Thursday, September 13, 2007

Economist on UPI

"A superb new book." Read the entire review here.

61 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent!

Anonymous said...

It is a great book and it's too bad that there are many of Nifong's enablers and the Group of 88 who still have their heads in the sand. A perfect example is the commenter on Liestoppers who has posted all day long insisting that those of us who believe the lacrosse players, their attorneys, the Attorney General of North Carolina and the bar are white racists. The important point here is that Nifong's abuse would not have been checked at all if the race and wealth of the defendants had been reversed.

Anonymous said...

Well, at this point it is clear that lots of people are "listening" to the G88 and will be learning as well.

If nothing else, they will have to live with the knowledge that their actions and assertions have shown lots of people they might have wished to have as allies exactly how hypocritical and fraudulent their entire existence has become. The people who read The Economist, WSJ, and even NYT now have a more diverse set of perspectives and hard data to consider.

Remember, in addition to the indoctrination that is taught to these activists, they also teach how to make the most noise, get the most attention, and manipulate others to advance their agenda. In essence, they wage a covert war on society. They have been remarkably successful, especially considering that they often seek to destroy objective truth and then to turn things exactly upside-down.

We can see how they apply the maxim "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" to justify ignoring or crusading against the same acts, based solely on the identity of the actors -- and they define identity along the very same shallow lines of division they purport to abhor.


The real contribution of the book is how it shows with stark clarity just how broken important institutions and systems have become through being infiltrated by agenda-driven hacks and how so often so many are fooled into abetting the destruction. It is not about building up or any net gain, it is about tearing down, extorting concessions, and distorting efficient flows of resources for perceived personal gains or even petty retribution.

For these revelations, we owe a certain debt to the G88. They should be replaced and figuratively exiled, but I can settle for exposed, knowing this will at least help to correct these massive-scale problems.

Anonymous said...

I noticed while listening to Stuart Taylor's talk a point I have not seen raised before. In terms of the "whatever they did was bad enough" comments from Brodhead and many others, everyone seems to universally condemn the players for hiring strippers.

Yet CM was lauded as a hard-working mother trying to pay for school through her job as a stripper.

Seems like a pretty clear double standard to me, and one that prevails to this day.

Gary Packwood said...

KC, dude, you're work is reviewed by the Economist and you're not even 40 yet.

How cool is that?
::
GP

Anonymous said...

Great review, but the lax sticks in the illustration look like butterfly nets.

Anonymous said...

“Now more than ever, individuals’ privacy is threatened by hackers, and identity thieves, commercial organizations in the private sector, and even government agencies. Panelists - experts in computer security, federal agency data collection, and privacy laws and ethics – will discuss legal, technical, and moral issues of confidentiality in our “wired” society.”

Is this an Electronic Frontier Foundation conference? How about the American Civil Liberties Union, or The Electronic Privacy Information Center…?

Nope…it’s coming from Duke, a University that appears to have violated the privacy and possibly civil rights of their own students.

What in the world do they have to teach about morality and ethics? Well now you may find out...

From 2:30-3:30 “Brave, New E-world from Privacy to Piracy” is being held via the Sanford Institute, Room 04, Homecoming weekend, October 12-14.

One wonders if President Brodhead or any of the race/gender/class frauds will consider attending.

Maybe the panelists will provide a case study of their own school.

Anonymous said...

Breathtaking!!

Burness really needs to get his alternative interpretation of events out there.

And quick!!

Anonymous said...

It should be noted that there was an embedded apology in this review. In its discussion of the media's involvement, it stated:

"This column, to its shame, echoed the prevailing wisdom."

The Economist appears to be concerned with the truth.

Bravo!

Anonymous said...

"hew book"?

I hope they at least spelled new correctly over at the Economist.

Anonymous said...

KC: The Economist! WOW.

Anonymous said...

"Duke's politically-correct faculty thus produced a mirror image of the worst racism of the South in the 1950s, when people were pronounced guilty—and denied their legal rights—solely because they were black." - Economist

Welcome to the club, Duke Faculty! David Duke is shaking up martini's at the bar! Brainstorming sessions for new people to hate will be in the Burning Cross Atrium from 4-6pm. Make sure to get your name in for the drawing to win a recently purchased 1st edition of Mein Kampf. Enjoy, yourself! We're all blatant racists here! You should fit right in.

Anonymous said...

"Duke's politically-correct faculty thus produced a mirror image of the worst racism of the South in the 1950s, when people were pronounced guilty—and denied their legal rights—solely because they were black." Ouch!

KC, with this review you have gone international! Congratulations.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully these strong reviews will encourage many people previously ignorant about the case to pick up the book. This case needs to get a ton of publicity to open eyes as to what can and is happening in our justice system - or North Carolina's anyway.

Anonymous said...

I've rarely read a hewer book, to be honest.

Anonymous said...

Cool illustration to go along with that book review too.

Anonymous said...

KC:

I hope that in the future, you will continue to write about key issues that impact us all.

(while continuing your research and writing on congress, US foreign relations, etc)

Hiram Bingham

Anonymous said...

Has anyone spoken to you about turning your book into a movie?

Debrah said...

The Economist!

So hot!

Sizzling!

Just got home after a harrowing and busy day....unable to stop by Wonderland for even a brief moment.

Have to get caught up. Hope I didn't miss anything really important.

I might go crazy!.....Right at this very moment!

Anonymous said...

Excellent post, 5:14 p.m.

Debrah said...

TO 7:42PM--

This is when KC's rise in the literary world will begin to take shape.

This book and what has occurred, and is still occurring at Duke and in Durham, is far more intriguing, lusty, and sleazy than any John Grisham novel.

Anonymous said...

Remember, in addition to the indoctrination that is taught to these activists, they also teach how to make the most noise, get the most attention, and manipulate others to advance their agenda. In essence, they wage a covert war on society. They have been remarkably successful, especially considering that they often seek to destroy objective truth and then to turn things exactly upside-down.

You mean the war on culture being waged by the secular-progressives!?!? Please stop watching Bill-O. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to the Listening Statement signers.

You have garnered international recognition for your university.

SAVANT

Anonymous said...

This from the United Kingdom, this appalling display of racism by members of the Duke faculty is repugnant to all the World's citizens.

And to think that not one member of the Group of 88 could find it within themselves to reconsider their actions. They must be fools as well as racists!

Shame on Duke University for harbouring these degerates.

Debrah said...

A letter in today's H-S:


Can't blame the players

It is unfortunate that the Durham City government finds itself as a co-defendant in the most recent actions by the once-accused Duke lacrosse players and their legal staff. Once again, the city is in the midst of a big "stink bomb."

However, it is important that the readers try as best as they can to put themselves in the former players' and their families' shoes. Can you really blame them for their recent request given what they have gone through?

The City of Durham is just one step in their climb to find justice in it all and hold those responsible accountable for their actions, or lack thereof. Never forget, it is the city's responsibility to see that crimes are properly investigated.

KELLY McALEXANDER
Durham
September 13, 2007

Debrah said...

With international acclaim.....

UPI is Hot! Hot! Hot!

Anonymous said...

"Has anyone spoken to you about turning your book into a movie?"

Please say it ain't so! A movie-of-the-week would cheapen what you and Stuart accomplished with UPI!

Debrah said...

I don't know if anyone posted this yesterday, but this editorial from the News & Observer gives an idea how the staff has operated with respect to the lacrosse hoax.

They have always been two or three steps behind Joe Neff and can't ever seem to come clean about their original shoddy and unprofessional behavior.

They have kept quiet about so much since it became known what a criminal Nifong is.

Pity they couldn't have kept their mouths shut about this:

N&O 9/12 editorial

One Spook said...

My, my ... that was an outstanding review, and an important "apology."

And, what lovely press for Vanderbilt's "leading dissident" Houston Baker! Hahahahaha!

I hope someone points Vande president Gordon Gee to this excellent review, in the words of Vande English Dept. chair Jay Clayton, written " ...to an audience far broader than academic specialties."

KC Johnson: Baker in His Own Words

The "broad audience" of The Economist can now see what a racist and fraud Baker really is and, with this gem of a paragraph shining light on the Duke Group of 88, the perfidy of that Group:

The only people who, it seems, have learned nothing from all this are Mr Nifong's enablers in the Duke faculty. Even after it was clear that the athletes were innocent, 87 faculty members published a letter categorically rejecting calls to recant their condemnation. And one professor, proving that some academics are as far beyond parody as they are beneath contempt, offered a course called “Hooking up at Duke” that purported to illustrate what the lacrosse scandals tell us about “power, difference and raced, classed, gendered and sexed normativity in the US.”

What wonderful exposure for both Vanderbilt and Duke!

Bravo, KC!

One Spook

Anonymous said...

Who would play Brodhead, given that Don Knotts is dead?

wagnert in Atlanta

Anonymous said...

Duke Homecoming 2007, October 12-14

$48,000 per year, plus travel and allowance…all I get is this?

You really cannot make this up...

9:15-10:15 a.m., “Love on the Quad Romantic Relationships
“What are today’s college men and women doing, thinking, and feeling about sex, dating, courtship, marriage, and family? What is “appropriate” in their minds – for themselves, and for their partners? How do men and women think differently about these norms and values? Shanahan will talk about the Provosts Common Fund Project that examines the changing relationships among adolescents on Duke’s and other college campuses, and about the cultural logic of romantic relationships.” – Suzanne Shanahan, Director of undergraduate studies and assistant professor of sociology.

This is important…really. Why would Duke kid about something as important as cultural logic?

1:15-2:15 p.m. “DukeReads: The Best of Enemies”
“Join the author (Osha Gray Davidson) and one (of) his main (sic) characters in discussing his nonfiction book about race and redemption in the New South. It’s not only the story of the friendship between black activist Ann Atwater and ex-Klansman C.OP. Ellis but also a portrait of the evolution of race relations in Durham…”

Who is presenting the de-evolution of race relations in Durham circa, 2006-2007? Who could be more qualified to moderate the discussion than Klan of 88 member Robert Korstad, associate professor of public policy studies?

2:00-4:00 p.m., “Undergraduate Admissions Information Session and Tour”
“Admission officers will offer an insider’s view of Duke and the undergraduate experience and explain the admissions process, how to finance a Duke education, and the nature of academic like.”

I bet they will, that is, explain the “…the nature of academic life…insider’s view…undergraduate experience.” One wonders if the Klan of 88 have restraining orders and peace bonds against them to keep them ¼ mile away from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions? When we toured the summer before last there was absolutely no indication that the inmates were running the asylum. Truth in Advertising is not something Duke understands.

2:00-3:00 p.m. “Duke University Hospital Tour”
“…Duke University Hospital guided tour…”

Is there a SANE station named after Levicy? Is this like the D.C. scandal tours?

1:30- 2:30 p.m., Is the U.S. Ready for Barack Obama? Is Obama Ready for the U.S.?
Kerry Haynie, (clarifying statement), associate professor of political science and co-director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences.
“Barack Obama may be different from past African-America presidential candidates but are most Americas ready to elect a black president? In his meteoric rise to prominence, Obama has had many think working in his favor, but he also faces great obstacle. His strengths are his charisma. His innocence, (no kidding, it really says innocence – at least Duke understand one meaning of the word), and an apparent ability to bride racial and partisan divides. But can he overcome the perception that he lacks national and international political experience?”

Oh my, where does one start? Are they aware he is a smoker? Are they aware A.B. Duke made his fortune in tobacco? Is anyone in Durham or at Duke in any position to discuss political experience? Who is qualified to speak? Is this one of Clinton's dirty tricks against the Obama campaign? Very, very clever...

They may want to up their spirits order, one might expect the attending alumni to be drinking heavily...

Anonymous said...

I have not read the Economist in eons, reason being as I recall they were somewhere far to the left of Karl Marx. Have they changed???????
Great review including the mention of a momentary lapse into stupidity.

trinity60

Anonymous said...

Excellent revue by a reputable and trustworthy magazine.
Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

I have a very high regard for the Brits. I happen to think that most really good ideas and traditions that have ever been hatched were first incubated on that blessed little Island. And the "Economist" has a long tradition of explaining America to itself often better than 99% of journalists working over here. As a source of commentary, they are by definition more detached and non-partisan than virtually any US news source.
This is neat! Great reviews from the NYTs and the Economist in one week. The review makes it really clear that they reacted strongly and viscerally to the story. Imho, this bodes very well for the future.
Brodheads cojones must now be shriveled to the size of raisins. He is well on his way to being the best known college president in America, at least among the people who can read.

Anonymous said...

Inre: Economist article...

"...Nifong was sacked..."

I always liked the Brits use of the word sacked. It appears the Greeks have it correct. Nifong, the Klan of 88, Brodhead, and the abettors are large, course, empty bags of nothing...

1. The looting or pillagin of a captured city.

Of course Durham is about to get sacked from within.

2. Plunder

The academy has largely plundered any claims to intellectualism in dumbing down both the admissions, the course work, and the faculty.

3. Word History: The ordinary word sack carries within it a few thousand years of commercial history. Sack, which probably goes back to Middle Eastern antiquity, has a long history because it and its ancestors denoted an object used in trade between various peoples. Thus the Greeks got their word sakkos, "a bag made out of coarse cloth or hair," from the Phoenicians with whom they traded. We do not know the Phoenician word, but we know words that are akin to it, such as Hebrew śaq and Akkadian saqqu. The Greeks then passed the sack, as it were, to the Latin-speaking Romans, who transmitted their word saccus, "a large bag or sack," to the Germanic tribes with whom they traded, who gave it the form *sakkiz (other peoples have also taken this word from Greek or Latin, including speakers of Welsh, Russian, Polish, and Albanian). The speakers of Old English, a Germanic language, used two forms of the word, sæc, from *sakkiz, and sacc, directly from Latin; the second Old English form is the ancestor of our sack.

4. Dismissal from employment

Anonymous said...

Boy would I love to see this story turned into a movie. Could the Fongster play himself, maybe raise some $$ to pay off the civil suits?

On the other hand, does anyone doubt that if Mangum had turned out to be even slightly credible, it would have been a Lifetime TV movie a year ago?

Anonymous said...

Mr. Johnson, would you mind republishing the book? I don't know what it was...maybe the cover, maybe the foreword, maybe publisher's font....but for some reason, the SILENT WHITENESS was deafening. I just couldn't understand what you and Mr. Taylor were trying to get across. I'm sure it's my fault, but I'd be happy to buy another copy of the book once all the SILENT WHITENESS is removed. I'm gonna try running the book through the dishwasher or something. Is there a digital copy that I could download to my BlackBerry? I got the BlackBerry Pearl (Product)RED. There was another white version of the Pearl, but I'm unable to function when confronted with SILENT WHITENESS.

Anonymous said...

A superb review. Completely fantastic. The reviewer took the book right into his soul and gave us back something most excellent.

Observer

Debrah said...

TO Prabhu Nagra --

Perhaps you just need to get out of your "dishwasher" and come on into the 21st century.

Your problem is that you have been hit with a heavy dose of otherness. Indoctrination, no less!

Don't fret. It's not fatal.

Just leaves you terminally nonplussed.

Anonymous said...

prabhu nagra @ 9:25

SILENT WHITENESS, huh?

How about your LOUD NON-WHITENESS?

Tell ya what. I'll let you use my resume with your name and I will guarantee you 50 interviews within a week. With my name, maybe 1.

Modern diversity is your best friend, but you don't even know it and probably don't want to admit it.

SILENT WHITENESS.

No. I'm beginning to think it is time to be very LOUD.

LOUD WHITE MEN. The new minority.

Anonymous said...

The economist reviewer states the three were charged accompanied by the usual media frenzy. Was not this an unusual media frenzy? Was not this a media frenzy targeted at a specific group by a specific (albeit widespread) segment of the media? Doesn't this segment make media frenzies a well used tool to try ideologically important or useful cases in the court of public opinion? Should not the Economist and other media have a "MEDIA FRENZY" tag on certain stories in the future to let the unwary reader know to check credulity at the door? Are not historian's taught to bolster statements of fact with documented proof so as to lead to conclusions that stand intense scrutiny? thanks KC

Anonymous said...

KC... Nice review, and it defies the old adage about economists:

"If you stacked all the economists in the world end to end, they would never reach a conclusion."

;-)

-RD

Anonymous said...

Guys, I think Prabhu Nagra was satirizing Houston Baker's use of the term "silent whiteness," not seriously criticizing UPI.

Debrah said...

That was a totally outrageous and embarrassing e-mail sent by former Gritty Gang of 88 member Houston Baker.

There is another word in that e-mail he misspelled which KC needs to "sic". Baker also misses with (provocateur).

Click on Spook's link and you will find it.

That Houston Baker can throw down....I tell ya!

Gary Packwood said...

no justice, no peace 8:41 said...

...Duke Homecoming 2007, October 12-14
...$48,000 per year, plus travel and allowance…all I get is this?
...You really cannot make this up...
...
...They may want to up their spirits order, one might expect the attending alumni to be drinking heavily...
::
Good news.

We learned last winter during the lacrosse Mom's March ...that Shooters II, Inc. (Tavern) in Durham has a bus and they will pick up and deliver if asked.

And they are but one of the stops on the Durham Pub Crawl.

You could leave at 'hook-up' and be back by the close of 'Obama's innocence.'

A fine evening in the making.
::
GP

Anonymous said...

"This column, to its shame, echoed the prevailing wisdom."

That's because the Economist is generally vastly over-credulous of the stories in the MSM. They do not believe much in the leftie bias that owns most of it, and must have been taken in pretty badly by the first months of coverage of the Evil Lacrosse Stripper & Beer Society.

They hold blogs at arm's length - I recall about 5 years ago there was a superb one called smartertimes.com, which daily busted a NYT story for egregious bias and selective omissions. The Economist held its nose. Smartertimes.com went on to become the New York Sun, a pretty respectable rag for actual reporting.

The Economist also holds with the world press in taking the Palestinian side when Israel defends itself.

That said - the guy who writes the Lexington column has let a little sunlight in: "The case also provides a vivid example of the evils of political correctness, which is rampant in the media. One writer noted that 'You couldn't invent a story so precisely tuned to the outrage frequency of the modern, metropolitan, bien pensant journalist." He's catching on nicely, and does a fine review indeed. But it finishes weakly.

"The only people who, it seems, have learned nothing from all this are Mr Nifong's enablers in the Duke faculty." Yes, no argument there Mr. Lexington, except for the word 'only'. Them 'bien piensant journalists' at the NYT haven't begun to atone for their misleading of its readers for the first year of coverage, and that would just be the first step in a long journey back to actual reporting, as opposed to bulldozing public opinion this way and that.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Debra & inman missed Prabhu Nagra's artful allusion to Houston Baker's late Mar, 2006 racist screed.

Anonymous said...

The Economist has never been particularly left, let alone "left of Karl Marx". That said, they did seem to me to have been drifting somewhat leftward in recent years.

Debrah said...

The Economist

Debrah said...

TO 12:31AM--

There have been so many little clever frauds show up here, how can one tell?

Anonymous said...

the review in the Economist is just another example of an America with no clothes:leading universities infested with tenured radical nut jobs; a pointless trillion-dollar war; a trillion-dollar misallocation to bad mortgage paper; backwards immigration policies coupled with a mindless fixation on tacky "celebrities."
Yecch!! Get me out of here!!

Anonymous said...

As a non - American, it seems that the "New" South is just as sordid as the "Old" South; only the colour of the protagonists has changed.

Anonymous said...

Re: Prof Wendy Murphy: The Wikipedia entry on NESL commences with the following sentence -

"The New England School of Law (NESL) is located in Boston, Massachusetts in the theater district. NESL is characterized by substantive instruction with a strong foundation in ethics." ....

Makes you think doesn't it !!!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
"KC:

I hope that in the future, you will continue to write about key issues that impact us all."

He's going to Israel.. If he can do for/to the Middle East what he he did for/to Durham....

Anonymous said...

"are most Americas ready to elect a black president? "

I am. The problem is Condi doesn't seem to want the job.

Anonymous said...

The Economist review had a link to Amazon to buy UPI.

It also had a link to a Duke site that addresses key questions about the Hoax and includes some FAQs which I had never seen.

The behavior of the Duke 88 was addressed as nothing more than an academic freedom issue.

Truly risible explanations.

SAVANT

Anonymous said...

Fred Goldman prints 100K of the crappy O.J. confession book and UPI's initial printing is only 13K ?

Waiting for the Economist to review "If I Did IT.."

Congrats, K.C. and Stuart

Anonymous said...

I've been a subscriber to the Economist for a few years now to keep up on politics in Europe. I think that they espouse socially liberal, but fiscally conservative, views.

I thought their review of the book was well-deserved, and quite hard hitting.

Anonymous said...

The illustration that goes along with the review is great. The boys are holding what look like butterfly nets. I suspect that is intentional but I'm not sure of the meaning. There is not one female finger pointing at the players! What to make of that?

Anonymous said...

Inre: 2:15 "...Get me out of here!!"

I understand the Sudan can be quite nice this time of year...

Anonymous said...

INSUFFICIENTLY SENSITIVE wrote that the NYT should get back to reporting instead of "bulldozing public opinion this way and that."

Nicely put.