Thursday, March 27, 2014

Rob Ford, is He "Da Man" or what?

I decided to finally read something about Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.  I would guess that most people know that Ford was filmed smoking crack.  He remains defiant about the issue and refuses to give up being Mayor.  Right now the Mayoral election race is in full swing--interesting, there was a debate last night and I did not see anything about it on any local tv station as I perused before going to sleep last night and before going to my first meeting today.  I gotta ask, though, is Ford da' man with his attitude about the issue?

Asked if he was surprised none of the other candidates mentioned his crack cocaine use and it didn't come up until a reporter asked about it, Ford shrugged.
"They can mention that until the cows come home," he said. "That's water under the bridge. People are sick and tired of listening to this over and over and over again.
"What they really want to know is how much did the police spend on investigating this? This must be, they keep going on, going down to San Diego, going here and there, they must be close to $2 million."

The quote came in an article in the Toronto Sun that I read today.  What puzzles me, though, is that no article I read about the debate actually said anything about any policy disagreements, and issue disagreements between candidates.  In fact, no article said much of anything except that Ford busted the chops of a reporter about the crack cocaine issue.  For my two cents, wow, Ford must be da' man if no reporter is going to take him to task for his job as Mayor and they back down as soon as he huffs up about the cocaine incident.  Or maybe I just do not understand Canadian critiques and journalism.  Oh well, I'm going to another meeting and then to wander around Toronto for a few hours.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

On to Toronto

Yeah, I hear everyone who has ever been around me for more than a few minutes lol and rofl.  But, yes I am on my way to Canada.  The annual ISA conference is in Toronto this week.  I'll try to post something interesting about Toronto later this week.  Of course, how can much of anything in the frozen northern wasteland be interesting?

By the way, sitting in the airport in Cincinnati drinking coffee is a pretty dull way to pass a morning.  At least in Toronto I'll get to reconnect with grad school classmates and colleagues from around the country and world.  Hurry up airplane...

Friday, March 21, 2014

It's Friday Again

Hoorah, it is Friday.  In a few hours my student flee for the weekend and I flee home to relax (I stop working on Friday and resume on Sunday afternoon unless I have a deadline to absolutely meet).  So, let the fun times begin...


Find something to get excited about and have fun this weekend.


Settle in and watch some NCAA Basketball Tournament games...of course I lost the billion dollars as soon as Dayton beat Ohio State.  I do know one person who picked Dayton (hats off to PSM).

A Federal Jury Was Needed to Protect the Rights of a Conservative Christian Professor

In case you were unaware Mike Adams won his lawsuit in federal court against the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.  Until 2000 Adams was a professing atheist and liberal who wrote and spoke publicly about his views.  In 2000 Adams converted to Christianity and over time became conservative politically.  Adams continued to speak out about his views publicly.  Adams contended and the jury agreed that his public speech should not be held against him by the school in determining promotion.  Adams contended and the jury agreed that faculty and administrators had held his public position regarding Christianity and conservative political positions against him in denying Adams promotion to full professor. 

I am a socially conservative Libertarian.  Luckily for me I have never had my political ideology held against me for purposes of denying me promotion or position of any type at any school.  At my current school my ideological position would never be questioned.  At other schools I can see my position be questioned if I espoused it in the classroom.  However, in public presentations and in proper non-classroom campus forums one's political ideological position is never grounds for denying position or promotion, so good for Mike Adams challenging the situation.  I do want to be clear about one thing, though Mike Adams has a right to his position in public, at a public school because of laws and court rulings, he should know to be careful in his official capacity (classroom, office, meetings, etc.) to remain neutral.  For my two cents remaining neutral is something that most faculty in most locations fail to do--myself included--because we are after all a bunch of highly educated, highly opinionated people.  So, we better just figure out how to get along.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Crimea Cartoons

Ok, because at the moment I am keeping office hours and did not want anything substantive to be disrupted if a student does come by the office, I decided to see what other Crimea cartoons are out there.  Some of them are really good.  All of them will probably offend someone--which ain't too bad for my two cents.







Crimean Irredentism Referendum Postmortem

So, folks what do you get when you cross a Russian strong man, with a near abroad population living in territory containing a relative warm water port facility and chance to thumb his nose at the western world?  Ding! Ding! Ding!  you guessed it, you get a Crimean referendum on secession and annexation by Russia (by the way, secession for the purpose of being annexed by a nearby country is irredentism by another name).

Now, I am not trying to say anything negative about the "referendum" held yesterday in Crimea.  But, I do have a few questions that someone might try to answer for me.  One, has anyone else ever heard of a referendum in modern or contemporary times (that allows us to go way back to the mid 1700s and up to the present day) being held less than 10 days after the call for the referendum?  Honestly, I am ignorant here of any similar call for referendum and actual holding of the referendum on such short notice.  Two, is a referendum really a referendum when armed forces of the country to which they voters are being asked about being annexed by (and yes, the troops without name tapes and country identification in Crimea are from Russia, so do not try to deny this fact) are already occupying the territory?  Three, in specific to the Crimea, how did they get 97% support for secession and annexation and over 90% turnout when last week reports stated that nearly 30% of Crimea's population were not going to participate and the Russian population is actually only about 65-70% (I have read four different numbers during the last two weeks)?  Ok, move along folks, nothing to see here, just another referendum.

The next question is what will the U.S., Europe, and any other country that cares actually do in response to the referendum and potential annexation of Crimea by Russia?  Apparently, not much--sanctioning 11 people (according to what I have read today)--seems to be Obama's answer.  European governments seem to be thinking the same.  Of course, we could just go back to Cold War rhetoric.  For my two cents one more time, this fight is not worth great cost for U.S. interests.  So, sanction away and do not expect any real results.

On the trying to find something funny front regarding Crimea, hats off to JD who forwarded this cartoon to me last week.

 

Tibetan Self-Immolations

I haven't added a "count" in several months.  I probably will not add another.  Am I done following this issue, no.  In fact, yesterday was the anniversary of the Chinese crackdown in 2008 that sparked the wave of self-immolations that now stands at over 120.  For those of you who are interested, two more Tibetan's chose to self-immolate yesterday in protest against the Chinese rule over Tibet. 

Not sure I have a cogent two cents worth on this particular issue.  Part of my thinking is bully for the Tibetan's willing to take some stand regarding their disagreement with what they see as Chinese occupation.  Part of my thinking recognizes control over this territory has been contested for centuries and that I really have no clear cut thoughts on which side has a stronger argument regarding right to rule.  But all of my heart, head, and gut tells me that surely you can find a better means of protest than suicide.  For that reason, I will not be continuing to keep a Tibetan Self-Immolation count. 

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Kevin Bacon Talks to Millenials

Saw this on Steve Saideman's blog, couldn't resist putting it on my own.


Look forward to more effort to raise awareness of the 80's.


Power Still Matters

Thank you Russia for occupying Crimea and trying to steer irredentist fervor of Russians living in a part of the Ukraine.  Thank you President Obama for showing the world that you are full of bluster, strutting to and fro and signifying nothing.   Ok, so I know that I dismissed blogging about Ukraine last week--it was Spring Break, I was grading papers and exams.  But, being dismissive last week does not mean that I do not have two cents to say about the subject matter.

One of the push backs against structural theories and realist theories of international relations is that these theories only explain one outcome--war.  Another push back is that these theories are outdated as proven by their failure to explain the end of the Cold War happening without a very "hot" war.  Speaking in generalizations, we have seen the growth of theoretic frameworks championing cooperative understandings of norms and procedures.  We have seen the growth of popularity of democratic engagement/enlargement.  We have seen an increase in arguments eschewing the understanding of balance of power in favor of understanding interdependence.

Now, I am no fan of the abuse of power or aggressive unilateral foreign policy that serves no particular interests.  So, to be frank, I do not believe the U.S. has any great interest in Ukraine and if the Russians want Crimea I see no reason for the U.S. to openly aggravate the situation by failing to distinguish between power and interest.  Yes, we have the power to engage any government anywhere over any issue.  But we do not have any interest in Ukraine beyond our interest in acting against Putin and Russia.  Russia on the other hand has tremendous interest in Ukraine and specifically Crimea.  The U.S. will be fine regardless of whether or not Russia "owns" the Crimean peninsula.  Russia will not be so fine if the the EU and U.S. dominate the economic, political, and social landscape of Ukraine.  How do I say this, look at U.S. trade with Ukraine--last year it was less than the budget of the city of Philadelphia.  On the other hand, Ukraine's connections economically to Russia are much more significant. 

Ukraine's importance to the security of the U.S. is not great, to our European allies it is more important--so if they are concerned enough to do something, great.  Ukraine's importance to the security of Russia is significant, particularly if you look at the world from the Russian viewpoint.  From the Russian view, the western world is trying to dominate the continent of Europe to the security detriment of Russia.  Putin's actions seen through the lens of security concern make sense and help us to understand the world.  And, hey do not try to tell me we are neutral on the issue of Ukraine when the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs is in Kiev on the street passing out coffee and pastries to anti-government protestors last month.

I am rambling a bit here, but the point is that power politics and security concern is alive and well.  Perhaps the world is still well and duly understood by concentration on balance of power/balance of security politics.  Countries with similar institutions and histories may still be willing to engage in armed conflict with those similar to themselves when security and power matter.  Maybe we can finally kiss Democratic Peace Theory goodnight--a good thing for my own two cents.    

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Whatever

Ok, maybe I should blog about Ukraine.  Well, lots of scholars much more prolifically published and much better connected to the policy world than I are already blogging on this subject.  For my two cents, Ukraine is not a particularly important security issue for the U.S.  Ukraine is a tangentially important economic issue.  Considering these factors, I am unsure that any direct action on the part of the U.S. is useful, fruitful, or desirable.  So, despite my dislike for the Obama administration, what they are doing is what should be done at this point in time.  So, whatever...

On the other hand, this week is dedicated to grading papers and exams.  Spring Break exists for students, not graduates or faculty.  What I am wondering right now is why students cannot seem to incorporate course reading materials, lectures, and video lectures into their answers.  I read their answers and know where the facts come from, where the ideas arise, where the argument is first made, so why can my students not incorporate a simple thing called a citation to show that they also know what I know?

Oh well, back to watching paint dry, and leaves fall, otherwise known as grading.