Random Thoughts
In today’s Washington Post Sebastian Mallaby argues that Africans are subsidizing North American medicine. The argument is not airtight, as Mallaby as much as admits, but this is another example of how the US takes what it wants or needs from Africa, thinks that it is doing Africans a favor, and then ignores any potential consequences. This is not as bad as the loathsome tariffs we impose on African goods in the name of protectionism, but it does provide another context for why I wish Africa mattered more to Americans.
Meanwhile, one of the biggest stories in sports in the last couple of weeks is the Meltdown in Motown two Fridays ago. Skip Bayless, who is normally insane, gets it right on ESPN’s Page 2 today. This fight is not the mark of the decline of western civilization. It is not as bad as many overwrought and self-rightwous sportswriters and talk- show hosts are making it out to be. It was a fight. There were drunk fans. Players and those fans were out of control. Much, much worse things have happened in the arenas and on the fields. Take a valium, people.
Google has done it again. Let’s face it – if we want to find a quick tidbit, a lost citation, something to include in our blog to confirm our own wisdom, or the dirt on a noisome stranger, Google is our website of choice. Recognizing the importance of the web to modern-day scholarship, those wish fulfillers for one-stop shoppers have given us Google Scholar. This has huge potential as a time waster for those of us toiling in the groves of academe.
If you’ve heard it, and are of a certain age, you are not sure whether the lyrics of Bowling for Soup’s song 1985 cut a bit too close to home, make you feel wistful, or cause you to pull out your VHS copies of the Brat Pack’s oeuvre. (My personal fave is St. Elmo’s Fire. btw.) My guess is, all three. These guys may be purely disposable ear confection, but this is nearly perfect as a pop song: “There was Springsteen, Madonna, Way before Nirvana . . .”.
I heard this story on NPR this morning. It is about the medical marijuana case that the Supreme Court heard (sans Chief Justice Rehnquist) this morning. Here’s how it works for me: I believe in States’ Rights so long as I get a satisfactory answer to the question “The States’ Rights to do what.” The states do not have the right to violate the Constitution, to abridge rights, to interpose themselves against the federal courts, and a whole host of other nonsense. However, where are the conservative strict constructionists on this one? Home-grown marijuana for personal medicinal use can in no way be seen as falling under even the broadest penumbral emanation of the Commerce Clause. As with most civil rights historians, I am leery of the states being able to flip the bird to the federal government, but someone needs to tell me how this particular case is within the ambit of Congress, because I do not see it. (I also am curious when certain elements of the GOP became so hostile towards seriously ill people – this follows the whole stem cell nightmare that denies federal funding to researchers who need to use stem cells to cure Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, which itself preceded the absurd piling on of Edwards for presupposing that perhaps medical science might someday be able to solve the riddle of paralysis.)
You might need to register (or even subscribe) for these next two New Republic essays, but one of my (and Tootle’s) graduate school mentors, my friend Jeff Herf, pretty well hammers the administration’s, and especially Condi Rice’s, misuse of World War II. Meanwhile Greg Easterbrook makes an interesting argument (and one that surely will have Tom nodding in agreement) calling for a bigger military, but perhaps more interestingly, asserting the superiority of democratic nations at war over their alternatives.
I hope you all had a fulfilling, or at least filling, holiday. I would guess that the Rebunkers will do our best to waste your productive time in between grading and shopping, but we may be sporadic. Please keep checking in.