The Joy of Being Covered in Plastic By Uncle Len, the Plastic Fantastic

     Uncle Len is a bit like the Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett, a minimalist, releasing works, brief works, like diamonds. Well, probably more like plastic:

   https://amp.nine.com.au/article/be6696ee-ad1f-4a1f-bd88-719e50359c38 

“A couple has been pictured wrapped head to toe in plastic on a domestic flight in Australia, with many presuming it was an attempt to avoid contracting the COVID-19 coronavirus. Twitter user Alyssa shared the video on social media, which has been viewed more than 47k times. She said in the caption: "Currently behind me on the plane. When you super scared of #coronavirus #COVID2019." The video shows the couple in their seats, with a woman wrapped in a pink plastic outfit wearing a face mask, while her companion is wearing a white plastic sheet with holes cut out for his arms and legs, as well as a face mask. The flight was travelling between Sydney and Hamilton Island in Australia, which has 15 confirmed cases of coronavirus. Some social media users thought the DIY hazmat suits were an excellent idea, and replied to the video. "Actually they are the smart ones the rest are being contaminated inside the plane because of air filtration is not the best inside a plane..." said one Twitter user. Another person added: "Maybe we should all be like this guy. Perhaps he's the smart one here." I must concur with this. Wearing complete plastic body armour against the black death is the way to go, since the virus has been found in poo, and who knows, who knows. So, from now on I will be wearing complete cover-all green garbage bags that I got from Coles (actually I took it from some dumped rubbish), the type that go in wheelie bins.

If it is good enough for the rubbish, then it is good enough for me! Professor Professes on the Threats of the Universities By James Reed An impeccable source, a professor, Professor Walter Williams, professing on an issue dear to my heart … what is there not to like? http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams021920.php3  “A recent Pew Research Center survey finds that only half of American adults think colleges and universities are having a positive effect on our nation. The leftward political bias, held by faculty members affiliated with the Democratic Party, at most institutions of higher education explains a lot of that disappointment. Professors Mitchell Langbert and Sean Stevens document this bias in "Partisan Registration and Contributions of Faculty in Flagship Colleges." Langbert and Stevens conducted a new study of the political affiliation of 12,372 professors in the two leading private and two leading public colleges in 31 states. For party registration, they found a Democratic to Republican (D:R) ratio of 8.5:1, which varied by rank of institution and region. For donations to political candidates (using the Federal Election Commission database), they found a D:R ratio of 95:1, with only 22 Republican donors, compared with 2,081 Democratic donors. Several consistent findings have emerged from Langbert and Stevens' study. The ratio of faculty who identify as or are registered as Democratic versus Republican almost always favors the Democratic Party.

Democratic professors outnumber their Republican counterparts most in the humanities and social sciences, compared with the natural sciences and engineering. The ratio is 42:1 in anthropology, 27:1 in sociology and 27:1 in English. In the social sciences, Democratic registered faculty outnumber their Republican counterparts the least in economics 3:1. The partisan political slant is most extreme at the most highly rated institutions. The leftist bias at our colleges and universities has many harmful effects. Let's look at a few. At University of California, Davis, last month, a mathematics professor faced considerable backlash over her opposition to the requirement for faculty "diversity statements." University of California, San Diego, requires job applicants to admit to the "barriers" preventing women and minorities from full participation in campus life. At American University, a history professor recently wrote a book in which he advocates repealing the Second Amendment. A Rutgers University professor said, "Watching the Iowa Caucus is a sickening display of the over-representation of whiteness." University of California, Berkeley, professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich chimed in to say: "Think about this: Iowa is 90.7% white. Iowa is now the only state with a lifetime voting ban for people with a felony conviction. Black people make up 4% of Iowa's population but 26% of the prison population. How is this representative of our electorate?" A Williams College professor said he would advocate for social justice to be included in math textbooks. Students at Wayne State University no longer have to take a single math course to graduate; however, they may soon be required to take a diversity course. Then there's a question about loyalty to our nation. Charles Lieber, former chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard, was arrested earlier this year on accusations that he made a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement about work he did for a program run by the Chinese government that seeks to lure American talent to China. He was paid $50,000 a month and up to $158,000 in living expenses for his work, which involved cultivating young teachers and students, according to court documents. According to the Department of Justice, Lieber helped China "cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China's scientific development, economic prosperity and national security."

     I am pleased to see articles continuing to critique the point of the modern university, given all of the harms it has produced. If one had a business that as a by-product realised disease and rodents into the community, health officials would promptly shut it down. The same metaphor applies to the modern universities and academics across the West. I will attack them to my dying breathe, and I was never an academic, only a student. That was enough to scar me for life!