It's a pleasure to welcome The Valve to the net's association of academic and literary sites. Sponsored by the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics (ALSC), The Valve is edited by John Holbo who posts at John and Belle Have a Blog and Crooked Timber. Mark Bauerlein, Miriam Burstein, and Amardeep Singh are among the Valve's contributors. John, Miriam, or Amardeep might correct me about this, but I suspect that this is a development long in the works and that some of the seeds for it found roots in discussions at Critical Mass, Amardeep Singh, and John and Belle in the last year or so.

In another development, the report of an internal committee charged with reviewing complaints about the program in Middle Eastern studies at Columbia has been released. The Columbia Spectator and the New York Sun have the story. The report narrowed the scope of the charges and largely cleared the faculty members of blame. Thanks to KC Johnson for the tip.

Welcome to Mark LeVine of UC, Irvine, and an HNN blogger. He is the most recent historian to join the charmed circle of those of us who've been attacked by David Horowitz and his FrontPageRag. Even I think he needs a decenthaircut, but here's FrontPageRag's take on him.