Not to be outdone by Renault, Audi has their own Ramadan special for Bahrainis: For Americans, Renault is an abstraction; they have not marketed motor vehicles in this country for many years. Audi is another matter altogether: not only are they active here but a part of Volkswagen, which has an American plant and is …
Renault and Ramadan Go Together
I'm not quite sure how it came about, but somehow I got on the list for a number of spammers in the Gulf States. In any case, I'm passing along the following, an ad for Renault during Ramadan from Bahrain: It also came in Arabic, but I'll leave it at this. Hope the dealership hides …
Don't Pack Heat When You're Up for Tenure
Yesterday we, the faculty of the University of Tennessee (and this includes the Instapundit,) received the following from our President, Dr. Joseph dePietro (emphasis mine:) On July 1, a new state law takes effect that allows Tennessee’s public colleges and universities’ full-time faculty and staff, who have handgun-carry permits, to carry handguns on campus. I …
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Advice to Graduates: You May End Up Building Their Coffin
It's that time of year again, when most people who graduate from anything in the U.S. get their diplomas in large, pompous ceremonies. Since it is as doubtful that I will ever experience another graduation ceremony of my own let alone speak at one, this is a poor substitute. Hopefully it will enlighten you about …
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The Aggie Who Knew How to Get Ahead With a Professor
First: congratulations are in order to my Texas A&M classmate Ray Rothrock, who won this year a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Association of Former Students. He majored in a good but highly unpopular subject--nuclear engineering--and then turned around and did very well. Although I didn't name him at the time, it's now or never: …
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Why I Don’t Use Salutations in Emails
Recently one of my academic colleagues posted this piece on her fb page about how students should properly email their professors. One of the recommendations is as follows: Dear [1] Professor [2] Last-Name [3],... Right off the bat, here’s where you can establish that you view your relationship with your professor as a professional one. …
Happy Nowruz to the People of the "King of Kings"
Today is Nowruz, the spring equinox festival of the Iranians. To my Iranian friends, who have meant so much, hope you've had a good festival season (it runs about two weeks back in the old country.) Last November I ran a piece about the Persian origin of the term "King of Kings," which most Christians …
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The Ottoman Way of Dealing with the House of Saud
First, the "I told you so": I have been dealing with the Sunni-Shi'a divide since 2005, now everyone knows how important it is. Now for something different: this, from Andrew Wheatcroft's The Ottomans: Deep in the heart of Arabia, the desert warriors of the Wahabi sect, fanatical in hatred for the wickedness of the world, …
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The Silly, Masonic Debate on Whether We Worship the Same God
It seems that some things never go away, and the running battle over whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God is one of those. The day I picked to take on this subject is deliberate: it's the feast of St. John the Evangelist, which is also one of the great holidays of Masonry. As …
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Party Animals Turned Jihadis
It happened in Paris: Just a day after her death, family and acquaintances gave extraordinary accounts of a young woman with a 'bad reputation' who was known for her love of alcohol and cigarettes rather than devotion to Islam. Her brother Youssouf Ait Boulahcen said that she had had no interest in religion, never read …
