Dispatches From the Culture Wars – White Men Gone Wild edition

What neocons wrought; Henry K on trial; Kansas cuts kids; Oil rules OK; Classy Columbia chromedome: ALEC red-handed and red-faced

portside
Printer friendly  
Harold Hamm in Oklahoma City.,Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The Neoconservative Counterrevolution
By Andrew Hartman
April 23. 2015
Jacobin

If New Leftists gave shape to one side of the culture wars, those who came to be called neoconservatives were hugely influential in shaping the other. Neoconservatism, a label applied to a group of prominent liberal intellectuals who moved right on the American political spectrum during the sixties, took form precisely in opposition to the New Left.
In their reaction to the New Left, in their spirited defense of traditional American institutions, and in their full-throated attack on those intellectuals who composed, in Lionel Trilling’s words, an “adversary culture,” neoconservatives helped draw up the very terms of the culture wars.

The Ivy League’s Favorite War Criminal: Why the atrocities of Henry Kissinger should be mandatory reading
By Omer Aziz
April 17, 2015
Salon

Henry Kissinger spoke at Yale — to which he has donated an archive of personal documents, where he occasionally participates in a course with Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, and where he give an invite-only talk just a year ago. Last week’s “conversation” was moderated by Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson, who is also Henry Kissinger’s official biographer. As if to underscore the incestuous insider game on display, sitting in the third row was Paul Bremer, the “Administrator” of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, the man who de-Baathified the country, threw millions of people out of work, and helped destroy the Iraqi state, which spurred the insurgency, the Sunni-Shia civil war, and later the transmogrification of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia into the Islamic State.
While critics often argue that free speech on university campuses is threatened by an overly-PC, overly-sensitive culture, the contest over ideas is actually threatened far more by powerful men like Kissinger (and Ferguson), who would rather commend each other for their great work than have a real debate over war crimes and human rights abuses. When you’re an insider, you’re an insider for life—and that means you get away with anything, decades after you left office.

Kansas Shows Us What Could Happen If Republicans Win in 2016
By Catherine Rampell
April 30, 2015
Washington Post

At least eight Kansas school districts recently announced that they’re starting summer break early this year, and not because kids have already learned so much that they deserve a few extra days off. It’s because these schools ran out of money, thanks to state leaders’ decision to ax education spending midyear to plug an ever-widening hole in their budget.
In balancing the budget on the backs of children, Kansas politicians are behaving shamefully. But they may also be doing the rest of the country a favor, by giving us a preview of what might happen if Republicans control the White House and Congress after the 2016 election.


Oil CEO Wanted University Quake Scientists Dismissed: Dean's E-Mail
By Benjamin Elgin
May 15, 2015
BloombergBusiness

Oil tycoon Harold Hamm told a University of Oklahoma dean last year that he wanted certain scientists there dismissed who were studying links between oil and gas activity and the state's nearly 400-fold increase in earthquakes, according to the dean's e-mail recounting the conversation.
Hamm, the billionaire founder and chief executive officer of Oklahoma City-based Continental Resources, is a major donor to the university, which is the home of the Oklahoma Geological Survey.
"Mr. Hamm is very upset at some of the earthquake reporting to the point that he would like to see select OGS staff dismissed," wrote Larry Grillot, the dean of the university's Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, in a July 16, 2014, e-mail to colleagues at the university. Hamm also expressed an interest in joining a search committee charged with finding a new director for the geological survey, according to Grillot's e-mail. And, the dean wrote, Hamm indicated that he would be "visiting with Governor [Mary] Fallin on the topic of moving the OGS out of the University of Oklahoma."

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)


Columbia President Refuses to Shake Emma Sulkowicz’s Hand at Graduation Ceremony
By Jessica Roy
May 2, 2015
New York

Since coming forward with her story last year, Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz has become an outspoken figure in the fight against campus sexual assault. Her Carry That Weight mattress project has served as the centerpiece of countless news stories about universities' mishandling of rape cases, and she even attended the State of the Union as the guest of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
On Tuesday, Sulkowicz culminated her controversial senior thesis project by attending a graduation ceremony called Class Day with her mattress in tow. But according to a report from the Times, Columbia University president Lee Bollinger appeared uninterested in even acknowledging her presence.


Right-wing ‘Bill Mill’ ALEC Sics Cops on Reporter Who Discovers Hotel Meeting with Georgia Lawmakers
By Arturo Garcia
May 22, 2015
Raw Story

A spokesperson for the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) can be seen dispatching sheriff’s deputies in Savannah, Georgia to eject WXIA-TV reporter Brendan Keefe as he tried to cover a meeting the organization set up with state legislators.
The station posted footage of the encounter on Friday morning, showing the ALEC spokesperson, Bill Meierling, get frustrated after Keefe debunks his argument that lobbyists are not involved with the organization.
According to Keefe, he saw a cell phone industry lobbyist, Bethanne Cooley, talking to Georgia state Rep. Ben Harbin (R) and other lawmakers at the Savannah meeting before being asked to leave.