Specifically with his observation that "Judging tenure battles from the outside is a dangerous business." (Particularly true, I would add, in the more esoteric disciplines, like, say, archaeology.) That's how the TNR editor-in-chief introduces his latest post.

Problem is, the next sentence starts with the word "But" ... and is followed by 600 words of amateur-hour analysis of the archaelogical work of an anthropologist of Palestinian descent, Nadia Abu El-Haj. Peretz is apparently so flustered by Columbia's decision to grant Dr. Abu El-Haj tenure--following a controversy and a "highly rigorous review" conducted by both in-house and independent scholars--that he ends by predicting that Columbia's board of trustees will fire President Lee Bollinger over the decision. But why? For hewing to long-established academic protocol? For not intervening in an unorthodox and probably unethical fashion in a departmental tenure review?

Well, beyond a vague reference to "intellectual mayhem," Peretz doesn't even try to back up his absurd prediction. More sterling argumentation from the EIC of one of the country's leading political magazines.