The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: treeoflife on May 09, 2024, 02:11:37 PM

Quote from: jimbogumbo on May 09, 2024, 01:46:49 PMI assumed they meant (rightly, in my opinion) it would be problematic for a political appointee to do this merely because someone complains. For example, University of Florida loses non-profit status because random Dem congressperson complains to WH.

There are relevant measures within the framework of administrative law to deal with misuse of executive power. Non for profit status is given by administrative action and should be taken also. The idea that the IRS will need to go to court to strip 501(c)(3) status is ludicrous. I guess the ACLU director wants the IRS to spend more time and money to strip the status from those who abuse it.

I completely agree. This bill, however, would allow the Secretary of the Treasury to do so without any of the normal checks and balances. I think that is cause for alarm, especially in light of other initiatives being undertaken by one of the likely candidates for President.

Just a chunk of T1 today.

First-Time Europe:  A Rough Guide Special, by Louis CasaBianca.  This is a 1996 (1997 edition) guide for novices to travel in Europe.  It's got the expected travel-guide stuff on planning, budgeting, packing, accommodation, etc.  There's relatively little on individual countries--this is about the demands and logistics of a serious European trip in general.  The advice is aimed mainly at the budget traveler, so there's a lot about Eurorail and hostels (They're not just for students anymore!). 

It's very readable.  CasaBianca uses a lot of humor, and there are some cartoons here and there to liven things up.  The book is facetiously dedicated to John Wesley Hardin, the gunfighter who is said to have shot a man for snoring in a crowded hotel.  The book's something of a time capsule, what with the advice about having plenty of film for one's camera, and finding telephones when one needs them, and changing all the different pre-Euro currencies, the cheery advice that terrorism is really nothing to worry about, etc.

Travel guides and the like are about as close as I've ever had, or ever will have, to a chance to travel overseas.  This old book showed up in a box of donations to the library.  Adding to the interest is extensive hand-written marginal notes from a previous owner, who adds his two cents' worth about lots of subjects.  Sometimes he agrees with the author, sometimes he disagrees, sometimes he offers supplementary advice.  On the back cover, under a blurb that mentions Berkeley Guides, he advises "forget Berkeley's books."  Between CasaBianca and this previous owner, it's a very entertaining read.

Hope Room 313 wasn't some poor faculty or staff member's office....

It's not at all hard to see how a large institution could have a need for chaplains and associations to serve many different faith groups.  And yes, the Jewish and Muslim groups have no doubt had a lot to do lately.  As long as they're taking care of their people and not getting in each others' face.

Good morning!

QBwH yesterday for galangal (which I always seem to miss) and ladling, my last word. Today I'm at QB-2, hoping for inspiration.

LB: I also had junks-storyboard. Found a 2fer today also.

Happy puzzling!

Apologies for the double posting.

According to The Gothamist,

QuoteThe students who orchestrated last week's takeover of Columbia University's Hamilton Hall left behind a series of charts, maps and supply lists that detail the extensive planning behind the brief occupation.

Photos shared exclusively with Gothamist reveal the protesters' hand-drawn schematics mapping out entire floors of the building, locations of supplies, doors they wanted to barricade, and the locations of water fountains and fire extinguishers.

A "task list" included to-dos like "set up pulley," "lock all windows," "security shifts," and "role [sic] call." A hand-drawn map of the building's third floor indicated that room 313 had been designated the "smoking room." Another list was titled "Heavy Equipment Locations" and noted rooms with "tons of books," "large tables," "tall ladder" and "portable podium/table." In all caps, the list also included the following note: "3rd floor windows in need of blockade."

See the article for photos of two lists by the protesters who occupied Hamilton Hall, the first a hand-drawn map of stairways and entrances to the building and the second, a list of "heavy supplies" like tables and books, along with room locations.

Good morning!

Pangram and above genius. Didn't get back to the bee yesterday.

Happy solving!

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on May 09, 2024, 11:01:18 AM

Quote from: secundem_artem on May 09, 2024, 08:37:54 AM

Quote from: Wahoo Redux on May 09, 2024, 07:13:22 AMIHE: UC Berkeley Investigates Pro-Palestinian Dinner Protest Fracas

QuoteThe Council on American-Islamic Relations shared on X a video showing Fisk coming up behind Afaneh, grabbing the phone in her hand from which she was reading the speech, putting her arm around Afaneh's shoulder and saying, "Leave, this is not your house, it is my house." Chemerinksy also says "Please leave our house." Fisk then tries to pull Afaneh's microphone out of her hands. Afaneh says UC is funding weapons manufacturers and Fisk, relinquishing the mic, says "I have nothing to do with what the UC does."

So you can invade my house but I'm the one being dragged up to see what transgressions I have committed?

In a state with stand your ground laws, the response could well have involved a load of buckshot with the invader on the receiving end.  But in Berkley??????  It seems not.

Truly we are living in cloud cuckoo land.

The charges of "Islamophobia" are simply hysterical.

The professor should have simply called the police, but I guess anger took over.

The student in question went to a private residence armed with a microphone and a speech so that she could disrupt the dinner, instead of declining the invitation. Hijacking a dinner in a private residence was disruptive to the hosts as well as the guests. Accusing the hosts of Islamophobia when the group supporting Malak Afaneh distributed a poster depicting a "caricature of [Chemrinsky] holding a bloody knife and fork and the words "No dinner with Zionist Chem while Gaza starves" is blatantly anti-Semetic. According to one of the reports

QuoteIn his own statement released the morning after the incident, Chemerinsky said he was "enormously sad that we have students who are so rude as to come into my home, in my backyard, and use this social occasion for their political agenda."

But he said he and Fisk would not be intimidated and still planned to host the additional scheduled student dinners at their home, albeit with security measures in place. (An attendee of Wednesday's dinner said the event transpired without incident.)

Chemerinsky, who is Jewish, said a poster that Afaneh's group distributed before the event, with a caricature of him holding a bloody knife and fork and the words "No dinner with Zionist Chem while Gaza starves," was blatantly antisemitic.

Good morning!

Got to genius with pangram so far.  Yesterday we had almost had team QB but needed bee buddy for gangling.

For LB I had the schmofficial junks-storyboard.

Happy solving!