Wednesday - September 10, 2008

Don’t be stoopid, spelling matters.  (just what I needed to see today after Drew’s post yesterday.)

OK Drew and all.  Take note.  Except for an occasional lapse where I forget to use the spell check, I really think I need to stop spelling things the lazy way.
Even if I still think English spelling is illogical. No matter.  Drew started it yesterday and now this lady (whose name is Pearson) has made me see the light of day. 
Harrumph ... we’ll see.  It isn’t comfortable discovering one has bad table manners.  In public yet.

Don’t be stoopid, spelling matters
By Allison Pearson

Last updated at 2:14 AM on 10th September 2008

Professor John Wells says teaching students spelling is a waste of time.

The president of the Spelling Society says we should stop teaching our children correct English spellings because it is holding the little darlings back at school.

Learning to use the apostrophe is also far too much trouble, apparently.

Unlike John Wells, I cannot claim to be a distinguished professor at University College London, but even I can see the flaw in his brilliant plan.

Theres only wun problem if there not gunna teach kids how to spell there own language and use the apostrophe. No one will have a klew wot there on about, innit?

See. That’s what English looks like if you spell words according to sound rather than meaning.

It may make things easier for the lazy writer, but it’s far harder for the poor reader who is forced to think twice.

Correct spelling and grammar are the table manners of the written word. They may seem petty, but without them you end up with an almighty mess.

Yet the prufessa, as I suppose we must call him, insists that this country’s appalling illiteracy problem is caused by having to learn those pesky irregular spellings.

He says they place a ‘burden’ on children and damage their education.

Funny how every previous generation and tens of millions of English speakers around the world have somehow survived this intolerable imposition.

Blaming tricky spellings for illiteracy is like blaming cars for lousy driving. It neatly shifts the responsibility away from where it belongs.

If Prufessa Wells was a lone crackpot it really wouldn’t matter all that much.

Unfortunately, he is part of an educational establishment which seems to want to remove all difficulty from schooling in the name of social equality.

Garlanded with degrees and boasting minds as well stocked as the finest library, these men and women choose to vandalise the body of knowledge which got them their prestigious jobs in the first place.

What you end up with is the situation we saw over the summer where one examiner came across a boy who had just written ‘F*** off ‘ on his English GCSE paper.

Was he, as you might hope, instantly failed? No, on the instructions of the chief examiner, he was awarded marks for successfully conveying his meaning!

My kids laugh at me for using punctuation in text messages. ‘Like, Mum, how uncool is that?’ Tragically uncool, actually.

But as a former English teacher and full-time grown-up, I know that my job is to hold the line on appropriate language and to defend what’s valuable in our culture.

Let the kids get on with trashing it, as they always have. It’s the privilege of each new generation to refashion English in their own private world.

But it’s up to their parents and teachers to explain that a more formal standard, which everyone can agree on, is called for in college and in work.

Prufessa Wells and his kind do the younger generation no favours by expecting less and less of them.

When I hear Prufessa Welz say that spellings used in e-mail and text messaging ‘show the way forward for English’ I want to skewer him on a sharpened quill.

If university professors aren’t in the business of telling young people that some things are worth making an effort to acquire, then who the hell is?

He should try saying that to the editor of a newspaper on which I once worked. Every week we got a pile of job applications and there was a simple rule: if they contained a single spelling mistake, they went straight in the bin.

Give a job to someone who can’t spell standard English? Uv got 2 b kiddin.

http://tinyurl.com/585ccn

Posted by Drew458     on 09/10/2008 at 10:25 AM   
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Education • UK •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Tuesday - September 02, 2008

I’m not proud of it but human nature DOES sometimes make us all racist.

I posted a story on this subject yesterday and today in the Mail was another editorial on the subject by Max Hastings.

It’s very much well worth your reading and points out very well the idiocy of the left.  Make NO mistake. They are not just idiots. If they were simply that they wouldn’t be the threat they are. 

Last updated at 7:48 AM on 02nd September 2008

Under fire: Respected academic George Steiner is in trouble after making comments about having Jamaican neighbours

You may not have heard of George Steiner, but he is one of the cleverest men in Britain.

A professor of comparative literature, 79 years old, his Jewish family emigrated from France in 1940.

He lives and writes in Cambridge. And today he is in deep trouble with the multicultural lobby.

Steiner has made headlines with remarks to a Spanish newspaper, discussing his new novel.

Racism, he said, is inherent in everyone. Racial tolerance is only skin-deep.  ‘It is very easy to sit here in this room and say racism is horrible,’ he told his interviewer.
‘But ask me the same thing if a Jamaican family moved next door with six children and they play reggae and rock music all day.

‘Or if an estate agent comes to my house and tells me that because a Jamaican family has moved next door the value of my property has fallen through the floor. Ask me then!’

The usual suspects - race-relations bodies, Muslim groups, minority spokesmen - have denounced Steiner’s remarks as ‘offensive, cranky, lazy generalisations’.

Yet reading what he said, I found myself remembering a day at Heathrow more than 20 years ago.

A heavenly cockney cleaner named Elsie Elmer worked for our family for almost 40 years. Elsie was a widow, a Londoner through and through.

When she was 77, she suddenly announced that she could no longer endure life in Hammersmith, where on both sides of her little house Jamaican neighbours played music full-blast through the night, every night.

One day, I drove her to the airport to emigrate to Australia, where she had a son living.

She hated to go and wept buckets. But she felt that her street, her city, were no longer the places which she knew and loved.

That is why George Steiner’s words, which have got him into such hot water, struck a powerful chord with me.

He was making the point that it is very easy for us middle-class types, living in our cosy social enclaves with not a black or brown face in sight, to strike noble postures about race and immigration.

Too glibly, we demand from others a tolerance which costs us nothing.

Three years ago, an impeccably liberal study-group published a book entitled The New East End, which sent shockwaves through the race-relations industry.

It described the bitterness of many established white residents in East London towards Bangladeshi newcomers, who were perceived - sometimes justly - as receiving preferential treatment for housing and social services, while introducing values at odds with those of the traditional cockney community.

The book explicitly cited the follies of middle-class liberal politicians and social workers, whose own lives were safely isolated from the consequences, trying to impose make-believe ideals on others.

Nobody sensible could have supposed that the authors of The New East End were a bunch of racists.

They were merely honest researchers, describing the predicament of the white working-class, which perceived itself dispossessed by newcomers of its rights and heritage.

George Steiner is telling the same story. He knows that tribe, identity, matter to all of us.

We want to be good citizens, and most of us are determined to rub along with the new world, in which all manner of people from different cultures have been thrust upon us.  But it is not easy. The fools are those who pretend it is.

Many of us learned at school to cherish our literary and historic heritage - Dickens and Jane Austen, Marlborough, Wellington and Churchill.

There is an inevitable gap between us and those who share no part of that legacy, and in some cases do not want their children to learn to do so.

Watching Shakespeare’s history plays performed, I am a little embarrassed to admit that I struggle to believe in black actors playing Henry V or Richard III, or indeed their courtiers.

This is not, I hope, because I am a bigot, but because I cannot forget that, in the Middle Ages, Britain had no black kings or lords.

Now, the answer to that one is that all dramas, including Shakespeare’s history plays, are fictions which should transcend national cultures.

When I am thinking as a grown-up, I recognise this.

But, in the spirit of Steiner’s remarks, I must admit the need to make an effort to become colour-blind.

I am not proud of saying this - it is just the way most of us are made.

Steiner was perhaps a little careless in his choice of words, in seeming to express indiscriminate scepticism about immigrants.

In truth, I think, we are pretty good at accepting people of any race who adopt the customs and lifestyle of our tribe - which is why race relations among the young in Britain are much better than they might be.

Many of the children of immigrants talk and behave just like their white counterparts, and are accepted on equal terms.

We direct our spleen against those - black, brown, or white - who behave anti-socially.

It is as repugnant to find a white teenage girl lurching drunk down a train as to see a black van-driver deafening whole streets by playing his stereo full-blast with open windows.

Our old daily, Elsie Elmer, did not leave Britain because her new neighbours were black, but because they behaved like beasts.

She would have suffered as much from their music if they had been white.

If they had adopted civilised values - which have nothing to do with class or race, everything to do with decency - she would have died in her London home.

George Steiner must be right - indeed, he expresses a familiar truth about human behaviour - when he suggests that we are most comfortable in the company of others like ourselves.

That does not mean that we expect neighbours and fellow citizens to vote the same way, to like the same music and films, choose the same holidays or favour the same clothes.

We merely want to share a common framework of values and behaviour, and we struggle in the company of those who do not, whatever their colour.

I was talking at the weekend to one of the most sensible pillars of the race-relations industry about the case of Tarique Ghaffur, the assistant commissioner who has denounced the Metropolitan Police for alleged discrimination about his promotion.

My friend said: ‘You must remember that somebody like that goes through his whole career knowing that every time he walks into a room, most of the people in it are not hostile - but they feel a vague sense that he is not like them.’

This does not mean that Ghaffur is the victim of discrimination, simply that his relationships are fractionally different from those among white colleagues.

It is nobody’s fault. It is just tribalism at work, of the kind which has influenced mankind since the beginning of time.

Only in a world where foolish race lobbies try to force multi-culturalism down our throats could its existence be disputed.

Mass immigration is imposing huge pressures on our society, and on the goodwill of its established residents.

What is remarkable is not how badly most people behave in consequence, but how well.George Steiner has stated simple truths, and only the idiot Left could deny their reality.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/02/2008 at 10:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff • Colleges-Professors • Racism • UK •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Monday - September 01, 2008

Academic says he would not tolerate Jamaican neighbours.  Here we go again. The ‘R’ word.

Well heck, read the story and see if you don’t agree.  That newspaper headline is a bit mis-leading.  But the guy’s critics are plain stupid.  Bet they wouldn’t want this next door to them either.

Why is this a “race row” anyway? 

In a sidebar not published online, one person has said;
“This country is so politically correct that it’s become scared of free speech.” Right. Unless you belong to a minority group.

Cambridge academic says he would not tolerate Jamaican neighbours
A Cambridge academic and novelist was at the centre of a race row after saying that he would not be able to tolerate living next door to Jamaican neighbours “playing reggae all day”.

By Aislinn Simpson and Jessica Salter
Last Updated: 6:14AM BST 01 Sep 2008

George Steiner, 79, said he believed racism was inherent in everyone and that racial tolerance was merely skin deep.

The playwright and critic Bonnie Greer labelled him a “cranky old man”, while Muslim groups accused him of an “offensive and lazy” racist generalisation.

But other academics defended his honesty and right to express such views, saying they were a valuable addition to an important debate.

“It’s very easy to sit here, in this room, and say ‘racism is horrible’,” he said from his house in Cambridge, where he has been Extraordinary Fellow at Churchill College since 1969.

“But ask me the same thing if a Jamaican family moved next door with six children and they play reggae and rock music all day. Or if an estate agent comes to my house and tells me that because a Jamaican family has moved next door the value of my property has fallen through the floor. Ask me then!”

Mr Steiner, whose Jewish family fled to America from Paris before the Nazi invasion of 1940, adds: “In all of us, in our children, and to maintain our comfort, our survival, if you scratch beneath the surface, many dark areas appear. Don’t forget it.”

American-born Ms Greer said: “He is wrong. People are aware of differences in other people, but being racist is being someone who sets out to harm someone based on the colour of their skin.

“George Steiner can talk about his own feelings and talk about what is specific to himself, but to talk of a Jamaican family like that, this is Britain in 2008, what is he talking about?

“He is a cranky old man and he should sit down and have a cup of tea. It’s quite clear that he doesn’t know what racism is.”

Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain, expressed surprise at Mr Steiner’s comments, saying his multicultural background and research into the Holocaust, should have made him more tolerant than most.

(I find it very hard to pay much attention to ppl who move to the west and keep names I can’t spell much less pronounce. And this jerk has an easier name then many of his kind.  Hey, I don’t even want to live next to a white family with a noise factor that causes my blood pressure to reach new highs. But it’s almost a sure bet with the folks the prof. is talking about, he has a good case and the ‘R’ word is irrelevant here.  It’s really more about culture and class. Or have I got it all wrong and if I do, how? )

He said: “Steiner appears to have made some rather lazy and offensive generalisations about entire groups of people such as Jamaicans. You would think he - of all people given his background - would know better by now.”

But Dr John Allison, a South African-born law lecturer at Cambridge, said it was important to be open about racism.

“There are subtle forms of racism and less subtle forms, but anything that provokes debate about the issues and gets them into the open is a good thing,” he said.

Dr Robert Berkeley, deputy director of equality campaign body The Runnymede Trust, said: “I think it’s good to recognise your own racism - and everyone has their prejudices - so that you can deal with it. Racism is something we struggle to talk about enough, and I am always happy for there to be a debate, provided no one is victimised as a result. But I don’t agree with his view.”

(fine. good for you Dr. Berkeley Berk.  When are you moving to a Jamaican neighborhood?)

Although Cambridge University has worked hard to shed its white, middle-class image and take on more multicultural staff and students, only 16 per cent of Cambridge students are from ethnic minority backgrounds and roughly similar levels of staff.

(right on.  we can’t have too many of those damn white, middle class taxpayers among us. lowers the tone of the school.  fraken idiots.)

The city itself is overwhelmingly white. Official figures from the 2001 census reveal that 91 per cent of the city’s population is white British, compared to 87 per cent nationwide, while the black and Asian populations combined make up little more than one per cent.

Dr Oke Odudu, a British-Nigerian law lecturer at Cambridge, said he has never encountered racism during his time there.

“The atmosphere of the university is tolerant and the student population is extremely diverse,” he said. “I never encountered any discrimination. It’s a place where, if you are judged, it’s going to be on the basis of academic performance, not your background.”

Mr Steiner’s interview with a Spanish newspaper followed the publication of his latest novel, My Unwritten Books, which is a semi-autobiographic work featuring graphic details of his sex life.

At his current home, a substantial redbrick detached 1930s house in Trumpington, the leafy suburban outskirts of the city, he is likely to be safe from noisy neighbours, whether white, black or otherwise.

All the properties on his road are set well apart, interspaced with large, well-tended gardens.

Asked by the Daily Telegraph if he now regretted what he said, Mr Steiner said: “No I do not, but I do not wish to comment further.”

http://tinyurl.com/5flkej

Posted by Drew458     on 09/01/2008 at 10:22 AM   
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Politically-Incorrect • Racism • UK •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Tuesday - June 03, 2008

All your air are belong to us

Remember the Fairness Doctrine? The one that the libtards in and out of Washington want to resurrect? The theory behind the Fairness Doctrine is:

radio stations could be regulated in this way due to the limited spectrum of the public airwaves.

It was, in other words, a government-created scarcity that justified government regulation. Much like the government-created gasoline scarcities under Nixon and Carter.

Now a whacko Goremon named Mary Wood is asserting that the air is held in trust by the government.

University of Oregon law professor Mary Wood is tired of waiting for government officials to take action on global warming. So she’s devised a new legal tool to hurry them up.

Drawing on her background in both natural resources and property law, Wood has developed a theory that claims the atmosphere is an asset that belongs to all but is held in trust by the government. The government has a legal obligation to protect that trust from harm, she argues, just as financial managers have a legal obligation to protect the monetary assets in their care.

I’m sure that BMEWS readers have figured where this is going…

“The main problem with climate is that no government is taking responsibility for it and our government is sitting idle while this catastrophe is unfolding,” Wood said.

“There’s no other body of law that requires the government to act. But a trustee has to act to protect the body of the trust.”

Yep. And the laws are already on the books. No need to debate!

From theory to practice

Greg Costello is one of the public interest attorneys evaluating Wood’s proposal as the basis for potential lawsuits. He thinks it could be a successful legal strategy because it’s grounded in a widely accepted principle of common law.

“Public trust doctrine is a doctrine everybody learns in law school. It goes back to Roman times,” said Costello, executive director of the Eugene-based Western Environmental Law Center.

“It’s a theory that seems well-suited and perhaps ideal when you’re talking about who owns the atmosphere.”

Be afraid. Be very afraid. 

HT: Neal’s Nuze

cross-posted at my blog Something’s Rotten

Posted by Christopher     on 06/03/2008 at 10:13 PM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather • Colleges-Professors • Government • Insanity • Lawyers • Liberals • Nanny State • Outrageous • Scary Stuff • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (0) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Thursday - April 17, 2008

This is freakin sicko

UPDATE - Macker points out that this is a hoax.

Ok, Macker may be right. It may be a hoax. I went and read his link. I have some problems with the author’s arguments. I think he has an emotional barrier, because of his wife’s miscarriage, that causes him to cling to “proofs” that may not be totally valid:

• Impregnation via “turkey baster” does work. Perhaps not every time, perhaps it needs some assistance, and perhaps “turkey baster” is being used as a generic expression. But it can do the job.


• ‘herbal concoctions misleadingly called “abortifacient drugs”’ are not real drugs ... because the FDA hasn’t studied or regulated them. Which ignores that some shamans, herbalists, midwives and “witches” have known how to make concoctions that end pregnancy, in many many cultures, since before recorded history. Are these mixtures safe, are they 100% effective? Who knows. Probably not. But they exist and they have always existed. Do “urban legends” get passed down for so many generations that they were around before there was “urban”?


• The young woman involved couldn’t have done this because of the psychological pain involved. Generally I’d like to agree on this one, but I can’t. Watch the news any day and you’ll see stories of kids inflicting the cruelest kinds of pain on other people just for kicks. I posted just the other day about a woman who got her boyfriend to break her leg just so they could fake a lawsuit. While I can’t stomach the idea of punching holes through parts of my body to hang jewelry from, billions of people do. Tattoos are very popular, though there is no way I’m letting some guy go at me with needles. Lasik surgery? Hells no, you ain’t going after my eyes with a knife and a laser beam! Granted that these may be minor examples, but they show several ways that “normal” people are willing to do unnatural things to their bodies for artistic and ‘amedical’ reasons. A young woman with a very leftist mindset and a post-feminist approach to life (ie an art student at college) could easily go through multiple abortions for “art” because losing a zygote would be no more earth-shattering to her than moving her bowels.

However, the author makes an update, and links to an article in the NY Sun that says Yale says that this is all a scam.

Yeah, well, that’s what you’d expect them to say isn’t it? Ivy League School plays Cover Your Ass at hypervelocity. Certainly Yale would never have a student this mentally twisted. Wanna bet? What kind of over-the-horizon ideas do Yale students come up with from time to time? The Sun article tells us about a molecular biology professor there:

A science student of Mr. Silver’s once proposed impregnating herself with chimpanzee sperm. Mr. Silver convinced her it was a “horrible thing for her to do,” but his fictionalized account of the event became a book and a play.

So what’s the takeaway here? It is possible that this woman did what she did. It is possible that it’s a made up story. The only thing for sure is that articles in the Yale newspaper now have to be taken with a larger grain of salt.

LATEST UPDATE: “Artist" stands by her story? Or is she playing coy just for publicity?

Shvarts stood by her project, calling the University’s statement “ultimately inaccurate.”… Shvarts reiterated Thursday that she repeatedly use a needleless syringe to insert semen into herself. At the end of her menstrual cycle, she took abortifacient herbs to induce bleeding, she said. She said she does not know whether or not she was ever pregnant.

“No one can say with 100-percent certainty that anything in the piece did or did not happen,” Shvarts said, “because the nature of the piece is that it did not consist of certainties.”

Oh brother. This is one screwed up young woman. Anything for attention?

This afternoon, Shvarts showed the News footage from tapes she plans to play at the exhibit. The tapes depict Shvarts — sometimes naked, sometimes clothed — alone in a shower stall bleeding into a cup.

Oy, such ART.
And the really Big Lie?

She said her endeavor was not conceived with any “shock value” in mind ... it’s not the intention of the piece to scandalize anyone.

I suggest that the entire concept of “performance art” be tossed in the trash. Dance, Theater, and maybe a few episodes of “Punk’d” should cover things. I’m starting to think that “performance art” to “start a discussion” relates to real art about the same way that puns relate to good literature. It’s just spoiled little children pitching a fit to get attention.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/17/2008 at 02:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Abortion • Art-Photography • Colleges-Professors • Insanity • Outrageous • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Friday - November 02, 2007

Re-Education Camp Dumped

From FIRE

Victory at University of Delaware
University Dumps Thought Reform Program
November 1, 2007

Late Thursday, University of Delaware President Patrick Harker released on the school’s website a Message to the University of Delaware Community terminating the university’s ideological reeducation program, which FIRE condemned as an exercise in thought reform. He stated, “I have directed that the program be stopped immediately. No further activities under the current framework will be conducted.” Harker also called for a “full and broad-based review” of the program’s practices and purposes. While concerns remain about the University of Delaware’s commitment to free expression, FIRE commends President Harker for his decision to immediately terminate the Orwellian residence life education program. FIRE will have more on this development tomorrow. President Harker’s message is reproduced in full below.
A Message to the University of Delaware Community

Nov. 1, 2007

The University of Delaware strives for an environment in which all people feel welcome to learn, and which supports intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, free inquiry and respect for the views and values of an increasingly diverse population. The University is committed to the education of students as citizens, scholars and professionals and their preparation to contribute creatively and with integrity to a global society. The purpose of the residence life educational program is to support these commitments.

While I believe that recent press accounts misrepresent the purpose of the residential life program at the University of Delaware, there are questions about its practices that must be addressed and there are reasons for concern that the actual purpose is not being fulfilled. It is not feasible to evaluate these issues without a full and broad-based review.

Upon the recommendation of Vice President for Student Life Michael Gilbert and Director of Residence Life Kathleen Kerr, I have directed that the program be stopped immediately. No further activities under the current framework will be conducted.

Vice President Gilbert will work with the University Faculty Senate and others to determine the proper means by which residence life programs may support the intellectual, cultural and ethical development of our students.

Patrick Harker
President

More coverage at:
Gateway Pundit
Michelle Malkin
HotAir

Posted by Mr. Christian     on 11/02/2007 at 08:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Commies • News-Briefs • Politically-Incorrect •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Tuesday - October 30, 2007

You Will Comply

FIRE (The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) has an explosive story out this evening.

Seem that students at the University of Delaware are required to get educated for their incorrect attitudes and beliefs.

NEWARK, Del., October 30, 2007—The University of Delaware subjects students in its residence halls to a shocking program of ideological reeducation that is referred to in the university’s own materials as a “treatment” for students’ incorrect attitudes and beliefs. The Orwellian program requires the approximately 7,000 students in Delaware’s residence halls to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy, and environmentalism.

and

The university suggests that at one-on-one sessions with students, RAs should ask intrusive personal questions such as “When did you discover your sexual identity?” Students who express discomfort with this type of questioning often meet with disapproval from their RAs, who write reports on these one-on-one sessions and deliver these reports to their superiors. One student identified in a write-up as an RA’s “worst” one-on-one session was a young woman who stated that she was tired of having “diversity shoved down her throat.”

According to the program’s materials, the goal of the residence life education program is for students in the university’s residence halls to achieve certain “competencies” that the university has decreed its students must develop in order to achieve the overall educational goal of “citizenship.” These competencies include: “Students will recognize that systemic oppression exists in our society,” “Students will recognize the benefits of dismantling systems of oppression,” and “Students will be able to utilize their knowledge of sustainability to change their daily habits and consumer mentality.”

At various points in the program, students are also pressured or even required to take actions that outwardly indicate their agreement with the university’s ideology, regardless of their personal beliefs. Such actions include displaying specific door decorations, committing to reduce their ecological footprint by at least 20%, taking action by advocating for an “oppressed” social group, and taking action by advocating for a “sustainable world.”

Un. Freaking. Believable.

The left must be so proud to be making such great strides in our halls of higher learning.

Posted by Mr. Christian     on 10/30/2007 at 08:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Liberals • Outrageous •  
• Comments (11) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Tuesday - October 16, 2007

Thought Crimes In Academia

So its come to this.  If a student expresses his opinion and it doesn’t match up with the opinions of his betters, then he is immediately removed from the student population and remanded to a mental health “professional” for “evaluation” before being allowed to co-mingle with the rest of the sheep in the fold.

Unbelievable.

Hamline University Student Suspended After Advocating Concealed Carry for Students
School Orders Psychological Evaluation
October 10, 2007

FIRE Press Release

ST. PAUL, Minn., October 10, 2007—Hamline University has suspended a student after he sent an e-mail suggesting that the Virginia Tech massacre might have been stopped if students had been allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. Student Troy Scheffler is now required to undergo a mandatory “mental health evaluation” before being allowed to return to school. Scheffler, who was suspended without due process just two days after sending the e-mail, has turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help.

“Hamline’s punishment of Troy Scheffler is severe, unfair, and apparently unwarranted,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. “Peacefully advocating for students’ ability to carry a concealed weapon as a response to the Virginia Tech shootings may be controversial, but it simply does not justify ordering a mandatory psychological evaluation.”

On April 17, 2007, Hamline’s Vice President of Student Affairs, David Stern, sent an e-mail to the campus community offering extra counseling for Hamline students in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. Later that day, Scheffler responded directly to Stern, arguing that Virginia Tech’s ban on concealed weapons was part of the problem and advocating that Hamline eliminate its similar policies. Scheffler also wrote that the university’s diversity programs may have angered some in the student body, himself included.

On April 19, 2007, Hamline University President Linda Hanson e-mailed the campus community again to address the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Scheffler responded directly to Hanson and again criticized the university’s concealed weapons ban, academic standards, financial policies, and the university’s efforts to promote diversity.

Hanson replied to Scheffler on Friday, April 20, offering him a chance to meet with university personnel to discuss his views the following week. Yet on Monday, April 23, before Scheffler was even able to respond to Hanson’s invitation, he received a hand-delivered letter from Dean of Students Alan Sickbert notifying him that his e-mails to Stern and Hanson were “deemed to be threatening and thus an alleged violation of the Hamline University Judicial Code.”

Sickbert’s letter also informed Scheffler that he was being placed on immediate “interim suspension” that could not be lifted unless he agreed to a “mental health evaluation” by a licensed mental health professional.

FIRE wrote to President Hanson on May 29, 2007, vehemently opposing the sanctions against Scheffler, since neither of Scheffler’s e-mails even came close to meeting the legal definition of a “threat.” FIRE also pointed out that Hamline maintains a “Freedom of Expression and Inquiry” policy that encourages the public expression of opinions and the freedom to examine and discuss all questions of interest. FIRE wrote that “it is difficult to reconcile these admirable commitments to freedom of expression with Hamline’s hasty actions against Scheffler.”

FIRE also informed Hamline administrators that subjecting Scheffler to a mandatory psychological evaluation poses a grave threat to liberty at Hamline. FIRE wrote, “A psychological evaluation, to be overseen by a Hamline administrator, is one of the most invasive and disturbing intrusions upon Scheffler’s individual right to private conscience imaginable. Because Scheffler has shown no proclivity toward violence and has made no threatening comments, this psychological evaluation seeks to assess his political opinions….”

H/T: SayUncle

Posted by Mr. Christian     on 10/16/2007 at 09:50 AM   
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Education • Firearms • Outrageous • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Thursday - July 05, 2007

TED - Hans Rosling

If you are not familiar with the TED conference, it is a gathering of real thinkers (and some loons) to give short, 18 minute talks about what is important in their worlds.  It started as a conference about Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED), but has expanded to cover much more.  To be sure, there is a plethora of liberal thought spread thickly throughout this community, but amongst the chaff, there is some good wheat.

This talk is by Dr. Hans Rosen.  He makes some claims about CO2 emissions and climate change that you will most likely take issue with, but don’t let that keep you from missing some very interesting points he is making.  Also, the software he is using is absolutely amazing in terms of statistical Visualization (my pet project for the past couple of years).  Finally, his conclusions about the means and goals of helping the developing countries is fascinating to me.

What do you think?

Posted by Mr. Christian     on 07/05/2007 at 10:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Africa • Climate-Weather • Colleges-Professors • Computers • Health-Medicine • International •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Monday - April 16, 2007

Tragic

You’ve heard by now that a gunman killed over 30 people and wounded another couple of dozen at Virginia Tech this morning.

Many bloggers are doing the heavy lifting with the updates, but one thing is certain: we will be hearing about how “critical” and “necessary” it will be for new gun laws and restrictions to be put in place to prevent this kind of tragedy in the future.

BULLSHIT!

Roanoke Times
Jan. 31, 2006

HB 1572, which would have allowed handguns on college campuses, died in subcommittee.

A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.

House Bill 1572 didn’t get through the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety. It died Monday in the subcommittee stage, the first of several hurdles bills must overcome before becoming laws.

The bill was proposed by Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, on behalf of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Gilbert was unavailable Monday and spokesman Gary Frink would not comment on the bill’s defeat other than to say the issue was dead for this General Assembly session.

That’s what would make students safer...having the ability to defend themselves.  Is that what the president of VA Tech thinks?

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. “I’m sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly’s actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus.”

One of my best friend’s daughter was outside the building this morning when this happened.  He is a shooter, and she knew exactly what to do when she heard the shots...get as far away, as fast as possible.  They are heading down now to see her and her friends and to offer help. 

Go read the updates at HotAir.  Good links there to others carrying the story.

**Update I
See?

High capacity ammo clips became widely available for sale when Congress failed to renew a law that banned assault weapons.

Virginia law enforcement officials have not identified the weapon used in the shootings today at Virginia Tech, but gun experts say the number of shots fired indicate, at the very least, that the gunman had large quantities of ammunition.

“When you have a weapon that can shoot off 20, 30 rounds very quickly, you’re going to have a lot more injuries,” said Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

“It’s not one or two shots at a time when you’re putting 20 bullets, spraying them into a classroom or into a dorm room,” Hamm said.

“Spraying them into a classroom”?  All indications are these were execution-style killings.  There are already thousands of gun laws on the books.  Do you think this murderer broke any? Hmmm?

Posted by Mr. Christian     on 04/16/2007 at 02:50 PM   
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Crime • Firearms • Genocide • Judges-Courts • Outrageous • Terrorists •  
• Comments (21) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Thursday - January 25, 2007

Vigilante Justice

District Attorney Mike Nifong is being set up to take the fall for his unethical handling of the “Duke Lacrosse” rape case. There are however more than one guilty party in this sorry mess, including the media, the cops and most importantly ... the Duke professors who publicly vilified the lacrosse players long before they ever went to trial. These tenured leftist bigots pushed Nifong and convicted the boys more than a year ago. Now they refuse to back down even after their hasty assumptions and actions have proven to be false. For further enlightenment I suggest you read ”Dukes Tenured Vigilantes” by Charlotte Allen in the current issue of the WEEKLY STANDARD. Here is an excerpt ...

_{John Cole - The Scranton Penn. Times}

Nifong Faces Additional Charges
N.C. State Bar augments ethics complaint against Duke lacrosse prosecutor
_{RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - January 24, 2007, 3:28 PM EST}

The state bar lodged new and more serious ethics charges Wednesday against the district attorney in the Duke lacrosse case, accusing him of withholding evidence from the defense and lying to both to the court and bar investigators.

Mike Nifong—who withdrew from the case earlier this month—could be disbarred if convicted by a disciplinary board. The bar previously charged Nifong with making misleading and prejudicial comments about the athletes under suspicion.

The new charges are tied to Nifong’s decision to use a private lab for DNA testing as his office investigated allegations three men raped a 28-year-old stripper at a team party last March.

Those tests uncovered genetic material from several men on the woman’s underwear and body, but none from any lacrosse player. The bar complaint alleges that those results were not released to the defense and that Nifong repeatedly said in court he had turned over all evidence that could benefit the defense.

The new charges “have significantly increased the chances for a serious sanction, possibly including suspension or disbarment,” said Thomas Metzloff, a Duke law professor and member of the bar’s ethics committee, which is not involved in prosecuting the case against Nifong.

Nifong’s trial on the ethics charges is set for May, though bar officials said Wednesday they expect it to be delayed until June. He declined to comment Wednesday.

“I’d say any time any charges are filed with the state bar, they’re all serious, and we want to make sure we handle them all properly,” said his attorney David Freedman.

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/25/2007 at 09:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Crime • Liberals • Racism •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Sunday - July 09, 2006

Democrats on Campus

Twenty-six years ago I first encountered the problem of Democrats on campus. Back then, though, they weren’t professors.

Posted by Christopher     on 07/09/2006 at 05:30 PM   
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Democrats •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Monday - June 26, 2006

Churchill Fired

I only want to post this because Vilmar said it wouldn’t happen. And in fact, it hasn’t happened until the fat lady sings… or the appeals run out.

BOULDER, Colo.—The University of Colorado announced Monday that it will dismiss controversial professor Ward Churchill.

“Today, I issued to Professor Churchill a notice of intent to dismiss him from his faculty position at the University of Colorado Boulder,” CU Interim Chancellor Phil DiStefano said Monday afternoon.

Churchill has 10 days to appeal which entails making a request to have the university president or chancellor forward the recommendation to the faculty senate Committee on Privilege and Tenure. A special panel will then conduct hearings on the matter and make a recommendation to the president on whether grounds for dismissal are supported.

Another committee found Churchill guilty of research misconduct and another panel recommended that he be fired because of “repeated and deliberate” infractions of scholarship rules.

Posted by Christopher     on 06/26/2006 at 06:58 PM   
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Stoopid-People •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink •  

   Wednesday - May 17, 2006

Leftist Loon

Noam Chomsky is the poster child for the Looney Left. In fact, he is probably their “prophet” having taken an anti-American position on just about every issue in his books and teachings. He just concluded a trip to Lebanon where he sucked up to Hezbollah and made all kind of wild accusations about the US, Israel and the Hezbollah “freedom fighters”.

All he has accomplished is to further inflame the region and encourage Hezbollah to continue its forty year terrorist war against Israel. As usual, the facts get twisted beyond belief. Chomsky conveniently forgets that the reason Israel invaded Lebanon was because Hezbollah was sitting on the border lobbing missiles and bombs into Israel. Israel finally had enough but Chomsky totally ignores that aspect of the conflict - just as he ignores anything but his own dyspeptic agenda.

Chomsky Hails Hezbollah On TV
Leftist American professor says U.S. leading terrorist state
_{May 17, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern}

Hosted by Hezbollah, leftist professor Noam Chomsky ended his visit to Lebanon with a tour of Al-Khiam Prison where he declared the terrorist group’s success in removing Israel from the south was “a victory for all the peoples that fight injustice and oppression.”

In a broadcast by Hezbollah’s Al Manar television Sunday, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, Chomsky was shown embracing Hezbollah leader Nabil Qauq at Al-Khiam, where Israel kept prisoners during its occupation of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah was credited with liberating the area after Israel withdrew in 2000.

The U.S. State Department lists Hezbollah as a “terrorist organization.” Hezbollah Sec.-Gen. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah frequently calls for destruction of the U.S. In a February speech aired on Al Manar, he led a crowd in chants, “America, America you are the Great Satan … America, America, the enemy of the Muslims … Those who have come at night, like bats, will hear Lebanon saying: Death to America.”

On Saturday, Al Manar quoted Chomsky responding to Hezbollah’s designation by the U.S. as a terrorist state. The professor said that “if the U.S. was to stick to the clear and precise definition of terrorism in its code of laws, it would be the leading terrorist state.”

A reporter asked Chomsky how the U.S. views his visit. “I don’t know what their response will be, and I don’t care,” he said.

- Read the rest at WorldNet Daily...

That last really says it all, doesn’t it? Chomsky doesn’t care what the US thinks of his actions. What he fails to realize is the American people, not just the government, are taking a real dim view of his anti-American hatred. Maybe if he had his citizenship revoked he could stay over in Lebanon, Syria or Iran where I’m sure his views are more properly appreciated and admired.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/17/2006 at 10:31 AM   
Filed Under: • Colleges-Professors • Liberals • Terrorists •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks (1) • Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2008 Domain Owner