Category Archives: Uncategorized

More flags

Posted on March 11, 2015 by David S. Meyer

Participants in the flag debate around my campus note that the American flag has been deployed in the service of heroic causes and of less heroic and admirable efforts.  The truth is that if you can’t find the flag used … Continue reading →

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Rally ’round the flag, Irvine edition

Posted on March 11, 2015 by David S. Meyer

It’s always nice to have patriotic visitors to my campus, and wonderful to see members of the community and students engaging in civil discourse.  But the flag controversy is a sideshow that distracts from real issues in the University of … Continue reading →

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#Selma50: Whose history?

Posted on March 8, 2015 by David S. Meyer

The thousands of people who marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama this weekend would not be attacked by state troopers, nor face gas or police dogs. Fifty years makes for an auspicious anniversary.  The brutal beatings that … Continue reading →

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Less amusing animals: How movements work

Posted on March 6, 2015 by David S. Meyer

As anyone who has stumbled across the internet and sampled a tiny sliver of the astounding variety of cat videos, animals can be entertaining.  For years animal rights advocates have been emphasizing the price those animals pay for our amusement. … Continue reading →

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The Ferguson report: How protest works

Posted on March 5, 2015 by David S. Meyer

The Department of Justice has released its report on policing in Ferguson.  It tells an extremely disturbing story, in which the killing of Michael Brown and the volatile protests that followed, the awful policing of those protests, and the subsequent … Continue reading →

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Battles over history

Posted on February 27, 2015 by David S. Meyer

I don’t need to close my eyes to love America. Then again, I’m not a high school student and I never took an Advanced Placement course in American History (APUSH).  But I like the “education without limitation” sign above, from … Continue reading →

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Do you believe in science?

Posted on February 23, 2015 by David S. Meyer

The image above is from the Heartland Institute, an advocacy group which receives funding from a number of conservative sources (Scaife, Olin, Koch, for example) to promote doubts about climate change, the health risks of cigarettes, the dangers of fracking, … Continue reading →

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You miss all the shots you don’t take

Posted on February 18, 2015 by David S. Meyer

Effective advocates are entrepreneurial, constantly trying to tie their preferred remedies to any potential problem that comes up in the news.  This is the only way we can make sense of Students for Concealed Carry‘s effort to present their prime … Continue reading →

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Updates: Martin Luther King Day 2015

Posted on January 19, 2015 by David S. Meyer

We try to take control of the past with current struggles in mind.  Martin Luther King, killed less than a half-century ago is a prize for contemporary activists.  The civil rights movement isn’t quite a wispy memory from the era … Continue reading →

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King Day (2015)

Posted on January 19, 2015 by David S. Meyer

(This is a repost for Martin Luther King Day.  Update to follow.) Martin Luther King died young enough and dramatically enough to be turned into an American hero, but it was neither his youth nor his death that made him … Continue reading →

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