Academia: a self-perpetuating closed shop

The New Neo Posted on by

We’ve all heard of the obfuscating fog of war. Yesterday there was an article by Crispin Sartwell in the LA Times entitled “The Smog of Academic Consensus.”

Sartwell notes that the University of Colorado is proposing to endow a chair in “Conservative Studies,” much like those for other special interest minority groups. This is not as peculiar as it may seem at first blush: in academia, conservatives are most definitely a minority. And this particular university may be trying to make up for such previous affronts to critical thinking as its former professor Ward Churchill, who became chair of its Ethnic Studies department despite a singular lack of credentials, qualifications, or even basic common sense.

How much of a minority are conservatives in the field of higher education? Continue reading →

Forget the Tupperware—let’s have a miracle fruit party

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s called miracle fruit, and it seems like something out of Brave New World. It’s not an item engineered by modern science, though, but an African berry that’s been known to Westerners since the 18th century.

Recently it’s become the sensation (literally) at parties where guests pop one in the mouth and then revel in the fact that such low-cal, ordinarily sour foods as citrus wedges, Brussels sprouts, mustard, vinegars, and pickles eaten within an hour or so afterwards become overwhelmingly sweet. Continue reading →

Obama’s not a detail man: is this the real end of history?

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Obama’s fast becoming nearly as famous for gaffes as Yogi Berra. But Berra’s often made sense; Obama’s never do.

That said, not all of Obama’s errors are created equal. Some fall into the category of slips of the tongue—after all, even his enemies don’t really think Obama believes there are 57 states.

Obama’s most recent error—which concentration camp his uncle (actually, great-uncle) helped liberate—has been blown way out of proportion. As soon as I heard the story, I was nearly certain it was basically true but that he’d gotten the camp wrong.

This is not a case of “lying,” as some have charged, nor of course did Obama’s uncle serve in the Russian Army, as some tongues-in-cheek have suggested. But still, the mistake is a bit more disturbing than his “Heinz 57 states” error. Continue reading →

Bush and McCain, Obama and et al: in a shadow

The New Neo Posted on by

There used to be no love lost between Bush and McCain. But paradoxically, the war in Iraq, which divided Bush from much of the nation, caused McCain to come closer and to even defend him.

Now McCain is in an odd position re Bush. He knows about Bush’s high unfavorability ratings, but he also knows that Bush is the nominal head of the Republican Party and still able to raise money from the base, which McCain sorely needs. He also knows that Obama is hot to taint him with the brush of “McCain is just another Bush,” because if successful that approach would be the best way to defeat McCain in the fall.

And so when McCain joined with Bush for a fundraiser and yet barred the press, Obama lost no time making the connection: Continue reading →

Popular vote reigns supreme for the Dems—as long as it’s expedient

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Even though I was a Democrat at the time, had voted for Gore and disliked Bush, in the spine-tingling days of the back-and-forth after the 2000 Presidential election I recognized that whoever played the best game in overtime would win.

The election, as far as I could see, was a dead heat. Who actually won would be determined by a series of twistings and turnings, some of them legal, and each man had as good a claim as the other. When Bush won, although I was bitterly disappointed, I did not feel cheated. He had gamed the rules the best, and if Gore hadn’t been able to do so then he deserved to lose. Continue reading →

“Caught” in mid-air

The New Neo Posted on by

David Parsons is not a well-known dancer/choreographer, except among dance aficionados. But his company, which I’ve followed for decades, is most definitely worth watching.

In 1982 Parsons choreographed a solo with strobe lights known as “Caught.” I’ve seen it about four times and it never fails to astound, nor does it pall. One of the reasons I attend performances of his dance company so often is in hopes that this piece will be danced that particular night.

And so I thought to check out You Tube to see whether there’s a video that “catches” the dance’s essence. The following is the best I can do. It’s only a minute long, and the fun (and the strobe) doesn’t really start until halfway into it, at around 36 seconds. What’s more, the illusion on a small two-dimensional computer screen has nothing like the impact of the three-dimensional kinetics on stage.

But it’s still pretty amazing:

Well, Hillary’s certainly got a point

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In leading polls of Democratic voters, Obama leads Hillary. And he also leads her in the only vote that counts, the delegates to the convention.

But take a look at recent Gallup polls for the general election. Right now McCain leads Obama, and for the last couple of weeks they’ve been exchanging the lead in a pattern that indicates the race between them would be close to a dead heat. Continue reading →

Obama’s doublethink

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Jack Kelly (and others) has noted that Obama is giving a mixed and contradictory message on Hugo Chavez and whether to isolate him or to negotiate with him.

But that’s not a unique situation for Obama; for example, he’s got more positions on Iran than the Kama Sutra. Obama seems to have no trouble holding and/or promulgating mixed or even contradictory messages. It’s his specialty, in fact, one of the ways in which he’s going to bring us all together.

Like the fictional O’Brien in 1984, Obama appears to subscribe to the idea that in the service of a cause (in this case, his own election) one ought to practice doublethink. Continue reading →

The multitudinous world inside your elbow

The New Neo Posted on by

One of the more formative experiences of my life was reading Theodor Rosebury’s book Life On Man back when it first came out in 1969. It revealed that our efforts to sanitize the world and rid it of those seemingly pernicious bacteria were not only futile, they were counterproductive.

Our bodies and the surfaces of nearly everything on earth teem with bacteria, most of them friendly, some of them even helping us gain immunity. But sometimes we can get too much information about this phenomenon; it’s not always comforting to think of ourselves as a vehicle for so many hitchhikers of the miniscule variety.

Now comes the news that scientists are mapping the demography of the whole thing. Continue reading →

Memorial Day: mourning and honoring

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Before Memorial Day became a national three-day weekend in 1971 and the official kickoff to summer festivities, it was Decoration Day.

I’m not all that ancient, but my earliest recollection of the holiday is of the latter name. It was a day on which people brought flowers and flags to graves of the war dead, and maybe held a parade featuring some tottering old vets and their strange hats.

One also might be stopped by an elderly gentleman selling a poppy. Not a real poppy, but one made of crepe paper. Continue reading →