A star for a Mexican

As he himself informs us today, Gustavo Arellano (Ask a Mexican) is about to publish a history of Orange County (Sept. 16), and the book has just been very positively reviewed by Publishers Weekly, which writes:

Orange County: A Memoir
Gustavo Arellano. Scribner, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4165-4004-5

Readers get two stories for the price of one in this witty and informative memoir. Journalist Arellano (¡Ask a Mexican!) chronicles the sweet-and-sour story of his family's assimilation into American culture, while also recounting a historical narrative at odds with the bucolic ideal of a place that's been mythologized for decades. “We're so American, so Orange County, that we're even prone to romanticize a past that never existed.” Arellano's structure keeps the narrative moving along at a snappy pace, alternating the threads of the story so “odd chapters constitute the memoir, even chapters tell the history, and one complements the other.” Readers get solid background on the beginning of master-planned communities during the 1920s, the little remembered Citrus War, Orange County's embarrassing 1994 bankruptcy and special mix of conservatism coupled with a dollop of big-time religion. “A 2005 Harper's article named Orange County the country's second hotbed of evangelical Christianity after Colorado Springs,” Arellano writes, and of the 100 megachurches in the U.S. with the largest congregations, four are in Orange County. Arellano explores a place he calls the “Petri dish for America's continuing democratic experiment” and delivers a prescient view of the new American landscape.

Orange County: home of the original right-wing lunatic

• "DANGEROUS AND DISTRACTING."
.....I don’t know what it is about this county, but we’ve got just about the best right-wing lunatics in the entire U.S. of A.! Take John Briscoe, an Ocean View School District Trustee, who keeps showing up to tell another school district how to decorate their boardroom! More specifically, he insists that they display “In God We Trust” on the wall there (Trustee turns to PennySaver to pitch 'In God We Trust' in Fountain Valley).
.....But it gets better. When the Fountain Valley School District trustees weren’t sufficiently receptive to his decorating tip, Briscoe took out an add in the PennySaver, a local throwaway:

.....In the advertisement released to the entire city, Briscoe chides the district for not pursuing the motto, calling it "dangerous and distracting", not honoring Flag Day, not honoring Veterans Day, not singing the American patriotic song and being generally unpatriotic.
....."I believe the (district) is far and away estranged from their community in this matter. They do not understand the deep community appreciation of our national motto," Briscoe, a Huntington Beach resident, said in an e-mail.

.....Fountain Valley officials are chuckling. I guess they think Briscoe is a lunatic. They are correct.

.....According to Briscoe, he purchased the $500 ad with his own money in response to the district's unanimous June 12 decision not to pursue a display of "In God We Trust" in the board room. During the meeting, trustees had also refused to join him when he asked them to sing two verses of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee."

.....That really tore it, I guess.

P.S.:
.....I briefly researched Briscoe. At some of his sites, he claims to be a member of the "Alliance for Education." But, near as I can tell, there is no local group by that name. I suspected that he meant "Education Alliance," a right-wing organization that pursues education issues in Orange County, and so I went to EA's website. Sure enough, here, at the end of a submission to EA's blog, one reads: "Submitted and Approved by John Briscoe, Elected Trustee Board Member of the Ocean View School District. Education Alliance Board Member."
.....About 15 years ago, EA received its seed money from the notorious Christian Reconstructionist Howard Ahmanson, Jr. Originally, EA was set up to promote a state teachers union-busting measure that failed.
.....Q: who else is on the EA board? A: the president of our own board: trustee Don Wagner.
.....Don may be a wacky right-winger, but at least he knows the names of the organizations on whose boards he sits!

• COLLEGE OF MARIN PROF NAMED NAT'L POET LAUREATE.
.....Community college instructor Kay Ryan, who teaches remedial English at the College of Marin, will be named national “poet laureate” today. See Kay Ryan, Outsider With Sly Style, Named Poet Laureate

• END TIMES NEAR.
.....Yes folks, we’ve got it all here in "the OC": great weather, great beaches, mountains, world-class clowns, world-class rat bastards—and blue whales! According to the OC Reg (See giant blue whales now off O.C. coast), “At least 15 to 18 blue whales have been seen in the area over the past week.”

• NOW, THAT'S HEAVY.
.....The Reg’s Science Dude reports on efforts by UC Irvine’s Philip Humphrey, an astrophysicist, to weigh massive black holes by determining the temperature of the gases that surround them. Humphrey and a colleague “used the technique to confirm that the black hole in NGC 4649, an elliptical galaxy about 50 million light years from Earth, weighs about 3.4 billion times as much as our sun. Which is a lot. The sun weighs 2 billion-billion-billion tons.”

• BUSHIE SHENANIGANS AT D.O.E.?
.....Looks like the Bushies over at the Dept. of Education, nearing the end of their reign, are trying to pull a fast one. According to this morning’s Inside Higher Ed (‘Emergency’ Data Request Raises Suspicion), “Stymied in its efforts to alter federal laws and regulations to make it easier for students to transfer academic credits from one institution to another, the U.S. Education Department plans an ‘emergency’ survey of federal Pell Grant recipients that seems designed to build a case that changes are necessary. The request has agitated some higher education officials, who questioned both the premise and the purpose of the department’s information expedition.”

• ACADEMIC WOMEN.
.....Also in IHR is an article (Women, Men and Service) about women in academia:

.....By many measures, women are advancing at a significant pace in academe. While there are differences by discipline, the percentages of women entering fields is rising across the board, and women have in recent years assumed some of the most prominent presidencies in higher education.
.....At the same time, in discipline after discipline, there is evidence that the careers of many women in academe stall — and considerable debate about why in fields where 50 percent of new Ph.D.’s are women, far smaller shares of women are becoming senior professors or reshaping their disciplines.

.....A new collection of essays (Unfinished Agendas: New and Continuing Gender Challenges in Higher Education) “explores these contradictions,” arguing, among other things, that “the barriers to women’s advancement today are less in the form of overt sexism (although that remains) than in assumptions, and larger patterns of the way colleges are organized.”


• NOBEL LAUREATES WANNA TEACH GRADE SCHOOL?
.....Presidential candidate John McCain gave a relatively detailed talk on education yesterday (see). He complained that too many qualified people are prevented from teaching in our schools owing to a “monopoly on teacher certification.”

“You can be a Nobel Laureate and not qualify to teach in most public schools today. They don’t have all the proper credits in educational ‘theory’ or ‘methodology’ — all they have is learning and the desire and ability to share it. If we’re putting the interests of students first, then those qualifications should be enough.”

.....Naturally, the usual suspects dispute this claim, arguing that there exist many paths to teaching that block no one who is serious from entering the profession.

• DEXTER HAS HIS EYES ON EMMY.
.....It appears that TV’s “Emmys” are moving toward greater recognition of “cable” programs (New Crop Of Cable TV Shows Break Through At Emmys). "Mad Men," "Damages" and "Dexter," were nominated for best drama today.
.....Friends tell me that “Mad Men” is terrific. Don't know about "Damages." I’ve seen “Dexter,” and it’s my favorite show.
.....We appear to be in a golden age of TV dramas. I’ve got to admit, though, that it’s odd to realize that most of my favorite TV shows in recent years are stunningly violent. I enjoy these shows despite the violence (I mightily disapprove of movies such as "Saw"), but still….

John Stewart on New Yorker cover:

Saw V: Butterfinger City

• ANTI-IMMIGRANT LEADERS SEEM TO BE “LOW INFORMATION” TYPES.
Over at the OC Weekly, Gustavo Arellano informs us that Barbara Coe, head of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, reacted to the kerfufflear New Yorker cover by sending a copy to her email list, writing, "Is this a 'parody' or did The New Yorker share the TRUTH?”

The truth?

According to Arellano, Coe also “forwarded an email she received from Ted Hayes…that contained an article purportedly written by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd about Obama's shady fundraising."

Unfortunately for Babs, the article was nonsense; and it was not authored by Dowd.

• OCC AT MGM FOR CHEF TOURNEY.
Today, Marla Jo Fisher over at the OC Reg informs us (O.C. culinary students whisk their way through Vegas contest today) that “Orange Coast College students are competing against three other teams this morning to win the national student chef championships.”

This is occurring at the highly academic MGM Grand.

Last year, the team came in second owing to screw-ups most foul. A light bulb blew up over the soufflé, making it too crispy.

• SO, REALLY, YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING.
It turns out that the high school dropout rate in OC isn’t as low as first reported (O.C. dropout data higher than previously counted):

The number of students who dropped out of Orange County's public high schools is more than double of what has previously been reported, according to state figures released today. ¶ A new tracking system … shows the county high school dropout rate for the class of 2007 was 12 percent, not the 5.8 percent that has previously been reported. ¶ "For too long, we had to rely on complicated formulas to make educated guesses about how many students were graduating and how many were leaving school without a diploma," said state Superintendent Jack O'Connell. "Now, using student-level data, we can improve the accuracy of our count of how many students drop out, increase accountability, and focus on preventing dropouts."

One (or I) want to ask: OK, just how hard is this? And how can you be that far off?

The worst performer in the OC—according to these new and improved statistics—was Valley High in Santa Ana (19.3%). The best: Oxford Academy in Cypress (0 dropouts).

It turns out the “statewide dropout rate for the class of 2007 has also been changed from 17 percent to 24.2 percent….”

Somebody from California Parents for Educational Choice carped that the data is still unreliable since "They're asking the districts which have a vested interest in this to come up with the numbers….”

That guy says the state rate is actually closer to 33%.

Well, there you are. We really don’t know anything, do we?

• SAW V: BUTTERFINGER CITY.
There’s a seriously nutty story in the OC Reg about students in Huntington Beach suing over cut fingers: Students file suit after cutting fingers on school saws.

One Huntington Beach Union High School kid says she “sustained a grievous injury to her left thumb.” That was in her technical theater class. Apparently, minutes earlier, the teacher left the class unattended because he needed medical attention for his own grievous boo-boo.

But that’s not all. Some other kid in another school claims to have severely injured his finger when the teacher, Charles Kelly, “negligently allowed a minor to use the ‘dangerous’ saw without proper instruction or supervision.”

The family is asking for a half a million in damages.

We need a bigger brick

• FEWER THAN 90 DAYS UNTIL THE APOCaccredALYPSE. I've heard very little about the goings-on at the district and the two colleges. As you know, the Accreditation Commission expects reports from each college in less than three months. (It's do or die this time, they insist.) And so you'd think that the designated report-writers would be busy bees.

I do know that Irvine Valley College's Accreditation efforts have moved forward nicely during these summer months. By all accounts, the focus group, which is impressive, has produced many pages of excellent work. Even more impressively, faculty have yet to throttle trustee Don Wagner, and the Wag-Man has yet to throttle any faculty.

As far as accreditation is concerned, Saddleback College, on the other hand, is like the guy who "flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions." Saddleback's Accred focus group has produced a draft of a report that, according to my sources, is short, unimpressive, and sans faculty input. You see, way back in the spring, Saddleback faculty leadership decided to bail from the proceedings—in disgust, a feeling that was perfectly natural, given the viciousness with which Donny and MaGoo messed with the last report. When the new leadership returned from vacation this summer, they were shocked to behold an apparent disaster-in-the-making.

Meanwhile, administration at Saddleback is sans leadership until the new Prez arrives in August. But nobody wants to deal with Chancellor "He who must be obeyed" Mathur, and our trustees, evidently, do not communicate between board meetings. (Some of 'em don't communicate during board meetings either.)

So there you are. Big, old Saddleback College lumbers and slumbers to the brink. Raghu Mathur sits in his office, counting his money and admiring his phony degrees. The trustees show up once a month to see if any buildings are burning. ("No? OK, then.") Trustee Tom Fuentes wanders around, smiling at his continued dark existence. —It's a freakin' disaster.

I've been trying to smash that college upside the head (don't thank me; it's the least I can do) for months now, but, evidently, there's no brick large enough to awaken this crew.

And now, the news:

• MY BIG FAT CORRUPT CONGRESSMAN. Oh, great. My Congressman—the stunningly corrupt Gary Miller—is at it again. In this morning’s OC Register (Congressman has financial stake in O.C. tollway), we learn that “One of Congress' strongest supporters of the Foothill tollway's controversial southern extension steered taxpayer money to and lobbied for the project while holding a financial interest in a connected tollway." "In an interview," we're told, "Miller acknowledged getting an $8 million appropriation for Foothill-South's construction in 2005. He has subsequently signed letters to the state Coastal Commission and the Commerce Secretary as part of a lobbying effort in support of the tollway agency's plan to build the road through a coastal park."

Naturally, Miller “expressed surprise when asked about that investment.” Must’ve been the wife who bought that, he says. Waddya gonna do?

The Reg notes that it is against House rules for a Congressperson to appropriate money or to use his position “to benefit projects and organizations in which they have even a small financial investment.”

• DEATH AND TEXAS. In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed, we learn that

British authors and universities are afraid that the University of Texas at Austin is outbidding British archives for the collections of many of the country’s writers. [In an article that appeared in the Guardian, a] British archivist is quoted as saying: “Two things are inevitable: death and Texas.”

• HEY, TRY STUDYING. We also learn that

Community colleges in California might be able to significantly reduce the need for remedial education among students by using the results of 11th grade state testing to better direct students prior to enrollment, says a new report from the California Partnership for Achieving Student Success, known as Cal-PASS….

This has been tried by a state university, and it seems to work, they say.

• CHEAT.COM. Remember that new website in San Diego that provides copies of instructors' tests submitted by students (they're paid) for other students to download? Well, when professors complained, the owner said that the professors could submit a request to ban their students from using the service. But, according to Inside Higher Ed, now we learn that PostYourTest.com has suspended the banning option.

I think it was a business decision. I bet that Demir Oral, the website's owner, is a pal of Gary freakin' Miller and they count their money together on Republican junkets to China.

• SEXY BIOLOGIST HAS A POINTLESS SUGGESTION. In this morning’s New York Times (Let’s Get Rid of Darwinism), sexy biologist Olivia Judson suggests dumping the term “Darwinism.”

Naturally, she’s a fan of the D-man. But, according to Judson, his stature has an unfortunate consequence: "It’s a tendency for everyone to refer back to him. 'Why Darwin was wrong about X'; 'Was Darwin wrong about Y?'; 'What Darwin didn’t know about Z'."

“[I]t’s all grossly misleading,” she says. Since Darwin's time (one hundred and fifty years ago),

…[T]he field as a whole has been transformed. If we were to go back in a time machine and fetch him to the present day, he’d find much of evolutionary biology unintelligible — at least until he’d had time to study genetics, statistics and computer science…. Obsessively focusing on Darwin, perpetually asking whether he was right about this or that, implies that the discovery of something he didn’t think of or know about somehow undermines or threatens the whole enterprise of evolutionary biology today….

This all sounds good to me, but does she or anyone think that the culture will be taking her up on her suggestion? Nope. There're too many STUPID PEOPLE. Makes you wonder why somebody like Judson writes stuff like this.

Makes me wonder why I put out this blog.

The county of many Pharisees

• QUAINT, REDNECKY ORANGE. Recently, I visited downtown Orange and took a few pictures of my old house, a former brothel. (Chunk's travelogue.) Today, the LA Times posted a nice little video/slide show of the downtown Orange area: Orange, Orange Plaza. Check it out. It’s kinda nice, despite the rednecks—and flags, made in China, waved by ignoramuses, who would vote for Bush again if given the chance.

• ATTACK-DOGS TO DROOL AND SNARL AT G.O.P. CONFERENCE. Martin Wisckol of the OC Register’s “Total Buzz” (Obama ‘enemies’ to powwow in Newport Beach) reports that “Floyd Brown and Jim Lacy, two of the six people listed on Barack Obama’s enemies list, will be key players when the Western Conservative Political Action Conference convenes in October at the Fairmont Hotel in Newport Beach. ¶ Brown is most famous for his Willie Horton TV ad ... and he’s now turning his attack-dog skills against Obama….”

OK, there you go. In some circles, when you’re an “attack-dog”—a ruthless, vicious bastard like Lee Atwater or Karl Rove—you’re famous and admired. People come to hear you speak.

We're obviously going to hell in a handbasket.

• STEM CELLS WIN VALUABLE CASH PRIZES. The OC Register’s “Science Dude” reports that “UC Irvine has shattered its previous record for private donations, raising $130 million during the past year….” ( UCI smashes fundraising record.)

Naturally, the biggest donor was the Irvine Company’s Donald Bren (see pic above), who put in $20 million for the new law school, the progress of which we have been following. A recent anonymous $12 million gift supports stem cell research. It turns out that UCI “has emerged as one of the larger centers for this field of study on the West Coast.”

Our county’s crew of pious/ruthless knuckle draggers must have their loincloths in a twist about that. Lord, I hope so.

• THE OC LOSES A GOOD SCRIBBLER. Our pal (well, the Reb’s pal) Gustavo Arellano over at the OC Weekly posted an interesting piece today about reporter William Lobdell (WILLIAM LOBDELL—GONE :-(), who has quit the LA Times. According to Gustavo, “Lobdell was no ordinary reporter—the man was a multiple-award-winning titan, one of the best religion reporters ever to grace American newspapers, and definitely the best in covering the Gospel Swamp that is Orange County. He left the religion beat last year, sickened by the county's many Pharisees.”

Gustavo doesn't identify these Pharisees, but he does list some of our county's most (in)famous religious icons: "Schuller, Warren, Crouch, Calvary Chapel, Goat Boy, Robert Fuller...."

The Bible as "literally true"

This morning's Inside Higher Ed reports that

Southwestern Community College, in Iowa, has reached a settlement with Steve Bitterman [I'm sure he's a man; do you suppose he's bitter, too?], an adjunct who lost his job after he offended some students by stating that the Bible is not literally true. The Des Moines Register reported that Bitterman is no longer teaching at the college and that details of the settlement have not been released.

I guess this means that, according to Southwestern Community College, the Bible IS literally true.

My own view is that anyone who reads this troubled collection of writings as (always) intending to describe the "literal" truth has an implausible and outlandish theory. I mean, how plausible is it to suppose that everything that appears in the Bible is tacitly prefaced (by it's author[s]) with: "OK, I know this sounds unbelievable, but here's exactly what happened. No bullshit. You shoulda been there!"?

So they are obliged to justify their startling theory. Good luck. And I mean that.

It is possible, of course, that all of the Bible's statements not only are intended as the literal truth—they are the literal truth. —Well, not quite, since, notoriously, the "statements" and implied assumptions of the B appear to contradict each other, and, as you know, Logic is really down on contradictions. If there's one thing that philosophers and logicians agree on, it's that S can't be both T and F. That's because philosophers and logicians are not STUPID PEOPLE.

But leaving aside the Bible's apparent contradictory ideas (good luck defending that move), the alleged "statements of fact" of the Bible could be true. But they could be true only if some of our most central and warranted beliefs about the world (based on careful observation, etc.) are false. (Think of the reasons that we believe that the Earth is billions of years old.) So, if "the Bible is literally true" were a theory, it would be one that fails to be "conservative," as some scientists might put it. That is, the theory fails to have the important theoretical virtue of comporting with what is well-established in our experience.

That's the big problem with the theory behind homeopathic medicine, too. According to H theory, when you dilute an active homeopathic medicinal substance (say, cat urine), it becomes more effective. (Indeed, homeopaths routinely dilute to the point that not one molecule of the original urine is left—and they acknowledge this.)

As I often tell my students, the problem with that is that everything in our experience tells us the opposite. Take consuming alcohol from, say, a huge stein. The more the alcohol in your stein, the more effect it will have on you when you empty it into your body, from incipient buzzage all the way to death. (Students always laugh when I say ""from buzzage to death." Not sure why.) So when homeopaths come along and tell us that their Cat Urine medicine (OK, I just made up that example) is very powerful because it was diluted—well, what are we supposed to make of all of our experiences—with beer, and aspirin, and everything else—to the contrary?

Bible literalists and homeopaths are bold theorists. "That's OK," they say. "Contrary to appearances, beer has its greatest impact when its alcohol is diluted down to nothing."

Oh. Thanks for clearing that up.

Well, OK, maybe they don't say that. But then what will they say? Maybe: "OK, I admit it, this doesn't add up. But that's OK. When a set of beliefs don't hang together, what you need to do is just go with it. Well, no, that would be irrational, so we don't recommend that for most things. We just recommend it for this case. In fact, we insist on it; we demand that you suspend your rational standards exactly and only here."

Wow. That's some pitch. Tell me how that isn't the pitch. If it is the pitch, then it's crap, and we need to walk away. If it isn't, then enlighten me. How is this supposed to go exactly?

I'm waiting.

(Listen, like Fox Mulder, I want to believe. But you've got to give me a reason. You've got to make sense. Please start making sense.)

Penn and Teller's (typically irreverent and sometimes sloppy but way fun) approach to "contradictions in the Bible":



My quickie critique:

• Well, the video is entertaining.
• I'm not sure if P & T described this video as being specifically about "contradictions" in the Bible. (See "The Bible: Fact Or Fiction?") If so, they're a bit confused, since they only discuss one contradiction, namely, the distinctly different versions of the Adam & Eve story in Genesis. P & T are really discussing other kinds of problems with the Bible than "contradiction." Contradiction is when you say S and then you say or imply "not-S."
• Some of the rest of the video zeroes in on things the Bible says that seem to be false or absurd. If something is false or absurd, it is not ipso facto "contradictory." Get it right. (The belief that "I am tormented by a green pumpkin" is absurd, but it is not contradictory. "I am tormented by a married bachelor" is both absurd and contradictory.)
• As P & T point out, there's no evidence for many of the events described in the Bible (the 40 years in the wilderness, the Resurrection, etc.). But, of course, that doesn't demonstrate the falsity of these stories. It only demonstrates that, as things stand, there's no reason to believe these stories. P & T should be more careful. On the other hand, if there's no reason to believe a story, why believe it? Belief-wise, doncha wanna do better than Shirley MacLaine? I sure hope so.
• Naturally, there is evidence for the falsity of some Biblical stories, e.g., the world-wide flood. If it occurred, then there should be evidence of its occurrence; there isn't any. So, probably, it didn't happen. (Same for Bigfoot. How come no bones? How come no scat? How come no nothin'? Thus, probably, no Bigfoot.)
• Respected skeptic Michael Shermer is interviewed, noting that "messiah" stories were pretty common at the time of the rise of Christianity. I suppose the point is that there's no reason to take the Christian messiah story any more seriously than any of the other messiah stories. Nobody, including the Christian Believer, has a reason to take all of them seriously. So he has no reason to take the Christian yarn seriously. (Again, we are given a reason to suppose that a story ought not to be believed, not a reason suppose that the story is false. Of course, an embrace of simple physics & biology is enough to give us the latter sort of reason with regard to some aspects of these stories—e.g., someone's coming to life after have been dead for some time.)
• P & T make a good point: some defenders of the Bible explain away stories by reinterpreting them as non-miracles. A believer might consistently take that tack in responding to critics/skeptics, but, if he does, hasn't he abandoned the supernatural in favor of a naturalistic story of how things went? Yawn.
• Less colorful approaches to "contradictions" and absurdities in the Bible are available. I've been meaning to read Baggini's Atheism: a Very Short Introduction. Is that good? The American Humanist Association offers this, a list of alleged contradictions and inconsistencies.
* * * * *
• Some Believers make a big point of "demonstrating" that the events described in the Bible — the opening of the sea, the Egyptian plagues, etc. — could have occurred. If by this they mean that the events are consistent with science, then they run the risk mentioned above (reinterpreting religious belief as naturalistic—and thus as non-supernatural—belief). But there's another problem: that something could have occurred is not an argument that it did occur. As I often tell my students, it is just barely possible that I am the Weasel King of the universe. (It is conceivable.) But only a lunatic would infer that I am in fact the Weasel King of the universe. Possibility does not imply actuality. Yes, on some interpretations of this word, there could be a God. It is conceivable. (I guess I'd have to say, too, that I hope it's true.) But it would be absurd to infer from this that such a being exists. And if one were to draw this inference, to be consistent, they'd have to acknowledge the existence of other "possible" Gods, including my Weasel King. BTW: I, the Weasel King, command you to send me all of your worldly possessions.
• The above point reminds me of a limitation of common responses to the "problem of evil" (these are usually called "theodicies"). Many theists struggle to show that the existence of the evils of this world could be consistent with the existence of a perfect and perfectly good God. Maybe they can succeed in this.
.....But the crucial question is: what is the most reasonable belief—that God exists or that God does not exist? The former sort of theodicy never seems to prevent the answer: "Well, sure, God could exist. But, given the existence of Dick Cheney (etc.), it's as unlikely as hell. It is more reasonable to deny the existence of God than to affirm the existence of God."
.....But seriously, folks, we can maybe understand how God might allow Cain to suffer some misfortune as a consequence of Abel's free will; but how are we to understand a good Creator's allowing thousands or tens of thousands to perish or suffer just so Mean Murray can be free?
.....This picture strains for coherence. On the other hand, the picture of a world with Mean Murrays and no God doesn't strain at all. It offers no puzzles, no incoherences. So you've got to go with picture #2.
.....And I guess that's why God made atheists.

New reality series: Orange County's most lethal politician

• MURDERED PROF. Over at the OC Reg, Marla Jo Fisher’s “College Life” blog offers some “breaking news”: Former UCI professor found murdered:

Former UCI Professor Lindon Barrett, ex-director of UCI’s African American Studies program and an English professor, was found dead in his downtown Long Beach apartment, apparently murdered, according to Long Beach police….

At the time of his death, Barrett was a Professor of English at UC Riverside.

• IRVINE: LIKE A FINE TURD IN A SHRINKING GLASS OF MILK. Irvine’s in the news. According to the OC Reg (4 of O.C.’s 7 biggest cities lose population), while Huntington Beach, Orange, Fullerton, and Costa Mesa are declining in population, Irvine’s growing. It grew by 4.3% from July ’06 to July ’07.

—Plus, Money magazine ranks Irvine as the 4th best place to live in the country (Irvine called 4th best place to live in U.S).

• CARONA SAYS HE’S “LETHAL.” Here’s the latest on the Mike Carona saga: 'Death spiral' of relationship between ex-O.C. Sheriff Carona and D.A. described on secret tapes:

Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona thought Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas was trying to "take me out" and that their relationship had deteriorated into "one of those death spirals" after a special grand jury was impaneled last year to investigate the beating death of a jail inmate, according to court documents filed Monday.

Carona, speaking to former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl during a conversation secretly recorded by the federal government, said he would emerge unscathed from the investigation because he was the "most lethal" politician in Orange County, the court documents show….

Long-time Dissent readers know that DA Rackauckas and former Sheriff Carona share the same chief advisor: OC “Republican Mafia” chief Mike Schroeder, who happens to be one of Trustee Tom Fuentes’ closest associates.

Naturally, Mike is married to Rackauckas’ public-affairs counsel Susan Kang Schroeder.
Schroeder and Rackauckas are pretty corrupt. In 2002, the OC Weekly’s Scott Moxley wrote that Rackauckas was emerging as “the most corrupt politician in one of the most corrupt counties in the nation.” (See Spot the Gas Leak and Flashes of Lunacy.)

Orange County is just the best. Best cities, best beaches, best corruption, best right-wing lunatics—and the best TV shows, too.

• MANCHURIAN CANDIDATES. In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

• [SOME DAY, THEY'LL THANK US WITH A CARD.] A new study has found that the institutions whose undergraduates were most likely to earn a Ph.D. from a university in the United States in 2006 were both in China: Tsinghua University and Peking University, Science reported. Those institutions overtook the University of California at Berkeley. Following Berkeley are Seoul National University, Cornell University and the University of Michigan.

• [YOU MEAN, IT IS LITERALLY TRUE?] Southwestern Community College, in Iowa, has reached a settlement with Steve Bitterman, an adjunct who lost his job after he offended some students by stating that the Bible is not literally true. The Des Moines Register reported that Bitterman is no longer teaching at the college and that details of the settlement have not been released.

The headings are my own, not IHE's. But you knew that.