Two in one day (sigh). The Supreme Court just limited the EEOC's vision of retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, rendering a second blow to the first administration headed by a president who taught civil rights, no less.
When it comes to today's 7-1 decision sending affirmative action down to the state level, don't think about punting either kicking footballs or using poles to guide yourself down any tame and civilized rivers -- think pole vaulting. The consequences of this decision will be spelled out soon, and they will undoubtedly be significant. Meanwhile read the decision before coming up with your own conclusion or opinion that there is little gentle about this 7-1 decision despite the strong majority Chief Justice Roberts' rallied..
Obama extended his universal anti-universalism abroad yesterday at Brandenburg Gate. This is not exactly an “I’m a Berliner speech,” but rather a “Peace with Justice” speech that is arguably more controversial than JFK’s few words could be, given Obama’s being a “first” just like Angela Merkel (first woman and first leader from the former East Germany). Funny thing is no one is listening, at least in the United States.
Angela and I don’t exactly look like previous German and American leaders. But the fact that we can stand here today, along the fault line where a city was divided, speaks to an eternal truth: No wall can stand against the yearning of justice, the yearnings for freedom, the yearnings for peace that burns in the human heart.
Op-Ed interview by Joseph Preville in Muscat about Out of Many, One: Obama & the Third American Political Tradition released May 31, 20 2013
In the wake of the brouhaha about one of my recent blogs, I received considerable contorted media attention. It is unfortunate that my words went through some kind of washing machine that exaggerated and distorted what I wrote.
When I interviewed Ronald Reagan back in 1975, I did not see what the Conservative Political Action Conference saw in him. I had not yet heard about the Democrats’ “bankruptcy of ideas.” But then, I was writing for my high-school paper and living in a GOP-dominated town, a town that is still a Republican stronghold, though now for Tea Party social conservatives. .... Reagan may have been responsible for calling “surf’s up” as this so-called “tide of history” was moving “irresistibly” in the direction of the right. But I don’t remember any reference in our interview to “regirding the loins,” like the one made today by Donald J. Devine, vice chairman of the American Conservative Union.
This morning I told one of my sons, who began his day reading about this absurd law in Arkansas, that comparing a girl’s or a woman’s right to choose, and the number of people having abortions, with the Holocaust is de rigueur for the right. The hysterical pitch is simply their preferred pitch, so tune it out. I did.
Edsall foreword I was so enamored by how well Thomas Bryne Edsall's foreword summarized my argument, I'm sharing it months before publication. (Also see his author's page or his last book, The Age of Austerity) Interested in a review copy? Call or email Melinda KennedyPromotions ManagerThe University of Chicago Press1427 East 60th Street | Chicago, [...]
Announcing the New Word by Joan Wallach Scott with the proper or I should say authentic pronunciation (meaning straight from the oracle’s mouth. She taught me how to pronounce it on Thursday night at approximately 6:30 pm just before giving her marvelous talk on the subject at the Graduate Center, CUNY, with Anne Norton, author of the just published On the Muslim Question) (though where is my copy, I wonder?) ENTRY in Fake OAD — not the OED. (A is for E) Sex-u-larism n. (Sex-u-lar-ism) pronounced, or sounds sort of like Sec-u-larism (Sec-u-lar-ism)
1st Mellon Sawyer Seminar Vodcast On You Tube
“The only way to beat a bully is to stand up to a bully!” said Karen Lewis, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union. No kidding, Karen. And Obama’s former failed chief of staff, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, is nothing if not a bully. But Rahm is not just trying to intimidate and harm students and teachers [...]
