Two for a laugh

First, from a website hawking this book, this gem. Note especially the last line here:

Having argued that democracy has failed humanity, the authors go even further and demonstrate that this failure can easily lead to authoritarianism without our even noticing. Even more provocatively, they assert that there is merit in preparing for this eventuality if we want to survive climate change. They are not suggesting that existing authoritarian regimes are more successful in mitigating greenhouse emissions, for to be successful economically they have adopted the market system with alacrity. Nevertheless, the authors conclude that an authoritarian form of government is necessary, but this will be governance by experts and not by those who seek power.

How comforting. I can rest knowing that the "experts" are in charge.

Second, from an email inviting me to submit an abstract to an upcoming conference on George Herbert:

Having sent out more general announcements, we are writing specifically to you as a prominent scholar in the field in order to invite your particular participation as a panel member or a panel chair. We would be pleased to receive from you a proposal either for a 15-20 minute conference paper, or for a full 3-person panel.
We are familiar with and confident in the quality of your work, and your paper would be in the first tier of those to be considered for the published proceedings of the conference—the presses of both the University of Delaware and of Baylor University have expressed interest.

How come nobody told me I'm all of a sudden a prominent scholar? And when did this happen? I could have used this in my performance assessment meeting the other day!