Michael Bérubé - American Airspace

Reader poll

It’s your call! Do I have to go to this thing?

___ Yes! Over the past year, you have devoted one-seventeenth of your waking life to mocking David Horowitz, and it is your obligation to hear him speak in person if he’s going to be appearing less than a mile from your temporary apartment in downtown Durham. Besides, we need to know what he thinks about the fact that Duke has hired Judy Woodruff and David Brooks to teach courses for the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy next fall. Liberal bias, or . . . liberal bias?

___ No! Life is short, Michael, and it is very likely that you have already lived more than half of yours. And your National Humanities Center fellowship is even shorter. Listen! Even now, full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn, hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft the red-breast whistles from a garden-croft, and gathering swallows twitter in the skies. Don’t go to this “lecture”; remember, PZ Myers, that dear soul, has already done that job for you. Take your skates and go work out at this place instead.

Please review these options carefully, and vote no. Thanks!

Oh, and while you’re voting, check out this thoughtful review of DH’s latest. And please, please, please vote for me in the all-important Ty Cobb Award competition, because I’m getting slaughtered and murderized in the Koufaxes. Thanks again!

Posted by on 03/07 at 09:35 AM

Well, then, please let me be the first to vote . . . No!.

Posted by on 03/07 at 10:51 AM
If it were possible that you could do more damage to his rep in person than you have on the Internets, I would say sally forth. But I would also say you know his schtick by heart now, and have undermined in advance everything the man will say. As you say, life is too short.

The only argument I can see for going is from the perspective of the other attendees, who would doubtless be transfixed at the prospect of a Darrow/Bryan-esque rhetorical smackdown. (I can hear them exclaiming in a whisper as you pass, “Bérubé!"--like the performers who say “Leopold!” when Bugs Bunny passes in his conductor’s outfit.)

Posted by on 03/07 at 10:57 AM
Another “no"…

I hear that Horowitz is very disappointing live. It’s all lip-synched and the stage show stinks. Who’s opening for him? Ann Coulter?

I just checked weatherunderground.com (especially appropriate, under the circumstances). Durham’s going to be in the 70s next week. Go for a walk along the Eno River.

Posted by on 03/07 at 11:02 AM
Ooops..that talk’s tomorrow. If it’s too cold for a walk, there’s always the gym. Or just hang out with your colleagues from the NHC, who will actually have interesting things to say.

Posted by on 03/07 at 11:06 AM
Yes. Remember, you’re a dangerous Professor.

Posted by Sandwichman on 03/07 at 11:08 AM
Go, and liveblog while you’re there. It would provide me with abotu 50 cents of amusement. If you don’t go, please mail me fifty cents.

Posted by on 03/07 at 11:08 AM
Let’s see, go and you reward the attention-starved Horowitz with a legitimacy he doesn’t deserve. Yet, he will no doubt get media attention regardless of whether or not anyone actually shows up to hear him. That has to increase the temptation to go, if only to toss a pointed barb at the windbag—humiliating Horowitz in the press would make you a bona fide legend. Kind of like that guy who pied Ann Coulter.

It’s a conundrum, alright.

Posted by on 03/07 at 11:09 AM
Hey, I am a couple of miles away from Duke but will not be going. Does that mean that you are in my neighborhood these days? There is a Blogger Meet-Up on Thursday at 6pm, if you want to come by. Or we can trash PZ over coffee if you have time…

Posted by coturnix on 03/07 at 11:22 AM
As Ray Kinsella says to Terrence Mann, using the third person, “Leave the man alone. He’s done enough.”

Michael, you’ve done enough with Horowitz. Enjoy yourself at the gym.

Unless of course, you are going to challenge Horowitz, in the name of free speech, to a public debate. But, then again...nah, go to the gym.

Posted by Mitchell J. Freedman on 03/07 at 11:23 AM
No way. Life is short, fellowships are short, and Horowitz is always a rerun. Unless somehow you and the Duke Dangerous Duo could coordinate superhero costumes? Then maybe yes.

Posted by on 03/07 at 11:27 AM
Well, you know my vote. Go watch some Tar Heels basketball. Catch some indie rock at Cat’s Cradle. Take a drive around Boone, which is just a couple of hours away. Life’s too short.

Posted by Idelber on 03/07 at 11:28 AM
http://web.reed.edu/reed_magazine/winter06/columns/NoC/steinberger.html

A recent visit by the man himself to my alma mater proved very entertaining… let’s just put it this way: the moderator left in the middle of the debate hosted by the college.

If my vote as an uncloaked lurker has any sway, it is still no.

Posted by on 03/07 at 11:32 AM
Well, this is profoundly reassuring so far. I was afraid I was gonna have to quote “On Autumn” in its entirety.

And I didn’t say I was going to challenge Horowitz or ask him any questions. Why would I do that? He has the stage and the mike. It would be almost as stupid as participating in one of those FrontPage “debates” . . . er . . . you know.

So hey, Coturnix, where’s that meetup?

Posted by Michael on 03/07 at 11:46 AM
May I point out that Bérubé’s decision to put his attendance up for a vote is but a symptom of the kind of leftism that plagues the academy today? It suggests that everything should be “democratically” decided (and by this blog’s neo-Bolshevic readership, no less). It’s more or less the equivalent of a Penn State biology professor forcing a class to watch Fahrenheit 9/11 (Bérubé teaches, after all, at Penn State, despite his efforts to disguise that fact by hanging out in NC). Your repeatedly pointing out that the Fahrenheit 9/11 story happens to be factually untrue is thus the ultimate evasion of the deeper truth about those leftist forces boring from within the academy. Enjoy the cell meeting you will no doubt be attending instead!

Posted by on 03/07 at 11:46 AM
You can get all the information at Blog Together. The Chapel Hill/Carrboro blogger meetups are on 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month at 6pm at 3Cups. Come by this week if you can.

Posted by coturnix on 03/07 at 11:49 AM
No, no, a thousand times no! (Does that count as ballot box stuffing?)

Posted by on 03/07 at 12:22 PM
I vote

1) no on Horowitz talk

2) yes to Ben’s idea: go to the Eno River park! Just watch out for snakes.

3) then go to Pepper’s in CH and have a couple of slices o’ pizza.

4) then, as you head back down the 15-501, stop at A Southern Season for snackage.

I miss Chapel Hill so much I could cry.

Posted by on 03/07 at 12:22 PM
Yes, you have to go, if only to meet up with Allison Clarke, who I am given to understand bears some sort of familial relationship to yours truly. Though she’s way smarter than me, and has accomplished more.

Posted by Chris Clarke on 03/07 at 12:24 PM
Well, the obvious answer is no. Which means, as a sort of member of the academy, I’d say: don’t go with the obvious answer! Jeez! My fantasy is one in which MB sits front row with a top hat painted with “most dangerous.”

If Horowitz were capable of shame, he’d be unnerved. But as that’s unlikely, the schtick would be a waste of time.

Posted by on 03/07 at 12:28 PM
But I’m not most dangerous, Karl. I’m the second most dangerous.

The Allison Clarke Connection is, in fact, one of the most powerful reasons for going. You know, solidarity and all that. Hmmm. But does that outweigh a thousand votes from the John Protevi bot?

Posted by Michael on 03/07 at 12:38 PM
Well, no. Not unless you can get at tee-shirt made up that says something akin to “Bérubé WAS ROBBED! Michael IS America’s Most Dangerous Mind! Go Nittany Lions! We ARE PENN STATE!”

Agreed, that is a lot for a tee shirt. Maybe a poncho would be better. Sit in the front row, and some of the crowd will think that they’ve wandered into a Gallagher act. This will improve attendance, and maybe encourage David to smash a watermelon with a hammer. That’s the up side. The down side is open ice and free time.

Posted by on 03/07 at 12:49 PM
The only reason I can see to attend would be to stave off a predictable “… so close-minded that he wouldn’t come hear me speak even when he was less than a mile away” attack in some future rhubarb between the two of you. Maybe if he didn’t know you were in the area ...

If you do go, I would counsel non-participation - bring a portable DVD player, sit in the back and watch Crash - the truly edgy 1996 JG Ballard/Cronenberg movie about car crashes and sex.
“the keys to a new sexuality born from a perverse technology.”

Posted by on 03/07 at 12:56 PM
No. I love your posts, but the Horowitz thing is just worn out. You guys just keep covering the same ground over and over again, and the fact that you’re right and he’s wrong doesn’t change any of it. He’s insane, so it’s not like you can convince him of his errors, and--also because he’s insane--it’s not like he’s going to convince you of anything. I can see writing a piece for a popular audience about how Horowitz and his legislative campaign (and the entirety of the Bush administration) threatens academic freedom and our future prosperity, but the direct back-and-forth has produced all of the comic value it can. (Remember the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.)

Posted by on 03/07 at 01:07 PM
No, because it would be funny if he would complain, sometime later on, about Michael’s failure to attend the talk. I have it on good authority, after all, that there is “no better-known critic of the left” than he—we should *all* be flying down to North Carolina to hear him!

Posted by Jon on 03/07 at 01:11 PM
Hey, who you calling a bot? I’ll have you know that I’m the captain of my soul and all my actions are freely chosen, thank you very much. Now, a simple change of parameters, and a turn of the knob to 11, and I can send infinity billion yes votes your way, and then you’d be compelled to go! And who’d be the bot then, I ask you?

Posted by on 03/07 at 01:14 PM
Or rather “To Autumn”, Michael. (John Keats, 1819)

I’m watching out for you, enough sharks there already.

Posted by on 03/07 at 01:18 PM
Oh, great, now I’ve got the William Ernest Henley “captain of my soul” bot to contend with. Maybe I should switch captcha back on.

Posted by Michael on 03/07 at 01:19 PM
And the Keats Titular Preposition Police, too.

Thanks, Mirabelle. It’s to autumn, on a Grecian urn. You know, back when I taught the History of English Lit, I knew those things.

Posted by Michael on 03/07 at 01:21 PM
Fuck no. Why not do something useful, like end your obsession with the corrosive phlegmball that is DHo and start writing the next great book on disabilities law?

Posted by on 03/07 at 01:23 PM
Uh, not, and say you did? No, no, no, no.

Posted by on 03/07 at 01:26 PM
Attending the talk will give future posts on Horowitz added credibility. You’ll be able to say, “David Horowitz makes stuff up. I know this because I saw him do it with my very own eyes.”

Posted by JDC on 03/07 at 01:28 PM
I think yes. Just think of it as entertainment.

Posted by on 03/07 at 01:29 PM
Yes. And throw a pie at him.

Posted by on 03/07 at 01:30 PM
There is just something funny about this, although it has absolutely nothing to do with the above:
“In what is surely a first for the federal judiciary, a Texas bankruptcy judge has quoted from the Adam Sandler film canon in a recent opinion.” Dismissing a motion, the judge cited 1995’s “Billy Madison”: “At no point in your incoherent, rambling response was there anything that could even be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it.”

I was hoping i would read the sort of comment that Jon left at #24; well maybe i was hoping i wouldn’t see it so i could make it. Be that as it may, the judge in Texas reiterates the point that “the evil who shall not be named” would most likely be spewing the same endlessly looping chatter that has passed over his teeth before; and your attendence, or lack thereof, will, without doubt, be fodder for his minions anyway. Do onions come in minions?? mmmm the minion of onion vote no!

Posted by on 03/07 at 01:37 PM
It’s easy--do what Horowitz would do and send a lackey who won’t bother to attend the event either. Then respond to the talk on your blog by pasting in old things you’ve said about Horowitz.

Chapel Hill has a river named after Brian Eno? How cool is that?

Posted by George on 03/07 at 01:59 PM
And happily, Michael, for many of us who read your blog religiously and love every bit of it, you’ve since moved on. I’m stuck with the prepositions, the horror!

Posted by on 03/07 at 02:08 PM
Hey, Spyder, can you post a link or something to that decision?

Posted by on 03/07 at 02:12 PM
Spyder, I can’t believe that I, the parent of a four year old, forgot to say the magic word. Can you please post a link?

Posted by on 03/07 at 02:14 PM
Michael, Life is short and no doubt you have better things to do with your research time than interrupt it to hear David Horowitz speak. The options I see for you are two-fold: Either attend, listen, question, and criticize; or, don’t attend but then change your name to all lower case letters (which is an entirely cool blue seater thing to do).

Posted by on 03/07 at 02:22 PM
Why not do something useful, like end your obsession with the corrosive phlegmball that is DHo and start writing the next great book on disabilities law?

You mean instead of going skating this evening?

Posted by Michael on 03/07 at 02:23 PM
If one of your kids was proposing to spend an evening out of their lives that they couldn’t replace rewarding the school bully by paying attention to their acting out, what would you tell them?

Posted by julia on 03/07 at 02:35 PM
speaking as a Dukie (yes, they use that term without irony here), may I suggest that you get dragged from the auditorium by security while shrieking “FASCIST!” at the top of your lungs. We all have our roles to play, after all.

Alternate idea: ask him really detailed questions about Stalinist doctrine.

However, if you’re planning to boycott, may I suggest walking up the Eno River and checking out the brontasauri hidden in the woods by the old museum?

Posted by on 03/07 at 02:36 PM
How come when Michael writes about, say, college football, no one ever complains, but when he writes about Horowitz, a whole bunch of people are all like, “Michael, stop wasting your precious time and write about something important?”

I, for one, happen to think that this ongoing exchange is my favorite spat on the internets today. It’s as satisfying as watching Chuck Norris kick the crap out of Jonah Goldberg.

And I do wish you’d go, by the way, if only because I’m selfish and I know the resultant post would have me giggling all week long. But that’s just me.

Posted by on 03/07 at 02:43 PM
You are going. This discussion is over, young man. You will file a report and document it with pictures of Horowitz’s vein popping forehead.

Posted by Pinko Punko on 03/07 at 02:49 PM
If one of your kids was proposing to spend an evening out of their lives that they couldn’t replace rewarding the school bully by paying attention to their acting out, what would you tell them?

Julia, I’d say, “it’s your choice, because, as a liberal, I want to raise you in a completely non-directive manner that respects your unique growthfulnessicity. But if you do go, I’m changing the locks on the doors.”

Posted by Michael on 03/07 at 02:51 PM
I kind of imagine his talks being like a Bush talk—hand-picked cheerleaders. So I doubt you could go even if you wanted to.

Posted by Mikey on 03/07 at 03:08 PM
No. I’m with the “life’s too short” argument. Honestly, no irony here folks, I can’t see any purpose--useful or beautiful or funny or touching--in putting yourself through this. Take that walk, go skating, hell, wax the damn car… or better yet, listen to some Brahms. Horowitz is just a nuisance, but he flourishes because, in my judgment, We Lost (though he makes his living insisting that we won); in the circumstances I think our attention is best devoted to Brahms, pasta al forno, “Double Indemnity,” etc.

Posted by rootlesscosmo on 03/07 at 03:21 PM
Right he is, that Tom. Goddammit, Michael, get yourself a wastin’ time on college football. Doesn’t UNC have spring practice? Or, for even more efficient time wasting, watch the Duke team practice. (With Duke football, you really have to go to the game just for the food--which is quite good stadium food, by the way. No lie. Great kielbasa, pork loin sandwiches, etc.)

Posted by on 03/07 at 03:22 PM
Nick Hornby on “On a Grecian Urn” with reference to “To Autumn”:

My advice to young writers: never begin a title with a preposition, because you will find that it is impossible to utter or to write any sentence pertaining to your creation without sounding as if you have an especially pitiable stutter. “He wanted to talk to me about About A Boy.” “What about About A Boy?” “The thing about About A Boy...” “Are you excited about About A Boy?” And so on. I wonder if Steinbeck and his publishers got sick of it? “What do you think of Of Mice and Men?” “I’ve just finished the first half of Of Mice and Men.” “What’s the publication date of Of Mice and Men?"… Still, it seemed like a good idea at the time. (Songbook, Riverhead 2003, 181-2.)

Posted by on 03/07 at 03:30 PM
I would suggest going disguised as a Stuzt-Bearcat driving, raccoon coat wearing, boola-boola saying, pennant waving 1920’s College Republican. If you lack a Stuzt-Bearcat and a raccoon coat just keep saying boola-boola in a loud, rasping voice and wave your ‘Horowitz for Prof’ pennant.

Posted by on 03/07 at 03:30 PM
unique growthfulnessicity

I bow to your superior liberal street cred.

Posted by julia on 03/07 at 03:32 PM
Go. Sit in the front row with your arms crossed. Fuck with his mind.

You know you want to.

Posted by Roxanne on 03/07 at 03:33 PM
Damn straight you have to go, I expect a showdown
straight out of a spaghetti western! This town
ain’t big enough for the both of us… that sort
of thing. Be careful though, I hear D.H. rolls
with a mad crew so bring a few of the boys along
just in case. Oh, if possible leave a few shiny objects scatterd around the room, he’s easily distracted.

Posted by on 03/07 at 03:38 PM
Not so long ago, I went to a four-day writer conference and skipped the keynote address because every time I hear the speaker’s name mentioned, I burst into a torrent of incoherent cussing. It wouldn’t do, surrounded by people I hope to interview with someday, to make a scene. You, being much calmer and more professional, would probably not react to Mr. Horowitz with the same sort of Tourette’s. But messing with his already-addled mind? You’re bigger than that. Go hiking.

Posted by on 03/07 at 03:47 PM
Don’t go, but make up a long post about how he broke down up at the podium and confessed to his many sins.

If confronted about it, point out that your team of “hundreds” of crack researchers, with their usual zest and zeal, inadvertantly got a fact wrong here and there. But, if you look at the substance of what was said, D’ho actually has been manifesting this confession for years. You feel comfortable with your judgment.

Bada bing! Best of both worlds. While you are at it, maybe Scaife can kick in a cool hundred grand per year to prevaricate.

Posted by DocMara on 03/07 at 04:11 PM
I’m with JDC in comment #31--this is a golden opportunity to take advantage of Horowitz’s unfailing ability to shoot himself in the foot when you put him in front of people. Besides, how long will this “lecture” run, an hour or two? That’s not that big a waste of time.

Here’s an interesting question whose answer I can’t remember: have you ever actually met Horowitz in person, and would he recognize you on sight? If the answer is “no,” I think it would be pretty funny, during the Q&A session, to ask him a question and let him say something asinine or untrue. Then, you could later pull out this line: “Dave might say otherwise, but I know the truth, because I myself asked him this question in front of 500 people.”

Posted by on 03/07 at 04:13 PM
Conditional yes: take a large dose of ibizogaine before you go.

Posted by on 03/07 at 04:20 PM
Julia, I’d say, “it’s your choice, because, as a liberal, I want to raise you in a completely non-directive manner that respects your unique growthfulnessicity. But if you do go, I’m changing the locks on the doors.”

Hmmm… My father’s advice would have been more like, “lead with your left and aim for the nose”. He would have only changed the locks on the doors if I had lost. Then again, he’s not particularly liberal.

Anyway, I’m a little torn as to whether you should go or not. It’s unfortunate to lend him any air of legitimacy by showing up to hear him speak, but at the same time I’m betting he’d be really easy to throw off his game in front of an audience. Honestly, if you look at how lucid (or not) his arguments are when he has time to think them through, just think of the comedic potential in catching him live.

If you do decide to go, you should consider a t-shirt or button that says: “Ask me about indoctrination!”. That could be fun.

Posted by Marita on 03/07 at 04:40 PM
I have a thoughtful, creative idea regarding your potential attendance at the Horowitz talk. But I need to ask a brief background question befoore I share it.

To wit: Do you own a Mexican wrestler’s costume?

Posted by Chris Clarke on 03/07 at 04:48 PM
Well, I could go as the great Mil Mascaras, if that’s what you’re asking.

Posted by Michael on 03/07 at 05:01 PM
I think it is important that you go and see him. By no means listen to him though. Sit in the front row. Bring a fully loaded IPOD and the most obvious earphones you can find. Pull out your IPOD frequently and tap it like there is something wrong, just to bring attention to yourself. A small bag of candy in a loud cellophane bag is also a good idea.

Posted by on 03/07 at 05:07 PM
Just know that if you go and make all that racket while he’s speaking, he’s going to try and imagine you naked. And that can’t be fun. For you.

Posted by Roxanne on 03/07 at 05:11 PM
Out of complete self-interest I have to vote yes, because as much as I enjoy your hockey blogging, your Horowitz blogging makes me laugh a whole lot more. If you opt to bring a pie, I can help you find a criminal defense attorney round these here parts, but what a waste of a perfectly good dessert.

Posted by Ann Bartow on 03/07 at 05:12 PM
My rough tally of the comments so far, with about 3.5 hours to go, is as follows:

YES: 16
NO: 20
OTHER: 27

Posted by on 03/07 at 05:35 PM
Hell No, don’t you go! Life is short, lambs, etc.
That’s what I like about this blog, democracy (tho of the directed kind) in action.

Posted by on 03/07 at 05:43 PM
Amanda, I think you should count John Protevi-bot’s thousand votes as a thousand votes. And don’t forget Mr. No’s four no’s in comment 30.

Voting closes at 5:30 eastern, folks, because that’s when I’m packing up and leaving my office at the Center. Almost done reading Richard Lee’s Life and Times of Cultural Studies—er, I mean, Life and Times of Emile “The Cat” Francis—not that anyone’s asked.

Posted by Michael on 03/07 at 05:52 PM
Outed: Michael Bérubé = mathpants. OK:

YES: 16
NO: 1,025
OTHER: 30

(Other category now includes this comment, too. )

Posted by on 03/07 at 06:00 PM
Arrrgh-- this would happen: I’ve complained here repeatedly that Horowitz has become simply boring, so gotta go with NO on the record for consistency’s sake.

However, they don’t make ‘em much more tempting than this! Hmm, if you promise that your devastating post-lecture report will the last Horowitz riff for a good long while… (waver)

Posted by on 03/07 at 06:13 PM
Well, it’s looking like you won’t make it. I, however, will be there. If there’s anything you would like me to ask, I’d be willing to ask it.

In other news, have you ever noticed Horowitz’s resemblance to Mark Borchardt (http://miblogweighsaton.blogspot.com/2006/03/questions-for-david-horowitz.html)?

In other other news, how did I miss that the Public Policy Department has hired Woodruff and Bobo? I’m a freaking grad student here at the Sanford Institute and I compeletely missed it! I guess that’s what happens when you have papers to do and jobs to look for.

Posted by Nordy on 03/07 at 06:14 PM
Sure, Nordy, will do. In this recent essay, Horowitz writes,

The “dangerous” theme, which has provided critics with a federal case is a marketing motif dreamed up by the publisher and is confined to the subtitle and the flap copy. The word “dangerous” does not appear anywhere in the 112,000 word text, and the notion that these professors are dangerous forms no part of the argument of the book. I will grant that since the book is marketed this way, and since the radicals portrayed are all on the left (are there any right-wing radicals left on university faculties?) the idea is fair game. But if left-wing academics think they can kill The Professors by focusing fire exclusively on this target (it’s a revival of Red Channels), they should think again.

But last week on Scarborough Country, he said,

There are 50,000 professors with the views of [fellow Scarborough Country guest and Citizens for Legitimate Government founder Michael] Rectenwald and [Colorado high school teacher] Jay Bennish, who are anti-American, they’re radicals, they identify with the terrorists, they think of them as freedom fighters. It’s a huge danger for the country.

So if you get the chance, Nordy, ask David Horowitz Number One if he’s ever met David Horowitz Number Two. Thanks!

Posted by Michael on 03/07 at 06:20 PM
Will do.

Posted by Nordy on 03/07 at 06:23 PM
Perhaps attending the Horowitz lecture is a job for Superbarrio.

Posted by JDC on 03/07 at 06:25 PM
(1). Corner the regional Depends market.
(2). Spread the rumor that you will attend the lecture and are looking for a fight.
(3). Choose one of the alternatives suggested by helpful commenters above. Have a marvelous time.
(4). Make a killing in the adult diaper market. Invest your new profits wisely.

Posted by Ereshkigal on 03/07 at 06:28 PM
I would have planned to go if I had known you would be there. I hope you won’t be because I’m not going.

Posted by on 03/07 at 06:46 PM
D’Ho, Bobo, and Die Woodruff? How low can the standards sink at Duke? Wait a minute, didn’t Nixon graduate from there?

Never mind.

Posted by on 03/07 at 06:48 PM
I cast precisely 1.276 Protevis worth of votes for the Yes column.

And don’t anyone refer to this as “beating a dead horse,” lest Mr. Horowitz declare that his program has so frightened the literatariat that we’ve resorted to threats of violent bestiality directed at long-suffering people with small staves.

Posted by Chris Clarke on 03/07 at 06:55 PM
That’s a close call. Is DH going electric this tour or staying acoustic?

Posted by Leo Strauss on 03/07 at 08:10 PM
Amanda,

I contend that your equation is overstated, at the very least.

However, that is, like, just my opinion.

Nonetheless, I (whoever that might be) shall indeed be in attendance at the hate rally and ice cream social tonight. If my double doesn’t appear, then you have some evidence.

Posted by on 03/07 at 08:24 PM
No!

But what do you want to do? Go, now, with that feeling.

Also, try to arrange bumping into him in a darkened alley, you with your hockey stick. Pass by wordlessly. That way, Horo can walk away muttering, “Mmph. And he calls himself dangerous.”

Posted by dswift on 03/07 at 08:35 PM
"Are there any right-wing radicals left on university faculties?”

The Fuqua School of Business is over there, Mr. Horowitz. Behind the trees. See?

Posted by on 03/07 at 09:33 PM
DHo asks, are there any right-wing radicals left on university faculties?

Why yes. There’s Clyde Wilson, who’s been in the history department at South Carolina U since 1971 and is an open confederate. I don’t suppose such people--despite the links between neoconfederates and antisemites--come up on DHo’s radar, which, after all, owns a brain crammed tight with the names of 50,000 (!) terrorist-sympathizing profs.

Maybe you could ask him about Wilson? But only so long as you wear my fantasy post-tenure outfit, MB: to wit, cape, mexican wrestling match (’natch, C. Clarke), speedo, and a big F painted across your chest (or ‘Backup Dangerous Prof). Alternately, I learned there’s a place down the street that’ll do a mariachi outfit for you for $300.... Then ask him about either about Professor Wilson or ask him to list, oh, about 500 of the terrorist-loving profs.

Brian C. B.: ‘Poncho’ is a favorite word. Thanks.

Posted by on 03/07 at 10:22 PM
...his radar...owns a brain. Hmm. Can I request a ‘double preview w/ take backs’ option?

Posted by on 03/07 at 10:24 PM
Dunno about “this thoughtful review” of DHo’s latest. The author sez that your comment about how scholars might “correlate developments in culture and the arts with large-scale economic transformations” is mischaracterized by H’witz as saying that there’s a causal relationship between economic and cultural change. But it’s actually mischaracterized by Horowitz as a prescription for teachers to foment revolution. Thoughtful Reviewer seems to find it impossible to believe that D’Ho is saying what he is in fact saying, which makes her objectively pro- . . . well, I mean, she ends up mitigating his sins.

Posted by on 03/07 at 10:42 PM
I vote GO! But first have a couple or 3 or 17 cocktails. And then blog about it afterwards. Maybe you’ll have another conversion experience, like at the RNC. O, teh funz....

Posted by tikistitch on 03/07 at 10:44 PM
Thanks for the question. It was well received by many in the audience.

His short answer (if you didn’t watch) was “I had ‘an epiphany’ and changed my mind.”

Posted by Nordy on 03/07 at 10:54 PM
His short answer (if you didn’t watch) was “I had ‘an epiphany’ and changed my mind.”

Wow! Thanks for asking the question, Nordy. So you’re saying that his answer basically encapsulated his entire intellectual history? “The Panthers murdered my friend after I’d referred her to them, so I had ‘an epiphany’ and changed my mind”?

Posted by Michael on 03/07 at 11:33 PM
Yes!

You know, I had to go listen to him, and I’m not even on his enemies list. You have to reward him for his devoted attention to you.

Posted by PZ Myers on 03/07 at 11:54 PM
In light of his public repudiation of his 2/27 Inside Higher Ed piece, I submitted a letter to their editors.

Posted by Nordy on 03/08 at 12:09 AM
Sorry to comment again, but yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes.

And if I have not yet tipped the point, yes^infinity.

Posted by on 03/08 at 12:10 AM
Re: MeetUp. Can you e-mail me? I’d like to make sure that, if you decide to come, the best local lib bloggers do not miss this week…

Posted by coturnix on 03/08 at 12:57 AM
Pie.

Posted by Gavin M. on 03/08 at 12:59 AM
No. There are much better things to do with one’s time than listen to DH. Skating or washing one’s underwear.

Posted by on 03/08 at 01:39 AM
Perhaps you already know this, but the Sportsplex competition pool is a great place to swim, particularly in the morning and early afternoon, when you’re guaranteed to have a lane (and sometimes the whole pool) all to yourself (swim team hogs the lanes evenings 4 to 8). Locker rooms unfortunately are horrible. Then afterward you could go to the Flying Fish on Churton Street for lunch.

Posted by on 03/08 at 02:05 AM
I did attend, but had to leave midway:

H-dawg was on this rant about various departments not doing what they SHOULD be doing and instead talking about marxism or anti-americanism or something. Anyway, he unleashed the following:

“And the Women’s Studies Department, which should be about the STUDY OF WOMEN, . . . “

I had this image of Horowitz looking at a naked chick on a table with a magnifying class and a notepad.

I started laughing hysterically and had to leave.

Posted by on 03/08 at 09:19 AM
Sorry bub. My vote’s yes.

Posted by on 03/08 at 12:18 PM
General Secretary Berube: But I’m not most dangerous, Karl. I’m the second most dangerous.

Are you sure? Perhaps you should check.

ash
[’Mayor Delay seems to have finally released those votes from Illinois...’]

Posted by on 03/08 at 06:31 PM
It’s too late to vote, but I hope you damn well went.

I wouldn’t, of course. But I’m a shitty academic.

Posted by bitchphd on 03/08 at 07:56 PM
"Full-grown lamb” is a solecism. The lamb is the young of the species.

That said, I’d rather cavort with full-grown lambs and unicorns and centaurs and other horses with non-standard anatomies than listen to such lecturing.

Posted by john on 03/08 at 08:14 PM
I understand the talk is today and is probably already over.

I hope you went.

I don’t know if you ever listen to Stephanie Miller via Air America, but she provides a wonderful opportunity to those of us with heart conditions who can’t listen to Rush, Sean, Bill and the rest for health reasons. But see, you can go and listen and report back and save a few of our lives!

Posted by on 03/08 at 11:40 PM
Of course you have to go, and you have to do some damned funny serious journalism. I want to hear every absurd moment, and if you can find a good digital photographer, take them with you.

As for the contests and your possibly winning or losing an award, who really the fuck cares? Not me, and not you.

Posted by sfmike on 03/09 at 02:44 AM
No! Go eat some good barbecue instead. There’s a lot of it in Durham.

Posted by Ancrene Wiseass on 03/10 at 12:46 AM

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