Still More Noted
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At Crooked Timber, Henry Farrell introduces the Timberites' symposium on Susanna Clark's novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. There are contributions by John Quiggen, Maria Farrell, Belle Waring, John Holbo, Henry Farrell, and a response to all of them from Susanna Clark.
Scott McLemee,"Piled Higher and Deeper," Inside Higher Ed, 29 November, looks at why the Bush administration's apologias for the war in Iraq and David Horowitz's crusade for campus" conservatism" aren't adequately described by Harry Frankfort's On Bullshit. I will continue to be sympathetic to McLemee's argument until I find myself backed into some corner in which I have to appeal to my own Higher Truth, to which you all do not necessarily have access.
At Historiblogography, our colleague, Chris Bray, finds a moral compass in the Pentagon's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace. When the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, said in a news conference that American forces had no obligation to prevent Iraqi abuse of prisoners or civilians, General Pace politely corrected him.
Yikes! My nephew is on the fund-raising staff at New York's Museum of Natural History, which failed to raise any corporate donations for the Museum's new exhibit on the life of Charles Darwin because of corporate fear of offending the religious right. The exhibit will be funded by private individuals and charities. Thanks to Eric Alterman's Altercation for the tip.
Finally, as a Ph.D. candidate, our colleague, Caleb McDaniel, is also in training for his absent-minded professorship. I knew that I had earned mine when I used to drive the car over to campus in the morning, walk home in the evening, and wonder who had stolen my automobile.