I can’t get quite as worked up about the Elizabeth Warren Cherokee flap as so many others have. That’s because I decided long ago (even before my political “change”) that however well-intentioned affirmative action may have originally been, it’s a … Continue reading →
This. But my question is: why would anyone be surprised? Hasn’t it always been obvious that reverse discrimination is an inevitable effect of the whole affirmative action enterprise? And I’m not at all sure it matters anymore whether affirmative action … Continue reading →
…but Russ Smith sure is. In an article entitled, “Is Barack Obama Dumb?” he writes [emphasis mine]: There are [the] usual caveats: Of course Obama isn’t illiterate or Bush-dumb because as Jesse Louis Jackson once said, “God doesn’t make junk,” … Continue reading →
Cornel West has long been known to be a loose cannon, but this is pretty vile, even for him: Cornel West, a Princeton University professor and leading black intellectual, is harshly criticizing President Obama, a candidate he once supported but … Continue reading →
Commenter “Daniel in Brookline” calls Trump a gadfly. It’s a word I’ve thought of often in connection with him and the Obama presidency, one that was originally used by Socrates to describe himself. Here’s an explanation of what Socrates meant … Continue reading →
…wonder no more. Some time ago, the teaching of writing liberated itself from the surly bonds of clarity, rules, and white oppression (is that redundant?) and escaped to touch the face of diversity and self-expression. Now, huge numbers of writing … Continue reading →
For obvious reasons, several people have sent me this link to a NY Times article on the overwhelming presence of liberals in the field of personality and social psychology. Conservatives? This group has barely ever heard of em, except perhaps … Continue reading →
I think Lisa Murkowski is correct when she says that Sarah Palin isn’t big on “intellectual curiosity:” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowki told CBS News’ Katie Couric today that she would not support Sarah Palin for president because Palin lacks the … Continue reading →
The White House has announced that economics adviser Larry Summers is leaving. I’ve been anticipating this move for quite some time (see this), and I’m certainly not the only one (see this). The real question is: why is Summers leaving? … Continue reading →
Jack Cashill, who has previously stirred up controversy by alleging that Bill Ayers wrote Obama’s Dreams From My Father, connects some dots about the prevalence of plagiarism and/or ghost-writing among Harvard Law School professors, and the dubious role of Supreme … Continue reading →
This interview, in which Michael Totten interviews author Paul Berman about his new book, The Flight of the Intellectuals, is well worth reading. Here’s an excerpt from the description of the book at Amazon: Twenty years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini called … Continue reading →
…and then there’s Yale and Harvard. David Bernstein at Volokh wonders whether this Harvard-Yale thingee isn’t a bit much: The president went to Harvard, and barely defeated a primary opponent who went to Yale. His predecessor went to Yale and … Continue reading →