Douthat on Conservatism

by John Holbo on June 12, 2008

Ross Douthat takes a stab at defining American ‘conservatism’. And follows up here. Here it is:

…A commitment to the defense of the particular habits, mores and institutions of the United States against those socioeconomic trends that threaten to undermine them, and those political movements (generally on the left, but sometimes on the right) that seek to change them radically in the pursuit of particular ideological goals.

This has to be a complete failure, but I’m not going to snark too severely because these little definitional exercises are always failures. Still, they can be instructive. [click to continue…]

Revisiting a topic given changes in the landscape

by Eszter Hargittai on June 12, 2008

In the comments thread about homepages of academics, reader Oisin asks:

I’m a PhD philosophy student, entering my 2nd year; is maintaining a blog a good idea for a PhD student, in addition to having a homepage? Or is it perhaps a bad idea? And if so, why?

How having a blog may influence an academic’s career is a topic we’ve discussed at CT numerous times before over the years (example, example, example). Nonetheless, taking it up once again in light of changes in the blogging landscape makes sense. As I consider the question, I will note some significant differences among blog types and why the term “blog” has limited utility.

To blog or not to blog is not really the question. What parts of one’s self one wants to portray publicly and to a professional community is more the issue at hand.
[click to continue…]