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Just for the record

Jamie’s been sick the past few days, and I’ve got whatever he’s got, so we’re home and coughing and moping with each other.  I plan to rally by 5 pm today for my radio date, of course, but I can’t manage any serious blogging. . . .

Hey, wait a minute!  Did I say “rally”?

image

That reminds me of something!  Remember Ahnuld’s speech at the GOP convention in New York?  I do!  In fact, I remember reporting on it for this very blog, in my first experiment with liveblogging:

And then the highlight of the night, the man we all came to see, Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Schwarzenegger spells “diversity.” For while the Democrats think Hollywood is the heart and soul of America, Republicans know that the heart and soul of America is someplace else, like a small town in a swing state, or in a quiet, modest house in the country where immigrants are working hard to better themselves by farming the land or pumping iron or something.  Arnold Schwarzenegger symbolizes that heart and soul, having risen from humble immigrant iron-pumping origins to fame and success and announcing his candidacy for governor of California on The Tonight Show—the classic American immigrant’s dream.  And as Arnold put it so eloquently tonight, immigrants don’t have to fear the Republican party—the Republican party loves them.  And they don’t have to agree with everything in the Republican party, like, for example, the part of the party that doesn’t love immigrants at all, because we “can respectfully disagree and still be good Republicans.” Now that’s diversity—and tolerance too!

I believe Ahnuld’s actual words were, “To my fellow immigrants listening tonight, I want you to know how welcome you are in this party. We Republicans admire your ambition.”

So come on in, everyone!  Never mind that guy with the gun and that news channel with the handcuffs.

Posted by on 04/11 at 11:27 AM

  1. Well, Michael, you know what the NRA used to say? “An armed society is a polite society”. Or maybe it was an immigrant free society? Any way, it’s apparently true, just look at Baghdad!

    Posted by  on  04/11  at  01:12 PM

  2. Speaking of rallying and politeness:

    http://redhairblackleather.blogspot.com/2006/04/fear-and-loathing-in-jesusland.html

    Posted by Jeff (no, the other one)  on  04/11  at  03:28 PM

  3. PLEASE tell me someone is recording Michael right now:

    http://www.lion-radio.org/wkps/listenlive.php

    I have to leave to pick up my son and I’ll have to miss it.  :-(

    Bravissimo Michel so far, and since I tuned in late, I don’t know where Horowitz is.

    Posted by  on  04/11  at  05:18 PM

  4. Listened to it and wow!  You were fine.  A bit annoying that the interviewer was so fond of his own voice that he kept interrupting you.  But I think I’ll be buying your book when it’s available in Canada-at least in paperback. 

    Now I’m listening to Sam R. (who is wonderful) interviewing Horowitz.  I’ve never actually heard De Who talk before-he is so unbelieveably lame.  Love his fantasies about being named the head of the Penn State sociology department, and his other fantasies about how his books are all the best books ever written on any subject he wants to cover.  What better resentment he feels that he isn’t taken seriously, and how it’s all everyone else’s fault that he’s not so recognized. This has gone from beyond ‘lame’ past ‘pathetic’ and ‘delusional’ to ‘dangerously barking mad’.  I say never again even acknowledge his existence, let alone his bizarre views.

    Posted by  on  04/11  at  05:58 PM

  5. I too was struck by Mr. Horowitz’s bitterness at not being begged by universities to join their faculty, as a “public intellectual”, whatever that means in his context.  He seems more concerned with that than any ideological issues.  He did call you a thug, which apparently for him means “someone who uses simple facts and logic to prove me wrong.”

    Posted by  on  04/11  at  06:22 PM

  6. Good job on the talking box! I do have to say that hearing you wish for more conservatives was a bit terrifying for me.  I considered quitting in undergrad a number of times due to a plurality of rather abusive reactionaries in my departments, so more of them...ugh.  I don’t want to think about it. 
    Congratulations on being “an intellectual THUG!”

    Posted by Heo Cwaeth  on  04/11  at  06:24 PM

  7. Sorry about those abusive reactionaries, Heo Cweath.  I’m just trying to get them out of Congress and into graduate programs, you know.

    And being called a thug by Horowitz is a little like being called a maniac by Ann Coulter, I think.

    Posted by Michael  on  04/11  at  06:30 PM

  8. Re #4, DH may have indeed perfected a “better” resentment, but it may turn out simply to be the same old bitter resentment we’ve all come to know and love in him.

    Captcha: “never.” Never, I tell you, never!

    Posted by  on  04/11  at  08:01 PM

  9. The best part, hands down, was when he claimed to be more qualified than Richards to teach a course in race relations. Because, and we quote, “I’ve read a lot more books than you have, and I’m older than you are.” I’m guessing he thinks he “called it,” too.

    I also enjoyed the bit where he defined what he meant by Marxist thinking. By his definition, there would be no real intellectual differences between Niccolo Machiavelli, Genghis Khan and the campus Spartacus Youth club.

    Posted by  on  04/11  at  09:08 PM

  10. Arnold kind of blew it with his endorsement of the Minutemen last year. It was Teddy Kennedy who had his arms spread wide yesterday.

    Posted by Bob in Pacifica  on  04/11  at  09:09 PM

  11. I wouldn’t cheer for more conservatives in the language and social science divisions and the pure sciences unless we get more progressives into the commerce and business schools in exchange. He Whose Name Must Not Be Unflatteringly Abbreviated is bitching because his political cause lacks complete control of the university--he can only command the parts where the money is. Our existence troubles him. This is a manifestation of a root problem with conservatives of this day and age: the confusion of our republic with mob rule.

    Posted by  on  04/11  at  09:17 PM

  12. I too was struck by Mr. Horowitz’s bitterness at not being begged by universities to join their faculty, as a “public intellectual”, whatever that means in his context.

    Wait a minute, isn’t this the guy who is constantly whining that academics are being promoted beyond what their qualifications merit?  Yep, it sure is:

    One of the charges in my new book The Professors, is that leftwing academics are being promoted to positions that exceed their qualifications.

    Oh, wait, my mistake.  He’s only upset about it when it involves leftwing academics.  It would be perfectly fine for him to land a faculty position with limited credentials, given his conversion to the right and all.

    In trying to find that quote on the frontpagemag site, I found a recent blog entry (oops… weblog) where he was up in arms that someone had hacked amazon.com and re-subtitled his book:  The Professors: Springtime for Stalin and Other Hits.  That’s catchy.  I don’t see what the problem is.  Unfortunately, I gather from a subsequent post that enough of his minions complained to have amazon fix the hack (which was perpetrated, according to Mr. Horowitz, by “vampires").  What he doesn’t seem to realize is that vampires are still running the show in the UK.  Too funny.

    (If they happen to fix this before anyone gets a chance to see it, let me know - I’ll put a screenshot up on my blog)

    Posted by Marita  on  04/11  at  10:22 PM

  13. I really wanted to catch the radio spot, but my employers saw fit to call a meeting during the time slot. What I’m getting from reading the comments is that Horowitz’s whole schtick may be some kind of vendetta for a perceived lack of respect from the academic world for his intellectual abilities. Kinda’ pathetic, when you think about it.

    Posted by  on  04/12  at  08:27 AM

  14. PLEASE tell me someone is recording Michael right now:

    Look right here

    Good show Michael… Isn’t this the right time to announce that what you’ve been doing last week was not just copyediting but also preparing the Michael Bérubé Podcast: THE most dangerous professor dilating, ideologizing and biasing right into the ears of students everywhere. Now not only through the Internets and in the classroom, but virtually everywhere these small mp3players can go. Every week, right into homes and doorms across the country ...
    Now that would be something, wouldn’t it?

    Posted by  on  04/12  at  08:39 AM

  15. Back to Ahrnold and immigration for a moment.  The last comprehensive demographic i received before i retired, revealed that more than 65% of the students in public schools in CA were not white, and that a whopping 38% of all students were ESL learners and not native speakers.  Since these numbers are relatively huge (overall CA pop is approaching 40 million w/ approx 8 million in public education k-16), and that illegal immigration has, as a percent of the population, remained relatively unchanged from the 4% mark, Arnold knows that his Austrian sheepherder bread is buttered by a large non-English speaking legal population in CA.  Kissing ass, regardless of the color of the language spoken at the other end makes for successful politics. 

    Thus the funoff election coming up in the 50th, where a hardline anti-immigration GOPper avoiding discussing the issue altogther, casting himself as a moderate conservative, letting the other rich anti-immigrant repugs thrash one another and lose.  Now it is a Dem versus GOP runoff that will be all about immigration; it should be very interesting.

    Posted by  on  04/12  at  01:53 PM

  16. Well done Michael. Doing great. Hats off to you. You are really a “public intellectual”. Hoping to hear more about conservatives in near future. Keep going. Looking forward for some stuff from you!!!

    Posted by janny  on  04/17  at  06:47 AM

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