Oh! The grand old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And he marched them down again

(Chorus)
And when they were up they were up
And when they were down they were down
And when they were only half way up
They were neither up nor down

Oh! The grand old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men
They banged their drums as they went up the hill
And they banged them down again

Oh! The grand old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men
They tootled their flutes as they marched up the hill
And they tootled them down again.

Well, the Emory University Faculty Council marched up the hill to a vote on revoking the provision in the university speech code under which students, faculty members, administrators, and departments can be sanctioned and the council marched itself down again by tabling the motion and seeking further advice. For more on the story, see: the Emory Wheel and Erin O'Connor's Critical Mass.

Subscribers to H-Scholar, a listserv for"independent scholars," learn all sorts of interesting things. Recently there's been a discussion of the cleaning of Michelangelo's David. No great surprise in the 500th year since his creation. It was surprising that a contributor to H-Scholar recalled when she last saw Michelangelo's masterpiece that"it was noticeably filthy, with a large cobweb dangling from his most private body part." What a poor representation of that mighty member, once so active and fruitful. See: II Samuel 3:2-5; and II Samuel 11-12.

Winnfield, Louisiana's"Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame" will induct a new class of honorees on 31 January. All previous honorees who are not either pushing up daisies or still serving time in the slammer promise to be there.

In deference to the sensitivities of parts of its electorate which have not experienced sufficient"biological change over time," Georgia's Superintendent of Public Education, Kathy Cox, has proposed banning the word the"buzzword""evolution" from public education in biology. Former President Jimmy Carter thinks the proposal makes the state look foolish in the eyes of the world and might point to the evidence over at Crooked Timber. A Republican and former public school teacher, Cox owes much of her election to the popularity of Secretary of State Cathy Cox, a Democrat. Meanwhile, despite all the questions being raised about its reliability, C. Cox continues to assert her faith in the Diebold e-voting equipment in which she invested the state's money and future political direction. Of course, Diebold did invest in her political future, which apparently includes a race for governor. Lord help us.