Martha's Vineyard Summer Rental

This birdhouse is available this summer.

Viewpoint Diversity

The Wall Street Journal ~ John Cuneo

Amy Wax, a law school professor, has been running the gauntlet of political correctness erected by the dean and her colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Wax's problems began when she and Larry Alexander, a law professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, bylined an op-ed, Paying the price for the breakdown of the country's bourgeois culture, in the Philadelphia Inquirer last August.

Wax and Alexander suggested that tenets of bourgeois culture after World War 2 like marriage before (and after) children, faith, hard work, patriotism, service, and charity were the things that helped ensure success and bind a nation toward common purpose and progress.

"The culture laid out the script we all were supposed to follow: Get married before you have children and strive to stay married for their sake. Get the education you need for gainful employment, work hard, and avoid idleness. Go the extra mile for your employer or client. Be a patriot, ready to serve the country. Be neighborly, civic-minded, and charitable. Avoid coarse language in public. Be respectful of authority. Eschew substance abuse and crime."

These opinions earned Wax an open letter from 33 of her law school colleagues who accused her of attacking the school with racist views, and invited students to report her for any further stereotyping and bias. The dean then piled on and asked Wax to take a leave of absence and no longer teach a required first-year course.

Such ideological confirmation bias and echo chambers are becoming the norm on campuses as evidenced by Jonathan Haidt's work examining viewpoint diversity and freedom of expression, as well as the work of Canadian Jordan Peterson. Next up? Workplaces like Google.

Ultra-Violence

Anthony Burgess was right. So is Dan Cretu.

Dan Cretu

Stock Volatility

Lars Kenseth ~ The New Yorker

The White Patriarchy

Peter Simon ~ Vineyard Gazette

Road Maps

When I was a boy I loved to study maps. Old maps, local maps, interstate maps, the spinning Replogle globe that sat in the middle of a family room coffee table, and especially the big blue hardcover book of world maps published by National Geographic. After I learned to drive in the mid-1970s, I used Rand McNally's Road Atlas to plan my travels throughout New England. What remained elusive were directions to "last mile" destinations like museums, parks, stores, and private homes. Getting to these places often required stops at the gas station to get turn-by-turn directions.

This 1940 film, Caught Mapping, from General Motors' Chevrolet division, tells the story behind map making.

"Presto! And right at their fingertips, the modern motorist can have an information bureau for any road they may wish to take."



GPS technology has changed the game through onboard GPS maps with audio cues in our vehicles and Google Maps on smartphones. It's certainly easier and safer, but learning to read and use a roadmap is now a lost skill that engaged both driver and navigator, and taught us to be more mindful while driving and aware of our surroundings.

The Starry Night

Jupiter's northern hemisphere cloud cover captured last October by NASA's Juno spacecraft from a height of 11,747 miles.