I taught four classes in a row today, on four topics as I always do Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester, after getting up at 5:30 AM to finish grading and updating WebCT. A job candidate is landing in exactly 34 minutes.  I expect to be bleary eyed  for some time. In the fourth class, I … More On Absolutism and Enlightenment

I never read the newsletter of California Prison Focus as closely as I might, but an item in the current edition caught my eye – Robin Levi and Vanessa Huang’s “Prison Proposal is Disturbingly Akin to Eugenics” (rpt. from L. A. Daily Journal, 8 January 2007), on p. 25. Apparently, sterilization is again being foisted … More Eugenics News

The Archbishop of Lima and his conservative wing of the Church are attempting to intervene in academic affairs at the Catholic University of Peru, which maintains the Riva-Agüero archives. Casa Riva-Agüero | Jirón Camaná 459 | Lima – PERU Photo Daniel Duguay Peru21 has an editorial about this. There are elements of the backstory, which … More Jirón Camaná

News I would like to be considering today includes the Padilla case and the Democracy Protection Act. The question I would like to be considering is: if the Democratic candidates are people like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who have supported the Patriot Act and the war, should one vote just to oppose the Republicans, … More On Democracy in America

Reading for today is Jeremy Scahill’s work in The Nation on Blackwater USA, the mercenaries we hire, Nezua on the plight of immigrant children stranded after a March 6 raid, and Ellen Simon’s review of Robert I. Sutton’s book on workplace bullies. This was recommended by a friend, and it sounds to me good but … More Blackwater

It would appear that we are moving on Iran. American Zombie has pointed it out. I hope someone can analyze this, as I must now analyze eighteenth century texts. I will say that Cyrus the Great, King of the Persians, is considered to have written the earliest charter of human rights. Axé.

As I say, there are concentration camps in the United States, as well as United States run secret prisons abroad. Xicano Power’s March 12 post gives relevant information – and not just about the Border Patrol, although they are bad enough. Read the whole post. I refer you as well to the Dachau Memorial Site. … More Concentration Camps II

PRINCIPAL I will be periodically reminding everyone that the United States has concentration camps, not only outside but also within our borders. Today’s featured post, Xicano Power’s Privatized Prisons for Immigrants, addresses this issue. Note also that there is a huge immigration sweep underway in Santa Fe. OTRAS In other news, my favorite quotation for … More Concentration Camps I / Sunday Paper

My favorite academic novel is Neal Stephenson’s Big U. Now Dissent alerts us to the fact that some of our alma mater has once again struck a deal worthy of this novel. We can read all about it in the San Francisco Chronicle, whose headline for the story is “BERKELEY – UC faculty critical of … More Neal Stephenson