HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, DIVERSITY-PROBLEM EDITION: Democrats On Elite Liberal Art College Faculties Outnumber Republicans By 10:1.

HILLARY: “A VERY LARGE PROPORTION OF THE POPULATION” FEAR WOMEN AS LEADERS, YOU KNOW. “At least these are very instructive moments for American voters, though. This what the Clintons and the Democratic establishment truly think of them. That should be quite helpful in discernment about their ballot decisions in November.”

MAKE ORGIES GREAT AGAIN: Swingers flock to Vegas for world’s biggest orgy. But there’s rampant sex discrimination: “Tickets for the shindig cost $200 a couple and just $25 for a single woman. Solo men are banned from joining in the fun.”

THE BLOOMBERG SYNDROME HITS LONDON: Sadiq Khan goes to war on junk food. What about knife crime?

In 2011, Victor Davis Hanson warned of “The Bloomberg Syndrome:” “Quite simply, the next time your elected local or state official holds a press conference about global warming, the Middle East, or the national political climate, expect to experience poor county law enforcement, bad municipal services, or regional insolvency.”

And of course, “Right on cue! Michael Bloomberg cheers London mayor’s retaliation against imminent threat…Bloomberg stood up and applauded Khan’s effort to target forks and spoons after having already banned knives.”

Related: “Bloomberg warns of ‘epidemic of dishonesty,’” DNC stenographers at the AP report today. Personally, I’m more worried about an epidemic of magical thinking.

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DONALD TRUMP SAVES LAW SCHOOLS: LSAT Test-Takers Surge 18.1%, The Biggest Increase In 16 Years.

ARE WE THE BADDIES? Sally Kohn “assumed, because in certain New York precincts, everyone assumes it, that conservatives are haters and that their hate is so all encompassing that they show it in their interpersonal interactions. Kohn discovered that such was not the case. The people she met at Fox News were kind and considerate. They engaged with her and showed that they cared about her. They even helped her to hone her skills:”

And then I went to go work at Fox News as a lefty lesbian – by the way, I’m a lesbian; I hope that didn’t shock anyone, you’ve also read the Internet, you know – so when I showed up at Fox News, listen, I thought they had some hateful ideas, supported some hateful policies, right, but also I expected everyone on air, off air, people watching at home, I expected them to be like totalistically and completely a hundred percent hateful monsters, I just did….

And that sounds horrible to say but it’s just what I expected. I thought they’d just be mean to me, they wouldn’t care about me, they’d be homophobic, right, I expected all hate – and when I went to go actually spend time at Fox News, two things happened…. I found out that these people – who I still think, by the way, believe and support a lot of hateful things in the world – were quite nice to me as a person, just interpersonally they weren’t what I expected and cared about my career and cared about my family and sometimes we could even find things to agree on. And we’re complex people who were more than just those political views and I realized I hated them.

The passage by Kohn that Stuart Schneiderman quotes at his Had Enough Therapy? blog contains nine examples of the word “hate” or a derivation thereof.  The disparity between an ideology that claims to be obsessed with “nuance” while projecting a bipolar Manichean worldview is fascinating, but to borrow from Thomas Sowell’s analogy, nobody said it was easy being the anointed.

Found via Maggie’s Farm; classical reference in headline:

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: EMP Commission warns ‘blackout’ of electricity, food, water to last ‘year or longer,’ huge death toll.

SARAH HOYT: The Semantic Whoredom of the Left.

Read the whole thing.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Male Student Accuses Female Student of Sexual Assault. She Says He Wanted Revenge.

Doe woke up, realized they had engaged in sexual activity while they were both drunk, and feared that she would file a complaint against him, as she had done to his friend. Panic-stricken, he felt he had no choice but to beat her to the punch.

Indeed, if you suspect you are going to become the subject of a Title IX investigation, the optimal strategy may very well be to file the first complaint. For reasons not completely clear to me, Title IX administrators often appear biased in favor of the initial complainant, and presume the other party is the wrongdoer.

As Robby Soave writes at Reason, “Title IX creates a prisoner’s dilemma: students have to file sexual misconduct complaints to avoid becoming the accused.” Read the whole thing.

ALLY SHEEDY ON HER EXPERIENCES WITH HOLLYWOOD SEXISM AND WHY IT WILL NEVER CHANGE:

I realize I am privileged: I am white and work in the film and television industry. I’ve had great opportunities, worked hard for them, and done the most I could do with them. But I also made the conscious decision to not market myself in a sexual way, and it cost me. It is very, very hard to create a career as an actor without sexualizing oneself; I have been navigating this minefield for over thirty years with varying degrees of success. I’ve spoken out about the sexism in my industry before and faced backlash. I’ve been called “bitter” and told my behavior was “cringe worthy.” Whatever.

There were things I just could not bring myself to do: the film by the (great) director that would require me to shoot a scene in a shirt but no panties, for example. (He was making some kind of statement, I suppose.) I rejected the advice to “date” men that could possibly advance my career. I didn’t go on auditions for films that I felt glorified sex work, that depicted women being sexually abused in a gratuitous way, or that required me to leave my sense of self on the doorstep. (All of these films became huge hits.)

But this is the way women are set up in the media. There has been some movement, I suppose, but not much. It’s a frustrating and demoralizing struggle with some moments of triumph in spite of itself. And I still love acting. I still love a good role more than just about anything.

Why is the female physical appearance so important in the arts? Sean Penn is the most gifted actor of my generation, and I don’t think he’s gotten Botox. I don’t think Bryan Cranston had butt implants.

What is a woman to do? Turn on the TV and you get a good look at rape culture. I have tried to make a career without contributing to it.

I’m still trying.

Linking to a New York Post article last month headlined, “70 years before #MeToo, women ruled Hollywood,” Sarah Hoyt wrote, “Then the liberals took over the industry and it became a cesspit of intolerance and harassment.”

Or as Kevin Williamson wrote yesterday in his column titled “Advice for Incels,” “In the 1960s and 1970s, there were some social disruptions touching marriage and family life. It was, they told us, a ‘sexual revolution.’ The thing about revolutions is: Somebody loses.”

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

● Shot: John McCain is the single greatest political leader of our time.

At long last, have they left no sense of decency?

White House official Kelly Sadler, during a meeting Thursday, had this to say about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for opposing President Trump’s CIA nominee over her failure to condemn torture: “It doesn’t matter, he’s dying anyway.”

Also Thursday, on Fox Business Network, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney had this to say about the torture of McCain, who was shot down over Hanoi with grievous wounds, but refused release to deny his captors a propaganda victory: Torture “worked on John. That’s why they call him ‘Songbird John.’ ”

And three days earlier, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a Trump cheerleader, declared the terminally ill McCain was “ridiculous” to prefer that Trump, who has belittled McCain and his heroism, not attend his funeral.

Hatch, Sadler, and the host of the Fox Business show have all apologized, as they should. But how did we let partisanship take us to this ugly place?

—Dana Milbank, the Washington Post, yesterday.

● Chaser: Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pit Bull Look Tame.

—Dana Milbank, the Washington Post, October 7, 2008.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Yahoo and AOL Can Now Read Your Emails, Access Your Bank Records.

As Glenn warned in March, “Silicon Valley has gone from liberating to creepy. Next stop, government regulation.”

WEIRD HOW THIS KEEPS HAPPENING:

THE LEFT ISN’T ENJOYING THE NEW RULES THEY CREATED. Senate Dems: We’re Horrified the GOP is Exploiting Our Power Grab on Judicial Confirmations.

(Classical reference in headline.)

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: All that’s wrong with the left in one Politico article.

SOME USEFUL ADVICE ON How To Run A Meeting.

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TURNING WINDMILLS INTO GIANTS:

Less than a week after the 9/11 attacks, Eugene Volokh made a really interesting observation:

If you’d asked Queen Victoria about the threats her society faced, she’d probably have worried aloud about a breakdown in sexual and other morality. Ask a Hollywood producer the same question, and he’ll cite the threat of sex-hating moralists. Every age seems to warn itself most sternly about the risks that are least likely to do it harm.

We live in the most non-patriarchal moment in all of American history, if not all of Western history, if not all of human history. And yet so profound is the need to fight this terrible foe that, across the landscape, Donna Quixotes are constantly tilting their lances at mirages of their own imaginations.

Why? Well, partly because that is what we teach them to do. Our institutions also reward it. Having a good service record in the war against patriarchy is a real comparative advantage when it comes time to apply for college.

But also: because it’s fun. I don’t mean “fun” the way one says that riding jet skis or playing Call of Duty is fun. I mean fun in the sense that the battle imbues the protagonists with meaning and fulfillment, a sense of adventure and the pride that comes with dedicating yourself to a noble quest. A quest gives people a reason to get out of bed, to make courageous stands, and to feel indispensable to a great cause.

Read the whole thing.

Related: “The greatest trick the patriarchy ever pulled was convincing women it was feminist to get naked.”

UPDATE: The Slate item featured material which had misattributed a Stewart Baker quote to Eugene Volokh.

STONEWALLING, WITH REASON: School district shuts down information after Stoneman Douglas shooting. “The Broward school district’s repeated, emphatic — and it turns out, false — statements that Nikolas Cruz had not been in a controversial disciplinary program fit a pattern of an institution on the defense and under siege. Facing significant legal and political exposure over the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the district has tried to keep information from the public and put out untrue and misleading statements, frustrating parents who say this is the time for maximum transparency.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, ADMINISTRATIVE BLOAT EDITION: Administrative Bloat On Campuses Isn’t Just Expensive, It’s Stifling.

Graeber observes that, in the 20-year period from 1985 to 2005, the number of administrators increased at universities by 85 percent while the number of students and faculty increased by only 50 percent. In that same period, the number of administrative staff ballooned by a staggering 240 percent.

Graeber attributes this condition to “managerial feudalism,” and the label has not been misapplied. The aristocracy he describes is barely distinguishable from seigneury. Department heads and faculty deans are beneficiaries of a modern form of Manorialism. After all, what is a lordship without vassals? As Graeber outlines, reputation demands that every administrative staffer of sufficient rank retain at least four or five subordinates. “Office workers are typically kept on even if they are doing literally nothing, lest somebody’s prestige suffer,” Graeber wrote.

Payroll costs are expensive. It is no coincidence that in nearly the same period that Graber identifies as the point at which university administrative staff began to expand exponentially the cost of achieving a higher education exploded. Between 1985 and 2011, the cost of a four-year degree increased by 498 percent while consumer inflation rose by just over 100 percent. American incomes have only just about kept pace with inflation in that same timeframe, so the cost of college has for many become a prohibitive expense even if it is increasingly a necessary one.

If only someone had warned about this.

DOES WHOOPI GOLDBERG GET TO DECRY SLAMMING McCAIN? No One Recalls Her Slave Talk in 2008.

But is Whoopi Goldberg really the right person to lecture about treating McCain with “decorum” and “decency”? Ten years ago, when McCain was the Republican nominee, running against Barack Obama, she twice asked him  “Do I have to worry about becoming a slave again?” McCain was going to enslave blacks if he won the White House?

As Glenn wrote in January while leftists were freaking out over Trump’s “shithole” comments, “I’m amused when people who’ve spent 50 years declaring the very concept of decency repressive and outdated suddenly start with the ‘have you no decency?’ shtick. When Joseph Welch used that phrase, it was pretty much Peak Decency, or as we’re now told, a horrible regressive time of racism, homophobia, transphobia and xenophobia.”

SENATOR McCAIN’S REGRETS:

As death flutters around the back-yard deck of Senator John McCain, it’s sad to read reports that the scrappy Sandcutter regrets picking Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate and wishes he had instead picked Senator Jos. Lieberman. The only person diminished by this kind of talk is Senator McCain himself, and the heroic Arizonan deserves better.

Not that we lack for love of Mr. Lieberman. The Sun was the first newspaper to sketch the rationale for Mr. McCain to bring in Mr. Lieberman as his running mate. That was in an enthusiastic editorial called “The Logic of Lieberman.” We issued it shortly after Mr. Lieberman delivered at the Commentary dinner a speech that left us with the view that as a running mate he’d be “fabulous.”

That was in May 2008. In August, Mr. McCain turned to Mrs. Palin. We were thrilled with that choice, too, calling it a “brilliant pick.” We’ve never abandoned that opinion (nor, until the latest reports, had Mr. McCain). As the campaign faltered, our view was that it was because of the kinds of errors that could be laid only to the candidate at the top of the ticket.

Read the whole thing.