Setting the tone for these uneven notes on various forms of subtle and unsubtle abuse and resistance is Morphological Confetti’s fascinating post on the 1741 New York slave rebellion, in which poor whites were co-conspirators. 1. The good news this week, of course, is that Jerry Falwell is dead. The Field Negro has a picture … More Seven Forms of Resistance
According to Stephen Gregory in The Devil Behind the Mirror: Globalization and Politics in the Dominican Republic (U of California P, 2006), citizenship is a “technology of power” that enables the tourism police to enforce a kind of social hygiene on the behalf of tourists, who do not want to be irritated by vendors or … More Illegal at Home
It appears that being a nationally recognized wetlands expert and working to save the coastline is not good for an academic career in Louisiana. We can read all about it in the Baton Rouge Daily Advocate. Paul Keddy’s university issued the following press release about him May 2: Southeastern Louisiana University wetlands expert Paul Keddy … More On Academic Freedom
I am working on my new auxiliary site and I would like feedback on the header image. Meanwhile, one of my correspondents says this: Rumors are flying that the VP Dick Cheney may be part of Hookergate. If so, Washington D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey‘s call-list may be the WMD that does in the Bush … More On Dick Cheney and ‘Hookergate’
I got a Hallmark e-card and tried, but failed, to open it in Windows / Firefox. It appears to have been sent from an operating system set up in a mysterious language. The dialog box said: Extrag svchost.exe Nu pot crea svchost.exe Extrag download Nu pot crea dierctorul download Extrag logs Nu pot crea dierctorul … More Is This Esperanto – or Rumanian?
1. What is terrorism? Who is and who is not classified as a terrorist? Why? CubaCentral says this: The first terrorist attack in this hemisphere targeting an aircraft was perpetrated by Luis Posada Carriles against a Cuban airliner, and the United States, which has its own experience with airborne terror, should be certifying Posada as … More Terrorism, Mezcal, Trade Winds
I read statistics like those which follow over ten years ago. It seems that the situation has not changed. – 28% of adult Louisianians surveyed were not literate enough to find an intersection on a road map, or two stated facts in a sports article. Rates of illiteracy at this level in some parishes are … More Des Statistiques
In the Daily Mail today is a precious picture of George W. Bush winking at the Queen. In the Guardian we find Maid Service, an article on the question of corruption. Below are some highlights, with interesting information on contemporary Peru. I have of course bolded the most shocking paragraph. Why is corruption endemic in … More On Inequality and the Origins of Corruption
Regin Dahl (Tórshavn 1918-København 2007) will be buried in Tórshavn on the summer solstice. He was a piano player and composer with a strong tenor/baritone voice we can hear on the MySpace page someone has set up for him and us. He worked as an editor and proofreader, but is best known as a poet. … More Regin Dahl
The Kingfish has an excellent post on our useless senator David Vitter, and how Barack Obama is having to do his job for him. Meanwhile one of my activist acquaintances has sent me an e-mail on our similarly useless representative Bobby Jindal. The message is important since Congressman Jindal is believed by some to be … More Two Phantoms
coldhearted scientist وداد 