paralepsis

Just a little post about Norman Finkelstein, who is briefly alluded to at Respectful Insolence . I responded in the comments, and of course the conversation became hijacked, as it does when someone like Finkelstein is discussed. So I won't comment further over there beyond pointing people here. So: If you surfed over here from there, I'm responding to this comment from SLC: I agree with Dr. Orac that the issue of Finkelstein is greatly off topic. I would have been willing to cease and desist except that Mr. Hermagores' [sic] characterization of of the investigation of Prof. Dershowitz by Harvard is totally inaccurate and unreliable. As I understand it, ther [sic] was an official investigation of the charge led by the dean of the college with which Prof. Dershowitz is affiliated. The charge of plagiarism is a very serious one which could have resulted in the firing of Prof. Dershowitz had it held up. As requested by Dr. Orac, I will have nothing more to say on the matter....

As Atrios points out , Judge Robert H. Dierker uses the term "femifascist" to disguise where his thinking comes from . I'm of course reminded of Alan Dershowitz, who did just the opposite : he thought he was quoting Orwell but was really quoting his real source, the discredited Joan Peters. (Strikingly, both authors choose words -- femifascist and turnspeak -- which are clearly uglier than the original feminazi and newspeak . Not to defend the term feminazi , but at least it's memorable. )

Oh, you've got to love this: Jimmy Carter refuses to debate with Alan Dershowitz. I don't blame him -- the whole thing seems like a setup, and even though Norman Finkelstein and Noam Chomsky have crushed Dershowitz in the past, the man is a professional lia lawyer. But it's Carter's reasoning that really makes me happy. From the Boston Globe : "I don't want to have a conversation even indirectly with Dershowitz," Carter said. "There is no need to for me to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine." Get that? Dershowitz knows nothing about the situation in Palestine . This is obvious if one reads either Dershowitz's The Case for Israel or his later The Case for Peace , both of which use blanket statements condemning Palestinian behavior but show no evidence of subtlety, much less of an attempt to understand the people or a concern with the actual victims of Israeli policies. Dershowitz, of cour...