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Cliopatria

  • Jun 18, 2005

    Jeb Bush: Scumbag

    by Cliopatria

    So let me get this straight: The Schiavo case comes to a merciful end. Then, weeks later, after the autopsy results are announced, it is made quite clear that there was no way for her to have ever awoken from that coma. She was dead. Now Jeb Bush wants to launch an investigation to “clear up discrepancies” in Michael Schiavo’s testimony about the precise time lag between when he found his wife and when he called 911 on what must have been the worst year of Schiavo’s life fifteen years ago? Wow.<
  • Jun 17, 2005

    Gay Divorce in Iowa

    by Cliopatria

    There are some ways in which the ideological extremes in American society mirror each other. Both, it seems to me, are susceptible to"groupthink"--talking only with like-minded people on the extremes. And so, when they do go public with their arguments, they often look ridiculous.

    A case in point has been the recent controversy over at Brooklyn College, involving the aborted bid of Sociology professor Timothy Shortell to become his department's chairman. The CUNY faculty union (the PSC) has

  • Jun 17, 2005

    Survey on Political Memory

    by Cliopatria

    A group of students at Leipzig University in Germany are conducting an online survey concerned with questions of political events in individual and collective memory.

    They are asking respondents to fill out a survey that can be found here. On the first page you will need to choose the language in which you would prefer to do the survey. From there it is easy and takes little time.

  • Jun 17, 2005

    "La Samar"

    by Cliopatria

    As a conditional Francophile, I hate Paris. I go to the so-called City of Light for two reasons: to arrive and depart from CDG, and to arrive and depart from Gare de l’Est. Of course, I often must stay at least one night on every visit. The five-hour train trip to Strasbourg wears down the traveler who has already spent nine hours on an airplane. (I could fly through Stuttgart, but that would involve more flights, and I hate flying).

    Monday was one of those stays. My wife staye
  • Jun 17, 2005

    Acknowledging Sources/Destroying Evidence/Saving Face ...

    by Cliopatria

    The Kansas City Star reported yesterday that Bryan Le Beau's Commencement Address had a second major unaccredited source in Russell Baker. Unfortunately, the reporter gave no credit to Beth, the blog reader at Eric Muller's Is That Legal?, who found the evidence. Especially when the issue at stake is the proper crediting of sources, you'd think the dead tree reporter would want to have done that.
  • Jun 16, 2005

    I can't believe I'm writing about Bryan LeBeau

    by Cliopatria

    Yesterday, intrigued by Ed Muller's finding of a second instance of LeBeau's plagiarism, I went ahead and submitted the entire LeBeau speech for a review by TurnItIn. I found only the Cornell West and Russell Baker borrowings, none other.

    Then today I got an email through TurnItIn. You see, if I as an instructor find text matching another student paper once submitted to TurnItIn, I may contact the instructor involved and ask permission for TurnItIn to forward the whole paper. Thi
  • Jun 16, 2005

    An Empire, Not a Republic

    by Cliopatria

    At the blog for the libertarian magazine Reason, Matt Welch notes the interesting example of prominent neocon war-proponents who now enthusiastically embrace comparisons between the contemporary United States and the Roman Empire.

    "When war enthusiasts are no longer even defensive about comparisons to the Roman Empire," Welch concludes,"we have arguably crossed over into new territory."
  • Jun 16, 2005

    First Impressions

    by Cliopatria

    Here are some scattered first impressions after a couple of days in Oxford:

    The Rothermere American Institute is going to be a great place to work for the next couple of months. The centerpiece of the RAI is the Vere Harmsworth Library, which has a growing collection of useful materials on the United States. The building itself, dedicated by Bill Clinton in May 2001, is a gleaming, glass-encased edifice that does not fit my conception of Oxford Univers

  • Jun 16, 2005

    Something that happened in the past

    by Cliopatria


    Why, then, doesn't Congress continue to fund PBS at current levels but tell them they must stick to what they are good at, and stop being the TV funhouse of the Democratic Party? Nobody needs their investigative unit pieces on how Iran-contra was very, very wicked; nobody needs another Bill Moyers show; nobody needs a conservative counter to Bill Moyers's show. Our children are being raised in a culture of argument. They can get left-right-pop-pop-bang anywhere,
  • Jun 15, 2005

    Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts

    by Cliopatria

    (Or, an English professor's further adventures in history...)

    English professors may not see the immediate relevance of Sam Wineburg's Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts (2001), an empirical study of "historical cognition" (xi)--that is, how teachers (mostly high school teachers), students, and parents think about the past.  Wineburg sensibly dismantles extreme claims that historical thinking is all about facts or all about interpretation, pointing out that

  • Jun 15, 2005

    "History's Rhyme"

    by Cliopatria

    A conservative blogger offers "fifteen similarities between the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq." If we accept his premise, the next question would be to ask what we do with the comparison. Does historical understanding lead, at least in the case of the war in Iraq, to some sort of useful policy prescription?

    Note also the invitation, at the end of the post, for commenters to offer their own lists of
  • Jun 15, 2005

    Richard Holmes, Talking Head?

    by Cliopatria

    In yet another sign that Rebunkers know everything, Our Boy, Richard Holmes, is cited in Court TV's"Fifteen Most Memorable Movie Lawyers." His moment in the sun comes at # 9. Very, very cool.
  • Jun 14, 2005

    Election Patterns?

    by Cliopatria

    Today was primary day in Virginia, as well as for a special election in Ohio, for the U.S. House seat vacated by Rob Portman, the new USTR. In Virginia, six GOP incumbents in the House of Delegates faced anti-tax primary challenges after voting for Governor Mark Warner's compromise tax increase, which was necessary to balance the budget without massive cuts in social and educational program funding. As of now (10.04pm), five seem to have prevailed, while a sixth is losing.

    In Ohio, meanwhile

  • Jun 14, 2005

    The Anti-Anti-Lynching Senators ...

    by Cliopatria

    I've been curious to know who were the Senators who held out on the Senate's official apology for its failure to adopt anti-lynching legislation in due time. The apology was sponsored by Senators Mary Landrieu (D, La) and George Allen (R, Va). It was adopted on a voice vote last night – a voice vote because some Senators did not want a recorded vote. By the time the voice vote was taken, most members of the Senate had signed o