Kent getting tough on jihadi prof Julio Pino

…or at least his enablers.

The Pee Dealer article is an easier read than Pino-nemesis Mike Adams’ screed. Adams implies that Jameson no longer works for Kent State, rather than that he is no longer history chair (“fired” instead of “demoted”). But the PD repeats Pino’s claim that he is no longer writing for Global War, without the information that Global War has been shut down. And KSU denied that he’d ever written for them anyway.

Let’s cut through Jameson’s rhetoric about academic freedom. Pino was AWOL. If I took off for 6 weeks without clearing it with central library administration and Human Resources, but only with my immediate boss, I am sure that both the boss and I would hear about it…and that Gail and Joanne would not grant the forgiveness that Pino got. OK, he needed to learn Arabic for his academic work (presumably he already knows Portuguese?). You don’t need to go to the UAE to learn it. There are probably a hundred or two students at Kent who would be willing to tutor him, not to mention taking classes with KSU colleague Fetna Mikati. And the Army teaches it…not that I’d wish the Army to employ Prof. Pino. Now, perhaps Jameson is right that KSU would be more forgiving about a trip to Oxford. That might have been the case in 1942 as well … but a trip to Tokyo to learn Japanese would have probably brought a treason trial. I hope that Pino spent some time on last week’s infidel holiday thanking Allah for the mercy of American Academia and the fact that he still has a job.

Akron de-ices roads with sugar beet waste

This stuff is better for the environment and roads than calcium chloride and works down to -60. And it’s another market for sugar companies. Maybe with this, we can get rid of the damned sugar subsidies.

Be gay, save 10%

WorldNetDaily is predictably up in arms over Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air holiday promotion to gays. Certainly, if the shoe were on the other foot and GLBTs were being charged 10% more because of their sexual orientation, we’d never hear the end of it. And the very soft launch of this deals suggests that Alaska Airlines knows that it won’t fly with the bulk of its customers.

I prefer to look on it as an opportunity. I mean, all you have to do is buy your tickets through a web page; it’s not like you have to prove you’re gay (and how do you do that?). I don’t think I’d convince anyone in person; I have never in 52 years been hit on by another male, and it’s certainly not for lack of contact with gays. Maybe somebody will join the Mile High Club, (with, hopefully, the same penalties as straights), but I’m “positive” I could fend off attention for a day, if you get my drift.

NC’s comedy colleges must let Pancho in

North Carolina’s community college system has ordered its 58 schools to admit illegal immigrants, overturning policies established at more than one-third of the heavily enrolled colleges.David Sullivan, the system’s top lawyer, dispatched a memo November 7 telling the community colleges that state regulations require the schools to admit undocumented applicants who meet the basic requirements of either graduating from high school or being 18 years of age.

There’s nothing saying they can’t drop a dime to Immigration, though. Actually, by this ruling, they’d have to let (other) wanted criminals in too. Maybe the same folks providing fake IDs can do high school transcripts too if they’re missing.

You VILL be vell!

John Edwards wants to make sure universal health care is truly universal:

“Basically every time they come into contact with either the healthcare system or the government, whether it’s payment of taxes, school, going to the library, whatever it is they will be signed up.”

When asked by a reporter if an individual decided they didn’t want healthcare Edwards quickly responded, “You don’t get that choice.”

Clue to Edwards: I always have the right to refuse health care. The choice the government and its minions gets is whether I die alone, or others die with me.

Thanks to Boortz.

Papa Ratzi wants music

The Pope is cleaning house in the Vatican musical establishment. He’s replaced his liturgy director, and may replace his choir director, because:

The International Church Music Review recently criticised the choir, saying: “The singers wanted to overshout each other, they were frequently out of tune, the sound uneven, the conducting without any artistic power, the organ and organ playing like in a second-rank country parish church.”

I see things haven’t changed much since the mid-16th century, when the choir was filled with political appointees and guys who should have retired. I heard snippets from the last papal funeral, and it wasn’t pretty.

He has also broken with the tradition set up by John Paul II of having a rotating choir, drawn from churches all over the world, to sing Mass in St Peter’s.

Oy! Vatican City as choral tourism destination? I’m sure it’s a thrill for the singers to meet the Pope, but I notice that JPII didn’t rotate physicians from all over Christendom to treat him. The bottom-up model of church music might work on a parish level, but it can only go so far.

Of course, Gregorian chant is absolutely primary, and that’s being addressed. What’s a little odd here is the mention of Baroque music specifically, which makes me want to seek out what the Holy Father himself has actually said. (I didn’t find it here.) It’s only been within the past decade or two that baroque Catholic church music has been revived. There are treasures there, to be sure, and it’s part of the Church’s patrimony. But the more I hear of it, the less impressed I am with it as service music, though it has other virtues. The Motu Proprio of 1903 was aimed at music influenced by the bel canto tradition, which is at root a Baroque thing. Some of this music is only about praising God for the human throat, and music can do more. The main aesthetic difference between the music of Johann Adolf Hasse and Marty Haugen is that one actually needs to be able to sing (and sing well) to do Hasse.

Now, Benedict hasn’t asked my advice, but I’m going to give it anyway. St. Peter’s needs to be a liturgical example. Everything needs to be done at the highest level, and that liturgy needs to be broadcast to the world regularly. There needs to be a Catholic equivalent of the Lessons and Carols from King’s College, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcasts. Parishes will look to Rome for liturgy as well as theology (How can you separate them?) and should be able to experience what “doing it right” means. They may not achieve the same results, but the attempt will improve matters immensely.

To this end, the Pope needs his own R. R. Terry, an inspired and inspiring leader. Next, he needs a professional choir. It doesn’t need to be big; 9 layclerks could do it. But it needs to be top-notch, which means it probably can’t be Italian. Sorry, but the Italians have only begun to figure out how to perform early music in the last decade or so, and it would be easier to import English or Germans. This means they need to be paid, and paid well. Getting the Church to come up off the dime has been a problem, especially in a time when secular courts hold the Church responsible for what went on in individual priest’s pants. But paying such a choir at the rate of a 2nd tier European orchestra would probably cost less per year than one of John Paul’s junkets. It’s not important that the individual singers be Catholic, though that is desirable. The director must be though. An alternative to this might be having an ensemble in residence, such as the deal that Ensemble Cinquecento has with St. Rochus of Vienna. What would it cost to have the Tallis Scholars there for a year, assuming the members would be willing to relocate and do daily services? What would it do for such an ensemble’s understanding of the music? It seems like a win-win situation to me.

UPDATE: And here’s a Protestant doing the same thing.

Swift justice in Summit Co.

Wow, most lynch mobs aren’t even this efficient:

A Summit County judge sentenced a Twinsburg man and his mother in the strangling murder of the man’s wife this morning.

Alas, the actual murder happened over two years ago, and it was Laura Johnston or the headline writer who was rushing to judgment.

Ron Paul endorsed by whorehouse owner

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Seriously, why wouldn’t a Nevada brothel owner support somebody who on principle wants his trade to be legal across the country? This is less soiling that oil men or Blackwater employees supporting Bush. Paul isn’t going to pay for hookers.

What’s your problem, America?

Kulas gets a tiny taste of Katrina

I got the message last night at 7:30, the message every librarian dreads: there’s been water damage in your library. In our case, the new heating line put in this summer sprang a leak over some LPs and older electronics. It’s still not fixed, just shut off, leaving that whole side of the entire building a bit cool. We were blessed in a way; we only had one column of records damaged, because a box had collapsed above and formed a gutter sending water out toward the middle of the aisle.

When I came in, there were LPs propped everywhere to dry: on all tables (held up with bookends), along all walls. Fans were going and the audio room door was unlocked, which is unheard of here. Damage varied. Many records were unscathed (including most of our old Reflexe early-music recordings), some inundated (Russell Oberlin). Most of the single LPs had a plastic jacket protector taped over them. This was wonderful if just a little water splashed, but if they got soaked, the plastic held the water in, and the album covers were sticking to the plastic, so we couldn’t take it off. It was the first day after break, and near exams, so we were busier than usual, so the first order of business was to reclaim some study space. I went around finding the OK LPs and parking them on empty bits of shelving in the journal section. My boss came in early, and finally our preservation expert came over to survey the damage. They investigated the various options (freeze-drying etc.) and the plan finally arrived at was to take every LP out of its jacket, have University Printing copy all text, and glue/insert into new LP covers. This was partly because of available manpower (almost too late to freeze already), partly because of available money (the university is self-insured). It will be a PITA because records will have to be matched to notes, but it’s manageable. So we spent the afternoon patting vinyl dry, wrapping it in paper, and boxing it, while jackets went in a different box. We were only 1/3 done when I left, so there will surely be more fun tomorrow. It was all doable; I can’t imaging what those folks at Tulane went through. We shouldn’t lose any content (some of the material is unique; I did original cataloging on it summer before last), and CRI and Folkways are replaceable. Box sets with glossy-paper libretti are going to lose them; they stick themselves shut at the first hint of water. But unlike CDs, many LPs (especially older ones) had plain paper inserts (in the case of Folkways, VERY plain)

More tomorrow, maybe, if I get the time.

UPDATE 11/27. Got ‘er done, around 4:30: 356 LPs to rejacket. A guy from the plumbing contractor was here (a half hour late) to view the scene, and supposedly it will be fixed tomorrow. Dr. Davis left because her office was cold (and she has a leak over her desk, but from the roof.) Tomorrow should get back to normal. I have some URLs sandbagged to blog on. And tomorrow AM, before I go in, I plant the trees I received last night.

The Quick homestead: a pictorial biography

“Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother’s house we go…”

I put it on the other blog because it was all pictures and storage-heavy. “Biography”, not “history”, because a house is a living thing.