Re: my answer of "probably not" to inquiry regarding whether college presidents should lose their jobs over the Congressional testimony on antisemitism. Rep. Elaine Stefanik's question was phrased a "damned if you do/damned if you don't" way. It was stated in such a way that any answer short of "ban all Palestinians from US campuses" would have been seen as antisemitic. Yes, the three presidents botched an answer that should have been prepared in advance. But a botched response to an impossible question should not cost you your job. Stefanik defined Palestinian slogans as potential "genocide," which may be true for a minor subset of Palestinians. But for a majority of the protestors, I think they were venting disgust at the tens of thousands of innocents who have been killed. Was Israel right to respond to the terrorist attacks? Absolutely. But they played right into Hamas's playbook when their response was to level Gaza. (Especially in light of the revelations that the Israeli government turned a blind eye to Qatar's support of Hamas and ignored warnings that an offensive was being planned.) Almost equally damaging is the idea that "Zionism=Racism." Maybe that is true for a minor subset of ultraconservative Jews. For the majority Zionism is the preservation of Israel as a Jewish homeland.
As a proud Zionist, I ALSO believe that the Palestinians have a right to a homeland. I hope that we can go back to the 1967 Armistice lines (the Green Line), with the exception of the largest West Bank settlements (to be traded for a part of the Negev) and the Western Wall. If we can have a real peace, then someday, the border can run between the Temple Mount (the Dome of the Rock area) and the Western Wall. For now, however, that would be an invitation for violence against worshippers at the Wall; for now, Israel must be in charge of security on the Temple Mount. Sadly, Jerusalem must be divided so Palestine can have its capital in East Jerusalem. Of course, this is only the opinion of one American Jewish woman.
Re: stamps -- you do not have to stand in line at the post office. You can go to USPS.com and order stamps for delivery to your home; the shipping cost is either very reasonable or free (unless you somehow need them overnight). If you are a person who cares about which stamps you use, the website has a full inventory and allows you to peruse the designs at your leisure, without holding up the line or being limited to whatever your local postmaster has in stock.
I am Jewish, and found the two jokes hilarious. By the way, bad manners among Israelis is rather like bad manners among New York City residents of all ethnicities — a matter of pride.
On to the real question: I am a Boomer, and a strong believer in free speech. I’m appalled by younger folks’ retort that the First Amendment doesn’t apply to private entities; for years, civil libertarians worked to increase the reach of what a court would deem government involvement, so that the private entities would also have to grant free speech rights.
Stefanik was playing “gotcha”. Advocating genocide would always violate codes of conduct, but advocating intifada would probably not, because advocating revolution for another country has a venerable history. (I’m always advocating that the Russians overthrow Putin, violently if necessary). To me, the real problem is that universities went from challenging people’s views to insisting that their whole campus had to be a “safe space.” Create private safe spaces where groups can go to talk, but make the campus as a whole a bastion of free speech.
As a Penn alum, I agree with Gene that the offense committed was not the policy but rather to be incompetent and unable to explain your answer (in fact, to not even try), and to instead hand Stefanik sound bites to fuel the controversy and anger your Board and alumni.
I know Magill's brother, who called me to brag about her when she got the job last year. "She got the brains in the family," he said. Perhaps, but not the common sense.
Stamps: After my father passed in a February, I - the Executor of the Estate - had to file his taxes, to include the IRS forms attesting to his demise, his death certificate and write/print DECEASED on each 1040 page. Despite using my Dad's TurboTax program, which actually provides all the proper deceased taxpayer forms, the IRS only accepts hard copy mailed in deceased taxpayer filings. Armed with my relatively fat 8x11 manila envelope, off I went to the nearest Post Office carrying another envelope of my pre Forever Stamps of varying denominations ($0.85 airmail to $0.01) I actually for a sympathetic (empathetic?) postal clerk who seemed to relish the challenge of piling on the required postage. At the end, we had a chance to use an 8 cent stamp, but it turned out we had enough 1 cent stamps to complete the mission. In our joint delight in kinda literally "Stick it to The Man", I'd say a significant portion of the envelope was a potpourri of stamp history, heavy on the one cent side.
Buracracy Story: The envelope of many stamps made its way to an IRS processing center as about a year later I got two official IRS letters in the mail addressed to my Dad (note, not the the Estate of Dad, but Dad himself). The first was a stern warning that he didn't file his taxes and all the penalties he could incur, up to and including jail time. My 1st thought was that maybe, just maybe, the envelope of many stamps didn't make it?? I opened the second, which informed my Dad that they needed to verify his identity as part of some fraud prevention program before the refund could be issued. I went to the indicated website to see what I needed to do, only to discover that the IRS identity police wanted the kind of documentation that those in the Great Beyond do not have, like a recent utility bill, as opposed to, say, the Death Certificate already in the IRS' possession. After many and ultimately futile attempts to use the IRS "Customer service" number, I admit I gave up as the amount of the refund really didn't impact Dad's Estate (which I know that I am lucky in that respect). I decided to ignore the IRS at my peril; what were they going to do? Repossess my Dad's ashes? And besides, I was in the midst of putting together the 1040 for the 2 months he was alive in the next tax year - hard copy again *sigh*. This time he was due a refund of about $75. About 8 months later, I got a check for circa $75 and no mention of the previous tax year. FWIW, every year for Christmas, my Dad would give me a check for $75 for "Opening Day Beer Money". I like to think that this was his way to give me one more baseball beer money check.
Gene, it's horrible, just horrible! that your friends tried to distract you while you were driving. So dangerous! So many people could have been killed, injured, bereft, etc.
Also were I in the car with you, freshman me would have been tickling you and trying to distract you. Kids - young adults, really - can be utterly stupid and lucky.
Regarding the stamps, old stamps can still be used, they're just at that old value, so to match the price for today (is it $0.70??) you would just have to add more stamps.
Stamp story: I was sending my sister a birthday card, but it was a square one so needed extra postage. I put on the stamp I had on hand, then a bunch of 1 cent stamps to get to where I needed to be. Then realized I'd used a .32 cent Alfred Hitchcock stamp and a bunch of .01 cent bird stamps! Secretly genius. But alas, because of all the stamps, the card had to be hand canceled and it was delivered after the birthday. And I'm sure no one realized what I had done.
Ahhh, the Cold War joke. I told that one here, shortly after becoming a member. Gene asked if I, 1., had stolen it from him; or, 2., was his brother. Neither. The joke is in fact told proudly by the Israelis themselves; I heard it during my first tour there, 1987-90. I’m glad to see the karmic circles tightening.
Second car break-in story. My spouse and I drove to a local pathway's parking area--a cul-de-sac adjacent to a fenced entrance. When we came back to our car an hour or so later, a side widow was smashed in and the following items were taken: The Hyundai first aid kit that is in a simulated leather case that the thief must have thought was a real leather satchel, and a bag full of reusable grocery bags, which the thief must have thought was a bag full of something valuable. The biggest loss was one of the grocery bags was my favorite, the periodic table of elements from Portland, OR's science museum. (Damage done: upwards of $2,000 for two items with a combined insured value of $75.)
So, you were able to shame 782 kind souls (most probably Losers to begin with) out of some unconscionable amount. And Pat got what ? A gift card to Mary's House of Depilation ? For the OP concerned about using non-Forever stamps, suggest you go all in on one letter and hope for the best. Insufficient postage appears no longer to be the main reason mail or packages now don't get delivered. Louis DeLay sorry, DeJoy, personally makes the call.
It turns out that I STILL do not have enough stamps. My dwindling supply of FOREVER stamps included a few from my late mother. It turns out that she cut stamps that had not been postmarked from the envelopes they came with. You can see, through the paper the stamps are pasted to, "Place Stamp Here." Well, God bless her parsimonious soul, but I am definitely not risking those stamps. To the post office I go.
My father liked to send out "mailings" of assorted literature to a group of purportedly interested recipients. He would collect a lot of interesting clippings and take them to what was then MailBoxes Etc. (now the UPS Store) and make 100 copies, then buy a box of 100 9x12 envelopes and a sheet of 100 stamps. He never used all of these on any one mailing, so when he died we inherited a lot of useless photocopies (discarded), a lot of 9x12 envelopes (gratefully appropriated by me), and a lot of stamps in various denominations (divided equally among us four children). Two of my brothers (one of them in Japan with no use for U.S. postage) sold the stamps for whatever they could get from a stamp dealer, but the third, more parsimonious brother and I used the stamps as long as we could, combining them to make up whatever the current postal rate was and supplemented by penny, tuppenny, and thruppenny stamps as needed. My husband and I hardly ever mail anything any more, and it got to be more trouble than it was worth, so I still have numerous full or partial sheets of 8-cent stamps (some of them probably worth more than face value now) and several mini-sheets (20 each) of the lesser values.
Definitely check their value, but not many even very old stamps are worth more than their face amount. I still mail things and use the smaller denominations to make the current rate. Kinda fun to put Elvis [young] with Frankenstein.
My take on the university presidents fiasco is that words have consequences, whatever their intention and however smugly wrapped in legal protection. So IMO --- it wasn't protected speech that was in play. It was pretty much common sense. Certainly epithets of all stripes are too readily tossed around in these emotionally raw times. The problem comes with passive acceptance or conversely, turning what could be a valuable "teaching moment" --- into a reprimand.
The problem comes with losing your job for a thought crime. We went through this in the 50's. It was horrible then, and it's horrible now. Can people hear themselves suggesting that colleges presidents should manage their testimony as though they were appearing in a Soviet kangaroo court? Where is Joseph Welch when we need him?
The fact is --- knowing who their Grand Inquisitor was going to be --- and yes , Stefanik was part of a "kangaroo court" ---they should have been better coached. They did respond accurately from a legal standpoint, but (naively ?) failed to incorporate emotional and political considerations in their answers. They could have condemned antisemitism vigorously out of hand and, at the same time, make clear that "bullying" and "harassment" require direct threats of one kind or another. A legalistic protected speech argument or response alone was never going to work and they should have known that going in. Sad, but unfortunately true, in this political climate.
Re: my answer of "probably not" to inquiry regarding whether college presidents should lose their jobs over the Congressional testimony on antisemitism. Rep. Elaine Stefanik's question was phrased a "damned if you do/damned if you don't" way. It was stated in such a way that any answer short of "ban all Palestinians from US campuses" would have been seen as antisemitic. Yes, the three presidents botched an answer that should have been prepared in advance. But a botched response to an impossible question should not cost you your job. Stefanik defined Palestinian slogans as potential "genocide," which may be true for a minor subset of Palestinians. But for a majority of the protestors, I think they were venting disgust at the tens of thousands of innocents who have been killed. Was Israel right to respond to the terrorist attacks? Absolutely. But they played right into Hamas's playbook when their response was to level Gaza. (Especially in light of the revelations that the Israeli government turned a blind eye to Qatar's support of Hamas and ignored warnings that an offensive was being planned.) Almost equally damaging is the idea that "Zionism=Racism." Maybe that is true for a minor subset of ultraconservative Jews. For the majority Zionism is the preservation of Israel as a Jewish homeland.
As a proud Zionist, I ALSO believe that the Palestinians have a right to a homeland. I hope that we can go back to the 1967 Armistice lines (the Green Line), with the exception of the largest West Bank settlements (to be traded for a part of the Negev) and the Western Wall. If we can have a real peace, then someday, the border can run between the Temple Mount (the Dome of the Rock area) and the Western Wall. For now, however, that would be an invitation for violence against worshippers at the Wall; for now, Israel must be in charge of security on the Temple Mount. Sadly, Jerusalem must be divided so Palestine can have its capital in East Jerusalem. Of course, this is only the opinion of one American Jewish woman.
Re: stamps -- you do not have to stand in line at the post office. You can go to USPS.com and order stamps for delivery to your home; the shipping cost is either very reasonable or free (unless you somehow need them overnight). If you are a person who cares about which stamps you use, the website has a full inventory and allows you to peruse the designs at your leisure, without holding up the line or being limited to whatever your local postmaster has in stock.
I love the casual throw-ins regarding the curry fiasco - makes me certain you are fine.
I am Jewish, and found the two jokes hilarious. By the way, bad manners among Israelis is rather like bad manners among New York City residents of all ethnicities — a matter of pride.
On to the real question: I am a Boomer, and a strong believer in free speech. I’m appalled by younger folks’ retort that the First Amendment doesn’t apply to private entities; for years, civil libertarians worked to increase the reach of what a court would deem government involvement, so that the private entities would also have to grant free speech rights.
Stefanik was playing “gotcha”. Advocating genocide would always violate codes of conduct, but advocating intifada would probably not, because advocating revolution for another country has a venerable history. (I’m always advocating that the Russians overthrow Putin, violently if necessary). To me, the real problem is that universities went from challenging people’s views to insisting that their whole campus had to be a “safe space.” Create private safe spaces where groups can go to talk, but make the campus as a whole a bastion of free speech.
Are we supposed to believe that it's a coincidence that every place you move to becomes a crime capital? Dan Sachs, Pineville, NC
Joke: Barkeep standard response: “He’s not here, who are you looking for?”
As a Penn alum, I agree with Gene that the offense committed was not the policy but rather to be incompetent and unable to explain your answer (in fact, to not even try), and to instead hand Stefanik sound bites to fuel the controversy and anger your Board and alumni.
I know Magill's brother, who called me to brag about her when she got the job last year. "She got the brains in the family," he said. Perhaps, but not the common sense.
Stamps: After my father passed in a February, I - the Executor of the Estate - had to file his taxes, to include the IRS forms attesting to his demise, his death certificate and write/print DECEASED on each 1040 page. Despite using my Dad's TurboTax program, which actually provides all the proper deceased taxpayer forms, the IRS only accepts hard copy mailed in deceased taxpayer filings. Armed with my relatively fat 8x11 manila envelope, off I went to the nearest Post Office carrying another envelope of my pre Forever Stamps of varying denominations ($0.85 airmail to $0.01) I actually for a sympathetic (empathetic?) postal clerk who seemed to relish the challenge of piling on the required postage. At the end, we had a chance to use an 8 cent stamp, but it turned out we had enough 1 cent stamps to complete the mission. In our joint delight in kinda literally "Stick it to The Man", I'd say a significant portion of the envelope was a potpourri of stamp history, heavy on the one cent side.
Buracracy Story: The envelope of many stamps made its way to an IRS processing center as about a year later I got two official IRS letters in the mail addressed to my Dad (note, not the the Estate of Dad, but Dad himself). The first was a stern warning that he didn't file his taxes and all the penalties he could incur, up to and including jail time. My 1st thought was that maybe, just maybe, the envelope of many stamps didn't make it?? I opened the second, which informed my Dad that they needed to verify his identity as part of some fraud prevention program before the refund could be issued. I went to the indicated website to see what I needed to do, only to discover that the IRS identity police wanted the kind of documentation that those in the Great Beyond do not have, like a recent utility bill, as opposed to, say, the Death Certificate already in the IRS' possession. After many and ultimately futile attempts to use the IRS "Customer service" number, I admit I gave up as the amount of the refund really didn't impact Dad's Estate (which I know that I am lucky in that respect). I decided to ignore the IRS at my peril; what were they going to do? Repossess my Dad's ashes? And besides, I was in the midst of putting together the 1040 for the 2 months he was alive in the next tax year - hard copy again *sigh*. This time he was due a refund of about $75. About 8 months later, I got a check for circa $75 and no mention of the previous tax year. FWIW, every year for Christmas, my Dad would give me a check for $75 for "Opening Day Beer Money". I like to think that this was his way to give me one more baseball beer money check.
Gene, it's horrible, just horrible! that your friends tried to distract you while you were driving. So dangerous! So many people could have been killed, injured, bereft, etc.
Also were I in the car with you, freshman me would have been tickling you and trying to distract you. Kids - young adults, really - can be utterly stupid and lucky.
Regarding the stamps, old stamps can still be used, they're just at that old value, so to match the price for today (is it $0.70??) you would just have to add more stamps.
Stamp story: I was sending my sister a birthday card, but it was a square one so needed extra postage. I put on the stamp I had on hand, then a bunch of 1 cent stamps to get to where I needed to be. Then realized I'd used a .32 cent Alfred Hitchcock stamp and a bunch of .01 cent bird stamps! Secretly genius. But alas, because of all the stamps, the card had to be hand canceled and it was delivered after the birthday. And I'm sure no one realized what I had done.
Gene --- Don't know if you wear ball caps but this one has your name written all over it.
https://th.bing.com/th?id=OPHS.SIlLMZdW3ntOQQ474C474&w=592&h=550&o=5&dpr=1.4&pid=21.1
I love Portland, ME enough to visit it regularly, but not enough to live there. If I lived there I wouldn't love it.
Ahhh, the Cold War joke. I told that one here, shortly after becoming a member. Gene asked if I, 1., had stolen it from him; or, 2., was his brother. Neither. The joke is in fact told proudly by the Israelis themselves; I heard it during my first tour there, 1987-90. I’m glad to see the karmic circles tightening.
Second car break-in story. My spouse and I drove to a local pathway's parking area--a cul-de-sac adjacent to a fenced entrance. When we came back to our car an hour or so later, a side widow was smashed in and the following items were taken: The Hyundai first aid kit that is in a simulated leather case that the thief must have thought was a real leather satchel, and a bag full of reusable grocery bags, which the thief must have thought was a bag full of something valuable. The biggest loss was one of the grocery bags was my favorite, the periodic table of elements from Portland, OR's science museum. (Damage done: upwards of $2,000 for two items with a combined insured value of $75.)
So, you were able to shame 782 kind souls (most probably Losers to begin with) out of some unconscionable amount. And Pat got what ? A gift card to Mary's House of Depilation ? For the OP concerned about using non-Forever stamps, suggest you go all in on one letter and hope for the best. Insufficient postage appears no longer to be the main reason mail or packages now don't get delivered. Louis DeLay sorry, DeJoy, personally makes the call.
It turns out that I STILL do not have enough stamps. My dwindling supply of FOREVER stamps included a few from my late mother. It turns out that she cut stamps that had not been postmarked from the envelopes they came with. You can see, through the paper the stamps are pasted to, "Place Stamp Here." Well, God bless her parsimonious soul, but I am definitely not risking those stamps. To the post office I go.
You can still use postage from long before the forever stamps existed, as per each amount on the face.
My father liked to send out "mailings" of assorted literature to a group of purportedly interested recipients. He would collect a lot of interesting clippings and take them to what was then MailBoxes Etc. (now the UPS Store) and make 100 copies, then buy a box of 100 9x12 envelopes and a sheet of 100 stamps. He never used all of these on any one mailing, so when he died we inherited a lot of useless photocopies (discarded), a lot of 9x12 envelopes (gratefully appropriated by me), and a lot of stamps in various denominations (divided equally among us four children). Two of my brothers (one of them in Japan with no use for U.S. postage) sold the stamps for whatever they could get from a stamp dealer, but the third, more parsimonious brother and I used the stamps as long as we could, combining them to make up whatever the current postal rate was and supplemented by penny, tuppenny, and thruppenny stamps as needed. My husband and I hardly ever mail anything any more, and it got to be more trouble than it was worth, so I still have numerous full or partial sheets of 8-cent stamps (some of them probably worth more than face value now) and several mini-sheets (20 each) of the lesser values.
Definitely check their value, but not many even very old stamps are worth more than their face amount. I still mail things and use the smaller denominations to make the current rate. Kinda fun to put Elvis [young] with Frankenstein.
Do the math
My take on the university presidents fiasco is that words have consequences, whatever their intention and however smugly wrapped in legal protection. So IMO --- it wasn't protected speech that was in play. It was pretty much common sense. Certainly epithets of all stripes are too readily tossed around in these emotionally raw times. The problem comes with passive acceptance or conversely, turning what could be a valuable "teaching moment" --- into a reprimand.
The problem comes with losing your job for a thought crime. We went through this in the 50's. It was horrible then, and it's horrible now. Can people hear themselves suggesting that colleges presidents should manage their testimony as though they were appearing in a Soviet kangaroo court? Where is Joseph Welch when we need him?
The fact is --- knowing who their Grand Inquisitor was going to be --- and yes , Stefanik was part of a "kangaroo court" ---they should have been better coached. They did respond accurately from a legal standpoint, but (naively ?) failed to incorporate emotional and political considerations in their answers. They could have condemned antisemitism vigorously out of hand and, at the same time, make clear that "bullying" and "harassment" require direct threats of one kind or another. A legalistic protected speech argument or response alone was never going to work and they should have known that going in. Sad, but unfortunately true, in this political climate.