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In the past few months, several faculty groups formed to finally push back on the illiberal forces that are undermining the core educational goals of inquiry and teaching developments, and these developments should be lauded and supported.
The post The Faculty Strikes Back appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

Why didn't university president Gregory Washington speak up?

George has discovered another thing that is murdering us all in our beds as we live ever longer lives in ever better health. Now it's ammonia: Many rural people will be surprised to see how polluted their air is, but that's because the media seldom mention the major source of these particles: ammonia from farms. A study by researchers at University College London found that even in cities, ammonia from farms produces more particulate pollution than the cities themselves do. Farm ammonia contributes 25% of the PM2.5s in London, 32% in Birmingham and 38% in Leicester, while these cities generate from 13-24% of their own PM2.5 pollution (the rest blows in from mainland Europe or comes from construction and road traffic outside the city, shipping emissions and dust from distant deserts).Well, yes, although the paper we've found indicates that farms and ammonia aren't the source of the particles, they are what allow the particles to form out of dust and so on. But OK, let's run with George. It is true that very few areas of the world meet the standards for non-pollution: We explore if this guideline is attainable across different regions of the world using a series of model sensitivity simulations for 2019. Our results indicate that >90% of the global population is exposed to PM2.5 concentrations that exceed the 5 μg m–3 guideline and that only a few sparsely populated regions (largely in boreal North America and Asia) experience annual average concentrations of <5 μg m–3. We find that even under an extreme abatement scenario, with no anthropogenic emissions, more than half of the world's population would still experience annual PM2.5 exposures above the 5 μg m–3 guideline (including >70% and >60% of the African and Asian populations, respectively), largely due to fires and natural dust. That is, the PMI 2.5 limit that WHO currently insists upon is something that's simply not achievable in a world which includes weathering - dust that is. As to why we've a limit so nonsensical that's just because WHO halved the limits recently.Yes, we do in fact mean this. The current guidelines, the ones that lead to those stories about 98% of Europeans being killed by air pollution, are based upon a standard that is not achievable even if there were no humans at all to produce pollution. We would suggest these standards are perhaps a little too strict. As in, ludicrous.At which point the most obvious point to make is that the ULEZ - or any more of them - is clearly nonsensical. The pollution isn't caused by the vehicles so limiting vehicles won't change the pollution. And don't forget that our proof here is direct from the pen of George Monbiot.We can, and should, go further though. As George says, if the pollution comes from both fertiliser (ammonium nitrate, that artificial stuff that keeps us alive by feeding us) and also from animal dung then we'll have to stop using both. That means, of course, no meat. But that also has a further effect. For if we can't use the usual fertiliser, and also we can't use animal dung because we haven't got any, then we're going to have to draw straws for the 90% of humanity who get to starve to death.Oh, and we'll also have to kill off that rewilding idea because we're going to have to use absolutely every scrap of land to feed the 800 million of us left after that cull. Because if we've not got fertiliser of any type then that's just the amount of land we're going to have to use - all of it. At which point perhaps it might be possible to inject some sense into the conversation. As always, everything is a series of trade offs. So, on the one hand we've air pollution standards the same as we had before Sept 2021. On the other hand, trying to meet this new standard, the death of 90% of humanity, the wiping out of every piece of nature that's not a food crop and even then we still cannot meet the standard because meteorology and geology - that dust. We suggest - just as a proposal you understand, a subject for discussion - putting the WHO back in its box and firing up the barbie for a steak. You all will be driving around to partake, yes?

Consensus July employment growth at 200K, June GDPNow rises 0.5% m/m, and GDPNow at 3.9% q/q AR. Figure 1: Nonfarm payroll employment, NFP (dark blue), civilian employment (orange), industrial production (red), personal income excluding transfers in Ch.2012$ (green), manufacturing and trade sales in Ch.2012$ (black), consumption in Ch.2012$ (light blue), and monthly GDP in Ch.2012$ […]

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted how far human health has been securitised, but this is just one event in the long and problematic relationship between the military and medicine. Their relationship is two-way, and modern medicine has influenced contemporary military security as we know it.

Friday's Inside Higher Ed (Ryan Quinn) article [UPDATE: link fixed] reported on this: The hiring process for a University of Washington psychology professor position titled "Diversity in Development" initially ranked a white person No. 1 out of 84 applicants, the university says in a report released this week. But psychology department faculty members then pressured one…

Jeffrey A. Singer


Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration issued a draft of proposed guidelines for clinical researchers conducting trials on psychedelic drugs. Even though the Drug Enforcement Administration categorizes psychedelic drugs as Schedule I (meaning that the law enforcement agency has determined they have "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse"), clinical researchers have known for decades that psychedelic drugs can help treat a variety of mental health disorders.
Government‐​approved Phase 3 clinical trials of the psychedelic MDMA* (colloquially called "molly" or "ecstasy") show the drug can be effective in treating post‐​traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). News reports claim the FDA is expected to approve the drug for PTSD treatment later this year. Regulators in Australia approved it last February. The FDA recently approved a clinical trial using MDMA to treat schizophrenia. Psilocybin, the psychedelic found in "magic mushrooms," has been shown helpful in treating tobacco addiction, depression, and suicidal ideation, particularly in patients receiving palliative end‐​of‐​life care. Research dating back to the 1950s finds that LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) shows promise in treating anxiety, depression, addiction, and psychosomatic diseases. Of course, none of this matters if the DEA doesn't agree to reschedule these drugs and continues asserting they have "no currently accepted medical use." Accepted by whom?
Generally, when the FDA approves a controlled substance for medical use the Secretary of Health and Human Services must next formally request the DEA reschedule the drug. The DEA then has 90 days to issue an interim final rule. But the DEA doesn't have to follow the health care agencies' recommendations.
In 1985 the DEA placed MDMA on Schedule I as an emergency action. Clinicians and clinical researchers challenged the decision and, in a 1986 hearing, provided mountains of scientific evidence that convinced administrative law judge Francis L. Young to conclude:
If the Administrator of DEA carefully considers the entire record now provided in this proceeding, there is no reason why he cannot come to the informed decision the law requires of him as the Agency head. Needless to say, nothing in this opinion is to be taken as being in any way critical of the Agency's emergency scheduling of MDMA which became effective on July 1, 1985. That action was taken pursuant to certain statutory authority with which this proceeding is not concerned. That action was wholly unilateral, reflecting a view based on evidence then available to the Agency but without opportunity for the presentation of countervailing evidence or argument. This proceeding, a wholly separate process, has provided that opportunity. A complete record, with input from different perspectives, has now been assembled for the benefit of the Administrator, the head of the Agency. The record now assembled contains much more material about MDMA than the Agency was aware of when it initiated this proceeding by publishing a notice almost two years ago.Based upon this record it is the recommended decision of the administrative law judge that the substance 3, 4‑methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as MDMA, should be placed in Schedule III.Dated: MAY 22 1986 Francis L Young, Administrative Law Judge

Judge Young vacated the DEA's decision to place MDMA on Schedule I, placing it on Schedule III ("moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence"). One month later, Acting DEA Administrator John Lawn overruled the administrative law judge and moved MDMA back to Schedule I, stating that, though expert clinical researchers presented over 200 cases of MDMA‐​assisted psychotherapy at the hearing, none of them had been published in medical journals.
Think of all the research that has been stifled, and all the lives that could have been saved or improved, if Administrator Lawn had not made that fateful decision.
And it's not just psychedelics. Who can state with a straight face that cannabis has "no accepted medical use?"
Thus, even if the FDA approves MDMA to treat PTSD and other mental health disorders, clinicians and patients will still have to wait for a law enforcement agency to sign off on the decision. And this is not just a federal law enforcement decision. Each state has its own controlled substance system patterned after the federal system. According to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), 27 states have laws that require parity with the federal controlled substances schedule. In those cases, the states automatically reschedule controlled substances to conform with a DEA rescheduling. But the remaining 23 states require lawmakers or regulators to make their controlled substance schedules conform.
Recently Representatives Dan Crenshaw, Morgan Luttrell, and Jack Bergman–all military veterans– introduced the "Mike Day Psychedelic Therapy to Save Lives Act," which would provide federal grants for research into using MDMA to treat PTSD and traumatic brain injury patients. It is gratifying to see lawmakers begin to appreciate the potential benefits of psychedelics.
But law enforcement is in command of the war on drugs. Unless Congress acts, we will continue to see cops practicing medicine. And the people—veterans and non‐​veterans— will continue to suffer.
*3,4‑methylenedioxymethamphetamine

The principles set out in the Atlantic Charter eighty years ago remain key to the global vision shared by the UK and US. But its terms also contained the roots of international tensions that persist today: for example in relation …

BY MIKE MAGEE In George Packer's classic 2013 New Yorker article titled "Change the World: Silicon Valley transfers its slogans – and its money – to the realm of politics," there isContinue reading...

By Nihan Bozok. This essay, which is based on a letter written by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689 – 1762), tells the story of a group of elderly women who collaborated to vaccinate their communities against smallpox in the 17th century in the Ottoman Empire.

Hello listeners! This is a rebroadcast of Episode 2 of Transmissions, a new podcast I've been involved with lately. Transmissions is the official podcast of the Class Unity Caucus of the DSA, and I want to thank them for their permission to use this episode.



Our guest for this episode is George Hoare, co-host of the Bungacast (neé Aufebunga Bunga) podcast, and co-author along with Alex Hochuli and Philip Cunliffe, of The End of the End of History (Zero Books, 2021).



In this episode, we begin with a discussion of Francis Fukuyama's concept of the end of history, and how many intellectuals misread it as a 'triumphalist' celebration of American victory in the Cold War. The better argument, according to Hoare et al., is that Fukuyama was talking not just about the birth of a new era of liberal freedom, but of the dawning of an epoch of gloom - one which would bring disappointments to many of its more enthusiastic advocates.



We also discuss the war in Ukraine. So far, in western media at least, accounts of the causes of this war seem to rest upon simplistic caricatures of Putin's flawed personality. Yet these accounts are contested, and a well-reasoned minority opinion suggests the deeper issue is NATO expansionism. Given that the West is typically used to getting its own way, to what extent is the Russian invasion of Ukraine a kind of reality check for neoliberal technocracy? While the invasion of Ukraine is illegal and monstrous, can it be understood as marking the return of politics?



As the interview progresses, we touch on numerous core concepts from the book, including the anti-political turn - also known as the "return of dissensus." This turn was perhaps nowhere more clearly on display that in the 2016 election of Donald Trump. For Hoare et al, this moment occasioned the breakout across the United States of what they term 'Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome' (NOBS). However, argue the Bunga crew, it was not without its historic antecedents. And, in some ways, we can see the effects of NOBS already at play in the politics surrounding Silvio Berlusconi's rise to power in Italy, in the 1990s.



We also push back a little on Hoare in the interview, challenging some of the book's characterizations of the limits of left-populism. While it is undoubtedly true, as Hoare et al. contend, that left-populism is anti-political in the sense that it has no theory of adequate "authority," and that left-populist leaders like AOC and Bernie have failed thus far "to key into the agency of their own citizens," we put it to him that this may be more of a bug than a feature. After all, as Thomas Frank and others have argued in recent times, there is a long and venerable history of left populist success, in the United States.



Other topics addressed include the applicability of the book's arguments to the recent Canadian trucker rally against covid vaccination requirements, and contemporary debates around "techno-populism."



We hope you'll enjoy this discussion. If you want to find out more about Class Unity, here are some useful links:



Website: https://classunity.orgTwitter: https://twitter.com/ClassUnityDSAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClassUnity/



Your hosts for this episode are Nicholas Kiersey, Steph K, and Dave F.

College faculty can bolster their support of the embattled Jewish student community on campus by simply encouraging and openly allowing their students to take time off to celebrate Judaism and their faith as they wish.
The post To Jewish Faculty, Support Your Students on the High Holy Days appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

Surprise guests are a feature of the president's State of the Union address. A big surprise for the 2024 address was the presence of expelled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y. How was he allowed to attend in the House chamber?

We live in turbulent times. Globalized challenges like climate change, pandemics, migration, and supply chain disruptions are rising in urgency. With these and other challenges in mind, in June 2023, Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and the LSE Phelan US Centre convened the Lloyd George Study Group on Global Governance. For this episode of … Continued

"His political restraint ensured the flourishing of a well-designed constitution. This is a victory citizens of many countries have yet to claim from their governments." ~ Luis Carlos Araujo Quintero & Nikolai G. Wenzel