Entries from May 2008

May 31, 2008

Third World

Now it costs exactly twice as much to buy a tank of gas for my car than it did six years ago when I bought it - or more precisely, when I was given it. While filling it up I was approached by a respectable looking man who proceeded to sell me two bottles of [...]

May 30, 2008

Military Rape Awareness Day

May 30 is International Military Rape Awareness Day! Read the post from WoC PhD and its links! Also at WoC PhD, do not miss these important interviews of Jeremy Scahill. Finally, I have fallen off lately in my New Year’s Resolution to see more films, I would like to see Standard Operating Procedure.
Update: WoC PhD [...]

May 29, 2008

John McCain Fact Sheet

http://pol.moveon.org/mccain10/
10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don’t):

John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has “evolved,” yet he’s continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1
According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia [...]

May 27, 2008

On Shakespeare

Every professor of literature must eventually write a post on Shakespeare, so this is mine. A friend left teaching because he was tired of explaining things to people. I do not at all mind explaining things to students, but I am definitely tired of explaining things to faculty.
One of the things I routinely explain - [...]

May 26, 2008

On Graduate School

I liked college and graduate school, and I like them even more in retrospect since the behavior of some faculty at places I have been since has been so poor. Yet I have friends from college and even graduate school who use words like “trauma” and “gulag” to refer to our alma mater. I would [...]

May 25, 2008

Another Serious Question

When my dedicated colleague retires, which is sure to happen soon, what should I do about the honor society? I cannot stand it, I cannot tolerate organizations whose names are comprised of Greek letters, and the initiation ceremony is genuinely Fascist.
As it is the party must be held in my house, as my house is [...]

May 24, 2008

A Serious Question

In the last quarter my TIAA-CREF retirement fund sustained another net loss. I do not live in a state which pays into Social Security, so this is my only retirement fund. Since I am theoretically a young person I have the funds allocated to relatively, although not outrageously high risk enterprises. I have [...]

May 23, 2008

An Unusual Professor?

A friend tells me I am an unusual professor because, although I am research oriented and work at a research institution, I care about undergraduate education. I see his point but I wonder, is it really true?
1. I do not feel that I care about lower division instruction. It does matter to me, and I [...]

May 22, 2008

The Sanctuary

A friend writes that The Sanctuary is “a new community online that is pro-migrant, pro-humanity, pro-social justice, but mostly a safe space for those of us on the left who do not find the solidarity and priority of human rights (for all) in the mainstream blogosphere that we would like. The right—namely the extreme right—has [...]

May 21, 2008

Merrily Going ‘Round

I am arguing endlessly with my youngest brother on the topic of race and I want to give up. I want to say:
Dear C., While I know you are a mixed Creole, and I know you want everyone to recognize you as such, I also know that where you are living, most people do not [...]