The Huntsville Tragedy

This summary from Associated Press provides the facts as they are known now.

A biology professor at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus was charged with murder late Friday in the shooting deaths of three fellow biology professors at the campus.
 

Authorities say Amy Bishop, an instructor and researcher at the university, opened fire during an afternoon faculty meeting, killing the three colleagues and injuring three other school employees. Bishop has been charged with one count of capital murder, which means she could face the death penalty if convicted.

The immediate provoking factor seems to have been the notification that Dr. Bishop had not achieved tenure at University of Alabama at Huntsville. 

There will be a flood of images and words in the next few days, until the nation's attention is drawn somewhere else. So, at 1:25 a.m. local time, OldSouth is attempting to get a head start.

OS has friends who have been denied tenure.  It is disheartening, painful, maddening to labor for seven years and come up empty-handed. The process, at its core, is quixotic, arbitrary, and undoubtedly corrupt in some cases. But, anyone on a tenure track should have the smarts to understand that grim reality. It goes with the territory.

They all licked their wounds and moved on, and in time were grateful to not be laboring in the salt mines of that particular institution. Not one of them contemplated carrying a pistol to a faculty meeting. 

This is beyond the pale. Nothing explains, or excuses, this crime.

It will be called a tragedy, an incident, an occurrence. Amateur and professional shrinks will offer explanations. Liberals will call for gun bans, conservatives will counter that the gun ban on campus prevented nothing.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.

OS hopes a simple fact will remain foremost in all our minds.

What occurred was a crime. To carry a pistol to a faculty meeting, into a room of unarmed academics, for what promised to be the occasion of unpleasant news, can only indicate a decision had already been made to turn that weapon on those people. Dozens of people, if not hundreds, have had their lives irrevocably altered by this brutality.

Sympathies and prayers go out to the families and friends of the murdered and injured. 

Civility Watch

In celebration of the President's call for civility in the public discourse, some thoughts from Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post.

He is a civil gentleman, who civilly explains why the irritation level in the US may be a bit elevated these days.

The Left live by a simple credo: The dim, led by the malicious, vote incorrectly. 

The rest of us find this, well, uncivil.


So, in the interests of civility, OS hopes you take time to read the thoughtful essay linked above.

Margaret Thatcher On Church And State

Twenty-two years ago, Margaret Thatcher delivered perhaps the best address on church and state of her generation.

Cranmer was kind enough to remind us of it last month.

Some things never go out of style.  So, this weekend, perhaps give this a few minutes of your time.

A nugget from near the end...

But there is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves. Political structures, state institutions, collective ideals—these are not enough.

We Parliamentarians can legislate for the rule of law. You, the Church, can teach the life of faith.

Don't Drink The Academic Kool-Aid

The academic job market, especially in liberal arts, has experienced the downward 'hockey-stick' phenomenon.
Too many scholars, sporting PhD's, or at the fabled 'ABD' point, are chasing too few jobs. It's simply the terrible math at work right now.  One of OS's acquaintances has been caught in the squeeze, losing a very good job in spite of doing an admirable job in that particular university department. Glowing peer reviews, and the job is gone, 'cuz the money's gone.

Endowments are essential for universities, but (a.) they must be able to preserve capital base, and (b.) actually earn a return, so cash can be made available to the institution. When ZB decided to peg interest rates at ZERO, in order to float the housing market, and give his friends on Wall Street free money to play with, he wasn't thinking of what might happen to the other parts of the culture. Like he cares...(har-rumph!)

But, that being said, things are as they are, and a lot of academics will have to formulate a Plan B.

This author reminds us that that's really not so bad, and perhaps, the academic life is not that prestigious and lovely, after all.

There is life off campus. Lots of it. And lots of people in need of what lies between the ears of the educated people.  The business challenge is how to connect one set of people with the other, and make it pay off for all concerned; without the ***!!!*** guv'mint inserting its silly self into the process. They've done quite enough already, thanks.

This is America. There has to be a way; or rather, a bunch of ways to skin this particular feline.

OS recently took a tour of the neighborhoods near his alma mater, a large public urban research university. He was shocked by the experience. Four blocks away, and light years of cultural separation between the institution and its surroundings.  It felt like being on a different planet.

Now, the university has unveiled plans to solve the problem, by condemning and razing the neighborhoods, and building more university facilities in their place. Spending taxpayer money, or money raised with taxpayer guarantees, of course.

Hmmm...that should solve the problem.

Maybe it's a good time to be moving off campus, after all.

A Perspective On The Quandry In California And...

The ever-droll Jesse provides us with a chart detailing each state's output as a percentage of the national GDP.

California represents 13.2% of our GDP.

Add in Illinois, Florida, New York, and New Jersey, and(if OS is punching in the numbers correctly), that's 34.6% of the GDP located in some very troubled states.

But, not to fear. President Obama assures us the worst is past.

OS begs to differ, whilst remaining civil. He does not wish to be argumentative.

He just wishes that the People In Charge believed in the veracity of simple math.

Elizabeth Warren For President--No Teleprompter Required

One of the happier events of the past couple of years has been the emergence of Elizabeth Warren from the shadowlands of academia into a public role as the official TARP whistleblower.

She is very, very smart.  She is plain-spoken, explains big complex problems in an understandable fashion. She uses language to communicate and illuminate, not to evade and confuse.

In other words, she does not engage in double-talk, like Zimbabwe Ben, TurboTax Timmy, President Teleprompter, Miss Nancy and Mr. Harry.

Like the rest of us, she is exasperated with what has happened, and what continues to happen. You can tell by her demeanor, she doesn't suffer fools gladly. She's not running for anybody's office. She acts like someone who would rather go home, pet her cat, tend her garden, supervise her grad students, and otherwise be left the hell alone.

OS salutes her, and wonders if she couldn't be kidnapped and installed as head of Treasury, or the Fed, or President for a few years. If the Senate had fired ZB's scurvy behonkus, we could've hired Elizabeth, you know....

Today,  her office issued an extensive report on the coming crunch for the community banks due to the commercial real estate deflation.

She made an appearance this afternoon on Fox Business, shared below.  It's a lively and funny conversation, especially toward the end. She concludes with the thought, 'If you want to gamble, use your own money, and if you go down, just make sure you don't splash on the rest of us.'

OS hopes you take the time to enjoy this. Warren really is on her game here.

September 11, 2001 From The Air

The BBC features a slideshow of recently released photos of the 9/11 attack in New York City, taken by a police photographer in an NYPD helicopter. They are riveting.

OS promises not to rant, honest. He is working hard to be civil, and dispense with mean-spirited diatribes. It's an effort.

Viewing these pictures, it is not surprising to know that the City of New York and its citizens are not eager for one of the ringleaders of this horror to be brought back to the city for a civilian trail.

Where he can stage a show trial, in full view of the world's anti-American press.

The jurors and their families become targets of Al-Qaeda.  As does the city. Again.

OS does not understand how a government can be so totally out-of-touch, literally deaf to its citizenry, in a representative democracy.  And it's not just the present administration, either.  The Bush White House was notorious for this behavior as well.

Here's hoping someone views these, and re-thinks the decision.

Betcha a jury in central Pennsylvania or Virginia would be willing to serve. Try him first at the Federal level, and then let the state go after him on separate charges. Journalists hate Motel 6's and meals at Denny's. They'll lose interest, and the citizens will be safer with them gone.

A Worthy Addition To The List On The Right

Roy Agee is a brilliant musician who has been saddled with severe obesity much of his life.

He finally decided to do something about it, and his blog Stop Eating Out is an inspiring journal.

OS urges you to visit him often.

And Meanwhile, Back In Iran

The Iranians hope for change.

Paging Mr. Obama...

Paging Mrs. Clinton...

Anyone out there?....

(crickets chirping)

A Modest Proposal For The Winter Olympic Games

It seems Vancouver has no snow, temps well above freezing, and no prospect of snow.

Not a good thing.

What to do?

Invite AlGore to serve as Master of Ceremonies.


The blizzards follow him.

Planet Gore, tongue-in-cheek, tracks the Gore Effect, which is a bit uncanny. The great Copenhagen conference of December 2009 featured a blizzard.  AlGore was scheduled to preach to a Congressional committee this week about the dangers of global warming.

Postponed, due to two feet of snow and ice.

Maybe, there is a God, and He has a wry sense of humor.