Of Exactitude in Science

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John Judis, the last Old Social Democrat at the New Republic, does a great job of explaining the problems with the world financial system. Meanwhile, my flight to NCA was canceled 2 hours before it was scheduled to leave, and I also discovered that paying my American Express card down to zero last month led them to cut my credit limit as well. Anyone else having this happen?

As I continue to grit my teeth about getting ready for NCA, the news comes from graduate students that *four* tenure-track rhetoric searches in Comm have been suspended within the last few weeks, due to hiring freezes at their institutions. The University of Nevada system has appealed for the equivalent of a federal bailout. Other economic news from academe you readers know about? Here’s a pretty good article from the Boston Globe on what a depression might look like now.

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A lovely meditation on justice, fortitude, and women, among other things. A belated mazel tov. . . .

(for Dana Cloud, in thanks for that conversation on Barry Brummett’s porch):

Marianne Moore’s

“Nevertheless”

you’ve seen a strawberry
that’s had a struggle; yet
was, where the fragments met,

a hedgehog or a star-
fish for the multitude
of seeds. What better food

than apple seeds - the fruit
within the fruit - locked in
like counter-curved twin

hazelnuts? Frost that kills
the little rubber-plant -
leaves of kok-sagyyz-stalks, can’t

harm the roots; they still grow
in frozen ground. Once where
there was a prickley-pear -

leaf clinging to a barbed wire,

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” . . . and conceive the better state as one in which people could be different without fear.” –Minima Moralia

Boards of Canada’s “Dayvan Cowboy”

from The Cure at Troy, by Seamus Heaney:

Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
can fully right a wrong
inflicted or endured.

The innocent in gaols
beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker’s father
stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
faints at the funeral home.

History says, Don’t hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.

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James Wood, a very fine literary critic, analyzes the eloquence of Obama’s victory speech. (Snarky aside to Jim B: Judith Butler wouldn’t know what eloquence was if it came up and bit her.)

I had a perfectly good day at work today, and then I had to find out that our Republican hack of a president at Texas A&M has invited George W. to be the commencement speaker this spring. I’m ready to start a Facebook group on it (not to get her to withdraw the invitation, but to organize a protest). Anyone want to help?

One pivotal moment in my political consciousness occurred at Penn State in Fall 2008, when I realized that most of the graduate students agitating for TA union recognition were supporting Nader. It seemed self-indulgent to me then. (He had already proclaimed support for gay rights to be “gonadal politics” he wasn’t interested in. But people I knew following the progressive “line” at the time didn’t care.) Now he continues to show his true colors.

According to Wikipedia, Rahm Emanuel has an Master’s degree in Comm Studies from Northwestern. Can anyone confirm? (1985, it says.)(And he belongs to a Modern Orthodox shul–Axelrod signed the ketubah at his wedding–I could just plotz. . . Omri, feeling any better yet?) Meanwhile, you can apply for jobs in the new administration here.

This map from the NYT (via Sullivan) illustrates the geographical limits of McCain support. As thoughtful conservatives debate the future of their movement, it’s also time for the rest of us to consider what these red counties and states want. Once upon a time, most of them were part of the New Deal coalition, and before that were populists. Obviously, we need to give up on gun control. What else?

My top two reforms that Obama needs to get passed quickly–what are yours?:

1. National voter registration (given the GOP obsession with faulty voter registration, it might be possible to build a bipartisan consensus).
2. Card check, of course. The Fox bobbleheads were already obsessing about this on election night.

RedState has a new campaign (the Right just loves disease metaphors, doesn’t it?).

Where’s Ann Coulter lately?

<a href=”http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_win_causes_obsessive?utm_source=em

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Here’s information on some (I think non-controversial) constitutional changes for RSA. If you are interested in rhetorical studies and are a regular reader of this Blog, but are not yet a member, please consider joining. Membership information is here. Student memberships are only $30 a year! And a big nudge to my COMM 651 students!

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From Newsweek:

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It’s immensely enjoyable reading National Review Online, the Weekly Standard, and Drudge today. Barack Obama is a much better man than I am, but after having been called a traitor, a Communist, a Christian-hater/secularist, among other things, for the last eight years, I’m not ready. Let them stew in their wretched cultural backwaters. They produce no art, no literature, no science–nothing life-affirming, beautiful, or true.

Nick is up late doing the laundry. He walks by my chair periodically, muttering, “McCain Sucks!” “No McCain!”

I’ve spent the better part of my academic career puzzling about the relationship of the “social” to the “rhetorical,” mostly social class and status. The rise of the professional-managerial class as a “new class” requires rethinking some classical Marxist assumptions. Obama is the candidate of the “new class,” one might say. Some interesting observations from a British Tory on the class realignment we see in this election:

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We’ll probably flip back and forth from the BBC to MSNBC. Others?

Election Day
William Carlos Williams

Warm sun, quiet air
an old man sits

in the doorway of
a broken house—

boards for windows
plaster falling

from between the stones
and strokes the head

of a spotted dog

ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER, 1884
If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,

‘Twould not be you, Niagara - nor you, ye limitless prairies - nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,

Nor you, Yosemite - nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,

Nor Oregon’s white cones - nor Huron’s belt of mighty lakes - nor Mississippi’s stream:

This seething hemisphere’s humanity, as now, I’d name - the still small voice vibrating -America’s choosing day,

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ELP’s great version of the Hymn of the British Labor Movement:

Rush Limbaugh is human sewage.

Jeffrey Hart, one of our greatest conservative writers, endorses O. Jonathan, are you reading????

In one webpage. This is the first year I’ve voted early. It doesn’t feel right somehow.

“Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but it is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.” –Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

Via Balloonjuice, a deeply weird (and long) pdf file with this title: AN EXAMINATION OF OBAMA’S USE OF HIDDEN HYPNOSIS TECHNIQUES IN HIS SPEECHES. (from the Penny Press, “the conservative weekly voice of Las Vegas”)

Keep it classy, Young Conservatives of Texas. (By the way, isn’t YCT registered as a non-profit non-partisan organization, in which case aren’t they breaking federal law by taking a partisan stance here?)

‘Tis the season for job searches (I’m chairing a search committee) and recommendation letters. I received a recommendation letter this morning via email, and I’m puzzling about our evolving ‘Netiquette on these matters. What’s others’ experiences? Am I supposed to require a followup on letterhead? (I certainly would for a tenure file.) Or doesn’t it matter any more? Graduate school recommendations are increasingly done online. Any thoughts?

I’m still pondering Josh Gunn’s and Chuck Morris’ talks on “voice” from the Wisconsin Public Address conference. “The Gender of Sound” is a very cool essay by Anne Carson, a Canadian classics professor and poet, in her 1995 book Glass, Irony, and God. Here’s how it starts: “It is in large part according to the sounds people make that we judge them sane or insane, male or female, good, evil, trustworthy, depressive, marriageable, moribund, likely or unlikely to make war on us, little better than animals, inspired by God. These judgments happen fast and can be brutal.

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Thinking a lot about rural Minnesota today, for some reason. This poem comes to mind. From Robert Bly, “Driving Towards the Lac Qui Parle River”:

I am driving; it is dusk; Minnesota.
The stubble field catches the last growth of sun.
The soybeans are breathing on all sides.
Old men are sitting before their houses on carseats
In the small towns. I am happy,
The moon rising above the turkey sheds.

Sarah Palin’s a Jew? Or maybe not? I can hear Omri Ceren dancing. . . .

Juliette Greco singing Serge Gainsbourg’s “La Javanaise”:

After watching Tina Fey et al. on SNL, is it possible to do a comedic imitation of Barack? If so, which actor would be best? (Richard Pryor comes to mind, but alas. . . .) This thought was sparked by Robert Lichter’s report from that den of right-wing hackery, the Center for Media and Public Affairs at GMU.

Joshie Juice ought to like this one: (via Marc Ambinder). Zane Starkwolf is a Republican running against Democrat Mike Thompson in California’s first district:

http://zane2008.com/uploads/soundclip.wav

(I didn’t know that robocalls are illegal in California.)

I’m teaching a graduate course on presidential rhetoric this semester–not my strong suit, but the quality of my students makes up for my deficiencies.

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Stanley Fish compares Obama and McCain, in Miltonic terms.

We appear to have just bombed Syria. BBC here. And Aljazeera. Juan Cole analyzes: “What is odd is that the Bush administration did not behave that way when the infiltration of fundamentalist vigilantes from the Syrian side was a more significant problem.

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(via Marc Ambinder) This website contains all the robocalls on both sides, as well as down-ballot races this year, among other things.

Paul and Sheila died 4 years ago this week. How I miss them, still. His Senate speech against the Iraq war:

When I saw the photo of Obama’s shoes last week I thought of an ominous parallel (but this blogger at Huffington Post beat me to it). This whole election I have worried that Obama is too Stevenson-esque, but it’s starting to look like the slow-and-steady strategy (or is it a tactic?) is working.

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I take a fair amount of grief for being an “Apple cultist,” as one of my colleagues once called it. (I still can’t get on our server for Liberal Arts at TAMU–God’s Harvard, as Colbert called it the other night)Here’s the first item on their Start page today:

No on Prop 8

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I know you all want to keep up with Michelle Bachmann’s Twitter feed.

The last election I voted in before leaving Minnesota for Texas was the contest between Republican, pro-choice Arne Carlson and Democratic, pro-life Rudy Perpich (if you don’t think that “liberals” are single-issue voters, that was a good counter-example), but today Arne endorses Obama. Amazing.

http://view.break.com/592648 - Watch more free videos

from Clement Greenberg, “Modernist Painting” (1960):

“Western civilization is not the first civilization to turn around and question its own foundations, but it is the one that has gone furthest in doing so. I identify Modernism with the intensification, almost the exacerbation, of this self-critical tendency that began with the philosopher Kant. Because he was the first to criticize the means itself of criticism, I conceive of Kant as, the first real Modernist.

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I was wondering why Obama is doing so well.

The best part of his comments today:

And it is permitted to be said such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?

…

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The Houston Chronicle endorses Obama-Biden. It has not endorsed a Democrat for President since 1964. And, in case you were asleep this morning: Colin Powell endorsed Obama on Meet the Press:

“Cheese crumbs spread in front of a copulating pair of rats may distract the female, but not the male.” –Alfred Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female

I want to write something about this. Where would I start? Her website is here.

This looks like a good thing.

David Iglesias (did you know he was the model for the Tom Cruise character in A Few Good Men?)talks about the politicization of the FBI and the ACORN issue. We know that the FBI used agents provocateurs in the antiwar/campus left movements in the ’60’s (and turned a blind eye to racist terrorism in the South). And the politicization of the DOJ has been intense under the Bush regime. Is it too much to imagine a coordinated effort on Election Day to: 1. engage in obvious voter suppression, and 2.

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per curiam, no less. The very brief opinion is attached below in pdf. Commentary here.

PBS doesn’t have the courage to show this before the election, but the whole documentary is on the web. Calling ‘wingers, explain to me, just once, why evangelicals don’t care about torture?

Hendrik Hertzberg clarifies the ACORN nonsense. I think there is one possible reason why FOX and the Gollum’s campaign keep bringing this up: suppose that on Election Day or after multiple lawsuits are filed by the Republicans in swing states to block the election results? It would not surprise me, especially if the polling gap increases. This could go into December again.

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8:03. Why do I feel like throwing up?
8:04. McCain’s short-term fix: reverse decline in home-ownership by buying up mortages. Socialism! Criticizes Paulson for not making this a priority.
8:05. Obama: No rescue package for the Middle Class. Four things: 1. jobs, 2. help middle-class with tax cuts, 3. McCain’s plan is a giveaway to the banks, 4. Long-term problem: fix energy policy, health care, education.

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Be sure to move your cursor around the room.

via Ezra Klein

Now is a good time to be discussing the Great Depression in our classes. James Livingston, a very fine historian at Rutgers, has a clear causal account here. (Scroll up for Part II.) He is also the author of the best book I’ve read on the Federal Reserve System.

That One wins the Scholastic News poll. Does anyone remember voting in one of these as a kid? Thank God Diebold doesn’t run it.

Cass Sunstein explains an important concept (especially for rhetoricians) in the new behavioral economics, and applies it to the financial crisis. And: Paul Krugman has won the Nobel Prize for Economics. It’s nice to see virtue rewarded.

Uff da. . . . The First Dude is visiting my home town this week. At least he has the good taste to wear an Arctic Cat shirt rather than those other inferior snowmobile brands. That oughta lose him some votes up there in Roseau, then. . . .

I really wish I had noticed this conference call when it came out: “Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation.” Does anyone who attended have some comments to add here? Rhosa? Murphy? Jen?

The conclusion of Morton Feldman’s “Rothko Chapel,” with shots of Rothko’s paintings:

Well, Burnsville, anyway.

An invocation at a McCain rally in Iowa: “I would also pray, Lord, that your reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November, because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god — whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah — that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons,” [Pastor] Conrad said. And Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens.

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They’re getting desperate. The whole ACORN thing is a great diversionary move, but any wrongdoing has nothing to do with voting, but rather with perverse economic incentives with registering. There is no evidence of fraudulent voting there, as opposed to consistent GOP tampering with the polls. I still can easily imagine blood in the streets on Election Day–a la lanterne, ca ira, ca ira. . . .

With the publication of the TrooperGate report, is it now more likely that Palin will withdraw from the ticket? Here’s a possible scenario. A combination of choosing Romney plus some sort of foreign policy event (a terror attack or another video from bin Laden) might rescue McCain. What do you think? Given how impulsive McCain is, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Gail Collins:

Remember how we used to joke about John McCain looking like an old guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn? It’s only in retrospect that we can see that the keep-off-the-grass period was the McCain campaign’s golden era. Now, he’s beginning to act like one of those movie characters who steals the wrong ring and turns into a troll. During that last debate, while he was wandering around the stage, you almost expected to hear him start muttering: “We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious.”

Here’s a clear and persuasive bit of analysis and advice from some top economists–I especially like Brad DeLong’s contribution. (btw, I think Scribd is a lot better than Google docs.)

Is it just me, or is he actually making sense recently?

From David Brooks’ NYT column today: “Republicans have alienated the highly educated regions — Silicon Valley, northern Virginia, the suburbs outside of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Raleigh-Durham. The West Coast and the Northeast are mostly gone.

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I hate to admit it, but I like Tina Brown’s new web venture. Check out the video from Palin’s church.

The Dow drops 500 points in the first minutes of trading this morning. Are your students talking about these matters in class? What are they saying? Whom are they blaming, if anyone? I confess to being a little ashamed at my own schadenfreude about the whole thing (but then I’ve been studiously avoiding looking at my retirement portfolio).

Information from the National Office on a new teleconference program–topics are towards the end of the announcement:

I am writing to introduce you to a new resource that is open exclusively to NCA members. Starting on November 10th, NCA will be offering a monthly Teleconference Series called CARD Calls: Communicating about Research and Professional Development.

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A hot news release from the ACLU, following a FOIA request: Guantanamo-style procedures were used by the Bush Administration on US soil as well. In a civilized country, this would become a top news story immediately (and I must point out yet again that it was career military officers who were most opposed to the Bush torture practices), but it will not.

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I think this deserves a caption. Any ideas?

“Wars, horrendous wars,/and the Tiber foaming with tides of blood, I see it all!” (Virgil, Aeneid VI) Read, and weep.

First wash penis, then pat dry.

Oh my this is funny.

This is a very disturbing lawsuit, especially since the university’s own internal investigation found evidence of a hostile environment.

Your September Madness brackets.

As some of you know, I have increasingly come to identify my work at the junction of rhetoric and sociology. Here’s a nice review about C. Wright Mills from the New Republic. He was a huge influence on the New Left, but little known now outside of sociology. He was from Waco, and attended Texas A&M back when everyone was in the Corps of Cadets (the rumor here is that he was kicked out for getting into a fistfight).

It was odd watching this with public address people in an auditorium. My opinion? It was a draw, which is probably a net plus for Obama. But, frankly, again McCain made emotional connections better, and, Barack, Americans don’t *care* that no one else in the world respects us any more. What do you readers think? My punditry skills are limited with these things. I can make more sense of Supreme Court politics.

I attended the first biennial public address conference at the University of Wisconsin in 1988. My oldest son Nick was here in utero with Miriam (her last academic conference attendance ever). The surroundings then were somewhat squalid (especially the university housing), and State Street was still pleasantly hippie-ish. That conference was still about public address finding its way after some years in the doldrums, with a heavy focus on close reading of single texts and no little bit of theory-bashing.

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Meanwhile, from the Nation, a spam email you’ll want to read:

Dear American:
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

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Life imitates South Park, as usual:

[In the gnome's cave]
Gnome 1: This is where all our work is done.
Kyle: So what are you gonna do with all these underpants you steal?
Gnome 1: Collecting underpants is just phase one. Phase one: collect underpants.
Kyle: So what’s phase two?
[Silence]
Gnome 1: Hey, what’s phase two?!
Gnome 2: Phase one: we collect underpants.
Gnome 1: Ya, ya, ya. But what about phase two?
[Silence]
Gnome 2: Well, phase three is profit. Get it?
Stan: I don’t get it.

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An amazing collapse of Palin’s approval ratings in just a week. Here’s a question for discussion (related to the fact that I’m doing a paper on religion and the republic at Madison next week): Does Palin represent the last gasp of the “Christianists” (as Andrew Sullivan calls them–I’d prefer Christo-fascists, personally) in national politics, doomed to falter against the inevitable forces of secularization, or will they possess significant strength (at least as part of a coalition) for some time?

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Mark Crispin Miller explains the central role of Governor Palin in the vote fraud strategy.