Monthly Archive: March 2013

The Great Nations: a Tuareg Poem

The poet Souéloum Diagho is from Tessalit in the North of Mali. His father is Tamashek, his mother Fula. He writes in the tradition of the controversial eighth century Arabic poet Ghaylan ibn ‘Uqbah....

Darkness and Wonder in the 23rd Century

Saturday evening, burned out and brain-dead after two weeks of grading papers, I plopped down in the living room to take advantage of my weekend alone by watching the first two Star Trek films. ...

Sunday deadline bleg.

Just a short bleg for sunday. I set a weekend goal of $250 for my fundraising, and I’m a bit short. If anyone’s got a little spare change lying around, I’d appreciate a push...

Teaching Social Norms, Part 4

There exists a word whose usage might be among the most strongly advocated in early childhood and elementary school classrooms.  You will often hear teachers demanding that children say it, sometimes several times a...

1,005 Days Later

Hey, do you remember Bradley Manning? I’m really not all that surprised that he pled guilty to a number of the lesser charges against him. But since he did, we can set aside questions...

Friday Jukebox – Boys Don’t Cry

This is the current face of hateful bigotry in Canada, Canada Family Action. They’re using all manner of lies and intimidation to fight Bill C-279, the transgendered rights bill. This made me think of...