Noted Here and There ...

Prestopundit's Greg Ransom argues that Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley provoked the founding of the"Swiftboat Veterans for Truth" with gratuitous insults to the service record of some men who served with John Kerry. I report; you decide.

Don't blame an inherently reactionary Islam for our ignorance of progressive Muslim voices. The decision of the DHS and INS to cancel the visa of Tariq Ramadan who was to have begun teaching at Notre Dame this week only re-enforces it. The Cliopatriarch of Chicago has more to say about this at Chapati Mystery.

There are things of beauty at Early Modern Notes. The Cliopatriarch of Wales is posting photographsof thesetting in and the documentswith which she works. If we Cliopatriarchs have rotating tours of duty, I'm putting in for Wales as my next assignment.

Finally, Caleb at Mode for Caleb has figured it out. Writing dissertations, books, and articles is more like horticulture or surgery than alchemy or engineering. Alas, it's true. I need to do some weeding.