Some More Noted Things

In"What Said Said," Inside Higher Ed, 13 December, Scott McLemee reviews Robert Irwin's Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and Its Discontents and interviews Irwin.

Kevin Mattson,"History Lesson: Those Who Don't Know History Are Doomed to Distort It – and Our Political Discourse," Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Winter, juxtaposes Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States and C. Vann Woodward's The Strange Career of Jim Crow as two ways of doing history in the public sphere. And one way is better than the other. Thanks to Clay Risen for the tip.

openDemocracy is holding a competition for its"Bad Democracy of the Year Award". You can vote among the following candidates for one of"the least coveted prizes in politics": Silvio Berlusconi, John Howard, George W. Bush, Meles Zenawi, Abu Laban, Alexander Lukashenko, Lee Hsien Loong, Kim Jong-il, The Israeli Defense Forces, The G8, Rupert Murdoch, Vladimir Putin.
Thanks to Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog for the tip.

Finally, it's a little early in the season for those end-of-the-year roundups, but it's never too early for JibJab. So, here's JibJab's"Nuckin' Futs! The JibJab Year in Review." Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tip.