Daniel Asia

Founder and President of Polyhymnia
Composer
Member of the American Academy of Sciences & Letters
Prof. Emeritus University of Arizona

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

It is hard for Jews and Israelis to get published now. If you are either, forget about being the next Mailer, Roth, Oz, or Bellow. Now it's true for conservatives too: https://t.co/gHrUqldtDc

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

My most recent article has just been published in the National Association of Scholars’ Academic Questions. Usually, I write about musical, cultural, or even political issues, or reviews of such. This time, I take on the trivial matters of the existence of God and the Afterlife: https://t.co/aPzrvTix7M

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

This November, Teatro Grattacielo will present the NYC premiere of Jefferson Lives!, in a co-production with Polyhymnia. For more information: https://t.co/hxprUQvcBj

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

Today's WSJ- fires burning in Europe: “Environmental legislation has not been based on the science of ecology, or on forestry,” says Víctor Resco de Dios, professor of forestry/ University of Lleida, Spain. “... it’s been based on a Walt Disney view of the world with Bambi, where you see human beings as inherently bad” for the environment. But “when you remove humans out of it, what happens is you get more fuel, and then you get worse fires.”

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

Collapse of the Blood Libels Against Israel - Maj. (ret.) Andrew Fox (Substack)
The great indictment of Israel by the blood libel machine is coming apart, one revelation at a time. Famine, deliberate attacks on hospitals, the slaughter of journalists and children, and systematic obstruction of aid: each allegation was broadcast as settled fact and then used to prove genocidal intent. Yet there is no aspect of the genocide allegation that has not collapsed.
There are two ways of measuring malnutrition in children: weight compared with height, and the size of a child's upper arm. Of 1,335 Gaza children surveyed in 2026, 0.5% were identified as acutely malnourished by weight and height, while 1.3% were identified by upper-arm measurement.
Official data show that 1.01 million tons of food entered Gaza between 7 Oct. 2023 and 17 Jan. 2025, against an estimated requirement of 825,000 tons. From the Oct. 2025 ceasefire to 7 June 2026, 1.78 million tons entered, against a calculated need of 643,000 tons. Of course, food crossing a border does not guarantee it reaches every family. However, the quantities of food that entered Gaza are simply too large to claim a continuous Israeli policy to starve Gaza.
The moral fairy tale of innocent hospitals attacked by the IDF is refuted by endless evidence in the public domain of Hamas using hospitals for military purposes. It was claimed that 70% of the dead were women and children. Yet based on Gaza Health Ministry figures, adult men make up over 50% of the fatalities, from a pre-war adult male percentage of 25% of the population.
Regarding the supposed massacre of journalists, a study of 266 people listed as journalists or media workers found that 157 - 60% - were members of or clearly affiliated with terrorist organizations. Militant obituaries have identified numerous medical workers as commanders and operatives, while faction records have revealed teenagers listed only as children despite their documented recruitment into armed groups.
Due to the relentless depiction of the Jewish state as a child-killing, famine-making engine of genocide, Jews everywhere are forced to answer for accusations that the evidence can no longer sustain. The genie of antisemitism is out of the bottle, and any corrections now will not put it back. With antisemitic physical assaults at a record, the academics, NGOs, politicians and journalists who spread the genocide blood libel without waiting for evidence (or fabricating their own) now have blood on their hands.
Israel should already have been exonerated of the blanket charge that it sought to exterminate Gaza's civilians. Genocide cannot remain the default verdict after every single factual pillar supporting it has cracked.

The writer, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, served for 16 years in the British Army.

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

Len Gruskin, of The Chronicle of Higher Education, in reviewing the K.A. Appiah report on the Humanities and Social Sciences: "Politicization is not a mirage. It is not a hallucination of Appiah’s. It is good that the field is being forced to talk about it."

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

“Time is still the best critic, and patience the best teacher.”
— Frederic Chopin

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

Roosevelt Montás on general education in our universities: One is there’s a recognition that general education has not performed its civic function. Part of what a general education does is to prepare citizens to be meaningful, engaged participants in self-governance in a democratic society. [Yet] our culture of self-governance and democracy has somehow weakened. In some ways higher education has not done its part in renewing the cultural foundations of the liberal democratic project, so one might say there is a civic-education crisis.

Another has been the crisis in higher education generally. The humanities have been the canary in the coal mine — declining numbers of students who want to study liberal arts, the collapse in the job market for liberal-arts faculty, the closing down of departments and liberal-arts colleges. https://t.co/m3cfxZnt05

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

@IngrahamAngle This guy is clearly a WASP living on the Upper East Side. Not!!

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

@IngrahamAngle I agree with Laura!

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

From the WSJ on why Ukraine might be winning the war with Russia: adaptation itself must become a military capability. The ability to improve drones, update software, change targeting methods, exploit new intelligence and field new tactics in days or weeks appears to be as important as traditional measures of combat power.

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

As Wallace Stevens once wrote: “Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her, / Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams / And our desires.” It’s high time the cult of longevity remembered that.

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

On Jay Nordingler's Blog of today: The sign says, “Eat Well. Laugh Often. Love a Lot.” The eatery in which it appears is in Cassino. I think of Eubie Blake, the legendary jazzman, and his recipe for life: “Be grateful for luck. Pay the thunder no mind—listen to the birds. And don’t hate nobody.”

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

WSJ's take on the SCOTUS: Read the Justices, and it becomes clear they are focused on the Constitution and the law. They are protecting ordered liberty, correcting deviations from the Founders’ design, and taking the Bill of Rights seriously. The Court isn’t partisan, much less MAGA, and its constitutional cleanup is a tremendous accomplishment for the country.

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

Ronald Reagan: “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

Jay Nordlinger in his blog today: America is important to us Americans, needless to say, but it is also important to the world at large: as an example of ordered liberty and human dignity; as an opponent of tyranny; as a haven for the oppressed.

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

This Fourth of July is unlike any other. Today, our nation reaches a truly monumental milestone—250 years of independence! 🇺🇸A quarter of a millennium ago, a bold experiment in liberty and self-governance began. As a composer, I am constantly reminded of how music reflects our history—capturing our shared struggles, our greatest achievements, and our enduring hope for the future. 🎶✨May your holiday be filled with spectacular fireworks, unforgettable moments with loved ones, and the beautiful sounds of celebration!Have a safe, joyful, and historic Fourth! 🎆❤️🤍💙...#FourthOfJuly #America250 #Semiquincentennial #IndependenceDay #July4th #ComposerLife #ContemporaryClassical #AmericanMusic #MusicianLife #SoundsOfCelebration #HistoryInTheMaking

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

Rebecca Tuvel, a feminist philosopher, was canceled. In retrospect, she thinks: "I think philosophy serves justice best by pursuing the truth about justice. And the pursuit of truth about justice requires exposure to a wide range of views on contested moral and political topics. That insight has given me a much greater appreciation of the importance of intellectual diversity."

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

This is major news in the Middle East:

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun received approval from the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, to reach an agreement with Israel. Aoun is now expected to gain at least promises of investment from the Gulf states, which would provide a lifeline for the Lebanese economy. The Lebanese president has also received U.S. guarantees for the preservation of his rule, his personal safety, and the lives of other senior officials in his government who support the agreement with Israel and oppose Hizbullah.

[Daniel Asia @19danielasia53]

Here is an interview I recently did with the wonderful Pamela Kuhn: https://t.co/tKSA9sNTuy