Posted on 03/19/2007 6:19:42 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
I put "Carnegie Mellon" in quotes when referring to the NUttie professor of the previous DUmmie FUnnies EDITION because no matter what searches I have done directly from the Carnegie Mellon University site, I have yet to come up with the name of one Michael Rectenwald despite his claim to work there. Perhaps my search skills need to be improved but as of yet I have come up with nothing. Leaving that aside, this NUttie professor has now come up some rather tortured explanations, as a result of the publicity this blog has given him, as a rationale for wanting to imprison millions of Republicans and to outlaw the GOP. The first tortured explanation was given over at the DEMOCRAT UNDERGROUND by a Sock Puppet who claims to be an assistant to Rectenwald although I strongly suspect it is Rectenwald himself. This Sock Puppet, rec_report, claims that the two points about imprisoning and outlawing Republicans was, heh-heh, just tongue-in-cheek satire meant to "push the rhetorical boundaries." Then the Rectenwald Sock-Puppet gets even more hilarious with this:
"Of course this is an ironic statement--meant to illustrate the depths of our dilemma, not a practical plan for action. He means to push the rhetorical boundaries in ways that Repukes have done in order to make otherwise extreme statements to appear mainstream.
"It's meant to be funny and it's meant to allow less extreme statements to be made to appear more centrist by virtue of having pushed the rhetorical boundaries--like the Repukes have done to us."
Yeah, riiiiight! See, he was joking all along only we were too clueless to figure it out. Rectenwald (according to his Sock Puppet) just made extreme statements on purpose just to make his other NUttie statements sound almost normal. Oh, and btw, can he now be back on track for his tenure since he was only kidding?
Too bad for Rectenwald's Sock Puppet that he also claims he wasn't kidding with ANOTHER tortured EXPLANATION that he gives on his political website. And for a supposed literature professor, Rectenwald sure has a tough time explaining himself since it is hard to figure out just what he is saying as a rationale. The best explanation I can come up with is, "I didn't really mean what I said except that I really did mean it." So let us now watch the NUttie professor desperately try to put himself back on the tenure track in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, enjoying the spectacle watching a professorial pretzel twist itself, is in the [brackets]:
10-Point Plan to Rebuild the US after Bush's Destruction: Redux and Explanation
[10-Point Plan to Rebuild the US after Bush's Destruction: Regurgitate and Re-Explanation.]
In my previous Rec Report, entitled, "10-Point Plan for Rebuilding the United States after Bush's Destruction" (for which I have received much flak and a fair number of death threats from militant right-wingers--which in itself more than vindicates much of what I wrote), I made the following two points that seem to have roused the most ire from rabid Republicans, some of whom suggested, not unsurprisingly, that my remarks constitute a contradiction.
[This is the latest leftist ploy. Make the claim that you received death threats and that makes every NUttie thing you said okay.]
9. Consider the possibility that the Republican ideology contravenes the Constitution because its policies and beliefs endanger the well-being of the people. Consider making the Republican Party illegal.
10. Start a party that opposes the Democratic Party from the left of the Democratic Party and makes the Republican Party a detestable relic of the past akin to the slave-holding Confederates.
[You conveniently left off Point 5 about arresting most Republicans.]
The first of these points has been the source of no inconsiderable anger and gnashing of teeth amongst our 'friends' in the Republican Party. Just how can I claim that the ideology of the Republican Party contravenes the Constitution? Then, how can I go on, in an apparent contradiction, to suggest that the Republican Party be made illegal? Doesn't that restrict the First Amendment rights of some citizens, especially those who would espouse Republican views?
[You may begin twisting yourself into a pretzel with an incredibly tortured explanation...NOW!]
My answer is this; As Herbert Marcuse argued brilliantly in his critique of "Repressive Tolerance" in Critique of Pure Tolerance, the "liberal" (in the older, classical sense of liberalism, under which contemporary conservative political parties also fall), bourgeois notion of pure tolerance is impossible. Pure tolerance allows for the tolerance of some views that simply stand in total contradiction of the most immediate rights of others-in particular, their right to exist. Given that some speech is motivated by and has been responsible for the deaths of others for no apparent reason other than the wills of those who would kill these others, some ideologies cannot be tolerated. ("Speech," I argue, should not be differentiated from "action." "Speech," whether written or spoken, is a physical act that causes molecules to move. To speak is to act.) The beliefs of Nazis that Jews are vermin and do not deserve to exist is a belief that, if expressed, can lead to the deaths of Jews, as in Nazi Germany. Similarly, the speech of the KKK can and has led to the deaths and torture of Blacks in America, and should not be allowed. To allow the putative "right" of some to express such views that result in the annihilation of others, is a contradiction in itself. As such, such "rights" are false rights.
[Herbert Marcuse was the Marxist professor who gave the New Left philosophical license to act like idiots in the 60s but I guess you have extended that into our time. Okay, now that you have compared the Republicans with Nazis and the KKK, you may now give another tortured explanation of how you didn't really mean what you just said...NOW!]
But I seem to be implying that the Republican Party should be likened to the Nazis and the KKK. This is tiring, isn't it? The comparison is old-hat and overwrought and not one that I want to make. I would liken them not along any other lines than that all three are dangerous to the survival of numerous peoples. Other than that, they are no more alike each other than fundamentalist Christianity and fundamentalist Islam are alike.
[Yeah, how silly of us to think you just compared Republicans to Nazis and the KKK when that is just exactly what you did. Yawn! This is so tiring. Too bad we peons just can't comprehend the complex workings of a superior NUttie Professor mind. Oh, and nice touch with comparing fundamentalist Christians with radical Islam without seeming to do so.]
The Republican Party avows and holds positions that are anathema to the lives of millions, if not billions. The Republican Party, officially or unofficially, declaims the reality of Global Warming. The Republican Party disavows the science of Global Warming because its corporate sponsors in the oil and automotive industries are powerful forces within the party. These latter hire apologists to produce counter-, junk science to stand in opposition to credible science-to the detriment of our species' survival. They are bent on denial at all costs and must be removed from power, because their power imperils human life on the planet.
[Posted the NUttie Professor in the middle of record cold weather in the Northeast.]
Secondly, the Republican Party, at least in its current neoconservative configuration, is hell-bent on War. The basic principle seems to be to incite whatever ideological opposition there is against the US into militaristic confrontation. Such an approach is anathema to the interests not only of the US citizens, but of the world's population. The situation in Iraq is a prime example, but the current confrontational mode with Iran is also apiece with this posture. Rather than "fighting terrorism," the Republican Party is mass-producing it, as numerous studies have made clear. Rather than negotiation with those who differ with them ideologically and politically, they try to stir them into taking some action that will then justify a military attack. The Republican Party is doing more for terrorism than all of the Al Qaida and other radical Islamic propaganda combined. One may speculate on whether or not the Republican Party, tied so intimately in economic collusion with the military industrial complex, actually wants permanent, military-promoting war at all costs, or not. Regardless, that appears to be the effect.
[So in the middle of a tortured explanation about how he really isn't a loon, the NUttie professor quickly relapses back to his normal Moonbat mode.]
As for other points in the 10-point plan, as some have pointed out, they couldn't be implemented simply by an election or even impeachment. This list was always only more of a 'wish list' than a list of real imminent possibilities. But I ask, wouldn't the world be a lot better off with Bush, Cheney and his major administration contributors out of office? Would it be better with Bush and Cheney utterly discredited by serving prison time? Their jail time would help because it would discredit future fanatics of their kind from gaining ascendancy in American politics, ever again.
[I'm not sure what the NUttie professor means at the beginning of this but it sounds like, "I'm not making NUttie proposals for real, I'm only WISHING for those NUttie proposals to become a reality.]
Of course, we couldn't just revoke the judicial appointments of Bush-but the question is, shouldn't we? After all, Bush was never elected-not the first time and not the second. And, his judicial appointments have the potential for setting back the civil and social rights of millions of Americans, all for the ideological play and religious fervor of a few. The real fact of the matter is that control of reproduction belongs with those whose bodies will be responsible for reproduction. And, talking about contradictions! Here's a party that, without apology or an apparent second thought, would kill tens of thousands of innocent walking-and-talking (brown-skinned) children and adults, all the while claiming to be "pro-life." The only life they seem to acknowledge is the embryonic life of white people-the status of which is surely less certain than that of living and breathing full-fledged individuals of the human race, whom they kill all the time.
[Thanx for just revoking any possibly you might have had for getting tenure. Your hilarious attempt at an explanation actually turned out to be WORSE that your original NUttie statements. Feel free to explain your explanation again in the future. The DUmmie FUnnies is always looking for fresh comedy material.]
-Eric
You may want to search the name Rectumwall. It would seem to be the location his head currently resides.
Nope Prof Bryan is from North Idaho College and Prof "Mike_C" is from Humboldt State University in NorCal.
But the "kill the Republicans" theme is there with all of them...the pattern is more with College Prof's in general than at just CMU.
He is merely an instructor.
At the bottom of this page:
http://www.legitgov.org/mikerectenwald_writings_page_two_111402.html
Michael Rectenwald is the Founder and Chair of Citizens for Legitimate Government, (CLG: http://www.legitgov.org) national, Internet-based activist group that arose in response to the breach of democratic principles in the 2000 and 2004 presidential election contests, and which continues in the Bush administration.
In the early ‘80s, at the age of 19, he was an apprentice to Allen Ginsberg at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colorado. He subsequently published The Eros of the Baby Boom Eras (poetry) in 1991 and worked in advertising for 12 years. He then switched gears again, earning an M.A. in English Literature from Case Western Reserve University and a Ph.D. in Literary and Cultural Studies from Carnegie Mellon University. His essays and book reviews have appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and in academic journals and anthologies. He teaches in the Literary and Cultural Studies program at Carnegie Mellon University and is working on a book dealing with 19th century British science and politics.
Going to Literary and Cultural Studies provides this page:
http://english.cmu.edu/people/phone_book/phone_book.html
This page says that he is a Postdoctoral Fellow with a phone number extension of 8-8375. Campus phone numbers are in the form (412) 26?-????. Nobody answered when I called and it did not go to voicemail. Maybe someone will have better luck calling later.
and then on his homepage, http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/mdr2/, you can see that he calls himself a teaching associate.
For a little humor, please look at the current faculty members of the English Department: http://english.cmu.edu/people/faculty/faculty.html
These morons do know that the Senate, including many Democrats, approved Alito and Roberts, right?
Sorry.
I forgot the HTML tagging for "tongue in cheek".
He is in the English Department here is the English Department Home Page:
http://english.cmu.edu/people/phone_book/phone_book.html
They were strong armed by Bu$hitler and teh Rove into approving their nominations /DU mode
Okay - I probably shouldn't even try to figure out how this is "protecting American troops", should I?
Doing a search through the English courses, he is not teaching ANYTHING!
LOL! N/p!
He's not listed on the FACULTY of the English department. Just in the phone directory as a post-doctoral fellow. Also he might not even be there right now.
Nah I wouldn't try it. I had the second thread dedicated to me at the DUmp over the e-mail I wrote to Mike_C's department chair strongly disagreeing with his employee's anti-war sentiment.
These kind of people don't think rationally...if they even think at all.
CMU is notoriously slow for removing old student/staff pages. I last attended in 1997, and I wouldn't be surprised if my old page was still there.
Googling this: "Michael D. Rectenwald, Ph.D." there is an office phone number at CMU, although it appears to be old, you can only see it in the google cache.
Nope. See post #46. I found his extension on the English page of CMU's website.
lum Vitae
Michael D. Rectenwald
Postdoctoral Teaching Associate 532 Hastings Street
Literary and Cultural Studies Pittsburgh PA 15206
Carnegie Mellon University (h) 412-665-2747
5000 Forbes Avenue (o) 412-268-8375
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Fax: 412-268-7989
mdr2@andrew.cmu.edu
Education
Ph.D. Literary and Cultural Studies, Carnegie Mellon University, December 2004.
M.A. English Literature, Case Western Reserve University, May 1997.
B.A. English Literature, University of Pittsburgh. Cum Laude Graduate.
Dissertation
The Publics of Science: Periodicals and the Making of British Science, 1820-1860.
Chair: Jon Klancher; Readers: Kristina Straub, Michael Witmore
Teaching Areas
Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture, Science and Technology Studies (STS), Nineteenth-
Century Literary and Cultural Studies, Survey of British Literature, Literary and Critical Theory,
Expository Writing, Professional Writing including Web Authorship, Science Writing, Technical
Writing and Presentations.
Teaching Experience
Postdoctoral Teaching Associate, Literary and Cultural Studies, English Department, Carnegie
Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, August 2005 – Present.
Adjunct Professor, Robert Morris University, English Studies Communications Skills Program,
Robert Morris University, Moon Township, PA, August 2001 – Present.
Instructor, English Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, August 1997 –
May 2004.
Expository Writing Instructor, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, August 1998 –
May 2000.
Teaching Assistant, English Department, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH,
August 1994 – May 1997.
Rectenwald, Curriculum Vitae 2
Advertising Instructor, The Pennsylvania State University, The Behrend College, Erie, PA.
January l993 – January 1995.
Professional Writing Experience
Writer/Editor III, Robotics Institute, Intelligent Software Agents Lab, Carnegie Mellon
University, January 2000 – August 2005. This position involved editing and co-authoring journal
papers, technical reports, conference presentations and posters for this Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory of the Robotics Institute. (See “Technical Publications” below).
Courses Designed and Taught
Literary and Cultural Studies
Nineteenth-Century British Literature: This course engages the unprecedented changes in the
19th century—industrialization, urbanization, social dislocation, urban poverty, reform, the
reorganization of knowledges, and the expansion of empire—through major British writing of
poetry, fiction and essays, including works by Jane Austen, Mary and Percy Shelley, Emily
Bronte, Thomas Carlyle, Benjamin Disraeli, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, Matthew
Arnold, and George Eliot.
Nineteenth Century Literary and Cultural Studies: “The Condition of England Question”
This split-level, undergraduate/graduate course focuses on the “Condition of England
Question”—the discourse surrounding the great social, economic and political upheavals
following the Napoleonic wars and before the halcyon days of mid-Victorianism. We explore the
set of issues represented by this complex phrase from various social locations and socio-political
positions. William Cobbett, Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill, Benjamin Disraeli, Charles
Dickens and George Eliot are among the authors whose works we examine.
Literature and Science: Evolutionary Narrative: This course explores the relations of culture,
literature, the sciences and technology, focusing in particular on narratives of evolution (and
creation) from the late 18th and into the 20th century. Beginning with a brief look at late 18th
century texts dealing with questions of perfectibility and evolution, we then launch into Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein. We look at Wiliam Paley’s classic text of Natural Theology and
continue by examining selections from the evolutionary writings of Jean Baptiste Lamarck,
Robert Chambers, Charles Darwin, and others. We continue to explore themes of origin and
genealogy in fiction by Charles Kingsley, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells, and Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, and examine fin de siècle literature of decadence and retrogression. We end with a
consideration of the contemporary debates over creationism (or intelligent design) and evolution
and the arguments and implications surrounding recent developments in Genetics,
Nanotechnology and Robotics.
Nineteenth-Century British Literature: Science and Culture: Drawing on fiction, poetry,
criticism, science writing, and film, this course examines the early to late nineteenth-century
convergences and divergences of science and literature across several distinct yet overlapping
public spheres. Beginning with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), other objects of study
Rectenwald, Curriculum Vitae 3
include Vestiges of the History of Natural Creation (1844); Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke,
Tailor and Poet; Charles Darwin, Origin of Species (1859); and George Eliot, Middlemarch
(1871). The course arrives at the heated science and culture debates between Matthew Arnold
and Thomas Huxley and ends with C.P. Snow’s notion of the “two cultures” and subsequent
critiques of the two cultures paradigm by contemporary literary and science critics.
Reading Literature: Coming of Age: This course teaches students the processes of critical
reading, analysis, and interpretation of literature. Introducing students to texts that are
international and multicultural in scope (including those of China and Japan) as well as to
Western literature, the course treats the themes of initiation and development, especially coming
of age.
Writing and Rhetoric
English 101: Interpretation and Argument: I have adapted this introductory critical reading and
writing course to several topic areas. “Science, Society and Technology” explores the discourse
of science studies, including sociological, cultural, feminist and other studies of science, as well
as the responses to such studies. “Radicalism and Reaction” is an historical exploration of radical
and reactionary discourse from the French Revolution debate in Britain to the student movement
of the 1960s.
Intercultural Communications: This course emphasizes developing successful small group and
individual communication skills as part of the larger effort to prepare students to communicate
effectively amid human diversity on a global scale. Intercultural communications is considered
within the discourse of multiculturalism.
Public Speaking and Persuasion: This course is an introduction to Rhetoric and public
persuasion. The course allows students to practice argumentative prose and presentations across
the disciplines.
Argument and Research: This course is an introduction to academic research and writing.
Expository Writing: I adapted this course to several topic areas.
Mechanical Engineering Junior Seminar I & II: A requirement for the Mechanical Engineering
Bachelor’s degree, this self-designed series introduces students to professional, technical
presentations in writing and speech.
Professional Writing for Engineers: This course addresses several aspects of professional
communications for engineers, including technical writing, business writing, resumes, cover
letters, and oral presentations.
Multi-Media Authorship: In this course, web authorship is considered as historically, culturally,
and technologically situated practice.
Publications
Rectenwald, Curriculum Vitae 4
Literary and Cultural Studies
“‘Ours and for Us’: The Periodicals and Politics of ‘Useful Knowledge,’” Special Issue on New
Histories of Writing, Genre, Martha Woodmansee and Lisa Maruca, eds. (Forthcoming).
“Roots of the Divide: ‘Useful Knowledge’ versus Literary Culture,” The Humanities and
Expertise, the Humanities Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. (Under review).
“Secularism: Artisan Politics and the Cultures of Nineteenth-Century Naturalism,”
Configurations, Johns Hopkins University Press. (Under review).
“Reading Around the Kids,” Constance Coiner and Diana Hume George, eds., The Family
Track: Keeping Your Faculties while You Mentor, Nurture, Teach, and Serve (University of
Illinois Press, 1998): 107-13.
“New Economic Criticism: A Review of the Conference,” News and Notices for The Society of
Critical Exchange, 9 Winter/Spring (1995): 11-21.
Technical (primary author)
M. Rectenwald, Y. Seo, K. Lee, J.A. Giampapa, and K. Sycara, “Installation, Running and
Editing Instructions for the ClassificationBox Text Classification Tool,” tech. report CMU-RITR-
04-58, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, November, 2004
M. Rectenwald, K. Lee, Y. Seo, J.A. Giampapa, and K. Sycara, “Proof of Concept System for
Automatically Determining `Need-to-Know' Access Privileges: Installation Notes and User
Guide,” tech. report CMU-RI-TR-04-56, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University,
October, 2004.
M. Rectenwald, J.A. Giampapa, B.K. Langley, and K. Sycara, “RETSINA Agent Name Service
Documentation,” tech. report CMU-RI-TR-03-11, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon
University, December, 2003.
M. Rectenwald, R. Singh, J.A. Giampapa, K. Sycara, S. Esch, and B. John, “User Guide for
MORSE Command Simulation: Setup and Running Instructions,” tech. report TR-03-40,
Robotics Institute/Human Computer Interaction Institute Carnegie Mellon University, October,
2003.
M. Rectenwald, R. Singh, J.A. Giampapa, S. Sesch, K. Sycara, and B. John, “User Guide for
MORSEStation Range Operations Simulation,” tech. report CMU-RI-TR-03-37, Robotics
Institute/Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, October, 2003.
Conference Presentations
“‘Ours and For Us:’ Invention and Working Class Power in the British Useful Knowledge
Rectenwald, Curriculum Vitae 5
Movement,” Con/texts of Invention Conference: A Working Conference of the Society for
Critical Exchange, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, April 20-23, 2006.
“Roots of the Divide: ‘Useful Knowledge’ versus Literary Culture,” Humanities and Expertise,
An Interdisciplinary Conference, Sponsored by the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, PA, April 2005.
“Reforming Oxbridge and Redefining Science: The Principles of Geology in Context,” Society
for Literature and Science Annual Meeting, Durham, NC, October 2004.
“Secularism: Artisan Politics and the Cultures of Nineteenth-Century Naturalism,” Cultural
Studies Association Founding Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, June 2003.
“Early ‘Useful Knowledge’ Periodicals: The Making of the Useful Knowledge Reader,” Society
for Literature and Science Annual Conference, Pasadena, CA, October 2002.
“A Science for Hard Times: Positivism or Working Class Knowledges,” Society for Literature
and Science Annual Meeting, Norman, OK, October 1999.
“The Construction and Deconstruction of Science in Middlemarch,” Society for Literature and
Science Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, November 1997.
“Ideologies in Business Writing Instructions,” Midwest MLA Annual Conference, Chicago, IL,
November, 1997.
“Constructing Authorship in the Chat Room,” Cultures of Writing Conference, The Society for
Critical Exchange, Cleveland, OH, February l997.
“Radical Niche Marketing: Allen Ginsberg, the Body and Media,” Midwest MLA Annual
Conference, Minneapolis, MN, November 1996.
“The Gendered Rhetoric of Intellectual Property, from William Wordsworth to Vanna White,”
Rhetoric in the Disciplines Annual Rhetoric Conference, Philadelphia, PA, April, l995.
Discussant, The New Economic Criticism Conference, The Society for Critical Exchange,
Cleveland, OH, November 1994.
Awards
Dean’s Commendation for Teaching Ratings, 2000, 2003.
Neil McIntyre Memorial Prize winner, awarded for the best essay by a graduate student in
English, Case Western Reserve University, l997.
Service
Rectenwald, Curriculum Vitae 6
Taught on a volunteer basis Multiculturalism for Adult Learners for the Academy of Lifelong
Learning, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. (Summer 2004).
“How can literary and cultural studies help me to be a more critically-engaged, astute, and better
equipped person for success in an increasingly global and multicultural world?” Presented in
High Schools, December 2005.
Languages: Reading: French, German and Spanish; Speaking: Spanish
References
Jon Klancher
jk2@andrew.cmu.edu
Associate Professor of English and Literary and Cultural Studies, Department of English
Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412) 268-2852
Kristina Straub
ks3t+@andrew.cmu.edu
Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies, Department of English, Carnegie Mellon University,
5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412) 268-6458
Peggy Knapp
pk07+@andrew.cmu.edu
Professor of English, Department of English, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue,
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412) 268-6453
Michael Witmore
mwitmore@andrew.cmu.edu
Assistant Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies, Department of English, Carnegie Mellon
University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412) 268-4215
Martha Woodmansee
maw4@po.cwru.edu
Professor of English and Law, English Department, Case Western Reserve University, 10900
Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106
(216) 368-2176
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