Associate Professor George Ciccariello-Maher is now gone from his position at Drexel University. A year ago, I blogged a brief contingent defense of his controversial "white genocide" tweet. (Contingent because it only applies if he meant what I guessed he meant.) Drexel condemned his tweet at the time, but took no further action against him. It would have been … [Read more...] about Questionable Free Speech at Drexel University
Education
Say No To (Too Much) Shakespeare
In the Washington Post, high school English teacher Dana Dusbiber explains why she doesn't want to teach Shakespeare any more: I am not supposed to dislike Shakespeare. But I do. And not only do I dislike Shakespeare because of my own personal disinterest in reading stories written in an early form of the English language that I cannot always easily navigate, but also because … [Read more...] about Say No To (Too Much) Shakespeare
What To Learn About Next?
I'm planning to do some serious heavy reading, but I'm torn between several choices of what to study next.After reading Radley Balko's article using a police shooting video to illustrate the faulty nature of human memory, and stumbling across Nathaniel Burney's comic book explanation of the neuroscience behind faulty memory, and seeing a Reason interview about evolutionary … [Read more...] about What To Learn About Next?
Of Experts and Explainers
The Volokh Conspiracy blog has finally made the move behind the Washington Post paywall, and that led to an interesting comment on Twitter by conspirator Orin Kerr about the change in audience from being an independent blog to being part of a major media outlet: I think we've gained some and lost some. I'm worried we lost the law nerds and gained general interest readers. As … [Read more...] about Of Experts and Explainers
Don’t Disinvite, Just Don’t Invite
It's graduation season again, which means it's time for the usual round of news stories about controversial graduation speakers and the attempts by protesters to get them disinvited. For example, after protesters at Rutgers got Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to back out of giving the commencement address, the normally wonderfully cynical P. J. O'Rourke went into full … [Read more...] about Don’t Disinvite, Just Don’t Invite