digital emunction » Two Views

Two Views: Jeffrey Goldberg on the Meaning of Faisal Shahzad

Robert P. Baird — Thu, 06 May 2010 00:53:08 +0000

It is fascinating to me how both liberals and conservatives are using the story of Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber (as well as the story of Nidal Malik Hassan, the Ft. Hood shooter,

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Two Views: On the Culture of Poverty

Robert P. Baird — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:00:13 +0000

1/ From an op-ed by David Brooks last Thursday:

Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that

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Two Views: On American Values

Robert P. Baird — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:06:04 +0000

1/ President Obama, in a speech on the earthquake in Haiti:

This is a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all share.

2/ Genevieve Peters, on plans to kick non-resident students out of…

Two Views: On the Profits of Counterinsurgency

Robert P. Baird — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:00:40 +0000

1/ From Andrew Bacevich, in the LRB:

Consider the views of John Nagl, a former soldier, counter-insurgency enthusiast and sometime adviser to Petraeus and McChrystal. According to Nagl, ‘population security’ – the central element of McChrystal’s proposal – ‘is

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Two Views: On Manufactured Scarcity

Robert P. Baird — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:01:31 +0000

1/ From One Poet’s Notes:

When Harriet Monroe, editor at Poetry, requested permission in 1916 to reprint in an anthology “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which had first appeared in the journal’s pages in 1915, Eliot declined her

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The Work of Schooling

Michael Robbins — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:40:21 +0000

William M. Chace, in “The Decline of the English Department,” The American Scholar:

First the facts: while the study of English has become less popular among undergraduates, the study of business has risen to become the most popular major

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Two Views: On Media (and) Hysterics

Robert P. Baird — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:25:41 +0000

1/ Rick Perlstein, Baffler-approved political historian, in the Washington Post:

Liberals are right to be vigilant about manufactured outrage, and particularly about how the mainstream media can too easily become that outrage’s entry into the political debate. For the

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Two Views: On Subjectivity and Choice in Art

Robert P. Baird — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:50:46 +0000

1/ From Kenneth Goldsmith’s “Conceptualism, Identity Politics & Globalization: A Response”:

If my identity is really up for grabs and changeable by the minute — as I believe it is — it’s important that my writing reflect this

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Two Views on the Mute Appeal of a Whale’s Eye

Robert P. Baird — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:08:25 +0000

1/ Philip Hoare in The Guardian:

Silhouetted against the blue, the whale turned and looked at me, eye to eye. It was the most disconcerting moment of my life. Then it dived, perpendicularly into the profound blackness, and was gone.

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Two Views: On Revolutionary Vegetarianism

Robert P. Baird — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:16:41 +0000

1/ From “Near-Extinct Birds of the Central Cordillera,” a short story in Ben Fountain’s Brief Encounters with Che Guevara:

Some evenings Alberto joined them, usually when one of his interviews was being broadcast; he’d settle onto the steps with

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