Thursday, April 29, 2021

Nailed by Dob-in Spies

 “Law Professor May Be Fired After Personal Blog Post Criticized Chinese Government.”  It does make you wonder if USD has some financial reason to come down hard on criticism of the Chinese government.


An Argument Against Our Meritocracy

It is obvious that “not everyone is born with the same academic gifts,” deBoer writes, but among teachers and educational officials there is a “prohibition against talking plainly about differences in academic talent.” The “cult of smart”—deBoer defines his title on page five—is “the notion that academic value is the only value, and intelligence the only true measure of human worth.” What we need, instead of our unjust, so-called meritocracy, is “a society where you can fail at school and still be okay.” – American Affairs Journal


How Xi’s China has gone full Navag Dilbert.


Wuhan Lab Connected to Chinese Military, Documents Reveal.


MARK JUDGE:  The Fears of Autumn: How America’s Best Spy Novelist Pulled Me Out of a Honey Trap.


A great conversation between Roxane Gay and Monica Lewinsky about writing about trauma, at Vanity Fair


THIS IS TROUBLING, SINCE WE’VE HAD SOME OF THOSE IN KNOXVILLE:  Magnitude 4 earthquake rates may forecast larger future earthquakes.


At Home among the Birds: An Interview with Jonathan Meiburg Paris Review


Credit Suisse shareholders seek removal of risk chief after twin scandals FT


Growth, coal and carbon emissions: economic overheating and climate change (PDF) Bank of International Settlements


State-Supported “Clean Energy” Loans Are Putting Borrowers At Risk of Losing Their HomesProPublica


Minnesota gasps at the financial damage it faces from the Texas freeze WaPo