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September 23, 2005
THE SENIOR AND JUNIOR SENATORS FROM MASSACHUSETTS...
...have both tried for the presidency in the past and that, one supposes, gives them the sense that they are spokesmen for their party. But, as this home-town columnist at the Boston Globe argues, they have badly miscalculated in their votes against Judge Roberts as Chief Justice.
Posted by Ext720 at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)
FREE SPEECH AT CORNELL...
...hangs by a slender and frayed thread. When are these "administrators" going to come to terms with the real meaning of the first amendment? This report from a graduate student at the University provides the dismal details. We trust that FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) will be on the case by next week.
Posted by Ext720 at 08:02 PM | Comments (0)
CHINA STILL LEADS CORNELL...
....in the supression of free speech and of political commentary displeasing to the "administrators." This informative article from a well-credentialed western observer appreared earlier today at Real Clear Politics.
Posted by Ext720 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)
HOW TO SPEAK ENGLISH...
...without becoming "Americanized." Ay, there's the rub--or, as this Dutch scholastic sees it, the danger in a world (and particularly a Europe) in which English is crowding out many of the local languages.
Posted by Ext720 at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)
A GREAT DETECTIVE OF PSYCHICS...
...and of psychic frauds here takes on so-called "psychic detectives." Apparently they are better at cheating, lying, self-promoting and occasional conventional detecting then they are at seer-like, extra-sensory divination of murderers and missing persons. The article by Joe Nickell is from the current issue of Skeptical Inquirer. Full disclosure: the proprietor serves on the magazine's board of advisors.
Posted by Ext720 at 08:00 PM | Comments (0)
HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE...
...albeit "slowly" in the casinos or on Wall Street may (or may not!) be revealed in a new book reviewed here for American Heritage magazine.
Posted by Ext720 at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)
FIRST, LET'S LAUGH AT ALL THE LAWYERS!
According to a recent book by Marc Galanter (a former colleague of ours at the University of Chicago) everybody's doing it. This approving review from the Times Literary Supplement further illuminates the grounds (and the animus) for this species of derogative amusement.
Posted by Ext720 at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)
ARE YOU ON THE LIST...
...of the 100 leading public intellectuals? Of the making of such lists there is no end--and now Foreign Policy magazine has got into the game. It does please us that 23 of these annointed ones have been guests on our Extension 720 radio program. Namely: Becker, Dawkins, Diamond, Ekman, Fukuyama, Gardner, Garton Ash, Gates, Greer, Hitchens, Hughes, Huntington, Kagan, Kennedy, Kung, Lewis, Lomborg, Oz, Pinker, Posner, Rushdie, Weinberg, Zakaria.
Posted by Ext720 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)
THE SOUND OF THE CLARINET...
...is heard in the land or, more precisely, on the internet. These performances by Jonathan Cohler--particularly the Brahms and von Weber--are impressive and, in fact, beautifully rendered.
Posted by Ext720 at 07:55 PM | Comments (0)