The ethics of expert mumbling
I started this entry a few days ago, when I wrote, “I probably should be doing something else,” and obviously I did. But now that I’m back for a few minutes, I want to think aloud (or in text) about policy hubris. I’ve been batting a book idea back and forth recently, based on the […]
Now I’m in trouble as a blogger…
The first time someone else treated me as if I were not only an expert but the expert on any topic, I wanted to look around the room to find some ballast. I think I do good work, but gravitas is a bit too solemn for me. Now Alexander Russo is calling me one of […]
Sterility or psychodrama vs. untimed engagement or intellectual drama
Margaret Soltan is not a Luddite—far from it, she has used her University Diaries blog to become one of American academic letters’ premier public intellectuals. But as an observer of college life, she has a well-reasoned hatred of what she calls technolust. She regularly links to stories about students who abuse cell phones and laptops […]
On call for Mother’s Day
Material gifts: a magazine and Ursula Le Guin’s Lavinia (hat tip). Non-material gift: we do all the chores today. I didn’t quite catch my spouse before she did a few minor things, but we’ve gotten to six tasks before she got there. We don’t do the breakfast-in-bed routine for Mother’s Day, especially not with adolescent […]
Give children the vote?
While I’m doing some journal editing tasks and catching up on more than 100 e-mails that have lain unattended in the last mumbledy days, I’ll offer you the following provocative proposal: Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry recommends that we Give Kids the Vote! (Hat tip). Before you answer, I should warn you: I have adolescents at home, they […]