Tuesday, February 24, 2004
When WorldViews Collide
Jim at The Rittenhouse Review has good news; he, and therefore, his blog will remain in Philly. I'll let Jim explain the rest.
If you haven't visited there in a while, he has lots of stuff up; I especially like his visual interpretation of which terrorism alert level we're all to maintain on any given day.
One of Jim's posts from Sunday, and well worth reading on its own, caught the unpleasant attention of John Cole, who proceeded to offer Virginia Postrel protection she doesn't seem to need, while throwing a few wild punchs Jim's way, as did most of his commentators.
This caught the attention of Ezra at Pandagon, who argued back at Cole, who then argued back at Ezra, mostly about John's assessment of what Jim's been doing at his blog, altogether a spirited exchange that tugs a bit at the outer edges of civilitty, with an unfortunate intrusion of genuinely stupid incivility by one of Ezra's readers.
Since Postrel's article, which is as foolish and dishonest, (though no doubt sincere)as Jim says it is, was published in the Sunday NYTimes Magazine, it's worth paying attention to, since it will undoubtedly have an influence on discussions of how to assess unemployment and the job vitality of the economy far beyond the intrinsic worth of her arguments.
So don't miss this post by Michael Berube, which renders Ms. Postrel in a shorter, funnier version, which then leads to a Postrel Postscript that discusses Professor Berube's previous discourse with Postrel on the subject of cloning and disability.
If you haven't yet discovered Michael Berube, go immediately to his blog and do so; there's also a list of his articles there, many of which are available on line. During the nineties, when almost every big name in the print and electronic media was discovering the evils of political correctness dug up by the entirely too well organized, by that time, right wing in this country, Berube's articles, passionate, erudite, witty, were among the few effectively challenging what was becoming a new orthodoxy of political incorrectness. And if you want to understand how we got from there to Geroge W, Berube's book, PUBLIC ACCESS, "Literary theory and American Cultural Politics," which can be found here, is truly a must read.
His book about his and his wife's experience with Down's Syndrome, "Life As We Know, A Father, a Family, and An Exceptional Child," is also wonderful.
If you haven't visited there in a while, he has lots of stuff up; I especially like his visual interpretation of which terrorism alert level we're all to maintain on any given day.
One of Jim's posts from Sunday, and well worth reading on its own, caught the unpleasant attention of John Cole, who proceeded to offer Virginia Postrel protection she doesn't seem to need, while throwing a few wild punchs Jim's way, as did most of his commentators.
This caught the attention of Ezra at Pandagon, who argued back at Cole, who then argued back at Ezra, mostly about John's assessment of what Jim's been doing at his blog, altogether a spirited exchange that tugs a bit at the outer edges of civilitty, with an unfortunate intrusion of genuinely stupid incivility by one of Ezra's readers.
Since Postrel's article, which is as foolish and dishonest, (though no doubt sincere)as Jim says it is, was published in the Sunday NYTimes Magazine, it's worth paying attention to, since it will undoubtedly have an influence on discussions of how to assess unemployment and the job vitality of the economy far beyond the intrinsic worth of her arguments.
So don't miss this post by Michael Berube, which renders Ms. Postrel in a shorter, funnier version, which then leads to a Postrel Postscript that discusses Professor Berube's previous discourse with Postrel on the subject of cloning and disability.
If you haven't yet discovered Michael Berube, go immediately to his blog and do so; there's also a list of his articles there, many of which are available on line. During the nineties, when almost every big name in the print and electronic media was discovering the evils of political correctness dug up by the entirely too well organized, by that time, right wing in this country, Berube's articles, passionate, erudite, witty, were among the few effectively challenging what was becoming a new orthodoxy of political incorrectness. And if you want to understand how we got from there to Geroge W, Berube's book, PUBLIC ACCESS, "Literary theory and American Cultural Politics," which can be found here, is truly a must read.
His book about his and his wife's experience with Down's Syndrome, "Life As We Know, A Father, a Family, and An Exceptional Child," is also wonderful.
