THEORY.

and……

PRACTICE.

Can you really be surprised that a group of Palo Alto parents who revile the thought of their daughters as docile submissives are suing?

A group of Jewish, Hindu, and Zoroastrian parents share the sentiment of millions of Iranian women that the hijab is unacceptable, and they wonder why their daughters were instructed to wear them for a field trip to a mosque.

They’re not saying that women into submission shouldn’t wear hijabs; but veiling your head and draping your body (this latter I guess wasn’t included in the excursion, but it’s the rare hijabi who doesn’t veil her provocative body too) is just, you know, not us. I mean, in a big way. In a big lawsuit way.

The volunteerism of university frat houses is always inspiring, be it car washes for St Jude’s, or packages for Somalia… or, uh, Cocania…

[C]utting and bagging cocaine was, for some pledges, an indoctrination into the Delta Upsilon and Sigma Chi fraternities.

We’re speaking of storied Penn State, the only American university whose president went to jail — in 2021, for endangering the welfare of children. (You know. The Jerry Sandusky thing.). The school with a frat that famously killed a pledge, for which the frat’s prez and vice prez went to prison. In 2021, half the frats at Penn State were on suspension.

This latest drug distribution thing rivals Pusher U San Diego State; but SDSU’s criminal class stashed a big arsenal of guns in the frat houses, and we don’t yet know about Penn State’s weaponry, so we’ll see who comes out on top.

****************

Update: More yummy details as the story, er, cracks wide open.

… writes one of the best Jason Arday considerations.

The story … raised questions … about academic standards in the humanities, regarding both Arday’s education (Liverpool John Moores, which awarded his doctorate, confirmed that he had received just one in-person supervision while writing his PhD, which was later found to have substantial signs of plagiarism) and the education he provided to his own students.

…. Arday’s self-mythologising was not harmless. He hurt the academics whose work he plagiarised. He hurt the discipline he belonged to. He hurt the early career lecturers who were competing with him for jobs, but couldn’t match his fantastical legend. He hurt the families of non-verbal children who believed the story of his unprecedented late acquisition of language, and either blamed themselves for lacking the patience and love of Arday’s mother, or blamed their children for their failure to blossom.

… Being at the centre of a media storm is isolating and horrible. Arday had lost his job, lost his credibility, and even those he might have banked on as supporters were abandoning him: The Guardian’s Afua Hirsch wrote a column that was probably more brutal than anything from The Telegraph or The Spectator, which accused Arday of gulling his defenders and exploiting his autism as a cover for his actions. Ostracism is deeply destructive. I don’t think that Arday’s life was beyond redemption (if the Winns could survive The Salt Path, he could survive this), but I can understand why he might have believed it was.

… I do not regret writing about Arday, but I am sorry for him and for all of us that he was ever put in a position where he was somebody I would have cause to write about. If the plagiarism in his PhD had been dealt with at the time; if Cambridge had vetted his work; if his publisher had factchecked his manuscript and done him the kindness of rejecting it; if the allegations of his academic malpractice had been dealt with openly in the specialist press, rather than hushed up until they became a legitimate scandal — then maybe Arday would have been spared the punishing glare of a public life.

Clinical trials show that most patients’ depressive symptoms improved with the drugs, but there’s been growing backlash that they’ve been overprescribed and can leave users hooked without an exit ramp.

How to fix? Whiplash… stalled … exit ramp?

Bullshit.

The latest massacre in Kentucky prompts a local pol to wonder why why why. So here you go:

Kentucky’s gun laws are among the worst in the country, and the state’s gun death rate is above the national average. Kentucky has none of the foundational policies in place—after legislators repealed its concealed carry permitting requirement in 2019.

Kentucky is Gonzo Gun. It doesn’t just like them — it goes to a lot of trouble to make sure everyone gets plenty of them.

That doesn’t just mean lone loons blasting away. It means effing shootouts. Enjoy.

A cop working the fair last Saturday saw a man beating up his wife.

When the deputy intervened and identified himself in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, [Thomas] Smith reportedly told the deputy it was “none of his business.” Smith then pulled out a loaded 9mm pistol, pointed it at the deputy’s head, and threatened to “blow his brains out.” 

Nineteen years old, armed with a big gun, out and about at 1:30 AM. Ready, aim, fire.

How did Virginia State security let it happen?

Does VSU have security?

**********************

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19MNJ2aaye

‘Dr. Arday … worked hard to silence any questioning of his credentials. When a journalist for Times Higher Education, a respected academic industry publication, asked about plagiarism last year, a prominent British defamation law firm helped kill the article, the journalist said. Dr. Arday later reported the journalist to the police.

When a scholar from another university questioned his work, Dr. Arday turned the tables and filed a racism complaint with the other school…’

The education faculty at Cambridge, according to this heavily sourced NYT article, bears much of the blame. It hired, and defended hiring, a fraudster. Its behavior was bizarre — as if motivated by a desire to destroy the field of sociology.

Twelve years ago, UD expressed amazement at the incredibly, endlessly, violent Virginia State University:

Virginia State, where only a few months ago two students were hazed to death, should definitely come with a warning. At a recent event celebrating its athletic conference, its football team beat an opposing quarterback so badly the game that had been scheduled for the day after the banquet has been called off… Wow. Yet more violence at Virginia State University.

An update: Last Friday night was a big back to school event featuring Cam Newton; Saturday morning, multiple shooters went at it in front of one of the dorms and a whole bunch of students were shot. But hey they might all live!

*****************

Story behind this latest bloodiness? Not yet announced. But this is what it often is: One group of students fights with another over

a woman

a drug deal

one group being refused admission to another group’s dorm party

money

an object stolen by one or more of the students.

Duh. But young-man-in-a-hurry Ross Barkan thought he’d give plagiarism via hyperlink a try.

It worked for awhile. Eventually some of the writers whose words he lifted got pissed and called him on it.

He’s been fired.

… aggravated assault with a firearm, disrupting public schools, receiving stolen property, possession of a handgun by someone under 18 and possession of a gun in a school safety zone.’

They grow up so fast!

Deprescribing. A new word, and not a pretty one; but we can expect to see it a lot as the 17 percent of Americans on antidepressants begin to wonder why it’s so hard to get off of them.

The New York Times.

When I read this observation the other day, it seemed correct. “[Jason] Arday is a serial fabulist who seems quite unwell.”

True, true. Access has been denied. But we do know antediluvian Islamist Farah Ahmed works there, and her personal page still allows us access.

What about the rest of the Arday/Ahmed/etcetc crew? What else ya got?