John Emerson’s concept of a blog tabloid is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, but I know realize I was thinking about it all wrong. I was thinking along the lines of something like the free city papers you get in every city, but John’s idea is much better – it is [...]
I haven’t blogged about Roberts because there doesn’t seem to be any point. He will be the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He may even be, as people claim, a careful judge who respects the law. The argument being that his ideology will be tempered by his respect for precedent and procedure, and [...]
I can’t stand A Prairie Home Companion, but it wasn’t something I was going to blog about until Ish brought my attention to the fact that Garrison Keillor is suing some blogger for making a T-Shirt which reads: “A Prairie Ho Companion.” I think the blogger is right that it falls within fair use. I [...]
I’d like to issue a call for anyone and everyone who cares about the study of Taiwanese history to help contribute to the Wikipedia Timeline of Taiwanese History. Although I was aided tremendously by my handy copy of 臺灣史小事典, trying to sort out all the various dates and names of Taiwan’s various rebellions, rulers, institutions, [...]
I’m really at a loss for words. What the victims of Katrina need most right now are jobs to help them get back on their feet. The best bet would be community involvement in the rebuilding process: the rebuilding could create thousands of local jobs and provide massive skills training in decent paying industries. Instead, [...]
A little horn tooting: My Language in Society book review on both At war with words and War of words: Language, politics and 9/11 has finally been published! Here’s the abstract: Daniel Nelson writes that “we talk our way into war and talk our way out of it” (Dedaic & Nelson [henceforth DN], p. 449). [...]
Can anyone explain this? Make sure to read Bob’s post before offering any answers. For instance: I’ve received numerous emails explaining that all of the coastal parishes were already declared disaster areas because of Tropical Storm Cindy, which struck in June. Checking with FEMA’s own website… nope. Only five coastal parishes — Jefferson, Lafourche, Plaquemines, [...]
I missed this post by Tak at the time. It discusses the recent availability online of translations of Japanese history textbooks for middle-school: Lastly, Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, the group of right-wing historians also known as tsukurukai or 新しい歴史教科書を作る会, has just published translations of their infamous textbook for middle-school students titled New History [...]
Peter G. Gosselin has a very important story in the L.A. Times: But unless changes are made to an overhaul of the nation’s bankruptcy law due to kick in next month, many of those affected by Hurricane Katrina and the resulting floods will have a substantially harder time winning court relief from loans they incurred [...]
I am now adding a third post to the list of Katrina posts I am updating. The first, about government irresponsibility, is here. The second about issues of race (and poverty) is here. And now a third one about the attempts by the Bush administration to play spin the blame. Joshua Micah Marshall: It’s almost [...]