates I should go shopping. I didn’t know. The basic wardrobe for a woman should contain all of the following:
• Two One heavy white t-shirts/knit tops, a short-sleeve white [...]