John Lewis told me that I could post this announcement about some significant changes in his life. He writes:

I received tenure, and promotion to Associate Professor of History, at Ashland University. I will be on academic leave next year at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center of Bowling Green State University, to complete my book Nothing Less than Victory: Military Offense and the Lessons of History under contract with Princeton University Press. I will participate in graduate seminars, including one on Political Economy that includes a section on Ayn Rand.

Casey is taking a job at Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina, in IT, to implement patient records systems in some 90 outpatient clinics. I will join here there in May of 2008. I have resigned Ashland effective May, 2008 (after my leave); my days dealing with small people at a small school are over. If anyone owns a University in NC, and needs a History professor, they should contact me.

As you might imagine, these tidbits are just the tip of the iceberg. The details are culturally significant, so I hope that John writes about them at some point.

Speaking of culturally significant, Nick Provenzo has two posts (one brief and one long) on John Lewis’ initially-canceled-then-rescheduled lecture at George Mason University on Islamic totalitarianism. It was… er… exciting. You can hear that for yourself in the audio recording of the lecture.

[From the Science Notes blog.]

Customer: Hello. I wish to complain about this so-called ‘scientific theory’ what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very establishment.

Salesman: Oh yes, ‘Intelligent Design’. What, uh… what’s wrong with it?

Customer: I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it, my lad. Its vacuous, that’s what’s wrong with it!

Salesman: No, no, uh… what we need now is to ‘teach the controversy’…

Customer: Look matey, I know an empty ‘argument from incredulity’ when I see one, and I’m looking at one right now.

Salesman: No, no, it’s not empty: it’s just being elaborated. Remarkable theory, ‘Intelligent Design’, innit, eh? I mean, just look at all these books and articles: millions and millions of words…!

Customer: The verbiage don’t enter into it, my lad. It’s stone dead. It’s a non-starter. Empirically untestable, it belongs in metaphysics. This ‘theory’ makes no predictions; has no contribution to make beyond extended polemics; and can’t even be honest about who it thinks the ‘Designer’ was. Bereft of all logical and epistemological credibility, it has no scientific status! If certain right-wing and fundamentalist pressure-groups hadn’t hit upon it as a way of opposing decades of uncomfortable scientific and social progress, it’d be pushing up daisies! It’s off the table. It’s kicked the waste-paper bucket. THIS IS A NON-THEORY!

Salesman: Well, I’d better replace it then. [takes a quick peek around] Sorry, squire: looks like that’s all we’ve got…

Customer: I see, I see. I get the picture.

Salesman: I’ve got a piece of coal that looks quite a bit like a human tibia, if you squint at it…

Customer: Pray, is it part of a theory that unifies the paleontological and biological sciences and leads to a powerful understanding of observed homologies and the nested hierarchy of life?

Salesman: Not really.

Customer: WELL IT’S HARDLY A BLOODY REPLACEMENT FOR DARWINISM THEN, IS IT?

Christopher Emmorey tried to rob a bank by “demanding that the teller give him $5,000 and telling her he had a gun in his pocket.”

The fiscally responsible teller told Emmorey she could only give him $200, and told Emmorey there would be a $5 transaction fee because Emmorey was not a client at the bank.

…Emmorey waited patiently as the teller filled out the appropriate paper work before running out of the bank with $195.

By that time, other bank tellers were alerted to the ongoing robbery.

Emmorey wasn’t wearing a disguise and his videotaped image was recognized by police officers who responded to the call.

(Via Fark.)

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