Pun Salad

The University Near Here notes recognition: Vyas Recognized for Fostering Student Engagement and Belonging.

I sense a little confusion. Is Vyas a "leading" professional, or a mere "mid-level" professional?

Which makes me wonder: does the ACPA give awards for low-level professionals?

Anyway: you can click through for further information. What has Vyas done?

Emphasis added. Reader, that is a lot of facilitating. And you are welcome to reread that last paragraph, and reflect on the differences between "demonstrated excellence", "outstanding performance", and "distinguished service". Three different things, or three ways to say the same thing?

I've mentioned Vyas before (in 2023 and 2024), not that I'm obsessed or anything. As headlined above, I am sure he's a nice guy; you don't get accolades like he has without being a nice guy.

But the things I've mentioned before still apply: he's embedded in an environment of DEI word salad, where your "identity" matters much more than your actual accomplishments. Conclaves are held nationwide, where sessions are facilitated, awards are awarded, and a wide array of meatless appetizers are provided.

As stated, Vyas heads up UNH's Aulbani J. Beauregard Center for Equity, Justice, and Freedom which replicates the nationwide infrastructure: awards given, efforts facilitated, etc. And better office furniture is requested.

Other than that, AJBCfEJaF doesn't seem to do that much.

UNH is looking to make drastic budget cuts. It would be nice if they took a hard look at its DEI bureaucracy. I'm sure there are many other institutions that would love to hire a nice guy.

Also of note:

• Good advice! David L. Bahnsen offers three words for our troubled times: Curb Your Hysteria.

  At some point in my adult life, much later than I wish it had been, I learned that a person worth emulating is a person who possesses poise, calm, and sobriety. As fun as it can be to be excitable, or to be around excitable people, I have not often observed unchecked zeal to be the stuff that Super Bowl champions — or good portfolio managers, or good friends, or productive adults — are made of. Sound and fury can be useful, but grown-ups have to be people of sound judgment and judicious restraint if they are to maximize their God-given potential.

  The current political environment brings this reality for individuals into the public realm. The Trump moment generates excitability and, in some cases, outright hysteria. It does so for good reasons (there can be bad things and good things worth being excited about), and it does so for awful reasons (many people are simply unhinged) — but it does so also because we are in a time defined far more by emotional exuberance than rational discourse (online and otherwise).

  It's been put different ways: ignore the cheerleaders; don't feed the trolls; recognize that hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue; know how to recognize, and spell, hyperbole.

• And a keen observation! Charles C. Mann reminds us: We Live Like Royalty and Don’t Know It.

  At the rehearsal dinner I began thinking about Thomas Jefferson’s ink. My wife and I were at a fancy destination wedding on a faraway island in the Pacific Northwest. Around us were musicians, catered food, a full bar, and chandeliers, all set against a superb ocean sunset. Not for the first time, I was thinking about how amazing it is that relatively ordinary middle-class Americans could afford such events — on special occasions, at least.

  My wife and I were at a tableful of smart, well-educated twenty-somethings — friends of the bride and groom. The wedding, with all its hope and aspiration, had put them in mind of the future. As young people should, they wanted to help make that future bright. There was so much to do! They wanted the hungry to be fed, the thirsty to have water, the poor to have light, the sick to be well.

  But when I mentioned how remarkable it was that a hundred-plus people could parachute into a remote, unfamiliar place and eat a gourmet meal untroubled by fears for their health and comfort, they were surprised. The heroic systems required to bring all the elements of their dinner to these tables by the sea were invisible to them. Despite their fine education, they knew little about the mechanisms of today’s food, water, energy, and public-health systems. They wanted a better world, but they didn’t know how this one worked.

  Charles is steeped in history, so he knows how far we've come.

  And Jefferson's ink? Monticello "was so cold in winter that the ink in his pen sometimes froze, making it difficult for him to write to complain about the chill."

  When was the last time your ink froze? If your answer is "Er, never," reflect on that and the other ways you live better than the American aristocracy of 220 years previous. Even without slaves.

• And some advice for a politician! The WSJ editorialists, playing Evita, offer some: Don’t Cry for the CFPB, Elizabeth Warren. You know the tune, so sing along:

  The Senate Banking Committee holds a confirmation hearing Thursday for Jonathan McKernan, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and expect histrionics from Elizabeth Warren as she loses control of her baby.

  The Massachusetts Democrat devised the CFPB after the 2008-09 financial panic to be independent of political control and normal constitutional checks and balances. Because the bureau obtains its funding on demand from the Federal Reserve, Congress can’t use its power of the purse as a form of oversight.

  Democrats in Congress are suddenly fuming that they can’t stop the Trump Administration’s plans to overhaul the bureau. “Congress built [the CFPB], and no one other than Congress—not Donald Trump, not Elon Musk, no one—can fire the financial cops,” Ms. Warren said this month in a protest at CFPB headquarters.

  Well, no, by her own design Congress can’t force the bureau to spend money, including on employee salaries. She also says no other agency will protect consumers, but plenty of other regulators can do the same job better.

  Trump kept his promise; so keep your distance.

  I'm tempted to see if that hearing will be on C-SPAN, but (alas) I think I'm out of popcorn.

• And you know what they say about idle hands! Jacob Sullum notes a devil's playground in DC: The FTC has no business trying to make sure social media are 'fair'

  Many Americans, including me, have had frustrating experiences with content moderation on social media platforms. Andrew Ferguson, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), wants us to know that such experiences are not just annoying or perplexing; they are "un-American" and "potentially illegal."

  Ferguson, who began soliciting complaints about "Big Tech censorship" last week, touts his initiative as a blow against "the tyranny of Big Tech" and "an important step forward in restoring free speech." But like Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ferguson is flexing his regulatory powers in a way that undermines freedom of speech by meddling in private editorial choices.

  We just sent a bunch of techbiz-meddlers packing, apparently only to get more coming in.

  Ah well, as Jefferson never actually wrote, probably because of frozen ink: "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."

  Jacob Sullum is vigilant, good for him.

The first post on this blog was made on February 27, 2005, which makes it (counting on fingers and toes) twenty years old today.

I guess that counts as a milestone. I've dinked that first post over the years to reflect changing circumstances (like moving it off my workstation at the University Near Here to a commercial hosting site). The main tenets still apply:

• The content is whatever strikes my fancy, mostly (sigh) politics-related. Occasionally other interests show up.

• Although there are sub-blogs where I record books I've read, movies I've watched, and geek-related stuff.

• Ads here are simple image-links to Amazon products (as on your right); I get a cut when anyone buys something by clicking thereon. That sometimes happens, thanks. Occasionally, products vanish from Amazon. I try to fix that when I notice.

  Peeve: Even some sites I frequent have uglified themselves with intelligence-insulting clickbait ads. Even (sigh) Instapundit, my inspiration. ("The Video Obama Thought We'd Never Uncover"? I feel soiled by even typing that, Glenn.)

• No comments.

  Another peeve: I continue to think that blog-comments are "Usenet, reinvented poorly". (Apologies for the very dated reference.) People who want to comment on something they see here can and should do so on their own blog. Or how about Twitter/X/BlueSky?

• I used to have a list of blogs I read over there on the right. (No, your right.) I stopped doing that last June. Anybody miss it? No? Good.

• I am kind of geek-proud that the blog is (as near as I can tell) totally HTML5-compliant.

It's probably overoptimistic to think I'll be doing this for another twenty years. But I'll keep chugging along for now.