Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Elephant in the room (+ cheery videos)

Yesterday: TigerAnn up a tree

UCI fall enrollment to plunge 14 percent (OC Register)
In a move to cope with deep budget problems, UC Irvine is reducing the size of this fall’s freshman class to about 4,056, a roughly 14.2 percent drop from a year ago, when the university enrolled 4,730 freshman, according to the UC Office of the President....

Awesome criminal of the week (OC Weekly)
John Yoo, Orange County's favorite torture enabler, may be back in deep doo-doo over his role in providing the legal justification for the Bush administration's practice of torturing terrorist suspects. Ever since President Obama stated that no government official was "above the law," speculation has abounded that Yoo, a former Berkeley law professor who fled the Bay Area People's Republic for Orange County's friendlier, more conservative shores, might face criminal charges for basically serving as a mafia-style consigliere to the Bush administration.

According to a story that ran yesterday in the Christian Science Monitor, a San Francisco federal judge has ruled that Yoo can "be held personally responsible for the indefinite military detention and alleged torture of an American citizen who was suspected of involvement with Al Qaeda." The U.S. citizen in question, Jose Padilla, is the alleged "Dirty Bomber" who was arrested in Chicago on May 8, 2002 and charged with plotting to blow up buildings in that city. Although no evidence ever emerged that Padilla intended to carry out any such plot, Padilla acknowledged having visited terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.

Yesterday: colorful varmint outside my window

After being held for two years in solitary confinement at a Navy brig in South Carolina, he was convicted in 2007 of conspiracy to commit murder. During his two-year imprisonment, Padilla reportedly had no contact with the outside world except with his interrogators…. He had no window or clock in his room and therefore had no idea whether it was day or night. Guards also subjected him to sleep deprivation via loud noises and the fact that he slept on a cold steel bunk with no mattress.

All of this treatment was endorsed in writing by Yoo, according to Padilla's attorney's, who therefore bears responsibility for what happened. US District Judge Jeffrey White, who wrote the ruling announced yesterday, apparently agrees. "Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct," he argued….

Trustee Troubles (Inside Higher Ed)

Plenty of community college presidents say they know board members like those described in The Rogue Trustee: The Elephant in the Room.

The new monograph, just released by the League for Innovation in the Community College, was penned by Terry O’Banion, president emeritus of the group and current director of community college leadership at Walden University. The work is based upon the anonymous comments of 59 community college presidents from 16 states who experienced significant conflicts with their governing bodies, largely due to the influence of one troublemaking trustee….

The study attempts to answer the unanswerable by asking the anonymous presidents to guess as to the motivation of their “rogue trustee.” Some of the more popular responses included “championing personal agendas,” “expressing pathological behaviors” and “working against the president.” The most strident motivation offered by the presidents was that their “rogue trustees” were acting in ways that would help them politically. Most believed that their troublemaking trustee was only on the board to leapfrog to higher political office.

“The trustee said to me, Look, I am going to be out of here before you know it,” reads one anonymous comment. “I want to go to the state house then to Washington, D.C., and this is just a stop along the way.”….

Higher Ed and the Third Reich (Inside Higher Ed)

A new book examines American colleges’ ties to Nazi Germany in the 1930s – and chronicles a record characterized by indifference, complicity and collaboration....

Despised chancellor continues to blight district (SoCoLuddite.com)
…I found [Saddleback College Art History instructor Lon Moore] in his office, his head down upon his desk. He appeared to be sick or sleeping or even dead….
...
“This used to be a happy place with lots of exciting things happening. Now, well—not,” said Moore emphatically. “It totally blows.”

I looked more closely. On his door were signs that said, “Checks not accepted” and “Go postal.”

“Yeah,” said Moore. “I’m a big supporter of the USPS.”....

New UC Davis chancellor says she wasn't aware of admission process at current school (The Sacramento Bee)
"Her response is absolutely incredible," he said. "Here you have someone who is the person in charge of admissions and there is a separate admissions policy and a way to get in she didn't know about."

TOO DREARY FOR YOU?
THIS'LL CHEER YOU UP.

A rose by any other name would still poke and stink as good



A man's right to be a woman; the oppressiveness of reality


Neither a Luddite nor a philistine be:
a scene from one of my favorite movies

The Third Man (1949)
Director: Carol Reed

Orson Welles (as Harry Lime)
Joseph Cotton (as Holly Martins)
Alida Valli (as Anna Schmidt)


Post-war Vienna: Author Holly Martins learns that his old friend Harry Lime is dead. He isn't. In fact, Lime has become a black-market racketeer who has made a fortune stealing and diluting penicillin, with tragic consequences. When Martins and Lime meet (on Vienna's famous Ferris wheel), Lime offers his, well, philosophy. Welles' Lime embodies evil and charm.

This is a great movie. The cinematography and music alone are enough to inspire repeated viewings.

To see what I mean, check out the film's famous final scene:



To you young people out there: Be thou not a knucklehead. See what you've been missing!

THIS JUST IN:

Eddie Bauer Files for Bankruptcy, but Roy Bauer doesn’t (New York Times)
Eddie Bauer, the outdoor-clothing chain that sold goose-down coats to Mount Everest mountaineers and college students alike, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday afternoon, and said it planned to sell itself for $202 million to CCMP Capital, a private equity firm....

ALSO: You might wanna read the comments attached to Monday’s Reg story concerning “Emeritus” PE courses at Laguna Woods Village:

Is college cheating state for seniors’ fitness classes?

See also our

Emeritus PE: the dawning of a BIG FAT scandal?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glorious!

Anonymous said...

Gimme time to process all of this!

mother earth said...

Thumbs up on application of Monty Python!

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...