Is the fact that so many people are having problems telling the white smoke from the black smoke symbolic of our discussion recently about the problems conservatives have dealing with ambibuity?
The latest news is that opposition has formed among the bishops that could prevent Ratzinger, who I wrote about yesterday, from being selected as pope. Let's see...
On April 11th, while giving a speech at Butler University in Indiana, the notorious Academic Bill of Rights advocate David Horowitz had a chocolate creme pie smashed in his face by several Butler students who apparently disagreed with the liberal-turned-conservative Chairman of Students for Academic Freedom.
Despite the hilarity of this incident, Horowitz has actually profited from it. He has urged his supporters to donate to him and his organization CSPS (Center For The Study of Popular Culture) in light of the pie incident. "These students and their academic consorts are underscoring our point -- and they’ve taken to violence in response to the success of our National Campaign for Academic Freedom!"
Clearly there are more effective ways of countering Horowitz's campaign than throwing pies, but I do admit this did get more attention than writing a letter to the editor. Of course I'm not advocating pie throwing at public speakers, but I think Horowitz needs some sweets so he could wake up and stop trying to privatize the curricula of distinguished institutions of higher learning. I just feel sorry for the students at Butler whose tuition is destined to increased to pay Horowitz's dry cleaning bill.
Paul Krugman, an economist at Princeton University who also writes for the New York Times, wrote an Op Ed a couple weeks ago on the subject of academic freedom. Here's my summary:
Two recent studies have shown that self-proclaimed conservatives make up only a small minority of professors at elite universities. Krugman says that one reason for this is self-selection. The person who prefers an academic career is likely to be more progressive than average. This is similar to the self-selection process that takes place with people who join the military, where Republicans outnumber Democrats 4-to-1. Read More »
News media generally described Pope John Paul II as conservative, and conservative Americans were certainly quick to claim him as one of their own after his death (see Jon Stewart on the culture of life). However, in some areas John Paul II was very supportive of progressive priorities. He condemned the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and he was also quite critical of U.S. tendencies toward free market fundamentalism.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is one of the leading candidates to become the next pope, makes John Paul II look very moderate. According to an article in the New York Times, Cardinal Ratzinger has consistently held that Catholicism is the only valid religion. He has described Protestant Christian churches as "sects" that seduce members to join, and said yesterday to the Cardinals who have gathered to select the next pope:
"A dictatorship of relativism is being built that recognizes nothing as definite, and which leaves as the ultimate measure only one's ego and desires."
Strong words. It certainly sounds like he doesn't agree that ability to deal with ambiguity is a desirable trait.
Ever since the New York Times broke a story on the contents of George Bush's iPod, there has been non-stop analysis of what the playlist says about the president. Now music fans are voting on what should be on his iPod.
Here's what listeners of KFOG in San Francisco came up with:
In the future we'll allow you to nominate playlists for other prominent people. Any suggestions, let us know!
The village Voice just came out with an article on the leading bloggers in academia.
Activists across the country today are protesting the investment policies of JPMorgan Chase bank. While other leading banks such as Citigroup and Bank of America created more progressive investment standards in response to pressure from groups such as the Rainforest Action Network, JPMorgan Chase has been conspicuously slow to change.
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Found this in the bookstore last week. This is former NBA star Charles Barkley's second book. Barkley pulls content from interviews he did with Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Tiger Woods, Morgan Freeman, and many others. Here are some excerpts from the publisher's overview:
The thing about race, Charles Barkley says, is we talk about it only when something bad happens and tempers are high, and so all we do is shout at one another across a chasm that's wide and getting wider. The rest of the time we try to pretend that the chasm isn't there.... Read More »
