Tuesday Morning Briefing
Plus some day-ahead memes, because things are spinning out of control on the meme front.
• From the annual report of the president of Harvard University, 1974-75: “In a few short years, universities have been encumbered with a formidable body of [federal] regulations, some of which seem unnecessary and most of which cause needless confusion, administrative expense and red tape.” The report went on to say that Harvard faculty and staff spent a total of 60,000 hours a year complying with federal regulations during the academic year. The cost ran to nearly $8 million a year.
Did Harvard, or any other university, ever consider the tradeoff of taking less federal money in exchange for less regulation? The question answers itself.
• A lot of people have asked if I have thoughts on the new San Tanenhaus biography of William F. Buckley, Jr. Indeed I do! And I shared 2,600 words of them yesterday over at the Civitas Institute’s fine website. You can take it in here.
Sample:
“Tanenhaus at one point said that Buckley did not always choose his friends and business associates well; might that observation include the choice of Tanenhaus as his biographer?”
• Tweet of the day:
Runner up:
• It’s a day early for the mid-week meme gallery, but I can’t help it:
• Anyone up for some Norway from the air? Here’s a two-minute fly-by, recorded two days ago in far, far north Honningsvag. (More to come in due course.)
Loved Norway. Slept on a glacier. Driving the coast is amazing. I remember driving up to a fjord lookout point from the east side as we drove to the west coast and climbing up a steep gravel road in the car in the fog. We stood at the lookout point and suddenly the sun broke through and the warmth drilled a holed down around 1,000 feet below us as the fog opened up. There in the center of the fog bank was a sizable cruise ship almost immediately below where we were standing. We were looking at this tiny ship’s decks from above. Back in the late 70’s and 80’s, before they modernized some of the tunnels, there were some incredible hand dug tunnels, blasted ledges created down shear rock walls for roads, and switchback roads leading up and down. Driving was an adventure. Things are little more modern today. Norway’s vast oil revenue has made the infrastructure much more grand. Norwegians love to dig tunnels and build viaducts to skirt and cross the fjords.
Well written and insightful review of the WFB bio.