When the Mafia-backed entrepreneur and con man Donald Trump captured a majority of electoral college votes—although, of course, not the majority of actual votes, and that is before we inquire how the count may have been affected by “abnormal” Russian propaganda, “normal” Fox propaganda (overlapping with the Russian part), tampering with voting machines in swing … Continue reading “Resisting,” Talking with Republicans, and Remembering the Mandate of the 2018 Election—All at the Same Time!
Should This Blog Live? Where Do We Go From Here?
From the outset, I was far from clear about the future of this blogging experiment. It truly was experimental, albeit with a few associated “what if” ruminations: What if I liked having a “first draft” outlet for thinking out loud about my projects? What if, little by little, I could spoon out links to my … Continue reading Should This Blog Live? Where Do We Go From Here?
Heading for the “True North Strong and Free”
Starting next January, and continuing through Spring 2018, I will be at the University of Alberta in Edmonton as a Fulbright Research Chair in Arts and Humanities! No doubt I will have more to say about the adventure here. A couple of weeks ago I had a first taste when I traveled to Ottawa for … Continue reading Heading for the “True North Strong and Free”
“Resolved: Academic Jargon Is Bad.” Please Discuss
Recently I visited a UT class session that was discussing Judith Butler. This provoked the perennial complaints about Butler’s prose—leading toward the perennial observation that she once won an award for the worst written sentence of the year. I actually agree that prose by Butler—not to speak of her less insightful imitators and competitors who … Continue reading “Resolved: Academic Jargon Is Bad.” Please Discuss
True and Useful Generalizations About U.S. Religion in 1000 Words or Less
When I began my previous post, I imagined a short and sweet introduction to set up a lightly edited version of notes that I prepared for the student reporter whom I mentioned. Ironically—or is a better word “symptomatically? “pathetically?”—by the time I finished this introduction, it was already longish as an entire post, even though … Continue reading True and Useful Generalizations About U.S. Religion in 1000 Words or Less
All the News That Fits the Script
Recently a reporter for the University of Tennessee student newspaper interviewed me for a special issue on religion. In this resulting article I am a key source alongside some local ministers—mashed together in an effort to capture dominant religious trends in Tennessee under a tight word limit. The reporter took this half-decent picture of me, … Continue reading All the News That Fits the Script
A Song to Dishonor Joe Arpaio
In the strange world we inhabit, the insights I can offer as scholar seem (at least for the moment) to be assigned significant value. Sometimes I complain about the relative value ascribed to scholarship compared to a whole range of other things—say, building prisons or price-gouging people who need life-saving medicines—yet at the end of … Continue reading A Song to Dishonor Joe Arpaio
