Saturday, August 15, 2026
Friday, August 14, 2026
Jason Arday, R.I.P.
I've written three times about Jason Arday, a young Black professor of the "sociology of education" at Cambridge U. who resigned after being found out as a plagiarist and serial liar about his accomplishments. I wrote first, about what was alleged, second about his resignation, and lastly in the context of a former colleague who also appears to be bent.
Sadly, I write a fourth time to report Arday has been found dead in London. The Daily News reports thus.
At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious.
Natural causes deaths are relatively rare among 41 year olds with sedentary occupations. Interestingly, the word "suicide" appears nowhere in the DN's longish write-up. Are we supposed to infer it from the combination of "unexpected" and "not suspicious"?
Schadenfreude
On Monday we wrote about the WNBA's dilemma, whether to allow to play in the league men who claim to 'identify' as women. We anticipated they'd have trouble reconciling the conflict between what fans and society in general wants - no XY players in what's supposed to be an XX league - and what LGBTQ+ adherents want which is for individual's "felt identity" to prevail, regardless.
It is not irrelevant that the league's economic self interest also favors an XX only rule. The league's owners and managers have now met and reached no firm conclusion, not exactly a shock.
I ask to be excused for experiencing some measure of schadenfreude watching this happen.
Thursday, August 13, 2026
Update
You'll remember I've indicated summers here in the high country are short. Now in early mid-August we're getting a taste of early fall. Today's predicted high is 62℉, it is gloomy and rainy.
This iffy weather will continue for 2-3 days, and then we're back to high country summer weather for a few weeks. Locals claim it can snow in any month of the year, but we've summered here for 30+ years and never seen valley floor snow in July or August. We've seen June and September snow on rare occasions.
Have a nice summer, what's left of it.
Wednesday, August 12, 2026
A Pet Peeve
I just ran across an example of a thing which too often happens, and which really irritates me. RealClearPolitics links to an article they title "Why Does Europe Struggle with Free Speech?"
I went to the linked article and read it. It establishes Europe in particular is criminalizing so-called "hate speech" which we permit under our "free speech" amendment. What it particularly does not do is answer the question "why."
So I then look and discover the actual article title is "The European Free Speech Crisis," which crisis the article does describe. It frustrates me that RCP mislabels, conning me into reading it.
I already knew a crisis existed, but was curious if they would "go there" and actually dare say why. They do not.
The "there" of course is the millions of immigrants from cultures with very different values and a propensity to go berserk when insulted. European governments appease these aliens in hopes of postponing the civil war they will eventually lose. Few will talk or write about this cowardice.
Parental Rebellion
Image courtesy of today's Lucianne.com.
This is only funny because it is true. Most DSA candidates are nepo babies who attended private schools and posh colleges. Now they're rebelling against the system that enriched their successful parents.
We know it to be true of Zohran Mamdani, Abdul El-Sayed, AOC, Hasan Piker and Graham Platner. Bernie Sanders is no billionaire but wealthy by most standards. Francesca Hong appears to be an exception.
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Net Negative
Power Line's John Hinderaker writes about a female colleague of Jason Arday, the now-resigned Cambridge DEI fabulist hire with made-up credentials and accomplishments. A devout Muslim, Farah Ahmed believes western education is inimical to Muslim students, so naturally she is housed in the education department.
You can't make up such craziness, no one would believe you. He concludes with the following pithy observation.
I think it is fair to ask whether the net contribution of “higher education” to Western countries is now negative.
A lot of it is exactly that, hence the DSA (see above).
Old Movie Review: The Great Escape
A 1963 film of imprisoned allied aviators trying to escape a Luftwaffe POW camp, The Great Escape has a big cast and they deliver the goods. Steve McQueen, James Garner, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Richard Attenborough, David McCallum and a bunch of solid Brit actors whose names aren't so well known to Americans do a good job.
The title tells you the general story, a bunch of guys with time on their hands try to tunnel out of a prison camp, with uniforms recut into mufti, forged "papers" and maps, the idea being to fan out across Germany, heading for Switzerland or elsewhere, and cause as much confusion as possible.
The ingenuity on display is impressive. McQueen, Garner, and Coburn play their usual on-screen personas, Charles Bronson does a credible job of portraying a claustrophobic forcing himself to dig a long tunnel in which he can barely kneel, and nearly being destroyed in the process.
We've enjoyed this film multiple times since it was released.
Choices Made
Here's a quote I like, authored by someone using the handle "BuckCreekBreaker."
People who are downwardly mobile loathe those who made better choices in life.
So true, it's the Darwin principle in action. The non-thriving of the less fit, and the envy that engenders.
Monday, August 10, 2026
Old Movie Review: Never So Few
Last night we watched a 1959 film neither of us had seen - Never So Few - because it had a blockbuster cast: Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lawford, Steve McQueen, Paul Henreid, Charles Bronson, Dean Jones, and Brian Donlevy.
Set in Burma during World War II, it was inspired by actual OSS and British officers who led Kachin tribal forces against the Japanese who had invaded Burma and threatened to invade British colonial India. Never So Few is set in the same theater of war as Bridge on the River Kwai but it’s not in the same league theatrically.
The scriptwriters grafted an unbelievable love story onto a war movie and, as we say in horticulture, the graft “didn’t take.” The plot has holes in it you can’t overlook, supposedly crafty experienced troops fail to post sentries and get bushwhacked repeatedly.
Reviewers weren’t impressed with Sinatra but liked McQueen’s work. The film lost money, and that tells you how weak the word-of-mouth was on the film. Don’t be conned by its glossy cast list, as we were, this film isn’t their best work.
Instapundit Reaches Milestone
Professor Glenn Reynolds is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Instapundit. Congratulations, Glenn, well done.
Speaking of which, COTTonLINE will celebrate its 20th anniversary later this year, I’ll let you know when the date rolls around a few days before Christmas.
I just checked and so far in nearly 20 years I’ve posted 16.6k items, averaging over 800 per year. It is my hobby and it keeps my no-longer-young mind active.
I’m fortunate I have no need to monetize COTTonLINE. Therefore I don’t pester you with ads or appeals for donations, the absence of which I'm certain you appreciate.
B-School Exceptionalism
An interesting quote from an article looking at stereotypes about various majors on higher ed campuses. I like this one as I was a business prof.
The professors in the business school had next to nothing to do with the rest of the university. They had the nicest cars, the most up-to-date building, and the lowest level of union membership.
To what extent was that descriptive of the campus where I spent 28 of my 34 years in academia? We certainly had little to do with the rest of the university, and a quite low level of union membership.
Our building was no better or worse than the rest of the campus. I shared an office for the first 6 years, and had a private office thereafter.
About cars I have no overall idea, an accounting prof drove an elegant pre war Mercedes convertible coupe. At various times I drove a VW beetle, a VW Rabbit, a Thunderbird, a Buick, and a Ford Probe. Overlapping these, also a Chevy, a Dodge, and multiple Ford diesel pickups, used to pull RVs - something very few profs did.
The WNBA Dilemma
Two men with non-trivial NBA experience have decided to file for the WNBA draft, the rules of which apparently permit them to do so. Neither is overtly transsexual.
This creates a fascinating dilemma for the women’s league. Either (a) take a stand for keeping biological males out of women’s sports, or (b) a stand for transsexual rights.
Knowing nothing but the names of the two leagues, you’d suppose choice (a) would be automatic. Knowing what we know about the WNBA, many of its players are strong supporters of LGBTQ+ rights. This means their bias favors men who identify as women being able to do whatever biological women are able to do, to the greatest extent possible, including play pro basketball.
However, if the league is open to XY players, it is likely it could become dominated by taller, heavier biological males. Actual XX players will be to varying degrees marginalized or left off rosters.
The conflict is between LGBTQ+ rights and economic self interest. It will be fascinating to see how the WNBA navigates this maze when many players simultaneously hold membership in two groups with opposing interests.
I can imagine a (admittedly unlikely) future in which most WNBA players are XY but required to cosplay XX, like classical Japanese kabuki drama in which all roles are played by XY men. It will be interesting to see this conflict of interest unfold.
Sunday, August 9, 2026
History ... Rhyming
The Spanish Civil War served as a lead-in to World War II. What are the chances the Ukraine War will serve as a precursor to World War III?
Both dragged on for years, creating many casualties. Both have served as proving grounds for new military technology. And of course, both had external allies who supported the side more closely allied to their interests.
The Spanish civil war ended on April 1, 1939. Hitler invaded Poland exactly 5 months later on September 1, 1939, beginning World War II.
Anybody want to take bets on the lag time between an end of war in Ukraine and the beginning of the as-yet-hypothetical World War III? At this point I would start with 5 months as an unbiased estimator thereof.
The Spanish war lasted roughly 3 years. Ukraine's war has already lasted ca. 4.5 years and shows no sign of ending.
If the Ukraine war's continuation precludes the beginning of a much wider war, perhaps it is better for most of us if it does not end. For sure the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Poland could think so. I fear this speculation sounds a bit outré, which doesn't make it any less possible.
Saturday, August 8, 2026
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