Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I have a DJ stint on WTUL, the student-run independent college radio station. We broadcast on 91.5 FM in the greater New Orleans area. But we also livestream over the internet at the WTUL website. For the moment, I am assigned to the Wednesday morning, 6-8am CST, classical music show. I call it the "Breakfast with Brahms" morning classics show. Tune in if you can. Music requests are welcome.
I've been absent from the blog lately, but not intentionally. I have been for the last week travelling in Guatemala exploring the possibility of an alternative spring break social justice/solidarity experience in Esquipulas, Guatemala. It was a wonderful trip. I'll have more to say later when I can collect my thoughts. One interesting tidbit is that I was there during the country's presidential election. The winner seems to be the Otto Perez Molina, a former military general, who ran on the Patriotic Party platform and promised an iron fist policy against gangs/crime/insecurity. "Mano dura" policy inclinations, plus a military background, is a bit concerning for democratic stability in that country. But the people there in Esquipulas are lovely and I'll be posting some photos of my visit soon.
And remain unbeaten themselves! They really handed it to Rummel. Final score: Blue Jays 42, Raiders 21. Story here. Congrats to nephew Jacob, a junior starting offensive tackle. That O-line is awesome! Go Jays!
Doesn't do much for me, but the Squirrelly Girlies seem to like it:
On the other hand, this is what I'm listening to:
As we approach the one year marker until the next Presidential election, I think it's appropriate to have just a little reminder from the last Presidential election cycle of what made Obama such an inspiring choice to lead this country as its President:
We've had a lot of ups and downs, successes and disappointments, moments of inspiration and deflated dreams from President Obama over the last three years. But it behooves us to remember that he never promised us an easy road and that there is, still, nothing false about hope.
When I look at the circus that is the current crop of GOP presidential hopefuls, Barack Obama is by far and above the best hope this country has. My hope for this country still resides firmly and unwaveringly in Barack Obama.
Some colleagues of mine at Tulane have been developing a pretty awesome website that can only advance accountability and transparency in municipal government here in New Orleans. And lord knows we need more of that.
The site, called NOLA Satellite Government, seeks to take publicly-available information on all sorts of public entities who manage programs and budgets that are supported by public taxpayer funds and collate them with the members of the boards of directors who oversee such entities. There's a pretty cool visual network program on the site that shows how individuals are connected across boards and agencies.
While the site doesn't propose to draw any conclusions about what these networks mean, it does help citizens have a more accurate visual representation of the behind-the-scenes power brokers and how they are linked to one another.
At its best, this site can provide a starting point for other researchers to use this publicly-available information as a launching pad for investigating much more closely some curious and eyebrow-raising connections.
If these power-brokers have nothing to hide, they should welcome this site as a step towards greater transparency and public accountability of governing institutions in front of the citizens who are paying for them. If any of these power-brokers complain about the site for whatever reason, that will be a red flag which will hopefully encourage greater scrutiny by investigative journalists into the operations of the programs/organizations/institutions they oversee.
There's nothing but good that can come of this, and I am glad to know the folks behind this effort. Check out the site, use the information there to spur your own investigations, and write up what you find out on your blogs. Spread the word and hold our elected and appointed public servants to account.
Here's an article from the Times-Picayune describing the website.
I would like to invite you on behalf of the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University to our "Dia de los Muertos" Pachanga tomorrow. Please see the details below. We're also putting up a communal Day of the Dead altar and, as for me, I'll be setting up a teacup, some toast, and a photo of my grandmother who passed, as well as a cigar and a small bottle of whiskey for my grandfather who passed.
Since this is a communal altar, I invite each of you to consider setting up a little memorial on the altar maybe to someone special in your life who has passed. It's a time to celebrate the lives of those loved ones who have passed on and to welcome them back to the world of the living once again. Please bring a little card with your name and the name of the person you will be commemorating, so that we can know that the altar contribution and items are yours. On the card, you should write something like: "Helen Alphonso [the name of the commemorated person] remembered by her grandson Jimmy Huck." Even if you aren't able to set up a memorial on the altar, you are most welcome to pass by the Jones Hall patio (or the Greenleaf Conference Room in Jones Hall -- 100A, in case of rainy weather), to view the altar.
And then there's the Pachanga (Fiesta) starting at 4pm and going until 6pm. We'll have free food, drink, and music from Los Poboycitos. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow (and hopefully, also, your contribution to the altar)!
Formal announcement follows ...
Friday, October 28
Celebrate Día de los muertos
10:00 am – 6:00 PM
100 Jones Hall
Come out Friday to the Jones Patio to contribute an offering to the Stone Center’s ofrenda or altar. Please consider participating in our campus wide celebration of Day of the Dead. Altar installation will begin at 10:00 am and end at 4:00 pm when our end of the semester pachanga will kick-off with Los Poboycitos paying tribute to el día de los muertos.
Altar:
The altar will be outside in the Jones patio and will only be up Friday 10:00 am until 6:00 pm. If you decide to contribute something, please remember the altar is a special place where we hope vandalism does not occur but we cannot guarantee it will not. Make sure to contribute something of little monetary value. The altar will be taken down by 6:30 pm so please make sure to pick up your items if you would like them back. We will not be responsible for any item left after 6:30 pm.
In addition, special handmade crafts from Antigua, Guatemala will be on sale during the Pachanga.
This has been making the rounds and I think it's just too damn good to pass up:
Well, it's once again that time of the month when my lovely bride will again be out at the Palmer Park Arts Market setting up her booth to sell her pottery. The market will be running this coming, Saturday, October 29, from 10am-4pm, and the weather forecast looks perfect. It promises to be a beautiful day and ideal for a visit to the Arts Market. My B-2/3 has been hard at work all month and has added significantly to her inventory of pieces. So, if you want to support a great cause and pick up some wonderful pieces of handmade, high quality pottery as wedding gifts, birthday presents, early Christmas or Hannukah gifts, or any other kind of gift, please do come out to the Arts Market this Saturday at Palmer Park on the corner of Claiborne and Carrollton Avenues and look her up. Of course, as usual, Michele will also be doing live demonstrations at her pottery wheel, so please come out, enjoy the market, and stop by to visit Michele to see how pots are thrown (and hopefully not at you!)
One of my regular readers (and a worthy ideological rival), Eric, sent me an email with a link to an interesting story on a piece of legislation that apparently made it through the Louisiana Legislature and somehow avoided a veto by the state Governor.
In his email, Eric indicated that outrage over this legislation was something we both could agree on.
He's right.
While I understand the impulse in this legislation to make it more difficult to traffic in stolen property, this way of going about doing this is just pure wrongheaded.
Free human beings should be able to conduct commercial transactions using cash. Forget the other problems with the legislation that exempts some second hand commercial enterprises from the requirements of this legislation. They're ultimately irrelevant to the simple priniciple of conducting business transaction using cash. We should all be able to do this.
In fact, for much of the marginalized and poor, cash transactions are the primary means of engaging in commerce. This overzealous concern with clamping down on the trafficking of stolen property has the unfortunate consequence not only of compromising economic freedom, but also of disproportionately punishing the poor.
It's a foolish piece of legislation that never should have seen the light of day.
The following poem by the Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins has always been a favorite of mine since my first exposure to it in high school. I don't think I've ever encountered a poet whose language usage is so rich and densely packed with meaning, with an unrivaled beauty of rhythm. Here it is:
Brothers
How lovely the elder brother’s
Life all laced in the other’s,
Lóve-laced!—what once I well
Witnessed; so fortune fell.
When Shrovetide, two years gone,
Our boys’ plays brought on
Part was picked for John,
Young Jóhn: then fear, then joy
Ran revel in the elder boy.
Their night was come now; all
Our company thronged the hall;
Henry, by the wall,
Beckoned me beside him:
I came where called, and eyed him
By meanwhiles; making my play
Turn most on tender byplay.
For, wrung all on love’s rack,
My lad, and lost in Jack,
Smiled, blushed, and bit his lip;
Or drove, with a diver’s dip,
Clutched hands down through clasped knees—
Truth’s tokens tricks like these,
Old telltales, with what stress
He hung on the imp’s success.
Now the other was bráss-bóld:
Hé had no work to hold
His heart up at the strain;
Nay, roguish ran the vein.
Two tedious acts were past;
Jack’s call and cue at last;
When Henry, heart-forsook,
Dropped eyes and dared not look.
Eh, how áll rúng!
Young dog, he did give tongue!
But Harry—in his hands he has flung
His tear-tricked cheeks of flame
For fond love and for shame.
Ah Nature, framed in fault,
There’s comfort then, there’s salt;
Nature, bad, base, and blind,
Dearly thou canst be kind;
There dearly thén, deárly,
I’ll cry thou canst be kind.
Maryknollers are committed to Catholic Social Teachings in the context of missionary work, and their goals are more to be in solidarity with the peoples of the developing world more so than to evangelize or convert them to the Christian faith. This year, the Maryknoll Order is celebrating its centennial anniversary as a formal Catholic religious group. Just last week, the Affiliates of New Orleans hosted a celebratory mass and reception at, of all places, St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Metairie, which happens to be where I went to grammar school. But I recently read in the newspapers about one Maryknoll Priest, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a nice man but a rabblerouser of sorts, who was arrested in Rome for engaging in an unlicensed protest. Apparently, he and a few others were delivering a petition to the Pope that is opposing and challenging the Catholic Church's policy of not ordaining women to the priesthood. While I share a certain sympathy for the cause, I just have to wonder at the timing of Fr. Bourgeois's behavior. It strikes me, in a way, as extremely selfish. At the very moment when his religious order is trying to celebrate its existence for 100 years, he is sucking attention away from the order onto his own personal crusade, one that has not only led to his excommunication, but also has placed his order in a very tough and painful position relative to the Vatican. At a moment when all Maryknollers should be celebrating, we are caught up in the divisive and painful vortex of Fr. Bourgeois's cause. Maybe this is as it should be, but it just strikes me as injudicious and improper. It certainly is being done without regard for the damage and pain that is being inflicted on the Maryknoll Order itself. I just can't understand why Fr. Bourgeois would want to do this to Maryknoll. I want to celebrate Maryknoll, not cause it grief.
Part of what has been consuming my time and energy this fall semester is my role as Tulane University's assigned mentor for the freshman group of Posse Scholars. It's been a wonderful, albeit challenging at times, experience. For those of you who don't know about the Posse Foundation and its programs, I encourage you to check it out. It's really a simple idea, but one that has been quite revolutionary in advancing a particular kind of college education. Mind you, as someone intimately involved in the program by virtue of being a trained mentor, I can say that it's not picture perfect and that there are some challenges to the program; but on balance, I think it is a very worthwhile and successful idea. I'm proud to be a part of it and to have had the chance to get to know 10 really special young scholars.
Well, my high school Alma Mater, the Jesuit Blue Jays, are still savoring an undefeated football season so far. Tonight they beat long-time district rival, Brother Martin, 41-3 (and this victory gives Jesuit a one-game edge in the long rivalry). Congrats to the Blue Jays and to my nephew, Jacob Campos, who is a starting offensive tackle as a junior. Next week will be the big test against Rummel High School.
"To rid the world of Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and Moammar Qaddafi within six months: if Obama were a Republican, he'd be on Mount Rushmore by now." Andrew Sullivan
Over at Professor Mondo's blog, the subject of Dr. Ted Gup's piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education on liberal bias and intellectual diversity in the academy was given some play. In this article, Dr. Gup, a self-identified left-leaning academic, laments the lack of ideological diversity within the academy and calls for ways to create a more comfortable environment for conservative students at college/university. Of course, I've discussed this before, but I left a comment on this blog that I think is worth repeating here. I wrote:
I’ve engaged this topic here before, but I’ll only say the following now: yes, it is true the academics in the academy lean left; but it is also true that more and more conservative high school students, and their parents, are bringing a hardened and defensive spirit into college that makes any realization of Dr. Gup’s recommendations nigh to impossible. What does it mean when a conservative student, already expecting to be uncomfortable and subject to attack simply because of holding a different belief system, is (1) either unable to articulate a reasoned defense of a position or (2) is confronted with a fellow classmate who respectfully refuses to buy into his arguments and doesn’t back down in defending a differing position, but who automatically interprets the frustration of either outcome as de facto evidence of liberal bias and ideological persecution? Just because a student spouts off a conservative or liberal position doesn’t mean that challenging that position is evidence of hostility to the ideological basis of that position — but more and more conservative students are reading into the critical thinking process evidence of ideological bias. Challenging students to think critically can be uncomfortable, regardless of political ideology. I’ve called out many liberal students for making uncritical ideological claims and challenged such students to articulate a reasoned defense of their claims, and these students never respond by thinking I’ve attacked their core belief systems; but if I do the same to a conservative student, the reaction I get more and more from them is less an openness towards developing a critical capacity regarding defending their claims and more a confirmation of Horowitz’s own brainwashing crusade that they are being persecuted because they are conservative. I’ve said before that my own experience leads me to believe that though the academics in the academy are disproportionately left-leaning, that does not necessarily translate into a left-leaning propagandistic pedagogy. If it were truly as conservatives believe it is, then a much greater percentage of college-educated students would be liberal mind-bots upon graduation. Do conservative academics really think that they are the only members of the profession who can teach a course without proselytizing their political ideology and without respecting the different ideological inclinations of their students? If they don’t hold this view, that I would ask conservative academics to give their liberal colleagues the same courtesy and benefit of the doubt that they themselves would want.And I'll leave it at that.
I admit to liking this one a fair bit, too. Never thought I'd be able to claim this about the most recent weekly top 30 pop #1 song. I guess that's what having a teenage child will do. Anyway, here 'tis:
Life has got me by the cojones these days, and so I haven't found much time to delve into the blog with any kind of substance or gravity. I have a lot of things swirling in my mind that will find expression on the Upchuck, but probably not for a bit. So, given that I am still operating under my blogging self-nudge, my meeting this obligation is more than likely going to be done by light and fluffy stuff. It counts, according to my blogging self-nudge rules; but it's going to meet the bare requirements, I'm afraid. Not to worry, though, I still plan to keep the blogging self-nudge going, primarily as a matter of discipline. So stay tuned and be patient, for which I thank you in advance.
In Lafayette Square. Michele will be there all day tomorrow. If you plan to attend, stop in and say hello. Tell her The Huck Upchuck sent you. Buy a pottery mug and then listen to some great blues. Best thing about it: free and open admission.
This is just too good to not post:
[Hat Tip: Andrew Sullivan.]
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