Bravo, Old Friend.

We used to be close, but things got complicated and we lost touch. Our two families took a spectacular trip together to Santorini back when.

Scott’s Wallace Global Fund has always supported anti-FGM activity in Africa, and now he’s made a very high-profile contribution.

Today, a catalytic new fund supporting the frontline movement to end female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) was launched at the landmark Justice for Girls convening, a gathering of 150 movement leaders from 36 countries. Seeded with $14 million from Wallace Global Fund, Her Horizon Fund is the largest known philanthropic commitment backing the frontline organizations working to end FGM/C.

… “My mother, Gordie Wallace, devoted her life to ending FGM/C, beginning almost 50 years ago, when governments, UN organizations, and private donors were all ignoring the issue,” said H. Scott Wallace, co-chair of Wallace Global Fund’s Board of Directors. “She was inspired by the passion, courage, and commitment of the FGM/C movement and its frontline leaders, a focus that has always guided Wallace Global Fund’s grantmaking.”

‘Shooting Continues at Gun Club, Despite Court Decision’

Warren County [Iowa] District Court Judge Michael Jacobsen overturned the rezoning [for shooting] in August after about 20 owners of property around the gun club sued. Jacobsen said the decision was “illegal, void and of no force or effect” and restored the land to A1 zoning.

The county’s ordinance requires them to seek voluntary compliance first. In addition to the cease-and-desist letter, the county zoning office has been notified that they continue to receive complaints. Next, a citation can be filed … followed by “full-on litigating.”

No one from the gun club has responded to requests for comment.

Babysitting, USA

[D]eputies with the Delaware County [OK] Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call … where a caller reported that [Colton] Crane had a gun and could be heard by dispatchers screaming in the background. When deputies arrived on scene, Crane was walking down the road with a baby.

They say he was unsteady on his feet, had bloodshot eyes, smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech. He admitted to authorities he started drinking once he got home from work and argued with family members.

Court documents said Crane admitted to kicking in a door, pointing a firearm at a person and firing. Officials say the bullet was one foot from the victim and went through a wall. He then proceeded past family members, grabbed the baby and walked out of the residence after lowering the firearm.

Talk about cleaning it out.

UD covers fraud on this blog, but is madly selective, since everyone’s always stealing everything.

Here’s one that caught her eye – the president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) local 2419 – which represented 500 federal employees of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – simply stole every single penny.

 [E]vidence presented at trial established that there had not even been a meeting of local 2419 since 2020, and that local 2419 ran out of money and went into receivership in 2022.

In this instance, it’s not so much that she bought a $7,400 massage chair with union funds – that purchase pales beside the standard embezzlement package of a condo on a golf course plus a Cadillac Escalade IQL. It’s that she just went ahead and took everything until she had to go to jail for taking everything.

Snapshots from Alexandria, Louisiana, ranked fifth nationally for violent crime — ahead of New Orleans and Monroe!

The mayor’s all shucks geez ain’t that bad I mean really? But the numbers don’t lie, and if you’re topping sordid ol’ Nawlins you know you’re doing something special…

Frinstance, place like Alexandria gets em started young. Guy with his ten year old kid in the car gets pulled over by the police and hides his loaded gun. On the child.

When officers attempted to search the child, [Sheldon Doral] Franklin refused to give permission. Authorities said the child also refused officers’ commands and held a bag of chips against his leg.

An officer attempting to move the child’s arms felt what appeared to be a handgun concealed between the bag and the child’s leg, according to prosecutors. Franklin then ran from officers but was quickly apprehended.

Officers recovered a loaded .40-caliber Glock 23 handgun equipped with a device known as a switch that allowed the weapon to fire automatically, prosecutors said.

Glock ‘n Chips!

******************

This is what “precocious” means in Louisiana.

“Thanks to our incredible staff and millions of NRA members, we have secured major victories that have ushered in a golden age of gun ownership.”

Yes indeed. We see every day what a golden age of gun ownership looks like. Take a bow!

*************

First stop of the NRA upcoming national elections/tour bus is Montana, where folks will gather to thank the organization for their state’s suicide rate. We’re Number One!

Give that man a solo show at the Met!

In February 2011, fashion designer John Galliano made antisemitic and racist remarks to patrons at a Paris café, including yelling “I love Hitler,” telling individuals “your mothers, your forefathers” would be “gassed.”

There were actually two – recorded – instances of Galliano screaming this stuff in cafes, and UD feels certain there are more, unrecorded.

Once caught on tape, Galliano went the Mel Gibson route, whining about how his many drug and alcohol addictions make him a bad boy. But Youth Wants to Know: How do you be the head of Dior and a totally out of control addict screaming Hitler shit in cafes? UD understands how you can be the head of Dior and a murderous anti-semitic drunk … times being what they are in France… But if you are so unwary as to get filmed shrieking about gassing Jews? That’s what’s running Dior?

Anyway, the Met was well on its way to rewarding Haute Hitler with a solo show, but then a bunch of New York Jews decided this was all a bit much.

Construction guy admires two big summer squash plants on our side of the fence.

A new house is going up next door (asking price 2 mill), and he saw me photographing the spontaneously combusting zucchini (we didn’t plant it; my theory is that Munro Leaf, author of Ferdinand the Bull and last owner of our house, did, and that the area was too shady for them to thrive… until the construction guys took down some big ol’ trees). The beautiful yellow flowers are out.

‘“I think the pearl clutching over there being shootings after we’ve made it possible for literally everybody to wander around with a gun, you know, shouldn’t be that surprising,” [Renae] Prieto said.’

These Old West shootouts! Keep the guns coming.

One assumes he bit down on a cyanide capsule while shooting himself in the head.

But did they drag his body to the roof, pour petrol on it, and burn it to a crisp? There’s a right and a wrong way to do things.

Heil! From the Palm Beach County Building Division.

If there’s Hebrew writing visible on your car, you can expect a friendly salute and sieg heil from one of our employees!

‘“I can confirm just after 11 PM officers responded to a separate call involving a [gun] brandishing at 1225 South Main St,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Breeze. “It is unknown at this time if it is connected to the shooting on Devon Lane.”’

AKA Saturday night at James Madison University.

‘Sei dabei, wenn Aarau wieder eskaliert!’

Be there when Aarau goes wild again — exactly the way they go wild in America!

One difference — a DJ who was there said ‘he had “lost an important friend” and would withdraw from performing for a period of time.’

‘Round here we stick our head back up and get set for the next one.

Memphis…

speaks.

Leadership skills already abundantly evident…

… but the law school he was planning to attend has rescinded his admission anyway.

Next Page »

UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
AcademicPub

You can get your RDA of academic liars, cheats, and greedy frauds at University Diaries. All disciplines, plus athletics.
truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
The Wall Street Journal

Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

[University Diaries offers] the kind of attention to detail in the use of language that makes reading worthwhile.
Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University

Margaret Soltan's ire is a national treasure.
Roland Greene, Stanford University

The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
Carlat Psychiatry Blog

Margaret Soltan, whose blog lords it over the rest of ours like a benevolent tyrant...
Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
Outside the Beltway

From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
Money Law

University Diaries offers a long-running, focused, and extremely effective critique of the university as we know it.
Anthony Grafton, American Historical Association

The inimitable Margaret Soltan is, as usual, worth reading. ...
Medical Humanities Blog

I awake this morning to find that the excellent Margaret Soltan has linked here and thereby singlehandedly given [this blog] its heaviest traffic...
Ducks and Drakes

As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
The Bitch Girls

Many of us bloggers worry that we don’t post enough to keep people’s interest: Margaret Soltan posts every day, and I more or less thought she was the gold standard.
Tenured Radical

University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.
Mary Beard, A Don's Life

[University Diaries offers] a broad sense of what's going on in education today, framed by a passionate and knowledgeable reporter.
More magazine, Canada

If deity were an elected office, I would quit my job to get her on the ballot.
Notes of a Neophyte

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