John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Mar 30, 2011, 3:28 pm
Here we go, folks! From now on Ich Bin Ein Oberliner is at oberliner.net/blog See you there!
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Mar 30, 2011, 10:42 am
Look, I like Lawrence O'Donnell. Sure, he's a slow talker and occasionally a bit repetitive, hammering home on issues whose relevance seems dubious at best, but I like him. He reminds me of a grandfather—a grandfather who tells me about the issues of the day and beats up (in very grandfatherly way...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Mar 30, 2011, 9:33 am
The nearly-completed website for Tanwir, Oberlin's student Middle Eastern studies association. That, ladies and gents (see above) is why I haven't yet migrated; I've been working to finish up Tanwir's website. 500-ish lines of CSS, twelve template files, and 300 lines of code to extend WordPress la...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Mar 30, 2011, 9:29 am
"Two Oil Barrels" From a series of posters for an Oberlin mini-course on oil and the Middle East It's once again sunny and freezing, but that's all right, because I'll be on true vacation in about 24 hours. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, gearing up to set automatic vacation response to "on" on Gma...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Mar 28, 2011, 7:28 am
That lovely website is the alpha version of the new and improved Ich Bin Ein Oberliner. I've been working on it for the last couple of days (though, frankly, I've been a looking to have a little more flexibility than what Blogspot allows for quite some time...). I will, of course, let you know when...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Mar 28, 2011, 7:16 am
I's a frosty morning here in Obieland, where only the brave, strong, or stupid stay for spring break. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, a little of all three.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Mar 25, 2011, 1:44 am
No! ne'er was mingled such a draughtIn palace, hall, or arbor,As freemen brewed and tyrants quaffedThat night in Boston Harbor!-Oliver Wendell Holmes, “A Ballad of the Boston Tea Party” On December 16, 1773, men got dressed up as Indians and threw tea into Boston Harbor. It’s strange to think...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Mar 24, 2011, 9:24 am
"Four Mubaraks," a poster I'm working on for an upcoming event on the events in Egypt.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Mar 22, 2011, 7:16 am
God, I hope that the combined efforts of the United States, France, Britain, and a host of other Western countries are able to do some good in Libya—and thank God I'm not the one who had to make the decision either to allow a brutal, insane megalomaniac to massacre his own people while we sit on o...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Feb 4, 2011, 11:24 am
If you've been able to tear yourself away from the coverage of the uprising in Egypt (it's been hard for me), then you might have heard about the newly-minted Republican House of Representatives trying to define rape down. From Mother Jones (via Pandagon): Rape is only really rape if it involves fo...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Feb 4, 2011, 9:56 am
Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse, from the New York Times. I'm watching men being set on fire and being run down by police vans. I'm watching reporters being beaten to the ground and hearing reports of them being stabbed. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, thoughts going out to the Egyptian people a...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Feb 2, 2011, 11:28 am
Yeah... Bill Ayers and The Weather Underground are responsible for the unrest in Egypt... or something... I'll let Adam Serwer at the American Prospect take this one: I tend to think this would be more frightening if it were comprehensible, but it's a symptom of a basic problem which is that severa...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Feb 2, 2011, 11:24 am
Did you know that the 7th Circuit Court has a style guide (h/t Sam Glover at the Lawyerist)? Apparently lawyers have been using sans-sarif fonts as body text, and the 7th Circuit wasn't going to have that. Two questions: (1) Is this a perfect example of judicial activism (first abortion, then school...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Jan 31, 2011, 9:16 am
From top to bottom: "Made in USA. Teargas.", January 28, 2011; "Untitled", January 30, 2011; "Untitled", January 30, 2011; "'The people want the regime to fall'", January 30, 2011. All photographs by Sara Carr, from her Flickr page. Reposted here under a CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 L...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Jan 31, 2011, 6:39 am
Photograph by Ed Ou for the New York Times. It's a cold morning in Northeast Ohio, and maybe a cold day in hell; the New York Times headline this morning: Islamists Support Secular Leader This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, wondering if this means the U.S. Government will finally throw its support behi...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Jan 16, 2011, 4:17 pm
(1) What with all the big papers getting a little WikiLeaks action, I thought I might too. So here, from WikiLeaks-released diplomatic cables on the problem of what to do with the 174 remaining Guantanamo detainees (via the February 2011 issue of Harper's--no link) is proof that politicians can be c...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Jan 13, 2011, 10:19 am
Photo by John Moore for Time magazine. Scripture tells us that, one day, man shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, hoping that day comes soon.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Jan 4, 2011, 11:50 am
Photograph by Damon Winter, from the article, "A Year Later, Haiti Struggles Back," by Deborah Sontag in the New York Times. It's negative something here in Minneapolis, which is fine as I have about 300 posts to read in my Google Reader. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, in for the long haul.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Dec 21, 2010, 9:33 pm
Speaking of Wilder Voice--and before I delve into a (I hope) nuanced discussion of Julian Assange--I'd like to point out the best line in Wilder Voice, and, perhaps, the best concluding line that I've ever read: A new mindset is upon us, etc.. The context in which this fantastic line appears is Sa...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Dec 21, 2010, 9:15 pm
Photo by Sophie Miles. Well, Wilder Voice has just hit the shelves. It weighs in at 112 pages, only four fewer than the last behemoth. It contains the result of two--count 'em, two--surveys of the Oberlin student body, and it has a fold-out art section. Covered in this issue: Freewheeling Guidos, ...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Oct 7, 2010, 8:54 am
Phillipa Foot passed away earlier this week. Foot was one of the most important moral philosophers of the twentieth century. She also gave us the trolley problem, but you take the good with the bad. In all seriousness, the world would be a better place if more people were as incisive and thoughtful...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Oct 1, 2010, 3:28 pm
And now for the most despicable thing I've read in a long time (reposting in total a post from Digby's Hullabaloo): The Closet Is Healthy For Gays And Other Living Things This speaks for itself:t was not a juvenile prank that killed the unfortunate Mr. Clementi even though it served as the proximate...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 28, 2010, 10:42 am
I have to head off to class, and there's little chance that I'll be able to do any serious blogging today. Before I take off though, I just want to revisit the discussion of the five-paragraph essay from a couple days ago. Brian (from Bubblegum Aesthetics) has some fascinating comments to throw into...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 28, 2010, 10:13 am
It's a pretty hellish day here in Oberlin. I'm dealing with the cold that will not die, and the rain and cold is doing nothing to help. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, wishing I didn't have to leave my warm and comfy apartment.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 26, 2010, 12:19 pm
Meena Hasan, here. (1) It's Sunday, blah-blah Sunday here in Oberlin; sounds like a good day for a morning update! From a post entitled "Modern conservative debate strategies, such as they are" by Scott Kaufmann over at Acephalous: As you know, the classic tu quoque works like this: Person X: It s...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 22, 2010, 8:03 am
From Caldwell Tanner's "What if Superheroes Were Hipsters?" (here) A rainy morning looks to be turning into a beautiful day. Did I mention I'm an ObieTalk hero (note: not mentioned by name and just made fun of). Suck it, ObieTalk, you'll pry my coffee mugs from my cold, dead hands. This is Ich Bin...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 18, 2010, 11:16 am
You're looking at the day's to do list (note: I redacted a few things). Everything looks fine until you get over to MHST 235, where you see listening assignments spread across ten different CDs. Two questions: (1) Why does the Con Library only let you take out two of these CDs at a time? (2) Is it r...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 17, 2010, 3:11 pm
In the most recent issue of Harper's (October 2010), Patrick Symmes writes about the thirty days he spent in Cuba. Thirty days he spent living on the wages of an official Cuban intellectual--$15 a month. Now, here are some illustrative quotes and reasons I'm a capitalist: (1) "Some money?" "I don't...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 17, 2010, 2:39 pm
Elephant (2010) Meena Hasan (here) You know who's a kick-ass artist? Meena Hasan, that's who. She used to run art and design for Wilder Voice. Now, she's a friggin' artist. Send her some love, here. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, supporting the arts since 2007.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 16, 2010, 8:34 am
Meena Hasan Tiger (2010) Ink and Acrylic on Fabric, 18" x 45" From her website, here. It's a miserable day here in Oberlin. Fortunately, I'll be too busy filling out forms to notice. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, trying to navigate the labyrinthine passages of Oberlin's bureaucracy.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 15, 2010, 4:20 pm
Corn. Here. Well, after my blistering but eloquent tirade yesterday, Ezra Klein acquiesces: He's right that I shouldn't have endorsed Jay Rayner's post, which wasn't particularly tightly argued. It's worth pointing out that he didn't acquiesce (or even mention) so much to me as to Tom Philpott over...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 14, 2010, 9:54 am
Ezra Klein, in a post titled "Industrial Farms are the Future" links and approvingly quotes The Guardian's Jay Rayner's facile and straw-manning argument in defense of industrial agriculture: Jay Rayner offers some real talk on food production: If we are to survive the coming food security storm, we...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 14, 2010, 8:31 am
As a certified* writing associate for a first-year seminar, I have to dress up for class today. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, wearing a tie. *Well, I took a course.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 12, 2010, 10:15 am
YET ANOTHER SCOTT PILGRIM REVIEW WITH A "[BLANK] vs. the" SNOWCLONE Panel from Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim. IIt’s a universal truth that the movie is always worse than the comic on which it was based, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World—the latest and greatest Michael Cera vehicle—is no ex...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Sep 7, 2010, 9:19 am
It's the first day of classes, which is something on which I'm choosing not to focus. Instead, let me point to the always funny Bill in Portland Maine: I'll take a sizable amount of outrage at the ban-enacters and modern-day DADT supporters with me to my grave. If they had allowed me to serve, I wou...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 25, 2010, 9:14 am
I've got some things to say, I'm just not sure how to say them yet. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, at a loss for words.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 23, 2010, 7:11 am
Eliza Koch here I'm back in Oberlin, which means summer is almost over. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, and that name is once again true.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 18, 2010, 9:16 am
Zak Smith "...Jessica at the roadside struggling prettily with a busted bicycle..." (page 39 of Gravity's Rainbow here (1) First things first. There's something off with the numbering of the "morning updates." I believe that this is correctly numbered XXXIII, and I've adjusted the others to follow ...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 18, 2010, 7:47 am
"The Earth together with the Moon, as seen from the Messenger spacecraft to Mercury, May 2010." Via Warren Ellis, via Bruce Sterling I feel old (via Daily Kos): MILWAUKEE (AP) -- For students entering college this fall, e-mail is too slow, phones have never had cords and the computers they played w...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 17, 2010, 9:24 am
Don't touch that dial, Oberliner promises to be the place to be all day today. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner comin' at you from temperate Murderopolis.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 16, 2010, 8:21 am
Robert Hass was on to something when he said (and I paraphrased), "In this, all the old thinking resembled the new thinking." Apparently, in 1910, Robert Slass predicted a device called "the wireless telegraph" that would serve as a telephone, ring or vibrate, allow people to see images of things fa...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 14, 2010, 7:09 am
It's funny because Will Ferrell's character is verbally abusive to his wife! Seriously though, this movie is little more than sexism and machismo poorly disguised as comedy. It would be a pretty good parody if it weren't, you know, just serious. I found two things funny: (1) the action scenes with...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 14, 2010, 7:02 am
Did you know that John Steinbeck wrote a "translation" of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur? I didn't, but it sure is good. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, surprised that John Steinbeck could have been a great fantasy writer. NB: There's a new post up at Oberlin Blogs. It's long, has no picture...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 7, 2010, 3:38 pm
"(The word “filibuster” comes from vrijbuiter—old Dutch for 'looter.')" George Packer for The New Yorker, here Since all the cool kids are linking to George Packer's article on the myriad maladies of the senate, I thought that I would too. It's a fascinating look at the Senate, and Packer ma...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 7, 2010, 11:42 am
It's a wonderful day here in rural Wisconsin. My nephews are currently dancing to the dulcet tones of my father's metronome. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner, steadfastly refusing to be distracted.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 5, 2010, 6:19 pm
Because I'm lazy, and because I haven't thought through most of these things, here are some unoriginal, nearly-deep thoughts. Let's go. (1) This is epistemic closure: Most of us think we can always enlarge our knowledge base by accepting things that are entailed by (or logically implie...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 5, 2010, 5:10 pm
Power went down in scattered blocks around the city. It's called a "brownout." We live in the end of days. This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner.
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Aug 3, 2010, 9:56 am
Speaking of good books, here's another Sherman Alexie; this time a it's collection of short stories (with a couple of poems), War Dances. A representative passage: A bonnethead shark in Omaha, Nebraska, conceived and gave birth to a baby that soon died. But this mother shark had never share...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Jul 31, 2010, 4:37 pm
A couple weeks back, I read Sherman Alexie's Flight. High school English teachers take note: This is the kind of book I wished I had been assigned in High School. It's at once funny and heartbreaking, irreverent and deeply serious, easy to read but with ample thematic meat. Plus, it's no...
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John W. posted an article on ich bin ein oberliner - Jul 31, 2010, 4:20 pm
I finished Louise Erdrich's The Beet Queen last night. It was pretty frackin' fantastic: What the breeze made do next was almost frightening. Something happened, I turned in a slow circle. I tossed my hands out and waved them. I swayed as if I heard music from below. Quicker, and then wilder...
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