Noted Here and There ...

Yesterday, for the first time ever, the British flag flew at the State Department in Washington, D. C. Our hearts go out to the people of London, to the dead, the wounded, and their loved ones. Alan Allport sensed rightly, I think, that pictures and verse speak better for us when our own words are inadequate. Tim Burke and Caleb McDaniel speak eloquently about our own attitude in the face of senseless terror and violence. They discuss it at Easily Distracted. Unlike terrorists, Cliopatriarchs tolerate disagreement, occasionally even glory in it. But we are agreed in this: that we are not deterred by terror from doing history. We will write the history of those who kill and maim; and we will tell the stories of their victims.

At Positive Liberty, Jason Kuznicki has notes toward an opening lecture on Western Intellectual History. There's abundant evidence there why he should be hired to teach it. That is why I disagree with a recent commentator in the Chronicle of Higher Education, who advised young academics on the job market to avoid blogging. I think it's good advice to avoid a certain kind of blogging, but I don't know a better vehicle for putting genuine talent on display.

Scott Jaschik's"A Win for the ‘Academic Bill of Rights'," Inside Higher Ed, 7 July, reports on the creation of a committee of the Pennsylvania state legislature that will inquire into intellectual diversity issues on state supported campuses. I don't see that as a bad thing, necessarily. It all depends on the spirit in which the committee pursues its work.

At Orcinus, David Neiwert reports this bizarretry: On Wednesday 6 July, the Atheist Law Center of Montgomery, AL, sponsored a presentation by Holocaust Denier David Irving. He continues the attack on Deborah Lipstadt, of course. Maybe a private owner of prime real estate in Montgomery -- maybe even the Southern Poverty Law Center -- needs to put that Ten Commandments monument back in some very conspicuous space in downtown Montgomery.

Dennis Drabelle, Yo, Canada!, Washington Post, 23 June, reviews Will Ferguson's Beauty Tips from Moosejaw: Travels in Search of Canada. Ferguson has a good line from his sighting of some moose in Newfoundland."They are the inbred Habsburg monarchs of the animal kingdom, combining regal deportment with huge, misshapen noses. Prehensile noses." Thanks to Arts and Letters Daily for the tip.

At Outside Report, my virtual son, Andrew Ackerman, stirs the pot for a family quarrel in our"virtual history department." A committed hard tree journalist, Andrew rises to the defense of Judith Miller, Matt Cooper, and the necessity of a shield law to protect journalists like himself against the claims of Jeff Jarvis and Glenn Reynolds that such a law must cover bloggers, as well. So, I'm sitting here in my pajamas and eating my catfood – and my virtual son says it's o. k. if I get packed off to the slammer in my pj's for protecting my sources, so long as his ass is protected. Now, whenever I go over to Outside Report, my virtual catfood is spewed all over his text.

Finally, Chris Bray may be visiting Atlanta over the weekend and I'm looking forward to it. We'll confer, no doubt, on matters of high Cliopatriarchal doctrine. There's been no settlement on the official regalia, for instance. Your standard academic gown is, ah, a little drab. We could do something like this. Is that Sharon Howard in the middle and, if so, why doesn't she get with the program? I could see Manan Ahmed in this get up. Something in plaid, perhaps? This might be right for Tim Burke or Jon Dresner. It avoids that fitted look. These strike me as too dramatic, but this has a certain, ah, flare. These seem to be rather more dignified and I like this selection (click through), though that old fellow in the blue and white looks like a child molester to me. We'll want to steer clear of scandal. Anyway, I think we can all agree on the Scott McLemee t-shirt as authorized informal wear. It comes in three versions and the Rick-Perlstein-wearing-the-Scott-McLemee-t-shirt t-shirt signals – well – it signals something like we'd say in my tradition, that you've moved on to perfection.