Tag Archives: culture

The Harvard Corporation and Antisemitism

Posted on by
Reply

The Harvard Corporation (or, formally, President and Fellows of Harvard College) is the body that, overall, governs Harvard University. That august forum has just explicitly backed Harvard President Claudine Gay in the aftermath of her antisemitic testimony before a House committee several days ago. The corporation said her testimony was unfortunate, but that otherwise everything is jake for and with her.

It’s convenient for Gay, though, that she also sits on the Harvard Corporation. Although she cannot vote on matters before the board, she does set its agenda.

I have to wonder whether the subject of her handling of antisemitism would have been on the agenda if she didn’t already know the Corporation’s decision.

Search Warrants and Sect 702

Posted on by
Reply

The Wall Street Journal editors are worried about a House Judiciary Committee proposal to reform Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702 (the proposal has subsequently been withdrawn for unrelated reasons). Their plaint centers on the Committee’s proposal to require search warrants to look at emails already lawfully collected.

The House Judiciary Committee…bill would require a warrant for queries of US persons, even though the information was already lawfully collected.

Contra the worthies at the WSJ, the Judiciary bill is well down the right track. The information about which the editors worry was, indeed, lawfully collected, but only as a side effect of the collection run against a foreign entity. To explicitly look at—to read—those accidentally collected emails, to make those emails explicit targets of a search, that absolutely should require 4th Amendment search warrants.

Further, those warrants should be issuable only by an Art III judge or a magistrate directly subordinate to an Art III judge, and the FISA court should be removed completely.

Some Bigotry is Acceptable, Apparently

Posted on by
Reply

Here is Harvard President Claudine Gay when she was Harvard’s Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on the matter of the then-contemporaneous George Floyd murder [emphasis added]:

I have watched in pain and horror the events unfolding across the nation this week, triggered by the callous and depraved actions of a white police officer in Minneapolis.
…
I write this knowing that for some in our community, and I count myself among them, the events in Minneapolis, Brunswick, Louisville and beyond, feel anything but abstract; to the contrary, the headlines stir an acute sense of vulnerability. We are reminded, again, how even our most mundane activities, like running, which is something I am passionate about, can carry inordinate risk. … It shouldn’t be this way. Our presence and our voices make these experiences visible—and that, too, is part of the change. Together with the many who know these fears only vicariously, we must actively work to build a more just society, where no one is above the law and where each of us is treated with the dignity that is our birthright.

Here is now-Harvard President Claudine Gay, in her testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce over a week ago (Tuesday, 5 December), answering the question of whether calling for genocide of the Jews is a violation of Harvard’s codes of conduct:

It can be, depending on the context.

Apparently, bigotry against some is bad, and each of us should be treated with dignity, except when Jews are involved. Antisemitic bigotry is fine, and Jews don’t need? deserve to be? mustn’t be? treated with dignity.

That Harvard’s governing body, Harvard Corporation, hasn’t yet—nine days later!—fired Gay for cause over her overt antisemitism and her selective bigotry is clear demonstration of the rank bigotry of the members of the Harvard Corporation, as their studied inaction condones Gay’s bigotry.

H/t Niall Ferguson writing for The Free Press.

Occurring after I wrote the above: in the event, the Harvard Corporation, which is the governing body for this school, has decided to retain–enthusiastically–Gay as President.

“Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing,” the board said in a message to the Harvard community Tuesday morning.

With judgment like that–affirming Gay’s testimony that genocide against Jews sometimes is a permissible threat–it’s clear that the Federal government must cut off all Federal funding to the school unless and until Gay is fired for cause and the Harvard Corporation’s own governing body–the President and Fellows of Harvard College–undergoes a 100% replacement.

Taxpayer money should not be going to institutions that so overtly support selective bigotry, or any bigotry at all.

Indicative, but also Misleading

Posted on by
Reply

A Wall Street Poll found strong support for Israel in the war Hamas has inflicted on it, but the question the paper chose to illustrate the matter also is misleading.

Overall support for Israelis is solid, although there is considerable support for both Palestinians and Israelis “equally” in the Hamas war.

Unsurprisingly, given the strong antisemitic streak running through the Progressive-Democratic Party, those worthies especially strongly sympathize with both Palestinians and Israelis rather than with Israelis alone.

What’s misleading about the question, though, is the tacit inclusion of the terrorist Hamas gang under the rubric “Palestinian people.” The question needs to be asked concerning sympathizing with Israelis, whose civilians are explicitly targeted by Hamas, vs sympathizing with Gazans, whose civilians are equally targeted by Hamas in the form of shields and Gazan residences and facilities used by the terrorists for weapons storage and launch sites and command centers.

Sympathizing with both Israelis and Gazans (not generic Palestinians) would have more legitimacy given Hamas’ assaults on both sets of civilians more or less equally, albeit one with deliberate targeting and the other with deliberate abandon.

Stupidity

Posted on by
Reply

A construction warehouse in Los Angeles owned by Ryan Baggaley and his brothers was broken into and looted. Now Baggaley is upset.

I voted for Karen Bass. I voted for Biden. I voted for Gavin Newsom. I’m sick of it[.]

Why? He could see their attitude toward police and toward law and order for years including from Bass’ time in Congress before she became the latest LA Mayor and continued the city’s soft-on-crime tradition. He could see the rampant and exploding crime all around him during those years. Why would he keep voting, repeatedly, for more of the same?

The brothers waited until it happened to them directly before they decided the situation was wrong.

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results each time may or may not be an indication of insanity. It is, though, a clear demonstration of stupidity. They still kept voting Progressive-Democrat, apparently expecting different results each time they voted. If they do decide to leave California, they’re not welcome here in Texas. Or even if they decide to stay in California, they’re still not welcome in Texas.

And just to saucer and blow this Los Angeles situation, there’s this bit of sad irony:

The suspect vehicle used in Baggaley’s break-in was stolen from the LAPD’s impound yard[.]

Too many cops. Take some of them out.

Oh, wait. They already did. Need to reduce the force even more to work this problem.