CNews 27February06
MarathonPundit checks in with an Internet Exclusive:
DePaul refuses to run FrontPage Magazine ad in its school paper
Excerpt:
Chicago's DePaul University is at its favorite game again, stifling free speech. Marathon Pundit was informed this afternoon that DePaul backed out of an agreement to run the pictured advertisement in the DePaulia, an owned and operated publication of DePaul.Read it all (and see the refused ad featuring, of course, our favorite professor in his favorite pose) . . .
David Horowitz responds to critics of his lastest book
Excerpt:
[...] I never claimed that the [radical] professors I discuss are statistically representative of the faculty as whole. My claim is that they represent 10 percent, which would be more than 60,000 professors nationally. (In the book I reduce this figure to half to be “conservative.”) But far more importantly, it is immaterial how many students major in English Literature or Women’s Studies or Black Studies, or Post-Colonial Studies – fields that are either highly ideological (as the case with English Literature) or exclusively ideological (as is the case with the others). What is important is how many students actually take English Literature, History, Women’s Studies and Black Studies courses. Because the academic left views education as an opportunity to indoctrinate a captive audience, academic radicals have conspired to ensure that all undergraduates are required to take at least one of these courses, and usually several. That is what “multiculturalism” as currently defined is about.
Observant PB readers will no doubt notice that we've changed the look of our banner. It may not be better, but it is different—and after more than a year of looking at the old version, we decided it was time to re-arrange the furniture. We've also made a number of less noticable changes to improve the reading experience; in any case, if you encounter problems with our new banner, format, etc., let us know.
CNews 25February06
We mentioned this several weeks ago, but according to yet another website, Ward Churchill ("author of lots of stuff") will be among the featured speakers at the 2006 Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair March 18th
Is it just us, or does this radio promo by Ward Churchill sound like he should have insisted on a second take?
CNews 24February06
We're a bit late coming to this, but you can Vote for your favorite Worst Professor
...CU can be proud that, on the list along with Ward Churchill are his Ethnic Studies comrade Emma Perez and Women's Studies' Alison Jaggar.
CNews 23February06
Rocky Mountain News: Churchill Decision Delayed
...but it appears the "delay" is really a de jure recognition of the late investigation commencement (we noted the new early May deadline weeks ago)
From our Reductio Ad Absurdum Department: The Illusion of Ethnicity (ht to Loren)
Excerpt:
But are you defined by your ancestors? Is it they that define who you are? Why does it matter that some of my ancestors can be traced back to countries we now call Ireland and Germany? These countries, as they are now understood, have only existed for a millisecond on the cosmic clock. What is so special about this small piece of time that we use it to define who we are? The honest answer is it does not. It is simply an historical artifact.
CNews 21February06
Not Really OT: Harvard President Resigns
CNews 20February06
Mildly OT: DePaul University has backed down from its harrassment charges against "affirmative action bake sale" (via PRWatcher)
CNews 18February06
From our Dream World department: Quick Heal for CU, Brown Says
[Hank] Brown, who is serving as an interim president pending a search by the board of regents, came onto the job last year as CU was being buffeted by controversy surrounding its football program, a battle with the governor over its 28 percent tuition increase and controversy surrounding a professor, Ward Churchill, who remains the subject of a plagiarism investigation.
CU is anticipating a 2.5 percent average tuition increase next year, Brown said.
The 2005 storm around the university has settled, he said.
CNews 16February06
From our Great Moments in Higher Education department (via American Jihad):
DePaul University to offer Queer Studies program
According to this University of Waterloo page, Ward Churchill—sponsored by the Solidarity Association for International Liberation and the Young Communist League—will be speaking at 6:30pm on First Nations struggles in North America (via Right Me a Story)
Update: Thanks to Tamir, we've learned that UW has closed its campus today due to inclement weather. As always, we'll keep you posted if the Churchill talk is rescheduled.
Update II: We've heard from a usually reliable source that Churchill actually called UW the day prior to cancel his appearance. We would have noticed the prior cancellation had we bothered to wade through the blah-blah that comprised most of the article; in the second-to-last paragraph, it says:
Word came yesterday that one of the two speakers, Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado, would not be able to come to UW anyway. The other scheduled visitor was "Palestinian Jew" and academic Uri Davis.
The Imam of Indigenism
by Jim Paine
Radical Muslims are now trashing Europe (for which it appears the burning of Peugeots and Citroëns in France was merely a warming-up exercise) over some editorial cartoons; more importantly—from a historical perspective—these radicals are burning embassies, issuing death threats, forcing editorial cartoonists into hiding, and winning concessions from Europe in the form of restrictions (they're currently calling them "guidelines" and "suggestions") on the freedom of the press. This is not so much a spontaneous outpouring of righteous outrage as a demonstration of the power of radical imams to foment insurrection.
Meanwhile, the Imam of Radical Indigenism, Ward Churchill, continues to coach those most likely to serve as American counterparts to Europe's radical Muslims: the far (and ever-angrier), far Left. That the stated goals of the various cohorts—the black-bloc anarchists, animal rights activists, MEChA separatists, environmental activists, black radicals, indigenists—seem incongruous to one another is beside the point; the ultimate goal of each and every one of them is the end of the United States.
People like Churchill have been steadily nurturing political anger (and encouraging or even actively abetting "revolutionary action") for three decades. It doesn't matter what the cause is, the important aspect is that they all share a common enemy: the United States. The U.S. is evil because it mistreated the Indians; the U.S. is evil because it condoned slavery; the U.S. is evil because it cuts down trees; the U.S. is evil because it eats meat; the U.S. is evil because it loves money.
Under the barrage of this constant litany of U.S. wickedness, who would not feel compelled to take up arms against it? To destroy such an Adversary would not only be good, it would be Good. It doesn't strike me as coincidental that Churchill likens the U.S. so often to that Great Evil of the 20th Century: Nazi Germany. One does not compromise with a Nazi; one does not reason or negotiate with him. One exterminates him.
One oddity of seeming inconsequence that may actually be key in explaining Churchill is how eager he's been to denounce those who are ostensibly fighting alongside him; this seems contraindicative of a true believer, who would reasonably be expected to overlook the transgressions of his brothers-in-arms. One explanation for this oddity is that he's an FBI-CIA counter-insurgence operative (one who, by the way, willingly sacrificed 30+ years of his life to this undercover activity). This seems just a tad far-fetched. Far simpler is to see these denunciations as perfectly consistent with a goal to eliminate competition. One should remember that every Movement requires not only an Adversary, but heretics, as well.
It also requires moral authority, or at least the perception of moral authority. Enter White Guilt. During the past 100 years, and particularly the last 30, White guilt (or more succinctly, Euro-guilt) has become a powerful lever with which to pry power, privilege, or money from the fingers of those who possess it. Euro-guilt has long been the capital with which "minority representatives" build their little empires of control. Churchill isn't interested in bettering the lives of Indians; the very real plight of reservation Indians is a convenient hammer with which to beat the drum of Euro-guilt.
As useless to real Indians as Churchill is, his litany is quite effective in accomplishing two other more important goals: the encouragement of destruction, and the weakening of the resolve of the Adversary. In such an all-but-global environment, those not actively attempting to destroy the U.S. will surely be morally powerless to defend it. And in a fight between an equivocating good and a resolute evil, it is the evil that will win. Thus Churchill continues to define his position as the moral high ground and himself as the moral arbiter... Done properly, he won't have to ask; at the right time people will demand he take the lead. Just look at the attack-dog adulation he already receives from many of his defenders, as well as the intellectual approval and acclamation he gets from the CounterPunch crowd.
Of course, Churchill may not be the eventual beneficiary of the insurrection he foments (though he has few competitors). That is a risk every revolutionary takes.
But regardless of whether the victorious (and inevitably glorious) leader is Ward Churchill or Louis Farrakhan or David Duke or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, come the revolution—which will be brief and relatively bloodless because the seeds for expedient capitulation to "moral authority" have already been sown and carefully nurtured—the face of the new world order will be all too recognizable. Ironically (considering how often the accusation of Nazism is hurled at the U.S.), it will be some form of fascism, that unacknowledged far-far left wing of the Left. It won't matter if "Indigenists" or "Muslims" or "Ecologists" or "Black Supremacists" or "White Supremacists" sit on the throne—it makes no difference what flavor of fascism is in control; collectivism always has the same taste of brutal despair.
CNews 10February06
One of our readers, DWG, points us to yet another honor Churchill can claim on his CV: "Famous Plagiarist" (one oddity of that website: we're not sure what the Homeland Security-style "red: severe risk" coding for Churchill is for; should other professors shield their work with their arms so he can't copy off them?)
Mildly OT: Race-baiter Al Sharpton's cancelled Feb. 8 speech at CU has been rescheduled for Feb. 13
Why the cancellation? He had a great excuse:
The event was cancelled because Sharpton missed his scheduled flight to Denver this morning from New York. Sharpton also records a daily radio show, and it was not possible for him to do that and arrive on time for the event after missing his scheduled flight, according to Leasa Weimer, assistant director of the University Memorial Center....so, apparently this "daily radio show" taping came as an utter surprise to Sharpton, throwing his normal daily activities into complete disarray.
CNews 9February06
Grant Crowell informs us that he's confirmed with Colorado's Secretary of State Office that Ward Churchill is indeed registered as a Republican, although he doesn't appear to have voted in any Republican primaries.
Rachel Marsden opines in the Toronto Sun on Ward Churchill's latest gig there
Excerpt:
In response to a question about recent eco-terrorist bombings, Professor Ward Churchill said: "I would have picked different targets."
His take on attacking homes of the rich and powerful?
"If they're not that concerned with (their security), then why would you be? (That's) my symmetry on taking out their houses. It'd make a nice blaze. You could bring weenies and marshmallows and have a party."
So who is Churchill? He vaulted to prominence last year with an essay comparing the office workers who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11 to Nazis. Hired by the University of Colorado to increase faculty diversity as a Native Indian in the Ethnic Studies department, he has yet to convince a lot of folks that he really is one. But he does like to work the look—as he did on Saturday, with his zigzag pattern vest, long hair and dark boots. He even posed with a native woman for a photo before his speech—which in my view, is like Milli Vanilli getting a picture taken with Mick Jagger.
CNews 8February06
By our mathematical calulations (never very accurate, we admit), the CU Investigating Committee has about 84 days left (January 4 to May 4, 2006—120 calendar days, as specified by CU) to examine what CU calls the "seven allegations [against Churchill] of research misconduct" which include "plagiarism, misuse of others' work, falsification and fabrication of authority."
Like Ward Churchill, Professor Chris Mato Nunpa, of the Indigenous Nations and Dakota Studies department at Southwest Minnesota State University, finds the US-Nazi analogy useful (from American Indian Quarterly via HighBeam; reg. may be required):
"In my remarks I discussed the parallels between what happened to the Dakota people of Minnesota in 1862-63 and what happened to the Jewish survivors of Nazi Germany during World War II. I pointed out that Hitler admired the efficiency of the U.S. genocidal programs against the Indigenous Peoples of the United States and viewed them as models for his own programs against the Jews. Hitler learned the techniques, methodologies, rationales, and terminology from the United States and Canada in their extermination of the Indigenous Peoples. I get excited when I talk about these things—I also have anger when I talk about this topic."
...for those who just can't get enough of this, Professor Mato Nunpa will be presenting a lecture on "Genocide and the Native Peoples of North America" Wednesday, Feb. 22 from 7-8:30 p.m. in Charter Hall 201 on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University.
We thought we'd linked to this in the past, but apparently not, so thanks to reader DWG for pointing it out to us: A 1999 radio interview with Vernon Bellecourt and Ward Churchill; the interview demonstrates in a few pages the seething enmity between the two men and their respective AIMs.
CNews 7February06
From our "We Didn't Get the Memo" Department: According to this webpage (to which you get redirected when you attempt to visit her website), it seems that Professor "Jihad" Jane Christensen, North Carolina Weslyan College's own public relations problem, unburdened the college of that problem by dying last November 20th.
Not even in nationwide distribution yet, David Horowitz' latest book, The Professors (subtitled The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America), has already started a raging debate at everyone's favorite "book review-cum-political-blog"
CNews 6February06
University of Toronto's student newspaper, The Varsity, reports on Churchill's speech Saturday: 'White man has overstayed welcome, says academic' (may require registration). The article notes erroneously that Churchill is "himself a member of the Cherokee nation." PB knows of no recognized Indian tribe or nation that claims Churchill as a member.
... meanwhile, Shul of Rock ruminates on "Hate and Awareness" on UT's campus (and discusses another Varsity article that says Churchill will also be speaking there this week as part of "Israeli Apartheid Week" (running, perhaps coincidentally, with UT's "Know Radical Islam Week").
What is it about this Ward Churchill quote
"[...I]f you are actually serious about engaging in an armed struggle and plan on testing the capacity of the United States, you have to anticipate that you're going to incur casualties"
that calls to mind this one from Ayn Rand
"The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master."
According to this site, Ward Churchill will be discussing "Developing a Strategy to Win" March 19th at the San Jose Unitarian Universalist Church, sponsored (in part) by an organization named—with no apparent concept of irony—the Peninsula Anarchist Collective
CNews 5February06
Ward Churchill's target demographic checks in with the first review of Churchill's Toronto speech yesterday
Excerpt:
[...]Ward Churchill was lame and the talk was too long and we all had to sit around and wait (and wait) for it to start, but it was ok. Really I'm just glad I had the experience and now I know. Don't go see him talk. Now I know.
CNews 3February06
Arnold King has an excellent essay on the insidious effects of "folk Marxism" at Tech Central Station (via OpinionJournal's Best of the Web)
According to Canada Free Press, Ward Churchill will be in Toronto, Canada, Saturday to speak at "Dismantling Empire: A Call For Unity in Resistance" hosted by the Student Anti-Imperialist Network. And here's some additional info on the event.
OT: Looks like our old friend Professor Bruce Johansen really is fair-minded: He's so concerned with free speech that he's bringing Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, to UNO to present "The Case for Impeachment." Johansen will no doubt have Ann Coulter on rebuttal.
CNews 2February06
Noted in passing: As we observed here, the Colorado nonprofit American Indian Movement (which does business under the name American Indian Movement of Colorado, Inc.) was dissolved back in 2003 (although the organization's website makes no mention of the dissolution). In any case, last week Glenn Morris filed to reinstate the organization, and to use "American Indian Movement of Colorado" as a dba. We also observe that Professor Morris is using his CU Denver mailing address as "registered agent's mailing address."
CNews 1February06
DePaul Mathematics Professor Jonathan Cohen sees the ongoing problems at DePaul University as "ground zero in the battle to reform academia’s corrupted political culture."
Last October, Professor Cohen asked some non-rhetorical questions about Ward Churchill's visit to DePaul, which we forwarded to Churchill as well as to DePaul's Cultural Center (host of Churchill's visit); you can read Churchill's responses here (located in the bottom third of page)... we're still waiting for DePaul's Culture Center's response. (ht to the ever-vigilant John Ruberry of Marathon Pundit for reminding us of the earlier Cohen piece)
