Things Noted Here and There ...
Like Chris Bray of Cliopatria and Historiblogography, Phil Carter of Intel Dump has been called back into active duty for deployment to Iraq. Chris refers to this post at Belgravia Dispatch as"must reading." You can follow his posts at Historiblogography and we're hoping that he'll be posting here, as well.
In the mail this past week, the American Legion told me that I'd be declared an American veteran retroactively, if only I sent them a financial contribution. It amused me. Max Boot has been promoting the idea of linking two contemporary American problems – illegal immigration and recruitment to fill the ranks of American military forces – by creating an"American Foreign Legion," in the service of which a foreign national would automatically be granted American citizenship. At Horizon, Ben Brumfield transcribes the notes of a Hessian mercenary on the causes of the American Revolution. It almost gives you the impression that causes are irrelevant.
Niall Ferguson is just back from St. Petersburg with a report:"They've Got Used to Freedom; So Why Do Russians Still Hunger for the USSR?" Telegraph, 19 June.
For the latest on Dershowitz v Finklestein, see: Scott Jaschik,"First Amendment Furor," Inside Higher Ed, 27 June; and Jon Wiener,"Giving Chutzpah New Meaning," The Nation, 23 June. I report; you decide.
Scott McLemee's Intellectual Affairs columns for Inside Higher Ed are archived here. Thanks to Adam Kotsko for the tip.
Rob MacDougall says that"linking to a site as popular as the Onion is a little like pointing out the sun. But this week's issue is really good." It also does no harm to point out the sun. Just don't stare into his blinding light.
Congratulations: To Michael Berube who has won his own page in David Horowitz's Discover the Networks.org. [ed: I hope that Davie put that"s" on it to admit that Barak Obama and Ossama bin Laden aren't exactly networked.] I am very jealous. I want in! To Miriam Jones of Scribblingwoman and The Valve, who has won tenure at the University of New Brunswick, St. John; and to Evan at The Scope and UC, Irvine, who passed his oral exams on the 20th, got married on the 25th, and is honeymooning in Kauai, Hawai'i.