An indication of what I have to put up with on a daily basis. And don’t think that the Brussels attack made the material “relevant” to anyone. Brussels? What’s “Brussels”? Anything to do with brussels sprouts? (Well,  yes, as it turns out.)

It reminds me of the time we were studying Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow one semester in the same course. I stood in front of 35 blank faces, dragging them through the material. Finally, seventy-five minutes later, another frustrating class had come to its doleful end. The class filed out in relief, except for one irritated student, who walked up to me with an odd look on her face. Finally, the dam broke, and she burst out with: “Professor, what the fuck is ‘Jim Crow’? And why does this lady not like white people?” I’m happy to report that I was able to answer one of those questions to her satisfaction.

Hi Mr. Khawaja, this is Lieutenant Spatola from the Detective Bureau at Bloomfield Police Department. We wanted to advise you that we did make an arrest on the package theft you recently reported. The individual in question has confessed to about eight other thefts in the neighborhood. If you need any documentation or reports, you can just stop in at our headquarters. Thank you.

I initially thought it was an exercise in futility to report the theft, on the grounds that I couldn’t imagine their ever catching the thief. But I did the citizenly thing and reported it anyway. I’m glad I did. After thinking about it a bit, I eventually figured out how they caught the guy, but since I don’t want to reveal sources and methods, my lips are sealed, except to say: Elementary, my dear Watson.

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Yes, even I’ve come to think that the time has come for AC/DC to end things.

Speak up sonny–what explosion? 

When one singer dies of alcohol poisoning, the drummer is convicted of threatening murder, the rhythm guitarist has dementia, and the second singer is about to go entirely deaf, your band has kind of run out of the “nine lives” you’ve been singing about for the last couple of decades. Yes, you’ve been “abusin every one of them and runnin’ wild,” but after a career like AC/DC’s, there’s no shame in getting off the rock and roll train…

ht: Carlos Manalansan (thanks for waking me up at 6:30 this morning with the breaking news, bro)

I think it was Emerson who said that sometimes a scream is better than a thesis. This passage from a New York Times Op-Ed by Peter Wehner (yes, one and the same) suggests that sometimes an inward scream is better than a worked-out blog post.

At its core, Christianity teaches that everyone, no matter at what station or in what season in life, has inherent dignity and worth. “Follow justice and justice alone,” Deuteronomy says, “so that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.” The attitude of Thrasymachus is foreign to biblical Christianity. So is Trumpism. In embracing it, evangelical Christians are doing incalculable damage to their witness.

“So that you may live and possess the land the Lord your God is giving you.” No questions to be asked on what was required to get it.

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