REX MURPHY ON getting lectured by Ban Ki Moon. “Then again, this is what we expect Mr. Ban to do. He is, after all, the highest functionary of the world’s most useless transnational organization, and sermonizing is mainly what its Secretary-General does.”

AN EXPERIMENT in stock crash paranoia.

BRINGING NEW MEANING TO THE TERM “SIGNING BONUS:” SMU Will Pay You To Hire Their Graduates. And, thus, boost their U.S. News rankings. . . .

REBOOTING the Episcopal Church?

WELL, THAT’S ALL RIGHT THEN:  Dean Chris Edley (now of Berkeley, formerly of Harvard) explains why we shouldn’t worry our pretty little heads about a Harvard-Yale lock on the Supreme Court.  You see, any worries about elitism and a narrow vision of American values have been solved, by affirmative action:

The gatekeeper power of such institutions is why it was so important to desegregate them (using affirmative action, among other tools) and why virtually all leaders of great universities talk about diversity and access.

For about 40 years now, all the top law schools have tried to pick students who are not just brilliant but who have the potential to be outstanding leaders from and for all of America’s communities. Today, “elite” doesn’t carry the old-boy, classist, midcentury sense.

He’s right; it definitely carries more of a new-boy, classist, end-of-century sense of elitism.  Which must be why Dean Edley doesn’t even notice it.

U.S. SOLDIERS GET highest German medal for bravery.

ROGER SIMON: Talking Climate in the Windy City.

RAND SIMBERG: Fact-checking the EPA. For oil, which mostly floats, isn’t surface area more important than total volume, though?

REAWAKENING GERMAN NATIONALISM: What Could Go Wrong?

GOLDMAN, SACHS and broken windows theory.