More Noted Things

Brown Out: FEMA Director Michael Brown has been removed from his role managing Katrina relief efforts.

Memo:

To: Faculty of the School of Education, Brooklyn College
From: Ralph E. Luker

If you had half the courage of my colleague, KC Johnson, you would not threaten an inquiry into somecharges against him in orderto suppress his free speech. If you have charges to make, make them to an appropriate authority, where he has a fair chance to defend himself. He is unlikely to be intimidated by you and your shabby effort to intimidate him only further validates his complaints with your program.

Thanks to Jon Dresner for the pointer.

Another Milestone: Thanks to all her readers, Cliopatria passed another milestone shortly after midnight last night, when it logged 250,000 hits. Come back often and stay long.

Give it upJohn Holbo and Ralph Luker. Sometimes the apparently obvious is, well, apparently obvious. J. R. R. Tolkien's inspiration for the hobbits didn't come from stories he heard about people who lived in central Kentucky. That's the conclusion of David Bratman in a paper that he gave at the Tolkien Society's 2005 conference last month and the Elfin Ethicist was right to be skeptical. (scroll down for comments)

Brooks: David Brooks,"Katrina's Silver Lining," New York Times, 8 September, is a breath-taking endorsement of social engineering. I may even agree with him, but it leaves me wondering where's the" conservative" in"big government conservative" or"neo-conservative." If it means conserving the most radical visions of the New Deal's bureaucratic management of whole populations – that I can understand. [ ... ]

If you could visit any museum in the world that you'd not yet seen, what would it be? Cranky Professor chooses Crete's Archaelogical Museum of Herakleion. Looks like a good choice to me!

Bait and Switch: Scott McLemee interviews Barbara Ehrenreich about her new book about the managerial class for Inside Higher Ed.

Alan Dershowitz and Ahistoricality set eulogistic routines aside and reach a realistic consensus about Chief Justice William Rehnquist's judicial record.

Finally: Congratulations to Hugo Schwyzer and his bride. They were married on Sunday evening 4 September and took a short honeymoon before Hugo returned to work at Pasadena City College on Wednesday.