Shots In The Dark
Friday, February 29, 2024
Signs of the Electoral Times
As some regular readers may know, I've long been arguing that it doesn't matter who the GOP and Democratic presidential nominees are, and that the press has been paying too much attention to the personalities of this campaign and not enough to underlying electoral, demographic, psychographic and economic trends which strongly suggest a Democratic victory.
(Partly because it's in the media's economic self-interest to highlight the horse race aspect of the campaign—it's good for business.)
Two recent events strengthen my feelings.
One, in a New York state assembly special election, a Democrat just beat a Republican in a district that is "overwhelmingly Republican."
Now the state GOP is in danger of losing control of the assembly for the first time in decades.
I think you can consider that defeated assemblyman the canary in the coalmine of the fall elections.
Event number two is George Bush's statement yesterday that the country isn't in a recession. I understand that there's a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't quality to any statement the president makes about the economy. But this statement is going to kill the Republicans. It will make Bush look even more out of touch with the country than he actually is, and they will be forced either to reject the president or defend him, both unfortunate options.
I'm not saying the Democrats should be overconfident; I am saying that the forces underlying the electoral mood have been building for eight years, and I don't think the press is explaining them well...... ¶ 11:45 AM 9 comments
(Partly because it's in the media's economic self-interest to highlight the horse race aspect of the campaign—it's good for business.)
Two recent events strengthen my feelings.
One, in a New York state assembly special election, a Democrat just beat a Republican in a district that is "overwhelmingly Republican."
Now the state GOP is in danger of losing control of the assembly for the first time in decades.
I think you can consider that defeated assemblyman the canary in the coalmine of the fall elections.
Event number two is George Bush's statement yesterday that the country isn't in a recession. I understand that there's a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't quality to any statement the president makes about the economy. But this statement is going to kill the Republicans. It will make Bush look even more out of touch with the country than he actually is, and they will be forced either to reject the president or defend him, both unfortunate options.
I'm not saying the Democrats should be overconfident; I am saying that the forces underlying the electoral mood have been building for eight years, and I don't think the press is explaining them well...... ¶ 11:45 AM 9 comments
Sullivan on Buckley
Andrew Sullivan joins me in feeling cautionary about Bill Buckley:
I know we shouldn't speak ill of the dead - but am I the only person who found Buckley close to unreadable a lot of the time? I never read his fiction, but his nonfiction was packed the endless sentences, ridiculously long words, and meaning that sometimes took several reads to excavate. I don't know how many times I finished a Buckley column with the thought: what on earth was he trying to say? But then, my gold standard for prose style is Orwell. Never use a long word when a short one will do is not exactly advice Buckley followed.
Orwell is a high standard, but Andrew's right: When Orwell wrote, one got the feeling that his words were used in the service of something greater than himself; when Buckley wrote, one got the feeling that he wasn't sure there was anything greater than himself.
If an economy of words reflects a humility of self, then what is the suggestion of sesquipedalianism? ¶ 11:20 AM 1 comments
I know we shouldn't speak ill of the dead - but am I the only person who found Buckley close to unreadable a lot of the time? I never read his fiction, but his nonfiction was packed the endless sentences, ridiculously long words, and meaning that sometimes took several reads to excavate. I don't know how many times I finished a Buckley column with the thought: what on earth was he trying to say? But then, my gold standard for prose style is Orwell. Never use a long word when a short one will do is not exactly advice Buckley followed.
Orwell is a high standard, but Andrew's right: When Orwell wrote, one got the feeling that his words were used in the service of something greater than himself; when Buckley wrote, one got the feeling that he wasn't sure there was anything greater than himself.
If an economy of words reflects a humility of self, then what is the suggestion of sesquipedalianism? ¶ 11:20 AM 1 comments
Ball Games
In Slate, Emma Span has an interesting piece on why so many Yankees fans and some Red Sox fans are delighted that their teams didn't sign Johan Santana, to whom the Mets just gave 700 kajillion dollars.
Five years ago, the Red Sox probably would have been all in. The Yankees certainly would have. But the war between Boston and New York has entered a new phase.
That phase has to do with greater cultivation of minor league talent and savvier statistical analysis.
Meanwhile, Red Sox fans have undergone an identity crisis after the team's two World Series wins. The Sox spent $51 million last year on Daisuke Matsuzaka's negotiating rights alone and $70 million on desultory outfielder J.D. Drew. During the 2007 World Series, just after Alex Rodriguez opted out of his New York deal, Boston fans—who would have welcomed the third baseman before the 2004 season, when a trade with the Rangers fell apart at the last minute—desperately chanted, "Don't sign A-Rod!" In other words: We don't want to be any more like the Yankees than we already are.
No offense, Sox fans, but in some ways your team already is the new Yankees. Dubious signings like J.D. Drew, sky-high ticket prices (the highest in baseball), fans for whom anything but a Series victory is untenable—that small-town charm of the BoSox is gone, baby, gone.
And maybe that's all right; maybe winning a couple World Series after all those decades is worth some subtle and probably not so great changes in the team's character.
But Sox fans still like to posit that the Yankees are the "Evil Empire," and these days, that just ain't so—at the very least, there are now two such dominions. ¶ 9:38 AM 6 comments
Five years ago, the Red Sox probably would have been all in. The Yankees certainly would have. But the war between Boston and New York has entered a new phase.
That phase has to do with greater cultivation of minor league talent and savvier statistical analysis.
Meanwhile, Red Sox fans have undergone an identity crisis after the team's two World Series wins. The Sox spent $51 million last year on Daisuke Matsuzaka's negotiating rights alone and $70 million on desultory outfielder J.D. Drew. During the 2007 World Series, just after Alex Rodriguez opted out of his New York deal, Boston fans—who would have welcomed the third baseman before the 2004 season, when a trade with the Rangers fell apart at the last minute—desperately chanted, "Don't sign A-Rod!" In other words: We don't want to be any more like the Yankees than we already are.
No offense, Sox fans, but in some ways your team already is the new Yankees. Dubious signings like J.D. Drew, sky-high ticket prices (the highest in baseball), fans for whom anything but a Series victory is untenable—that small-town charm of the BoSox is gone, baby, gone.
And maybe that's all right; maybe winning a couple World Series after all those decades is worth some subtle and probably not so great changes in the team's character.
But Sox fans still like to posit that the Yankees are the "Evil Empire," and these days, that just ain't so—at the very least, there are now two such dominions. ¶ 9:38 AM 6 comments
Thursday, February 28, 2024
Chelsea on My Mind
What would we say about an aspiring politician, born into privilege, who works at a hedge fund, hangs out with celebrities, and refuses to talk to the press?
Well, first of all, she sounds like a Republican, right? And second, we'd be skeptical of someone whose every act seems to manifest contempt for the more democratic aspects of American democracy.
Nonetheless, this week in New York magazine, Lloyd Grove suggests that Chelsea Clinton would make a great politician.
Chelsea Clinton turns 28 in a few days—around the same age her father was when he ventured into electoral politics for the first time, in 1974, waging an unsuccessful campaign for a congressional seat in Arkansas—and she is, at long last, plunging into the family business, moving from prop to propagandist.
Maybe. But would she make a great public servant?
You'll laugh, but the presidential daughter I'd prefer to go into politics is Jenna Bush. She teaches at a charter school in Washington, she wrote a book about teenagers and HIV, and instead of hanging out with poncy Brits at Oxford, or attending fashion shows with Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna, she's getting married.
So how come the media doesn't portray her as a rising star? ¶ 8:24 AM 5 comments
Well, first of all, she sounds like a Republican, right? And second, we'd be skeptical of someone whose every act seems to manifest contempt for the more democratic aspects of American democracy.
Nonetheless, this week in New York magazine, Lloyd Grove suggests that Chelsea Clinton would make a great politician.
Chelsea Clinton turns 28 in a few days—around the same age her father was when he ventured into electoral politics for the first time, in 1974, waging an unsuccessful campaign for a congressional seat in Arkansas—and she is, at long last, plunging into the family business, moving from prop to propagandist.
Maybe. But would she make a great public servant?
You'll laugh, but the presidential daughter I'd prefer to go into politics is Jenna Bush. She teaches at a charter school in Washington, she wrote a book about teenagers and HIV, and instead of hanging out with poncy Brits at Oxford, or attending fashion shows with Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna, she's getting married.
So how come the media doesn't portray her as a rising star? ¶ 8:24 AM 5 comments
More Bill Buckley Nostalgia
In the Crimson, David L. Golding argues that Bill Buckley was "one of the last truly charismatic public intellectuals"...
...and in this sense his passing should be lamented by anyone nostalgic for those days when ideas and the “life-of-the-mind” still mattered.
Oh, I don't know about that.
For a couple of reasons. While Buckley certainly gets credit for resuscitating American conservatism, can we think of any particular idea that is associated with him? A single book, other than God and Man at Yale?
And if, truly, one goes back and picks that book up, its immaturity is striking, and it is difficult to imagine that such a poorly edited book could have acquired such a reputation. (One suspects that its reputation depends upon the many, many more people who have read about it than have actually read it.)
Buckley wrote dozens of books after GAMAY. Without checking Wikipedia, can you name one?
In fact, when you get right down to it, would one really even call Buckley an intellectual?
A wordsmith, certainly. A provocateur. A partisan.
But isn't it lowering the bar to call him an intellectual?
Intellectual life these days, Golding says, has been degraded "by such loutish mediocrities as Christopher Hitchens and Ann Coulter," which strikes me as unfair to Hitchens, who, whatever one may think of him, operates on a significantly higher level of thought and rhetoric than does Coulter.
But as Golding acknowledges, Buckley himself wasn't immune to loutish behavior, as in this remark to Gore Vidal (who is, in fact, far more of an intellectual than Buckley).
He famously lost his temper on national television and blustered, in his droll blue-blood Connecticut brogue, “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.”
This from the man who would subsequently suggest that gays be tattoed to stop the spread of AIDS....
For many people, Buckley had a seductive WASP persona (despite the fact of his Catholicism). He had family money! He sailed! He'd been in the CIA! He had lockjaw!
Harvardian conservative Ross Douthat was seduced—not literally, I hasten to add—after skinny-dipping with Buckley off the side of his yacht.
As Douthat points out today, Buckley loved that boat.
Sailing, he wrote, can have so many rapturous moments.
In fact, if Buckley had been a liberal, conservatives would have ridiculed him for exactly these rich-boy sentimentalities, and they wouldn't have been entirely wrong in doing so.
Imagine if John Kerry waxed so rhapsodically about yachting.....
The truth is that Buckley was someone who was born into privilege and seems to have impressed people simply by how comfortably he settled into that life. The sight of a man so utterly at home in his own identity is powerful, especially to young people seeking to find an identity of their own. Nothing seduces the young like self-confidence.
But as someone who knows some small part of that world—like BB, my father attended Millbrook School, and he was roommates with Reid Buckley, Bill's brother, at Yale; it's also fair to say that I had, in some measure, a WASPy upbringing—I have a somewhat different, if less romantic take.
I'm more impressed by WASPs who challenged their culture, their background, who reached out to those less fortunate than they.
(For a fascinating consideration of an intellectual who has struggled with the idea of WASP culture throughout his entire life, take a look at Larissa MacFarqhar's profile of Louis Auchincloss in last week's New Yorker.)
There are lots of erudite, learned WASPY types; my father and his Yale friends weren't as prolific or accomplished as Buckley, and certainly not as self-promoting, but stylistically they were similar enough. It was a generational thing—Yale men in the post-war era.
And there are lots of WASPs, from FDR to John Kerry, whose definition of helping others went beyond inviting people to join them on their sailboats.
Perhaps I am missing something, but such efforts do not leap out from the narratives of William F. Buckley's life that we are now reading..... ¶ 7:31 AM 5 comments
...and in this sense his passing should be lamented by anyone nostalgic for those days when ideas and the “life-of-the-mind” still mattered.
Oh, I don't know about that.
For a couple of reasons. While Buckley certainly gets credit for resuscitating American conservatism, can we think of any particular idea that is associated with him? A single book, other than God and Man at Yale?
And if, truly, one goes back and picks that book up, its immaturity is striking, and it is difficult to imagine that such a poorly edited book could have acquired such a reputation. (One suspects that its reputation depends upon the many, many more people who have read about it than have actually read it.)
Buckley wrote dozens of books after GAMAY. Without checking Wikipedia, can you name one?
In fact, when you get right down to it, would one really even call Buckley an intellectual?
A wordsmith, certainly. A provocateur. A partisan.
But isn't it lowering the bar to call him an intellectual?
Intellectual life these days, Golding says, has been degraded "by such loutish mediocrities as Christopher Hitchens and Ann Coulter," which strikes me as unfair to Hitchens, who, whatever one may think of him, operates on a significantly higher level of thought and rhetoric than does Coulter.
But as Golding acknowledges, Buckley himself wasn't immune to loutish behavior, as in this remark to Gore Vidal (who is, in fact, far more of an intellectual than Buckley).
He famously lost his temper on national television and blustered, in his droll blue-blood Connecticut brogue, “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.”
This from the man who would subsequently suggest that gays be tattoed to stop the spread of AIDS....
For many people, Buckley had a seductive WASP persona (despite the fact of his Catholicism). He had family money! He sailed! He'd been in the CIA! He had lockjaw!
Harvardian conservative Ross Douthat was seduced—not literally, I hasten to add—after skinny-dipping with Buckley off the side of his yacht.
As Douthat points out today, Buckley loved that boat.
Sailing, he wrote, can have so many rapturous moments.
In fact, if Buckley had been a liberal, conservatives would have ridiculed him for exactly these rich-boy sentimentalities, and they wouldn't have been entirely wrong in doing so.
Imagine if John Kerry waxed so rhapsodically about yachting.....
The truth is that Buckley was someone who was born into privilege and seems to have impressed people simply by how comfortably he settled into that life. The sight of a man so utterly at home in his own identity is powerful, especially to young people seeking to find an identity of their own. Nothing seduces the young like self-confidence.
But as someone who knows some small part of that world—like BB, my father attended Millbrook School, and he was roommates with Reid Buckley, Bill's brother, at Yale; it's also fair to say that I had, in some measure, a WASPy upbringing—I have a somewhat different, if less romantic take.
I'm more impressed by WASPs who challenged their culture, their background, who reached out to those less fortunate than they.
(For a fascinating consideration of an intellectual who has struggled with the idea of WASP culture throughout his entire life, take a look at Larissa MacFarqhar's profile of Louis Auchincloss in last week's New Yorker.)
There are lots of erudite, learned WASPY types; my father and his Yale friends weren't as prolific or accomplished as Buckley, and certainly not as self-promoting, but stylistically they were similar enough. It was a generational thing—Yale men in the post-war era.
And there are lots of WASPs, from FDR to John Kerry, whose definition of helping others went beyond inviting people to join them on their sailboats.
Perhaps I am missing something, but such efforts do not leap out from the narratives of William F. Buckley's life that we are now reading..... ¶ 7:31 AM 5 comments
In Iraq, the Sunnis aren't Shining
The Washington Post reports that Sunni volunteer forces—the one's we're arming in preparation for and promotion of a future civil war—are abandoning their posts.
U.S.-backed Sunni volunteer forces, which have played a vital role in reducing violence in Iraq, are increasingly frustrated with the American military and the Iraqi government over what they see as a lack of recognition of their growing political clout and insufficient U.S. support.
The problem is that we've armed them to help maintain order...and now they're feeling their oats.
"They should make me stronger. They should not weaken me," said Kassim, a former commander in the Islamic Army, an insurgent group.
...The predominantly Sunni Awakening forces, referred to by the U.S. military as the Sons of Iraq or Concerned Local Citizens, are made up mostly of former insurgents who have turned against extremists because of their harsh tactics and interpretation of Islam. The U.S. military pays many fighters roughly $10 a day to guard and patrol their areas. Thousands more unpaid volunteers have joined out of tribal and regional fealties. U.S. efforts to manage this fast-growing movement of about 80,000 armed men are still largely effective, but in some key areas the control is fraying.
Consider that: We are propping up a mostly Shiite government...at the same time that we are arming 80,000 Sunni soldiers, many of whom are former insurgents/terrorists.
U.S. commanders and 20 Awakening leaders across Iraq. Some U.S. military officials say they are growing concerned that the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq has infiltrated Awakening forces in some areas.
Capture Osama bin Laden? Hell, we're giving his soldiers weapons..... ¶ 7:19 AM 0 comments
U.S.-backed Sunni volunteer forces, which have played a vital role in reducing violence in Iraq, are increasingly frustrated with the American military and the Iraqi government over what they see as a lack of recognition of their growing political clout and insufficient U.S. support.
The problem is that we've armed them to help maintain order...and now they're feeling their oats.
"They should make me stronger. They should not weaken me," said Kassim, a former commander in the Islamic Army, an insurgent group.
...The predominantly Sunni Awakening forces, referred to by the U.S. military as the Sons of Iraq or Concerned Local Citizens, are made up mostly of former insurgents who have turned against extremists because of their harsh tactics and interpretation of Islam. The U.S. military pays many fighters roughly $10 a day to guard and patrol their areas. Thousands more unpaid volunteers have joined out of tribal and regional fealties. U.S. efforts to manage this fast-growing movement of about 80,000 armed men are still largely effective, but in some key areas the control is fraying.
Consider that: We are propping up a mostly Shiite government...at the same time that we are arming 80,000 Sunni soldiers, many of whom are former insurgents/terrorists.
U.S. commanders and 20 Awakening leaders across Iraq. Some U.S. military officials say they are growing concerned that the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq has infiltrated Awakening forces in some areas.
Capture Osama bin Laden? Hell, we're giving his soldiers weapons..... ¶ 7:19 AM 0 comments
Quote for the Day
"We both have trouble answering questions in English."
—President Bush, speaking of Daisuke Matsuzaka, at the White House yesterday ¶ 7:16 AM 0 comments
—President Bush, speaking of Daisuke Matsuzaka, at the White House yesterday ¶ 7:16 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, February 27, 2024
Jason Giambi Makes His Play
My favorite underdog Yankee, 37-year-old Jason Giambi, is having a great spring. I couldn't be happier. Giambi, an eminently likeable guy who is still the only person to have voluntarily apologized for using steroids, is a great hitter and a better first baseman, IMHO, than he gets credit for. I love watching Giambi at the plate; he has one of the great eyes for the strike zone in all of baseball, and almost never swings at a bad pitch. For a power hitter, that's rare indeed. When Giambi takes a pitch and the umpire calls a strike, the ump is almost always wrong.
He has, as we know, gone through hard times.
“I’ve been in heaven here, and I’ve been in the gutter,” Giambi said.
This sentiment reminds me of (wince) the Pretenders' lyrics I quoted on my high school yearbook senior page.
Now look at the people
In the streets, in the bars
We are all of us in the gutter
Some of us are looking at the stars
(From "Message of Love," on Pretenders II, which was underrated when it came out but in fact rocks.)
Coincidence? I think not. Either Jason Giambi is a Pretenders fan, or we both relate to people who have made mistakes, struggled, and tried to come back and live good lives.....
Although if you look at the facial hair...
...perhaps Jason Giambi is, in fact, long-dead Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott! ¶ 11:19 PM 3 comments
He has, as we know, gone through hard times.
“I’ve been in heaven here, and I’ve been in the gutter,” Giambi said.
This sentiment reminds me of (wince) the Pretenders' lyrics I quoted on my high school yearbook senior page.
Now look at the people
In the streets, in the bars
We are all of us in the gutter
Some of us are looking at the stars
(From "Message of Love," on Pretenders II, which was underrated when it came out but in fact rocks.)
Coincidence? I think not. Either Jason Giambi is a Pretenders fan, or we both relate to people who have made mistakes, struggled, and tried to come back and live good lives.....
Although if you look at the facial hair...
...perhaps Jason Giambi is, in fact, long-dead Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott! ¶ 11:19 PM 3 comments
Bill Buckley
Dead. Which is fine.
Anyone else find this line from the Times obit just a little flip?
Mr. Buckley irrevocably proved that his brand of candor did not lend itself to public life when an Op-Ed article he wrote for The New York Times offered a partial cure for the AIDS epidemic: “Everyone detected with AIDS should be tattooed in the upper forearm to prevent common needle users, and on the buttocks, to prevent the victimization of homosexuals,” he wrote.
Let's just play with that, shall we?
Public safety commissioner Theophilus "Bull" Connor irrevocably proved that his brand of candor did not lend itself to public life when.....
Atlanta Braves relief pitcher John Rocker irrevocably proved that his brand of candor did not lend itself to public life when.....
Please. Bill Buckley might have endeared himself to the intelligentsia with his swashbuckling lifestyle (the result of inherited money), his prolific writing, and his extensive vocabulary.
But is there a civil rights issue in the last sixty years—McCarthy, segregation, anti-gay discrimination—on which he did not first take the wrong stand?
¶ 11:05 PM 0 comments
Anyone else find this line from the Times obit just a little flip?
Mr. Buckley irrevocably proved that his brand of candor did not lend itself to public life when an Op-Ed article he wrote for The New York Times offered a partial cure for the AIDS epidemic: “Everyone detected with AIDS should be tattooed in the upper forearm to prevent common needle users, and on the buttocks, to prevent the victimization of homosexuals,” he wrote.
Let's just play with that, shall we?
Public safety commissioner Theophilus "Bull" Connor irrevocably proved that his brand of candor did not lend itself to public life when.....
Atlanta Braves relief pitcher John Rocker irrevocably proved that his brand of candor did not lend itself to public life when.....
Please. Bill Buckley might have endeared himself to the intelligentsia with his swashbuckling lifestyle (the result of inherited money), his prolific writing, and his extensive vocabulary.
But is there a civil rights issue in the last sixty years—McCarthy, segregation, anti-gay discrimination—on which he did not first take the wrong stand?
¶ 11:05 PM 0 comments
Stop the Presses!
Days after you watched it here, the Times writes up Jimmy Kimmel's "I'm F***ing Ben Affleck" video. Apparently it's very popular.
Darn kids.... ¶ 11:03 PM 0 comments
Darn kids.... ¶ 11:03 PM 0 comments
Speaking of Marion Cotillard
¶ 8:19 AM 2 comments
We all saw her Oscar speech ("Thank you, love!"), but how many people saw this moment with the press?
Joy truly is infectious......
Thought for the Day
Is it a coincidence that at the beginning of the Bush presidency, Americans (some of us, anyway) hated everything French—remember "freedom fries"?— and that at the end of the Bush presidency, French actress Marion Cotillard wins the Academy Award for best actress—and all of our hearts in the process?
"I'm totally overwhelmed with joy and sparkles and fireworks and everything that goes like 'boom boom boom'....."
Perhaps we are returning to sanity..... ¶ 8:10 AM 2 comments
Is it a coincidence that at the beginning of the Bush presidency, Americans (some of us, anyway) hated everything French—remember "freedom fries"?— and that at the end of the Bush presidency, French actress Marion Cotillard wins the Academy Award for best actress—and all of our hearts in the process?
"I'm totally overwhelmed with joy and sparkles and fireworks and everything that goes like 'boom boom boom'....."
Perhaps we are returning to sanity..... ¶ 8:10 AM 2 comments
The Fewer Options, the Better
A fascinating piece in the Times on the importance of closing doors, both literally and figuratively.
One implication, it seems to me: We are nearing the end of the era in which we consider "multitasking" a cultural good and a personal talent. Thank God. ¶ 8:01 AM 0 comments
One implication, it seems to me: We are nearing the end of the era in which we consider "multitasking" a cultural good and a personal talent. Thank God. ¶ 8:01 AM 0 comments
"Pretty Self-Explanatory"
¶ 7:40 AM 0 comments
Here's a wrap-up of the "Sex Week at Yale Lingerie Show."
Let's hope the old guy with a beard isn't a professor....
Crimson Cash
The Crimson follows up the Times and this blog in reporting that Stanford raised some $200 million more than Harvard last year.....
¶ 7:29 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, February 26, 2024
O Happy Day
¶ 11:41 PM 0 comments
I am loving this new album by Goldfrapp, "Seventh Tree." Absolutely beautiful. (The music, not the woman. But, well, yeah—her too.)
Not sure what to make of the video for this song, "A & E," but at least it isn't set in winter.
Just Three Weeks....
....till publication of The Greatest Game! And then things are really going to get crazy around here....
Portrait of the blogger as a young fan.
¶ 11:28 PM 2 comments
Portrait of the blogger as a young fan.
Those Racist Republicans
You knew it would have to happen: John McCain has had to apologize for the conservative radio host who introduced him and thrice used the phrase, "Barack Hussein Obama."
Bill Cunningham, who is host of “The Big Show with Bill Cunningham,”...lambasted the national news media, drawing cheers from the audience, as being soft in their coverage of Mr. Obama compared to the Republican presidential candidates, declaring they should “peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama.” [emphasis added]
McCain subsequently apologized for Cunningham's implication that Obama is Muslim—and what a shame that that's considered an insult—though Cunningham did not.
But will the Republicans start using this sleazy tactic frequently? I heard Georgia Republican Jack Kingston say it on "Real Time with Bill Maher" last week, and it was so egregious—"Barack Hussein Obama," the congressman said, and he might as well have been saying "Barack Hitler Obama." I wanted to hit him. Or throw something at my TV. But since it's a brand-new, 46" flat screen, which I bought to watch the Giants' glorious victory over the Patriots, I restrained myself.
Anyway, might I also point out that the phrase "peel the bark off" is itself pretty disturbing. I've never heard it applied to a person—I've never really heard it applied to anything, frankly—and a quick Google search doesn't turn much up. But when you consider the source, it's a violent image, and the fact that bark is dark lends it racial overtones.....
You just know that if the Republicans are saying this stuff once in a while in public, they're saying it a hell of a lot more behind closed doors...... ¶ 11:08 PM 2 comments
Bill Cunningham, who is host of “The Big Show with Bill Cunningham,”...lambasted the national news media, drawing cheers from the audience, as being soft in their coverage of Mr. Obama compared to the Republican presidential candidates, declaring they should “peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama.” [emphasis added]
McCain subsequently apologized for Cunningham's implication that Obama is Muslim—and what a shame that that's considered an insult—though Cunningham did not.
But will the Republicans start using this sleazy tactic frequently? I heard Georgia Republican Jack Kingston say it on "Real Time with Bill Maher" last week, and it was so egregious—"Barack Hussein Obama," the congressman said, and he might as well have been saying "Barack Hitler Obama." I wanted to hit him. Or throw something at my TV. But since it's a brand-new, 46" flat screen, which I bought to watch the Giants' glorious victory over the Patriots, I restrained myself.
Anyway, might I also point out that the phrase "peel the bark off" is itself pretty disturbing. I've never heard it applied to a person—I've never really heard it applied to anything, frankly—and a quick Google search doesn't turn much up. But when you consider the source, it's a violent image, and the fact that bark is dark lends it racial overtones.....
You just know that if the Republicans are saying this stuff once in a while in public, they're saying it a hell of a lot more behind closed doors...... ¶ 11:08 PM 2 comments
Barack Rolls On
Chris Dodd, the senator from Connecticut whom we actually like, is endorsing Barack Obama today.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's campaign staff is starting to tear itself apart, which, let's face it, is kind of fun to watch. ¶ 8:46 AM 0 comments
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton's campaign staff is starting to tear itself apart, which, let's face it, is kind of fun to watch. ¶ 8:46 AM 0 comments
But at Harvard, They're Bad for the Community
Yankee pitcher Phil Hughes has started a blog, and since mid-January, it's attracted 340,000 visitors.
It's kind of a sweet blog—he gave away his fleece from last season, with his number on it, which would be kind of a cool thing to have, in fact.
Perhaps Hughes is feeling competitive with that other incredibly likeable young Yankee pitcher, Joba Chamberlain.
Here's one thing about pitchers that come up from the minors: Not only are they cheaper than hired guns like Roger Clemens, but....you like them more! Watching these young players grow and develop over time gives fans the chance to bond with them, something that's been missing from the Yankees in the (George) Steinbrenner era. ¶ 8:37 AM 1 comments
It's kind of a sweet blog—he gave away his fleece from last season, with his number on it, which would be kind of a cool thing to have, in fact.
Perhaps Hughes is feeling competitive with that other incredibly likeable young Yankee pitcher, Joba Chamberlain.
Here's one thing about pitchers that come up from the minors: Not only are they cheaper than hired guns like Roger Clemens, but....you like them more! Watching these young players grow and develop over time gives fans the chance to bond with them, something that's been missing from the Yankees in the (George) Steinbrenner era. ¶ 8:37 AM 1 comments
Columbia's Shame?
The New York Post takes a shot at Teachers College—and Columbia—for their handling of the Madonna Constantine affair.
By retaining Constantine as a tenured professor, and by keeping the alleged "sanctions" applied against her secret, Teachers has demonstrated that it cares as little about its reputation as Columbia cares about its own.
Now, all the right-wingers in New York (a small but enthusiastic group) like to tee off on Columbia, which does have some nutty lefties but really just happens to be a high-profile university in a big media town. (Imagine if Harvard were in New York. Yikes.)
But the Constantine situation is tricky. If Constantine did, as I believe, fake the noose incident in order to negate anticipated accusations of plagiarism, then she has put Columbia in a very awkward position.
After all, the incident has already prompted a number of demonstrations, some involving local African-American politicians. And Columbia, which is moving to develop its land in west Harlem, can't afford a racial controversy—something that Constantine surely knew if and when she hung a noose on her office door. If the university fired her, you can imagine what would happen—it'd be the Bonfire of the Vanities, or Tawana Brawley, all over again.
At the same time, it's appalling that someone who has committed dozens of instances of plagiarism, sometimes stealing from her own students—and not just words, but ideas as well—should be allowed to continue teaching anywhere at Columbia.
A sad consequence of Ms. Constantine's work on her own behalf, I suspect, is that colleges across the country may become more reluctant to hire African-American professors: Because if a blatant plagiarist can invent a race-based incident to successfully avoid being fired, then colleges may be more cautious about hiring black professors, on the grounds that if they ever need to fire the person, they won't be able to.....
Which means really that the same people who picketed on Ms. Constantine's behalf now ought to be picketing against her.
And which will surely make conservatives say that, well, that's what you get when you hire someone because of his or her race, rather than on the merits.
What a tragic mess.
Here's what I think will happen: Columbia will have to pay Ms. Constantine to make her go away. And she will take the money and run. ¶ 7:37 AM 5 comments
By retaining Constantine as a tenured professor, and by keeping the alleged "sanctions" applied against her secret, Teachers has demonstrated that it cares as little about its reputation as Columbia cares about its own.
Now, all the right-wingers in New York (a small but enthusiastic group) like to tee off on Columbia, which does have some nutty lefties but really just happens to be a high-profile university in a big media town. (Imagine if Harvard were in New York. Yikes.)
But the Constantine situation is tricky. If Constantine did, as I believe, fake the noose incident in order to negate anticipated accusations of plagiarism, then she has put Columbia in a very awkward position.
After all, the incident has already prompted a number of demonstrations, some involving local African-American politicians. And Columbia, which is moving to develop its land in west Harlem, can't afford a racial controversy—something that Constantine surely knew if and when she hung a noose on her office door. If the university fired her, you can imagine what would happen—it'd be the Bonfire of the Vanities, or Tawana Brawley, all over again.
At the same time, it's appalling that someone who has committed dozens of instances of plagiarism, sometimes stealing from her own students—and not just words, but ideas as well—should be allowed to continue teaching anywhere at Columbia.
A sad consequence of Ms. Constantine's work on her own behalf, I suspect, is that colleges across the country may become more reluctant to hire African-American professors: Because if a blatant plagiarist can invent a race-based incident to successfully avoid being fired, then colleges may be more cautious about hiring black professors, on the grounds that if they ever need to fire the person, they won't be able to.....
Which means really that the same people who picketed on Ms. Constantine's behalf now ought to be picketing against her.
And which will surely make conservatives say that, well, that's what you get when you hire someone because of his or her race, rather than on the merits.
What a tragic mess.
Here's what I think will happen: Columbia will have to pay Ms. Constantine to make her go away. And she will take the money and run. ¶ 7:37 AM 5 comments
Oscar Controversy!
¶ 7:34 AM 12 comments
How did that sickly-sweet "Falling Slowly" win the Oscar for best song? I'd never heard any of the songs before, but this one, "Raise It Up," from the movie August Rush (who knew there was such a thing?) is way better....
And listen to that 11-year-old girl sing! That's just miraculous.
Is Facebook Over?
According to techcrunch.com, the number of Americans visiting Facebook has plateaued in recent months, and dropped by about 800,000 in January....
This would fit with my theory that Facebook has two big problems: People really don't trust its privacy protection, especially whenever you allow another app to access your information.
And probably more important, there's just too much crap on Facebook: Funwalls, Superwalls, Entourages, Movie quizzes, passing along karma....every time you log in, someone is (often inadvertently) asking you to join some new group. It grows tedious fast.... ¶ 7:07 AM 2 comments
This would fit with my theory that Facebook has two big problems: People really don't trust its privacy protection, especially whenever you allow another app to access your information.
And probably more important, there's just too much crap on Facebook: Funwalls, Superwalls, Entourages, Movie quizzes, passing along karma....every time you log in, someone is (often inadvertently) asking you to join some new group. It grows tedious fast.... ¶ 7:07 AM 2 comments
Monday, February 25, 2024
A Desperate Hillary Goes Negative
The Clinton campaign appears to be trying to suggest that Barack Obama is, in fact, a terrorist, by circulating a five-year-0ld picture of Obama dressed in traditional Somali garb while on a trip to Africa.
For the Clintons, the more things change, the more they stay the same.....
¶ 11:30 AM 8 comments
For the Clintons, the more things change, the more they stay the same.....
¶ 11:30 AM 8 comments
Jimmy Kimmel Responds
¶ 11:18 AM 7 comments
All of you who were offended by Sarah Silverman's satirical video—you know, the one in which she describes her intimate relationship with Harvardian Matt Damon—prepare to be offended again.
Because Jimmy Kimmel, Silverman's boyfriend, isn't taking it lying down.
Or rather, he is.
Blogs: Bad for the Community
The Crimson reports that there's a new gossip website at Harvard, "Gossip Geek," though it doesn't actually bother to link to the site, and the print version doesn't even list the URL.
Yours truly has no such reticence. Here's Gossip Geek.
Seems pretty tame to me, but some students apparently are up in arms, complaining about the photos posted on the site.
... acting Dean of the College David R. Pilbeam said the administration is “making efforts” to protect students from the site.
Secretary of the Administrative Board Jay L. Ellison has recommended that those affected file a police report with Harvard University Police Department in order to expedite administrative response.
“I think these [blogs] are bad, and bad for the community,” said Ellison in an e-mailed statement. “Indeed, even if what is said is true there is never enough context in these type of things to fully understand what happened.”
A police report? Harvard really wants to promote the idea that posting a photo of someone in a public place is a crime? You can hear the laughter all the way from Stanford.
That idea would have interesting implications for Facebook, whose founder, Mark Zuckerberg, Harvard hopes will be a huge donor one day.....
More to the point, this is one of those times when Harvard and its students want to have it both ways: The university wants its celebrity status, promotes its celebrity status, markets its celebrity status...but then, when people respond by treating Harvard and its denizens as if they are celebrities (Gossip Geek=the TMZ of Harvard), university officials say, well, we don't want that part of celebrity....
When you are the most famous university in the world, and you spend enormous effort and money trying to achieve and retain that status—or when you attend Harvard for fundamentally that reason—you can not have it both ways. ¶ 8:10 AM 10 comments
Yours truly has no such reticence. Here's Gossip Geek.
Seems pretty tame to me, but some students apparently are up in arms, complaining about the photos posted on the site.
... acting Dean of the College David R. Pilbeam said the administration is “making efforts” to protect students from the site.
Secretary of the Administrative Board Jay L. Ellison has recommended that those affected file a police report with Harvard University Police Department in order to expedite administrative response.
“I think these [blogs] are bad, and bad for the community,” said Ellison in an e-mailed statement. “Indeed, even if what is said is true there is never enough context in these type of things to fully understand what happened.”
A police report? Harvard really wants to promote the idea that posting a photo of someone in a public place is a crime? You can hear the laughter all the way from Stanford.
That idea would have interesting implications for Facebook, whose founder, Mark Zuckerberg, Harvard hopes will be a huge donor one day.....
More to the point, this is one of those times when Harvard and its students want to have it both ways: The university wants its celebrity status, promotes its celebrity status, markets its celebrity status...but then, when people respond by treating Harvard and its denizens as if they are celebrities (Gossip Geek=the TMZ of Harvard), university officials say, well, we don't want that part of celebrity....
When you are the most famous university in the world, and you spend enormous effort and money trying to achieve and retain that status—or when you attend Harvard for fundamentally that reason—you can not have it both ways. ¶ 8:10 AM 10 comments
Standing Against the Surge
Thanks to "the surge," the Iraq war has become almost a non-issue in this presidential campaign. We've been told so often that "the surge is working" that we've all pretty much come to believe it, and the ramifications have been significant: If the surge weren't working, one has to think that John McCain, its greatest defender outside the White House, would not be his party's imminent nominee.
But two pieces of journalism—one interesting, one important—suggest it's time for us to reconsider the success of the surge.
In Slate, Michael Kinsley argues that the surge was presented to the American people as a way to bring soldiers home, and by that standard—George Bush's standard—it's a failure.
President Bush laid down the standard of success when he announced the surge more than a year ago: "If we increase our support at this crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home."
...Lately, though, Gen. Petraeus has come up with another zenlike idea: He calls it a "pause." And the administration has signed on, meaning that the total number of American troops in Iraq will remain at 130,000 for an undetermined period.
In other words, the president has played us all for suckers.
In Rolling Stone, an Arabic-speaking correspondent named Nir Rosen writes an enlightening story, "The Myth of the Surge," explaining that the surge essentially means we are arming both sides of the divided country, the Sunnis and the Shiites, thereby laying the foundation for the civil war that we're trying to avoid.
Now, in the midst of the surge, the Bush administration has done an about-face. Having lost the civil war, many Sunnis were suddenly desperate to switch sides — and Gen. David Petraeus was eager to oblige. The U.S. has not only added 30,000 more troops in Iraq — it has essentially bribed the opposition, arming the very Sunni militants who only months ago were waging deadly assaults on American forces. To engineer a fragile peace, the U.S. military has created and backed dozens of new Sunni militias, which now operate beyond the control of Iraq's central government.
Even before the Americans leave, these militias are taking justice into their own hands—and we're giving them the weapons and the money to do it.
The article also prints one of the most depressing photos I've seen in some time: two grinning American soldiers, standing next to a beheaded Iraqi, propped upright, whose head they've plopped back on his neck.
We all know that there are tens of thousands of physically wounded Americans coming back from this war. If we included mental health issues in the roster of the wounded, how large would that number grow to be? ¶ 7:49 AM 0 comments
But two pieces of journalism—one interesting, one important—suggest it's time for us to reconsider the success of the surge.
In Slate, Michael Kinsley argues that the surge was presented to the American people as a way to bring soldiers home, and by that standard—George Bush's standard—it's a failure.
President Bush laid down the standard of success when he announced the surge more than a year ago: "If we increase our support at this crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home."
...Lately, though, Gen. Petraeus has come up with another zenlike idea: He calls it a "pause." And the administration has signed on, meaning that the total number of American troops in Iraq will remain at 130,000 for an undetermined period.
In other words, the president has played us all for suckers.
In Rolling Stone, an Arabic-speaking correspondent named Nir Rosen writes an enlightening story, "The Myth of the Surge," explaining that the surge essentially means we are arming both sides of the divided country, the Sunnis and the Shiites, thereby laying the foundation for the civil war that we're trying to avoid.
Now, in the midst of the surge, the Bush administration has done an about-face. Having lost the civil war, many Sunnis were suddenly desperate to switch sides — and Gen. David Petraeus was eager to oblige. The U.S. has not only added 30,000 more troops in Iraq — it has essentially bribed the opposition, arming the very Sunni militants who only months ago were waging deadly assaults on American forces. To engineer a fragile peace, the U.S. military has created and backed dozens of new Sunni militias, which now operate beyond the control of Iraq's central government.
Even before the Americans leave, these militias are taking justice into their own hands—and we're giving them the weapons and the money to do it.
The article also prints one of the most depressing photos I've seen in some time: two grinning American soldiers, standing next to a beheaded Iraqi, propped upright, whose head they've plopped back on his neck.
We all know that there are tens of thousands of physically wounded Americans coming back from this war. If we included mental health issues in the roster of the wounded, how large would that number grow to be? ¶ 7:49 AM 0 comments
Friday, February 22, 2024
Sex Week-Apparently It Pays Off
The Crimson may joke, but it sounds like the presence of Vivid Entertainment actresses (i.e., porn stars) Monique Alexander and Savanna Sampson certainly made it sex week for some Yale guys....
Here is Savanna Sampson speaking on opera—"so overwhelming and so big"—she actually sounds pretty smart! ¶ 8:57 AM 2 comments
Here is Savanna Sampson speaking on opera—"so overwhelming and so big"—she actually sounds pretty smart! ¶ 8:57 AM 2 comments
The Statement
The Columbia Spectator has Madonna Constantine's statement:
Wow—that is clever. The first investigation was so flawed that it actually makes any further investigation impossible. That's pretty much the definition of two birds with one stone right there.
IvyGate's take on this is pretty funny:
Now, we love damning the man as much as the next 20-something pipsqueak, but when Columbia takes a fine-toothed comb to your oeuvre and finds five years' worth of academic dishonesty? Might be time to cut your losses, maybe update your resume and check out the listings on monster.com.
The only difference is that Madonna Constantine isn't a twenty-something pipsqueak, but a tenured African-American woman who may have invented a horrific racial incident in order to portray herself, in her words, as the victim of a "witch-hunt." ¶ 8:50 AM 2 comments
Dear Teachers College Community:
I am outraged by the President's memo that summarized the outcomes of a "neutral" investigation that I used the work of others without appropriate attribution. The premature, vindictive, and mean-spirited action taken by the administration to release a statement to the faculty regarding the results of this biased and flawed investigation reflects not only a profound lack of sensitivity and due process, but it also may have sufficiently "poisoned the well" for any fair and objective review of the matter.Wow—that is clever. The first investigation was so flawed that it actually makes any further investigation impossible. That's pretty much the definition of two birds with one stone right there.
IvyGate's take on this is pretty funny:
Now, we love damning the man as much as the next 20-something pipsqueak, but when Columbia takes a fine-toothed comb to your oeuvre and finds five years' worth of academic dishonesty? Might be time to cut your losses, maybe update your resume and check out the listings on monster.com.
The only difference is that Madonna Constantine isn't a twenty-something pipsqueak, but a tenured African-American woman who may have invented a horrific racial incident in order to portray herself, in her words, as the victim of a "witch-hunt." ¶ 8:50 AM 2 comments
Like a Prayer
The New York Sun reports that a colleague and a student of Madonna Constantine's have written letters supporting her against the accusation that she is a multiple plagiarist.
(And—and this has gotten little attention—she allegedly ripped off her own students.)
"These accusations are not believable," Ms. [Barbara] Wallace wrote. "I absolutely believe this is just an attempt to besmear her name and reputation."
I suspect that for legal reasons Columbia can't release its report on Madonna Constantine—but she could release it herself. (Don't hold your breath.)
"The truth is that I am not a liar, nor am I a cheater," Ms. Constantine wrote in a two-page statement released yesterday that accused the president of Teachers College, Susan Fuhrman, of "blackmail and intimidation."
Release the report, Professor Constantine....
(And—and this has gotten little attention—she allegedly ripped off her own students.)
"These accusations are not believable," Ms. [Barbara] Wallace wrote. "I absolutely believe this is just an attempt to besmear her name and reputation."
Ms. Wallace noted in her letter that she is the only other black female professor with tenure at the school.
The injection of race is predictable, heartbreaking, and entirely unnecessary. Because of course, accusations of plagiarism, a crime that has nothing to do with race, don't have to be taken on faith; people can look at the evidence and decide for themselves.I suspect that for legal reasons Columbia can't release its report on Madonna Constantine—but she could release it herself. (Don't hold your breath.)
"The truth is that I am not a liar, nor am I a cheater," Ms. Constantine wrote in a two-page statement released yesterday that accused the president of Teachers College, Susan Fuhrman, of "blackmail and intimidation."
Release the report, Professor Constantine....
"The Work of Someone Who Is Not a Secure Person"
¶ 8:33 AM 0 comments
Madonna Constantine talks last October about the noose hung on her office doorknob.
Yale's Bad Sex?
The Crimson teases "Sex Week at Yale," commencing its story on the subject with the lede, "Sex at Harvard is a year-round activity. At Yale, it lasts a week." The headline: "Yale Grants Self One Week of Fun."
If I may stick up for my undergraduate alma mater...
Might I remind the Crimson that Yale is now wrapping up the legendary "Feb Club," an entire month of late night, sub rosa parties? That is every single night of February.....
It was February 1978. Students packed into a stairway in Calhoun College, clogging the entryway in search of alcohol and entertainment. They had come for what would be one of the best-remembered parties of Feb Club that year — the “Skip and Go Naked Party.”
Far be it from me to suggest that Feb Club leads to any sexual activity. (And no, I wasn't at Yale in 1978.) For me, it usually led to the flu.
(Sadly, I gather that the absurd alcohol restrictions which now pervade this country and its colleges have made Feb Club a less inclusive activity. A shame.)
My point, and I do have one, is that everyone knows that Yale has a better social life than Harvard, and, well, let's just say that Yale doesn't need to have a "Last Chance Dance".... ¶ 8:14 AM 0 comments
If I may stick up for my undergraduate alma mater...
Might I remind the Crimson that Yale is now wrapping up the legendary "Feb Club," an entire month of late night, sub rosa parties? That is every single night of February.....
It was February 1978. Students packed into a stairway in Calhoun College, clogging the entryway in search of alcohol and entertainment. They had come for what would be one of the best-remembered parties of Feb Club that year — the “Skip and Go Naked Party.”
Far be it from me to suggest that Feb Club leads to any sexual activity. (And no, I wasn't at Yale in 1978.) For me, it usually led to the flu.
(Sadly, I gather that the absurd alcohol restrictions which now pervade this country and its colleges have made Feb Club a less inclusive activity. A shame.)
My point, and I do have one, is that everyone knows that Yale has a better social life than Harvard, and, well, let's just say that Yale doesn't need to have a "Last Chance Dance".... ¶ 8:14 AM 0 comments
A Dynasty of Cheating?
The Times reports that the Pats have been consistently cheating since Belichick's day one....
The Patriots’ pattern of illicitly videotaping the signals of opposing N.F.L. coaches began in Coach Bill Belichick’s first preseason with the team in 2000, a former Patriots player said. The information was put to use in that year’s regular-season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Belichick’s debut as New England’s coach.
...The Patriots appear to have continued the practice of taping opposing signals for seven years.
As much as I tease, I'd be sad if this were true, which it sure sounds like it is. There's been a lot to like about the Patriots over the last few years, and they've been a ton of fun to watch.
But Belichick is a pretty unpleasant guy, and none of this sounds out of character for him....
League officials and owners are trying to sweep this scandal under the carpet. Don't they know about the cover-up being worse than the crime?
And if you read the Times article linked to above, it sounds like this really is a big deal, because the other coaches quoted really sound offended and pretty pissed off.
[San Francisco offensive coordinator Mike Martz] took exception to the theory that the Patriots could not have gleaned much information from taping the walkthrough. He said indeed they could, but added that was not the point.
¶ 8:03 AM 6 comments
The Patriots’ pattern of illicitly videotaping the signals of opposing N.F.L. coaches began in Coach Bill Belichick’s first preseason with the team in 2000, a former Patriots player said. The information was put to use in that year’s regular-season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Belichick’s debut as New England’s coach.
...The Patriots appear to have continued the practice of taping opposing signals for seven years.
As much as I tease, I'd be sad if this were true, which it sure sounds like it is. There's been a lot to like about the Patriots over the last few years, and they've been a ton of fun to watch.
But Belichick is a pretty unpleasant guy, and none of this sounds out of character for him....
League officials and owners are trying to sweep this scandal under the carpet. Don't they know about the cover-up being worse than the crime?
And if you read the Times article linked to above, it sounds like this really is a big deal, because the other coaches quoted really sound offended and pretty pissed off.
[San Francisco offensive coordinator Mike Martz] took exception to the theory that the Patriots could not have gleaned much information from taping the walkthrough. He said indeed they could, but added that was not the point.
“For somebody to say that, it’s kind of disgusting,” Martz said. “The whole point is if they really cheated. To say he took some steroids and it did help or it didn’t help, that’s never the point. The point is, to all these high school coaches and high school kids and college kids, that if they did cheat, that’s the point.”
My prediction: This will eventually lead to Belichick's resignation and perhaps (temporary) suspension from football. The NFL will be forced to hang him out to dry.¶ 8:03 AM 6 comments
John McCain in Trouble, the Times Under Siege
Yesterday's New York Times article alleging that John McCain had an affair with a Washington lobbyist named Vicki Iseman has exposed the paper to intense criticism.
McCain has famously prided himself on being friendly and accessible to reporters, but that didn't stop campaign manager Rick Davis yesterday from releasing a fundraising letter calling the Times part of "the liberal attack machine." Radio host Laura Ingraham said the episode should teach the senator that the major newspapers are run by "partisans" and "piranhas."
The Washington Post has a hilarious story about Cindy McCain's "quiet strength." Looks more like Botox than dignity to me.
In all fairness, it's not just conservatives who aren't crazy about the story. Lots of folks wonder if the Times should have published it, given that the piece relied on anonymous sources and had no direct confirmation of an affair.
The Times is doing a progressive thing, one that is very unlike the Times and suggests that it knows it's out on a limb here: It's making its reporters and editors (sort of) available for reader questions on the story.
But I do laugh about the way the Times summarizes the story:
A recent New York Times article examined a number of decisions by Senator John McCain that raised questions about his judgment over potential conflicts of interest. The article included reporting on Mr. McCain’s relationship with a female lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee led by Mr. McCain.
No mention of the word "affair"....
I expect that many of the questions will be inspired by the New Republic's fascinating story about the infighting at the Times over the publication of the McCain article.
This is one of those moments where the democratic nature of the journalism profession is really a wonderful thing—everyone can have an opinion.
Would you have published the story?
I'm genuinely torn.....
¶ 7:48 AM 2 comments
McCain has famously prided himself on being friendly and accessible to reporters, but that didn't stop campaign manager Rick Davis yesterday from releasing a fundraising letter calling the Times part of "the liberal attack machine." Radio host Laura Ingraham said the episode should teach the senator that the major newspapers are run by "partisans" and "piranhas."
The Washington Post has a hilarious story about Cindy McCain's "quiet strength." Looks more like Botox than dignity to me.
In all fairness, it's not just conservatives who aren't crazy about the story. Lots of folks wonder if the Times should have published it, given that the piece relied on anonymous sources and had no direct confirmation of an affair.
The Times is doing a progressive thing, one that is very unlike the Times and suggests that it knows it's out on a limb here: It's making its reporters and editors (sort of) available for reader questions on the story.
But I do laugh about the way the Times summarizes the story:
A recent New York Times article examined a number of decisions by Senator John McCain that raised questions about his judgment over potential conflicts of interest. The article included reporting on Mr. McCain’s relationship with a female lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee led by Mr. McCain.
No mention of the word "affair"....
I expect that many of the questions will be inspired by the New Republic's fascinating story about the infighting at the Times over the publication of the McCain article.
This is one of those moments where the democratic nature of the journalism profession is really a wonderful thing—everyone can have an opinion.
Would you have published the story?
I'm genuinely torn.....
¶ 7:48 AM 2 comments
Thursday, February 21, 2024
The UniCorp Goes Ka-Ching
Karen Arenson in the Times reports that rich colleges are getting even richer.
...even as Congress presses wealthy colleges and universities to spend more of their endowments, they continue on a fund-raising streak that will widen the wealth gap in higher education.
...Stanford University had an exceptional year for fund-raising in 2007, collecting $832 million in private donations. Harvard, too, reaped a bounty, with $614 million in gifts.
Stanford pulled in $220 million more than Harvard. That's interesting, isn't it?
The numbers are sure to fuel the unease of those who argue that universities are turning into fund-raising machines, with university presidents spending more and more of their time cultivating donors, aided by development teams, consultants and marketers who scour alumni lists.
...John Longbrake, a Harvard spokesman, defended the way the university uses its financial resources. “Harvard and many other universities make enormous contributions to our nation in research, scholarship, medicine and the arts due in large part to the resources we raise and invest,” he said.
A tough spot for Longbrake to be in: What he says is, of course, true. But it's not going to satisfy those who look at those numbers and see only a growing inequity, or see that the university is becoming something else—the UniCorp. Or maybe the corpiversity. I'm not sure which. ¶ 5:15 PM 0 comments
...even as Congress presses wealthy colleges and universities to spend more of their endowments, they continue on a fund-raising streak that will widen the wealth gap in higher education.
...Stanford University had an exceptional year for fund-raising in 2007, collecting $832 million in private donations. Harvard, too, reaped a bounty, with $614 million in gifts.
Stanford pulled in $220 million more than Harvard. That's interesting, isn't it?
The numbers are sure to fuel the unease of those who argue that universities are turning into fund-raising machines, with university presidents spending more and more of their time cultivating donors, aided by development teams, consultants and marketers who scour alumni lists.
...John Longbrake, a Harvard spokesman, defended the way the university uses its financial resources. “Harvard and many other universities make enormous contributions to our nation in research, scholarship, medicine and the arts due in large part to the resources we raise and invest,” he said.
A tough spot for Longbrake to be in: What he says is, of course, true. But it's not going to satisfy those who look at those numbers and see only a growing inequity, or see that the university is becoming something else—the UniCorp. Or maybe the corpiversity. I'm not sure which. ¶ 5:15 PM 0 comments
Are They Real or Fake?
African-American students at St. Pauls have received racist hate mail. Of course, these days we can't assume that it was actually written by anti-black racists. But both options—that it was, and that it wasn't—are depressing.
¶ 4:47 PM 0 comments
The Serbs Go Nuts...
...burn our embassy.
Witnesses said that at least 100 people broke into the Embassy and torched some of its rooms. One protester was able to rip the American flag from the facade of the building. An estimated 1,000 demonstrators cheered as the vandals, some wearing masks to conceal their faces, jumped onto the building’s balcony waving a Serbian flag and chanting “Serbia, Serbia!” the witnesses said. A convoy of police firing tear gas was able to disperse the crowd.
As previously discussed on this blog, this has the potential to be a real mess. ¶ 4:44 PM 0 comments
Witnesses said that at least 100 people broke into the Embassy and torched some of its rooms. One protester was able to rip the American flag from the facade of the building. An estimated 1,000 demonstrators cheered as the vandals, some wearing masks to conceal their faces, jumped onto the building’s balcony waving a Serbian flag and chanting “Serbia, Serbia!” the witnesses said. A convoy of police firing tear gas was able to disperse the crowd.
As previously discussed on this blog, this has the potential to be a real mess. ¶ 4:44 PM 0 comments
Developments in New Orleans
Two men have been arrested in the death of my cousin Mary's daughter, Madeleine Prevost, on January 6, of a heroin overdose, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
David C. Battenberg, 27, of Metairie, and Diego A. Perez, 18, of New Orleans, are charged in a federal criminal complaint with being involved in a conspiracy to distribute and posses heroin, cocaine and other controlled substances.
We'll see what happens next..... ¶ 2:10 PM 0 comments
David C. Battenberg, 27, of Metairie, and Diego A. Perez, 18, of New Orleans, are charged in a federal criminal complaint with being involved in a conspiracy to distribute and posses heroin, cocaine and other controlled substances.
We'll see what happens next..... ¶ 2:10 PM 0 comments
How Great Is This?
¶ 8:40 AM 2 comments
The blog's kinda serious today, so here's a video that reminds you that, even in the age of the money culture, New York can still be pretty cool. (Tip of the hat to my friend Kristen, who posted this on her Facebook page.)
The Improbability of Coincidence
Both the Times and the Post today have stories about John McCain's close relationship with a female lobbyist.
Think that's a coincidence? The only question is where the leak came from. (The Times, which posted the story first, sources the piece to "former campaign associates"; the Post, following up, identifies one as John Weaver, "McCain's closest confidante until leaving his current campaign last year." Wonder what McCain did to him to make him so vengeful?)
[Vicki] Iseman, 40, who joined the Arlington-based firm of Alcalde & Fay as a secretary and rose to partner within a few years, often touted her access to the chairman of the Senate commerce committee....
(I love that: rose from secretary to partner "within a few years." Ain't democracy grand?)
Either way, it's a double-and-a-half whammy. A double because it suggests that McCain was having an affair and that his ethics are compromised; a half because the fact that she is 30 years younger than he and blond kinda reminds you that McCain cheated on his first wife and very, very subtly subverts the credibility of his current one.
Iseman could not be reached at her home or office last night. But she told the Times via e-mail that "I never discussed with him alleged things I had 'told people,' that had made their way 'back to' him."
If you can translate that, do tell. (I wonder if Ms. Iseman was a good secretary?)
I will pay any commenter ten dollars if he/she can compellingly explain why the words "told people" and "back to" are in quotes.
(Note, by the way, how tortured the Times piece is: the paper doesn't want to come out and say that it's writing a piece about a politician and a blonde, so it couches the story as a meditation McCain's "self-confidence on ethics." Hah! The editors must have been wracking their brains to come up with that rationale.)
Politics is a tough business, eh?
¶ 8:11 AM 7 comments
Think that's a coincidence? The only question is where the leak came from. (The Times, which posted the story first, sources the piece to "former campaign associates"; the Post, following up, identifies one as John Weaver, "McCain's closest confidante until leaving his current campaign last year." Wonder what McCain did to him to make him so vengeful?)
[Vicki] Iseman, 40, who joined the Arlington-based firm of Alcalde & Fay as a secretary and rose to partner within a few years, often touted her access to the chairman of the Senate commerce committee....
(I love that: rose from secretary to partner "within a few years." Ain't democracy grand?)
Either way, it's a double-and-a-half whammy. A double because it suggests that McCain was having an affair and that his ethics are compromised; a half because the fact that she is 30 years younger than he and blond kinda reminds you that McCain cheated on his first wife and very, very subtly subverts the credibility of his current one.
Iseman could not be reached at her home or office last night. But she told the Times via e-mail that "I never discussed with him alleged things I had 'told people,' that had made their way 'back to' him."
If you can translate that, do tell. (I wonder if Ms. Iseman was a good secretary?)
I will pay any commenter ten dollars if he/she can compellingly explain why the words "told people" and "back to" are in quotes.
(Note, by the way, how tortured the Times piece is: the paper doesn't want to come out and say that it's writing a piece about a politician and a blonde, so it couches the story as a meditation McCain's "self-confidence on ethics." Hah! The editors must have been wracking their brains to come up with that rationale.)
Politics is a tough business, eh?
¶ 8:11 AM 7 comments
No Noose is Good Noose
Remember the noose incident at Columbia's Teacher's College? (A noose was hung on the office doorknob of an African-American professor. Pro-forma protests followed.)
At the time, I suggested on this blog that the incident was faked.
It looks increasingly like that is the case: Columbia has found that the professor, Madonna G. Constantine, has committed multiple acts of plagiarism, and was being investigated for them at the time of the noose incident.
The college, in statements to the faculty and the news media, said an 18-month investigation into charges against the professor, Madonna G. Constantine, had determined there were “numerous instances in which she used others’ work without attribution in papers she published in academic journals over the past five years.”
...The college said Dr. Constantine was being penalized, but did not say what the penalty was. A spokeswoman for the college, Marcia Horowitz, said Teachers College did not have set rules governing plagiarism or how it should be punished.
[A teaching college doesn't have rules on plagiarism and its punishment? Note to Columbia: Fix that.]
Like state senator Clay Davis on The Wire, Constantine, caught in the act, unabashedly throws down the race card.
Dr. Constantine, in an e-mail message to faculty and students on Wednesday, called the investigation “biased and flawed,” and said it was part of a “conspiracy and witch hunt by certain current and former members of the Teachers College community.”
It's so sick and cynical, it's almost brilliant: the same people who investigated her for academic misconduct....want to hang her!
¶ 7:51 AM 1 comments
At the time, I suggested on this blog that the incident was faked.
It looks increasingly like that is the case: Columbia has found that the professor, Madonna G. Constantine, has committed multiple acts of plagiarism, and was being investigated for them at the time of the noose incident.
The college, in statements to the faculty and the news media, said an 18-month investigation into charges against the professor, Madonna G. Constantine, had determined there were “numerous instances in which she used others’ work without attribution in papers she published in academic journals over the past five years.”
...The college said Dr. Constantine was being penalized, but did not say what the penalty was. A spokeswoman for the college, Marcia Horowitz, said Teachers College did not have set rules governing plagiarism or how it should be punished.
[A teaching college doesn't have rules on plagiarism and its punishment? Note to Columbia: Fix that.]
Like state senator Clay Davis on The Wire, Constantine, caught in the act, unabashedly throws down the race card.
Dr. Constantine, in an e-mail message to faculty and students on Wednesday, called the investigation “biased and flawed,” and said it was part of a “conspiracy and witch hunt by certain current and former members of the Teachers College community.”
“I am left to wonder whether a white faculty member would have been treated in such a publicly disrespectful and disparaging manner,” she wrote.
She added, “I believe that nothing that has happened to me this year is coincidental, particularly when I reflect upon the hate crime I experienced last semester involving a noose on my office door. As one of only two tenured black women full professors at Teachers College, it pains me to conclude that I have been specifically and systematically targeted.”
It's so sick and cynical, it's almost brilliant: the same people who investigated her for academic misconduct....want to hang her!
Mr. Giacomo [Constantine's lawyer] said that despite objections and further documentation, the college did not change its position [on the plagiarism accusation]. He said he now considered it “not a stretch of the imagination” to suspect the noose was “an additional way of intimidating my client.”
When told of these comments, Ms. Horowitz, the spokeswoman for the college, said, “Accusations that the college had anything to do with hanging the noose are totally absurd and totally untrue.”
Professor Constantine does not lack for chutzpah. But has she no sense of decency?¶ 7:51 AM 1 comments
Oh, So That's What Happened
Will the Patriots and their fans never admit that they were soundly thrashed by the Giants?
Now we learn that Ellis Hobbs, the cornerback whom Plaxico Burress beat for the Super Bowl's winning touchdown, was hurt with shoulder and groin problems. And Pats fans are seizing on that information to say, Why was he covering Burress? Things could have been different.
Except that they wouldn't have been. Having watched the Giants all season, I can assure you: covering Plaxico Burress from around the five-yard line is almost impossible. He's fast, he's got great moves, and he's 6'5". He must have caught that exact same pass in that exact same spot in the end zone half a dozen times over the course of the season.
Let us all take a deep breath, concede that the Giants were the better team, and savor the sweet taste of righteous victory..... ¶ 7:40 AM 2 comments
Will the Patriots and their fans never admit that they were soundly thrashed by the Giants?
Now we learn that Ellis Hobbs, the cornerback whom Plaxico Burress beat for the Super Bowl's winning touchdown, was hurt with shoulder and groin problems. And Pats fans are seizing on that information to say, Why was he covering Burress? Things could have been different.
Except that they wouldn't have been. Having watched the Giants all season, I can assure you: covering Plaxico Burress from around the five-yard line is almost impossible. He's fast, he's got great moves, and he's 6'5". He must have caught that exact same pass in that exact same spot in the end zone half a dozen times over the course of the season.
Let us all take a deep breath, concede that the Giants were the better team, and savor the sweet taste of righteous victory..... ¶ 7:40 AM 2 comments
The Apple, The Tree, and So On
Quote of the Day:
"We'd rather be Darth Vader. Let them be the underdog."
—Yankees senior vice-president Hank Steinbrenner on the Yankees' and Red Sox's relative status. ¶ 7:25 AM 0 comments
"We'd rather be Darth Vader. Let them be the underdog."
—Yankees senior vice-president Hank Steinbrenner on the Yankees' and Red Sox's relative status. ¶ 7:25 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, February 20, 2024
The FIGHT over HMI
The Crimson weighs in with a nice piece about the underlying tensions between Drew Faust's decision to cut loose Harvard Medical International.
Today, the organization—Harvard Medical International (HMI)—operates in over 30 countries on five continents, providing consulting services and bestowing Harvard’s imprimatur on medical schools and hospitals from Dubai to Dresden. In exchange, the non-profit funnels its excess revenue back to Harvard Medical School (HMS), which pocketed over $1.5 million in the year ending June 2006, according to tax filings.
The problem, apparently—or allegedly, I should say—is that HMI's original mission was conceived of as educational, not a profit-oriented health care-delivery service.
“The change was slow and gradual,” Hyman, the provost, writes in an e-mailed statement. “Over time a number of faculty and members of the administration recognized that major aspects of HMI’s effort were moving away from the University’s core mission.”
But here's my question: Even if this mission creep did occur, what's wrong with it? What distinguishes HMI from any number of profit-oriented activities Harvard sanctions that take advantage of the Harvard name? One Day University, for example....
(And to be fair, there are probably 100 better examples in the medical and business schools that I'm just not aware of.)
Let's face it: Everyone at Harvard is trying to make a buck off the Harvard name in ways that have little or nothing to do with "education." Where is the line drawn?
As the piece points out, Larry Summers certainly never had a problem with HMI; in fact, he helped it evolve in exactly the way that the man he hired as provost is now objecting to..... ¶ 8:06 AM 5 comments
Today, the organization—Harvard Medical International (HMI)—operates in over 30 countries on five continents, providing consulting services and bestowing Harvard’s imprimatur on medical schools and hospitals from Dubai to Dresden. In exchange, the non-profit funnels its excess revenue back to Harvard Medical School (HMS), which pocketed over $1.5 million in the year ending June 2006, according to tax filings.
The problem, apparently—or allegedly, I should say—is that HMI's original mission was conceived of as educational, not a profit-oriented health care-delivery service.
“The change was slow and gradual,” Hyman, the provost, writes in an e-mailed statement. “Over time a number of faculty and members of the administration recognized that major aspects of HMI’s effort were moving away from the University’s core mission.”
But here's my question: Even if this mission creep did occur, what's wrong with it? What distinguishes HMI from any number of profit-oriented activities Harvard sanctions that take advantage of the Harvard name? One Day University, for example....
(And to be fair, there are probably 100 better examples in the medical and business schools that I'm just not aware of.)
Let's face it: Everyone at Harvard is trying to make a buck off the Harvard name in ways that have little or nothing to do with "education." Where is the line drawn?
As the piece points out, Larry Summers certainly never had a problem with HMI; in fact, he helped it evolve in exactly the way that the man he hired as provost is now objecting to..... ¶ 8:06 AM 5 comments
Marshall Herskovitz on the Web
The co-creator of web-based drama quarterlife has a little essay in Slate about his experience with the web. Is it as liberating as everyone told him when he decided to create a show that wasn't based on network TV?
Not entirely.
Our relationship to the Internet is entirely made up of our relationship to browsers and Web sites. And you know what? They suck.
They're boring, one-dimensional, and unoriginal. Who decided that all Web sites should have a top nav bar and be rectangular in layout? Who decided they should abdicate any sense of design and be white and clean and uncluttered? No one did, and that's the point. It just happened, because the creators of the Internet were thinking about other things. Because the creators of the Internet are a very distinct subspecies of humanity:
I think this is a very important idea, and have long waited for someone to turn the filter of gender studies onto the web—onto the question of industrial design in general, for example.
(Herewith I reveal my inner geek: I am obsessed with industrial design. Ask me sometime about the noises that microwaves make, or trucks in reverse, and ten minutes later you'll still be regretting it. A few years back I told a friend that I wanted to write a book about noise, and he's still laughing. But, really, it would have been a cool book.)
On the plus side—[the Web is] brilliant, complex, competitive, audacious in how it's changed our way of organizing experience. On the negative side—it's linear, utilitarian, cold, emotionless, disconnected.
....Because boys and geeks and engineers—and, by the way, I've spent my life among all three and love all three—don't naturally select for emotionality (they'd rather play video games) or exploration of inner life (they'd rather watch porn) or being in deep relationship with other people (they'd rather build Web sites till all hours), the Internet is singularly devoid of these colorations of humanity.
Couldn't agree more. The only technology company that seems to have any awareness of this is Apple—how many men do you see with iPod nanos—and even Apple is still primarily male-oriented.
Herskovitz's essay trails off a bit after this with a discussion of how quarterlife tried to create a more gender-balanced atmosphere online. But still...pretty thought-provoking. ¶ 7:43 AM 0 comments
Not entirely.
Our relationship to the Internet is entirely made up of our relationship to browsers and Web sites. And you know what? They suck.
They're boring, one-dimensional, and unoriginal. Who decided that all Web sites should have a top nav bar and be rectangular in layout? Who decided they should abdicate any sense of design and be white and clean and uncluttered? No one did, and that's the point. It just happened, because the creators of the Internet were thinking about other things. Because the creators of the Internet are a very distinct subspecies of humanity:
Boys.
Geeks, engineers, and boys. And because the DNA of the Internet is entirely male, it exudes the best and worst of what males have to offer.I think this is a very important idea, and have long waited for someone to turn the filter of gender studies onto the web—onto the question of industrial design in general, for example.
(Herewith I reveal my inner geek: I am obsessed with industrial design. Ask me sometime about the noises that microwaves make, or trucks in reverse, and ten minutes later you'll still be regretting it. A few years back I told a friend that I wanted to write a book about noise, and he's still laughing. But, really, it would have been a cool book.)
On the plus side—[the Web is] brilliant, complex, competitive, audacious in how it's changed our way of organizing experience. On the negative side—it's linear, utilitarian, cold, emotionless, disconnected.
....Because boys and geeks and engineers—and, by the way, I've spent my life among all three and love all three—don't naturally select for emotionality (they'd rather play video games) or exploration of inner life (they'd rather watch porn) or being in deep relationship with other people (they'd rather build Web sites till all hours), the Internet is singularly devoid of these colorations of humanity.
Couldn't agree more. The only technology company that seems to have any awareness of this is Apple—how many men do you see with iPod nanos—and even Apple is still primarily male-oriented.
Herskovitz's essay trails off a bit after this with a discussion of how quarterlife tried to create a more gender-balanced atmosphere online. But still...pretty thought-provoking. ¶ 7:43 AM 0 comments
Hillary Going Down?
Barack takes Wisconsin and Hawaii...Hillary's firewall is Ohio and Texas.
Obama celebrated at a boisterous Houston rally attended by an estimated 19,000 people.....
Wait. Stop. Rewind.
19,000 people?
Can we take a moment to agree that that is a remarkable number? Can one imagine Hillary Clinton addressing an enthusiastic, unpaid crowd of 19,000?
John McCain certainly isn't thinking much of Mrs. Clinton's odds.
In his speech after the Wisconsin vote, McCain all but dismissed Clinton as a potential adversary, focusing his rhetorical fire on Obama as offering an "eloquent but empty call for change."
Who thinks that, should Hillary lose this nomination campaign, she will run for relection to the Senate in 2012?
I ask because, like any New Yorker, I've always wondered whether she's much interested in being senator except insofar as the job was a stepping stone to the presidency....
Second question: Who thinks that, in the next two weeks before the Ohio and Texas primaries, Hillary is going to get desperate-dirty, and we'll suddenly see some piece of dirt about Obama that we've never seen before...? ¶ 7:28 AM 8 comments
Obama celebrated at a boisterous Houston rally attended by an estimated 19,000 people.....
Wait. Stop. Rewind.
19,000 people?
Can we take a moment to agree that that is a remarkable number? Can one imagine Hillary Clinton addressing an enthusiastic, unpaid crowd of 19,000?
John McCain certainly isn't thinking much of Mrs. Clinton's odds.
In his speech after the Wisconsin vote, McCain all but dismissed Clinton as a potential adversary, focusing his rhetorical fire on Obama as offering an "eloquent but empty call for change."
Who thinks that, should Hillary lose this nomination campaign, she will run for relection to the Senate in 2012?
I ask because, like any New Yorker, I've always wondered whether she's much interested in being senator except insofar as the job was a stepping stone to the presidency....
Second question: Who thinks that, in the next two weeks before the Ohio and Texas primaries, Hillary is going to get desperate-dirty, and we'll suddenly see some piece of dirt about Obama that we've never seen before...? ¶ 7:28 AM 8 comments
Violence in Kosovo
Serbs unhappy with Kosovo's declaration of independence set fire to two UN border posts yesterday.
No one was injured, but the attacks were emblematic of the determination of the Serb minority in Kosovo, particularly in the exclusively Serb area around this city, to resist the idea that a new international border has been created.
"This is Serbia," said Dragan Mitrovic...
The Washington Post article above doesn't mention that the "exclusively Serb area" is that way only because the Serbs in Kosovo live isolated and protected by the UN, or else the Kosovars would kill them....
Western diplomats are urging Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership to maintain tight control of its own population so it does not respond to what international officials fear will be an escalating series of provocations. The goal of the international community appears to be to maintain stability so that the Serb community can exhaust its anger. Kosovo is 90 percent ethnic Albanian.
Kosovo should be free, but Westerners should have no illusions about the threats posed by both sides here.... ¶ 7:22 AM 0 comments
No one was injured, but the attacks were emblematic of the determination of the Serb minority in Kosovo, particularly in the exclusively Serb area around this city, to resist the idea that a new international border has been created.
"This is Serbia," said Dragan Mitrovic...
The Washington Post article above doesn't mention that the "exclusively Serb area" is that way only because the Serbs in Kosovo live isolated and protected by the UN, or else the Kosovars would kill them....
Western diplomats are urging Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership to maintain tight control of its own population so it does not respond to what international officials fear will be an escalating series of provocations. The goal of the international community appears to be to maintain stability so that the Serb community can exhaust its anger. Kosovo is 90 percent ethnic Albanian.
Kosovo should be free, but Westerners should have no illusions about the threats posed by both sides here.... ¶ 7:22 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, February 19, 2024
The Soul of New Orleans
I'm back from New Orleans and a weekend filled with intensity and emotion. I went there, as some of you may remember, to visit family after the death of my cousin Mary's 16-year-old daughter, Madeleine Prevost on January 6th. (Madeleine was also the daughter of Michael Prevost, Mary's ex-husband.)
Madeleine died of a heroin overdose, and because she was a well-liked girl, and because her parents have been counselors in the New Orleans school system for two decades, and because of everything that has happened in New Orleans in the past several years, over 1,000 people attended her funeral. Underneath a massive live oak, known as "the Tree of Life," in Audubon Park, there is a makeshift memorial for Maddie; her friends and classmates sometimes come to the tree to sit in its branches or on its roots and think and talk and remember.
For my family and for New Orleans, the ramifications of Madeleine's death continue. I won't go into the family stuff, because it's not my place. Suffice it to say that such a profound loss makes those close to it question everything—to look back and wonder what went wrong, how such a thing could have happened. And of course these are questions that are almost impossible to answer in anything deeper than a clinical sense. One of my cousins and I spoke at length about the concept of "closure." Is such a thing possible? Is it desirable? How does one achieve it? Why does one seek it? Really what we were talking about was how one can continue after the death of a child.
Over the weekend, there were two arrests made in the case, and so these and other questions will start to be discussed more publicly.
Madeleine's death has resonated in part because New Orleans is a struggling place and the question of its future is so urgent. If the city is in any way a threat to its children, how can the city have a future?
My cousins, who love New Orleans passionately, urged me to tell people that much of what has been written about it is untrue; much of the city survived Katrina with relatively little damage, and in places such as the French Quarter and the Central Business District, you'd never know that such a horrific event happened.
But as my cousin George put it, New Orleans, which was always a divided city, has become even more so after the storm. The fortunate remain, for the most part, fortunate; the poor are worse off than they were before.
My cousin Allen took me on a tour of the 9th ward, the area hardest hit by flooding, and it was a scene of astonishing desolation. Rows and rows of homesites where once were houses and now only concrete foundations remained.... Many houses left abandoned and hollowed-out since Katrina, still with the markings on their door indicating that rescuers had found a body within. As I said to Allen, it reminded me of Kosovo after the war, except that in Kosovo they were rebuilding with incredible fervor, and here, in this ward, rebuilding was spotty at best, and the area remained a wastelan
I'm back from New Orleans and a weekend filled with intensity and emotion. I went there, as some of you may remember, to visit family after the death of my cousin Mary's 16-year-old daughter, Madeleine Prevost on January 6th. (Madeleine was also the daughter of Michael Prevost, Mary's ex-husband.)
Madeleine died of a heroin overdose, and because she was a well-liked girl, and because her parents have been counselors in the New Orleans school system for two decades, and because of everything that has happened in New Orleans in the past several years, over 1,000 people attended her funeral. Underneath a massive live oak, known as "the Tree of Life," in Audubon Park, there is a makeshift memorial for Maddie; her friends and classmates sometimes come to the tree to sit in its branches or on its roots and think and talk and remember.
For my family and for New Orleans, the ramifications of Madeleine's death continue. I won't go into the family stuff, because it's not my place. Suffice it to say that such a profound loss makes those close to it question everything—to look back and wonder what went wrong, how such a thing could have happened. And of course these are questions that are almost impossible to answer in anything deeper than a clinical sense. One of my cousins and I spoke at length about the concept of "closure." Is such a thing possible? Is it desirable? How does one achieve it? Why does one seek it? Really what we were talking about was how one can continue after the death of a child.
Over the weekend, there were two arrests made in the case, and so these and other questions will start to be discussed more publicly.
Madeleine's death has resonated in part because New Orleans is a struggling place and the question of its future is so urgent. If the city is in any way a threat to its children, how can the city have a future?
My cousins, who love New Orleans passionately, urged me to tell people that much of what has been written about it is untrue; much of the city survived Katrina with relatively little damage, and in places such as the French Quarter and the Central Business District, you'd never know that such a horrific event happened.
But as my cousin George put it, New Orleans, which was always a divided city, has become even more so after the storm. The fortunate remain, for the most part, fortunate; the poor are worse off than they were before.
My cousin Allen took me on a tour of the 9th ward, the area hardest hit by flooding, and it was a scene of astonishing desolation. Rows and rows of homesites where once were houses and now only concrete foundations remained.... Many houses left abandoned and hollowed-out since Katrina, still with the markings on their door indicating that rescuers had found a body within. As I said to Allen, it reminded me of Kosovo after the war, except that in Kosovo they were rebuilding with incredible fervor, and here, in this ward, rebuilding was spotty at best, and the area remained a wastelan