Things Noted Here and There
Here is the official Vatican translation of Benedict XVI's lecture,"Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections," at Regensburg on 12 September, which has so inflamed devout Muslims. The passages to which they take exception are in paragraphs 2-5. Juan Cole says that the Pope was wrong on the facts and should apologize.
Tim Burke's course at Swarthmore,"The Whole Enchilada: Debates in World History," is singled out for scorn in Joseph Lindsley's"The Kindest Cut: Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be undergraduates," Weekly Standard, 15 September. Lindsley says that college students might be better off ignoring such courses and specializing in extra-curriculars of various kinds. Tim responds to Lindsley here. If he cared to do research, Lindsley might have looked at the course syllabus when Tim last offered it in 2003 or his dialogue with conservatives about it here. There may be a conservative critique of contemporary higher education, but it isn't built on lazy, misdirected cheap shots.
See also: Crooked Timber.
My friend, Wayne Flynt, who retired from the history department at Auburn, recently spoke some truth to football power."AU Professor: Football Too Big," Huntsville Times, 15 September. Thanks to Margaret Soltan at University Diaries for the tip.
"The Wonderful World of Early Photography," Neatorama, reproduces the earliest photographs and remarkable early cameras. Thanks to Rob MacDougall for the tip.
Michael S. Lief and H. Mitchell Caldwell,"‘You Have the Right to Remain Silent'," American Heritage, Aug/Sept, tracks the history of Miranda, the most cited case in American history.
Lorrie Moore,"A Pondered Life," NYRB, 21 September, reviews Suzanne Marrs, Eudora Welty: A Biography.
T. J. Clarke,"In a Pomegranate Chandelier," LRB, 21 September, reviews Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism and Anderson's Under Three Flags: Anarchism and the Anti-Colonial Imagination.
Tony Judt,"Bush's Useful Idiots: The Strange Death of American Liberalism," LRB, 21 September. Thanks to Arts & Letters Daily for the tip.
Daniel B. Wood and Gloria Goodale,"History by Miniseries: Too Fast, Too Loose," Christian Science Monitor, 13 September, and Max Blumenthal,"ABC 9/11 Docudrama's Rightwing Roots," Nation, 11 September, may have been the most important critiques of"The Path to 9/11", but"Factual Inaccuracies in The Path to 9/ll," defective yeti, 8 September, spotted even worse. One of many points:
The Starr Report alleged that President Bill Clinton engaged in oral sex with Monica Lewinsky, not Zacarias Moussaoui (though it's easy to see how the two names could get mixed up).Thanks to Rob MacDougall for the tip.
Ann Richards enters into heaven.
Finally, congratulations to Jonathan Reynolds, whose wife gave birth to their daughter, Ojie Lorraine Reynolds, on Thursday. That makes two for the Reynolds, now.