Judith Butler is apparently at the center of the latest academic freedom/BDS shitstorm.

…Next week, two leading voices of B.D.S., which stands for “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions,” are scheduled to speak at the college at an event cosponsored by a student group and the college’s political science department, prompting a furious response from pro-Israel groups on campus and others who say the department’s sponsorship amounts to tacit endorsement.

“You do not have a right, and should not put the name of Brooklyn College on hate,” said William C. Thompson Jr., the former city comptroller, who is running for mayor, at a news conference with more than a dozen elected officials, students and B.D.S. opponents outside the campus on Thursday. “They should be heard, but not with the official stamp of this college.”

The department’s decision — made after a vote by its professors — has brought condemnation and praise.

On one side are Alan Dershowitz, the prominent Harvard Law School professor, who published a columnin The Huffington Post criticizing the sponsorship as academically biased, and the Anti-Defamation League; on the other are a left-leaning group, Jewish Voices for Peace, and leaders of the college and its parent, the City University of New York.

Supporters of the department argue that whatever their personal distaste for B.D.S.’s views, academic freedom and freedom of speech allow the college to host controversial guests. (The two speakers, Judith Butler, a philosopher, and Omar Barghouti, are cosponsored by several student and nonstudent groups in addition to the department.)…

Local politicians are making threatening noises about the college’s continued public support.

(h/t Corey Robin)

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…purposivism rests on the assumption that interpretation should proceed as if a reasonable person were framing coherent legislative policy. But measured against the true workings of the legislative process, that is an unreasonable optimistic view.
John F. Manning, “What Divides Textualists from Purposivists?”, 106 Columbia Law Review 70, 102.
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We are told that Turkey needs these frigates because it is in a dangerous neighborhood, that it shares a border with Iran. Where exactly on the Turkey-Iran border do we anticipate these frigates will be deployed? The last time there were oceangoing vessels in Anatolia, it was Noah’s Ark.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) on the floor of the house, just now. Sometimes CSPAN is actually amusing.
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… and education is like liberty: it isn´t given, it´s taken
Jacques Rancière: The Ignorant Schoolmaster. 1991. (via punku)
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It seems to me that, just as ‘peak oil’ refers to the “the point in time when the maximum rate of petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production is expected to enter terminal decline,” so ‘peak pale’ ought to refer to the point in time when the maximum relative rate of white vote extraction is reached by the GOP, after which the party’s rate of election is expected to enter terminal decline.
John Holbo, via Crooked Timber