Every week or so, Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic sends out a “thought provoking” question as part of his Up For Debate series. This week’s struck a particular chord.

Two friends, Petra and Rodrigo, are having an argument.

Petra thinks the world is best if people stay in their lane and do their job as best they can, narrowly construed. CEOs should try to maximize profits within the law. Emergency-room doctors should do their best to save the life of every patient. Lawyers should represent every client to the utmost of their ability. Scholars should publish their findings as accurately as possible. And parking-meter attendants should write citations without regard for who is getting them. Continue reading →

Ron DeSantis (because of course, Ron DeSantis) called upon Florida Universities to shutter the student organization Students for Justice in Palestine. The group, which has existed for years, has seized upon the moment to flex its muscles by extolling the virtue of Gazan liberation, and by extension, Hamas. In light of the terrorism perpetrated by Hamas, DeSantis pulled the plug.

State University System of Florida Chancellor Raymon Rodrigues announced the order on Tuesday, citing the on-campus activism of National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a student group that is active at both the University of Florida and the University of Southern Florida. Continue reading →

On the heels of the Republican majority capitulating to the extreme MAGA wing in order to elect a speaker, the House enacted a resolution 420-10, with six members voting “present,” all Democrat, five of whom had co-sponsored the resolution. Here’s the breakdown of representatives who did not vote for the resolution.

Nay votes (10)
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)
Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO)
Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN)
Rep. Al Green (D-TX)
Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA)
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) Continue reading →

First came an “Editor’s Note” conceding the New York Times could have been more clear in its initial reporting that Israel bombed a hospital.

The Times’s initial accounts attributed the claim of Israeli responsibility to Palestinian officials, and noted that the Israeli military said it was investigating the blast. However, the early versions of the coverage — and the prominence it received in a headline, news alert and social media channels — relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified. The report left readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was.

Continue reading →

Members of the House hang a party affiliation around their neck, and in the past, that was good enough to claim the majority and the spoils that go with it. But that only works with a two-party system. Otherwise, the majority of the House may require a coalition, should a minority party gain sufficient foothold to deny the majority to a single party.

Anybody notice that the Republicans, the putative majority in the House, can’t manage to elect a speaker? Maybe that’s because what we call the Republican Party is now composed of two groups, the moderate Republicans and the MAGA Republicans, and they are not in agreement. Not at all. Continue reading →

It’s not as if they give you a free space to live, or that the people the university hires and compensates are entitled to use their positions as political bludgeons. But in a small, elite liberal arts school like Wellesley, does any of that matter?

Hello all, As of October 18th, 2023, the Palestinian-Israeli war has cost the lives of some 3,478 Palestinians and wounded 12,000. Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians, characterized by the displacement of 600,000 individuals, the dissemination of genocidal rhetoric by the Israeli government, and the illegal occupation of native Palestinian lands, have left our hearts heavy. Continue reading →

Over the years, hundreds of posts have appeared here about Title IX and male students denied due process at campus sex tribunals because it involved one of the most heinous wrongs ever. Rape. Of course, most weren’t “rape” as it’s legally understood, but rather rape as its been redefined to mean whatever the putative “survivor” believes it to be, whether before, during or after. But it was rape. Believe the women. Me Too. Because it’s rape if the woman says it’s rape, and that’s all you need to know.

So how, then, did it become understandable, justifiable and forgivable, when rape, the real kind of rape, was perpetrated on Israeli women by Hamas soldiers? And then there’s murder. And kidnapping. And beheading babies, as is now confirmed by independent forensic pathologists? Continue reading →

A ubiquitous rationale for most of the truly dumb things that university administrators and faculty do is that they are providing a “safe and inclusive environment.” It was always obvious nonsense, as doing cartwheels for one identity group meant making changes that would leave out or harm another. But what happens when a professor, maybe even a student’s faculty advisor, publicly calls for death?

Continue reading →

Sheriff Roy drove Arlene’s red SUV into Garage 66. Big Ed Cocke waved him into the bay.

“Afternoon, Sheriff!” the burly hillbilly said with a smile. “Arlene need an oil change?”

“Usual service visit, Big Ed.”

“Very good. May I have the sticker, Sheriff?”

Mud Lick’s top cop peeled the decal off the windshield and handed it to Big Ed. Continue reading →

It never made any sense to me that Sidney Powell joined Team Crazy. She was a well-respected lawyer, despite what the legal analysts of MSNBC have to say about her. She co-authored a book with Harvey Silverglate of Three Felonies A Day fame entitled Conviction Machine: Standing Up to Federal Prosecutorial Abuse. And there she was, standing next to Rudy Giuliani, spewing bizarre claims of voting machine fraud on behalf of Donald Trump. Why?

The initial impression of her plea deal in the Georgia RICO case where she copped a sweetheart plea in exchange for flipping is that she must have some pretty great testimony to offer to get misdemeanors and probation. Trump’s Georgia attorney, at the moment, Steven Sadow, reacted in the only way he could. Continue reading →