Patterico's Pontifications

8/26/2009

A Conversation with a Well-Educated Fool

Filed under: Education — Jack Dunphy @ 2:31 pm



[Guest post by Jack Dunphy]

Writer David Horowitz has done the country a service by illuminating the extent to which American universities have veered to the political left, but for people whose college days are but distant memories these revelations remain, if you’ll forgive the term, academic. Seldom does the non-student come face to face with the leftist claptrap peddled on college campuses today, even as it creeps as if on cat’s feet into society at large.

But in the course of recent travel I had occasion to attend a social function at which nearly all the other guests were faculty members at a prominent Big Ten university. I found myself in conversation with one of them, a man who holds a PhD in English but whose exact position at the school now escapes me. We were discussing world politics, and as such discussions almost inevitably do, ours turned to the Middle East and Israel. I let it be known that I was a supporter of Israel, as it has been an American ally and is the lone democracy in a region chock-full of despots and tyrannical monarchies. Furthermore, I pointed out that within the memory of many alive today, an erstwhile Western democracy had engaged in a campaign to exterminate as many of the world’s Jews as possible, and that we in the civilized world therefore have a moral obligation to defend Israel from such threats as posed by Iran, whose president has advocated its elimination.

To which my interlocutor countered that the rants of Mr. Ahmadinejad are no worse than those of George W. Bush, who after all branded Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as the “Axis of Evil” in the world and is therefore every bit as deranged as Ahmadinejad, if not more so. He also accused Israel of the very type of atrocities against Palestinians as were perpetrated by the Nazis against European Jewry.

Where, I asked, had Israel engaged in the type of industrialized mass murder against Palestinians as was practiced by the Nazis? He answered that when the Israeli Defense Forces target “so-called terrorists” in, say, a missile strike that kills Palestinian civilians in addition to the intended targets, it is morally indistinguishable from loading men, women, and children onto boxcars and shipping them off to be worked to death or summarily murdered. And, he said, the United States, in dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was as guilty of war crimes against civilians as were the Nazis.

In deference to my host and to my own sense of decorum, I resisted the impulse to attach myself vigorously to the man’s windpipe and give him a swift conk on the snout. The conversation eventually moved on to safer topics like books and movies, but I couldn’t help but wonder how much some parents were paying to have their sons and daughters exposed to such a fetid pile of rubbish.

–Jack Dunphy

95 Responses to “A Conversation with a Well-Educated Fool”

  1. Just ask Eric about how moral relativism has completely taken over rational thought at most of the major universities these days. Positively Orwellian.

    Dmac (e6d1c2)

  2. Welcome to my world in academia, Mr. Dunphy. I’m in the sciences, and it is bad enough there.

    Why, the day after the election, we had a departmental meeting, and the chair brought a sheet cake in the shape of the US, all frosted blue, saying “at last the long nightmare is over,” and “we beat the idiots.”

    I often hear that my concerns about politics in academia don’t matter, or are somehow wimpy, or similar comments—generally from people who aren’t in academia, or if they are, are left of center.

    But I ask, what would happen if McCain had won, and I brought a cake frosted red? And said something similar, but reversed in terms of D versus R? Do you honestly think that there would not be any kind of repercussion?

    I have seen that kind of thing, and experienced it.

    Bill Whittle did a great video on this topic:

    http://www.pjtv.com/video/Afterburner_with_Bill_Whittle/___MSNBC_%26_The_Great_Liberal_Narrative%3A_The_Truth_About_The_Tyranny_of_Political_Correctness/2343/

    There is a culture war. And to “win” it, the Left needs to mix a partisan view of history and politics with a set of blinders that are remarkable. I would also add that many academics, despite their sense of great knowledge, are actually pretty ignorant of history and geography…as you describe.

    Why, I once had dealings with a professor of literature who had no idea that “Eric Blair” was in fact the birth name of George Orwell (which is one reason I use the pseudonym I do).

    I don’t know how to fix it, but I do think remembering who it sounds when “the other side” does it is a key component to free expression. Also, organizations like FIRE (www.thefire.org) do great work in academia in this arena.

    Eric Blair (0b61b2)

  3. Whoops! Thanks, Dmac!

    Eric Blair (0b61b2)

  4. He sounds more like a very uneducated fool. For a liberal arts Phd, I am shocked he apparently has not taken a single course on philosophy or morality. That specific subject is covered very well in the book Just and Unjust Wars. Yes, he was obviously not educated on the subject at all.

    ray (3c46ca)

  5. That’s that blue icing what gives you smurf teef.

    happyfeet (71f55e)

  6. Outside of denial of funding, there are very few effective strategies you can employ to combat such monolithic idiocy.

    But a small one might be shame and embarrassment. Which is why I am disappointed that you didn’t mention this alleged professor’s name in your post.

    Steve Levy (c9dee9)

  7. I desperately hope Purdue was not the prominent Big Ten university. Probably it was Northwestern, or Wisconsin. Yeah, that’s it. Or IU. That sounds like something those basket-weavers would think.

    Andy (c942e4)

  8. Iran is “an erstwhile Western democracy” by whose light?

    What prevents Mr. Dunphy from properly NAMING the school and the educator?

    steve (61eb34)

  9. If you had that conversation with BHO in, say, the year 2000, it would have been exactly the same.

    gp (ddb675)

  10. Why, I once had dealings with a professor of literature who had no idea that “Eric Blair” was in fact the birth name of George Orwell (which is one reason I use the pseudonym I do).

    What is the emoticon for “picking jaw off of floor”?

    Bradley J. Fikes, C. O.R. (a18ddc)

  11. Heh! Was this in Oak Park, Illinois by any chance? Because that’s where I mostly hear this kind of crap from people with 2.8 bicycles, clothes hanging from a clothesline in their back yard, and a purely vegan table for their guests. At least he did not tell you that racism is the only reason people oppose Obama and his policies.

    nk (b17d90)

  12. The worst part of it is that I do think that we have always dealt with Iran in a totally idiotic way, and Israel has committed and is still committing injustices against the Palestinians (I have met face to face a Lebanese Christian militia member who butchered Palestinians in a Beirut refugee camp and got a visa to the U.S. for his reward), but I cannot discuss that with the extremists on either “the left” or “the right”.

    nk (b17d90)

  13. I know for a fact that it was not a University of Illinois person 😉

    JD (d3d21b)

  14. I happened to be at a Christmas party in East Lansing some years ago. I was talking to a young lady pursuing a PhD in international security. For the first moments I thought she’d said “securities” and was talking about funny money.
    But, no. Security. Not having offended anyone thus far, I told her my view of US security:
    If you have money we want to sell you our stuff.
    If you have nice stuff we want to buy it.
    Mess with us and we’ll kill you.

    She looked around and, in a near-whisper, said, “That’s pretty much what I think, but I can’t say that around here.”

    What really struck me was when, after I told her I’d been in the Infantry, she wanted to know what that was. I was about to say something about up close and personal when her father, a law school dean, overhearing, said, “personal killers”.
    Shocked at her ignorance, and felt like telling the dean he’d come pretty close, I decided to talk to somebody else.

    Richard Aubrey (99f6d1)

  15. For almost 15 years, until 5 years ago, I worked in the college textbook industry, mostly in the social sciences. I talked to hundreds of faculty each year at a wide range of schools, usually in their offices, and over the years, there was clear and disturbing lurch left as the faculty hired in the boom 60s retired and were replaced by a more “diverse” crew. Honestly, it drove me to the right. I have good friends who are on the right (almost always in the sciences, where standards still apply) and some schools are better than others, but Dunphy’s experience is, sadly, typical. Normal folks would consider half of faculty today radical leftists.

    shboom (6b9bb0)

  16. but I cannot discuss that with the extremists

    Is there anything you can discuss with extremists?

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  17. …and is the lone democracy in a region chock-full of despots and tyrannical monarchies.

    Lebanon is a democracy.

    Sunburn (5d93e3)

  18. Lebanon might be a Democracy in that it has elections, but so does China, and so did the old Banana Republics.
    Lebanon has a state-within-a-state in it, financed by other countries, multiple rival militias, recent civil wars, and who gets into the cabinet is decided by whose militia is bigger. I think of Lebanon as a microscopic copy of Europe in the 30s – they’re not at peace, they’re just rebuilding for the next round. Or perhaps a better analogy: Lebanon is like Chicago in the 20s and 30s. Democracy label, but really run behind closed doors, by people who use and value bullets more than ballots.

    As far as US schools – I went to UC San Diego, where Herbert Marcuse taught (the guy who coined the phrase “Destroy society before it destroys you”), and Angela Davis is a fellow alumni. I was impressed at how many Communists there were (but none had ever actually cared to visit the objects of their desire, like I had). Even at 18, I could spot the cognitive dissonance there.

    I think the biggest threat the Left has is clear thinking.

    Dave (b210e8)

  19. I resisted the impulse to attach myself vigorously to the man’s windpipe and give him a swift conk on the snout.

    I’d instead have asked him whether he believed his ideology somehow made him a more humane, decent, compassionate fellow—as he likely does. I’d then have guffawed and quoted him the line of “if you’re not a liberal at 20 you have no heart, and if you’re not a conservative at 40, you have no brain!”

    I’d then have chuckled about the tendency of many liberals to mask their philosophy by favoring the word “progressive” over “liberal,” and about surveys indicating larger percentages of people on the left compared with the right actually are cheapskates in donating their time and money to charitable causes, and blood to groups like the Red Cross.

    Mark (411533)

  20. Even though the majority of university faculty are avidly liberal, their proselytizing converts very few students. Students who leave college as liberals are likely to have come in that way, most students – even at the most liberal of schools – are there for the diploma and not for the political indoctrination. And the students know that regurgitating the crap they’re fed doesn’t reflect conversion, it is but a silly game they play to get an A in the course. True, it would be nice to not have to play the game, but it’s good training for the real world where sometimes one has to suck up to the idiot signing the paychecks.

    It must rankle professors such as this that their political views have so little sway with their supposedly impressionable students. Perhaps that is why they’re so angry when faced with someone like Jack… he reminds them of just how impotent they are.. “if you’re so good a teacher, why do your students laugh at you behind your back?”

    steve sturm (3811cf)

  21. I taught for 35 years in a college and can attest to the extreme left beliefs of many of those who were colleagues of mine. One morning a young man came to my office and began talking about how fascistic the UW was. I asked him where he learned that and he gave me the name of the teacher. That was no suprise because we all knew who he was. Unfortunately, the boldness of college teachers has filtered down to high school and even grade school teachers. One of the reasons that teachers resist imposition of standards is that many consider themselves “artists,” whose “creativity” would curdle if they were held to the demands of a curriculum. Not too curiously the creativity they speak of is always of the left.

    mhr (026156)

  22. but none had ever actually cared to visit the objects of their desire

    The very essence of limousine liberalism, which the typical university is inundated with.

    Mark (411533)

  23. Turkey is a better example. It’s not perfect – the military kept overthrowing the elected government – but it seems to have settled down in the last two decades.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  24. nk : In #12, you blame Israel for the fact that the Lebanese Christian milita butchered Palistinians in a refugee camp in Beirut. You left out one descriptive word. You should have said Lebanese Christian Arab milita.

    These Christian Arabs were just following the prior example of the Jordanian Arabs who butchered Palestinians in Jordanian refugee camps that famous “Black September”. Of course, that butchering was authorized by Jordan’s king not by Israel.

    The Lebanese Christian Arabs took the opportunity provided by Israel’s attack to pay back the Palestinians for their many acts of terrorism against the Lebanese. Israel, upon learning of the milita action, moved in and stopped the milita from continuing with their “butchery.”

    Also, what “proof” do you have that the visa was a “reward” for the butchery?

    Longwalker (996c34)

  25. Lebanon might be a Democracy in that it has elections

    Lebanon is as much a Democracy as Israel is.

    Nice bit of propaganda for Israel, though. I hear the “Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle East” lie repeated over and over by right-wingers.

    Sunburn (5d93e3)

  26. In deference to my host and to my own sense of decorum, I resisted the impulse to attach myself vigorously to the man’s windpipe and give him a swift conk on the snout.

    This is why I never get invited back to parties…

    Poor impulse control…

    Scott Jacobs (218307)

  27. Lebanon is as much a Democracy as Israel is.

    Or Iran.

    Scott Jacobs (6aff37)

  28. Shyeah, right, they’re our ally.

    Just ask the guys on the USS Liberty…and before anybody says “That was an accident!” ask yourselves just what would happen to the CO of a unit that screwed up that badly in the US military. Assuming he stayed in uniform (a BIG assumption right there) he’d be lucky to be put in charge of the coast-defense batteries in North Dakota.

    The guy who commanded those airplanes was promoted, instead…again and again.

    I don’t think the US owes Jews one damn thing. Anything we owed, was paid in full by 1945. See Saving Private Ryan for an example.

    technomad (eefe5a)

  29. Posts about the Joooooooos always bring out the lovely side of the Leftists.

    JD (08ac3e)

  30. Realizing the longer one dwells in the ivory tower of academia, the more out of touch with middle America one can easily become, it is still nonetheless shocking to have it so bluntly evidenced. Get these young sponges in and they absorb this leftist ideology as truth. Four years of this, some community organizing, and they become President.

    This post, as well as commenters EB and Richard Aubrey’s personal accounts, reveals how small and narrow-minded this elite group is – and this would essentially be the same sort of group that are currently making life altering decisions for us via this administration.

    Dana (0f0b2e)

  31. Comment by technomad — 8/26/2009 @ 5:07 pm Saving Private Ryan was fiction.

    Universities are chock full of looney professors and deans of questionable sanity.

    When Obama made his stop at our University during the campaign, most people responded with raptures while I couldn’t figure out what the heck he was saying. Seriously, it was so much claptrap folderol that I couldn’t reckon what exactly the point was. Lots of soaring rhetoric but no substance. The academics were over the moon.

    The people who were less than impressed with Obama were the ones who had direct contact with him and his staff and their manic and outrageous demands.

    The academics didn’t care when I told them how badly the Obama team treated all the little people they purport to help. It doesn’t matter how the little people are ACTUALLY treated, it’s how you TALK about treating them. Thus, Obama is the perfect academic. Useless.

    Vivian Louise (e35449)

  32. Jack, I think what I find most astonishing about incidents like you describe is not the whacky ideas but the fatuous seriousness in which they are related as if they were deep and significant thoughts.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  33. …the more out of touch with middle America one can easily become

    Right-wing support for Israel has nothing to do with “middle America” and everything to do with fringe Biblical prophecies about the “End of Days.”

    That Israel is smart enough to use the deluded shouldn’t count against it.

    Sunburn (5d93e3)

  34. Sunburn, that’s just absolutely and completely false. That kind of slander comes from people who do not understand the mainstream protestant movements in this country, and how they have been pro-Israel for decades. Not from any fringe movements, but from an appreciation of what Christianity has inherited from Judaism.

    Spare us your anti-christian myths.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  35. I’ll never understand this fanatical devotion to Israel and Jews that ‘conservatives’ feel. As James Baker said, ef-em, they don’t vote for us. And they don’t. Jews voted 80% for Obama, despite Dubya’s spending 8 years wearing knee and elbow pads in front of the Israeli leader du jour. Jews make up a way disproportionate membership in the ACLU, are heavily involved in the porn industry. Obama’s Grand Vizier is a Jew who, during a time that the US was at war — chose to volunteer for a foreign army rather than fight for his own country. Nor is Israel an ‘ally’ in any accepted sense. Germany is an ally, we regularly conduct excercises with their military had have for decades. Only very recently have we done anythiing with the Israelis — and that was small scale and irregularly occurring. And, as far as I know, we are still teaching modern Hebrew at DLI — and not for exchange programs. I could go own about the USS Liberty, J. Pollard, Marc Rich etc. But what’s the point. Your average ‘conservative’ these days is brainwashed.

    Back in the day — again going back to real Americans like James Baker, conservatives would have known what to make of that. Nowadays ‘conservatives’ can’t do enough to gag down any BS either the Israeli’s or the ‘Jewish community’ throws our way.

    hortense (aka horace) (235454)

  36. Why are so many leftists anti-Israel? Sunburn, I’m talkin’ to you… and don’t lay any moral equivalence bullbleep on me.

    either orr (291505)

  37. Obviously spoken by someone who has never been in the region. Lebanon is a collection of fiefdoms controled by desposts and external powers. It is at most 30% of the democracy Israel enjoys.

    ray (3c46ca)

  38. Like moths to a flame …

    JD (a047b4)

  39. I consider myself a conservative. I have spent much time in the middle east and have friends on both sides of the Israel/Palestinian issue. There is plenty of room for condemnation of Israel. I highly urge you to foster even handed dialog. Screw balls are aplenty on both sides.

    Mike (315bb2)

  40. Sunburn,

    If Lebanon is as democratic as Israel, how do you explain Syria’s long-term occupation until 2005 and its continued destabilizing influence?

    DRJ (3f5471)

  41. It is at most 30% of the democracy Israel enjoys.

    Haha, does Israel allow occupied Palestine to vote in their elections?

    And of course we forgot to mention Iraq in the list of Middle Eastern democracies…Israel, Turkey, Lebanon and now Iraq.

    Right? Right?

    That’s what the Bushbots keep telling us.

    Sunburn (5d93e3)

  42. Yes Sunburn, because we base our government and our politics on our religion while Muslim countries have a strict separation of church and state. Right? Our motives are religious ones even though we have a secular constitution while theirs are secular even though their laws are based on Sharia. Unbelievable someone would make an argument so easily destroyed.

    I live in the South and have never once heard anyone make a biblical argument for supporting Israel. Moral arguments? Yes. Logical arguments based on self-interest? Yes. Chosen people arguments? No.

    The only people I have heard make “End of Days” arguments are liberals when they talk about global warming, or climate change or whatever they are calling it on that day of the week.

    Windburn (1e2a18)

  43. Sunburn, Israel has a large Arab citizenry members of which vote in Israeli elections.

    You’re right that the Arabs in the territories don’t get to vote; that’s one of the big reasons that Israel has been reluctant to annex the territories outright – because they would feel compelled to expand the franchise if they did, and they don’t think they could survive that.

    It’s a bit too early to judge whether Iraq has successfully become a democracy.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  44. Supporting Israel is about supporting freedom and liberty. When authoritarians attack free countries, you can choose to support the free countries rather than do what is most advantageious for yourself. That is called putting principles above all.

    If all you care about is self serving power, then yeah, you can say ef’em, they can’t do anything for me. With that belief system, a person would probably walk away from an unknown woman being assaulted too.

    ray (3c46ca)

  45. The palestinians vote for their own government. You know, the terrorists.

    ray (3c46ca)

  46. He should have just said that he thought Israel had “Death Panels” and a “fascist” health system.

    imdw (803b85)

  47. Comment by imdw — 8/26/2009 @ 6:28 pm

    Yes folks, that’s imdw… Keepin’ his streak alive!

    imdw: failing to make sense since… ummm… Well, since ever.

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  48. That Israel is smart enough to use the deluded shouldn’t count against it.

    As compared with the variety of Islamofascist, Banana-Republic and Third-World regimes who love to use the deluded — to use the sob sisters — of the left? In that case, I both count that against them and also snicker at their suckers in the we-weep-for-the-underdog-(supposed or otherwise) category, namely the “progressives” throughout Western society. The ones who often are ass-backwards in identifying and sympathizing with the truly good guys instead of the truly bad ones.

    I’ll never understand this fanatical devotion to Israel and Jews that ‘conservatives’ feel. As James Baker said, ef-em, they don’t vote for us.

    Well, that’s too political and unprincipled, and overly stresses — which may sound ironic since it’s coming from me — a people’s or a society’s prevailing ideology. Simply put, the sentiments of James Baker or any other like-minded Republican/rightist are analogous to believing that because, as one example, Paris, France, is quite leftwing and quite socialistic, it therefore can’t be worth a damn in terms of its culture, basic economy and atmosphere (charming or otherwise).

    Mark (411533)

  49. Another day, another thread filling up with Leftist mendacity.

    JD (a5b324)

  50. that’s one of the big reasons that Israel has been reluctant to annex the territories outright – because they would feel compelled to expand the franchise if they did, and they don’t think they could survive that.

    That, and the fact that America would nuke Tel Aviv if Israel tried to annex Palestine.

    Sunburn (5d93e3)

  51. America would nuke Tel Aviv if Israel tried to annex Palestine

    Where did this come from?

    Given that they haven’t been used since 1945, and then only against a power which had attacked us, I don’t think it’s a reasonable proposition that we would attack Israel with nuclear weapons if Israel irritated us by annexing Palestine.

    The US would be angry, absolutely. But even when angry we have no record of using nuclear weapons against people who haven’t attacked us.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  52. Jack, your story, and the various posts from the India Delta Ten Tango section here in the comments are proof positive of the validity of the old saying.

    “Never try to teach a pig to sing: It wastes your time and annoys the pig.”

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  53. Sunburn, how did you even learn to spell and type? Did your parents buy you one of those speech to text machines? That would explain a lot.

    Seriously though, when you actually go to the middle east and educate yourself, then you might have an opinion worth hearing. Until then, you are just speaking from the very deep pit of willful liberal ignorance.

    Ray (3c46ca)

  54. JD, Sunburn’s obsolete talking points about an almost nonexistant Israeli “occupation” do set a certain less-than-truthful tone.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  55. Sunburn, where the hell does your #50 come from? Are you on crack?

    SPQR (26be8b)

  56. The Lebanese Christian Arabs took the opportunity provided by Israel’s attack to pay back the Palestinians for their many acts of terrorism against the Lebanese. Israel, upon learning of the milita action, moved in and stopped the milita from continuing with their “butchery.”

    Also, what “proof” do you have that the visa was a “reward” for the butchery?

    Comment by Longwalker — 8/26/2009 @ 4:52 pm

    I am not going to litigate all the many ways Sharon humiliated Israel in his handling of the first Lebanon war. I agree with Jack that Israel is an island of civilization in a sea of barbarity and, like I said before, I will not give ammunition to either side.

    The militia member showed me the bullet-hole in his leg that he showed to an American embassy official, along with his papers, to get a visa. I’m sorry, I don’t have either a picture of the bullet-hole or copies of the papers so I guess I have no proof.

    nk (b17d90)

  57. That, and the fact that America would nuke Tel Aviv if Israel tried to annex Palestine.

    What universe are you living in, again?

    M. Scott Eiland (5ccff0)

  58. Huh. Somebody spilled a sack of dummererness someplace.

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  59. That, and the fact that America would nuke Tel Aviv if Israel tried to annex Palestine.

    Such an inflammatory statement really deserves an explanation: what in our modern history has given you any reasonable evidence that this would be the actions of the U.S. if Israel did try to annex Palestine? (Pre-emptive strike: 1945 does not count – it was the result of us first being attacked.)

    Dana (0f0b2e)

  60. What universe are you living in, again?

    I don’t think the American right yet realizes how far apart Israel’s and America’s interests have drifted apart.

    Sunburn (5d93e3)

  61. Sunburn, who are you and where are you from? You are no American from what I can tell.

    nk (b17d90)

  62. Sunbeyootch is really edumacated!

    Dmac (e6d1c2)

  63. Don’t kid yourself, nk; he could easily be the boy who ate paste during 1st – grade art class. That boy’s head just ain’t right.

    Dmac (e6d1c2)

  64. Sunburn, who are you and where are you from?

    Why, I’m from the majority, nk.

    President Obama has already publicly ordered Israel to stop its illegal occupation of Palestine.

    I believe that’s just the beginning of our total divorce from Israel.

    Sunburn (5d93e3)

  65. 64:

    Why, I’m from the majority,

    of delusional maniacs.

    So far, you haven’t said anything that convinces me you even know what planet this is.

    Although, your desparate ramblings do have an echo of the past in them. Who were you posting as here, before now?

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  66. Sunburn hates him some Joooooooos. Prollý scared of brown people too.

    JD (adf3eb)

  67. DRJ, check Sunburn’s IP address. I have a hunch we’ve seen this one before.

    [Sunburn is a new commenter as far as I can tell. — DRJ]

    Paul (creator of "Staunch Brayer") (3b3b67)

  68. You know, this whole Teh Narrative business—focusing on Israeli’s shortcomings, while ignoring Arab shortcomings (or blaming them on Israel)—is very old.

    Bill Whittle’s PJTV episode has a good analysis of this mindset that we are battling.

    http://www.pjtv.com/video/Afterburner_with_Bill_Whittle/___MSNBC_%26_The_Great_Liberal_Narrative%3A_The_Truth_About_The_Tyranny_of_Political_Correctness/2343/

    Worth your time.

    Eric Blair (a88004)

  69. I work in higher ed as well, and the most hopeful thing I can see is that the Social Justice conference has had no luck whatsoever in recruiting “organizers” despite their constant advertising for such.

    You have to realize that all courses are mandated by law to have modules on things like sexism and racism, so of course it appears in whatever tangential way possible. It’s the left that has passed the law and the left that takes advantage of it.

    Patricia (29a01d)

  70. 64. LOL, priceless, really priceless! That one’s getting saved. You have to be the product of some of the most useless reality-disconnected liberal eduction yet. The best thing you could do for yourself is get out and travel the world, see it with your own eyes and make your own conclusions. You have been lied to for so long you don’t know what’s real. Wake up Neo, welcome to the real world.

    President Obama can not impart any harm on Israel. Nobody who matters would listen or follow him if he tried. Hell, many dems aren’t even following him on things right now. His stumbles and bumbles have had one very positive, if unintended affect, it has strongly unified Israel behind a Netanyahu. That’s a really good thing.

    Ray (3c46ca)

  71. President Obama has already publicly ordered Israel to stop its illegal occupation of Palestine.

    I believe that’s just the beginning of our total divorce from Israel.

    Comment by Sunburn — 8/26/2009 @ 7:25 pm

    I missed that. Likely because I took a different kind of LSD than you did.

    nk (b17d90)

  72. Nice bit of propaganda for Israel, though. I hear the “Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle East” lie repeated over and over by right-wingers.

    Comment by Sunburn

    I agree that this troll has been here under a different moniker. Israel is an independent country and I agree that our interests do not coincide. Frankly, I think they show a good deal more sense and self preservation than the Obama administration does.

    Maybe sunburst loves the Palestinians because a Palestinian assassinated Robert Kennedy. Actually, I’m kidding because I am almost certain that he would not know who Sirhan Sirhan was.

    I’m sorry to say that academic idiocy is well represented at U of Arizona. Last fall, my daughter’s English instructor spent the entire review period before finals on a rant about Ronald Reagan. The only textbook for one of her classes was a book about “whiteness studies.”

    Today, her philosophy instructor spent the session on a eulogy for Kennedy. I wish she had opted for hard science but she will treat this degree as a 21st century high school diploma, which is what they are worth.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  73. It is prolly asking too much to ask sunburst to source his asspull that Baracky ordered Israel to do that, and that Barcky is beginning his divorce from Israel. But, he did claim to be a friend of Israel, so it is not at all unlikely that means that he will turn his back on our ally.

    JD (14b6c9)

  74. President Obama has already publicly ordered Israel to stop its illegal occupation of Palestine.

    He’s also demanded that Honduras put Zelaya back in charge. Are they getting nuked, too?

    M. Scott Eiland (5ccff0)

  75. Why, I’m from the majority,

    And here we have a living example of why Winston Churchill said what he said…

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  76. I would remind sunburn that Israel wouldn’t be “occupying” Palestine had most of the Arab world not decided to try and wipe Israel off the map.

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  77. Hey, I missed some of the secret identities of this new crop of trolls being revealed. Please let me know who this sunburst character is?

    Eric Blair (a88004)

  78. “Why, I’m from the majority, nk.”

    sunburn – Rodents do outnumber people. Thanks for the reminder.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  79. Eric – Do you read Mike Adams at Townhall? I like his stuff exposing liberal intolerance in academia.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  80. I’m from the majority…

    29 of the 57 states.

    Apogee (e2dc9b)

  81. I explain this type of behavior with cowardice. Even cowards have egos to protect. Since they lack the courage to defend themselves against those who are real threats, they are shamed by those who will defend themselves. They look to make excuses for their own cowardice and find fault with the courage of others. Calling Bush a cowboy, calling the man who resists a carjacking with a gun a “vigilante”, being critical of Israel for firing back at rocket launching sites is all part of it. This is why they criticize the Christian half of the Crusades, and not the Muslim half. They fear the Muslim, and cower from him. They resent and hate the Christian, because the good Christian represents a better person than what they are, and their fragile little egos cannot handle it. Please note also that the Jew has been an international “Victim” for centuries (or millennia?), and seem to be heavily vested in attacking those who resist being pushed around like they were. This helps explain why so many Jews support Obama and the US Democratic party, even though a healthy person would see that Liberal policies are terrible for Jews.

    On an international scale, I call this “Geo-Political Penis Envy”. Nations that stand back and watch evil got real pissed when the American “Cowboy”, be it Reagan or Bush, hitch up their pants and wade into a righteous fight that the Euro-weenies avoided.

    Smarty (3935d0)

  82. First, Sunstroke, We have drifted apart because of sophmoric fools like you running the country.

    As for the well educated fools focus. I remember when Donna Shalala was a U WI regent who lost a federal court case where she was proven to have imposed a speech code of censorship upon the university. Democrats do not believe in the Constitution for the masses, and are proving daily now.

    Anyone see a speech at Columbia’s New School where the speaker isn’t PC? They get shouted down. Now were do Liberals get off complaining about their Congresscritters getting shut down in mid lie by the people?

    PCD (02f8c1)

  83. Israel is an independent country and I agree that our interests do not coincide.

    Exactly Mike K. The problem is that so many of today’s establishment conservatives, and not a few ‘populists’ (that’s you, Sarah) see to think they do.

    Every single wannabe conservative should to memorize Mike K’s wise council, and repeat it 20 each day, preferably soon after rising.

    hortense (aka horace) (411ef0)

  84. There was a long finance meeting at my University in which a construction project was being discussed. After the third time that the project manager used the phrase “conservative estimate” the dean replied “You are going to have to use a different term”.

    Some members of the left are petty, small minded bigots and that dean is their king.

    tyree (38bc71)

  85. horace and sunspot sure do hate them some Jooooooooooooooos

    JD (593b0c)

  86. Sunspot sounds exactly like “I like Amerikka,” so in it’s honor I’ll end this with:

    I work ere is done.

    Dmac (e6d1c2)

  87. We have drifted apart because of sophmoric fools like you running the country.

    America’s and Israel’s interests started to drift apart long ago, PCD.

    I’d peg the start to Israel’s first invasion of Lebanon.

    Sunburn (5d93e3)

  88. Sunstroke, you just hate Jooooossssssss.

    PCD (02f8c1)

  89. Of course, you’ll have to go to his alternate universe to find Sunburn’s “peg” …

    SPQR (26be8b)

  90. Israel may not be perfect, but it’s the only democracy in the region aside from Iraq. I think demonizing them in the face of the challenges they face, for their very existence, is simply hilarious.

    Sunburn is the type of missile Iran threatens to use to massacre Israelis and American naval vessels if there is retaliation after Iran uses nuclear weapons on Israel. It isn’t a subtle or funny reference.

    Juan (bd4b30)

  91. The leftist trend in academia goes back to the 60s, but by the time I was in gradschool in the 80s then number of smug, self-satisfied assholes who spouted it was intolerable.

    Sunbeam, Obama can’t even order the Hondurans to return their would-be tyrant to the presidency from which they removed him entirely legally under Honduran law.

    Also, Israel is a nuclear power. Ever hear of Masada? Do you actually think they would notretaliate? Don’t you think Rhambo knows this?

    John Costello (99b5f4)

  92. Juan, ah good spot. The Russian SS-N-22 surface to surface naval missile. The nightmare of anti-air warfare naval officers.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  93. It is a scary idea, a ramjet missile sinking a US aircraft carrier. Thank God it’s a Soviet technology, which means it’s mostly fictitious and meant to scare people. you don’t buy russian equipment to actually win wars, you buy it to pretend you can win wars.

    But that doesn’t mean I don’t wonder if 6 sunburns each on top of Lun WIGs screaming towards our Navy wasn’t a seriously scary idea.

    Juan (bd4b30)

  94. Facts impact more than we think. I would have pointed out that if Israel were 1% as vicious as the Nazis, the Arab Palestinians would have been dead and gone. Decades ago.

    In the past when I’ve said this they backtrack and say “Well, I didn’t mean it literally“, which is good enough for a start.

    Fred (adc8d1)

  95. Fascinating. What is really amazing is that claim that collateral casualties from Israeli military strikes against armed Palestinians attacking Israel are just as bad as the deliberate murder of millions of helpless people by the Nazis.

    It’s one thing to believe in delusional claims such as that Israelis murder Palestinians for their organs. (This was “reported” recently in Aftonbladet, Sweden’s largest newspaper.) There at least Israelis are accused of truly horrible crimes.

    But I simply cannot understand how any rational person can equate events that are on completely different scales.

    Rich Rostrom (f3a9de)


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