'When small men begin to cast big shadows, it means that the sun is about to set.'
— Lin Yutang

CNews 17May12

According to those zany kids over at wardchurchill.net, oral arguments in the Churchill v. The Real World are scheduled for Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 1:00 pm, 101 W. Colfax, 1st Floor. That's in Denver, dontcha know.

CNews 5April12

One of PB's legion of jackbooted thugs alerts us to the appearance of CU's answering brief to the state Supreme Court. We'll update as we plod our way through the legalesque word stylings.

CNews 4April12

From our Safe and Restful Sleep, Sleep, Sleep department: The Perfesser had nothing new to say and SangaMON Community Experimental College & Grill gave him two-and-a-half hours in which to say it. Link to Drunkablog, who—unlike us—was unable to resist posting about it.

CNews 9March12

According to the Illinois State-Journal-Register, Professor Doctor Indian Scholar Ward Churchill will be discussing "the importance of campus activism" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, in Brookens Auditorium at the University of Illinois Springfield. The event is free, but we think the UIS Radical Student Union is being overly optimistic about attendance given the absence on the agenda of punch & pie, or at least a delicious vegetarian meal.

More interestingly, the article goes on to note that Teh Perfesser will be in St. Louis the preceding week, chatting up the Occupy [your corn field here] Movement Midwest Regional Conference, March 15th at 7pm "under the Gateway Arch." We're guessing Wart agreed to speak at this event because he misunderstood and thought the conference was being held "under the golden arches."

CNews 17February12

One of our anonymous jackbooted thugs alerts us to the availability of Churchill's Opening Brief in his appeal to the Colorado State Supreme Court, which we happen to have right here in this pocket—the brief, not the Supreme Court (they've proven far less defenseless to the amazing control exerted over the Denver media, higher education, and the state government by two bloggers and a New Jersey cop).

So far, we aren't seeing any new or novel claims/defenses from the Churchill camp, but then, we're still muddling though the table of contents. Perhaps some of our more legal-y types can put us some knowledge. In the meantime, we hear (from our anonymous jackbooted thug, @sspats be upon him/her/it) that CU's response brief should be submitted sometime next week, and that Churchill’s reply brief is due April 18. We'll keep you posted.

CNews 24January12

Interesting essay over at Minding the Campus re: How Liberal Arts has shit the bed (although they use less, um, scatological—but no less apt thereby—metaphors). (via Monty over at Ace of Spades, who notes "The good news (if you can call it that) is that five decades of concerted mismanagement of their field has left the history department and the liberal arts wing in general bereft of influence and power: no one takes those clowns seriously any more, and they have no one to blame but themselves.")
Excerpt:

There are few areas in which the groupthink academy has had a more disastrous impact than the study of U.S. history. One-sidedness has its costs, however, in terms of influence outside the Ivory Tower. Courts or politicians who rely on the opinions of professors who now qualify as "mainstream" U.S. historians do so at their own peril.

CNews 19January12

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, four academic groups filed an amicus brief (pdf) with the Colorado Supreme Court yesterday arguing that Churchill should remain an ex-professer.
Excerpt:

In a brief submitted Wednesday, the groups argue that the reversal of a lower-court ruling granting the board immunity  “would not only infringe on the institutional autonomy that is the cornerstone of academic freedom, but would chill universities’ incentive to provide robust internal processes for faculty misconduct proceedings.”

Frankly, their first argument, entitled "A grant of quasi-judicial immunity to the board of regents and the university would preserve academic freedom and recognize the special role of the university in our constitutional jurisprudence" seems a bit far-fetched, at least on the "special role" the university plays in "constitutional jurisprudence." But hey, with fabulists like Churchill, et al, on the opposing side, might as well drag in some penumbras of your own. Maybe one of our legaloid jackbooted thugs could enlighten us as to the viability of such an argument.

CNews 30November11

According to this site, "noted academic and author" Ward Churchill is on the roster to lout-shout for anarchism, or for some offshoot of the O'odham Indians, or maybe both. Be there or be employed, December 10, 2011, Dry River Radical Resource Center ("a center for anarchist organizing for over seven years"), 140 N. Main, Tucson, Arizona. Not convinced? A "delicious vegetarian meal" will be served at 6pm; speechifying to begin promptly at 7pm.

CNews 17November11

From our Hubris Squared, Cubed and Deep-Fried department: Professor Doctor Indian Scholar Churchill drives that picket pin into the ground, ignores bleeding hole in his foot (ht one of PB's legion of Jackbooted Thugs)
Excerpt:

When asked by The Huffington Post about the "little Eichmanns" remark, now ten years later, Churchill said this:

"I retract nothing. What I said has been validated beyond my wildest expectations, to tell you the truth, so let's just say that I rest my case. A lot of people were outraged by my remark, of course, but, to cop a quote from Rick Perry, 'You throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one who yaps is the one who got hit.' In other words, the people upset were the f***ing Eichmanns. Look in the mirror and own it, guys. You identified yourselves by frothing at the mouth for being called by your right name. See? Perry's good for something, after all."

Betcha he didn't speak in asterisks.

CNews 10November11

Westwad brings us a brimming bucket of Churchill-water with an article interviewing the CC-AAUP's lead report writer (see previous post), Don Eron (ht Leah)
Excerpt:

Thus far, Churchill's efforts to be reinstated at the institution have failed to bear fruit -- but the report hardly portrays the evidence against him as damning. "We found that he did not commit academic misconduct," Eron says. "I wasn't surprised by finding that the university caved in under public pressure, because there was something phony about seeking alternative means for firing him. But I was very surprised by the report by the Standing Committee for Research Misconduct. Before the report came out, there was considerable faculty support for Churchill, but afterward, it was widely perceived that he was a fraud, even though our conclusion is that what they called academic misconduct was actually a normative practice used by numerous experts in the field -- and even by some people on the committee itself.

"We found that he did not commit academic misconduct." Really? No, fucking really? At this point, absolutely no one can claim ignorance of Churchill's multiple academic misdeeds. Only willful self-delusion and/or contemptuous malice can lead a being sentient enough to beat a dog at checkers to conclude Churchill is anything but a fraud, a liar, a plagiarizer, and a historical fabulist. Anyone associated with this AAUP report should be fired, neutered, hanged, shot, buried, dug up again, stabbed, pissed upon, and then buried once again. And in the case of CC-AAUP "co-president" Dean Saitta, rinse & repeat.