Here and There, In Absentia

Yesterday was the funeral for Congressman Robert Matsui (D-California), who died suddenly of a blood illness last week. The LA Times, quite correctly, remembered him as having"epitomized an ideal of public service that has largely vanished in a partisan Congress." In a Congress becoming less and less known for individual initiative, Matsui's loss is particularly hard.

Nice to see that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has his priorities straight: on a"fact-finding" mission to Sri Lanka, he and his staff took up two of the five military helicopters available for relief efforts; he then concluded his visit by having staffers photo him, with the following advice:"Get some devastation in the back."

An on-line petition supporting academic freedom at Columbia now has over 800 signatures (including mine). An effort of the newly established group Columbians for Academic Freedom, the petition supports"a zero-tolerance policy toward any harassment and abuse of professorial power in the classroom and on campus, with clear and effective consequences for those who violate the policy" and"diversification of the Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures department for the sake of academic integrity and intellectual diversity." It's worth a signature.

The New York Times wonders why everyone suddenly wants to go to Bhutan.

The Arab media is offering its version of fair and balanced coverage of the tsunami.

The BBC went ahead with its Jerry Springer--The Opera broadcast, to the anticipated protests.

Several of her readers (this one included) want more from Erin O'Connor on her argument that"academe is one microculture whose inner workings [Tom Wolfe, in his latest novel] badly bungled."

And, for those needing a lesson in overcoming discouragement, give a thought to the Hartford Hawks basketball team. Earlier this week, Hartford fell to BU 73-22. They had more turnovers (24) than points, and didn't have a basket in the last 15 minutes, scoring the lowest point total in the history of the conference. Yet Saturday they came back with not only a win but a comfortable one, over Maryland-Baltimore County. Of course, I don't think we'll be seeing UMBC in the NCAA tournament this spring.