Ole Miss professors teach witchcraft to tots!

How was the Reverend Wildmon not all over this?

In 2005, just before Halloween, psychologists at the Universities of Mississippi and Texas introduced 81 children from preschool through first grade to the "Candy Witch," who would replace leftover Halloween candy with a toy if the child asked for the Candy Witch to visit. In one group of children, the parents "simulated" a visit from the Candy Witch, while in the other group, the children did not receive any "visit." The researchers interviewed the children twice after Halloween, and once a year later, to measure levels of belief.

Summoning witches to receive toys in exchange for a pledge of faith? And this Satanic corruption of innocent children was paid for by your federal tax dollars, no doubt. Release the hounds!

"The bows and scrapes of mistresses and confessors"

Finally getting to reading Churchill's biography of Marlborough, and his fine rant on Louis XIV deserves posting. Apropos of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and associated persecutions:

We have no patience with the lackey pens which have sought to invest this long, hateful process with the appearances of dignity and honour. During the whole of his life Louis XIV was the curse and pest of Europe. No worse enemy of human freedom has ever appeared in the trappings of polite civilization. Insatiable appetite, cold, calculating ruthlessness, monumental conceit, presented themselves armed with fire and sword. The veneer of culture and good manners, of brilliant ceremonies and elaborate etiquette, only adds a heightening effect to the villainy of his life's story. Better the barbarian conquerors of antiquity, primordial figures of the abyss, than this high-heeled, beperiwigged dandy, strutting amid the bows and scrapes of mistresses and confessors to the torment of his age. Petty and mediocre in all except his lusts and power, the Sun King disturbed and harried mankind during more than fifty years of arrogant pomp.

... Without pretending to any analysis of his prose, note how Churchill is unafraid to marshal cliches -- "fire and sword," "cold and calculating" -- and assimilate them in a paragraph that doesn't sound at all cliched.

Unhappily, that qualifier about "in the trappings of polite civilization" has to do more heavy lifting now than it did when Churchill wrote.

Well, except for # 18.

Being busy with other matters, I failed to notice that April 13 was "Ask an Atheist Day." ("An opportunity for the general public — particularly people of faith — to approach us and ask questions about secular life.") So, almost, did Avram Grumer.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find out about National Ask an Atheist Day until pretty late, and there isn’t much time left. So I’m skipping the question phase and going straight to answers:

1. Nope, not ever.
2. Yeah, sometimes.
3. Not since Grant Morrison stopped writing it.
4. Well, I don’t really see that as a distinction worth drawing.
5. Take the N, Q, or R train to 57th Street, and walk one block north.
6. I don’t know that it’s really a meaningful question, given that the key terms are never defined.
7. A different breath weapon from each head.
8. No, that would be a terrible idea.
9. One’s an analogy Bertrand Russell came up with, another’s an early 3D CAD model, and the third’s a distinctive geological feature associated with a 1920s political scandal.
10. Templar, Arizona, by Charlie “Spike” Trotman.
11. Yeah, I’m pretty sure you could pick a dozen lines each from the Bible and the Koran and mix them together, and most Americans wouldn’t be able to tell which came from which book.
12. Murray’s Bagels, Sixth Avenue, between 12th and 13th Streets. Be sure to ask for belly lox; that’s the real stuff.
13. Well, I’m flattered, but no, thank you.
14. It seems that somewhere between PHP3 and PHP5, they changed how to access environment variables, and that bolloxed things up. Took me two hours to find the problem, but just a few seconds to fix it once I found it.
15. Well, I’ve seen different people use the word “numinous” to mean different things, so I really couldn’t say.
16. Three: One to change the bulb, and two to perform “É il Sol Dell’Anima” from Rigoletto.
17. You use it in the early game to pare down your hand by getting rid of Copper and Estates. Make sure to pick up some Silver or Gold first, or some Action card that grants a money bonus.
18. Boxers.

I'm not sure how different these are from the answers available on "Ask a Skeptical Lutheran Day."

Back to the drawing board!

The Pulitzers came out, and we are pleased by the absence of Jonathan Franzen's name on the list. Not that awards mean anything of course.

... The only winner I've read was Chernow's Washington, which was pretty good, but I'm a little sad if that was really the best American biography in 2010.

What? Insufficient time spent petting those little dogs?

Douglas Kmiec, the conservative law prof who made a small stir by supporting Obama in 2008, was rewarded by being named ambassador to Malta.

Now, having been criticized by the State Department's inspector general for excessive extracurricular activity, Kmiec has resigned:

The American ambassador to Malta resigned his post Saturday after criticism from the State Department's inspector general that he was devoting too much time to promoting better relations between religions.

Douglas Kmiec, a prominent conservative constitutional lawyer and member of the Pepperdine University faculty, said in letters to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that he rejected the inspector general's conclusion that his advocacy was outside his official mission.

Kmiec wrote that the inspector general had a "flawed and narrow vision of our diplomatic mission" and said his writings had a "highly positive effect on our diplomatic relations."

He thinks he knows why the IG targeted him:

Kmiec said that when he worked for the Office of Legal Counsel in 1989 he recommended that inspector generals' work be confined to rooting out waste rather than evaluating departmental policies.

"I suspect I have just experienced a 'sting back,'" Kmiec wrote to Clinton.

Based on the article's description of Kmiec's transgressions, I gotta say I'm on his side:

But the inspector general's report, issued in February, says he had an "unconventional approach to his role" and devoted much time to writing on the "interfaith initiative." It said his official schedule was "uncharacteristically light," and that he had had "friction with principal officials in Washington, especially over his reluctance to accept their guidance and instructions."

At the same time, the report says, Kmiec had "achieved some policy successes" and was respected by Maltese officials and embassy staff members.

Department officials spent considerable time reviewing and editing Kmiec's writings related to religion, and they barred him from organizing conferences aimed at improving relations between religions, officials said.

Uh, excuse me? The guy is ambassador to Malta. I'm not even sure why we *have* a full ambassador in Malta, but how demanding can the job be? He could probably spend 10 hours a week on his "official schedule" and do just fine.

Because what could be more judicious than a Xerox?

A while back we noted the issue of judicial adoptions of a party's proposed findings, so it's interesting to note that a Canadian court has reversed a trial court on just that basis.

How's "painting yourself into a corner" for an analogy?

Sullyblog brings us a philosophy professor trying to explain why his department shouldn't fall under the budget axe:

Philosophers look at what can and can’t be inferred from prior claims. They examine what makes analogies strong or weak, the conditions under which we should and shouldn’t defer to experts, and what kinds of things (e.g., inflammatory rhetoric, wishful thinking, inadequate sample size) lead us to reason poorly. This is not to say that doctors, district attorneys, or drain manufactures cannot make decent assessments without ever taking a philosophy class. It’s also possible for someone to diagnose a case of measles without having gone to medical school. The point is that people will tend to do better if, as part of their education, they’ve studied some philosophy.

How grimly amusing, to see Anglo-American philosophers spend a century ruthlessly devaluing their profession, denying that it can say anything interesting about anything of interest, and then find themselves having to explain why their watered-down discipline is even worth funding on campus.

... More irony: a few posts previously, Sullivan had posted a link quoting Judith Butler from her essay "Violence, Mourning, Politics":

Perhaps one mourns when one accepts that by the loss one undergoes one will be changed, possibly for ever…I do not think, for instance, that one can invoke the Protestant ethic when it comes to loss. One cannot say, “Oh, I’ll go through loss this way, and that will be the result, and I’ll apply myself to the task, and I’ll endeavor to achieve the resolution of grief that is before me.” I think one is hit by waves, and that one starts out the day with an aim, a project, a plan, and finds oneself foiled. One finds oneself fallen. One is exhausted but does not know why. Something is larger than one’s own deliberate plan, one’s own project, one’s own knowing and choosing…

Let’s face it. We’re undone by each other. And if we’re not, we’re missing something. This seems so clearly the case with grief, but it can be so only because it was already the case with desire. One does not always stay intact. One may want to, or manage to for a while, but despite one’s best efforts, one is undone, in the face of the other, by the touch, by the scent, by the feel, by the prospect of the touch, by the memory of the feel. And so, when we speak about “my sexuality” or “my gender,” as we do and as we must, we nevertheless mean something complicated that is partially concealed by our usage. As a mode of relation, neither gender nor sexuality is precisely a possession, but, rather, is a mode of being dispossessed, a way of being for another or by virtue of another.

And yet, according to the heirs of Russell and Ayer, Butler is not doing philosophy; she's just yammering.

Ready for the J. Crew catalog to call

Judicial activism

In this connection there is another anecdote of pleasant interest. The Hon. Josiah Quincy when a young man accompanied Judge Story to Washington and in his "Figures of the Past" relates that the judges of the Supreme Court usually dined together and their custom was to allow themselves wine only when it was raining. But "the Chief," said Story, "was brought up on Federalism and Madeira," and occasionally even on a sunshiny day would say "Brother Story, will you step to the window and see if there are signs of rain?" Story would be obliged reluctantly to report that he saw none, whereupon the Chief Justice would say cheerfully with a gleam of humor in his piercing eyes, "Well, this is a very large territory over which we have jurisdiction and I feel sure it is raining in some part of it. I think we may have a bottle to-day."

-- John Marshall: life, character and judicial services as portrayed in the centenary and memorial addresses and proceedings throughout the United States on Marshall day, 1901, and in the classic orations of Binney, Story, Phelps, Waite and Rawle, at 498.

... Madeira, a beverage of which I am innocent, was a great favorite of several of the Founders, perhaps in part for this reason:

Before the advent of artificial refrigeration, Madeira wine was particularly prized in areas where it was impractical to construct wine cellars (such as those in parts of the southern United States) because unlike many other fine wines it could survive being stored over hot summers without significant damage.

Marshall, a resident of Richmond, would buy it by the hogshead.

It's really no wonder they oppose gay marriage too

Interesting poll catch:

We asked voters on this poll whether they think interracial marriage should be legal or illegal- 46% of Mississippi Republicans said it should be illegal to just 40% who think it should be legal.

They go on to report who these mouth-breathers think should be president:

Palin's net favorability with folks who think interracial marriage should be illegal (+55 at 74/19) is 17 points higher than it is with folks who think interracial marriage should be legal (+38 at 64/26.) Meanwhile Romney's favorability numbers see the opposite trend. He's at +23 (53/30) with voters who think interracial marriage should be legal but 19 points worse at +4 (44/40) with those who think it should be illegal.

I doubt they think a Mormon should even be able to get married.

Via.

Because they're not "death panels" if they work for Blue Cross

You can read a lot about the GOP's plan to get rid of Medicare, and perhaps you already have, but the bottom-line takeaway from Krugman is pretty good:

Privatizing and voucherizing Medicare does nothing whatsoever to control costs. We’ve seen that from the sorry history of Medicare Advantage. I’m sure that the Republicans will claim savings — but those savings will come entirely from limiting the vouchers to below the rate of rise in health care costs; in effect, they will come from denying medical care to those who can’t afford to top up their premiums.

Oh, and for all those older Americans who voted GOP last year because those nasty Democrats were going to cut Medicare, I have just one word: suckers!

Cost control is important, but much of the rise in Medicare costs is not because of rising healthcare costs -- it's just that there are going to be more old people in America as the baby-boomers retire. That is not a waste of money, and we need to quit treating it like a waste of money.

Kevin Drum and the TNR bloggers are all over this, if you are looking for more details, but Krugman's skinny is correct. This "reform" simply requires the elderly to pay more for healthcare, so that the rich can pay less in taxes.

On cremation

Christians abhorred this way of obsequies, and though they stickt not to give their bodies to be burnt in their lives, detested that mode after death.

-- Sir Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia i.

Barbour and depression (see, not quite 100%)

Mother Jones has an article on Barbour's supposed failures to reform the state's child-protection agency, which gives some insight into Barbour's priorities and has the added bonus of actually focusing on something relevant he's done, instead of painting him as a crypto-racist. (I think Barbour *is* a crypto-racist, but that's insufficient as an argument against him -- what GOP candidates are not?)

Almost but not quite 100% unrelated, this little essay on David Foster Wallace's troubles, including a look at the self-help books he seems to've carefully studied, is worth a look for DFW fans. Via 3QD, go find the link yourself, what am I, your mother?

Student-free campus

Digging around for something else in our hard drive, we stumbled upon this news report, which we think was originally bylined April 1, 2001.

Chancellor Khayat Announces “Student-Free” Campus Plan

Elimination of students to beautify campus, attract alumni
With its pedestrians-only campus near realization, the Office of the Chancellor has revealed the “next step” for Ole Miss: no students.

In what Chancellor Khayat describes as “a bold move to the vanguard of the Great American Public Universities,” the University of Mississippi will adopt a plan to be 100% student-free by the year 2006.

“Having rendered the heart of our campus virtually inaccessible to commuters,” the Chancellor’s Mission Statement said, “we are now ready to take the logical next step: excluding students altogether. Our beautiful new campus, with its majestically renovated buildings, will now become an alumni park, free from student congestion.”

A spokesperson for the Chancellor’s Office emphasized the progressive nature of this step in the school’s Master Plan.

“We’ve been moving towards this for some time,” said Dusty Flack. “The gradual elimination of student parking, the decrepitude of our student housing, the financial abandonment of the library, even the awful slop that Aramark passes off for food—did anybody think these were accidents? I hope everyone appreciates the depth and foresight in Chancellor Khayat’s vision. Glory to his name!”

Business professor Carl Deutschmarx lauded the Chancellor’s plan. “The loss of tuition income will be more than balanced by the increased focus on fundraising. Chancellor Khayat is following good business practice: eliminate the inessential. Efficiency like that is the hallmark of a true genius of managerial science.”

Student reaction was varied. Some students, like Iwauna Parti, a freshman from American Samoa, reacted positively. “I don’t have to go to class any more? That’s super! Not that I was spending much time there anyway.”

Graduate student Deke Onstrukt, who has been working on his Ph.D. in Socio-Cultural Ideological Viewpoints (formerly “English”), praised the plan as “a brilliant inversion of conventional educational ideology. The transcendental signified has been deleted from Ole Miss, from which it was always already absent. Frankly, I had no idea Chancellor Khayat had even read Derrida.”

Some students expressed uncertainty as to the effect of the plan on their extracurricular activities. Buffie Blanchefille, a sophomore from Madison, wondered how her parents would react to the new plan. “I don’t know if they’re going to keep paying for my Chevy Behemoth SUV and my $1600-a-month townhouse if I’m not actually taking any classes. Maybe if the sororities stay open, it’ll be okay.”

A faculty spokesperson said that the professors were still studying the proposal. “We’re forming a committee right now,” said Faculty Senate member Pat Drudge. “Basically, while we think this holds a lot of potential for increasing our research opportunities, we’re a little concerned that the administration may use the fact that we’re not teaching any classes as an excuse to reduce our salaries, which are already well below the Southeastern Conference average. And I hope that the failure to consult us on this plan doesn’t imply any further targets for elimination.”

The Chancellor’s report spells out the future role of Ole Miss as a center for alumni gatherings and fundraising. Among other changes, the weekend festivities in the Grove will be extended to nine months out of the year; dormitories will be razed and replaced with alumni retirement villages; a riverboat casino will be built on the puddles in front of Farley Hall; and professional sports teams will be solicited to relocate to Oxford, where the currently renovated Vaught-Hemingway Stadium will be demolished and rebuilt twice as large.

On the question of where the school will obtain new alumni once students have been removed, Flack said that several alternatives were being studied. “The Biology Department might get to work on genetically engineering alumni straight from the lab, without the intervening childhood and student life-stages, and with salaries of at least $80,000 a year right out of the test tube. Another possibility is to make alumni status hereditary, which isn’t too far from how we work now.”

Asked whether negative press might focus on the idea that educating students is the central mission of a university, Flack said that criticism had already been anticipated, but the administration expected little trouble. “We’ve been putting the students last for years, and nobody said boo. Why jump up and start complaining at this stage?”

April 1

There will be no April Fool's posting at TBA. We are fools 365 days out of the year.