I forwarded the piece from Lynn Turgeon because I thought that it was provocative and would stimulate discussion. I have mixed feelings about it myself. Certainly it provoked discussion, including the clarification that Turgeon is not now and never has been a Nazi sympathizer.
As for names, I have heard from one of his former students that when he taught there used to be jokes about there being "something fishy" about that guy (S)Turgeon. Barkley Rosser On Wed, 7 Oct 1998 19:34:36 -0400 (EDT) Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari at phoenix.Princeton.EDU> wrote:
> OK I have to go over limit to respond to this.
>
> Before we get to my inconsistency, will someone please explain why this
> Turgeon did not present Hitler's employment programs in the context of
> Hitler's war against labor (though this seems to be underlined in the book
> he was putatively reviewing) or delve into the working conditions in these
> programs? What was he trying to prove?
>
> I thought Barkley had forwarded this review to underline the dangers of
> the keynesian fetishization of state created full employment.
>
> Barkley, what were you trying to prove? My guess is that you were trying
> to prove exactly what I have said, but you are too chicken to criticize
> your fellow economist in the open. Why else would have forwarded this
> everywhere without comment?
>
> Instead all the economists are now telling me what a cool guy this Lynn
> is. As if we are just supposed to trust someone in their profession. What
> Turgeon wrote is egregious; it deserves no sympathy.
>
> Now as for calling this guy turgid, let me suggest how the game works.
>
> If I pun on someone's name as turgid (and let's not forget that I never
> got past the A's on my SAT word list and remain unsure exactly what the
> word means) it is not appropriate to call me
> rajneesh, gandhi or sandn-word. Many insults and puns would be justified
> and accurate but impugning me in terms of my race is just not funny and
> associating me with the worst and most prevalent stereotypes of Indians is
> hurtful and demeaning.
>
> For example, you could call me an ultra leftist foolish bandar (monkey).
> That is indeed accurate.
>
> For all I knew from Barkley's forward, Turgeon is an open pro Hitlerite
> Keynesian. In this context, my punning on his name as turgid was rather
> mild.
>
>
> On Wed, 7 Oct 1998, Greg Nowell wrote:
>
> > Why did Rakesh, who took umbrage at, and received, an
> > apology for an *accidental* misprint of his name, take
> > it upon himself to slur the name of s.o. else, not
> > even on this list, who has a rather good record at
> > that? I had thought that we were aiming for
> > politeness.
> >
> > --
> > Gregory P. Nowell
> > Associate Professor
> > Department of Political Science, Milne 100
> > State University of New York
> > 135 Western Ave.
> > Albany, New York 12222
> >
> > Fax 518-442-5298
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
-- Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu