b.rox

I’m going out on a limb and predict Obama wins in 2012. You may scoff but remember I have an unblemished record of success in this arena.

Yesterday evening, I made my presentation, “The Role of Blogs in the Rebuilding of New Orleans,” to a special interest group of the AERA. I related five prominent stories that have emerged in, around, through or about the local blogosphere since the flooding of the city in 2005. Even though the presentation is over, I’m [...]

In a few days, I’ll be making a presentation to a special interest group of the AERA titled “The Role of Blogs in the Rebuilding of New Orleans.” My plan is to relate certain prominent stories that have emerged in, around, through or about the local blogosphere since the flooding of the city in 2005. [...]

This sign is on a house on Canal Street. I’m not sure but I strongly suspect this may have been placed by a guy calling himself shaman_nation who popped up on the Mid-City discussion group and started posting the most inane conspiracy drivel I’ve ever read. He’d post some links and then add: But, I’m [...]

This caught my eye on the the front page of today’s Times-Picayune: “It always amazed me that you had these two universities that were right next to each other but they didn’t talk to each other,” Bruno said. “Why do we have two libraries? Why do we have two cafeterias?” For a brief moment I [...]

Since it’s Veterans Day, I thought I’d point to something written by a veteran. Here’s an article by Bradford J. Kelley, which appeared in the morning paper. “Election glossed over wars — and warriors” He begins by noting the lack of attention paid to our current military engagements in the recent election cycle, but notes [...]

Back in June (if not earlier) Sarah Palin wrote: Unless government appropriately regulates oil developments and holds oil executives accountable, the public will not trust them to drill, baby, drill. And we must! Or we will be even more beholden to, and controlled by, dangerous foreign regimes that supply much of our energy. Yet there [...]

It might seem to the rest of the country that New Orleanians are insular and self-absorbed. There’s some truth to that; sometimes this place feels like a distant province of the United States rather than a part of the mainland. But events like the terrorist attacks of September 11th touch us all, and after suffering [...]

Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made. — Otto von Bismarck I had the chance to observe a bit of sausage-making yesterday. I attended the meeting of a committee charged with selecting a team to design a greenway for the Lafitte Corridor. A little context may be in order. [...]

The mayor came to our campus yesterday to deliver a speech with the theme “Eyes Wide Open.” Strangely enough, few of my co-workers seemed to be aware of this, but I got an invite from the mayor’s office via e-mail. By another strange coincidence, I’d forgotten all about it until my memory was jogged during [...]

A few weeks back I had a bit of an educational experience. I can’t get into specifics, but I’m wondering if I might be able to abstract the essence. A party approached a group that I work with asking for our support on a particular initiative. This party has considerable power and influence, and our [...]

Despite the rain, hundreds of people turned out for the protest yesterday, so many I couldn’t fit them all even in this wide panoramic shot. View full size for maximum impact. Be prepared to scroll horizontally. I posted a set of twenty photos in all. (Of course, Derek has a set that’s twice as big [...]

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I was recently contacted by a college student at a certain large Midwestern state-sponsored university. It seems he was enrolled in a revolutionary film studies class, and was working on an assignment to give a Marxist reading of a radical media text, and he chose ROX. His task: to compare us on a scale of [...]

Photo by Derek Bridges As I am writing this the very last minutes of the Nagin administration are ticking away. I for one am relieved. Of course I’m hopeful the new administration does better, but it’s more personal than that. Over the past couple years I’ve had some paranoid fantasies that Nagin was out to [...]

We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat. — Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, senior American and NATO commander in Afghanistan

I got this update from Baty Landis via e-mail. She’s on the task force assigned by the incoming mayor to find a new police chief. I respect Baty’s efforts on this front; she is made of sterner stuff than I. What she reports is cause for concern for all New Orleanians.

Since I don’t seem to have anything interesting to say, I thought I’d just link to Oyster’s brilliant short essay on why we need to repeal that unfortunate recent legislation we’ve all heard so much about. I considered myself vaguely in favor of the new rules until I read this. Give it a look, it [...]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/derek_b/ / CC BY 2.0 This passage in a news story caught my eye. Mary Rickard for Reuters: Along with a championship team, New Orleans has a new mayor in Mitch Landrieu, who won election on Saturday by a wide margin. Landrieu, the city’s first white mayor in more than 30 years, pledged to bridge [...]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/therefore/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Yes, that’s right, New Orleans is having an election tomorrow, right in the midst of Superbowl mania and Carnival madness. I’m a little shy this time around about voicing my own opinion, but others are not so afflicted. Here’s a roundup of what some other bloggers think. Adrastos The Huck [...]

If I haven’t written here as much lately, perhaps it’s because I feel constrained from public discussion of many of the topics which are currently preoccupying me. There’s an election coming up, and I’ve got opinions, but I’m afraid to express them. Whoever wins, FOLC will have to work with them. It won’t help FOLC’s [...]