Author: Blazingcatfur

The rot in the western world that has accrued in the last few years, revealed with particular clarity since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, showed its depth in a heretofore unparalleled manner this week in Washington, D.C. The presidents of MIT, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania appeared at a congressional hearing to face questions about the rise of antisemitism on their respective campuses (a phenomenon duplicating itself across the academic landscape).

I watched the event unfold with the same sense of surreal disbelief that has surrounded me more and more frequently over the last decade, as the academic world and the broader culture it shapes have succumbed ever more completely to the faux-compassionate blandishments of the radical left.

Their heads are filled with falsehood

“Goddess, sing of the cataclysmic wrath,” opens Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Iliad. The goddess Homer summoned isn’t named, but it is usually assumed he meant Calliope, the muse of epic poetry —and much later, circus music. But Homer might have meant Lyssa, the Greek goddess of mad rage and frenzy. She was well known to the ancients. The Romans called her Furor or Rabies — which gets the idea across fairly well. The Norse had two versions: Odr, who represented fury and frenzy, and Fenrir, a giant wolf who represents uncontrollable savagery.

A major University of Pennsylvania donor has withdrawn a $100m (£79.3m) grant after a controversial appearance in Congress by the school’s president.

In an email seen by the BBC, Ross Stevens said he was “appalled” Elizabeth Magill avoided questions about how students calling for the genocide of Jews would be punished.

Ms Magill was grilled by politicians on Tuesday about antisemitism on campus.

She has since apologised for her remarks, but is facing calls to resign.