In Tenure Veritas: Libations From The Ivory Tower

 Well, that'll do it.  I have a Substack up and running (free, of course).  The link is here, aquietplacetowrite.substack.com .  What's with the title?  I just needed a title.  You can read posts on the site, like a blog, you can use an app, you can subscribe and have posts emailed to you, however you choose.  All that "downtime" with In Tenure Veritas  killed off the readership (thanks, fellas), so feel free to inform anyone who might be interested in snarky and heterodox ramblings.  Or not.  I'll write anyway.  I plan to get the first substantive post up tomorrow, on the state of politics and the 2024 election.  From now on, I'll be here: aquietplacetowrite.substack.com Parliament, "I Can Move You (If You Let Me)" from Up For The Downstroke .

 July 4, 2024.  Independence Day.  This morning, I write of the concept of independence.  On July 4, 1776, the founding fathers of the United States of America declared independence, and Thomas Jefferson's statement of principle stands as a testament, like few historical documents, to unifying principles of timeless philosophy.  Truth is universal and invariant, by definition.  Moral truth, philosophical truth, and empirical truth all follow that rule.  We seek truth, and apply methods that approach it asymptotically when we cannot derive it absolutely, but we seek truth.  And we do not deny truth when we read it. We normally read the Declaration of Independence as a statement of political philosophy and place it in historical context.  We of positive disposition read the document in good faith.  We see Jefferson and his contemporaries as humans-- flawed as all humans are-- who moved history in the direction of the principles that he stated, but which he failed to meet.  We observe

 Hello again, to anyone reading.  With apologies, "tap, tap, is this thing still on?"  As I indicated in my previous post on the death and resurrection on this, the Messiah-blog, which died for your sins, this blog which is the way, the truth and the light... where was I?  Something about blasphemy.  No, that wasn't it.  Well, at least you know that this blog has not been hacked, and that I am still me.  Anyway, I indicated that I will be shifting to a different platform, since I am not happy with Google and their attempt to see, quite frankly, if there is anything beyond death. What, didn't you see Flatliners ?  Everyone in it was just one degree removed from Kevin Bacon, except for Kevin Bacon, who is zero degrees removed from Kevin Bacon. Anyway, I'm heading over to substack.  If you are unfamiliar, substack works a little differently.  You can visit an author's page, and click on posts, as with a blog or other site, or you can subscribe, and have the posts

 Look, it was either that, or The Parrot Sketch.  Either way, this post was starting with Monty Python.  How is my plumage?  Lovely.  Thank you for asking.  That was interesting.  Two months ago-- May 3, 2024, to be precise-- I logged into the blog editor for In Tenure Veritas  on blogspot-- and I was greeted by a message that the blog had been removed.  The message did not explain precisely why.  I was provided with a link to click for a review and appeal.  I dutifully clicked the link.  Lather, rinse, repeat, over the course of the last two months.  Yesterday, on July 1, 2024, I received an email from the people at Google, who own blogspot, informing me that my blog and account are, in fact, in good standing, I have done nothing wrong, and that my blog has been restored.  Gee, thanks.  After two months, during which time anyone who attempted to view the page or click a link sending a reader to In Tenure Veritas  was greeted with an error message, and hence decided that I had just tak

 Yes, In Tenure Veritas  has been revived!  I have received inquiries from many of you, and I have no idea what, precisely, happened.  Google removed the blog for unclear reasons.  After many attempts to get an answer, and many inquiries, I have managed to convince Google to bring it back!  I will have a few things to say.  Um... I was displeased.  More to come.  That was a thing that happened.  Yes, that was a thing that happened.  [Drums fingers on the table, after drumming fingers on keyboard, then deleting the inevitable and predictable results of his own silliness.] Hello again, for anyone who bothers to read.  Thanks, Google.

 Why has my writing shifted so much to college campuses, and jihadist protests?  I am a Jewish college professor.  I have spent years reading the underlying ideologies, and this is the world in which I live.  I would say that I have seen this coming, but this is so  much worse than anything I foresaw.  Anyway, for this morning, we have yet another demonstration from Ami Horowitz.  This time, he visits the City College of New York and their encampment of totally peaceful protests, where the protesters totally non-violently protest purely because they care so much for the plight of those totally non-violent, purely victimized and totally innocent Palestinian people.  Absolute humanitarians, these people.  Mensches, one might say, but then they'd kill you for being a Jew after they recognize the Hebrew.  Anyway, Horowitz did another simple thing.  He visited CUNY, and walked up to the totally peaceful, non-violent encampment with an American flag.  They assaulted him-- felony assault-

 If you scour the internet, you will find few commentators with more vehement criticism of former President Donald J. Trump.  My assessments of Trump have run from the satirically scornful to cold analysis of his criminal behavior.  I have referred to him as Tony Clifton, in reference to the Andy Kaufman character.  I call him "the lying-est liar who ever lied a lie."  I have pushed back on misrepresentations of the Mueller Report, which show clear and distressing relationships between Trump, his people, and Russia, along with indisputable obstruction of justice.  I have seen clear and indisputable evidence of further crimes, most obviously and distressingly the Mar-a-Lago Papers.  If there is a lower bound for the respect for which I can have for a person, Donald Trump is at or near it. Yet I now think I understand why so many millions have voted for him, will vote for him again, and while I stand by every assessment I have ever made of him-- including his history of rape--

 Let's wrap up my entirely superfluous analysis of K.J. Parker's Scavenger Trilogy with a useful, philosophical question.  Can evil be redeemed?  One needs a working definition of evil, and a working definition of redemption, but in any case, the question will be challenging.  Yet, when writing under the pseudonym of K.J. Parker, Tom Holt does not tend to offer uplifting messages.  Interesting ideas, but uplifting?  Not so much.  Consider, then, Memory , which concludes the tale of Poldarn, and his world, which ends his world, as foretold, and the meaning of evil. The first book in the series follows an amnesiac, as he awakens in a ditch after a battle.  He awakens in a fantasy-ish world, and finds himself in the northern provinces of an empire facing periodic raids by mysterious people from elsewhere, while being torn apart by internal divisions and feuds.  Our amnesiac acquires the name, "Poldarn"-- the name of a god-- when the first person he meets (Copis/Xipho) te

 The title of this post would only be clickbait if anyone clicked on these posts.  No clicks, no bait.  Anyway, I see a clear relationship between the January 6 rioters, and those currently engaged in aggressive protests on college campuses in support of a jihadist movement.  Let us be clear about the January 6 insurrectionists.  They were motivated by an insane lie-- that the 2020 election was stolen.  They stormed the Capitol, committing acts of violence and intimidation in an attempt to overthrow democracy, falsely believing themselves to be the new American revolutionaries saving democracy.  How many people did they kill?  That is actually a little complicated.  One of the insurrectionists-- Ashli Babbitt-- was shot during the riots, and several more deaths were connected, including medical incidents like heart attacks.  The rioters did not kill Ashli Babbitt.  She got herself killed, and I do not have much sympathy for her.  Whether or not we count the medical incidents that follo

 Yesterday, Donald Trump had a very good day with the Supreme Court.  To the surprise of some, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, three of whom were appointed by Donald Trump, seemed to look favorably on Donald Trump's specious legal claim that Donald Trump is immune from prosecutions for crimes that Donald Trump-- who again, appointed three of them-- may have committed.  The result is that there is zero chance of a federal trial before the 2024 election, and as my other quick-take today discusses, the odds currently favor the GOP for 2024, so Trump will probably never face a federal trial.  He will probably  win, and then quash the charges, which is exactly why the Supreme Court is doing what it is doing.  Be careful with the teleological fallacy, but in this case, the effect is the intent.  The conservative majority does not have to be as brazen as they were in Bush v. Gore .  But I don't have to be credulous about it. I have, of course, had conversations with le