Over at Edge of the West, where SEK’s critically flawed post on my engagement with Patterico has been subsequently removed, there remains a number of comments that I find troubling for a number of reasons. First, there is an peculiar, but obvious, attempt there to try to dismiss my intentionalist argument without addressing it at all; second, there is the desire to strengthen this dismissal by diminishing me, either by
academics
March 12, 2009
Losing more slowly: an OUTLAW’s lament
As a follow-up to Dan’s piece on the (ironic, surreal, and — let’s just say it, profoundly Orwellian) shouting down of a “conservative” speaker looking to address the question of hate speech, I’d like to offer a few observations: first, students are taught, from early on in their writing and literature courses, that they, as readers, control meaning. So it follows that, acting through that particular linguistically faulty hermeneutic (drink!)
November 3, 2008
“Are Obama’s Friends Fair Game?”
Bari Weiss, WSJ: It’s not every presidential election that American voters are introduced to characters like former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers or Middle East historian Rashid Khalidi — both of whom, we have learned, Barack Obama worked and socialized with in Chicago. To the Obama campaign, these men are unimportant, except as products of the McCain campaign’s desperate willingness to deploy tactics of guilt-by-association. But faced with Mr. Obama’s short
October 31, 2008
“If it redistributes like a duck …”
David Harsanyi, The Denver Post: Barack Obama is going to fix the economy by “spreading the wealth around”? Now, I’m not attempting to demonize Obama, God forbid. It’s just that, as we all know, that’s what Obama told Joe the Plumber. Obama laughs off the charge of socialist behavior  and to be fair, socialism isn’t the precise term to affix to his ideas. It’s more like Robin Hood economics.
August 12, 2008
Provocateurism, 7
In a way it was predictable — and I won’t deny that, on some level, I probably knew the issue would be broached — but yesterday’s post in the provocateurism series wended its way, in exchanges between author and commenters / commenters and commenters, to the subject of race-based affirmative action, a dubious practice of late saved, against (in my opinion) the clear intention of certain Constitutional prohibitions, by the
August 11, 2008
Provocateurism, 6
Longtime readers of this site have frequently encountered arguments in which I fasten identity politics to a form of soft, progressivist totalitarianism “PC” speech (which, we are often told with a wave of the hand and a gourmands’ sniff, is, like, so ’90s — and thus, supposedly antiquated as a legitimate point of ideological friction, current fashion circumscribing the only authentic topics for political complaint, with that fashion decided upon,
August 16, 2007
Everything old is new again: peace studies and the “new reality”
David Thompson, on False Consciousness and the modern “peace studies” movement led by Norwegian Marxist and professor Johann Galtung: Galtung is the founder of the “peace universityâ€Â, Transcend, which stresses “a new reality†in conflict resolution and reporting – one based largely on “recognising the validity of the other†and avoiding descriptive terms like “barbarous†and “terroristâ€Â. How that “new reality†would address the actual realities of jihadist groups such
July 9, 2007
About the author — interpretation, intention, and the "historical" agency
An interesting juxtaposition on “journalistic disclosure” from today’s Rocky Mountain News, which excerpts competing views from the National Journal’s William Powers and CBSNews’ Brian Montopoli. First, here’s Powers, who, it’s fair to say, believes journalistic outlets should provide their readerships with biographical information on their reporters: Every news outlet of any consequence now has endless space online to offer supplementary information about the people who report, edit, and produce the
June 18, 2007
Knight of the Living Dead
From the BBC, “Iran condemns Rushdie knighthood”: His book The Satanic Verses offended Muslims worldwide and led to Iran issuing a fatwa in 1989, ordering Sir Salman’s execution. Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the decision to praise the “apostate” showed Islamophobia among British officials. The UK Foreign Office said Sir Salman’s honour was “richly deserved”. […] Mr Hosseini told a press conference: “Giving a medal to someone
June 18, 2007
a post that mimics an actual blog post, even as it's meant (meta-secretly) to test certain Word Press functions
From the AP: District Attorney Mike Nifong was disbarred Saturday for his “selfish” rape prosecution of three Duke University lacrosse players – a politically motivated act, his judges said, that he inexplicably allowed to fester for months after it was clear the defendants were innocent. “This matter has been a fiasco. There’s no doubt about it,” said F. Lane Williamson, the chairman of the three-member disciplinary committee that stripped the