In Tenure Veritas: Libations From The Ivory Tower

 So many questions.  Answers are a dime a dozen.  Coherent answers are somewhat pricier.  Plausible answers?  Answers in which a scientifically minded skeptic can have a high degree of confidence?  Gimme a grant and no deadlines.  We're on a price tier system here.  If you just want an answer , though, I can blather and bloviate with the worst of them.  Let us consider the big news of the morning, if ever so briefly.  The Department of Energy has reached a tentative conclusion-- which is no conclusion at all, really-- that COVID likely came from a Chinese lab.  You know, that thing about which we weren't even allowed to speculate online, by formal decree a couple of years ago, because tech censors know best!  Blah, blah, "the first amendment blah, blah, government , blah, blah, private companies," which is totally compatible with the pro-business, deregulatory impulses of the people who make this argument, right?  Right ?  Look, either you believe in the principle  of

 The name, "Ron DeSantis," already has the left in apoplectic fits nearly as convulsive as those induced by the name, "Donald J. Trump."  Are you more or less triggered by the name, "Meatball Ron?"  Regardless, when it comes to DeSantis's goal of turning Florida into the state "where woke goes to die," things tend to get more complicated as you look at these inconvenient things called "facts."  I am not sanguine about the future of academia.  Those familiar with James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose & Peter Boghossian's Grievance Studies hoax understand how low the standards for publication are in many disciplines, how gullible and anti-intellectual many faculty are, and all in the name of an ideological agenda that institutions do not sincerely pursue anyway.  I, personally, was threatened with physical violence by an antisemitic faculty member, and Case Western Reserve University refuses to take any action, not merely out of the

 I usually write something literary on Sundays.  I am doing my long-form post today on the latest out of Florida, but one hopes that the re-writing of Roald Dahl's books is big enough news that you are not hearing it from me first.  Do I have to say anything about it?  Do I have to point out that the woke have cranked it up to 11 on the insanity dial here?  If anyone ever asks why there is an anti-woke backlash, just say two words:  Roald Dahl.

 One year ago, Russia invaded Ukraine.  The world's expectations-- my own included-- were that Putin would steamroll Ukraine and take the country in weeks, or perhaps little more.  Russia has taken parts of Ukraine, but Putin has been throwing lives and resources into the war for a year with comparatively little gains, and Ukraine has put up a remarkable fight, beyond anyone's expectations.  If we are honest, Ukraine's fight would not be possible without US support, but let is consider.  Can Ukraine win?  Reassessing based on the situation a year later, can Ukraine win? When the world expected Russia to steamroll the country in weeks, must we re-evaluate a year later?  Yes.  But that does not mean the ultimate conclusion will be different.  Ukraine will still lose, I regret to say.  This is a simple matter of the domestic politics of the US, and the domestic politics of Russia.  Yes, Russia is a dictatorship, but even dictatorships have domestic politics. Here is the proble

 If the title of the post was insufficiently indicative, I am going to grumble this morning.  I read an irritating novel.  I read many irritating novels, and sure, in theory I can put them down any time I choose, but there is such a thing as hate-reading, and when I do so, I get the joy of hate-writing, when I grumble from an informed perspective on this pretentious, little blog which nobody reads.  Malka Older wrote a novel.  Infomocracy .  It had some nuggets of interest, but she never bothered to connect thoughts which needed to be connected, and so ultimately, it was a failure of a novel.  I shall blather about political science, public choice economics, and several other disciplines, along with my own research.  If you choose to read the novel after my blatherin', that's on you because you cannot un-know what I shall try to teach you. Malka Older really should have known better.  She is educated in political science-adjacent fields.  Oh, well.  Regardless, I strongly suspe

 Yes, like every other political junkie in the country, I anxiously awaited a hit of the good stuff last week, and it didn't happen.  My drug of choice being caffeine, I can only put it in terms of coffee, but it is as though one builds up a hope for the finest espresso in Italy, only to be handed shitty gas station coffee consisting of water run through the same burnt grounds that have been used 20 times.  And you drink it anyway because you're a junkie, you pathetic fuck.  (I'm trying an Ethiopian light roast this morning, as a change of pace.  Nice, but despite the higher caffeine content in light roasts, I'll pass next time.)  Anyway, the political news of the week was the unsealing of a small portion of the grand jury's report from Fulton County.  What did we learn?  Two things:  Jack, and shit, and to quote Ash, Jack left town. There was a unanimous vote that someone committed perjury.  Who, how, and such?  Dunno.  What else did the grand jury think?  Also dun

 Yes, this was a good one.  You should read Borne , which not only has VanderMeer's unique approach to the subgenre appropriately named "the new weird," but also has some more character-based insights into issues like moral responsibility than his more famous Southern Reach trilogy.  You should read that too, of course, if you have not, and it may be better overall, but Borne  was an outstanding novel.  Let's get into the good stuff. Borne  is a vaguely post-apocalyptic novel, although the setting appears to be a world that declined and crumbled rather than extinguished itself in a nuclear fire, or anything like that.  Nevertheless, what remains are the skeletal husks of cities, scavengers, and the biotech creations of the "past."  The novel takes place in a city where "the Company" had tried to set up shop as everything went to shit, and in order to try to maintain some order, they made a thing.  A big thing.  A... OK, this is going to sound crazy

 This morning, we shall contemplate the intricacies of everyone's favorite Ponzi scheme, and yes, by the technical definition, Social Security is  a Ponzi scheme.  The Ponzi scheme, named after Charles Ponzi, was not actually invented by Charles Ponzi.  In fact, he stole the idea, which is appropriate, but it works like so.  I tell you, the very few readers of this pretentious, little blog, that I have a fascinating  investment opportunity.  WAIT!  Where are you going?  This is good, trust me.  I found the best coffee ever.  (And yes, I glanced at my desk, saw the coffee mug, and that's the product for today's demonstration.)  This coffee is so  good, and such a stable investment, because everyone  drinks coffee every day , that you can't lose.  You'll make 25% every year, no matter what is happening in the market!  Like I said, it is amazing coffee, and people need their coffee.  I certainly do! So anyway, you, trusting readers, give me your money to invest.  But I

 Dear readers, When someone calls attention to an error, I recognize my errors and apologize for them.  In my post this morning, I made deeply offensive and hurtful remarks about Marjorie Taylor Greene, calling her a "shit-flinging monkey."  I was contacted today by the Shit-Flinging Monkey Anti-Defamation League (SFMADL), and they have explained to me how wrong and deeply hurtful my comments were to the noble, shit-flinging monkey community.  They have shown me that Greene is not a shit-flinging  monkey, but instead, a howler  monkey, and the shit-flinging monkeys have expressed their deep dismay that anyone would see any connection between them and Rep. Greene.  I have seen the error of my ways.  Indeed, the SFMADL explained to me that when they fling shit, they are actually flinging it at  the howler monkeys in an attempt to shut them the fuck up, so that the rest of the jungle can get some goddamned sleep.  Moreover, their actions are ecologically beneficial, as they spre

 I hope you read a good book last night.  It is usually the best thing you can do with your time, although other fine pass-times include learning a musical instrument, engaging in any similar artistic endeavor, or generally speaking, something practical, engaging or enriching.  What I hope you did not do is watch someone make the classic actor's mistake of working with children and animals.  Kevin McCarthy continues to demonstrate that he is the weakest Speaker in modern history, and he just got the gavel.  He implored his-- what do you call a group of hyenas? or shit-flinging monkeys?-- anyway, he implored his shit-flinging monkeys, hyenas and toddlers to keep it in their diapers.  Their feces, that is.  Amongst other things.  Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, shit-flinging monkeys gotta fling shit.  See, this is why I stopped attending Political Science Department meetings at CWRU, but that's a topic for another day.  McCarthy is not the smartest monkey in the tree, but he is

 Will Borne defeat Mord?  Will he/it survive if so?  Wick probably dies, right?  I mean, a Mord proxy got him, and neither he nor Rachel has found much of use in the remains of the Company building.  If you are asking, huh? , I am coming up to the end of Jeff Vandermeer's outstanding 2017 novel, Borne .  His Southern Reach Trilogy was fantastic, and I have been sufficiently impressed with this one that I will almost certainly read the sequel, unless he really  blows the ending.  Which could happen.  Regardless, there is a high likelihood that I shall get to the end and then, um... I dunno.  Is there something I am supposed to watch tonight?  I don't wanna.  TV sucks, and political rituals are pointless and stupid.  I mean, I'll probably finish the book before any such event starts, but I'd really rather get so caught up in some passage that I keep going back over it again and again, and then miss whatever damned spectacle I am supposed to watch.  You?  You should read a

 It was either that, or a Carnac reference, but since a blog is text-based, nobody would be able to see the turban/envelope schtick.  Besides, these days someone would accuse Johnny of cultural appropriation.  But hey, let's do it anyway.  [Holds envelop to be-turban-ed head.]  A balloon, a jobs report, and Hunter Biden's legal bills. Hey-O! See, this is why I need my own Ed McMahon.  You sound funnier with a drunken sidekick.  Also, you sound funnier when you are funny, but it's not like anyone is paying me to write this damned thing, so here.  Have your refund.  Go count it.  If you're Marjorie Taylor Greene, that'll take you a while. Moving on, I have no insight into Hunter Biden's legal troubles, except to say that daddy probably won't help him.  If you are going to commit those kinds of crimes with a famous politician for a father, you should have the good sense to be born to a crooked shitbag like Donnie.  Biden?  Nope.  You're on your own.  As for

 Yesterday was another strange day in the stock market.  With astonishing growth in the labor market, stocks went down based on the expectation of continued Fed rate hikes to combat inflation.  Goddamned Phillips Curve!  Investors remain remarkably sanguine about a debt ceiling resolution, and surprisingly so.  This one is more concerning than 2011, and 2011 was bad.  This morning, I am going to offer a contrarian interpretation.  Which is totally  out of character.  If you have the reasoned capacity to act and resolve a problem, but you do not, then you are to blame.  In this construction, the word, "reasoned," is doing a lot of the heavy lifting, and it shifts the blame from the Republicans to the Democrats with respect to fiscal politics.  There are many issues on which Democrats lack any reason, and I regularly excoriate them.  Yet when it comes to the debt ceiling, the Republicans are not reasoned.  What does that do to our moral interpretations of Democratic actions?  C

 Goodbye, Ilhan.  Booker Ervin, "Cry Me Not," from The Freedom Book .