http://www.theatlanticwire.com/features/view/feature/16-Most-Hair-Raising-General-Mattis-Quotes-1573

http://en.wikipedia [dot] org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Countering_systemic_bias

(Due to spam filter I had to spell out the “dot”)

1. This presentation by Edmund Burke III on Hodgson offers a good deal of biographical material on Hodgson that I believe supports my thesis regarding the effects of perspective and bias on anyone’s work in the social sciences at least, no matter how “objective” they intend it to be:
http://www.escholarship dot org/uc/item/8hg7g677?display=all#page-3

2. While I think Bonner is perhaps a bit more “balanced” (again a function of not only my reading about him but my perspective and bias), his review of Ibn Warraq’s “The Quest for the Historical Muhammad” in which he himself conceded “The study of Islam’s origins [and I would argue many other aspects of Islam, especially relating to contemporary issues such as Islamic-related terrorism etc.] , including the life of Muhammad, is a notoriously contentious undertaking. Scholars with admirable training differ sharply among themselves on how to understand it.” again underscores just how subjective such things really are: http://www.bismikaallahuma dot org/archives/2005/book-review-of-ibn-warraqs-the-quest-for-the-historical-muhammad-ny-2000/

3. As for Patricia Crone, she may well be the poster child along with her colleague, Michael Cook, for the phenomena to which I have alluded. While these eminent scholars (at least so some–yet another indicator of my point) felt strongly enough about their research and resulting analysis to publish a book “Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World,” it is interesting and to me still inexplicable, notwithstanding their stated reasons, why they subsequently recanted it, other than to placate the firestorm caused by the book among Muslims such as represented here: http://www.bismikaallahuma dot org/archives/2007/hagarism-the-story-of-a-book-written-by-infidels-for-infidels/

All of this demonstrates to me at least that while all of these scholars are worthy of study, to say that they are somehow “better” than those someone else may be considering at a particular point in time and for reasons and with perspectives that may vary from those that we may have for such study, is, as I said earlier, of little practical value other than perhaps reflecting the perspectives and biases of the person making the value judgment.

My point in making my observation is not to criticize anyone for having a view about what someone else is reading but rather to remind us all that even when we think we are being objective in such evaluations, we really are not. At best, we are asserting at some level our perception of our own view or perhaps that of a consensus about a given scholar or book that itself is never universal or absolute

N.B. I had to replace the “dot” in the hyperlinks with the word “dot” to get past the spam filter.

Yeah, General Mattis is so tough he doesn’t so much breathe as hold air hostage. When he crosses the street the cars look both ways. He’s the reason Waldo is hiding.

Cue 100 Chuck Norris jokes…

Excellent. ;-)

“I heard he glares at the books until they tell him what he wants to know.”

Even better. ;-) ;-)

I wouldn’t read too much into General Mattis’s reading list. He employs a small army of geeks to compile these lists for him. He also doesn’t read all those books in his formitable library. I heard he glares at the books until they tell him what he wants to know.