Via Terry Belanger on SHARP-L: Order a copy of the University of Virginia Rare Book School catalog of videotapes and DVDs.
Via Lynne Connolly on C18-L: BBC Radio 4 discussion of “The Sublime.”
Via email correspondence: Harvard University’s H20 discussion environment.
Via WaPo: “Most Think Truth Was Stretched to Justify Iraq War“
A majority of Americans believe President Bush either lied or deliberately exaggerated evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify war, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The survey results, which also show declining support for the war in Iraq and for Bush’s leadership in general, indicate the public is increasingly questioning the president’s truthfulness — a concern for Bush’s political advisers as his reelection bid gets underway.
Barely half — 52 percent — now believe Bush is “honest and trustworthy,” down 7 percentage points since late October and his worst showing since the question was first asked, in March 1999. At his best, in the summer of 2002, Bush was viewed as honest by 71 percent. The survey found that nearly seven in 10 think Bush “honestly believed” Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Even so, 54 percent thought Bush exaggerated or lied about prewar intelligence.
Well, it looks like I’ll be going to France this summer for SHARP 2004. Last year’s conference was in California, as longtime readers will remember. Williamsburg, Virginia in 2001. London in 2002. Claremont, California in 2003. Lyons, France in 2004. Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2005. Not a bad series of destinations.
Oh, and after ASECS 2004 hits Boston next month, it will be be in Las Vegas in 2005.
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“At its best, our age is an age of searchers and discoverers, and at its worst, an age that has domesticated despair and learned to live with it happily.” |
Liz lists several things she wishes she didn’t know and then writes, “Yeah, I think life would definitely be easier if Iíd never had to learn any of those things.” But because Liz knows those things, there will be people around her for whom life is easier. This world often brings unwanted pain, but if you’re lucky you’ll find yourself able to do something positive with that pain, like help others avoid it or find their way out of it.
Danah writes of being on the receiving end of a sexist joke. Two of the responses to her entry think she is over-reacting. Certainly being told that you are good looking is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. The context matters, however. I know I would rather not hear about it if, for example, students were taking my classes because they thought I was attractive and not because they thought I was smart. And it seems to me that an overlooked part of Danah’s story is the experience of hearing yourself discussed in the third person while you are there to hear the discussion, as if you need not be addressed directly. If this isn’t objectification, then the word has no meaning.
Finally, if I weren’t such a half-assed Buddhist, I might actually believe in this concept, which I think gets at the heart of what I’m trying to say here.
The new way of going to war apparently includes stating as fact what you may have reason to believe is untrue, and then altering the rationale for your actions post facto as needed. Via WaPo: President Revises Rationale For War – Bush, Cheney Stress Iraq’s Capabilities. Via NYTimes: In Rare Talk Show Interview, Bush Defends Decision on War. So we’ve gone from assertions that Hussein had WMD that could be put into use within 45 minutes to assertions that it was his capacity to create WMD (within what amount of time…?) that was the reason for going to war. There’s a movie to be made here somewhere.
By the way, given this ad campaign, is anyone up for staring a meme on cronyism?
