Jim Meigs

@walterkirn Yes, the nostalgia for the gritty, high-crime NYC celebrated by people who could always move back in with Mom and Dad. Neal Pollack sends it up nicely: forward.com/culture/323482…

I was around NYC in the 80s & the fetish for grit & crime I saw then & detect again now is, often, a style of decadent affluent narcissism. The fetishists rate their personal chances of being seriously harmed as rather low but they gain immediate psychic behefits from imagining themselves as -- and being seen by others as -- cool cats of the street. They also tend to have escape routes & pressure valves. I'm reminded of the wealthy Bob Marley fans at Princeton who summered on "the Cape." Not Kingston, Jamaica. Because when you can have the music of the slums and the fresh salt air of the Cape at the very same time, it's, well... Jammin'

Lots of good stuff in the @WSJFreeEx newsletter today, including @continetti's mid-conflict report card on Trump's leadership so far in the Iran war. wsj.com/opinion/free-e…

Amazing letter by @Cornell President rejecting the resolution. Should be read by all: Dear Zora, Thank you for conveying SA Resolution 61: Calling for the Termination of Cornell University’s Partnership with the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology While Preserving Cornell Tech. I reject this resolution, which fundamentally conflicts with Cornell’s principles of academic collaboration and our core commitment to academic freedom. Cornell Tech is not a political entity. It is an academic partnership, created through shared investment by Cornell University, the Technion, and the City of New York for the benefit of the city and the state, according to a negotiated set of conditions that govern its development and the terms of its 99-year ground lease on Roosevelt Island. As one of Cornell University’s many international partnerships and collaborations, Cornell Tech deepens, enriches, and strengthens the ability of our students, faculty, and staff to pursue knowledge and advance the university’s academic mission. The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, the core international partnership upon which Cornell Tech is based, is an extraordinarily valuable collaboration focusing on education and research in health tech, media tech, and urban tech, and supporting the development of new startup companies. Severing our relationship with the Technion—or with any entity affiliated with governments, institutions, or enterprises with which some of our community members disagree—as a statement of political protest, would not only hinder our research, teaching, and public engagement; it would imperil our academic principles. Our university, like all of our peer institutions, regularly faces pressure—from across the political spectrum, from within and beyond our own community—to make academic decisions according to political priorities. The phenomenon is not a new one: universities have grappled with such pressures from governments and societies for as long as the institution of the university has existed. When we yield to these pressures and proscribe specific collaborations or collaborators on grounds other than merit, we compromise our principles of academic freedom, undermine our own institutional excellence, and damage public trust in our work.   Moreover, this resolution inaccurately asserts that “the continued operation of Cornell Tech as a Cornell University campus does not require an ongoing partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.” Cornell Tech, while part of Cornell, is a joint effort of the university, the Technion, and the City of New York. It is no more possible for Cornell to unilaterally terminate that effort and claim full control of the campus than it would be for the Technion or the City of New York to do the same. Finally, I am deeply troubled by the selective manner in which this resolution singles out the Technion, alone of Cornell’s many international partners, for censure. Cornell currently maintains 159 active agreements with institutions in 59 nations and regions; all of these institutions have some government affiliation, and many conduct research with military and security applications. Cornell itself has military research contracts, conducts research with potential military applications, and has relationships with companies whose products are used in military contexts. Cornell also has relationships with institutions in countries whose governments have been accused of human rights violations—as our own has been.  None of these publicly available facts are mentioned in the resolution; only our partnership with an Israeli institution is targeted for erasure. The political bias evident in this selective approach is deeply disturbing, and the resolution is incompatible with both the Student Assembly’s purpose and Cornell University’s core values. I reject it fully and forcefully. Sincerely,   Michael Kotlikoff President and Professor of Molecular Physiology Cornell University

Today, the Islamic Republic hanged multiple Iranian civilians, some of whom were just teenagers. Amnesty International? Silent. The UN? Silent. Human Rights Council? Silent. The Red Cross? Silent.

@YAppelbaum It's good to see this sensible but politically challenging solution to our housing shortage get traction. In a recent @WSJFreeEx column, I called it "a policy almost everyone hates." wsj.com/opinion/free-e…

This is shaping up as the most consistent finding in housing studies: Building lots of luxury housing can reduce rents at the top of the market—but the people it helps most are renters struggling to afford even the least desirable units

Thanks, Matt!

There's a nice mention of me in here, but that's not why I'm tweeting it out. @jamesbmeigs with the column of the day on the devastating and ongoing issue that will not go away, six years after America shut down due to Covid. wsj.com/opinion/free-e…

In my @WSJFreeEx column today I borrow @jpodhoretz's theory about how the reaction to the 2008 financial crisis grew mostly underground for years. I believe something similar is happening after Covid. An anti-elite, anti-institutional backlash is tearing through our politics. And, in many ways, our elite institutions invited this backlash through their behavior during the pandemic.

2.2 million views now. Gaza "genocide" is a hoax and a libel, easily disproven by law, facts and plain common sense. No one has provide a credible response — such as question 10 which is why would Israel facilitate vaccination of 600,000 Gazan children in a purported "genocide."

Join us there and read daily columns from @Louise_m_perry, @continetti, @jamesbmeigs, @heymiller, @MeghanGurdon and @rkylesmith. You'll also get plenty from @MattHennessey, @jackbutler4815, @MJ_Koch and @emmma_camp_.

"Petty theft is a vice for a certain kind of loser. ... Presumably, these people are highly educated but downwardly mobile. They steal because they feel entitled to the kind of life where they can thoughtlessly drop $50 on French cheese and sushi rolls while paying Manhattan rent." @emmma_camp_: Thou Shalt Not Steal wsj.com/opinion/free-e… via @WSJFreeEx

"Bomber" is one of the most powerful war novels ever written, telling the story of a British Lancaster bombing raid in precise technical and emotional detail, including the experiences of civilians on both sides. A towering acheivement.

I don’t follow the polls. As a Democrat, I unapologetically stand on the side of moral clarity and our ally Israel.

Today: @rkylesmith on the Oscars living down to expectations; Barton Swaim on the anti-Muslim backlash that never happens; and @mj_koch on the war in space; + @matthennessey  says blue states are taxing away one of their best assets: wealthy residents. on.wsj.com/3PFj6Og

Many US-based conservative news outlets are blacklisted by @Wikipedia. Fox News is branded unreliable. Breitbart is banned from even being mentioned. And yet….

This is what economic suicide looks like;

Or, hear me out, we shouldn’t give visas or grant citizenship to relatives of Hezbollah terrorists.

@JoelSercel The primary reasons for SLS/Orion (other, of course, than the pork value) is that it is the Apollo Cargo Cult (which I've written about extensively): search.brave.com/search?q=simbe…

When Tucker got axed from Fox, I was gutted. Actually devastated. I rage-quit cable the same day—cut the cord, done. Then when he started those marathon interviews on his own site, I’d prop my phone, laptop, even the old desktop and let them autoplay all night. Every view I could give him, I gave. I thought I was fighting the good fight. Now I just feel stupid. I spent months quietly boosting a venomous, antisemitic con man. I’m ashamed I ever believed in him. I hope he rots.