Atlanta–Jeffrey Albertson When Donald J. Trump takes the Oath of Office today to become the 45th President of the United States, his average approval rating will be 41.8%. That figure is lower than the previous three Presidents. To quantify, Presidents Obama, W. Bush, Clinton enjoyed 78%, 62%, and 92% approval ratings just prior to… Read More Inauguration Approval Ratings, Compared
In Antiquity, “folly” (what in modernity, we’d call madness) was celebrated. Frequently, the afflicted expressed some example of “blind truth.” However, in Madness and Civilization Foucault created a genealogy using original documents to establish an adequate context for mental illness, folly, and unreason. That is to say, to re-create how those impairments existed in their… Read More Foucault (1961), “Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason.”
“This book is about space, about language, about death; it is about the act of seeing, the gaze” (ix). Foucault begins by describing Pomme’s treatment of a female hysteric, who he directed to take bath lasting ten to twelve hours for ten months. As result, her skin peeled off along with the intestines. The destroyed… Read More Foucault (1963), “The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception”
Freud’s analysis of this case of Hysteria, is only one of three other cases. The other two involve a “Rat Man” who fear rats would enter and devour his anus and a “Wolf Man” who suffered severe depression that Freud linked to a childhood dream involving 6 or 7 white wolves staring at him from… Read More Bell (2013), “A Case of Hysteria (Dora)” [Freud]
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King offers the expected elements of a Greek tragedy. In this case, it involves the tragic character who manages to have a collection of incredibly bad events happen to him. The common understanding of Oedipus the King is the idea that he kills his father and marries his mother. However, after careful consideration of… Read More Grene (2010), “Oedipus the King” [Sophocles]
Review of Barr (2004) Meaning of Is… Bob Barr represented the Seventh District of Georgia in the United States House of Representatives for four terms between January 1995 and January 2003. He served in the 104th – 107th congresses. During his tenure, he was a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, vice chairman of the Government Reform… Read More Barr (2004), “The Meaning of Is: The Squandered Impeachment and Wasted Legacy of William Jefferson Clinton.”
While Rep. Jason Spencer (R-180) has pledged to withdraw the controversial HB 3, that was met with significant “political scrutiny,” the 2017-2018 General Assembly’s regular session will have plenty of theatrics. On the calendar are bills and amendments related to automatic voter registration, reapportionment, use of restraints on pregnant inmates, training for firearm carry licenses and more.… Read More Georgia Assembly Session Promises Theatrics, Religious Liberty Absent for Now
By Jeffrey Albertson, Jr. Gwinnett County, GA—For the second time in 40 days, Gov. Nathan Deal has signed an executive order to address potential fuel shortages stemming from yesterday’s Coastal Pipeline fire. The order titled, Ensuring the Uninterrupted Supply of Transportation Fuel, is nearly identical to a prior executive order signed on September 22. Both… Read More Second Executive Order from Gov. Deal to Address Looming Fuel Shortages
Jeffrey Albertson/18 Oct 2016 In data released today from the Social Security Administration, the 65 million beneficiaries of the Old-Age, Disability, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Programs will receive a cost of living adjustment of .03%. This COLA is the first since a slight 1.7% change in 2014 and 0% in 2015. Old-Age and Disability payment… Read More Social Security Beneficiaries to Receive .03% Cost of Living Increase
Following yesterday’s withdrawal of support by a group of Republican Senators and House Members for their party’s nominee Donald J. Trump, following lewd comments from a 2005 video, in which he “bragged in vulgar terms about kissing, groping and trying to have sex with women.” In the video, Mr. Trump is quoted as saying: “When… Read More Trump’s Lewd Comments Present Question for Nominee’s Removal
In a what was to be a succinct foreign policy address delivered in Youngstown, O.H., Republican Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump described a plan to combat “Radical Islamic Terrorism,” but invited ambiguity in regard to resuming President George W. Bush’s controversial system of military trials for so-called “enemy combatants” captured overseas. In a summation of… Read More In Foreign Policy Address, Trump Invites Ambiguity
A brief evaluation of Max Weber’s concept of bureaucracy.
Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan
Michel Foucault. Disciple and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977) The panopticon is machine for surveillance; it allows one to totally see without ever being seen. Regularly used in prisons, this apparatus “induces in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power” (201). However, this apparatus… Read More Panopticism, Old Power Regime
Michel Foucault. Disciple and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977). The purpose of execution as a public spectacle is a ceremony of power, meant to reinforce authority of the sovereign. When a law is broken, it offends the obedient, the sovereign who created it, and thus reparation must be sought; otherwise, the authority of… Read More Body of the Condemned, Spectacle of the Scaffold
Albertson Writes 