the end of the world is nigh
one of my fellow graduate student / history instructors has trouble a'brewin' with the
West Virginia University Office of Social Justice. it is all very hush-hush (a faculty member told a grad student [and swore him/her to secrecy] and this grad student told me [and swore me to secrecy]). apparently some one of my fellows was in a public forum (i suspect a bar) and uttered harsh words regarding germans (including but not limited to the idea that they are "all nazis"). this is, of course, disturbing news.
it disturbed the mole who told me because he/she is ethnically german (and we all must work with the utterer). it disturbs me because the most important person in my world is german (for those of you who don't know: i am deeply in love with a german woman. i have been smitten by her for nigh on 8 years now, and cannot imagine a world that does not revolve around her).
it also disturbs me because the utterance may well have been a poor attempt at humor which will now be punished (or swept under the rug) unduely.
given my recent lack of fulfillment regarding the killing blow against plagiarists, the student who used
AFRO-AMERICAN ALMANAC - African-American History Resource will get both boots!
if you (or someone you know) will be in the greater pittsburgh metroplex, i would urge you to seek out and attend a performance by
SUGAR DADDY AND THE BIG BONED GIRLS!!! my ole buddy sharon (see the "mamarama" link, at left) is in this band and i saw their gig last night. i had no idea what to expect, and was therefore pleasantly surprised at the skill and fervor (and charm) with which they performed a wide variety of jazz / swing standards (and other things as well). EXCELLENT!
by the way, last night's show was recorded, so there may be a way for you to hear them from afar: stay alert!
[my apologies to Ms Tina Turner and Mr Robert Scheer]
You must understand that the Ashcroft jihad makes my pulse react: that it's never a thrill when boys learn to kill (dissidents distract). It's physical, only logical.
You must try to ignore that it means more than that.
Oh!
What's God Got to Do With It? What's God but a second-hand emotion? What's God got to do, got to do with it. . .?
by popular request (and not because my current batch of papers has turned up another one) an update on my plagiarists . . .
i caught one at the end of last semester. i have been unable to get in touch with her to meet with her and, therefore, unable to continue the formal proceedings against her. she does still have an incomplete in my class, and i presume she'll ask about it at some point . . . and then i shall strike!
i caught another one this semester (a few weeks ago). this fellow has not yet returned to class. he has, i think, dropped. soooo. . . i'll have to find a way to meet with him if i want to file charges in his case.
really not at all sporting of them to rob me of the kill in this manner!
memo to my survey class: you will not get your essays back tomorrow. do not question me!
when the core requirements of an essay are that it be 4 pages long and include a discussion of two films and a book . . . .
DO NOT turn in an essay that discusses one film and the book and is 1 1/2 pages long!!!
what would lyle lovett say? oh yeah: "redneckedness has got to be a disease. catch it on your fingers and it just crawls right up your sleeve."
i, like scott, am grading. i'll even use shakespeare like he did: "before my body i throw my warlike red pen: lay on, student essays, and damn'd be him that first cries, 'hold, enough'!"
i've already had my heart warmed. one student, writing on WW2 US government propaganda manipulation of women in the workforce, expressed shock and anger that the government would do such things. . . how cute!
speaking of german history (see previous post) . . . if you can read german, read this:
Willkommen in Emilistan. for those of you who can't, see the summary below.
berlin (the capital and largest city of germany) is also a state. it is a stadt-staat (in local lingo). brandenburg (another state) surrounds berlin. this situation is a legacy of the post-war division of germany. it is possible that, one day, berlin and brandenburg will unify and become one state. some right wing politician has suggested that this future state should be called "prussia". this suggestion has received support from several prominent rightwingers.
it is, of course, silly (and potentially sinister). first of all, as the article reveals, "prussia" was a dynastic construct of the hohenzollern royal family (specifically in 1701) so that the leader of the family could be called a king. see, at the time the whole region that is now germany was part of the holy roman empire. the guy who ran berlin and brandenburg was, by imperial edict, a duke. this duke, friedrich III., wanted to be a king. he had other land, in what is now northern poland and parts of lithuania, which lay outside the empire, so he had himself made king of that and called it "prussia" (king of prussia, pennsylvania, is an american manifestation of this decision). later, when the german state was formed in 1871, the hohenzollern of the day (wilhelm) changed his title from "king of prussia" to "emperor of germany" (the holy roman empire having fallen prey to napoleon). prussia, then, became one of several states. it remained that until 1945, when the allies reshaped (and rationalized) the state boundaries. the name prussia was tossed out and the parts of europe which had formed the original core of prussia were made formally and literally (due to expulsions) no longer german. brandenburg and berlin are, therefore, not historically prussian. to call them that now would be silly.
"prussia" also rings all the wrong bells politically (especially outside germany). prussia, as the core of the 1871 german state, was associated with militarism. "prussian discipline" is still part of popular consciousness. sooo . . . a german state wanting to soothe the neighbors would do well not to use the name. furthermore (and for a similar reason), bringing back the name would add fuel to the small but hot fire of neo nazism in germany. i'm certain that this is what the guy who brought it up has in mind: the mainstream right-wing parties (especially the CDU) have been subtly courting the far right ever since the war. bad news.
so there's that. as if germany didn't have enough on it's plate. i suspect this will be batted down quickly, but first the left will want to make great hay of it. a big election is coming in the fall, and the left will use this to remind the voters exactly who they are dealing with in the CDU/CSU. hopefully the voters will take the appropriate message.
when i tell people that i am interested in researching german history, they often ask me a question or two about the holocaust. i try to answer their questions (and point them to this book or that) but then inform them that, really, holocaust scholarship is far too much of a minefield for my taste. it is VERY political, not least because of people like david irving. he is a right and proper turd and hinderance to efforts to properly and accurately relay the history (and therefore, the meaning) of the holocaust in particular and german fascism in general. see the following excellent article for a bit on irving:
Memories are made of this
incidentally: two summers ago i participated in a summer seminar on archival studies sponsored by the german historical institute. while speaking with the director of the bundesarchiv, one of my fellow students asked him about david irving. the director frowned, paused, and made it clear that irving will be arrested if he sets foot on the property of the bundesarchiv (!). as the germans have learned the hard way, liars (like him) are VERY dangerous.
suv owners, see the
frontline page on the "rollover" story. actually, everyone should see it if they aren't already concerned about suvs (or even if they are).
in case you are viewing this page from another country (i'm looking at you, guille!), beware of media reports regarding the u.s. military. see the
FAIR MEDIA ADVISORY: Pentagon Propaganda Plan Is Undemocratic, Possibly Illegal.
and i thought april was the cruelest month!
tonight in the movie class we watched
Tender Comrade (1943). it is the last film in our unit on the home front (particularly women) during ww2. we've also watched "swing shift" (goldie hawn and kurt russell) and a documentary called "the life and times of rosie the riveter".
the "big question" each week is about the degree to which the films are useful as historical documents (including the degree to which they play as "real"). i had the students leave out the documentary for a moment and answer this question. to my surprise (and it was a pleasant surprise) they picked "tender comrade". it surprises me because, whereas "swing shift" never let you forget that the women worked in an aircraft plant, "tender comrade" only really establishes this and then shifts to the women and their personalities. it's not really a good movie, but it does come off as more sincere and trustworthy. and my students saw past the campy dialogue (and black and white film) to pick it over a slicker, more superficial recent hollywood film starring actors they know. right on students!
i've had a bur (burr?) in my saddle for a while now about the whole notion of the media having a liberal tilt. this is, of course, a favorite trope among conservatives (and "trope" is the magic word: look for it this week all over the web) and it is hardly a new idea. you might think, with the repubs having had the whip hand at least since september (although you could easily say they got it back in 1994) that this trope would be put out to pasture. oh, my friend, meet bernard goldberg, author of
Bias.
since this book was published by regnery (a smallish, explicitly conservative press) you might think the "liberal" media it seeks to skewer would ignore it (or "cover it up"). oh, my friend, you might be wrong. just yesterday (sunday) i saw an interview with the author on cnn's "reliable sources" program. i've also heard it mentioned and discussed on several other shows and have read reviews in several journals. soooo. . . . i've not actually read the book (and probably won't, given the demands of the liberals in academia) but i've gathered from the above discussions that he (goldberg) offers little evidence in support of his thesis. this does not surprise me, since, as i said above, i've never bought the thesis to begin with.
here's my thesis: the right (no matter the country or era) thrives on a siege mentality. "they" (the corrosive elements of liberal, modern, jewish, etc. society) are conspiring against "us" (the god-fearing, true-to-the-spirit-of-the-founding-fathers, aryan, white, conservative, etc.) for the hearts and minds of . . . whoever doesn't fit into the two categories listed above (specifically "the masses"). the fact that you can count the times when the radical left (or left-ish elements) have actually controlled ANY society on your digits is useful to consider. i'll grant the right the following list of times, since the enlightenment, when people they don't agree with ran countries in the west: the jacobins in france; the soviets (and their satellite allies); . . . . that's it.
when i say "don't agree with" i mean on the following issues: free market economics, patriarchy, militarism, and "god" (granting, of course, that certain perceptions of god have, at times, come in for attack).
what i've not addressed, and the careful reader will have noticed this, is the whole wad of crap that is modern (american-style) liberalism. another time, perhaps.
check out the current cover of
DER SPIEGEL (a german news magazine). the lead article is called "the bush warriors: america's campaign against evil".
this is sometimes interesting:
Buenos Aires Herald On Line
of note right now is that the argentine peso failed to drop precipitously against the dollar, as had been expected. i love it when the experts are wrong! let's all give a big "pull" for the argentinas of the world!
i propose a list of things that suck. i'll start it:
-- israel occupying the west bank
-- palestinian terrorists
-- israeli settlers in the west bank
-- funding of palestinian terrorists
-- u.s. funding of israeli settlements in the west bank
-- abrupt changes of subject
-- the popularity of someone named "p. diddy" (not him, necessarily, but his name)
-- the fact that i can't watch star trek exept in reruns
-- neo nazis (in all their manifestations)
-- dubyah (and everyone who voted for him)
-- people who think things would be much better if gore had been elected
-- me (at times. i'm just heading off controversey here)
-- the fact that i haven't emailed carlton in a while
more? up to you (and, ultimately, me)
"the guardian" has
Quizzes for valentine's day. your responses generate a poem for your love. i did it and got this one, and it fits pretty well . . .
[the guardian said] No satin hearts or chocolate kisses for you - Valentine's Day is commercial nonsense. In fact, the commodification of love is just another weapon in the arsenal of modern capitalism's attack on the authentic self. Here's a poem, though.
A Valediction Forbidding Mourning by John Donne
AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."
So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th'earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love
- Whose soul is sense - cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove
The thing which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.
ahh the olympics!
dan jansen falling down, that gymnast girl with the injured ankle, the aboriginie woman winning in sydney, the miracle on ice, jesse owens, babe diedrickson, mark spitz, katarina witt, nadia, the dream team, . . .
the nazi olympics, the 72 terrorist attack in munich, the 96 terrorist attack in atlanta, the boycott of the 80 moscow games, the boycott of the 84 l.a. games, the montreal debt, the salt lake bribes, . . .
and, lest we forget 1968:
Mexico City newspaper publishes hidden photos of student massacre
who is in charge of the darwin awards? i have a nominee here . . .
CNN.com - 10-foot-long python suffocates owner - February 11, 2002
i'm listening to random selections from over 500 songs in my itunes playlist right now. sometimes really funny combinations come up . . .
the police "i burn for you" followed by pat benatar "hit me with your best shot", for example. he said, she said?
i've seen a variation on this before, but this selection is excellent!
Crikey Whistleblower Isn't the internet a wonderful source of laughter
as
Mexico City confronts renovation, where is NAFTA? where is UNESCO? where is the US? this is the sort of thing people could spend their military budgets on . . .
this just in: a sneak peak at the intro to scott's dissertation!
I. the fallen woman is a confusing fucking concept
A. the fallen woman was confusing to victorians
B. the fallen woman is confusing to scholars
II. the fallen woman has confusing origins
A. irredemable
B. redeemable
III. scholars have been confused by these origins and, therefore, confused the fallen woman
A. early scholarship
B. recent scholarship
IV. i’m going to lead you into the promised land
A. here’s how
B. here’s where to find what in my diss.
by the way, dubyah gave a little speech at the opening ceremony asking for everyone to
Unite Behind America by Finishing Behind America
it was me. i am the one who watched the opening ceremonies of the winter olympics.
i did it as a drinking game, of course. me and sara worked it out: 1 drink for each invocation of "god"; 2 drinks for each reference to 11 sept; 2 drinks for each time katie couric / bob costas took special note of the presence or absence of a "terrorist" nation . . . and so on. we also promised to drink until we could no longer work our lungs if there was some sort of terrorist attack.
i don't know about you people out there, but i'm rooting for cameroon (they sent a team!).
the ceremony was even cheezier and wierder than i expected it to be. a bright spot was representatives of each of the five major indian groups of utah doing their thing. of course, the shithead planners followed that up with a celebration of the "winning of the west".
this year's theme, in case you didn't catch it, is "light the fire within." um. ok?
where have the comments thingies gone?
the following was posted to an academic list serve to which i subscribe. it is in response to a call for papers (the author of the post is a well-respected scholar of ethnicity in u.s. history). . .
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002 15:36:45 EST
Subject: Re: essay collection Laughter and the Postcolonial CFP
I hope someone can help me out by providing English translations of the following terms:
"textual strategy"
"postcolonial cultural practice"
"inherent Otherness"
Or, perhaps these are merely "hilarious verbal exploits"?
Once I get some answers, I'll know whether I should submit an essay on "The Textual Phenomenon of Inadvertent Self-Parody among 'Post-Modernist' Faculty at Major U.S. Universities."
John Radzilowski
this link --
The Grapes Of Wrath (1940) -- is not what it appears to be. the untrained eye might see it as a professional critic's take on the "grapes of wrath."
i, however, have a trained eye!
my trained eye sees an essay turned in to me by one of my little darlins . . . said little darlin will regret this for the rest of his (probably brief) academic career (sinister laughter starts here and trails off . . . . ).
i guess things aren't as bad as i thought. the news is reporting
Record No. of Americans Pretending They Own a Home
one of the main messages of star trek is that it is wise to "let sleeping dogs lie." the most recent episode of "enterprise", in fact, was entitled "sleeping dogs". i wonder why the fictional characters of the future (in other words, our own imaginations) understand something we don't seem too . . .
if modern society (at least modern western society) is anything at all it is meddlesome. on a personal and societal level we harrass our friends ("what's bothering you?"), strangers ("why aren't you like me?"), and enemies ("why do you refuse to change?"). we are positively baffled by recalcitrant people or groups.
i have been the victim of a minor form of this, having been a bit of an odd fish in high school. i also think it underlies much of the current conflict between the west and the rest of the world as regards globalization (in all its many forms) and between the u.s. and the rest of the west (as regards "american culture" and the perceived threat it poses to french, german, japanese, and other cultures).
what is star trek (with the "prime directive": just taking form in "enterprise"; in full bloom in "the next generation") saying to us? is the utopia the shows propose truly "u"? in other words: is the notion that there will come a time when people will see the wisdom of not imposing their will upon others poppycock? is it in the nature of humans (or at least the nature of certain human cultures) to try to shape everything and everyone they find?
i've guided a friend to blogging. her name is jen and she's very nice:
Beans are the true building blocks of life
ralph nader's on cspan right now!!! turn it on!!!
new england won. i'm glad about that.
"patriots" won. i'm sad about that.
the patriots are whoopin the rams right now. the only thing good about it is that the patriots are big time underdogs. i really like underdogs. i really don't care for the nfl.
earlier today i had one eye tuned to star trek 4 (the one where they go get humpback whales) and a few things struck me as odd:
-- the enterprise crew are in a klingon ship, but they can all, apparently, manipulate the controls. do they all read fluent klingon? this is never established.
-- they use the ship's computers to decipher the sound coming from the being attacking earth and determine it to be the call of humpback whales. why would a klingon ship's computer have a database including the call of long extinct earth creatures? to make matters worse, it is a klingon *scout* ship . . . if it were a battle cruiser i might dig it (hehe).
-- i am a hopeless nerd.
i think someone working at the "usa network" is a bit of a government doubter. the harrison ford movie "clear and present danger" is just finishing up as i write this, and not too long ago the same channel showed "the siege" (starring denzel washington, annette benning, tony shaloub, and bruce willis).
now: neither film is a leftie pinko hippy peacenik diatribe (although that would be cause for celebration in my house) but both take a rather dim view of jingoism and corruption. of course, in both movies (they are hollywood), the good guys win, or at least appear to win ("capd" ends with ford testifying before congress to the bad stuff he thwarted).
here's my point: in these "rah rah, sis boom bah" days it is unusual to see anything remotely critical of the u.s. on most tv channels (i'm not counting jokes like what they do on the "daily show" or, increasingly rarely, "saturday night live"). but here we go with the "usa network"! wow!
by the way: you should watch "the siege" if you haven't already. it's downright eerie (if a bit overstated at times).
carlton:
it's really pretty easy to set up one of these things (getting it just like you want it is a bit more complicated) . . . and it is free. see the "powered by blogger" button on the left side of this screen, click it, and follow the instructions. it's that simple!
thinking of seeing the film "black hawk down"? read this:
Both Saviour and Victim
hurray for hollywood!
at some point, you might enjoy reading
Mike's Message 1/29/2002 . the "mike" is michael moore, the filmmaker. i think he's super cool.
well . . . priceline showed me no love tonight. hours of tooling around with it got me dick all.
so i went to cheaptickets.com. there i paid MUCH more than i wanted to for a flight to frankfurt (i would have preferred duesseldorf) BUT i got it, it was cheaper than priceline, and i get to fly out of and into wee little morgantown.
who wins? i win.
