Author Archive: Glenn Reynolds

IT IS ALWAYS THUS:

IT’S LIKE IT’S A PLAN:

WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO KEEP THEM SECRET? Transparency or threat? UNC policy to make syllabi public draws mixed reactions. “Starting next week, the University of North Carolina System will begin requiring all course syllabi to be made publicly available, joining a growing number of states pushing for greater transparency at taxpayer-funded universities. However, the new policy has received pushback from a number of faculty, who argue the change could open them up to ‘bad-faith critique and extremist threats.'”

Oh, grow up.

BRINGING SOME SANITY WITH THE NEW ALCOHOL GUIDELINES:

In a press briefing on Wednesday, Oz claimed that previous drink restrictions on alcohol were not based on any specific scientific evidence of the amount of alcoholic drinks per day to recommend — despite studies that show an increase in health risks from consumption of alcohol. . . .

When asked at the White House press briefing to explain the science behind the new alcohol guidance, Oz said that alcohol was a “social lubricant” that helps bring people together.

“So alcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together. In the best case scenario, I don’t think you should drink alcohol, but it does allow people an excuse to bond and socialize,” Oz said.

“And there’s probably nothing healthier than having a good time with friends in a safe way. If you look at the blue zones, for example, around the world, where people live the longest, alcohol is sometimes part of their diet. Again, small amounts taken very judiciously and usually in a celebratory fashion. So there is alcohol on these dietary guidelines, but the implication is don’t have it for breakfast, right?”

This is consistent with the thrust of Edward Slingerland’s recent book, Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization, which I reviewed here.

CHANGE:

DON SURBER: Temu Radar failed Venezuela: Chairman Xi lost the war without Trump firing a shot at him.

The utter failure of Chinese air defenses inspires these thoughts from Eric S. Raymond: “Before this went down I was figuring a very high probability that the Chinese make their move on Taiwan in 2027. Now? I guarantee you that their confidence in their previous risk assessments has evaporated. They no longer know what they’ll be facing, and there’s a significant possibility that mainland China’s domestic air defenses are worthless too. Now I’m going to suggest that you juxtapose two phrases: ‘thermobaric bombs’ and ‘Three Gorges Dam.’ A China that’s naked from the air has the biggest glass jaw in human history. Now I think there’s pretty good odds that the invasion of Taiwan will never happen at all.”

Not sure a thermobaric bomb is the best ordnance for that job, but the point is sound.

TRUTH:

ROGER KIMBALL: The Case For Annexing Greenland.

Anyway, the talk in Trump world about Greenland has given mouthpieces like Jake Tapper a case of the sads. After Katie Miller’s post, Tapper anxiously pestered her husband Stephen Miller about Greenland. “Can you,” quoth Tapper, “rule out that the US is ever going to try to take Greenland by force?” “Greenland should be part of the United States,” replied Miller. He then offered him a lesson in realpolitik. “We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” he said. “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.” Has Miller been reading his Thucydides (see Book 5.89)? Miller then asked an interesting question: by what right does Denmark have Greenland? Is it because Erik the Red founded a settlement there around AD 1000? I think the Danes will have to do better than that.

And besides, Jake Tapper can rest easy. Trump will not be sending in a Delta Force squadron to seize Greenland. That’s not how things will evolve. How will they evolve? Trump wrote about it in The Art of the Deal. There will be tears and some foot stamping by the Danes and other members of the EU. But Greenland will soon come under the orbit of the United States. Maybe Trump will make the sort of deal that Arthur Guinness struck when, in 1759, he leased St. James’s Gate for his brewery for £45 per year for 9,000 years.

I am sure a tidy sum will change hands over Greenland. Maybe Trump will also extend some face-saving tokens. But Greenland is essential to America’s, and Europe’s, security in the region. Therefore, notwithstanding the Jakes and the Margarets of the world, Greenland will be ours.

My take is that Trump has written off Europe, and expects it to go Islamist, and is fortifying North America against that prospect.

WELL, BYE.

SALENA ZITO:

OPEN THREAD: Hump day.