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Download Coldplay’s latest single — for free…

“Violet Hill” — courtesy of Coldplay (we promise!)

A professor sues his students…

From today’s Inside Higher Ed:

A law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has — and the ramifications could extend well beyond his dispute.

Richard J. Peltz is suing two students who are involved in the university’s chapter of the Black Law Student Association, the association itself, and another individual who is affiliated with a black lawyers’ group. Peltz charges them with defamation, saying that his comments about affirmative action were used unfairly to accuse him of racism in a way that tarnished his reputation.

Suing students for what they have said about you is rare if not unheard of, but the topic has suddenly come up not only at Little Rock’s law school, but at Dartmouth College. There, a former instructor recently sent several former students e-mail indicating that she was planning a suit. Robert B. Donin, general counsel of the college, issued a statement in which he said: “We have determined that there is no basis for such action, and we have advised the students and faculty members of this.”

While Professor Peltz’ anger is understandable, as professors we’ve all be subjected to character assassination, innuendo, and crappy evaluations from a disgruntled failing student.   Hell, Taylor was called by a now-deceased UST faculty member “a fascist, nothing but a younger version of Augusto Pinochet with better looks and charm.”  Lawsuit?  Hell no.  It was settled in an old school manner: with humor over a couple of scotches (neat, three-finger, of course…).

We’re just not so sure that suing some students is necessarily the best course of action here…

Academic science in action: Beef brisket is good for you…

Sweet!!  While I’m certain that it won’t make either the nanny state types or vegans/vegetarians who demand that we all drink broccoli milkshakes and eat tofu burgers, you have to appreciate what the boys and girls at Texas A&M announced on Tuesday: That beef brisket is good for you!

To celebrate, I’m buying my colleagues a big ol’ slab of beef brisket from Luling City BBQ this afternoon!

Is Southern Mexico the problem?

The Economist poses that question this week…

Specifically, Mexico’s south is poorer than its north, is mountainous and remote, has a limited transportation infrastructure, has a greater indigenous and lower-educated population, and isn’t a big supporter of President Felipe Calderón compared with the rest of Mexico (the southern states gave Calderón only 27% of the vote in the 2006 Presidential election).  It’s also the home of much of the political unrest within Mexico.

Not mentioned by The Economist: Southern Mexico is the regional home of the majority of illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States…

Rice sex magazine launched

We can’t imagine that we will see this on the UST campus anytime in the next 10,000 years… unless our colleagues in the Department of Communication wish to commit academic version of seppuku.

Heh.

From today’s Chronicle:

Having sex at college is one thing.

Reading and writing about it is another.

In recent years, sex magazines at elite colleges and universities have tried to tap the omnivorous sexual appetite of the student body. Published by and for students, these provocative start-ups offer a rich but random sexual buffet: from full-on pornography featuring that hot guy or girl you’ve seen around campus to titillating personal essays that suggest much more than they reveal.

Rice University is the latest to dabble in the fringe trend. Open Magazine is the school’s first student publication devoted to textual and sexual pursuits — 68 pages of news articles, essays, photos, poems, even graphics on sex and sexuality.

“Ideally, it should be for anybody,” says Rachel Solnick, sophomore and editor in chief, who gave copies to some of her professors and put the magazine online at www.rice.edu/openmagazine. “I think it has a pretty mature tone.”

Solnick, 20, worked with a small staff to bring Open Magazine to fruition. Taking a holistic approach to sex, the magazine addresses some surprisingly disparate topics: from the celibacy of Buddhist monks to the evolution of the orgasm to sex education in Tennessee.

“It’s about going past the superficial and stereotypical,” says sophomore Amanda Hu, 19, a staff writer and editor. “Many points of view can be expressed.”

There’s playful stuff, too, including a Rice University Coitus Map that describes and locates the various exploits of one busy alum, class of ‘05.

And there’s nudity, of course. Tasteful nudity.

Riiiiiight… And people will be reading it just for the interviews and research notes.

Obama heads for super delegate edge

So much for the collapse of the Obama campaign…

From yesterday’s Wall Street Journal:

Bridge-building through Faithful Citizenship

Bridge-Building Through Faithful Citizenship
Friday, May 2, 2008 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM

The University of St. Thomas Young Social Justice Institute and Maryknoll First Friday Series present a lecture titled, “Bridge-Building Through Faithful Citizenship: Cultivating Peace and Reconciliation in Communities Divided by the Immigration Issue” given by the Rev. Juan Molina at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2 in the Council of Clubs Room, Crooker Center.

How can one bring peace and reconciliation to communities who have been divided by the politics of immigration? Fr. Juan Molina will suggest direction for bridge-building based on the insights from the following documents of Catholic social teaching: Ecclesia in America (1999), Welcoming the Stranger (2000), Strangers No Longer (2003), God is Love (2005) and Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (2007).
Fr. Molina is a Roman Catholic priest of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, and earned his doctorate in Economics from Fordham University. He is the author of “The Impact of Remittances in Developing Countries.”

The Rev. William J. Young Social Justice Institute brings together academics, students, social justice activists, clergy, and parish ministers on a regular basis to project the implications of Catholic Social Teaching for the pressing political, social, and economic issues of the day. The Maryknoll First Friday Series is held on the first Friday of every month.

Cost	Free and open to the public
Location	Council of Clubs Conference Room, Crooker Center
Address	3909 Graustark
Contact	Deborah Fernandez at 713-525-3812
Sponsored By	University of St. Thomas Young Social Justice Institute, Maryknoll First Friday Forum

An update on our colleague Caroline…

One of our colleagues, Professor Caroline Calvillo, is currently in London weighing several exciting job offers from Queen Elizabeth II and MI-5 some NGOs and the British House of Commons, as well as mulling over which university will be fortunate enough to have her in their PoliSci Ph.D. program programme.

We wish Caroline all the best and look forward to seeing her again sometime soon.  She will be missed at the PoliSci Commencement Day Tailgate Party…

A recent pic of Caroline searching for the ghost of Karl Marx at an old English country estate…

New Report on Polling and Cell Phones

The American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) has just released its task force report on cell phones and polling.

Among their recommendations:

• All telephone surveys should disclose whether or not the sample includes only landline numbers, only cell phone numbers, or both, and how the numbers were selected from their respective frames.
• All RDD telephone surveys with samples that contain cell phone numbers should fully disclose how any weights have been constructed and what population estimates have been used to post-stratify, recognizing that many such parameters are not available at sub-national levels.
• RDD telephone surveys targeting subgroups in the U.S. with substantial percentages of adults who live in cell phone only households (e.g., 18 – 29 year olds; renters; and those below the poverty threshold) should sample cell phone numbers or, if this is not feasible, discuss how excluding cell phone numbers may affect the results.

While AAPOR’s report is interesting, we should note that two Pew Research Center studies — one on the cell phone challenge to survey research and one on the growing cell-only population, suggest that there is little evidence that excluding the cell phone-only population significantly impacts the results of a poll (for now…).

That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a concern that excluding the cell phone-only population could impact survey research — it likely will as the cell phone-only population grows.  Gallup’s Frank Newport, The Wall Street Journal’s “Numbers Guy” Carl Bialik, and John Ehlen and Patrick Ehlen (2007) in Public Opinion Quarterly all have good discussions on this concern in recent posts and/or research…

The Olympic Torch Game: Version 2.0

So you think you could run with the Olympic torch and dodge the protesters?

Click this link to a computer game by ESPN that tests your skill at keeping the flame from being doused.

Will a CNN or Carrefours game be next? 

Belated congrats to our colleague, Dr. Patrick Malcolmson!

Our friend and colleague, Dr. Patrick Malcolmson, has been appointed Academic Vice-President at our sister institution in Canada, St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Patrick is quite familiar with the academic and administrative responsibilities of the position. He had previously served St. Thomas University as Assistant Vice-President and completed a three-year term as Academic Vice-President in 2007.

Patrick has been a member of the STU Political Science Department since 1990, where he also served as Chair. He has been an active scholar and award-winning teacher. He has published numerous books and scholarly papers, and was the recipient of the St. Thomas University Excellence in Teaching Award in 2000. He has also served as Chair of the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission and is currently Chair of the board for the Atlantic Human Rights Centre. He recently completed a sabbatical with us at UST — he taught Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations for us — and is currently teaching introductory and senior level courses in Political Science at STU this term.

Patrick will begin his two-year term as Academic Vice-President on July 1st.

While Patrick is STU’s Academic VP, Jon and Michelle promise not to rattle the cages of the more unhinged, bomb-throwin’ STU faculty that declared an academic jihad against them and their old Professors R-Squared blog back in February…

Good luck and best wishes, Patrick!

Supreme Court upholds photo voter ID law in Indiana

Back in late January, Taylor testified before the Texas House Committee on Elections regarding photo voter ID.  There was much noise and light, but no opinions were publicly changed on the issue, principally because everyone was waiting to see how the U.S. Supreme Court would rule on the issue.  Well… now they have.

In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Indiana’s photo voter ID law (Crawford v. Marion County Election Board).  The main majority opinion found that the Indiana law may fall somewhat more heavily upon older persons born in other states, persons with economic or other limitations making it difficult for them to get a birth certificate or other document in order to get a state-issued ID, homeless individuals, and persons whose religious faith raises an obstacle to being photographed.  That, in and of itself, was not enough to convince the Court to overturn the Indiana law.

The ruling is not a surprise - the arguments before the Court and the ensuing questions by the Justices foreshadowed today’s ruling.  Basically, the Court said that requiring a voter to present a photo ID is constitutional.  The Court also held that there might be situations where individuals are unconstitutionally burdened, but left that up to future courts.

Here’s the real question: Now that the Indiana law has been upheld, will we see action in 2009 in the Texas Legislature?  Answer: Hell yes. While both of us support the idea of a photo voter ID law, we do have one concern that we believe must be addressed: the issue of absentee voter fraud (Taylor discussed it in his Q&A with the Election Committee).  That is as important an issue as adopting a photo voter ID bill.  Why?  Because in Texas it appears to be the biggest source of outright voter fraud.  Some sort of agreement to tackle it, along with a photo voter ID provision, could be the basis for a successful bipartisan consensus on comprehensive election reform.

How “Dallas” Won The Cold War…

In honor of the 30th anniversary of its debut, Reason editors Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch reflect on the glorious effect that a particularly campy TV series had on the Cold War and the destruction of the Evil Empire…Hmmm…

Just a thought, but was Reagan’s “ash heap of history” speech to the British House of Commons in 1982 the inspiration?  You be the judge.

For our Democratic colleagues in PoliSci…

By Sage Stossel in The Atlantic…