Things Noted Here and There

by Cliopatria

Carnivalities: Happy anniversary to the Carnival of Feminists, which celebrated its 1st with Carnival of Feminists #25 at Natalie Bennett's Philobiblion. The Carnival of Bad History #10 is up over at archy and Carnivalesque XX, an early modern edition, is up at Recent Finds. With so much fun in the blogosphere, we may have to ask the dean to suspend classes.

Colonialism Revisited: William Darymple,"The Last Mughal and a Clash of Civilizations," New Statesman, 16 October, revisits the changing British imperialism in 18th and 19th centuries south Asia. Thanks to Arts & Letters Daily for the tip.

The Judt Manifestoes: When right-wingers called them lackeys of Osama bin Laden and Tony Judt accused American liberals of having"acquiesced in President Bush's catastrophic foreign policy," a group of noted American liberals (including Bruce Ackerman, Eric Alterman, Lizbeth Cohen, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Henry Farrell, Todd Gitlin, Adam Hochschild, Michael Kazin, Sanford Levinson, Doug McAdam, Ruth Rosen, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Christine Stansell, Charles Tilly, Michael Tomasky, William Julius Wilson, and Alan Wolfe) responded with"We Answer to the Name of Liberals." When the Anti-Defamation League lobbied New York's Polish Consulate to cancel a speech by Tony Judt, another group of noted American liberals (including Peter Beinart, Thomas Bender, Ian Buruma, Lizbeth Cohen, Franklin Foer, Timothy Garton Ash, Todd Gitlin, Michael Kazin, Richard Sennett, Jim Sleeper, Fritz Stern, Andrew Sullivan, Michael Tomasky, Leon Wieseltier, Alan Wolfe, and Marilyn Young) signed"The Case of Tony Judt: An Open Letter to the ADL."

The Katrina Syndrome: Chris Rose,"Hell and Back," New Orleans Times-Picayune, 22 October. Read it. Let it sink in. Thanks to DK at Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo for the tip.

Re-Enforcements: Cliopatria welcomes Ellery Gayle McDaniel to the world. She was born at 9:04 a.m. (mt) on Sunday 22 October in Denver. Ms. McDaniel weighed in at 7 lbs of beautiful perfection. Mother are daughter are both doing well. Father, Caleb, is tired. I'm seeing a pattern here. Rob MacDougall is"not getting enough sleep." Young fatherhood must be"hard work." Nathanael?

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Michael Pitkowsky - 10/24/2006

Here is an interesting critique of the Israel lobby claim.

Michael Pitkowsky - 10/24/2006

I agree that there is nothing inherently wrong in the ADL contacting the Polish Consulate, and although I think that Judt is way off base in many of his accusations, I don't think that the ADL's intentions were totally innocent and it seems that they are surprised as the criticism of their actions from people and groups they see as allies. I still think that everyone interested in the topic should read the most recent version of the "Lobby" article b/c I feel that it fails to show one major foreign policy decision which was blocked or modified substantially as a result of the Israeli Lobby. It consists mainly of criticism of Israel's actions, both past and present. If anything, lately there have been positive statements from Israeli leaders reading negotiations with Syria and the Israeli press is reporting pressure from the US Administration to back off on the subject.

Ralph E. Luker - 10/23/2006

Thanks for the link, Michael. I see no inherent problem with the ADL contacting the Polish Consulate prior to Judt's speech -- if its message had been to seek additional speech (i.e., perhaps a second speaker more likely to take a position it approved). The problem is the suppression of speech and the ADL should have known and made clear the difference to officials at the Polish Consulate from the outset. Otherwise, the ADL shouldn't have made the contact.

Rebecca Anne Goetz - 10/23/2006

Congratulations, Caleb!

Michael Pitkowsky - 10/23/2006

Again I messed up my link, see the article here.

Michael Pitkowsky - 10/23/2006

"When the Anti-Defamation League lobbied New York's Polish Consulate to cancel a speech by Tony Judt"

Did someone from the ADL call the Polish Consulate? Yes, is this "lobbying"? I doubt it. Was it wrong and should they have just let Judt speak and not draw more attention to his talk than it deserved? Yes. Judt seems to love to play the role of the martyr, although it is difficult now with even the organizer of the talk denying and counter-denying much of Judt's claim about how the talk ended up being cancelled, and even Judt claiming that some things that he said were not for publication. See this article for more.

Nathanael D. Robinson - 10/23/2006

I am in my mid-thirties, and yes, not-so-young fatherhood is hard!

Jonathan Dresner - 10/23/2006

Those of us who became fathers in our mid-thirties would point out that fatherhood is hard work no matter what age you start at.....