In Tenure Veritas: Libations From The Ivory Tower

The term, "fanboy," has some interesting baggage associated with it, but one would not be completely out of place attaching it to me when it comes to Nora Jemisin.  I discussed her just last week in my Sunday post, and I talk about her all the time to anyone who will listen.  That does not, of course, mean that one should read everything she writes uncritically, and as I continue to spend my Sunday posts addressing the use of science fiction to think about the modern world, her latest gives us a dramatic example of why pedestals are meant to be knocked down, sacred cows are delicious, and iconoclasm is a wonderful, if (definitionally) destructive hobby.  Hey, look!  There's my icon!  What shall I do next?  You know the etymology of "-clasm," right?  Hulk smash.  Hulk take graven images commandment very seriously. Anyway, depending on your Amazon purchase history, you might have gotten an ad last week about a collection of short stories ( Forwa...

I promised something more obscure today.  Arlen Roth, "Peach Pickin' Time in Georgia," from Slide Guitar Summit .

I have psychic powers!  You doubt  me?!  Observe.  You want to ask me whether or not Donald Trump will be impeached! Let's distinguish between the impeachment  of Donald Trump and the conviction  of Donald Trump in the Senate.  How likely is it that the House of Representatives will pass articles of impeachment?  I don't know.  When we say that a president "is impeached," that is what it means, technically.  The House has passed articles of impeachment.  Andrew Johnson was impeached.  Bill Clinton was impeached.  Neither were removed from office.  Richard Nixon was not  impeached.  He resigned based on the fear that he would not only be  impeached , but  convicted  by the Senate.  Will Trump actually "be impeached?"  I have no idea.  With respect to investigations of Russia and obstruction of justice related to Russia, it was always clear to me that he wouldn't be impeached ...

OK.  Fine.  This is obvious, but as a Zappa devotee and proselytizer... what else am I going to do? Frank Zappa, "Peaches En Regalia," from his best album, Hot Rats .  Later today, I'll listen to the Allmans.  If you have to ask which album... c'mon.  I promise to post something more obscure tomorrow.

Oscar Peterson, "This Could Be The Start of Something," from Night Train . Just... not what some people want.

In yesterday's post , I made use of Thomas Schelling's famous (in political science) metaphor of two people, standing on the edge of a sheer cliff, handcuffed together, versus standing at the top of a sloping hillside handcuffed together. Try this, if it has been a while since you took the SATs. Analogies are to politics as coffee is to: a)  computers b)  pens and paper c)  books d)  guitars Do you have an answer?  The answer is obviously... that the guy who wrote the question is just lookin' around the room at random stuff, and filling in a through d based on an "I spy" kind of thing.  Could I force an answer?  Sure.  Analogies may help me understand politics.  Coffee helps me write!  I do that on a computer.  I'm... doing that now!  I also do that with pens and paper, so, maybe that's b, or a, but I could go either way.  Coffee wakes me up, so it helps me understand books!  C?  It gives m...

Fortunately, Jemisin is now a success, but here's some Jeff Lang.  "Rejected Novelist Fails Again," from Whatever Makes You Happy .

Time for... Oh, never mind.  Let's just do this.  Here's the thing.  Democrats are not amongst the great strategic thinkers of our era.  Did you watch the Lewandowski hearings?  Are you following the ins-and-outs of Nadler's "I'm doing something, and it's vaguely impeachment-related" process?  Corey Lewandowski walked into that hearing with a clear plan to stonewall, and blow off any Democratic questioning.  He basically dared  them to do something about it. In fact, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) has "double-dog dared" Democrats to just stop with Nadler's games, or call for a vote on articles of impeachment for Trump. Democrats are doing neither.  What's going on here? Let's turn to one of my favorite books:  The Strategy of Conflict , by Thomas Schelling. First Schelling reference on the new blog!  Woo-hoo! Schelling's goal was to explain the nature of bargaining and the role of threats in bargaining.  His initial mot...

Parliament, "Testify," from Up for the Downstroke .

Well, shucks.  I guess I have no alternative but to select Roland Kirk, and the title track from Here Comes The Whistleman .

I think I may be coming upon a structure for In Tenure Veritas .  Topical posts on Saturdays, and more thematic stuff on Sundays.  It was what I did last week, and I'm doing it again this week.  And in fact, I want to pick up on what, specifically, I did last week.  I wrote about the applicability of a science fiction novel to modern politics (Neal Stephenson's Fall; or, Dodge in Hell ). I do this in my classes too.  I will assign science fiction novels as a way to understand politics, economics and concepts in a broad array of social sciences.  More pointedly for discussions here, though, do you ever feel like things have gotten... a little strange? The basic theme of yesterday's post on the Democratic nomination contest was that presidential nomination contests are difficult for political scientists because one contest is rarely all that similar to previous contests, and this one is particularly idiosyncratic.  So, we have no historical guidance ...

Themes... genre themes... uh... Rainer Ptacek, "New World," from Worried Spirits .

Yes, I'll still do this kind of thing.  Political science.  However, I'm going to handle this a little differently.  I have no intention of getting into the details of this week's "debate," and yes, I'll use sarcastic scare-quotes around the word, "debate," because I don't think it really qualified by any objective definition of the word. Where should your attention be?  Not debates, obviously.  (Sort of.  I'll address them.) Polls?  We are approaching the point at which you need to pay attention to the polls.  At the national level , Biden still has a lead, and we are not yet at the point at which the state-by-state polls mean anything.  In a month or two, you can start looking at Iowa and New Hampshire, but nothing else, because numbers elsewhere will shift if things shake out differently in IA/NH.  Of course, I have to pick on The Party Decides .  As far as endorsements go , Biden should have run away with this thing, but h...

For today, here's Preston Reed, "View From Afar," from Pointing Up .

Back when I was doing a forced theme with The Unmutual Political Blog , I had trouble with Martin Taylor.  Friday, it was "If you don't love jazz, you hate America," and Tuesday was a "world" music day, but I tried to stay away from American styles .  That left Martin Taylor out in the cold, as a Scot who plays jazz. Here's Martin Taylor, with a great live rendition of "They Can't Take That Away From Me."  You can find a similarly brilliant live version on In Concert .

Part of the point of the shift to In Tenure Veritas  is to write more fun posts, rather than the annoying garbage about whatever idiotic things are happening in day-to-day politics.  With that in mind, and the "veritas" part in mind, here's my recommendation to everyone:  read Neal Stephenson's new novel, Fall; or, Dodge in Hell .  It matters for the modern world. Everything in this post will be accessible if you haven't read the book, but if you plan to read it and don't want any spoilers, turn back now. Quick summary, and all you need to know to explain the fun stuff:  Fall  is a sort of sequel to Reamde , in which Richard "Dodge" Forthrast begins by having to go in to the doctor for a minor medical procedure under sedation.  He ignores medical directives to go in with an empty stomach, because... what's the worst that can happen?  It's a very "Dodge" thing to do.  He... dies.  As per a directive he signed years earlier, his b...

Yeah, workin' on it. Dr. John, "I Don't Wanna Know," from Anutha Zone .

Ooooh!  Scare quotes!  Just because this is a new blog doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing the sarcasm thing. However, I shall make a valiant attempt to avoid any discussion of sharpies.  We'll see how this goes. How are things going over in the UK?  Um...  As one of my students put it this week, they don't get to make fun of us anymore.  Our turn!  The original Brexit vote itself was a head-scratcher, but the events of the last week have just been whiplash-inducing.  Boris Johnson was always going to be unusual, but this...  OK, then.  His coalition collapses, the prorogation effort backfires, we don't know what's going to happen with a new election, and... Boris Johnson.  Yeah. The pen on my desk right now isn't a sharpie.  It happens to be a Waterman Carene, inked up with Faber Castell Carbon Black ink.  No sharpie talk here.  Why?  This  matters. This .  What is... this ? It was standard ...

I'll come up with a new theme.  Probably.  Maybe I'll go back to country on Saturdays, but today, here's a live performance of the title cut from Grace Potter's major label debut, "Nothing But The Water."  This is the version you get on a bonus DVD with the proper album release. I was listening to Grace Potter before anyone else.  I still have to say it.

Let's keep this, for now. Henry Butler, "How Insensitive," from For All Seasons .

By the way, I do want to apologize for the hard restart.  The intent was to reset The Unmutual Political Blog  as a table-clearing thing, and create a redirect to get you from there to here.  That... didn't work.  Confusion ensues. However you found your way here, thanks and sorry, and as I keep typing in these "early" posts, do spread the word.  Without that intended redirect, it is, shall we say, harder for readers to find In Tenure Veritas . Technology.  Bah!

I promise.  I'm not going to break my own rules just yet.  In my inaugural post, I said I wasn't going to do day-to-day political commentary, the way I did with The Unmutual Political Blog , but I'm still a political scientist. Let's call this the first substantive post for In Tenure Veritas .  It took a while to get here.  Longer than it should have taken.  I started The Unmutual Political Blog  doing daily commentary on the 2016 election from a political science vantage point, because it was the craziest election in American history, at the time (he writes, hoping that new records are never set).  After a period of time, I came to understand that keeping up that pace was unsustainable.  The gap in time between understanding that, at some level, and changing  what I was doing was longer than it should have been.  Around a year ago, I went from daily analysis, written early in the mornings as I quaffed my coffee, to weekends. And yet...