Category: politics

• Perimeter of Poverty

  Apr 29

  I rarely feel or experience white privilege as such. As someone who grew up in poverty in rural Texas, I always thought the battle was between the poor and the… more ›

• Dear Senator

  Mar 17

  I’m currently drafting a letter to my senators regarding the letter they sent to Iran. It’s a letter about another letter–a meta-letter, if you will. Dear Senator: As a constituent… more ›

• Two Lost Projects

  Feb 24

  Resistances: The Problem of Fascism Walter Benjamin on fascism George Bataille on fascism Emmanuel Lévinas on fascism Jan Patočka on resistance Hannah Arendt on totalitarianism Michel Foucault on resistance Slavoj… more ›

• Late Modern Sculpture

  Dec 22

  It seems that I’ve gotten several new visitors to this blog from the TOL article on Prague’s late communist public art. Here are two more works that I spent a… more ›

• Gaza

  Jul 25

  No, we do not have to accept the status quo. We do not have to accept the fact that our nation unqualifiedly supports Israel. We can hold our representatives accountable.… more ›

• The Crimean Tense: When Past Is Present

  Mar 6

  Referencing the past is a weak form of analysis and one that offers little insight to the current situation in Ukraine. The Russian occupation of Crimea is distinctly not like… more ›

• The Adjunct: Confessions and Manifesto of a Benefits-Deprived Professor

  Feb 11

  First, we need to create honest and accurate language. Adjunct designates an inessential supplement, yet adjunct professors are just as permanent a fixture at colleges and universities trying to save a… more ›

• Naïveté: The Theater of Outrage

  Oct 27

  German Chancellor Merkel is naive if she believes that the US is not spying on her. And she is naive if she believes that we Americans don’t already assume that… more ›

• Strange Prisoners and the Ends of Mythology

  Aug 28

  “Individual responsibility” is code for the worst kind of social engineering: libertarian ideology. The only ideology that has no basis in reality, libertarianism attempts to enforce a dogma of selfishness… more ›

• In Budapest

  Jun 4

  He remembers: the last time he heard a live cover of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” was late February 1996 in a basement pizza parlor in Budapest before heading… more ›