We've often heard of the "War on Terror." How much public support would this effort have had it been called the "Initiative to Bomb and Shoot People This Administration Deems Bad"? Not as much, I assume. Sometimes the titles to laws and policies suggest the opposite of the true effect…
Continuing to sort out my thoughts from the recent Popular Culture Association convention in Atlanta, I recall a discussion about whether the movie Brokeback Mountain told a universal love story or whether the point of the movie lay in its specificity. I think that's the sort of question which doesn't…
Another theme that came up during the Memory and Representation session at the recent Popular Culture Association convention in Atlanta was how using different names for things can shape our memory of events. For instance, labeling people as "heroes" may shift attention away from inquiries as to whether their deaths…
I just (well, two weeks ago) got back from the Popular Culture Association national convention in Atlanta. Anyone who regularly attends academic conferences knows how alternately cutthroat and deadly dull they can be. Well, the PCA was a pleasant exception, with a minimum of backstabbing and a maximum of exchange…
Consider the reasoning process of our top leader, who has the responsibility of steering us through incredibly dangerous times. The following excerpt is from Editor and Publisher: I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true . . . One, I believe…