And by the way, the reason why many professors are assigning less homework is not that they suddenly discovered that this strategy is pedagogically beneficial  (which it might or might not be depending on a wide variety of factors). It’s simply that enrollment caps have been raised and instructors or graduate students who used to teach different sections of the same course were fired. And now a professor simply doesn’t have time to grade homework in a class that went from 25 to 70 students. 

This is so ass-backwards. This stupid article- published in Illinois, of all places – blames professors for assigning too much homework and interfering with all the part-time jobs and internships that students need to juggle to make ends meet. 

The possibility that the shameful disinvestment of the state in higher education might have something to do with the issue is not even being discussed. It’s all the fault of evil professors who are trying to prevent students from working at McDonalds by trying to educate them. 

This is the perfect example of two groups that suffer at the hands of the same enemy turn against each other. 

Students! Professors are not to blame. 

Professors! Students are not to blame. 

Just saw another dispossessed with a “Team Trump” slogan on a shiny new Hummer.

Many people exist in the mode of, “I’m tired of our (American, Spanish, Russian, etc) exceptionalism. It is exceptional how exceptionalist we are!”

I always avoided Ranciere even though I never read a word of his. But I don’t like French theorists. Lacan, Derrida, Bataille, Deleuze – yes, they are great but I never derived any use from them for my own work. Even Foucault is useless to me unless he’s being reworked by somebody Central European. 

And now I’m discovering that Ranciere is actually quite useful to me. It’s quite strange that a French philosopher would talk about things that I find relevant but here you have it. Hmm.

It doesn’t matter whom Lyin’ Ted says he does or doesn’t support. We all know he’s Lyin’, and that will never be washed off. 

Talking about limp-wristed and pitiful.

The leadership of Spain’s party called “Yes, We Can” is holding a retreat to figure out what it is that they can. In a rush to do well at the polls, they kind of forgot to finish the sentence. 

The really good sign is that I don’t even remember which day of the experiment we are on. Which means that I’m barely noticing any deprivation. 

I was hoping there’d be more to observe during the experiment but now is such a busy time in the semester that I barely manage to keep track of what my name is. 

Sorry, folks, I’m no fun right now. But hey, who’s up for live blogging the debate with me on Monday?

But in a good way.

It looks like I will go on more conferences this year than I’ve been almost throughout my entire tenure-track. Of course, the university will only pay for one (and even that if I’m lucky), but I’ve got to start putting myself out there, let people see me. This will be a huge change after being literally housebound for 15 months.

Lionel Shriver wrote an article for the NY TIMES about a wave of PC outrage a smart young woman unleashed against her at a writers’ conference. Shriver seems to believe that the young woman in question was serious in her outrage against the writer’s assertion that it’s ok to write about experiences other than your own. Shriver makes the mistake that is common to those who remember the 1970s and takes this PC outrage seriously. 

In reality, however, it is not even remotely true that “young people tear one another apart over who seemed to imply that Asians are good at math.” What they really slaughter each other over is who gets to be in the spotlight. It’s all about branding, self-promotion, making a splash to get noticed. 

And the young woman who used Shriver’s remarks to fake mortal offense not only got a publication in the Guardian out of it but now has Shriver herself promote her heretofore unknown name on the pages of The New York Times. I say, good for her. Two minutes of exaggerated hand-wringing and she is world famous. That’s smart. And if dense old fogeys like Shriver don’t understand that this is simply a battle for Twitter followers, then the joke’s on her. 

The best way to protect oneself from this sort of con artists is not to whine about free speech but simply not to mention their name. Don’t give them the spotlight, and they will move on to another idiot they can bamboozle.