HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U.S. News, Department Of Education, And Law Schools Take The Gloves Off In Rankings Battle.

The real objection to the rankings is that they make it harder to discriminate on the basis of race, and they want to discriminate on the basis of race. There are legitimate concerns with the rankings, but that’s what’s driving this.

Meanwhile, U.S. News is fighting back by asking the Secretary of Education “to demand that all schools – including elite law schools – provide open access to all of their undergraduate and graduate school data, using a common data set. This would enable prospective students and their families to make meaningful comparisons between institutions, based on factors such as financial information, admissions data, and outcome statistics, including employment rates at graduation.”

That’s fair. These schools, whether public or private, sit atop a geyser of public funding. They wouldn’t exist in their current form without it.

HETERODOX ACADEMY DISAPPOINTS.

UPDATE: A response from Heterodox Academy: “I’m the Executive Director of Heterodox Academy. I’d like your readers (and Instapundit readers!) to know that the past membership policy described here has not been in effect since 2019. Membership in HxA includes no ideological litmus test whatsoever; faculty and staff affiliated with a college or university, current or retired, can learn more and join us at HeterodoxAcademy.org.”

(Bumped).

SAY ANYTHING: Old Joe Biden Has Never Told a WEIRDER Story Than This One.

THAT’S BECAUSE THEY’VE BEEN BRIBED: Politico:. Why Can’t Democrats Explain Themselves on China? Biden has yet to find the rhetoric to describe his views on America’s global rival — and that’s a big problem.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Damascus Steel Japanese Chef Knife. #CommissionEarned

BLUE ON BLUE: Why a DC crime bill is creating big problems for Democrats.

Senate Republicans are trying to put the squeeze on Democrats ahead of an expected vote on legislation next week that would undo parts of a District of Columbia crime bill.

The bill would eliminate most mandatory sentences, lower penalties for a number of violent offenses, including carjackings and robberies, and expand the requirement for jury trials in most misdemeanor cases.

The legislation was unanimously approved by the D.C. City Council, which then overrode a veto by Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in an overwhelming 12-1 vote.

The GOP House passed a resolution of disapproval that would block the implementation of the law. It’s that resolution the Senate is expected to vote on next week — and it is likely to pass despite the Democratic Senate majority and the party’s usual support for D.C. home rule.

At least Republicans got to “squeeze” this time instead of “pounce.”

More seriously, on DC’s Democrat-enabled shoddy home rule, Republicans are acting like the only adults in DC — and yet The Hill’s Al Weaver frames it as a bind the GOP somehow put the Dems in.

SO THE SMARTEST STUDENTS ARE BAILING: 75% Through The Fall 2023 Law School Admissions Season: Applicants Are Down -3%, With Biggest Decline (-7%) In The 165-169 LSAT Band.

NARRATIVES DON’T ESTABLISH THEMSELVES, YOU KNOW: Did You Ever Wonder How and Why the Left Is Able to Push Their Narratives Almost Unhindered?

FROM HOLLY CHISM:  The Dragon’s in the Details.

#CommissionEarned

Six stories of dragons hiding in today’s world:
A Friend, Indeed–A little girl meets the best friend she could ask for when she finds a dragon sleeping in her wagon.
Tempest–What do you do when you find a dragon in your favorite teacup?
Clowder–These are absolutely not cats, no matter what they look like, and will take offense at your mistake.
Back Yard Birds and Other Things–If the dragon defends your chickens, you invite it to stay.
Houdini–When the pet supplier sends the wrong kind of dragon, the pet store’s got a problem.
Hoard–Not every dragon cares for gold, gems, or cash.

ANTISEMITISM IN BIDEN’S AMERICA: The Vanishing: The erasure of Jews from American life.

A tenure-track humanities professor at a prestigious public university tells of the finalists for her department’s next graduate school cohort. Of the 20 or so candidates, four to five are Jews. One is a working-class yeshivish applicant with an incredible backstory and even better recommendations. He is passed over for not being “diverse” enough. Of course our professor doesn’t complain— her own tenure is at risk. In the end, not a single Jew is offered admission.

Another Jewish professor applies to work in the UC system. In his mandatory diversity statement, which he describes as “the most shameful piece of writing I’ve ever done,” his sole aim is to convey the impression that he hopes to be the last Jewish man they ever hire. He still doesn’t get the job.

And why would he? Using YouGov data, Eric Kaufmann finds that just 4% of elite American academics under 30 are Jewish (compared to 21% of boomers). The steep decline of Jewish editors at the Harvard Law Review (down roughly 50% in less than 10 years) could be the subject of its own law review article.

The same pattern holds across America’s elite institutions: a slow-moving downward trend from the 1990s to the mid-2010s—likely due to all sorts of normal sociological factors—and then a purge so sweeping and dramatic you almost wonder who sent out the secret memo.

Museum boards now diversify by getting Jews to resign. A well-respected Jewish curator at the Guggenheim is purged after she puts on a Basquiat show. At the Art Institute of Chicago, even the nice Jewish lady volunteers are terminated for having the wrong ethnic background. There’s an entire cottage industry of summer programs and fellowships and postdocs that are now off-limits to Jews.

In 2014 there were 16-20 Jewish artists featured at the Whitney Biennial. After a very public campaign against a Jewish board member with ties to the Israeli defense establishment, the curators got the message. The 2022 biennial featured just 1-2 Jews.

Comb through the dozens of Jewish names for the 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship (I count 30-40). You’ll have a much harder time finding them 10 years later (14-16). There were 3-4 Jewish Marshall Scholars in 2014. I don’t see any in 2022.

Disgraceful. The only comfort is, most of them voted Democrat, and now they’re getting what they wanted, good and hard.

Related: Asians Get The Ivy League’s Jewish Treatment.

IF YOU DON’T ARTICULATE GOALS YOU WON’T ACHIEVE THEM:  What Does It Mean to be Better?

MAYBE DEFUNDING THE POLICE WASN’T THE BEST IDEA:  US murderers stand a 50% chance of getting away with it, new report finds.

I DON’T THINK ‘DEBUNKED’ MEANS WHAT THEY THINK IT MEANS:  New York Times, MSNBC, CNN slammed for claiming COVID lab leak theory was ‘debunked’.

BEFORE OR AFTER BEING TARRED, FEATHERED AND RUN OUT OF THE COUNTRY ON A RAIL?  Watch: Trans Sec. Buttigieg reveals he seeks climate legacy: ‘Dealing with climate change is one of the biggest things that people like me…will be remembered for’.

HIRING FOR DIVERSITY DESTROYS COMPETENCE… AND COMBAT READINESS:  Pentagon Burdens Warfighting Commanders with New Transgender Policies for Military Personnel.

AND THE REPUBLICANS ARE STUPID FOR LETTING THEMSELVES BE DRAWN INTO THIS:   Leftists Ready To Blame Republicans When SCOTUS Strikes Down Biden’s Unconstitutional Student Loan Forgiveness.

There’s no winning here. There’s only losing.

THAT’S BECAUSE THEY’RE HIRED FOR “DIVERSITY” AND ARE CONSCIOUS THEY AREN’T COMPETENT:  Female Faculty More Likely to Support Speech Restrictions, Campus Investigations, Deplatforming.

Stop with “diversity.”  Hire only for excellence.

HIS DEATH WAS PART OF THE VERY BIG KICK IN THE PANTS THAT PROPELLED ME OUT OF THE POLITICAL CLOSET:  ‘Apologize for WHAT?’ We Lost Andrew Breitbart 11 Years Ago.

I figured it would take all of us who could to make a tenth of the effect he had.

I’D LIKE TO ADD MY VOICE TO THIS BLASTING:  Legal U.S. Immigrants Blast D.C. Law Allowing Illegal Migrants to Vote in Local Elections.

No one who isn’t naturalized should vote on anything. And as bad as our vote security is, how do you keep it to local elections, even? Bah. Pernicious nonsense.