The first time I voted was 1980, when Reagan knocked Carter out of a second term. I don’t even remember how I got my news back then, but I do remember that everyone was very grim around Reed College, where the unofficial motto was “Communism - Atheism - Free Love” and the hard-core set walked […]
Also tagged Barack Obama, stupid conservative tricksThe discourse in and around the lacrosse case is full of misrepresentation, manipulation, disembling and distortion. Thanks to commenter RRH and philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt, I realize that a great deal of it can be described more accurately as bullshit. The word really captures the spirit of KC Johnson’s anti-academic crusade, but he’s not by any stretch the only offender. Prosecutor Mike Nifong and his minions generated loads of it, and the faculty at Duke contributed more than their fair share, too. What was needed was more bullshit detectors and fewer producers.
Also tagged bullshit, Duke lacrosse case, Duke University, Karla Holloway, KC Johnson, Mark Anthony Neal, potbangers, Tim Tyson, Wahneema LubianoFor some reason a few days ago my blog came to the attention of the Liestoppers forum. The referrer links prompted me to take a look at their new digs for the first time since the old forum imploded a couple months ago. Those forums were a copious record of the grim and wacky world […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse, Duke University, KC Johnson, Robert Perkinson, William AndersonOver the past few weeks I’ve been sticking my nose into web forums here and there, trying to generate some feedback for my recent posts about KC Johnson and his blog, Durham-in-Wonderland (DIW). No doubt I’ve been too pushy and opinionated about it—that’s always the temptation on the net. My bottom-line issue at the moment […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse, Duke University, KC Johnson, Kerry Haynie, Wiegman-Lubiano-HardtI’ve already written twice about this episode of the Duke lacrosse scandal. Check the first of those posts for details. I touched on it again to make some points about people jumping to conclusions in a heated controversy that’s bound to have some nastiness on both sides. But there was an important piece of the […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse, Duke University, KC Johnson, Kerry Haynie, thefire.orgThis is the fourth in a series of posts looking at the crusades mounted on both sides of the Duke lacrosse case. The first has an introduction and overview. The second and third are about the potbanging protest and its connection to and impact on the controversy surrounding the “listening” statement. This one turns to […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse, Duke University, flame wars, KC JohnsonThis is the third in a series of posts looking at the crusades mounted on both sides of the Duke lacrosse case. The first for an introduction and overview. This post continues directly from the previous one about the potbanging protest held at the lacrosse team captains’ house soon after the rape allegation became public. […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse, Duke University, flame wars, KC Johnson, potbangers, Wahneema LubianoThis is the second in a series of posts looking at the crusades mounted on both sides of the Duke lacrosse case, in the hope of shedding some light on the way they’ve overshadowed meaningful debate about the incident and its aftermath. You can click back to the first post for an introduction and overview. […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse, Duke University, flame wars, potbangersAfter a few months of dealing with unfinished business, I’ve managed to put together a two-sides-of-the-coin analysis of the Duke lacrosse case that’s been on my mind for a while. For better or worse, the lacrosse case has been a blogger’s boon, and while I was taking stock of my time at Duke anyway I […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse, Duke University, flame wars, KC Johnson