More Noted Things

Carnivals: Asian History Carnival #6 is up at Frog in a Well/Korea. Konrad Lawson is your host and there are lots of good things to feast on over there. After a cross-continent translation, our colleague, Caleb McDaniel, surfaces over at Mode for Caleb to announce that he's hosting History Carnival XXXVII on Tuesday 15 August. Send your nominations of exemplary history posts since 1 August to calebmcd*at*gmail*dot*com or use the form.

On the Left: Scott McLemee,"Divided Mind," Inside Higher Ed, 9 August, introduces us to the work of George Scialabba, a prize-winning, non-academic essayist of the left. Tim Burke,"We, Myself and Them," Easily Distracted, 8 August, lays out some thoughts about being a part of the"academic left" and having a sense of self that insists on drawing some distinctions.

Ralphpunditry: I usually leave the polipunditry to KC Johnson, but apropos Michael Davidson's question, KC didn't mention one important congressional primary defeat of an incumbent yesterday, Representative Joe Schwarz of Michigan. He lost to a more conservative Republican backed by the Club for Growth. That bothers me because I think that polarizing is unhealthy. But if you look at the Lieberman, McKinney, and Schwarz races, on balance, it seems to me that they don't necessarily suggest that partisan extremists won the day, so much as they do suggest that incumbents have reason to tremble this fall.

Punktuasion: Finally, AndrewSullivan's been looking at minimalist communications. While he's focused on the mighty period, question and exclamation marks, Grant Robertson makes the case for the more modest, but well-placed comma.