National Gun Violence Awareness Day (and Donald Trump)
Delusional Donald Tells Californians There Is No Drought
Here are the opening paragraphs of an article written by Steph Solis for USA Today: “California suffered one of its driest years in 2015. And last year the state hit its driest four-year period on record. “But Donald Trump isn’t sold. The presumptive GOP nominee told supporters in Fresno, California, on Friday night that no such dry spell exists. “Trump…
Starr and Trump–Self-Righteousness and Self-Glorification
This is an addendum to Hank Reichman’s post on Ken Starr. Here is a news item from Vanity Fair news writer Emily Jane Fox that succinctly synthesizes the recent news coverage related to Ken Starr—specifically the coverage of Starr’s comments about Bill Clinton and his investigation of the then-President’s sexual indiscretions and the coverage of…
McAdams Files Lawsuit against Marquette
The following is reported in an article by Allison Dikanovic for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “Marquette University associate professor John McAdams and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a lawsuit Monday against Marquette over the professor’s suspension stemming from his public criticism of a teaching assistant. “According to a news release, the lawsuit against…
Katehi Removed as Chancellor at UC-Davis
Hank Reichman has been reporting on the many issues surrounding Linda Katehi and the other chancellors in the University of California system. What follows is a short item by Mariel Hemingway, writing for the University Herald; the piece is largely a synthesis of the reports from other news sources: “Linda Katehi has been embroiled in…
'Punch with Care'
BY AARON BARLOW Every discipline falls into a pattern of standard practice; every few years each must reassess. The same is true for the institutions that house them. This happens, of course, too rarely—in both cases. Over the weekend, I read two pieces—an essay and a book review—that made me think about the staleness that…
Principles and Intercollegiate Athletics
The following paragraphs are taken from an article written by Dom Amore for the Hartford Courant: “The [Connecticut] governor’s ban on state-paid travel to North Carolina does not preclude college sports teams from playing games there. “In the short term, the ban, which Gov. Dannel P. Malloy issued on March 31 in response to a North Carolina…
Kaner, Stalin, & the Fight Against Ignorance
BY TOM MCBRIDE Guest blogger Tom McBride is professor emeritus at Beloit College in Wisconsin. In Chicago there’s a sports talk radio station with a couple of afternoon hosts who insist that their callers think critically about the topic at hand. When Patrick Kane, the Chicago Blackhawks hockey star, was accused of sexual assault, callers would…
The Art of Avoiding Prosecution
BY MARTIN KICH Donald Trump keeps floating the fantasy that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign will be derailed by her prosecution and possibly her imprisonment for using a private e-mail server while serving as Secretary of State. This fantasy is the current obsession on the Far Right, succeeding the one that dominated the first eight months…