:: PROLEGOMENA ::

:: Thursday, October 31 ::

APPROPRIATE

Perhaps Wellstone's memorial service was. (click)
:: michael Thursday, October 31, 2002 [+] ::
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WATER SUPPLY THREAT IN TEXAS?

I was sent this article about an alarming incident in north Texas.

I found this page more encouraging. The "Final Thought", however doesn't give numbers that match what I remember about Asahara's Tokyo sarin gas attack. Some other remarks, particularly about crop dusters, seem very naive. Still, the Stimson Center is no Lovenstein Institute.

Plus, I am aware of Palestinian attacks and attempts on Israeli water supplies and produce. The attempt in Rome is so far the scariest I know of. Check out these other links:

1. false alarm: fertilizer seepage
2. disruptions and attempted disruptions
3. cyanide bust
4. cutting off instead of poisoning
5. garbage

:: michael Wednesday, October 30, 2002 [+] ::
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TOLD YOU SO

While I have been thinking for some time that Republicans taking the high road should be happening less and less, they did the right thing by doing so over Senator Wellstone. I just wish the pundits and radio talkers had called it as it could have been called and predicted the political hijacking of his death, so poor in taste that some leaders walked out of the service.

...as I called it below.



:: michael Wednesday, October 30, 2002 [+] ::
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T-BONES FOR VAJPAYEE

It's one thing for a nation to have a policy of denial, but I think Germany may actually be in denial. The country seems more schizophrenic than Al Gore.

The German embassy in Tel Aviv is going to have a ceremony next month to honor German war dead at a WWI cemetery - in Tel Aviv. Additionally weird, they invited some Israelis.

Let's examine this, shall we? Recently Germany's leadership put our friendship at great risk by comparing the President to Hitler. That followed former German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping's remark that Bush wanted to overthrow Saddam to please "a powerful - perhaps overly powerful - Jewish lobby.''

It is a crime in Germany to deny the Holocaust, but evidently not to honor SS and Wehrmacht. They were, after all, just following orders.

The Arab-language press continues, ad nauseum, to refer to the Jews as Nazis, so what is going to happen if the Germans invite the Palestinians? They will have to sort the good Nazis from the bad Nazis, but not "the good dead from the bad dead", while having to consider the immoral alcohol-swilling of the German infidels while honoring the German participants of Hitler's final solution and at the same time celebrate the most recent suicide bombing.

It was so much simpler when they could dance in the streets and pass out candy as they did in the West Bank on September 11 , 2001.

:: michael Tuesday, October 29, 2002 [+] ::
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QUALIFIED

This morning I wrote, "If only I could turn off cable without losing my modem."

Tonight I read, "BUSH BANS CABLE NEWS FROM AIR FORCE ONE"

:: michael Monday, October 28, 2002 [+] ::
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GESTATING ARGUMENT

George Will's analysis of a fatal defense in Michigan, where a mother in her 16th week of pregnancy killed a man who had already punched her stomach twice, makes one wonder when this "viable fetus" argument is ever going to be settled by minds as smart as the judges'.

Additionally, it made me recall a Muslim traditional belief in the possibility of a two-year pregnancy, since one of Mohammed's wives is said to have carried a child for that long. That is the reasoning behind the two-year divorce in parts where Islam is the law, and the reason behind the death sentence of Nigerian mother Amina Lawal, who has been convicted of adultery by a Shariah Islamic law court. (It had been longer than nine months, but not two years, since she and her husband's divorce commenced. The Man who impregnated her, by the way, was found not guilty.)

After the stay of execution ends in 2004, she will be buried up to her neck and then the Muslims will throw rocks at her head yelling "Allahu Akbar!"

So on one end we have fanatics who support abortion on demand, no matter how late in pregnancy, actually prompting the amazing need for laws protecting babies born alive and punishing those who kill the unborn with unlawful violence. On the other hand, we have fanatics who will enjoy murder in the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful because they haven't noticed that a pregnancy longer than nine months has not taken place since that of the rumored wife of Mohammed over thirteen hundred years ago.

:: michael Monday, October 28, 2002 [+] ::
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THE OSBORNE

God help us. I just turned on Fox News to see them interviewing the car salesman who sold the sniper's $250 Chevy. "Osborne aspired to be a reggae singer," read the banner at the bottom of the screen.

I just turned off Fox news. If only I could turn off cable without losing my modem.

:: michael Monday, October 28, 2002 [+] ::
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STUPID QUOTE OF THE DAY

"If violence fixed the problem, then Israel should be at peace," countered Rick Blumhorst of Kansas, a U.S. Gulf War veteran wearing his Army dress uniform. "Acting unilaterally, we're going to inflame the Muslim community."

News Flash Mr. Blumhorst: The Muslim community is inflamed.

They hate Jews and Christians (Qur'an 98:6) and will always hate the free world. Why do you think they recently hit the French?

And what if we took your remark and said, "If violence fixed the problem, then the Palestinians should be at peace."

Or if we said, "If peace treaties fixed the problem, then Israel should be at peace."

If you think the reason Iraq is not yet nuclear is not because the Israelis hit Osirak in 1981, then please enlighten us more.

You and John McCain should do lunch. Don't forget to wear your medals to the table.

:: michael Sunday, October 27, 2002 [+] ::
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NOONAN KNOWS

If I need guidance in writing with class, a style different from my last blog (below next), Peggy Noonan sets the example. She clearly defines the differences within the parties and correctly analyzes the dynamics when opinions collide.

I still mean what I say below, as I wrote about the ones she would call cynics instead of true believers.

:: michael Friday, October 25, 2002 [+] ::
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WELLSTONE

So the Senator is dead, and I just heard Sean Hannity live do the right thing, by rebuking any talk concerning politics and the new strategy that will have to be employed in the Minnesota Senate race. Agreed, for anyone in politics who is high profile.

I am far from that, so here: With the wife dead as well, I can almost hear the g.d.'s from the Democrats in that state as well as in D.C. No unqualified widow sympathy victory here. Will they throw up a grieving friend or brother?

Should I be sensitive? Like they were when they ransacked Vince Foster's office before his body cooled?

:: michael Friday, October 25, 2002 [+] ::
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FOLLOW UPS

Eve Hibbits, the subject of my very first blog, arrested for letting her children get sunburned, is not going to face trial. She still spent eight days in jail, because of a sheriff who uses such descriptions as "dipped in red paint" to describe sunburn and a prosecutor's $15,000 bond. Will Sheriff Abdalla face any discipline for gross exaggeration? If you can't ID sunburn, what can you do that qualifies you for law enforcement? AFRA has a lot to say about this.

The Montana Republican Senate Candidate is back in the race, and is setting a good example of positive campaigning. He had dropped out after his Democrat opponent ran an ad that made him look gay, demonstrating the left's true sentiment toward the constituencies it takes for granted. No one explains that better than Dennis Prager.

And if only I had blogged it, rather than just said I did not think the sniper was in a white van. Of course any shooter would be watching the news, and would be in any other car, in position, and, I think, waiting for both a person to enter the crosshairs at the same time a white vehicle is nearby.

Too late for him to conceal that his last name is Muhammad. And isn't it amazing how, this time, the press isn't referring to him as his "Richard Reid" name?

Other than that, I think this sniper is going to turn out to be, disciplines aside, just another idiot who tried to be bigger than he would ever be... like Wen Ho Lee.

:: michael Friday, October 25, 2002 [+] ::
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INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY

Here is a good theory of the real sniper's identity.

:: michael Thursday, October 24, 2002 [+] ::
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FBI - FEDERAL BEIJING OF INVESTIGATION

An office has opened in the Chinese capital to join forces in the fight against terrorism. I saw the photo of John Ashcroft standing between the flags of the US and the oppressive atheist, communist regime.

This old photo came to mind, and I wondered which of the two he dislikes more.

:: michael Thursday, October 24, 2002 [+] ::
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THEY LAUGHED AT EDISON

American ingenuity triumphed this month amid speculation it would never work.

I wonder if they are now going to rush to get those parachutes in the skyscrapers.

I wonder, too, if the FDA is ever going to speed up the process of getting new drugs to market.

:: michael Thursday, October 24, 2002 [+] ::
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THE DENNIS DEFENSE

People could very sensibly ask why would an atheist waste his time fighting religious expression, when he should be enjoying his life and appreciating that religion and a fear of hell can keep the masses largely under control.

Jewish Dennis Prager writes a common sense defense of Evangelical Christians.

:: michael Wednesday, October 23, 2002 [+] ::
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MEMO TO SNOOPY – GOT MET? DOES IT PAY?

Reading about the crash of MetLife’s blimp, Snoopy One, has me wondering about how long Snoopy’s career will last, just as I wonder the same about Maureen Dowd’s.

A sucker for good advertising, I called Met four years ago about property insurance. They refused me because I own a pit bull terrier. I informed them of a recent AKC listing of the fifty breeds of dog not compatible with children where pits were not mentioned, and assured them I had broken the dog of smoking in bed. They still stood firm, facts notwithstanding, like Maureen Dowd.

It also never added up that they were concerned about my dog when they have a beagle who flies amok on an unapproved flying fighter doghouse while hallucinating about fighting the Red Baron. It’s no wonder they have had their second crash.

:: michael Tuesday, October 22, 2002 [+] ::
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DOWDY

When I finished reading the disrespectful and misinforming column, “A Babysitter for Junior,” I realized that New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd was another one of those to be written off, except to be checked on every now and then to see if her quality gets any worse. It did, with the September 18 column, “Lemon Fizzes on the Banks of the Euphrates.”

But today’s column has me wondering if the end is near for her. With nothing but trite jokes and borrowed language, she writes so utterly disrespectful of the President that her readers may consider subscribing to the opposite opinion, or at least turning to Doonesbury for more balanced opinion.

Memo to Dowd: R. Emmett Tyrrell beat you to the Boy five years ago. And notice how his work is based on research and reporting, rather than inspired by big words in cookbooks. It was good of your thesaurus to provide you with "epicene, " which I have not seen in use since Camille Paglia described Al Gore.

:: michael Sunday, October 20, 2002 [+] ::
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MEMORIES OF CENTRAL PARK

I am in a legal mood this morning. Ann Coulter dissects the alarming attitude again and unsurprisingly, of the New York Times toward the 1989 gang rape case. I remember at that time, a full-page ad purchased by Donald Trump that read BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY, and as a ten year-old, I thought about it for the first time, and have been mostly supportive of it since.

She also refers to the 1930's Scottsboro Boys case, which I had long forgotten about, and claims the media are hungry for another. I agree, just as this year they were hungry to ignite more LA riots with their sentimental 10th anniversary reporting, and just as they are hungry now for a young white male sniper with a boyhood photo of him hunting with daddy.

Coulter's style opens my eyes better than coffee:
The public got a glimpse of what the jurors saw when Yusef Salaam was interviewed by Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes" in 1992. Salaam said he suspected the jogger – the one declared DOA at the hospital – was "faking." He also said that even though he lied in his confession, people should believe he was telling the truth about the confession being a lie because he was a Muslim. "That's all a Muslim has," he said, explaining why he lied, "his word."


:: michael Thursday, October 17, 2002 [+] ::
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KILLING THE MESSENGER

So I wondered today as I listened to the President's speech outlining his conditions for Iraq (or is it Iran?, ask Barbra Streisand) about the translation that is given to Saddam Hussein.

Since we are all familiar with the idea of killing the messenger, and since we know that Hussein and his sons enjoy the spectacle of the torture chamber, I wonder if his translator gives him a true translation of the speech. I'm betting that Saddam never hears the real thing, but instead a version that makes Bush look like a wimp, or, more likely, under the control of a Jewish Lobby.

:: michael Wednesday, October 16, 2002 [+] ::
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IT JUST OCCURRED TO ME

Right after the September 11 terrorist attacks, many voices in the media and from elsewhere on the left repeated that the time had come for us to consider giving up some of our freedoms for better security.

Then those same voices kept complaining when certain round-ups occurred, especially concerning the hundreds of Al-Qaeda at Guantanamo and the other suspects detained inside our borders.

Then the left, in the form of ACLU lawsuits, wins an Arab-blooded man’s right to sue United Airlines for rejecting him from a flight right after the attacks.

I need clarification, whose freedoms are we supposed to be diminishing?

:: michael Wednesday, October 16, 2002 [+] ::
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ANITAVERSARY

Eleven years ago today Justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed.

:: michael Tuesday, October 15, 2002 [+] ::
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REPORT BLAMING JEWS PULLED

Dean Bates' "report" (referred to in the blog below) that the Mossad bombed the Bali nightclub is suddenly nowhere to be found at the IndyMedia website. They must have been worried about their credibility. I am sure their coverage of what they call the "Bush Coronation" would restore anyone's faith in the integrity behind their reporting. Here is the article below:

Mossad Bombs Kill Almost 200 in Bali Tourist Nightspot
by Dean Bates 6:39am Sun Oct 13 '02 (Modified on 5:56pm Mon Oct 14 '02)

BALI, Indonesia (Sun Oct 13, 2002) – Mossad Bombs ripped through a packed nightspot on Indonesia's traditionally tranquil tourist island of Bali overnight in a Israeli staged terror attack, killing at least 182 people, many of them Australians.

The Saturday night blasts, which where a mossad terror operation followed persistent reports that mossad was operating in the area. After the massive peace rally in Australia yesterday these mossad operations where put into high gear in a deadly way. Mossad terror network operations are trying to draw the western world into war for Israeli and U.S conquest.
Police said the dead included nationals from Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Sweden, but declined to speculate on who might be responsible.

It was one of the world's most devastating attacks against tourists in one of the world's most popular tourist destinations.

Indonesia's president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, said the latest information showed 182 people, mostly foreigners, had been killed in the mainly Hindu corner of the country.

"According to the last report, 182 people were killed and 132 were injured in Bali," she told reporters after an emergency cabinet meeting, adding that some were still missing.


:: michael Tuesday, October 15, 2002 [+] ::
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THE JEWS DID IT

With a home page sporting the Statue of Liberty, the Independent Media Center describes itself as "a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, objective, and passionate tellings of the truth." Find out here about the bombing in Bali from reporter Dean Bates.

Mister Bates:
There's a preacher in Kodak, Tennessee who knows
the Jews' ultimate plan, I think it would interest you:

"Their intent is to mongrelize God's people to genocidal
death, and claiming that Noah was a mongrel is another
step in their diabolical plan."

I never heard of Indymedia until now, and WOW what a
first impression you made. Join forces with the Christian
Separatist Church Society and save us from the Jews!

:: michael Monday, October 14, 2002 [+] ::
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DICTATOR RE-ELECTED

My friend Dr. Johnson beat me to it. Today he writes:

Another reason why I always turn CNN off…

Stupidity Watch
Here's a promo for CNN's "American Morning With Paula Zahn": "Will Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's future be determined at the ballot box rather than the battlefield? Iraqi citizens are preparing to go to the polls to decide whether Hussein stays in office. We bring you the story in part one of our week-long series, 'Iraq, You Decide.' "

If Paula or anyone else at CNN thinks that this is a legitimate election should be sent to a civics and history class. No wonder their ratings are in the tank.
You know it’s sad when you’re beaten in the ratings by the vapid “Fox & Friends.”
Above from WSJ best of the web.

:: michael Monday, October 14, 2002 [+] ::
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SHOOTING THE BYRD

Ann Coulter highlights the too-often forgotten past and current contradictions of West Virginia's Senator Robert Byrd. His political career is worth much study, not just for his Klan membership and all the federal money he's won for his state, but also for the amazing number of WV sites and buildings named after him and for his Senate floor dramatics.

"In addition to the indignity of having to vote in an election year, Byrd said the resolution on Iraq was diverting attention from important issues. Imminent military action to remove a madman with weapons of mass destruction who watches torture videos for fun and longs for a mushroom cloud over the nation's capital is crowding out the big stuff like naming another building in West Virginia after Bob Byrd."

Reading this recalled a recent, very funny essay by Quentin Letts. The laughing begins at paragraph two.

:: michael Monday, October 14, 2002 [+] ::
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HELL FREEZES

Bob Novak reports Don King's contributions to Republicans (!):
Federal records reflect only $10,000 in contributions by King in the 1996 and 2000 election cycles, with but $1,000 given Bush (in 1999). He contributed $2,000 each to Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, Senate Democratic Whip Harry Reid of Nevada and Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada. He gave $1,000 each to Democratic Reps. Earl Hilliard of Alabama, Corrine Brown of Florida and Robert Brady of Pennsylvania.

Now what will Harry Belafonte say?

:: michael Sunday, October 13, 2002 [+] ::
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PARTY OF THE PEOPLE

Montana Republicans are anything but, well, gay after the release the incumbent Democrat Senator's latest campaign commercial. The Republican, suffering from a severe drop in the polls as a result, has dropped out of the race after images were chosen to make him look like a gay hairdresser.

The image is typical early eighties, the style of the time was gross, but at least the haircut wasn't a mullet.

He was in fact an entrepreneur, a business owner, hence, an employer and a big, big taxpayer. Democrat Senator Max Baucus will surely deny that his gay-baiting was gay-baiting, but his party's contempt for the typical Republican, the working American, could not be more clear.

I thought the Democrats were the champions of diversity and mutual respect. I thought gays, women, minorities, and muslims were supposed to march lock-step with the Democrats. Like they did when the former President was guilty of sexual misconduct in the workplace (and to this day has not denied Juanita Broaddrick's rape accusation). Like they did when Richard Tafel sent money to Bob Dole. Like they did when they pulled Anita Hill out of the apocrypha. Like they did when muslim extremists stole our planes and flew them into our buildings. Like they did when they yelled "No justice, no peace!"

:: michael Friday, October 11, 2002 [+] ::
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PALESTINIAN H-BOMBS

The father of a Palestinian suicide bomber criticises Hamas. This is a good read, serious and sad.

Key quote: Yes, I say 'death,' not 'martyrdom.'

Note the Qu'ran verse he quotes is from early in the book. Mohammed's writings actually evolve with time, but that is another subject.

:: michael Thursday, October 10, 2002 [+] ::
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MISS AMERICA FREE TO SPEAK

Who at pageant headquarters made the First Amendment - (Miss) America connection?
:: michael Thursday, October 10, 2002 [+] ::
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FREE SPEECH FOR MISS AMERICA

Years ago a stand-up comic impersonated a beauty pageant contestant by saying, “…I have the IQ of a piece of toast. My goals are to establish world peace and become a brain surgeon.” The only two Miss Americas I could name for you are Linda Carter and Vanessa Williams, for being Wonder Woman or just making you wonder.

I know they all work very hard and I respect that… but pageants and their contestants are of no interest to me, until today.

Erika Harold, 2003 title holder, has been preaching abstinence to teenagers and the officials have told her to be silent ( ! ) on the issue. She is resisting them, “I will not be bullied.” Good for her, and finally, a beauty queen breaking the beauty queen mold.

:: michael Wednesday, October 09, 2002 [+] ::
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IT'S ABOUT TIME

Finally, I see a commercial, the first of its kind, on Fox News Channel, informing the public about what is good about Israel. The American Jewish Committee, publisher of the highly recommended magazine Commentary, also produced this commercial highlighting the rights of Israeli citizens to vote and their religious freedoms. You can view the ad at the AJC site.

If more people knew these and other facts about the freedoms in Israel, we might experience more analytical thinking (and just plain thinking) in this country, and gain an understanding of what the muslims really want.
:: michael Tuesday, October 08, 2002 [+] ::
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FRIED FRENCH OIL

The Yemenis say there is no evidence of terrorism. The French have an eyewitness reporting a small craft on a collision course and an explosion following.

Next question: will the French pursue the terrorists at last? Will they do it with more resolve than they did with the Nazis in the spring of 1940, or at least as much as a decade ago when they resisted Disney?

And how often do tankers just explode? As often as 747's just explode, such as, say, TWA Flight 800?

:: michael Sunday, October 06, 2002 [+] ::
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HITCHENS’ DIRECT HIT ON CLINTON

This is another instance when pro-Clinton people will say we cannot stop criticizing the former president. However, he invites the continued criticism as he highlights how so many world leaders still respond to his showmanship rather than to the current President’s leadership.

Christopher Hitchens again hits the nail on the head as he dissects the former President’s recent speech to Tony Blair’s Labour Party in England, and repeats, as he should, his condemnation of the August 1998 missile attacks on Khartoum and Afghanistan. Those attacks were the first thing that came to my mind when I heard the news on September 11, 2001.

:: michael Saturday, October 05, 2002 [+] ::
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THEY FORGOT THE DOG FOOD

The website of the Democratic Party currently features a low-end little cartoon that shows the President pushing a wheelchair-bound senior over a bear market cliff. Vote.com is smartly asking the question, “Drop the DNC’s controversial cartoon?” However, the wrong reasons are being presented for answering yes or no, that “it doesn’t belong on the party’s website” versus “it's a creative way to illustrate the dangers of Bush's plan”

I say leave it. It belongs on the party's website.

This is the way the Democratic Party wants to get its message across, so let their true colors show, not with a well-worded and fact-backed argument, but with a silly cartoon that is only a fitting follow-up to the DNC’s commercial where the children asked, “May I please have some more arsenic in my water, Mommy?” and “More salmonella in my cheeseburger, please!”

:: michael Saturday, October 05, 2002 [+] ::
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UNIVERSITY STAFFING EXPLAINED

The professor emeritus of physics at Duke University, Lawrence Evans, explains why university faculty is mostly liberal. He wrote the following to the Raleigh News and Observer:

In seeking faculty, universities look for people who can analyze and discuss matters of some complexity, who are unafraid to challenge the wisdom of simple solutions, and who have a sense of social responsibility toward those who cannot buy influence. Such people tend to be put off by a political party dominated by those who believe dogmatically in the infallibility of the marketplace as a solution to all economic problems, or else in the infallibility of scripture as a guide to morality. In short, universities want people of some depth, subtlety and intelligence. People like that usually vote for the Democrats. So what?

In a landmark 2002 Southwestern University commencement address, the depth, subtlety and intelligence of which not felt since Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Evergreen University speech, feminist theorist Bell Hooks gave us another way to understand Lawrence Evans’ insight. Speaking of “life-threatening conservatism,” Bell compared conservatives with “every terrorist regime in the world.”

:: michael Thursday, October 03, 2002 [+] ::
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