From Diversity to Neutrality: Rebutting the “Key Move”

Posted on by under activism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

This is the précis of a paper I’ll be giving at the virtual/online component of the 2026 conference of the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics, April 10, “From Diversity to Neutrality: Rebutting the ‘Key Move’ of the Kalven Committee Report.” Last year I gave a different paper at the on-ground version of the conference, discussing institutional neutrality’s failure to deal with institutional complicity in injustice. 

Institutional neutrality is the doctrine that institutions like universities should refrain from taking public positions on matters of public controversy. The locus classicus of the doctrine is the so-called Kalven Committee Report (KCR) issued at the University of Chicago in 1967. According to the KCR, the core mission of the ideal university is the “discovery, improvement, and dissemination of knowledge” in the service of teaching and research. This mission, we’re told, requires the maximization of intellectual diversity, which in turn requires or entails institutional neutrality. I call this “the key move” of the KCR’s argument. Continue reading →

Have a Jihadi Ramadan

Posted on by under Fatwas

Today is the first fast of Ramadan, so I thought I’d dig up this perverse piece I wrote on Ramadan three years ago and put it back into circulation (opens in a new window). I have yet to post any of the Ramadan material I promised in that post three years ago, but as Scripture says, “the patient will be given their reward without measure” (Qur’an 39:10). As is typical of God’s promises, the expected pay-off here ranges between infinity and 0, which is about what you can expect of my promises as well. Continue reading →

Jim Crow for the 21st Century

Posted on by under activism

The Politics of Affordable Housing in New Jersey

As you read the feel-good love-fest linked to this post (whose warm fuzzies I don’t begrudge anyone, least of all myself), bear in mind that over the last few weeks, twenty people have died of exposure in New York City, and twenty in New Jersey. Though it’s difficult to count, there are by some estimates 13,748 people experiencing homelessness in New Jersey right now, an increase of some 57% since 2022. The homeless have become a recognizable presence not just in larger cities, like New Brunswick, where they’re mostly taken for granted, but in affluent towns like Princeton, where many ride mass transit all day to keep out of the cold. 

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Light in Dark Times

Posted on by under activism

A Conversation about Homelessness

Hi Kayleigh,

For years now, I’ve been writing you these complaining emails about NJ Transit’s closing the shelters at both Princeton and Princeton Junction train stations, mostly to lock out the homeless. I happened to be in the Princeton shelter the other day, chatting with a homeless person who was taking shelter in it from the cold. We got to talking about the train shelters themselves, and it became evident through what she said that during operating hours at least, she relies on the shelters for shelter. I mentioned to her my passing impression that the shelters were more consistently open nowadays than they had been in the past, not just on a daily basis, but on an hourly one–meaning that they’re not just open every day, but open early and close late. She agreed, and pointed out with some satisfaction that the one at Princeton Junction is now heated.  Continue reading →

ICE Out of West Orange

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

Linked to this post is the text of a letter I sent to the West Orange Town Council on February 12th. Aside from the letter’s face-value message, it illustrates two things: (1) how out of touch the Council is on relevant developments in the state legislature; (2) how ill-conceived is its belief that immigration enforcement is outside of the scope of municipal politics or Council jurisdiction. 

Even as West Orange residents have been abducted by ICE off the streets of West Orange and other nearby localities,* much of its Council seems hypnotized by Trumpian propaganda: it can’t act to protect residents, it tells us, because it owes a duty of unquestioning allegiance to the federal government; apparently, if the feds want something, the Township’s only duty is to close its eyes, gag its attorney, and hand over what’s demanded. Continue reading →

New Jersey’s Safe Communities Act

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

A Letter to West Orange Town Council
February 12, 2026

I hadn’t intended to comment again on the Immigrant Trust Act, but I think the Council’s comment on it at the Feb 10 meeting requires emendation. I can’t attend the Feb 24 meeting, so I thought I’d write instead.

The person who spoke just before me during public comments (at about 31:40) asked about the status of a municipal resolution for the Immigrant Trust Act (ITA). The ITA no longer exists in its original form. During the lame duck session of the previous legislature, the ITA was divided into three bills. All three bills passed the legislature, but only one was signed by Governor Murphy; the other two bills were pocket-vetoed. The pocket-vetoed bills are presumptively dead.  Continue reading →

The West Orange Anti-Semitism Task Force (2)

Posted on by under activism, Neutrality and Complicity, Palestine

Second Statement to West Orange Town Council on its Proposed Anti-Semitism Task Force
66 Main St
West Orange, New Jersey
February 10, 2026

Last time I was here, I criticized a proposal for an anti-Semitism task force. In response, some speakers suggested that I was being insensitive to the dangers faced by Jews in West Orange. I don’t agree, so I’m going to respond. Continue reading →

You Say You Want a Revolution

Posted on by under activism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

The local papers around Princeton are gushing over an event that took place in town this morning:

In 1776, the New Jersey Legislature convened for the first time in Nassau Hall, the ivy-covered building that is now the centerpiece of Princeton University’s campus.

It was wartime, but the new legislators kept busy: within months, they had adopted the state’s first constitution, elected the state’s first governor, and kick-started preparations to help the Continental Army fight British redcoats. The British eventually seized the building, before being kicked out again by George Washington’s army in the Battle of Princeton, but by then the legislators had moved on.

Two-hundred-fifty years later, as the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its independence, the New Jersey Assembly returned to Nassau Hall to celebrate its role in New Jersey’s revolutionary history.

“Today isn’t simply a change in venue for us,” Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin said. “It’s a return home, a return to our beginnings, to the place where our Legislature first met in 1776 at the dawn of a new and uncertain democracy.”

The Assembly approved a series of ceremonial resolutions honoring New Jersey’s role in the American Revolution, Princeton University’s 280th anniversary, the New Jersey National Guard, and battleships named for New Jersey, among others.

The celebrants included Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell, Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber, and British Consul General to New York Oliver Christian.

Continue reading →

Free Speech in Montgomery

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

Statement to Montgomery Township Committee
100 Community Dr
Skillman, New Jersey
February 5, 2026

Revised for presentation (to better fit the 3-minute time limit), February 5, 2026

On January 7th, Sadaf Jaffer, the former mayor of Montgomery and former head of its Democratic Organization, made public something that this Committee has known for a year. About a year ago, she said, Mayor Neena Singh and Deputy Mayor Vince Barragan demanded her resignation from the Democratic Organization because Montgomery Township was being denied state and county funds in retaliation for, her, Jaffer’s, criticisms of US and Israeli policy in Palestine. I have an audio file of Mr Barragan’s making this demand.
Continue reading →

Character, Complicity, and the Epstein Files

Posted on by under cancel culture, character based voting, Neutrality and Complicity

Monsters rule your world
Are you too scared to understand?
–Motorhead, “The Brotherhood of Man”

The first thing I have to say about the Epstein Files is that at this point, nobody can tell me that character-based voting is a politically-irrelevant fringe idea, and that my banging on about it for the last decade has been a waste of breath. A person’s sheer presence in the Epstein Files is not by itself evidence of guilt, but when the files do furnish evidence of guilt, it’s obvious that the guilt in question is politically relevant whether or not it’s policy relevant. Imagine that we resurrected a version of Jeffrey Epstein whose policy views aligned with yours, and who was running for office. Would you vote for him? Would Jason Brennan?

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