Should’ve posted a “Gone Fishin’” sign (and have done so now).

I’ll be back someday (when the time is right), but in the meantime here is where to find me these days:

– Editing and managing the Nevada News Bureau

– Blogging on The Blog there (now branded E!!Politics)

– Doing political analysis & commentary wherever I’m hired or invited

Also:  Follow me on Twitter @elizcrum

It is an exquisite and beautiful thing in our nature, that, when the heart is touched and softened by some tranquil happiness or affectionate feeling, the memory of the dead comes over it most powerfully and irresistibly. It would seem almost Continue reading...]]> I recently ran across a quotation that conveys something I have often experienced since losing my sister in November, and which I have noticed in others – most recently, a new friend – who have also lost a loved one to death:

It is an exquisite and beautiful thing in our nature, that, when the heart is touched and softened by some tranquil happiness or affectionate feeling, the memory of the dead comes over it most powerfully and irresistibly. It would seem almost as though our better thoughts and sympathies were charms, in virtue of which the soul is enabled to hold some vague and mysterious intercourse with the spirits of those whom we loved in life.

– Charles Dickens

Yes.

Since Krista disappeared from this earth, every joyful moment, every deep laugh, every quiet contemplation of beauty summons her memory.  I do not know how long this will continue, and I cannot decide whether I wish it to stop.

It’s like dancing a few perfect steps to a lovely but wistful song.  The moment is exquisite, but joy and grief strike a sudden heartwrenching chord and you find yourself nearly overcome.  Do you go on dancing or walk from the floor?  Either way, your heart is pierced with bittersweet.

And the song plays on.

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After choosing some sample texts and correcting or critiquing their statistics regarding Continue reading...]]> It is no new thing – at least among educated, well-informed conservative women - to talk about the hi-jacking of Feminism by angry, man-hating shrews bent on perpetuating their anti-paternal, victim mentalities. Unfortunately, many of these women are professors in insitutions of higher learning.  And according to a piece by Christina Hoff Sommers in The Chronicle Review, at least some of these educators are guilty of citing false statistics in their work – and of getting quite testy when it is pointed out to them.

After choosing some sample texts and correcting or critiquing their statistics regarding violence against women and domestic abuse, and after interacting directly with their none-too-pleased authors (click thru and read about it!) Sommers says this:

All books have mistakes, so why pick on the feminists? My complaint with feminist research is not so much that the authors make mistakes; it is that the mistakes are impervious to reasoned criticism. They do not get corrected. The authors are passionately committed to the proposition that American women are oppressed and under siege. The scholars seize and hold on for dear life to any piece of data that appears to corroborate their dire worldview. At the same time, any critic who attempts to correct the false assumptions is dismissed as a backlasher and an anti-feminist crank.

Why should it matter if a large number of professors think and say a lot of foolish and intemperate things? Here are three reasons to be concerned:

1) False assertions, hyperbole, and crying wolf undermine the credibility and effectiveness of feminism. The United States, and the world, would greatly benefit from an intellectually responsible, reality-based women’s movement.

2) Over the years, the feminist fictions have made their way into public policy. They travel from the women’s-studies textbooks to women’s advocacy groups and then into news stories. Soon after, they are cited by concerned political leaders. President Obama recently issued an executive order establishing a White House Council on Women and Girls. As he explained, “The purpose of this council is to ensure that American women and girls are treated fairly in all matters of public policy.” He and Congress are also poised to use the celebrated Title IX gender-equity law to counter discrimination not only in college athletics but also in college math and science programs, where, it is alleged, women face a “chilly climate.” The president and members of Congress can cite decades of women’s-studies scholarship that presents women as the have-nots of our society. Never mind that this is largely no longer true. Nearly every fact that could be marshaled to justify the formation of the White House Council on Women and Girls or the new focus of Title IX application was shaped by scholarly merchants of hype like Professors Lemon and Seager.

3) Finally, as a philosophy professor of almost 20 years, and as someone who respects rationality, objective scholarship, and intellectual integrity, I find it altogether unacceptable for distinguished university professors and prestigious publishers to disseminate falsehoods. It is offensive in itself, even without considering the harmful consequences. Obduracy in the face of reasonable criticism may be inevitable in some realms, such as partisan politics, but in academe it is an abuse of the privileges of professorship.

For comments such as these, and for her exposure of specious feminist statistics in her 1994 book  Who Stole Feminism? Sommers has been called a “thug,” “parasite,” “dangerous,” and a “female impersonator.”   Early in her piece, she quotes sociologist Joel Best who once said that a bad statistic is ”Harder to kill than a vampire.”  Apparently the egos of feminist professors who cite those bad statistics are pretty hard to kill as well.

Unfortunately, my sidebar widgets, blogrolls, link lists, and ”In the Media” blurbs did not carry over, so I’ll have to re-build those.

But I think  I can safely blog here now without fear of losing things in cyberspace…so, happily, I’ll start blogging again tomorrow!!

Sincere thanks to all my readers for their patience and support during these very trying weeks.

and yes, I know this blog is just sitting here.

I was (and am) hesitant to do any work, in either place, that might get zapped, overwritten, or otherwise messed up – either by cyberpowers beyond my control or during the export/import migration process.  I also ran into a file size issue that I am trying to work around.

Please bear with me; I am not a tech genius by any means.  I will try Continue reading...]]> Yes, yes, I know my old blog is back up:  www.elizabethcrum.blogivists.com

and yes, I know this blog is just sitting here.

I was (and am) hesitant to do any work, in either place, that might get zapped, overwritten, or otherwise messed up – either by cyberpowers beyond my control or during the export/import migration process.  I also ran into a file size issue that I am trying to work around.

Please bear with me; I am not a tech genius by any means.  I will try to get this done by the weekend and hope to be happily blogging again by next week.  I’ll send out an E!! alert when I do, so no need to keep checking back for now.

Unless you are not on my mailing list and then, yes, you should check back.  Tuesday-ish.

Happy Memorial Day.

–Virginia Bill of Rights, Article 16

Source:  Founder’s Quote Daily, a service of The Patriot Post.  To subscribe, link to Continue reading...]]> “[R]eligion, or the duty which we owe to our creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and this is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.”

–Virginia Bill of Rights, Article 16

Source:  Founder’s Quote Daily, a service of The Patriot Post.  To subscribe, link to http://patriotpost.us/subscribe.php.

September 17, 2008

Hi,

I finally figured it out!

I have decided to settle down and get serious about a career in Public Garden Management and Horticulture.  This decision allows me to work in areas where public transportation is readily available, work in a greenhouse environment, avoid the stress of production related capitalism, contribute to the beauty of urban areas, preserve plants for future generations, and educate people who are really interested in plants.  It also solves the dilemma about what I want to do when I grow up, Continue reading...]]>  

September 17, 2008

Hi,

I finally figured it out!

I have decided to settle down and get serious about a career in Public
Garden Management and Horticulture.  This decision allows me to work in
areas where public transportation is readily available, work in a greenhouse
environment, avoid the stress of production related capitalism, contribute
to the beauty of urban areas, preserve plants for future generations, and
educate people who are really interested in plants.  It also solves the
dilemma about what I want to do when I grow up, because this way I can do a
little of everything.

Cornell and the University of Delaware both have fellowship only programs
for Master’s degrees (both fully funded with a living stipend).  There are
other programs out there as well.

I have joined the Horticulture club as an active member (I might consider
running for an office) and am taking an extracurricular Urban Gardeners
Program with a 40-hour community service requirement at the local community
greenhouse (Hunter Park in Lansing – 2 minutes from my door walking).  I am
working on a proposal for an internship with Beal Gardens here at MSU,
probably revamping the website and working on grant acquisition as we all
know that I can weed just fine.

Now to 4.0 everything and do well on the GRE.

 Love,

 Me

“Cultivated plants are neatly planted; wild plants flourish in chaos.”

– Susun Weed

This one in the Lansing State Journal has a good (better) photo of Krista than the previous piece; also her house:

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20081120/NEWS01/811200373

This one was written by a reporter at MSU’s The State News:

http://www.statenews.com/index.php/article/2008/11/family_friends_shocked_after_student_goes_missing

This one is a brief online alert:

http://boards.insessiontrials.com/showthread.php?p=12443140

And here’s a photo taken a few Thanksgivings ago with our maternal grandmother in Florida: