Author Archives: Fenster

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About Fenster

Gainfully employed for thirty years, including as one of those high paid college administrators faculty complain about. Earned Ph.D. late in life and converted to the faculty side. Those damn administrators are ruining everything.

A Third Way for Campus Speech?

Posted on September 11, 2016 by Fenster

Fenster writes: Shulamit Reinharz, the director of an academic center at Brandeis, has an op-ed in the Boston Globe calling for a third way on campus speech.  Alluding to the tension currently present between free speech and those who would … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Universal Culture

Posted on August 18, 2016 by Fenster

Fenster writes: Over at Slate Star Codex, Scott Alexander identifies what he refers to as “universal culture” as being a key factor in how the West was won.  His opening point is that there is nothing eternally Western about what … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal reflections, Politics and Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Oddness of the Current Press Moment 2

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Fenster

Fenster writes: What the hell, another comment on the oddness of the current press moment. Here are Shields and Brooks, interviewed as they are regularly by Judy Woodruff on PBS. Though staking out left field and right field respectively, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Economics | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

The Oddness of the Current Press Moment 1

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Fenster

Fenster writes: The small dust-up over whether the French government suppressed evidence of torture and mutilation at Bataclan is a good case study of the oddness of the current press moment. Heat Street ran a piece saying yes: Snopes has … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Economics | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

A Commenter Responds to Obadiah

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Fenster

Fenster writes: Commenter Tom Trueman has responded to Obadiah Plainman’s recent guest appearance here.  While you may view Mr. Trueman’s note in the comments section to Mr. Plainman’s post, it is worth a careful read and is therefore reprinted here … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Economics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Guest Blogger Writes on Brexit

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Fenster

Fenster writes: One Obadiah Plainman, who, being of the LOWER ORDERS, hath not access to a blogging platform, a most unenviable state in the current times.  He is however a close acquaintance of MR. FENSTER, who as is well known … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Economics | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

A Hypothetical Case Study

Posted on June 25, 2016 by Fenster

Fenster writes: An interesting hypothetical case study. Direct democracy does not scale up well and tyranny is unacceptable so country X has been established as a republic.  As a republic, it relies on elites to run things, with the elites … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Economics | 5 Comments

A Generation on a Ledge

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Fenster

Fenster writes: I wrote here about how the pro-faculty American Association of University Professors issued a report critical of the misuses of Title IX.  And how Fester found that take to be refreshing and welcome.  But also that it was … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Politics and Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Faces and Noses, con’t.

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Fenster

Fenster writes: I wrote here about Neil Postman’s influential early 90s view that broadcast news was morphing to entertainment.  And how that argument–insightful as it was–missed the notion of actual media bias, replete with intention about actual content, that came down … Continue reading →

Posted in Media, Politics and Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

The Nose in Front of One’s Face

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Fenster

Fenster writes: Neil Postman was an author, academic and media critic, best known for his book Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985).  According to Wikipedia: The book’s origins lay in a talk Postman gave to the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1984. … Continue reading →

Posted in Media, Politics and Economics | Tagged , | 3 Comments