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Cliopatria

  • Mar 15, 2005

    More Bérubé, Ravitch

    by Cliopatria

    For those who missed it, an important op-ed this morning from Diane Ravitch. Her criticism of the Gates project seems on-target; more broadly, I completely share her analysis of the dangers of having a public school faculty with Education School rather than disciplinary training.

    Meanwhile, as Ralph notes below, I have continued to attract the ire of Michael

  • Mar 15, 2005

    The Lapse

    by Cliopatria

    The Texas Rebunker is on spring break and hoping to polish off the latest revisions of his manuscript to get it to The Publisher. The Ohio Rebunker is trying feverishly to finish his dissertation. The Vermont Rebunker is dealing with career stuff. The Colorado Rebunker is paralyzed by his own beauty. Oh, and career stuff. So we're running a bit slow these days. But bear with us -- in the next few days expect NCAA Tournament previews and updates, a word or two on politics in Namibia, an emptying
  • Mar 15, 2005

    Open Thread ...

    by Cliopatria

    We've never done this before at Cliopatria, but I'm opening this post for additional discussion. Let's keep it civil.
  • Mar 15, 2005

    Some Conversations Worth Having ...

    by Cliopatria

    I don't know about you, but it seems to me that the conversation between KC Johnson and Michael Berube is worth having, both here and at Michael Berube's blog. Over there, it's Round One and Round Two. For the most part, the conversations have been civil, even when some hard points w
  • Mar 14, 2005

    Business School Ethics

    by Cliopatria

    I have some free advice for the students rejected by business schools because they exploited a glitch in the system that gave them a sneak peak at the acceptance/rejection records.

    IF YOU'RE GOING TO FIGHT THIS READ UP ON RICHARD NIXON.

    While at Duke law school, where he was near the top of his class, Nixon famously broke into the dean's office to find out how he had scored that semester.

    Duke hasn't yet decided if it is going to follow the lead of Harvard
  • Mar 14, 2005

    News from Maryland

    by Cliopatria

    Paul Sarbanes' announcement Saturday that he would not seek a sixth term as the Free State's senior senator has just had its first fall-out effect: former congressman and NAACP head Kweisi Mfume has declared his intent to seek the nomination.

    Sarbanes is the second Democratic senator this cycle to announce his retirement. The first, Mark Dayton, bequeaths a seat that appears increasingly unlikely that the Dems

  • Mar 14, 2005

    Fact-checking Cuts Both Ways....

    by Cliopatria

    I've been ridiculed for attention to detail, and I'll admit that I'm the first one out of my chair to the dictionary or encyclopedia or Shulchan Aruch if a question comes up in conversation that I can't answer (well, second, if my father is there), but sometimes you find something interesting. And sometimes you don't find anything, which is also interesting....

    The dog that didn't bark this time is David Horowitz's: he's been

  • Mar 14, 2005

    The Bérubé Factor

    by Cliopatria

    In my always collegial fashion, I seem to have attracted the ire of Penn State professor Michael Bérubé through a piece that I published a few months back for Mainstream, a bi-monthly journal on issues relating to Israel and Jewish issues. As Mainstream isn’t on-line, I was asked by Campus Watch if it could post the article, and I happily obliged.

  • Mar 14, 2005

    Chris Daly: Scalia's Error

    by Cliopatria

    To the Editor

    In his questioning of attorneys in the cases involving displays of the Ten Commandments in courthouses, Justice Antonin Scalia reveals a deeply disconcerting view of the very essence of America's system of government. In court, he called the Ten Commandments "a symbol of the fact that government derives its authority from God."

    Justice Scalia may believe that, but it is not a matter of fact. Indeed, his view represents a profound misreading of ou
  • Mar 13, 2005

    History Judging

    by Cliopatria

    No, not more on ahistorical judgementalism, but serving as an actual Judge! I was one of the judges for our local National History Day. I got to be the first round judge for half the"senior division" (aka high school) Media projects (DVDs and Power Points, mostly), then I got to be a run-off judge for the"junior division" (middle school) Displays (think Science Fair posterboards). This isn't the

  • Mar 13, 2005

    Some Noted Things ...

    by Cliopatria

    Tim Burke,"At the Checkpoint," Easily Distracted, 9 March 2005. David Brooks has been a bad boy and Burke takes him to the woodshed for the flogging he deserves. Actually, the subject is Brooks's praise of Paul Wolfowitz and Burke flogs Christopher Hitchens and Michael Totten, too, while he's at it. In"Burke on Wolfowitz and War," Ca
  • Mar 12, 2005

    Atlanta Murders ...

    by Cliopatria

    My wife is assistant director of volunteer services at Grady Memorial Hospital here in Atlanta, where a superior court judge, a deputy sheriff, and a court clerk were murdered this morning and two other persons were injured by a criminal court defendant. The hospital is in the area where the killer is being sought by local police. I have not heard from her, but I assume that she is o. k. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and
  • Mar 10, 2005

    mentors of Karl Rove?

    by Cliopatria

    Reviewing the history of the husband-and-wife couple Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter, the first professional political public-relations consultants, reminds us how little American campaigns have changed over the last several decades. Whitaker and Baxter had long been active managing campaigns in California when they got their start on the national level in 1949 managing the American Medical Association’s successful campaign to block President Truman’s proposed legislation for national health care
  • Mar 10, 2005

    Joyce Carol Oates: Review of Steven Mintz's Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood (Harvard Univewrsity Press)

    by Cliopatria

    Joyce Carol Oates in TLS (3-9-05):

    Curious that, though we have all been children, we scarcely know what childhood “is”. A biological condition? A span of years? A social construct? An ever-evolving compendium of myths that represent society’s projections of its ideals and anxieties onto its youngest, most vulnerable members? As our personal recollections of childhood are likely to be highly unreliable, taken as much from family albums and photographs, family tales and obfusc
  • Mar 10, 2005

    Lebanon

    by Cliopatria

    I've been struck by the enormous Hezbollah protest in Lebanon, which apparently has prompted the administration to adjust its approach to the question of Hezbollah participation in the Lebanese government and has led to the re-installation of the country's pro-Syrian prime minister.

    An open question: can people think of a comparable occurrence in world history when a popular protest of such size occurred in favor of a f